Star Trek TOS S01E12, The Menagerie Part 2

Dir. Robert Butler, Wri. Gene Roddenberry

The Summary: We finally find out why Spock went so crazy last week, and we learn the rest of his history with Captain Pike.

The Good: I still love Spock yelling “The women!” after the transporter malfunction–it’s a delightfully anachronistic little bit of 60s Trek. I also found it even more funny this time when the aliens basically said the yeoman’s strengths as a choice of mate was that she was reeealy into having babies. When Kirk declares Spock guilty it breaks my heart, even though I know it’s not for real. That’s the kind of acting that people love The Original Series for and why these characters became so iconic–when the pathos of your scene can overcome my metanarrative analysis, you’ve done something right. The last five minutes of this episode are mind-blowing and amazing. The ending is legitimately one of Spock’s best moments in season one.

The Bad: If you thought last week had a bunch of The Cage recaps, boy are you in for a surprise—the first two thirds of this episode is basically just The Cage. More seriously from a narrative perspective, Spock’s continued refusal to explain himself is beginning to get boring—if they can believe what’s been happening for the past episode, I feel like they can believe the rest of his story. The repetition of Spock maintaining that they just have to give him a little more time to explain becomes frustrating before the end, for sure.

The Review: Similar to the last episode, this will largely depend upon your previous viewings. I feel like this is a little weaker than its predecessor, simply because it consists of more flashbacks and less new content, but the payoff is still great (including that wonderful third act twist). I’m not saying that “The Cage” is a bad episode, but there will always be limited emotional investment when we know that the characters aren’t our main characters, and therefore have little reason to care about what happens to them. I just don’t think there’s a way to have an episode like this and not begin to be a little bored by the internal narrative. Not to mention the fact that Spock could have (clearly by the end of this episode) just cut right to the chase, told only the last five minutes of his story, and achieved exactly the same result. That kind of thing is inevitably frustrating. The question is simly whether or not the pleasures of the episode’s framing narrative make up for it. In this case, I think they do, but only barely.

The center of the entire episode is obviously the character development for its ostensibly least emotional character. Spock’s “flagrant emotionalism” is great here and gives real three-dimensional insight into the character. I feel like most of his best moments are in the previous episode, though. The very high level of flashback in this one keeps it from being as engaging. I feel confident that this could have been made into a single episode through cutting more of “The Cage” away, and I’m pretty sure it would have been a better episode than either of these considered in isolation. Of the two halves, I think this one suffers more because of this split. There’s much less contemporary (and therefore relevant) content in this episode, and the very solid ending just doesn’t fully make up for it.

I still think, though, that this duology is significantly superior to watching “The Cage” by itself, and not simply because we care more about the characters in the framing narrative. The original pilot is really rather dry and sterile, and giving it some emotional impact significantly increases its quality. Suddenly the question of deliberately choosing a simulated and unreal life is much less academic than it was in the original. By tying in themes of euthanasia and quality of life, the original premises have become way more interesting. Obviously I don’t want to spoil anything here, but the ending of “The Cage” makes you think, while the ending of “The Menagerie” makes you think and feel. Definitely recommended over The Cage for pretty much any rewatch. Although a rating for this episode is largely redundant (if you’re watching the last one, you’re probably watching this one as well), I feel a close but not quite compared to the first half is fair.

The Score: