The beginning of the episode starts off slow, but it catches my interest at the same time. We see a crew of men and one woman and they are aboard the starship USS Enterprise. We aren't introduced to these people by name, and none of them look familiar from what I know of the original show except for Spock played by Leonard Nimoy. Still, I am curious who these people are, and what they are doing. A handsome young man stands out among the crew, and we learn that he is the Captain. He is emotionless and stern, and he is especially strict with his female assistant. There is one line in particular that made me laugh when he says something about not knowing how he can get used to a woman being on the bridge. Wikipedia says this season is supposed to take place in the 2060s, but the Captain's stance towards women make it feel like the 1960s.
As the crew are flying through space, they hear a distress call. Already it feels like Star Trek Beyond (2016), or perhaps it would be better to say that Star Trek Beyond took liberties with using a plot device found in the very first episode of Star Trek. Surprisingly, the Captain decides not to send the crew to the planet. Instead, he decides to continue on course because there are men and women of his crew that need hospitalization.
What I found interesting following this scene, is the Captain walks to his cabin, and there are two people on board in casual clothing. In fact, the clothing looks not too different from clothing today, which caught me off guard. From my experience with the Star Trek reboot, which started in 2009, none of the crew wears anything except the yellow, blue, and red shirts. Notably, I didn't notice anyone wearing a red shirt, and I feel like everyone in the crew was either in yellow or blue (except for the two people walking in the hallway wearing casual dress). Also, I noticed a surprising number of handsome men on the bridge. That also caught my interest!
When the Captain walks into his cabin he decides to lay down on this uncomfortable looking bed with an uncomfortable looking box shaped pillow. Really? A box shaped pillow? Who invented that? We are also introduced to the Doctor, who comes in through an automatic door that slides open sideways. That door was actually pretty cool, and I wonder why we don't have doors like that today.
The Captain looks miserable and the Doctor seems to be giving him a checkup, but the next thing we realize the Doctor is pouring the Captain a martini. This is kind of a funny scene, because the idea is that the Captain will open up to the Doctor more if the Doctor pretends to be a bartender. It is actually a very clever plot device, and the dialogue is excellent. As the two discuss what is bothering the Captain, the Doctor switches between the role of bartender and doctor. It is an interesting portrayal of how we as humans play multiple social roles in our lives.
Getting to the bottom of what is bothering the Captain, it seems like he is exhausted from the responsibility of Captainhood. He is in charge of over 100 crewmembers, and some have died along the way. This is stressful for him because when the matter gets tense, he has to decide what they must do, and who goes on missions, and possibly who dies. It seems the recent deaths and injuries of his crew, has made him become cautious, which explains why he refused to react to the stress beacon. The safety of his crew comes first, so the rescuing of any possible survivors on an unknown planet is low priority.
The Captain then talks about how he wants to move back home. Before he was captain he had two horses, which he would ride and go on picnics everyday. It is like a faraway dream to him to relive that, a life without stress, but the Doctor says that a man who does this, stops living, is a man who starts dying. It is an interesting statement, and something I can relate to on a personal level.
When the Captain talks about wanting to quit the crew in this very first episode, it reminded me of Star Trek Beyond (2016) because they use this very same character device. At the beginning of that film James T. Kirk talks about wanting to step down from being a Captain and returning to Earth. I suppose it is neat the new film pays homage to this original episode, but it also reminds me how there is nothing new under the sun, which is a shame because Star Trek to me is a symbol of revolutionizing TV, so why can't the new film series revolutionize the cinema?
Anyway, we later find out that there is indeed survivors on the planet, and the Captain has no choice but to stage a rescue mission. We also get a taste of their communication devices, and they look remarkably like flip phone cell phones, minus a case. It would be like if you took a cell phone and could see all the innards. That was pretty neat, because it was a show in the 1960s predicting something that didn't come out until 30 years later.
When the team gets to the planet they discover a who group of people who have survived there for some 19 years. It is quite incredible because there doesn't seem to be any sort of vegetation on the planet whatsoever. There is one plant that grows on the planet, which makes a constant ringing noise as it shakes in the wind. The ringing is beautiful and eerie, but I imagine to hear it nonstop is enough to drive a person mad. The ringing literally never stops the entire time they are on the surface of the planet.
Of course, the Captain meets a beautiful blonde woman who has just the perfect amount of tears in her shirt and skirt. She is like a bodacious cavewoman in full make up. Where these survivors got make up, I have no idea...
