HT.002 The Cage (TOS)
When Captain Pike is dropped into the Human Exhibit on Planet Zoo, Allie and Sarah are forced to face not just the ethics of zoos, but also their pets.
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Starfleet Officer maker by @marci_bloch
Transcript
auto-generated transcript has not been edited for accuracy.
Sarah Ray: Hey, everybody. Welcome to Humanist Trek, a Star Trek podcast about the humanism in Star Trek. I’m Sarah Ray.
Allie Ashmead: I’m Allie Ashmead.
Sarah Ray: And we’re here to review and talk about the very first Star Trek episode ever filmed, the cage, the original pilot. Not the very first episode that was ever aired. and we’ll get to that in a little bit, too. But first I thought we could talk a little bit about.
We both moved here from Florida. And now we’re in Denver. Well, in the Denver area
So we both moved here from Florida.
Allie Ashmead: Yep, we’re from. And now we’re in Denver.
Sarah Ray: Well, in the Denver area.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah. I can’t even say we’re in Denver, but yeah.
Sarah Ray: Yeah. Well, my other podcast, I was getting ready to, like, rerecord the intro because the old intro says, in now from blah blah blah blah blah, Florida. And I’m like, well, shit, I gotta change that. I’m like, well, what do I wanna say? Do I wanna say, like. Cause technically I’m in the eastern plains. It’s not the foothills of the Rockies. Is not in the Rockies. Like, I’m out east a little bit, but, like, I don’t know, in or around.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah, welcome to our, podcast where we’re in or around Denver or in or around the Rockies.
Sarah Ray: Yeah. So I didn’t know what to call that.
Working at a zoo completely changed the way I feel about zoos
I wanted to talk a little bit about, like, my employment journey. So when I first moved out here, I worked at a zoo. At the zoo.
Allie Ashmead: Not just a zoo, the Denver zoo.
Sarah Ray: Right. I had worked for Disney for, like, 15 years, and so I had experience in park operations and attractions and that sort of thing. So I took a job at the zoo, and that’s its own story. But, working at a zoo completely changed the way I feel about zoos. And it was hard working at the a zoo and having this opinion because. And Monica Miller from the American Humanist association, she’s the senior legal counselor, whatever her title is now. I think this journey started with her because in addition to her work with the AHA, she’s also an attorney for the non human rights project. And they had a case recently that went to, oh my God, was it New York or New Jersey? Anyway, it went to like, the state supreme court and was about happy the elephant. It was Brooklyn. Happy the elephant was in the Brooklyn zoo and there were siblings and they killed each other. And it was a whole big thing. There was this whole big thing about these elephants. Well, anyway, elephants are social creatures and they’re not meant to be kept alone. Like, it’s not healthy for them. And so there’s this elephant at the zoo, and Monica’s gonna send me emails about how much of this I’m getting wrong, that they had isolated because it was fighting with the elephant they tried to put it with. It was a whole big thing. And so they took a case to try to argue that non human animals should have personhood rights just like we have.
Allie Ashmead: Oh, I like that. I like that.
Sarah Ray: So, like, what right do we have to capture an animal or breed it?
Allie Ashmead: Even if we’re thinking, oh, we’re being kind to it.
Sarah Ray: Yeah. Yep. Well, we’ve provided it.
Allie Ashmead: We’ve provided it.
Sarah Ray: Everything you need to live as zookeepers. Right. What I learned from them is, you know, oh, they have to have all of this different stuff. There are all these different metrics that they use to determine the quality of life and well being of the animal.
Allie Ashmead: Right.
Sarah Ray: But is that, but is that enough? Is that right?
Allie Ashmead: Yeah. Because you can’t ask these animals, would you rather be somewhere else? Yeah. I mean, yeah, we’re all giving you food and everything, but wouldn’t you rather be. Where you were meant to be?
Sarah Ray: So I feel really weird about it. Like, I know that we learn a lot about animal, animal behavior, like how they do interact in the wild and like.
Allie Ashmead: But we don’t need, there’s got to.
Sarah Ray: Be a way to do it without putting them in.
Allie Ashmead: Right. We don’t need to capture them to do that anymore. We have so much amazing technology where we can watch them from a distance and not interfere and.
Sarah Ray: Yeah, yeah. And that theme may come back up again in next week’s episode when we talk about things like extinction and survival of a species and what role we should or shouldn’t play in that.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah, but I think it ties perfectly into the whole premise of the pilot that we’re about to talk about.
Sarah Ray: Awesome. Well, let’s get into it then.
Gene Roddenberry was a captain in the air force during WWII
this is the original, the original series, very first episode, the pilot, the cage. Sir, contact with an object. It’s moving toward us. No visual contact yet.
Allie Ashmead: Reflector is full intensity versus sudo. Yes.
Sarah Ray: Get anything on your scanners? It’s coming at light speed. Collision, cars, visual contact.
Allie Ashmead: Anything?
Sarah Ray: Mover?
Allie Ashmead: All wavelengths dominated by ionization effects, sir.
Sarah Ray: All engines full stop. We start on the bridge of the enterprise and the crew is experienced some kind of strange interference. One of the things that I picked up on like right away, was like, it’s very clear Gene Roddenberry’s military experience, like the influence that he brought from having served in the military. So he was a captain in the air force during World War Two.
Allie Ashmead: Didn’t know that.
Sarah Ray: and so, like right away, the way these people talk to each other. So that was something that I picked up on like right away.
What were your first impressions of the new remaster of Star Trek
What were your first impressions? So obviously we’re watching the remaster so it looks better. Yeah, but they still, but it’s still 1966 and they had that fly in, you know, into the bridge which is up on the top of the saucer section.
Allie Ashmead: I love that part because I know they could not, it was not even possible for them to do that in 1966.
Sarah Ray: Well, there was, I want to say that was the, in the original, in the original cut, I don’t know. But you’ll note that they didn’t keep doing it.
Sarah Ray: On like the next round of episodes, I assume, because it was just so damn expensive.
Allie Ashmead: But, Yeah, I guess my first impression was and I was kind of afraid to even go back and do the original series because I’m thinking I’m gonna bitch the whole time about the lack of special effects. And the, the acting was, let’s be.
Sarah Ray: Honest, it was cheesy, you know, let’s.
Allie Ashmead: Be honest, the acting was completely different. but, and so I thought that that would just get in the way. But it, it didn’t.
Sarah Ray: It didn’t?
Allie Ashmead: It didn’t?
Sarah Ray: Nope.
Allie Ashmead: you, know, I have some jokes about, you know, the, effects but it still, it didn’t get in the way.
The disturbance reads as an old style radio wave distress signal
Sarah Ray: so we finally get a fix on this disturbance and it reads as an old style radio wave distress signal coming from the tallow star group on a survey expedition ship, the SS Columbia, which was lost 18 years prior.
Allie Ashmead: Right.
Sarah Ray: Okay, so is space distortion on a.
Allie Ashmead: Collision course so it’s a radio wave.
Sarah Ray: Radio wave on a collision course. And you couldn’t tell that that was a radio wave.
Allie Ashmead: Well, because they, I remember them saying, oh, it’s an old style radio wave because they’ve moved so much past that. I don’t know.
Sarah Ray: Yeah. It just read this. So implausible to me. Like, it’s 22, 54, and you’re like, it’s a radio wave. And you think that it’s some hostile thing coming right at you. It’s coming right for us.
Allie Ashmead: But I still can’t see anything. That’s what they kept saying. so, yeah.
Sarah Ray: Oh, and I love the screen. Like, the wobble effect.
Allie Ashmead: It was like a screen warble. I’m like, this is ridiculous. This is cheesy.
Spock’s talking about the ship disappearing 18 years ago
so, of course, we have number one at the helm, who was a woman now, in 1966, this was also, oh, big, big, you know, big deal.
Sarah Ray: Yeah.
Allie Ashmead: And that woman is none other than Majel. Majel?
Sarah Ray: Majel.
Allie Ashmead: Majel who? You know, she’s Gene Roddenberry’s wife, ex wife, 2nd.
Sarah Ray: 2Nd wife, second wife.
Allie Ashmead: And she’s like, always, a part of the Star Trek universe because she’s, she’s the voice of the computer now.
Sarah Ray: Right.
Allie Ashmead: But it was really cool to see her in the bridge, as his number one.
Sarah Ray: I thought it was funny, too. Spock’s talking about the ship disappearing. and so the ship disappeared 18 years ago, and he’s staring at a computer screen in the wall, and he’s yelling. That’s just. He’s yelling. He’s, like, barking command style.
Allie Ashmead: He’s yelling.
Sarah Ray: but the screen on the wall is just a Starfield. There’s like, no information. There’s no text. He’s not reading. Like, he’s staring at the stars, relaying this report.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah.
Sarah Ray: And then he waves his hand. And this reminded me m of, something, and I don’t know what it is.
Allie Ashmead: To me, it reminded me of, okay, he’s waving his hand. It’s almost like today’s screams where you just slide over. I’m like, that was weird.
Sarah Ray: There was something. Oh, maybe it was, because, The toy story mania. No, not toy story mania. God, what ride was it? Oh, it was a, ah, Legoland in Florida had a ride system, ninjago, themed.
Allie Ashmead: I never read that one.
Sarah Ray: and it had like, a sensor in the. It’s like a four seater ride, and it’s, 3d. You put your glasses on and you’re like, you know, throwing whatever stuff at the bad guys. Right. Trying to rack points. And you’re, like, competing against the other people in the car.
Allie Ashmead: I’ve never ridden the threads.
Sarah Ray: Oh, it’s so fun. And they had, But the way that you, like, threw your thing was it had a sensor in front of you, and you waved your hand over it like this.
Allie Ashmead: You thought he was playing. You thought.
Sarah Ray: It reminded me of something, and I was, like, waving his hand to change the screen. It just reminded me of something. And I’m still. I don’t know if that’s it or not, but I’m still trying to figure it out. So he waves his hand, right? And then the screen changes to an image of the solar system, the star system.
Allie Ashmead: Talos.
