The Menagerie - by Brad on 14:03 12 Mar 2004
Since Enterprise went on break I got a chance to sneak in some more Original Star Trek on DVD.
I just watched "The Menagerie" which is the oly two part episode in TOS. This is where Spock hijacks the U.S.S. Enterprise and risks a death penalty to help his former Captain, Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter), who has been paralyzed and disfigured in an accident.
Written by Gene Roddenbury himself I can see why this episode won a Hugo award, it is a good story and it is not told in linear fashion but through a series of "flashback like" sequences during Spock's courtmartial. Not easy to write or direct.
Jeffrey Hunter does a wonderful job playing Captain Pike. since the flashbacks used are part of a never aired pilot episode, you can see how Pike is very similar - a prototype, for Kirk. It really is amazing. You can also see how things are more naval, formal and military than even in the Shatner TOS. I cannot help but think that Jeffrey Hunter would have been almost as good as Shatner as the series Captain. Blastphamy? Maybe, although I'm glad Shatner got the role in the end.
Anyway, if you get a chance to rent this disk I recommend you do. It shows that you don't need state of the art sets and FX to tell a good story.
Since Enterprise went on break I got a chance to sneak in some more Original Star Trek on DVD.
I just watched "The Menagerie" which is the oly two part episode in TOS. This is where Spock hijacks the U.S.S. Enterprise and risks a death penalty to help his former Captain, Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter), who has been paralyzed and disfigured in an accident.
Written by Gene Roddenbury himself I can see why this episode won a Hugo award, it is a good story and it is not told in linear fashion but through a series of "flashback like" sequences during Spock's courtmartial. Not easy to write or direct.
Jeffrey Hunter does a wonderful job playing Captain Pike. since the flashbacks used are part of a never aired pilot episode, you can see how Pike is very similar - a prototype, for Kirk. It really is amazing. You can also see how things are more naval, formal and military than even in the Shatner TOS. I cannot help but think that Jeffrey Hunter would have been almost as good as Shatner as the series Captain. Blastphamy? Maybe, although I'm glad Shatner got the role in the end.
Anyway, if you get a chance to rent this disk I recommend you do. It shows that you don't need state of the art sets and FX to tell a good story.
The Menagerie - by Kainja on 22:06 04 Apr 2004
I remember that episode (2 parter) with fondness. It showed right up front the capability of Spock to devleop intense loyalty. And I thought Pike did an excellent job. I'm glad Shatner ended up with the captain part but the Pike actor was pretty good, and very similar.
To me, there is still no SF quite like the original Star Trek. It was way ahead of its time, really.
I remember that episode (2 parter) with fondness. It showed right up front the capability of Spock to devleop intense loyalty. And I thought Pike did an excellent job. I'm glad Shatner ended up with the captain part but the Pike actor was pretty good, and very similar.
To me, there is still no SF quite like the original Star Trek. It was way ahead of its time, really.