Star Trek

Ah, here's where all the overt sexism went. :)

This pilot has such a TV Land vibe to it compared to The Cage. But ultimately, this where Star Trek starts to congeal into what it because famous as. A campy, spaghetti-western sci-fi (in color).

Kirk is the new Captain, Spock is now the executive officer (and behaves likes Number One), Mr. Scott & Sulu show up for the first time (although Sulu is in a different department and not part of the bridge crew yet). Sill no Uhura or Bones. My apologies to these actors, cause they're probably accomplished, but it's just another nondescript old guy doctor.

We do see some vestiges of the original pilot. A lot of nobodies standing on the bridge, the super comfy-looking turtleneck uniforms... But the rest feels much more designed for Prime Time. The bridge and ship now has it's trademark color scheme, and I can't truthfully say which is better because my nostalgia says the colorful bridge wins every time.

The plot of this episode is very similar to The Cage, especially the setup and the need to foil superior intellect. Only instead of Pike letting himself think like an animal to block out telepathy, Kirk has to use his wits to turn two dangerous people against each other just long enough to gain the upper hand.

The only unfortunate thing about making Trek more "executive-friendly" is that it is now, and for a long time will continue to be very gazey. Even as a kid, before I understood how damaging it was, I still didn't like seeing it just because it felt so forced. On the other hand, making Trek more.. silly and intentionally overacted turned out to be one of the charming things about the show. Having exaggerated dialog and acting sharing the same episode with meaningful metaphor and introspection became a signature part of the franchise.

Because this was originally shot as a pilot, and because it was the second production before episodes starting getting filmed in earnest, there are a lot of interesting things in and about this episode:

• The production staff knew Kirk's full name was James T. Kirk. The tombstone was an error that wasn't spotted by anyone in time. Roddenberry himself offered the headcanon that even though Gary had god-like powers, he was still human underneath and the mistake on his part proved he could be beaten.
• Another interesting thing about the tombstone is that it marks Stardate 1277.1 as an event simply labeled C. Possibly to indicate the date that Kirk made Captain, or became the commanding officer of the Enterprise. If so, it would suggest that Kirk was either given the Enterprise or promoted and given the Enterprise with orders to begin it's give-year exploration mission mere weeks before the events of this episode. This may have been the first interesting to thing to happen to the crew since leaving spacedock.
• The low value of the Stardate in this episode and how much that number changes from episode to episode also suggests that the Stardate system had only recently begun. Meaning that the absence of a Stardate in The Cage can be explained by Starfleet not yet having started using Stardates until many years later (Pike probably kept his logs using Earth calendar dates just like Archer.)
• The pilot version opens with a line that says the Enterprise had already left Earth's galaxy behind... yet was still sailing among the stars? ... Thankfully, that terrible line was removed in the broadcast version.
• The pilot also has a lot more moments of Mitchell being... a lecher towards female crew members.
• This is the ONLY episode of the original series that the phaser rifle is seen in. The reason why that feels wrong is because the phaser rifle prop was used in a lot of promotional shots where Shatner is seen holding it. Apparently, Shatner really like the prop.
• The silver contact lenses were apparently as comfortable as regular contact lenses of the time, but Lockwood had to tilt his head back to see through the pinhole in the foil layer. This posture ended up enhancing his portrayal of Gary Mitchell's egomaniacal behavior.

A good episode, and a good pilot overall, but I still like the clinical and more cerebral tone of The Cage slightly more.

Here's a video that showcases the difference between the pilot version and the broadcast version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxMB4X0rAJw