Sarah Ray: Talos. and, he says that it’s never been explored. And the fourth planet is class m.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah, it’s class m, which means that oxygen atmosphere. So they’re thinking, oh, they will. This Columbia, the, USS Columbia members, could have survived for the last 18 years. But Pike, I know he didn’t want to go down there. He’s like, nah, unless they had proof of life because he wanted to take care of his own. Sick and injured. They were trying to get to the Vega. and I thought that.
Sarah Ray: I thought that was odd to mention in the timeline of the episode, because it’s not till later that we find out, like, what these sick and injured people are from.
Sarah Ray: Right. And so if this would have actually been your first experience of the franchise of the series, like, what did we know about the Enterprise?
Allie Ashmead: Nothing.
Sarah Ray: Was it a battleship? Was it an exploration ship? We didn’t know. We started sick and injured, and we don’t know who or why.
Allie Ashmead: Well, and they started, like, right in the middle. So I got the impression. So they were, the story goes on. They were coming from, rigel seven. Rigel seven, where there was a skirmish, and pike was kind of still upset and blames himself for the dead and the injured because, he felt like for some reason, responsible. So he was starting, even at the beginning, he’s ready to quit in a way. And he’s like, I don’t want to be responsible anymore for, 200 people and making. He doesn’t want to be responsible for the lives and making life or death decisions every day. So he’s considering resigning and stuff, so. Already?
Sarah Ray: Yeah.
There’s a scene where Pike and Bashir play tennis on the starship
So this is one of my favorite scenes. Pike leaves the bridge, and then we’re treated to this scene in a hallway where there’s this couple. And I don’t know if you picked it out or not. I’ll pull it up. They were very clearly cosplaying as, like, 1960s tennis players. Oh. Oh, did, you catch this?
Allie Ashmead: Yeah.
Sarah Ray: She had on, like, a pleated skirt.
Allie Ashmead: Short skirt, and he had on, like.
Sarah Ray: A polo or something.
Allie Ashmead: I just thought, well, maybe they’re off and they’re going to the holodeck or something, because they weren’t even in uniform, which you never see in the hole.
Sarah Ray: Right.
Allie Ashmead: In the ship. So, yeah, I did. I did notice that, but I was like, I don’t know, maybe it’s nothing like.
Sarah Ray: And they didn’t have holodecks back in the original series era. So I got to thinking, like, okay, maybe they went to play tennis, right? And they’re on their way, whatever, there or back.
Allie Ashmead: They did have a recreation area, so maybe that’s what it was.
Sarah Ray: What would it be like to play tennis on a starship?
Allie Ashmead: It’d be awesome, you know, like.
Sarah Ray: Cause I think every time they get hit with something, they’re all, like, shaking and moving around and whatever. Could you imagine being out on the tennis court and the whole ship?
Allie Ashmead: Yeah. Your whole surroundings? No, that would be awesome, though.
Sarah Ray: or like, the gravity goes out and you just float up. Yes. And then you nail the ball back and forth. Right. I want to see that. I want to see. Well, and I guess we do in deep space nine. Bashir and, they always play.
Allie Ashmead: In that weird racquetball or whatever.
Sarah Ray: Yeah.
Allie Ashmead: Handball, something.
Sarah Ray: Yeah.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah.
Sarah Ray: So I guess we do kind of get to see it, but still.
Allie Ashmead: Yep.
The old Star Trek communicator was an inspiration behind the Motorola startak phone
Sarah Ray: okay, so pike goes into his quarters and for some reason, calls the doctor on a handheld communicator. And I noticed this looked like, it looked like this communicator was twice the size of what eventually became the communicator. And I know it’s not, but the way it was, like, framed or lit.
Allie Ashmead: Or something, it looks shitty.
Sarah Ray: It looked huge.
Allie Ashmead: It looked like when you open, like, a back of an old radio and then the board, circuit board and all the different fuses, that’s what it looked like to me. Like somebody had just stuck together with.
Sarah Ray: Glue, some components, some old pieces of something.
Allie Ashmead: It was really shitty.
Sarah Ray: It was. But this is another one of those things that I just absolutely love about Star Trek is like, you know, that that was the, one of the influences behind the old Motorola startak phone. Did you have one of those back in the day? Nah, it was like the original flip phone, little. Little black thing with an antenna that pulled out, flipped open like the communicator.
Allie Ashmead: So I had the thing with the, the big heavy one with the thing. But I didn’t flip. I just had, like a yellowish screen and.
Sarah Ray: This was awful. This was after those big bag phones. This was like one of the first portable, stick it in your pocket kind of phones, but yeah, and that was, you know, I remember them talking about like, the old Star Trek communicator was an inspiration and influence in that design. And as we go through, like, all the iterations of Star Trek that has happened so many times, like, they’re working on tech right now. that would allow you to use your phone to do like, bio scans. I mean, my watch can tell you what my blood oxygen level is and what my heart rate or whatever.
Allie Ashmead: Like, mine too. Yeah, you’re that.
Sarah Ray: This is Star Trek shit.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah.
Sarah Ray: Like, it. All of this stuff was dreamed up, right?
Allie Ashmead: All these years ago, like handheld communicators and I. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Pike says he’s done being in leadership roles on the show
Sarah Ray: so Doctor Boyce arrives and pours pike a cold one. and this is where we learn that there’s been a battle on Rigel seven. Seven crew, were injured and three dead, including the yeoman. Again, like, this is a lot of military naval language and sort of structure.
Allie Ashmead: Yep.
Sarah Ray: And this is where pike reveals that he’s like, I’m done, I’m done. I’m tired of these making. Being the decision maker command has worn me out of.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah.
Sarah Ray: which I completely get, like, having been in management before, like, I recognize that feeling of just like, I don’t know why we keep doing this.
Allie Ashmead: I already recognize I don’t want any part of it. You know, I’m happy not being in any type of leadership role, like a manager or like having to.
Sarah Ray: And that’s not like life and death. But this is life and death.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah, but, yeah, but just the fact that, being responsible for other people is heavy and it wears on you and.
Sarah Ray: Yeah, it’s like having kids, which we’ve both gone through. so here’s the thing. Like, Boyce tries to talk him out of it and says, like, look, if you stop doing what you’re good at, if you stop doing what you love, that’s when you begin to stop living.
Allie Ashmead: You wither away. Yeah, that’s what he said.
Sarah Ray: And so, okay, but I also feel like. Right, like I recently quit my job.
Sarah Ray: over toxic workplace, terrible leader, that kind of stuff.
Allie Ashmead: Sometimes you gotta walk away. Sometimes you gotta walk away completely fine to walk away.
Sarah Ray: So would the better advice, or would my advice have been like, sweet bro, like, go ride your horses and be happy.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah.
Sarah Ray: You know, like, if that’s what you need to do to be happy, you gotta take care of you. And I’ll miss you on this ship and all the things that we do here together, but you got to take care of you.
Sarah Ray: and that’s probably. There’s some generational things to that that are a difference. But I just wanted to point it out because I think the younger generation today is really teaching us that lesson. Don’t do a thing just because you’re good at it or even if you love it, if it’s causing you stress, move on. That’s okay.
Allie Ashmead: We’re in the. We’re in the age right now of mental health awareness, but, then back then it was just suck it up. Yeah, just do it.
Sarah Ray: Yep. You got to do your job.
Allie Ashmead: So, yeah, so that. So doc is kind of convincing him to. So, yeah, just, take life head on. I think he said, take life head on, otherwise you wither away.
Sarah Ray: Yeah.
Allie Ashmead: And so. And then I think they left it at that point because they got a message.
Sarah Ray: Yeah. What do you make of this doctor? You know, is the last time we see him.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah, first and last time. I mean, I think he’s wise and he obviously has a fun. Like, you can tell that he and pike are pretty close. Pretty close. I mean, but yeah, he’s kind of old school. Very old school.
Sarah Ray: Yeah. I just think it’s interesting how those characters progress when they hit reset. Right. And the network says, do another one. Leonard Nimoy was really the only major character to stick around. Right. Because we get a whole new doctor. We get a whole new. Oh, like, yeah, everybody’s new. The new captain, new doctor. Major Barrett. Still around, of course, but, well, yeah, in the next.
Allie Ashmead: In the, the actual series with. With. I don’t remember, but yeah, yeah. Oh, and Janice and Jan. No, Janice wasn’t there.
Sarah Ray: No, she wasn’t there in the pilot. Yeah, it was like a damn near entirely new cast. Yeah.
Allie Ashmead: Okay.
Paper doesn’t fit very well into, you know, the future
Sarah Ray: Yeah, so I thought that was interesting, too, that they, like, struck everybody except Spock.
Allie Ashmead: Mike is gone. Everybody’s gone except Spock.
Sarah Ray: So Spock radios down on Skype to say that, there are survivors on talos four after all. and so back on the bridge, they’re discussing the distress signal, and out of the wall, where there’s a literal fax machine or printer or something, comes.
Allie Ashmead: This piece of paper, like a telegram. I’m like, what the. Yeah, I remember that.
Sarah Ray: What? so this yellowish paper comes out pike takes it out of the fax machine, and he walks around the bridge, and he sits down in the captain’s chair, and he reads his paper. And I thought, really?
Allie Ashmead: Yeah. There’s some. Clearly some things that they didn’t think about. Like, paper doesn’t even. Paper doesn’t fit very well into, you know, the future.
Sarah Ray: No, no.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah, there was. There was paper.
Sarah Ray: It raises a whole lot more questions than it answers. Are these sheets of paper, or is it rolls like, remember back in the day, we had.
Allie Ashmead: This was, like, matrix stuff.
Sarah Ray: Yeah. When I worked in radio, we had a dot matrix printer, and you had to, like, all the stuff that came down from the Associated Press printed out on this old dot matrix printer. Is it like that, or is it sheets of paper when the paper runs out? Or the ink? Like, whose job is it to come refill that? Is that engineering? Is it?
Allie Ashmead: Yeah, I think that’s definitely a misstep. And you’ll see paper again.
Sarah Ray: Yeah. they carry around clipboards and shit.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah, clipboards. And I’m like, okay, they didn’t think that.
Sarah Ray: Do they have to go to office depot to get more, or can they replicate more?
Allie Ashmead: They probably can replicate more. like, I don’t know.
Sarah Ray: Yeah.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah, that one didn’t fit.
Sarah Ray: Nope, not at all.
Allie Ashmead: But it’s the pilot, you know?
Sarah Ray: Right. Back in the day, so I worked in radio for a while, then I worked in, like, a locally owned retail place for a while, where I sold startac phones, as a matter of fact. and then I opened my own business doing computer repair and website design. And all this. This is early. Two thousands. Right. And I remember I took some classes at a local college to get a certification, to get an a plus, a plus certification.
Allie Ashmead: I have that.
Sarah Ray: and we had to, in this class, take a laser printer apart to bare metal and put it back together. Put it back together, and it had to work. So, does this printer on the bridge have a pickup roller that I got to fix and replace or while they’re fixing. I have so many questions.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah. While they’re fixing warp drives, right. The printers, they still got a printer to worry about.
Sarah Ray: They have to call down the lower decks and get some, you know, schmuck to come up and, uncham the printer.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah.
Sarah Ray: I have so many questions.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah, that one, that was a misstep on me.
Sarah Ray: I don’t know how much more of this printer we see during the series as it goes on. I’ll be interested. I’m gonna be watching.
Allie Ashmead: Honestly, I don’t think we say, I don’t think we see it again. I think it was only in the pilot. I think there were just some things that they just didn’t think about, you know? And honestly, you know, when it’s a pilot, they’re just trying to see if they can even get someone’s attention.
Sarah Ray: Right.
Allie Ashmead: To even know, to go.
Sarah Ray: It’s a concept. It’s just pitching a story idea.
Allie Ashmead: So it’s not fully, you know, so maybe, you know, like, oh, we should, maybe they.
Sarah Ray: And computer screens, like, to put that as a visual would have been really expensive at the time, you know?
Allie Ashmead: probably, yeah, they could. There was a lot they couldn’t, just didn’t have the capability to do in any way at that time.
Sarah Ray: Right. So pike orders a change in course to go to Talos for it, and they show this to show this travel. Speaking of budgetary constraints.
Allie Ashmead: Uh-huh.
Sarah Ray: By fading, like 70 30 back and forth between the bridge shot and a moving star field while the theme music plays again. So I thought that was a creative way to show movement and not have to use the ship model. Cause that was inexpensive things to shoot.
There’s a scene where pike bumps into a woman on the bridge
And then there’s a scene that I’ve really been looking forward to talking about.
Allie Ashmead: Is this. Wait, is this the incident on the bridge with the new. The yeoman?
Sarah Ray: Yes.
Allie Ashmead: yes. That’s the one. I was, that’s, I alluded to, in our previous segment, where gene, I felt like he had, like, a forethought of things that, what do you. I guess you could call them social issues that need to be addressed and just put in your face. And I really love this. Go ahead. Go ahead. I’ll just jump in over you.
Sarah Ray: So pike turns around on the bridge and bumps into the new yeoman, a yo, woman.
Allie Ashmead: Yo woman.
Sarah Ray: Yeah. and pike turns to number one, the woman first officer, right. And says, you know, I just can’t get used to having a woman on the bridge.
Allie Ashmead: Ooh. And the look she gave him, she.
Sarah Ray: Cut him with a look.
Allie Ashmead: And that looks at everything because he, then he said, well, he trips all over him. So, yeah, he’s like, well, I don’t mean you, no offense. and how many of us have heard this? No offense. you’re different.
Sarah Ray: Right.
Allie Ashmead: And she gave him another look, which, you know. Yeah. That whole thing, that was where he’s.
Sarah Ray: Like, oh, no, you’re one of the guys.
Allie Ashmead: Right, right.
Sarah Ray: Yeah.
Allie Ashmead: And, like, as if that is supposed to make her feel better.
Sarah Ray: Right.
Allie Ashmead: but we get it all the time. This is something we deal with now, like, with all the misogyny going on. Well, the misogyny has always been there, but it was so we didn’t pay that much attention to it because it was just, you know, it was, the norm.
Sarah Ray: Right.
Allie Ashmead: And so. Yeah, but I love that in 1966 there was a woman, number one, which is like second in command on a starship and still took us 20 some years to get a Captain Janeway. so I don’t think I saw another female second officer.
Sarah Ray: On one hand, it read as really cringe.
Sarah Ray: Right. The whole, like, oh, I just can’t get used to having a woman on the bridge. But also then, like, I tried to consider, like, what’s Gene trying to say with this? Like what?
Allie Ashmead: Right. There’s a reason he put that in there.
Sarah Ray: Right. And so you’ve got Gene’s military experience from world War Two. And then the pilot was produced in 64, pitched in 65, which is like right in the middle of the Vietnam war. And in both of those, like, even still, women weren’t widely accepted in the military. And so this is sort of a military structure to the organization. And so, you know, I read this as Gene really trying to show that better future for humanity, right. Where women are much more equal.
Sarah Ray: But also shining a light on the present day problem. and the issues which in the sixties, like second wave feminism was coming on, and the backlash and resistance to all of those efforts. So really it was speaking a lot to what was going on.
Allie Ashmead: It was pretty. Those couple of seconds, that short scene spoke volumes. so, yeah, I was like, yes, module. Yes.
Sarah Ray: And that’s like what we said before. That is where Star Trek and science fiction are at the best. Right. Always shining a light on present day issues without like, in your face calling you a bigot. Yeah, it’s a little more subtle.
Allie Ashmead: I’m not gonna call you a bigot. I’m gonna show you how you’re a bigot. And that is the best way to. That’s the best lesson.
Captain Pike taps Spock and Lieutenant Tyler to go on away team
Allie Ashmead: Is to tell a story.
Sarah Ray: So we get to the planet and detect possible wreckage from a ship. Pike scrambles an away team to go check it out. And he taps Spock and Lieutenant Tyler, and then he apologizes to number one, like, sorry, sweetheart, you can’t go, but, you know, you’re the most experienced. yeah, you gotta be in charge.
Allie Ashmead: A little bit patronizing. Yeah, but it’s like you’re the second most important in charge and we need you here, you know? Yeah, but we’ll, we’ll see later. She kind of had to come save his ass, but anyway.
Sarah Ray: Yep, exactly. Well, and also, it’s interesting, too, because, you know, having seen the series and knowing kind of where, how things develop, you know, we know that in the future of the Star Trek universe, there is a change in the captain doesn’t go on the away team. Right. The captain’s the most important person and really needs to be on m the ship and, you know, protected that way. And there’s a lot of, there’s a lot of struggle in that dynamic as the series goes on.
Allie Ashmead: And that’s a good point.
Sarah Ray: So I thought that was interesting.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah, yeah. Great observation. Yeah.
The transporter on Star Trek: Voyager was kind of shoddy
Sarah Ray: so then they take the turbolift down to the transporter room and start strapping on a bunch of gadgets under their jackets. And we really get a first look here, though, of like, what becomes classic Star Trek shit.
Allie Ashmead: Oh, my goodness.
Sarah Ray: The transporter in action.
Allie Ashmead: The transporter was kind of shit. But then I also literally wrote, and I’m going to read this, they’re a wave. Uniforms were kind of shit.
Sarah Ray: Yeah.
Allie Ashmead: They were just like some gray, put on a jacket. Best suit jacket. Yeah.
Sarah Ray: Did you notice too? Like, and I know this is production costs and all of that, but, like, they had, you know, five of each color uniform, and none of them were the right fit for the actor that was wearing them. And they’re either too tight or too loose and floppy.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah, yeah. And just like. Yeah. Unremarkable and to be so military.
Allie Ashmead: Their uniforms were not.
Sarah Ray: Yeah.
Allie Ashmead: And I know we’re splitting hairs here. Of course we do.
Sarah Ray: On a series that hasn’t even been picked up yet, they don’t have fun.
Allie Ashmead: We’re gonna nitpick the shit out of it.
Sarah Ray: We are, of course.
Allie Ashmead: But, yeah, they’re there.
Sarah Ray: But the transporter thing, I thought was.
Allie Ashmead: Like, it’s a bit slow.
Sarah Ray: It was a really simple, it was slow, practical, effect, but, but creative for its time and effective. Like, you know, you’re, you’re cross fading between a, shot of the transporter pad with people on it and a shot of the transporter pad with no people on it. And then to make the little swirly effect, they used, like, metal shavings and.
Allie Ashmead: Like, is that what that was? Okay.
Sarah Ray: Yeah, yeah, it was, they flipped the camera upside down and then dropped these metal shavings down so it made it look like it was going up.
Allie Ashmead: That’s budget, right? That’s what I’m saying. That’s budget right there. I like it.
Sarah Ray: Yeah, it was really creative and for the time, like, crafting, super simple, but it really conveyed what the transporter was doing and how it worked.
Did you see Spock smile in the original Star Trek film
So we get down to the surface, and the crew start exploring. Kirk and spot come across these blue leaves.
Allie Ashmead: There’s some kind of. The sound effects were also shit. Yeah, they were, but they’re these, like, little blue leaves on some wire that was supposed to serve as a plant.
Sarah Ray: And they were, like, vibrating, making noise, playing music.
Allie Ashmead: And the weird thing is, did you see Spock smile?
Sarah Ray: Yes.
Allie Ashmead: I’m like, what the fuck is that? You’re a vulcan. You’re not supposed to smile. But he’s smiling like a little kid. I’m like, no, that’s another misstep.
Sarah Ray: Well, so that was, back before all of the revisions and the. Let’s take a second crack at this. Spock was kind of an impish character. not m the logical, stoic Vulcan that we know vulcans to be. They kind of saw him as this. But then when the network saw it and when critics, saw it, they were like, oh, he looks like the devil. So now he’s, like, smiling and grinning.
