Quick Summary: I'm combining these two episodes into one review because the bulk of their content is the pilot episode, already reviewed. The Enterprise is mysteriously diverted to Starbase 11 at which point Spock kidnaps Captain Pike and hijacks the ship, heading toward Talos IV. This is an admitted act of mutiny, so Kirk and Commodore Mendez put Spock on trial where, in his defense, he shows video evidence of the reason why he hijacked the ship - basically, the pilot episode.
Review: It's no big secret that the producers simply used these two episodes as an excuse to get some mileage out of the pilot which never aired. Without rehashing everything about the pilot, what's unique to these episodes are Spock's mutiny, the subsequent court martial, and Captain Pike paralyzed in a wheelchair. The great twist at the end was that Commodore Mendez was never on the ship at all during the court martial, but was himself an illusion produced by the Talosians!
One aspect of the plot I want to take issue with, though, is Captain Pike's ultimate fate returning to live out his life with Veena on Talos IV. Reviewing the pilot, I wrote...
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.
The original episode had a solid ending with an affirming message - that it's a human virtue to prefer reality over a life of illusion. So why are we backtracking here?! Are we to now revise the lesson and intimate that reality is all well and good except when life becomes too difficult? Pike wanting to escape his wheelchair and live with Veena is completely understandable from his perspective, but the show itself takes a step back in suggesting this path. We know it was done simply to justify the pilot being repackaged, but that's an awfully big sacrifice.
Review: 3 stars
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