The Captain follows her, but then the show shows us these alien like creatures who look like short, ugly humans with gigantic throbbing heads. Literally the veins in their head throb, which is kind of neat, while at the same time disturbing. These aliens are watching the crew from afar, through viewscreens. The woman wants to show the Captain this mysterious device that heals people. It feels believable, but quickly we learn it is a trap, and the aliens stun the Captain and take him into an underground cave. The crew attempt to rescue him, but have no luck.
In the rest of the episode the crew tries to rescue the Captain, while the Captain tries to figure out what is going on and how he is going to escape. If you haven't seen this episode I strongly recommend it. I love trying to figure out what is going on as the Captain is trying to figure it out at the same time. It is neat because one can immediately identify with the Captain's situation since neither of us know the full details of why he is down there. What we do know is that it is some sort of zoo, and there are other marvelous creatures in cages also, like giant humanoid gorillas and giant humanoid vultures. The cage does not have bars, but it is simply a glass screen. This is neat because the Captain is trapped in the cage, but it doesn't look like he is actually trapped. It looks like he can walk out at any time, but the glass is unbreakable and he is indeed stuck there. This plays on the idea of illusions which are thematic in the entire episode. Is he trapped? What is the trap? What is real? What is an illusion?
We also learn that the aliens want the Captain to feel severe amounts of joy. At first I gathered that perhaps the aliens feel great joy in feeling other beings feel joy. After all the aliens are telepathic, so it makes sense if they are empathic also. What it seems however, is that they want him to be happy, so that he is compliant. However, as long as he is caged in there, the Captain can never be happy, and he will always work towards trying to escape. This reminded me a great deal of another television series called The Prisoner (1967). The protagonist of that show is a prisoner on an island, and the ones running the island are always trying to control him through mind games, but the protagonist is always fighting back and trying to escape. This has a very similar feel, and as much as the Captain tries to figure it out, the aliens always seem one step ahead.
We then learn further on the woman that tricked him was not an illusion at all, but an actual woman. She is actually the sole survivor of the craft that crash landed on the planet. So the beacon was indeed real. The aliens caught her, and wanted her to be happy and find her a mate. Only, they also want the two to become an Adam and Even and spouse a society of humans, which the aliens can use as slaves. See the aliens can live a long time, so they are definitely patient to have this happen. Also, the aliens are incredibly lazy and don't like manual labor, so it makes sense. Also, the planet used to be habitable, but the aliens destroyed it through advanced weaponry. Only this happened so long ago, the aliens have forgotten how to use that technology.
In the end, the crew finds a way to rescue the Captain and the woman. At this point we also find out that the Captain's name is Captain Pike. Also, all the illusions are broken. The aliens also let them go, because while the crew was trying to rescue them, the aliens downloaded the history of the human race from the USS Enterprise's computer, and from that knowledge, they realize how violent the humans are. The aliens analyzed the humans psychologies and concluded that even if they were able to create a society of people to rebuild their planet, the society of people would be so violent they would eventually destroy the planet again. This is nice because they get to escape, but it also seems like a slap in the face to us as a species. The aliens final words feel strangely prophetic, and I wonder if Star Trek is right and that is the future that we as humans hold. It is a scary sentiment, but I believe the aliens are referring to the fact that this won't happen until millennia down the line; however, that it will indeed happen. Of course, what do hyper intelligent alien life forms know?
It is a strange tone. Captain Pike is rescued, and the crew can continue on their journey, but perhaps humans will eventually destroy Earth. From what I know of Star Trek, it is a rather optimistic show, so this ominous tone took me by surprise, however it is intriguing nonetheless.
What happens to the woman? She doesn't make it onto the ship. Her beauty is an illusion, which is referred to earlier in the episode when the female lieutenant who the Captain calls Number One mentions that the woman was an adult upon the crash, and that she must be 19 years older. When the illusion is gone, we see a much older woman, with sores all over her body from malnourishment and scars from the crash when she must have been burned. Also, her body was severely destroyed, and the aliens had to reassemble her, but they did a poor job so she had a severe humpback. Instead of living a life full of pain and misery, the woman decides to stay on the planet with the aliens where they can give her illusions that she is beautiful and living in a fantasy world of relaxation and bliss.
Overall, "The Cage" is a super intriguing episode. I really liked the actor who played the Captain Pike. It's a shame, however, that he is not in it anymore. We shall see how much better William Shatner is. I am kind of scared, but intrigued at the same time. People say he is a terrible actor, but maybe that will make the show amusing to say the least. 9/10
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