Allie Ashmead: And all, hey, I’m not evil. Yeah, but I mean, yeah, I was like, to me, because I know Spock is a vulcan, and I know, you know, emotions are illogical to see him smiling. I was like, what the fuck?
Sarah Ray: Who is that? Yep.
Allie Ashmead: Weird.
Sarah Ray: It’s interesting how that, like, how that character changed over time.
Uh, so we find the survivors camp, and, um, it’s just
so we find the survivors camp, and, it’s just a bunch of old dudes. And Tyler, who is, like, quintessential sixties television, like, redhead, haircut. He’s all excited on the side.
Allie Ashmead: Oh, my goodness. Yeah.
Sarah Ray: he’s talking about how they broke the time barrier. And apparently that’s a new thing because the survey expedition crashed 18 years ago.
Allie Ashmead: And they made some huge.
Sarah Ray: We’re going to get home super fast because we broke the time barrier.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sarah Ray: And they’re interrupted by some pretty young eye candy named veena.
Allie Ashmead: She is gorgeous blonde. Like, okay, all the other crash victims are dirty, old, tattered clothes. She comes out clean clothes, clean skin.
Allie Ashmead: Blonde, blue eyed, you know?
Sarah Ray: Right. So, yeah, on the bridge. Don’t be sexist on the planet.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah, let’s be sexist. Let’s turn that shit up to 100. yeah. And I did notice, like, the women in their eyes, the women that they chose for the role in their, like, electric blue. They love blue eyes. And even with pike. Electric blue eyes.
Sarah Ray: Yep.
Allie Ashmead: So you got brown eyes. Too bad you’re spock. You’re an alien. Yeah, but, yeah, it was weird.
Sarah Ray: so, and then we’re told she was born almost as they crashed. So she’s about 18.
Sarah Ray: which is good for all the guys. Cause they’ve got the odds for her now.
Allie Ashmead: Right. But she looks like she’s 30.
Sarah Ray: Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Allie Ashmead: But whatever.
Talosians have giant heads with pulsing veins. I love it with veins
Sarah Ray: The camera pulls back and reveals a view screen, and we get our first look at the Talosians. No.
Allie Ashmead: Okay. Yeah.
Sarah Ray: They got these big giant heads with these pulsing veins.
Allie Ashmead: Right. Their brains, I guess their brains are like, oversized.
Sarah Ray: Uh-huh.
Allie Ashmead: But then in the back of THeIr head, it looks like a boOty. Like a butt cheeks. It looks like two butt cheeks. So the whole time I’m writing my notes, the butt heads, I’d be calling. No, I was calling them booty heads because they LOok like they’ve got Booties on their HEad. I love it with veins.
Sarah Ray: So, yeah, that was another really cool practical effect too, that they did. some of the actors who portrayed the Talosians have been interviewed and written things about it and whatever. and so they had these rubber bladders inside the head with a tube that would run down through the headpiece and down into their uniform, down their arm, and then they would have a little squeezy thing in their hand so that they could squeeze it and pump that bladder full of air.
Allie Ashmead: So it looks like the blood vessels.
Sarah Ray: Were, like, made the veins, like pulse.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah, yeah. That was so cheesy. But, yeah, beCause, like, because they would. Because they are telepathic, so of course they had to somehow convey that. And I guess that was the best thing. But, I mean, it was. It was genius for that time.
Sarah Ray: Oh, for sure.
Allie Ashmead: So they, they seemed, like, super happy that pike was just enamored with this woman. They were like, this is. I think this is what they wanted.
Sarah Ray: Oh, for sure.
The show implies that big brains equals smarter, which is just not true
and while we’re talking about, like, the brain, I have a note here. Later. but, like, later on, Spock points out that their brains are three times the size of theirs. And I thought that was interesting, because, again, like, we know eventually the show brought on scientific minds, m to try to be, like, as accurate scientifically as possible.
Sarah Ray: And so this is one of those things where they didn’t have that, and.
Allie Ashmead: Like, they’re just making general.
Sarah Ray: They’re just. Yeah, like, it’s a visual language. Right. That shows the audience, oh, big brain equals smarter, which is just not true.
Allie Ashmead: Or big brain equals telepathic, which, yeah.
Sarah Ray: Scientifically, like, there’s no, There was a study that I looked at, that talked about, like, it’s just a really weak correlation between brain size and intelligence, especially when you look between across species. So I thought that was an interesting, like. Yeah, you missed the mark on that one. But again, it’s science fiction, right? So it’s fiction.
Allie Ashmead: And it was. God, it had to be, like, pretty close to trying to think there weren’t a whole lot of science fiction shows out there, but that actually, you know, tried to get it right or. But then they didn’t really have a whole lot of. There was not a whole lot of science back then. No, I mean, come on.
Sarah Ray: Yeah, for sure.
The Talosians are preparing to beam up eleven of the survivors
so the keeper nods to the other two Talosians who leave. And, like, we learn later that the Talosians have an addiction to using this power of illusion that they have. so the end of this scene is the keeper watching Veena and Kirk flirting it out. Kirk’s got this big dumb smile on his face because that’s what happens to men.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah, they just. They literally stop.
Sarah Ray: But, like, the Talosians are watching human porn.
Allie Ashmead: Exactly. They’re like literally getting chubbies from watching. Watching their, you know. And then. And Veena shows, she goes up to pike and she just, like, she says kind of creepily, she’s like, you’re a fine human specimen. A prime specimen.
Sarah Ray: A prime specimen.
Allie Ashmead: Okay, creepy.
Sarah Ray: The best part of that scene for me was he’s on the phone at the time, right?
Allie Ashmead: He’s talking to number one on the ship, back on the ship and saying, you know, that they’re preparing to beam up eleven of the survivors. And, as he’s doing that, that’s when Venus says, you’re a healthy prime specimen. And then number one is like, I didn’t catch that last part.
Sarah Ray: Chris. I didn’t get that. Was that another woman?
Allie Ashmead: Yeah, pretty much is really what she was saying. Who is that? Who’s that bitch?
Sarah Ray: And Pike’s like, I gotta go.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah, right.
Sarah Ray: So doctor Boyce rolls up with a medical report and Veena’s like, I think we should probably tell them our secret now.
Allie Ashmead: Yes.
Sarah Ray: Cause she knows he’s got it figured out.
Allie Ashmead: Yes.
Sarah Ray: and then she leads pike away alone.
Allie Ashmead: She’s like, let’s follow me up here. It’s time for you to. We can let finally let you know our secret. And they go up like a rock path.
Sarah Ray: Why didn’t anyone else go with him? Because, I mean, didn’t serve the story.
Allie Ashmead: Of course, but like, but, like, because she.
Sarah Ray: Oh, we’ll just let the captain go off with this.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah, we know what this is about. And she was going to drag him up by the hand because she wasn’t really interested in anybody else. And, so she. They’re up, like, on a rock, like a little bit above everyone and all. Then all the survivors, supposedly survivors, disappear and all that’s left. Oh, and then Veena also disappeared. Ah, she’s gone.
Sarah Ray: Yeah. And then these Talosians come out of the door.
Allie Ashmead: The rock elevator is like a, Flintstone elevator. Like, they come out of the rock.
Sarah Ray: And then the Talosians got, like, a fucking vape pen, and they stun pike.
Allie Ashmead: And then they take him down into the elevator. Like the. Again, the rock flintstone elevator. So then the rest of the laning party, they start shooting.
Sarah Ray: Tyler freaks out and comes running, but it’s too late. They’re already in the elevator, and they.
Allie Ashmead: Just start shooting the door, trying to blast it.
Sarah Ray: You know, like when you’re in an elevator and I somebody. The doors are closing, and somebody’s like, hold the door. M. And you’re like, shit. Don’t make eye contact. Don’t make eye contact. So they were taking, pike down in the elevator. Everybody gets a turn to shoot at the door.
Allie Ashmead: Yep.
Sarah Ray: And, it looks like they broke through the rock, but the door didn’t seem to be affected.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah. Yeah.
Sarah Ray: So spock radios up to the enterprise. There are no survivors. And we lost the captain.
Allie Ashmead: And it’s a trap. It was a trapdeen. Yep.
Sarah Ray: It’s a trap. Wrong franchise.
Pike wakes up in these underground tunnels and discovers that he’s behind glass
Pike wakes up in these underground tunnels and discovers that he’s behind a giant sheet of plexiglass. And we also see another life form. So it kind of pans down the hallway, and there’s this ape looking thing with a pig nose.
Allie Ashmead: I immediately thought of manbearpig. And then I just said, I didn’t even think of that bear pig because he was like an ape looking thing with a pig nose. And it had like, a mohawk with a, yeah, ape, bear pig.
Sarah Ray: It was good stuff.
Allie Ashmead: And then the other one, there was another one next to him that was some kind of like, eagle man creature.
Sarah Ray: Yeah, there was this, like, black bird, birdish, human sized bird thing. Yeah, it was all real, like monster of the week types. Right?
Allie Ashmead: Yeah.
Sarah Ray: So the Talosians come in, and they’re checking out pike in his terrarium. And then we learn that the Talosians are telepathic and understands humans to be inferior in intelligence. And the keeper dialogue here, I think, was brilliant because it’s like, so let me tell this zoo visitor everything that they need to know about this captive animal that I have here. See, it’s stupid, right? See, it’s clearly stupid. We tricked it to come here with a fake distress signal, and the survivors were all an illusion.
Allie Ashmead: And.
Sarah Ray: Yep. See, now it’s getting angry.
Allie Ashmead: He’s primitive. so pike. So Pike starts giving his, his name and his rank. I’m blah, blah blah. I’m the captain of blah, blah blah. And. And they just kind of stand there, not, they’re talking but not moving their mouths. And pike can hear it and realizes they’re telepathic, right? So, yeah, so they’re predicting his, Yeah, like, as you were saying, it’s like they’re talking to the zoo visitors, and he’s like, oh, well, now. So they’re, like, predicting his fear threat response. Like, okay, so now he’s gonna hit mad and show some physical dominance. And sure enough, he tried to launch himself at the glass to try to break it. And, yeah, it did.
Sarah Ray: It reminded me a lot of working at a zoo and hearing. Like, that’s interpretation, right? You’re an interpretive. Like, we had a lot of volunteers that did interpretation, and that was their job is to stand outside the cage, literally, and talk about, like, oh, so when the animal does this, this is why. That’s.
Sarah Ray: This is what’s causing that reaction or whatever. And it’s like.
Allie Ashmead: But you kind of see how, like, if you were the animal in the cage as pike was, how insulting that is.
Sarah Ray: Uh-huh.
Allie Ashmead: They’re talking about me like I’m not even.
Sarah Ray: Right.
Allie Ashmead: Like, I don’t even matter.
Sarah Ray: They don’t see him as an equal.
Allie Ashmead: I’m a thing.
Sarah Ray: Yeah, exactly.
The m telosions can read thoughts and memories
So back in the conference room on the enterprise, Spock and company are trying to figure out what’s going on. they’ve got it figured out that everything’s an illusion. The m telosions can read thoughts and memories. And Spock flips a switch and on the screen comes up what has got to be a storyboard artist sketch of a Talosian.
Allie Ashmead: Oh, yeah. It’s like a small, like a real simple sketch.
Sarah Ray: Yeah, like an outline, pencil outline. No detail.
Allie Ashmead: Hey, they did what they could do, you know, back then, right?
Sarah Ray: So this is where Spock points out their brains are three times the size of ours, which is not based in science. and then number one decides to take Tyler’s suggestion and transfer power from the ship to a stronger laser blaster. Did you also notice that, like, throughout the episode, we didn’t have phasers, we had lasers? and that was a thing that changed from the first pilot into the series that I thought was cool.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah.
Sarah Ray: so Tyler says that this laser blaster thing is, strong enough to take out a whole continent.
Allie Ashmead: Okay.
So they’re all reading Pike’s thoughts and his memories
Sarah Ray: So meanwhile, back in the cage, pike is pacing around looking for any kind of escape, and we learned that there are thousands of telosions, which I didn’t remember from having watched it the first time, but they were like, oh, there are thousands of us are scanning Pike’s thoughts right now.
Allie Ashmead: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I do remember them saying that I didn’t.
Sarah Ray: And you only see, like, before the whole time. Yeah. So I thought. I didn’t remember that from all the other times that I’ve watched it.
Allie Ashmead: so they’re all reading his thoughts and his memories, and they hone in on his recent death struggle on rigel seven that we talked about that he’s kind of like. That’s got him making him feel like he wants to quit. so they really just. They kind of like that. New stories, new conflicts to see.
Sarah Ray: Yeah. You can’t watch the same old human porn. After a while, reruns. After a while, it gets old. You know exactly what’s going to happen.
Allie Ashmead: Who wants reruns of. I mean, come on. And so they want to give him something more interesting to protect because he does have a sense of, like, to protect people, but he wants to. But they want to amp that up.
Sarah Ray: So they recreate this place in rigel seven, but they replace the character with veena and M. Now he’s got to protect Veena from this. Another monster of the week, weird ass.
Allie Ashmead: Manbear, pig guy, caveman, bad teeth.
Sarah Ray: Oh, yeah. It was a native looking caveman.
Allie Ashmead: Viking.
Sarah Ray: Yeah.
Allie Ashmead: He couldn’t be a neanderthal because he had, like, well formed weapons.
Sarah Ray: Right.
Allie Ashmead: but he looked like a neanderthal, with fur wearing. I mean, it was just a mashup of bullshit.
Sarah Ray: Right.
Allie Ashmead: You know?
Sarah Ray: Yeah. Well, it’s all like, let’s go down to the prop room and see what we can find. The costume or whatever. Right. I.
Allie Ashmead: So the. So this caveman. So this starts out in Pike’s mind just how it started on rigel seven. So he’s like, this is just how it happened on.
Sarah Ray: But he knows it’s an illusion, right?
Allie Ashmead: He knows he doesn’t even want to play the game. And then Venus, like, come on, we have to go get food and shelter and save me. Terrible acting. Sorry, girl. Sorry, girl. But I know you was doing your best, but it was awful.
Well, this leads us to the first of many classic Star Trek fight scenes
Sarah Ray: Well, this leads us to the first of many classic Star Trek fight scenes. We didn’t get any of the karate chop to the back this time, though. No, not yet. and Pike’s figuring out that veena is not just an illusion, that she’s actually real. Or maybe. and so then after this quick fight, pike falls from a high place.
Allie Ashmead: Yep.
Sarah Ray: And then the kalar, that’s the name of this neanderthal monster thing is a kalar jumps, down after him. But pike grabs a serrated blade and.
Allie Ashmead: Lets him fall on it. And then, boom, they’re all back in his cell. and the big brain booty people are watching him.
Sarah Ray: Yeah. And Veena’s all like, take me now, captain.
Allie Ashmead: Yes.
Sarah Ray: Until she notices the Talosians watching up.
Allie Ashmead: And then. Yeah, yeah.
Sarah Ray: So she’s not much of a performer or an exhibitionist. She doesn’t like having an audience.
Allie Ashmead: She’s only 18.
Sarah Ray: Right? Wink. so then Veena’s throwing herself at pike, but he’s not having it. And up on the surface, number one and the crew are installing this giant laser cannon, which also seems to fail to blast through the door.
Allie Ashmead: Right. And it’s gonna overload. So they have to shut it off because it’s like not doing anything.
Sarah Ray: So Veena finally agrees to tell pike about these aliens and how far their powers can go. they can’t make you do anything you don’t want to do, but the illusions are very persuasive and they’ll punish you, right, if you don’t play along. And then we learned that war forced the Talosians underground thousands of centuries ago. And that’s when they developed these mental powers.
Allie Ashmead: Hm.
Sarah Ray: And then it became an addiction. So there’s a little backstory on them. And then pike figures out that they’ll be expected to mate. And Venus says they’ll be like Adam and Eve. And then a Talosian shows up and punishes her. And she’s like, screaming.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah, her punishment is a really, really bad headache. And then she disappears.
Sarah Ray: She disappears?
Allie Ashmead: Yeah, that’s her punishment. But I mean, it’s painful.
Sarah Ray: I think that was probably another budgetary thing, too, because when they put pike through the punishment later, it actually shows like, it’s like the very next scene. he’s trying to find a way to escape. and the keeper gives him a drink, and they’re like, drink this shit. And he’s like, I don’t want him. What if I just starve myself to death? And they’re like, oh, you’ll drink.
Allie Ashmead: We’re going to punish you if you.
Sarah Ray: Light him on fire.
Allie Ashmead: Well, so here’s what the Talosian said. He’s like, so they want to give him a taste of what punishment is like. M if he refuse to eat, this is what the Telosian said. He says, we wanted to give you something that was from a fable that you once heard in childhood. And to me it looked like a version of hell.
Allie Ashmead: Because he was, like, suddenly transported and surrounded by fire and in pain. I. With some stuff on his hands.
Sarah Ray: I don’t know, I think it was supposed to look like skin melting off.
Allie Ashmead: Okay.
Sarah Ray: Is kind of how that reads to me.
Allie Ashmead: They failed at that because I was like, what’s in what’s. What is this stuff, on his hands anyway? It looked like shit. I don’t know.
Sarah Ray: Yeah, it’s real hellfire and brimstone stuff, though.
Allie Ashmead: But I thought it was interesting that they said that Talosian said it was a fable from his childhood.
Sarah Ray: I didn’t catch that.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah, I was like, oh, that’s where there’s two of us. Those.
Pike rams into glass at zoo, startling keeper
Sarah Ray: Yeah, exactly.
Allie Ashmead: You get what I don’t. You get what I miss, and I.
Sarah Ray: Want to know what the fable is.
Allie Ashmead: I’m sure it was the Bible. I think it was the Bible. so that was interesting. and so Pike’s like, well, if you want me to eat, why don’t you just make me hungry? Yeah, yeah.
Sarah Ray: forced the illusion on me that I’m hungry.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sarah Ray: So he drinks a liquid anyway, and then he, like, rams into the glass again, startling the keeper. So pike knows now he’s figured out there’s some kind of a delay. Like the. If you can read my mind, you should have known I was about to do that.
Allie Ashmead: Right.
Sarah Ray: So what happened there?
Allie Ashmead: He thinks it’s because he was really angry. and they don’t do well with.
Sarah Ray: They don’t do rage porn.
Allie Ashmead: They don’t? Yeah, it’s rage. it’s a, primitive emotion, and they don’t do well with it. So he’s like, I’m gonna fill my mind with hate.
Sarah Ray: Easy to do when you’re locked in a cage, by the way.
Allie Ashmead: Right?
Sarah Ray: So then we get another exposition dump. There was an earth vessel that crashed here, but there was only one survivor, Veena. And they are absolutely trying to get them hooked up to mate.
Allie Ashmead: They say they just want them to be happy, but they also want them to procreate because they want more slaves.
Sarah Ray: Which, again, comes back to like, they want more slaves. We have a tiger in a cage at a zoo and we want it to mate, and so we put another tiger with it and we let them.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah.
Sarah Ray: I just feel real icky about zoos.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah. I hate zoos. I don’t. I stopped going to them, I think, years ago. As you know, we used to live in. Yeah, Florida. So Seaworld was like, and I went there for, like, several years, and then afterwards I was like, I just. These animals don’t look happy. And then I did went through the whole thing of not eating meat and I’m like, you know what? I don’t want to ever stop and do another zoo again because it changed my whole perspective about eating animals.
Sarah Ray: Yep.
Allie Ashmead: So, yeah, I think I went to a zoo when I got here just cause it was something to do to get out.
Sarah Ray: Yeah.
Allie Ashmead: but I generally don’t like zoos.
Sarah Ray: I hadn’t ever thought about it, really, really, until I took that job. And it’s like walking around a zoo all day.
Allie Ashmead: And that was like, these poor animals.
Sarah Ray: Poor animals.
Allie Ashmead: They don’t belong in the middle of a city. No, they’ve all been taken from.
Sarah Ray: Oh, but they have. Like, we’ve determined that this species of zebra requires x number of square feet to be. No, come on. That isn’t right. Elephants walk, what, hundreds of thousands of miles? M and you put, oh, but we gave them, you know, so many yards.
Allie Ashmead: Look what we’re doing.
Sarah Ray: Come on.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah, they’re still captive, so. Yeah, yeah.
Pike is still trying to figure out how to beat these aliens
Sarah Ray: So then, we’re in another illusion now. In the countryside on a picnic, complete with Pike’s actual horses. Now, this he had described to Boyce earlier when he was talking about, like, oh, I can’t handle the stress. I want to go, like, home and, hm, sit in the park and, like, ride my horses and stuff. so Veena tries to convince him they could live out their lives right here, just like this.
Allie Ashmead: Hm.
Sarah Ray: you know, good old husband and wife, which I thought that was like, a weird line, too, that he kind of reacted just that one little, like.
Allie Ashmead: You’Re not my wife. Yeah, I didn’t marry you. This isn’t. Yeah.
Sarah Ray: So Pike’s not having any of it and he’s still trying to work out how to beat these aliens at their own game.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah.
Sarah Ray: one of the things that they talked about, they mentioned several times, but never really paid off for me. And I’d love to, like, I know. Spoiler alert. We revisit this place again. but they talk about, like, before they moved underground, their ancestors had these machines and they’d forgotten how to operate them. And so I kept expecting, like, the machine to be part of the solution. Like, oh, they found the machine and that short circuits their mental powers or whatever the thing was. But they mentioned that a few times and it never paid off. And I’m very disappointed that I don’t know what those machines are or what they do.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah, I don’t know.
Sarah Ray: so Veena says that they picked him specifically because the Talosians read her mind. And he’s like, her perfect mandy on paper.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah, because of course he is. Yeah, yeah. He’s got blue eyes, square jaw, and.
Sarah Ray: You know, so Veena figures out that his real dreams are of not having to always be the captain.
Sarah Ray: And be proper. And the Talosians are watching it all on the view screen, right? So they’re still watching human porn. And so they create a new illusion. Now we’re in a house.
Allie Ashmead: Then they really take it to porn.
Sarah Ray: Now we’re in a house in California, and Veena’s sitting on a couch, and pike comes in and she goes, it’s so big. Oh, no, that’s not. That was something else.
Allie Ashmead: Wrong show. I’m like, what? No, wrong show. But they do take him to another place.
Sarah Ray: They do. This is. Speaking of cringe.
Now we go to Orion. Which you cosplayed without even knowing it
Now we go to Orion.
Allie Ashmead: This was cringe where he was he like some kind of king or something? Yeah.
Sarah Ray: like some rich nobleman or something.
Allie Ashmead: So Veena is suddenly a green alien dancing around half naked.
Sarah Ray: Mm Which you cosplayed without even knowing it.
Allie Ashmead: Oh, not.
Sarah Ray: You were cosplaying something else, but I.
Allie Ashmead: Was cosplaying Gamora, from guardians of the Galaxy.
Sarah Ray: But you could totally pull off Orion, probably.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah, maybe.
Sarah Ray: I think you should do tendy, from lower decks.
Allie Ashmead: And I have not seen that. I have not watched. I can’t wait. I do want to see it, though.
Sarah Ray: We got to figure out if we’re going to just, like, linearly go through all of these or if we want to do a branch off and do. I don’t know, it’s too much. We’ll see. so, no.
They used Majel as the screen test for the color, um
Now they’re on Orion. Veena’s a belly dancing green Orion slave girl, and the guys that are sitting with pike are like, you talk about cringe, this guy says, funny how they are on this planet. They actually like being taken advantage of.
Sarah Ray: Oh, God.
Allie Ashmead: Misogyny. Jesus.
Sarah Ray: Get me out of this bar. So pike eventually storms angrily out of the room and finds himself back in the cage, opens the door, and there he is in the cage. And then Veena appears, but she’s still in a ride.
Allie Ashmead: She’s still a green alien.
Sarah Ray: they used Majel as the screen test for the color, to put the green color on her skin because it would have been too expensive to pay the actress to come in and do, like a, a proper screen test on her. So Majel was there, right, and sleeping with the boss and like, well,
Allie Ashmead: We might as well use.
Sarah Ray: Might as well use you. You’re here. Yeah, that’s the thing I read that I thought was interesting.
Allie Ashmead: That’s cool.
So back on the enterprise, they think they’ve found an underground generator
Sarah Ray: So back on the enterprise, they think they’ve found an underground generator and they’re going to transport down into the caves. We never hear about this generator ever again. Just like all the other equipment.
Allie Ashmead: Like, because it was, it was something, they never got to it because they go to beam down. And the Talosians were smart. Instead of the whole team beaming down, only number one, who was a woman, and the young yeoman.
Sarah Ray: Yo. Woman cult.
Allie Ashmead: Yo. Woman. She. They were the only two that were beamed down. And then the enterprise lost control of transporter. And so the, basically the Talosians took those two women.
Sarah Ray: Hm.
Allie Ashmead: And I think they transported them into his.
Sarah Ray: Yeah, right into the cage.
Allie Ashmead: Yep.
Sarah Ray: Yep.
Allie Ashmead: Because I guess they want it. Look, they’re giving him options. Yeah.
Sarah Ray: Isn’t that nice? Here’s a couple more.
Allie Ashmead: Right?
Sarah Ray: Yeah. And veena freaks the fuck out. She’s like, oh, this is my man.
Allie Ashmead: Right? And she says, like, the yeoman, she’s not very intelligent because she didn’t know, she didn’t know who Adam and Eve was or something like that. I don’t know. And then, and then, interestingly, I thought it was very interesting that she said in number one, well, you’re no better than a computer.
Allie Ashmead: And I was like, wow.
Sarah Ray: Right?
Allie Ashmead: Because we all know that Majel is the real computer. Yeah, she’s the computer.
Sarah Ray: So, pike starts winding himself up into like, incredible hulk levels of rage.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah.
Sarah Ray: Because he’s trying to, like, he’s blocking him out.
Allie Ashmead: I’m gonna fill my mind with hate. Fill my mind with hate. Fill my mind with hate.
Sarah Ray: And then number one lets on that there was an adult named Veena in the expedition, so she can’t possibly be a part perky 18 year old if this is who this is. and so then the Telosians explain that since he didn’t want Veena. Then they captured the other two to give them choices. but pike is still focusing on the hate, and the Talosians punish him again.
Allie Ashmead: He gets a big old headache.
Sarah Ray: Yep.
Allie Ashmead: Ow. Owie, owie. My head hurts.
Meanwhile, back on the Enterprise, Spock decides to leave, leave behind everybody
Sarah Ray: Meanwhile, back on the Enterprise, Spock is the acting captain, and he decides that the safest course of action for everyone on the ship is to just leave, leave behind everybody. Let’s. We gotta. We gotta get the hell out of here. Cause that’s logical. We’re trying to call down and nobody’s answering the phone, right? So if these aliens are as powerful as they seem to be, then, like, we just better get the hell out of here and cut our losses. Cut our losses.
Allie Ashmead: Which is crazy, because he’s not a coward. Like, Spock is not a coward. Right. so that was very uncomfortable.
Sarah Ray: And also, his character at that point had not been, you know, built into the logic driven whatever, like, making that decision. That seemed like a logical decision. Like, oh, we could lose everybody on the whole ship, right? Or we could go now and just lose those four and. Or however many three and we’d be okay.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah, but, I mean, I can’t. But in all the years of watching Star Trek, they’re always in that situation.
Sarah Ray: Yeah.
Allie Ashmead: And they never, never leave them behind.
Sarah Ray: You don’t leave anybody behind. No. The needs of the many.
Allie Ashmead: Psh.
Talosians are stealing all the ship’s data
Sarah Ray: Downstairs, pike and the women are in the cage, and everybody is sleeping except pike, who’s pretending to be asleep until one of the Talosians opens this little hatch in the wall to try to grab the laser guns.
Allie Ashmead: I was wondering, because I was like, why the fuck are they trying to sneak into his room? but, yeah, that was why. Because I guess the lasers were right there at the hatch.
Sarah Ray: Couldn’t they just have telepathied some, like, make it look like they’re not there anymore or whatever. I don’t know. Pike jumps up and grabs the Talosian and, like, gets him on the ground and he’s got his hands around his neck strangling. and was that the magistrate or was that the keeper? I got very confused on who these butt crack aliens were. Which one was which one?
Allie Ashmead: Booty looks the same as the other. I don’t. I can tell them. Apartheid.
Sarah Ray: That’s how racist of us.
Allie Ashmead: They all look like.
Sarah Ray: They all look alike.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah, all Talosians look alike.
Sarah Ray: Oh, man. So anyway, whichever one it is, the.
Allie Ashmead: Magistrate, meanwhile, while he’s choking, what’s her name? What’s his name? Out. Talosians are stealing all the ship’s data. So they’re, like, downloading all of the ship’s data that has, like, all the history of the humans and stuff in it.
Sarah Ray: Pike figures out that the power of illusion, like, maybe our laser guns did actually work and the lotions are blocking us from seeing that. Maybe that’s an illusion, too.
Allie Ashmead: Yep. Yep.
Sarah Ray: So he’s really starting to figure it out. Once. Once that illusion went out, like, they can exit the cage, right? He figured it out.
Allie Ashmead: It was an illusion that the phasers did blow a hole in the plexiglass or whatever. but the Talosians were just covering it up, and so.
Sarah Ray: And same with the giant cannon. Back up.
Allie Ashmead: They did blow the door.
Sarah Ray: It blew the whole top off.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah, but they didn’t see it.
Sarah Ray: Yeah.
Allie Ashmead: so, yeah, so they go up to the surface, right? And. Oh, so at this point, pike has the Talosian at phaser point and is threatened. So he takes everybody out. number, one, the yeoman, yeo woman, Veena and the Talosian.
