Talk:The Menagerie, Part I (episode)

Spock's rank
In the first voiceover captain's log (about 24:50 into the episode), Kirk refers to "a preliminary hearing on Lieutenant Commander Spock." Yet Spock is clearly wearing two full commander's stripes on his uniform. Should this error be noted?--24.49.171.138 17:26, August 16, 2010 (UTC)

ComSol who??
In "The Menagerie, Part I," Uhura relayed a fleet signal to Commodore Mendez relieving Captain Kirk. The signal is signed by "ComSol, Starfleet Command." Who --and what-- is ComSol? Is this a fleet connected to Earth? If so, could Fleet Captain Pike have been the Captain of that Fleet, similar to the Royal Navy practice of having a captain of the fleet under a flag officer? --Alan del Beccio for IP 68.85.136.70.
 * Now to respond. The Star Trek Concordance, speculates that it is an abbreviation for "Commander, Solar Forces", but nothing else can much be said about the reference. --Alan del Beccio 18:16, 27 Aug 2005 (UTC)
 * The closeup of the sealed "General Order 7" shows a signature by someone called "Comsol." Speculation aside, TOS was done in a hurry, under duress (what tv show isn't?), so the details of the classified doc are, pardon the pun, probably doctored up by the propmaster. In 1967, what expectation could there have been for somone to actually read the little signature? ;) Kojiro Vance | Talk 20:52, 28 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Look at Robert L. Comsol for a discussion on the canonicity of the Admiral. (For what it's worth, I take your point; for MA purposes, though, it appears that ComSol is Comsol --and I have no good canon argument contra. --GNDN 03:25, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Years?
Shouldn't it be said that the two Menagerie episodes were in 2254 and 2267. -- IndyaCD3 (signed by Sulfur, since it was his edit)
 * I think that flashback episodes are only listed as taking place in the "present". See for example  and . Episodes with actual time travel do list all years in the sidebar. -- Sulfur 18:55, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

Background Notes
This episode now gets the cleanup treatment. Removals:
 * Someone once inquired at a convention about the flags seen in the background of this and other episodes. No one seemed to know what they looked like since they were vertical, thus they couldn't be clearly seen, and, to this day, no one knows what they looked like or where they went.

This note seems dubious to me. "Someone once inquired at a convention?" Who was at this convention, who was asked? It just does not seem like something that should be included. --OuroborosCobra talk |undefined  03:02, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

Remastered changes

 * Denise Okuda as Operations division crewman
 * Michael Okuda as Sciences division crewman
 * Dave Rossi as Command division crewman

I don't recall new people, but I didn't have my eyes glued to the set. Can anyone else corroborate this? Kojiro Vance | Talk 20:49, 28 November 2006 (UTC)
 * This article, specifically the section titled "Putting themselves in the picture". Here's a screenshot of the scene.--Julianbaischir 00:50, 29 November 2006 (UTC)
 * I just changed Rossi's role to Sciences division officer. He's in the foreground as Piper walks toward the wall. --Julianbaischir 00:58, 29 November 2006 (UTC)
 * According to, I was totally wrong about the additional cast. Corrections can be found on the main page--Julianbaischir 03:53, 30 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Ah, cool, so they dressed up the master matte shop with more movement. (Nods appreciatively.) BTW, I think that shot could go on this episode article. ;) ;) Kojiro Vance | Talk

Referencing the white objects flying past Mendez's office-- they look like moths. Just a happenstance of production, like the butterfly fluttering around Tonia in "Shore Leave" on a planet with no insect life.

Engineering redress
In the Sets and Props section we find:


 * "An opaque blue wall has been placed behind the grid to hide the forced perspective set of the impulse engines." (Emphasis added.)

There has never been a consensus reached on the function proposed by the forced perspective set. Even the Engineering article is ambivalent on this point. I deleted the italicized portion noted above for this reason. --GNDN 03:42, 30 November 2006 (UTC)
 * FWIW, I concur. I'm beginning to suspect that those are the Enterprise's Golden Goose Egg garbage chutes.--Kojiro Vance | Talk 18:51, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

Spock only refers to Kirk in the shuttlecraft Picasso
I added this item, but have been pondering it more...

