Star Trek: The Cage

The Cage
©1964 Desilu Productions, Inc. All rights reserved.

Episode	1
Airdate	Never

Catalog Number	LV60040-106
Format	Extended Play CLV

Running Time	73 minutes *

Side	Running Time
1	38min 50sec
2	33min 13sec
	72min 03sec *
^* Includes remarks by Gene Roddenberry.

Pressing Location	Pioneer Video Manufacturing
Retail Price	$29.98
Issued	January 16, 1987

Directed by Robert Butler

Written by Gene Roddenberry

Produced by Gene Roddenberry

Starring Jeffrey Hunter
Susan Oliver
Leonard Nimoy as Mister Spock
Majel Barrett
John Hoyt
Peter Duryea
Laurel Goodwin

This is the first voyage of the Starship Enterprise. Kirk's predecessor, Captain Christopher Pike, tries to rescue an earth crew that disappeared eighteen years earlier. But it's a trap! Pike is imprisoned in a zoo-like cage and studied by a mysterious higher life form.
The Cage was reconstructed with black & white footage from the original pilot and color footage from The Menagerie.
In 1965, STAR TREK's original television pilot, The Cage, starring Jeffrey Hunter as USS Enterprise Captain Christopher Pike, was not accepted because network executives thought it was too cerebral. A second pilot was made starring William Shatner as the "new" Captain, and was accepted. The series began production.
The first pilot, however, had been an expensive undertaking and producer-creator Gene Roddenberry felt that the project could still, somehow, be used. So an episode was specially written featuring the current crew of The Enterprise and revealing the history of the starship and the adventures of it "earlier" Captain. This was accomplished by integrating scenes from The Cage into what would become Star Trek's only two-part episode, The Menagerie, which aired during the show's first season.
Since the only [known] existing color copy of The Cage was used in the actual editing process of The Menagerie, several minutes of the original color film were destroyed. To resurrect The Cage in its entirety, these several minutes have been replaced by the original black and white footage from Gene Roddenberry's personal work print.

Directed by	Robert Butler
Written by	Gene Roddenberry
Produced by	Gene Roddenberry
Starring	Jeffrey Hunter Susan Oliver Leonard Nimoy as Mister Spock Majel Barrett John Hoyt Peter Duryea Laurel Goodwin
This is the first voyage of the Starship Enterprise. Kirk's predecessor, Captain Christopher Pike, tries to rescue an earth crew that disappeared eighteen years earlier. But it's a trap! Pike is imprisoned in a zoo-like cage and studied by a mysterious higher life form. The Cage was reconstructed with black & white footage from the original pilot and color footage from The Menagerie. In 1965, STAR TREK's original television pilot, The Cage, starring Jeffrey Hunter as USS Enterprise Captain Christopher Pike, was not accepted because network executives thought it was too cerebral. A second pilot was made starring William Shatner as the "new" Captain, and was accepted. The series began production. The first pilot, however, had been an expensive undertaking and producer-creator Gene Roddenberry felt that the project could still, somehow, be used. So an episode was specially written featuring the current crew of The Enterprise and revealing the history of the starship and the adventures of it "earlier" Captain. This was accomplished by integrating scenes from The Cage into what would become Star Trek's only two-part episode, The Menagerie, which aired during the show's first season. Since the only [known] existing color copy of The Cage was used in the actual editing process of The Menagerie, several minutes of the original color film were destroyed. To resurrect The Cage in its entirety, these several minutes have been replaced by the original black and white footage from Gene Roddenberry's personal work print.