Sarah Ray: So we all go back to. Up to the surface. The magistrate keeper, whichever one butthead alien it was, tells pike, like, look, you have to pick one of these women and start living here. Like, this is the deal. and so pike makes an offer, like, I’ll trade you your life for the lives of number one and yeo woman cult. And he offers to stay and play along if they let the ship go. So, like, listen, I will stay here and be your caged animal. Just let my people go.
Allie Ashmead: Right?
Sarah Ray: Which is a very, like, needs of the many theme, which is what a.
Allie Ashmead: Captain is typically is known to do. It’s not just his job, but it’s also his character. That’s who he was.
Number one has a line here that I loved because it’s clearly humanist
Sarah Ray: Number one has a line here that I loved because, again, it’s like, clearly speaking to the times. It’s clearly humanist. she says it’s wrong to create a whole race of humans to live as slaves and to say that on tv in 1960 something, wow.
Allie Ashmead: Some people weren’t ready to hear it.
Sarah Ray: Right?
Allie Ashmead: Yeah.
Sarah Ray: But again, like, this is a great example of how we’re saying it, but, on all these people that are like, oh, new trek. It’s so woke. When did Star Trek become woke?
Allie Ashmead: It’s always bitches, always been woke.
Sarah Ray: Woke from day one, and this is it.
Allie Ashmead: And that motherfucker just said that he’s not a true Star Trek fan. No, he loses his card, whoever that is.
Sarah Ray: So I love that line. I love. We don’t spend a ton of time on it it just. It wraps up the whole thing.
Allie Ashmead: It drops some bombs. There’s some good ones. They’re little, but they’re good.
Sarah Ray: Yep.
Allie Ashmead: So then she goes number one, she sets her phaser to, self destruct. And so she. The Talosian’s like, wait, what? You gonna kill yourself and all of us just cause you don’t wanna be my slave? I’m gonna treat you nice. Like, what more do you want? You know? Well, they’re initially confused by this behavior, but then. And because they have consumed all the data, they have now consumed all the data on the ship.
Sarah Ray: I love that. The two other telosions had to come up the elevator to do, like, right.
Allie Ashmead: Can they just telepathically tell them, like.
Sarah Ray: You can do it through the rocks?
Allie Ashmead: Yep. They said that the data storage was, like, primitive. And they. But they pulled in all this data and they realized that humans despise all forms of captivity, regardless of benevolent or not. And humans would rather die than be captive. And they figured this out. I mean, like, so they. That’s when they surmise that, oh, humans are too violent.
Sarah Ray: It’s not gonna work for.
Allie Ashmead: And they can’t use them. They can’t use them because if they were to have this race of humans as slaves, they would revolt. And, so they’re in their unsuitability for this. This project that they had for humans is just not going to work. And it would condemn their race to death.
Sarah Ray: Yeah, I thought this was. This was an interesting take on it, too, because, like, it addresses the human issue, but it. It doesn’t really come back and address the, like, manbear pig and the bird person and all of that. But you’re still putting people in cages. Like, you’re still running a zoo down here and. And that we didn’t address here.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah, I mean, and I guess because.
Sarah Ray: We can only minutes or whatever to.
Allie Ashmead: Make your right, and we’re gonna show it from a human.
Sarah Ray: Yeah.
Allie Ashmead: side. But, you know, obviously it. Because they couldn’t have built that human race that they wanted. They’re going to die out. They know they are now. They know that they’re going to die out now because they can’t live off or feed off of human memories and stories and get their drug, get their fish.
Sarah Ray: You gotta have fresh human porn. You can’t just watch the same old human porn.
Allie Ashmead: Right.
Sarah Ray: So pike offers a trade, mutual cooperation. But that doesn’t cut it. Power restored on the enterprise yeoman cult. And number one, beam up one at a time, which I thought was interesting that they’ve materialized one at a time. Still no pike, though.
Allie Ashmead: Yep.
Sarah Ray: Veena, reveals to pike her true appearance, which is an old woman, but not just.
Allie Ashmead: Oh, though she’s scarred, she’s broken, and.
Sarah Ray: She was the lone survivor from this nasty crash, on this planet 18 years ago.
Allie Ashmead: And they put her back together as best as they could because they didn’t have a human reference, so they could.
Sarah Ray: You imagine putting something back together that you. It’s like if I took apart that printer and just gave you all the pieces and you had never seen a printer before.
Allie Ashmead: I’m gonna put it back. It might work when I’m done, but it ain’t gonna look the same. And she. Yeah, she was. Yeah, she was looking pretty rough. M. And, she’s like, this is why I can’t go with you. and I belong here with them.
Sarah Ray: yeah.
After the crash, the Talosians had repaired her, but they didn’t know
So they were keeping her young looking. And then after the crash, the Talosians had repaired her, but they didn’t know what they were doing. so they’re keeping this illusion of beauty, and Veena can’t leave it. It.
Allie Ashmead: So in a way, she’s addicted as well.
Sarah Ray: But haven’t we, like, haven’t. Are humans that vein still in 22, 60, whatever year this was? Are, you know, like, have. Has reconstructive surgery not come along yet that we can put her back together better than they did?
Allie Ashmead: Yeah. Like Nano, Nano.
Sarah Ray: I thought it was an interesting choice that she chose to stay.
Sarah Ray: I thought that was interesting.
Allie Ashmead: But what the cool thing was is they created. Now they had Pike’s memories, so they created her.
Sarah Ray: A fake doppelganger. Pike.
Allie Ashmead: Fake pike is now with Veena, and she can, you know, they can fake it the rest of their lives.
Sarah Ray: Yeah, I thought that was kind of weird. A weird way to wrap it up.
Allie Ashmead: Yep. And then back on the ship, everybody’s safe and they’re out of there and heading back to. Heading to Vega. And then the funny part. Here’s the humor. The young yeo woman comes to, the bridge. She almost gets in trouble again for being on the bridge. And then she gives him the clipboard with the paper. Here’s your report. And he’s like, oh, yeah, that’s right. Oh, yeah, that’s what you’re here for. And then she’s like, I was just wondering, do you know which.
Sarah Ray: If you had to choose, just curious.
Allie Ashmead: Like, which one of us would have been eve out of her in number one? And that’s kind of how they left.
Sarah Ray: Number one’s like, oh, let’s not.
Allie Ashmead: I’m not.
Sarah Ray: We’re not gonna play that game. And then they go around the bridge, though. And Tyler’s like, Eve. Cause none of them were there.
Allie Ashmead: Right? Yeah, they have no idea what they’re talking about.
Sarah Ray: And doctor Boyce says Eve as in Adam. And then pike says that all ship’s doctors are dirty old men. Well, that was great. Like, where did all that come from?
Allie Ashmead: Yeah, maybe we should start.
There is no body count on this episode, which is surprising
so I’ve been, I’m going to take a body count, for each episode, but maybe we should also take a body account for like sexual innuendos because there’s always a lot.
Sarah Ray: That is a lot.
Allie Ashmead: But yeah, so no body count on this one. because nobody. I’m surprised.
Sarah Ray: Other than that. Other than like the unnamed people who died in Rigel seven that happened before this. But yeah, no, nobody in this episode. Yeah, that’s great.
There is this misconception of porn, uh, addiction
some of the things that we talked about through the episode, but let’s go back and talk about just some of the themes.
Sarah Ray: that we really pulled out of this episode. And my first theme is fantasy can be a drug and it can be more addictive than reality.
Sarah Ray: And I made a lot of porn jokes because that’s what I do, but.
Allie Ashmead: That’S exactly what it is. It was porn to them.
Sarah Ray: Yeah. And there is, There is this misconception of porn, addiction. Right. In that, like, if it’s misconceived because people think like, oh, if you’re watching porn, then you’re addicted, which is not the case. Right. Like, watching porn is healthy and we’re like sex positive and all of that stuff. If it starts to interfere with your relationships, though, then.
Allie Ashmead: Then it’s a problem in your regular life.
Sarah Ray: Like, with drugs, that can happen with sex, that can happen with rock and roll, that can happen with Star Trek.
Allie Ashmead: Like, yeah, anything, anything in moderation is fine, but if you can’t function, do your job, you know, have friends, be a father or, you know.
Sarah Ray: Yeah.
Allie Ashmead: And then that’s getting in the way.
Sarah Ray: And. And I would have. I think my final thought on that addictive fantasy drug is I’d like to peel the layers back more on Veena’s decision to stay. To stay. Right. were they really keeping her alive in a medical sense? Because it didn’t seem like it. Right.
Allie Ashmead: Well, I think she was just as addicted because 18 years. She’d been there for 18 years. And if she. She was an adult already, she knows what humans are. Like, if you don’t look, uh-huh. Nice. And. And she. What’s she gonna go back to?
Sarah Ray: Right.
Allie Ashmead: So this was her happiness, in a way. And so. Yeah.
This episode explores keeping inferior life captive mhm. Yeah. And then the other theme I had was
Sarah Ray: And then the other theme I had was, and we talked about this a lot, was like, keeping inferior life captive Cages, like, working at the zoo and how that, that like, feels and connects.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah. And also making assumptions that they’re inferior just because they’re different.
Sarah Ray: Yep.
Allie Ashmead: so, yeah, the noticing a difference between some species and thinking, well, I deserve to have you serve me. Yeah, that’s wrong, and it’s always been wrong, but to show it in that light was pretty clear.
Sarah Ray: Yeah. there’s a lot of discussion in like, Humanist circles that even the word Humanist is, in a way, racist isn’t the word. But species is something ist. Right? What we point out in this episode is the captor sees themselves as the prime species. Right. I am the superior. And the Talosians saw themselves as the superior species. And we do that with every animal that can’t talk and some that can. We see humanity as the pinnacle of evolution. We are the best thing to have ever come along. And so then we allow ourselves to use that to do shit to other species and others of our own species.
Allie Ashmead: Oh, yeah, we know we have history. Horrible. Yeah. That is human. Human nature. And I don’t like that.
