Stardate: (none)
Quick Summary: The Enterprise arrives at Talos IV in search of survivors from the S.S. Columbia which crashed there years earlier. As it turns out, the group of ragtag survivors they discover are only illusions, produced by the alien Talosians in order to trap Captain Pike and take him prisoner. Once in his cage, the Talosians create different illusory scenarios for the captain and his female counterpart, Veena, reading their minds and trying to gain insights into humanity. Pike is eventually able to break free by threatening suicide, demonstrating that humanity is too violent a species to be suitable for their purposes.
Review: If you're even remotely familiar with the Star Trek series, you're going to feel immediately like a fish out of water. Dare we say, like you're suddenly occupying an alternate universe. This pilot episode is different and unique for all sorts of reasons. First, and most importantly, there is no Captain Kirk, but rather Captain Pike. With the exception of Spock, the entire rest of the crew is different as well - Dr. Boyce, Lieutenant Colt, etc. For both casual viewers and hardcore fans, this pilot is an historical curiosity more than a "real" Star Trek episode, although the plot definitely could have been just as easily been adopted for Captain Kirk. It gives you a taste of what's to come, but it's decidedly not what's to come.
Where to begin? The opening theme music and credits are missing the standard "Space, the final frontier..." intro, and - I know I might be a weirdo over this type of thing - even the font style of the credits is different too. The theme music plays again when the ship goes to warp speed while a dissolving effect is displayed. One supercool lasting image is that of the camera panning in from a space-view of the Enterprise directly into the bridge of the ship. That's pretty sweet.
Alright guys, for any of you with a green alien fetish (and you know who you are), this one's for you. Veena is awesome. There's a lot of overt sexism going on here that, thankfully, doesn't get incorporated into the rest of the series. It's uncomfortable to watch. Captain Pike saying, "I just can't get used to having a woman on the bridge"? Lieutenant Colt is clearly dismayed. Veena is scantily clad and performing sexy dances and playing into every stereotype imaginable throughout (not that I'm necessarily complaining in every instance). And at the story's conclusion, Pike and the doctor even make a joke about how he's a dirty old man. Sheesh.
Despite all of these oddities, the plot itself is actually pretty solid. It's got aliens, hot babes, fist fights, and larger philosophical themes as well. Early on, Pike is lamenting to the doctor how he'd like to give up Starfleet and become an iron miner living a life with no frustration, no responsibility. But after the Talosians grant him exactly that, he sees the fallacy of his thinking. The Talosians are surprised to learn that Pike prefers death to captivity, even when that captivity would be immensely pleasurable. They interpret such thinking as too violent, but don't the rest of us share the common value of reality being preferable to illusion? Of the struggles associated with individual freedoms being preferable to often-easier forms of social and creative captivity? What the Talosians see as fault, we view as positive strength, and thus, even in this first episode, we the viewers are made to, not only question our values, but also to see what defines our humanity.
Let's get it on.
Review: 4 stars
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