''* When Spock directs the Enterprise back to retrieve the shuttlecraft, he tells the transporter room to "prepare to beam Captain Kirk aboard." He doesn't mention Mendez, whom we've seen on the shuttlecraft with Kirk. But we find out in "The Menagerie, Part II" that Mendez was a Talosian illusion, suggesting that Spock already knew that.''

Actually, there are multiple reasons. Could be he scanned the shuttlecraft (he's conferring with the computer about how far it is from it's "safe return" point), and only found one life form, Kirk. (The illusory Mendez wouldn't show up on scanners.) I'm adjusting the article to account for this, but if anyone feels that this is just too trivial a point, I won't balk. Kojiro Vance | Talk 18:19, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

Why not Jeffrey Hunter?
For decades, I thought that the reason why a different actor was used for the wheelchair-bound Captain Pike was that Hunter had already died. I see now that Jeffrey Hunter didn't die until 1969. I know that Hunter turned down the chance to appear in the second pilot because he wanted to be in movies, not television. But is that enough of a reason not to reprise the role he already played? I guess what I'm asking is this: Was the role of Pike in The Menagerie offered to Hunter, or was it not offered to him? --Keeves 18:50, 24 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I can't remember where I read this, but I seem to recall it being about the amount of money they would have had to pay for Hunters to shoot new footage. --OuroborosCobra talk 18:52, 24 February 2009 (UTC)

(Thanks for the quick response!) I can see if maybe he wanted too much money. But new footage? All of the wheelchair scenes were new footage. (By the way, the IMDB says that in 1966-69, he did appear in television episodes of "Daniel Boone", "The Green Hornet", "The Monroes", "The FBI", and "Insight".) --Keeves 18:56, 24 February 2009 (UTC)
 * According to Leonard Nimoy in a DVD interview, Hunter wanted some movie commitments from "them" that "they" couldn't offer him, so he bowed out. "Them/they" may refer to the studio or the franchise. But either way there is one verifiable version of the story. --Alan 22:39, 27 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Another, Star Trek: Four Generations states "Before production on the second pilot,, Jeffrey Hunter (who played Jesus in the 1961 movie King of Kings) was dismissed by Roddenberry for behaving like God's gife to outer space. After courting Jack Lord, Roddenberry hired Shatner as Hunter's replacement." --Alan 06:29, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Star Cluster
In the 'flashback video' shown during the court martial, the star cluster mister Spock shows on the screen on the bridge and identifies as the Talos group, is accompanied by a photo of the Pleiades star cluster: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleiades_(star_cluster). Perhaps someone with more background knowledge can work this into the 'background' portion of the article? -- 77.251.181.90 20:48, 24 May 2009 (UTC)

Dress Uniform Question
Kirk's dress uniform has a decoration on the left breast next to the cluster of triangle things. Everyone's dress uniform has the cluster, but Kirk is the only one with a medal. What is it? Phyrkrakr

Captain Pike's Age?
As Mendez takes Kirk, Spock, and McCoy to the ward where Captain Pike is, he asks Kirk, "You ever meet Chris Pike?", and then describes him as "about your [Kirk's] age, great handsome man, vital, active." In "The Deadly Years," Kirk says he is 34. If Spock served under Pike for 11 years, then Pike would have to have been quite young to command a ship. Isn't part of the backstory that Kirk is the youngest captain to command a starship? Linotypist 03:03, April 23, 2010 (UTC)

Sean Kenney's resemblance to Jeffrey Hunter
I remember reading somewhere that the reason they chose Sean Kenney specific was because of his strong resemblance to Jeffrey Hunter. Looking at the pictures of the two men, it does seem plausible. Does anybody have a source for this claim, allowing it to be added to the article?

76.10.131.191 04:43, December 2, 2010 (UTC)


 * Well, I found this in the Star Trek Compendium: "The crippled Pike was portrayed by actor Sean Kenney, who bears more than a passing resemblance to Hunter" (4th ed., p. 48). However, that doesn't show the producer's intentionally did so - it's just the author's opinion after the fact. It might be mentioned elsewhere.– Cleanse ( talk 05:14, December 2, 2010 (UTC)