Sarah Ray: Yeah. So I like that it poked at that kind of conversation in this episode, too.
Allie Ashmead: We need to stop self appointing ourselves as, oh, we’re the best. We’re not.
Sarah Ray: No.
If you were going to introduce somebody to Star Trek, what would you show them first
So finally, then, I guess this is maybe common knowledge to some of like, the old fans. Right? but there’s a lot of new trek coming out right now we’ve talked a little bit about. So no doubt there are, this universe is being introduced to a whole new audience, which I love. I think it’s great. My kids and I have sat down and started watching Star Trek of all different variations. because that’s like, maybe we’ll play this game later. But which episode? Which series? Which movie? If you were going to introduce somebody to Star Trek, what would you show them first? Ah, that’s hard.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah, well, it depends on who they are. So if it was, a black woman, I would say discovery, because right off the bat, you see a woman at the helm, you see, an ethnic woman at the helm, and you see a lot of ethnic women in power. And that’s what we need to see.
Sarah Ray: Yep.
Allie Ashmead: I love it. So it all depends on who. Who the person is. And. Yeah, I yeah. What’s going to appeal to them more?
Sarah Ray: Right? I thought about that a lot with my kids. Like, you know, what’s a good introduction for my kids?
Sarah Ray: Because I got into next gen, but that might be too, it might not. That’s old to them. That’s like, I don’t know, maybe original series to me. Like, I don’t know.
Allie Ashmead: So I don’t know.
Sarah Ray: But the little bit of Trek they’ve watched, they’ve liked, we’ve been watching like strange new worlds and, and they seem to enjoy that. So if that’s their introduction to Trek, I’m happy because I love strange new worlds. so anyway, NBC, network executives at the time did not love, love this episode. They said it was too cerebral, too slow. they wanted more fist fights and.
Allie Ashmead: Action, of course, because it’s a bunch of men. It’s a bunch of men.
Sarah Ray: Well, westerns like wagon train were really popular at the time, right? And so they really wanted what Roddenberry had promised them, which was wagon train to the stars, and they didn’t feel like they really got that. So they sent him back to do a second pilot, which is unheard of in television. and then as the legend goes, it was Lucille Ball of Isle of Lucy fame who saved Star Trek the first time, though it would not be the last. by backing the pilot in the first place and then sticking through to a second pilot and then I, to the series. And there’s a lot written about that. Like, she didn’t even have a clue what Star Trek was or was gonna be about, but she was there for it and really was.
Allie Ashmead: We owe a lot to her and, yeah, for it to even exist. So, yay, Lucy.
Sarah Ray: And as they say, the rest is history. Unless it’s a time travel episode. We’ll certainly get to some of those soon.
What did you think of this episode? Bottom line? What do you think
What did you think of this episode? Bottom line? What do you think?
Allie Ashmead: Me? Yeah, I actually wasn’t, it wasn’t that bad. and again, maybe it’s because I’m now going back and looking at it with fresh eyes and actually, as you’re taking notes because you know you’re going to talk about it, things jump out at you that you wouldn’t normally pay, attention to.
Sarah Ray: Yep.
Allie Ashmead: But I thought it was good. I thought it was a good, I thought it was a good introduction. I’m glad it was picked up eventually.
Sarah Ray: Yeah. because what it’s become is just, it’s amazing.
Allie Ashmead: Who could have thought? But it was like so unique for its time in 1966. And, yeah, I was pleasantly surprised. I did laugh a lot through because I’m like, this is ridiculous. You know?
Sarah Ray: Cheesy shit.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah. Cringe, cheesy, you name it, I enjoyed it. I actually enjoyed it.
Sarah Ray: Yeah.
Allie Ashmead: And I did have reservations about going back and what. And doing this, starting with the original series, because I’m like, oh, is this really gonna hold my interest? But it does.
Allie Ashmead: It did, actually.
Sarah Ray: Yeah. I’ve. I’ve rewatched most of the series several times over, but it becomes, for me, like, I’m the kind of person. I have to have noise to sleep.
Allie Ashmead: Mm
Sarah Ray: And I have to have noise I’ve heard before. So it was not like I would just put on a Star Trek whatever and let it play.
Allie Ashmead: I do the same. Oh, my God, are we the same person? Because I did that with, Well. And is a different show. I did that with X Files.
Allie Ashmead: Because I know that show so well, I must have watched it six or seven times through the whole season.
Sarah Ray: Yep.
Allie Ashmead: And, yeah. To sleep.
Sarah Ray: Yeah.
Allie Ashmead: I put. I’ll put in either voyager or TNg.
Sarah Ray: Yep. I gotta have background noise, but not something that I’m gonna, like, focus on.
Allie Ashmead: I can’t miss this.
Sarah Ray: Yeah.
Allie Ashmead: Because I’ve already seen it.
Sarah Ray: I’ve already seen it. Yeah. So that was. So it’s interesting now that I’m going back and watching it and with a purpose and paying attention and writing notes, and that’s completely different.
Allie Ashmead: It’s really cool.
Sarah Ray: I got through the first one, and I swear, like, I had two and a half pages of notes, in the first ten minutes of the show, and I was like, this is gonna be forever. I can’t do. I can’t keep doing this. I gotta cut out and figure out what I. What I want to write.
Allie Ashmead: Well, between the two of us, I know we’ll cover the whole. We’ll be fine, but, yeah, I was, and here I am. I’m telling you. Well, you need to condense. And then what do I do? I write three and a. Three and a half pages for each episode.
Sarah Ray: Oh, my gosh. I love it. Something wrong, captain?
Allie Ashmead: Who are you? Where do you come from?
Sarah Ray: Have you noted evidence of unusual powers? What is it that powers your vessel, captain? Is there anything else? How do people have to call inanimate objects she? That is a very intriguing question.
NBC didn’t like a woman in high command, according to Becca
Now, we’re going to bring Becca back in for. We need a name for this segment. Anyway, Becca’s back to reveal the answer to the question from last week, which.
Becca: Was in this episode. Number one is played by Majel Barrett. Why did she not reprise this role through the rest of the series? And what did she and Gene Roddenberry in an attempt to change this outcome?
Sarah Ray: Okay, so we said they didn’t like a woman in high command.
Allie Ashmead: Right.
Sarah Ray: And we have no idea what they did to.
Allie Ashmead: And we thought that maybe you, you said, you know, put them in shortcuts.
Sarah Ray: Make her a little. Make her a little sexier.
Allie Ashmead: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sarah Ray: Okay.
Allie Ashmead: I have no idea what the actual.
Sarah Ray: These are just shots in the dark.
Allie Ashmead: We could be way off. We’re probably way off, aren’t we?
Becca: Okay, what’s the answer? NBC didn’t like her.
Sarah Ray: What? They just didn’t like her.
Becca: They just didn’t like her. They wanted her off the show.
Sarah Ray: Oh, damn.
Becca: so she was determined to get back on. She bleached her hair blonde and waited outside Jean’s office, where he walked right past her, not realizing it was her.
Sarah Ray: Oh, shit.
Becca: He agreed that if it fooled him, it would surely fool NBC. Thus, the reoccurring character of nurse Chapel was born.
Becca: And then they even changed her name in the credits for the cage to her birth name, Emily Hudick Hutticousen. with the hope that NBC wouldn’t realize that Haddock and Barrett were the same person.
Sarah Ray: No shit.
Allie Ashmead: I did not know.
Sarah Ray: I had no idea.
Allie Ashmead: Good job. I wonder why they didn’t like her. Just her personality.
Becca: I think with your answer about not wanting a woman in first office, it could have very well been in that.
Sarah Ray: And they just said it as like, oh, ah, she’s not the right.
Becca: When researching this specific question, I did see some, some Pete, some somewhere where it was stated that they, it was either, the Spock or the woman as a first officer. One or the other. You can’t have both, right?
Sarah Ray: I did. I do remember hearing about that.
Becca: So it could have been they wanted.
Sarah Ray: To get rid of Spock, but they.
Allie Ashmead: Were like, no, good job. I’m going to enjoy this segment of learning, and I’m going to learn so much. That’s so cool.
Let’s have the next question. How many we get right and how many get wrong
Sarah Ray: Here we go. Let’s have the next question. The next episode we’re going to be reviewing is the man trapden?
Allie Ashmead: Yeah.
Sarah Ray: Ooh.
Becca: Okay, this is. I have a feeling you’re gonna get this one, but I don’t know.
Sarah Ray: Okay.
Becca: In this episode, something happened for the first time. That would happen 19 more times across the life of this series.
Sarah Ray: I got one, two, three. He stabbed jam. Woo. That’s gotta be it.
Allie Ashmead: I literally wrote that down. Because I’m like, oh, that just got me. Cause I’m like, oh, he’s gonna say that so many more times. But yeah, and it was the first casualty, right? The first of the body count, which, I am keeping track of in each episode. yeah, so he’s like, oh, he’s dead, Jim.
Sarah Ray: Yep. I’m like, oh, that’s gotta be it.
Allie Ashmead: That got me right there.
Sarah Ray: That’s gotta be it. All right, well, we’ll find out on the next episode when we invite Becca back for the exciting answer and the question for Charlie xdhdem m on the next episode.
Allie Ashmead: And hopefully we’ll be right. somebody’s got to keep score of who’s right.
Becca: Oh, that’s a good idea.
Sarah Ray: Yeah. How many we get right and how many get wrong. That’s good. Yep. Yeah. All right, that’s going to wrap up this episode of Humanist Trek. Join us next week when we talk about the mantrap. Mantrap was the first aired episode of the original Star Trek series, and here is Paramount’s top, notch capsule riding crew. A shapeshifting, salt craving creature terrorizes the crew of the Enterprise. That’s the best they came up with. All right, so, we’ll see you next time. Bye.
Allie Ashmead: Live long and prosper.
Sarah Ray: Oh, hell yeah. Humanist Trek is available wherever you replicate your podcasts. Follow us on all the social mediasumanist trek. Become a patron@patreon.com humanistrec send emails to us at podcast@humanistrec.com and visit our website, humanistrec.com.