Fantastic Captain , and actor ...

Hunter was great as Captain Pike Sad he died so young.but Kirk was Captain of the Enterprise

Hunter was great as Captain Pike!

Absolutely insightful! I kinda wish we'd have gotten more of Hunter's Pike.

This is a fantastic round up of what The Cage and Pike is all about.

Excellent analysis of Captain Pike's character. I'm a long time Trek fan, being 67 years old and watched the very first episode, "Man Trap." Yet you brought out aspects of Pike's character I had not looked at. Terrific job!

That was well stated and displayed. Those were my exact impressions as a boy around 1973. I had seen Forbidden Planet on afternoon 50s movie "Big Show" programs... And had seen some Star Trek But when I got to The Menagerie I said....this is Forbidden Planet...The Next Generation. Pike was always my favorite captain...still is (when the new seeies is doing a serious screenplay and not a gimmick parody). I do like that New Pike is portrayed by a handsome actor that looks like Hunter. I also have noticed that in his quarters is an antique Astrogator from Earth Cruiser C-57....instead of an RCA console TV like the 1965 pilot.

Excellent review of very early Star Trek -- thank you!

I was 11 years old when I saw the DOCTOR MARTINI scene for the first time. It reached into my soul and taught me compassion. I cried for the suffering Captain. It has been a touchstone ever since. The music played in the background of this scene is reused many times in the series, and it HAUNTS us and Kirk. Many moons ago I wrote a spec script called HUNTER'S STAR, about the birth of Trek and it featured this scene within it. Perfectly capturing Hunter's weariness with the industry.

This is so captivating. Now I need to go back and watch this on my crt tv. Preferably on vhs with poor tracking

You managed to put into the words the same reasons I love Jeffrey Hunter as Christopher Pike and The Cage. To this day, The Menagerie is my favorite episode(s) of Star Trek TOS, for no small reason due to Jeff Hunter.

Interesting observation. Forbidden Planet? Absolutely! I've always seen that. Pike was more of a battle hardened and grizzled Captain that we've seen in those old war movies. He's exhausted and really angry at something. This pilot was just that a pilot! A rough sketch that needed to be polished up and eventually the show found it's legs and all the necessary moving parts. Shatner's energy particularly in the first season IMO was more of the balance that Star Trek needed in it's Captain.

3:22 great line “he’s better at this than he realizes”

I wish Hunter as Pike could have shared at least one scene with Kirk just to see how they played off of each other.

👍 👍 Fascinating 😉

Good Pilot For Star Trek.

THE CAGE (along with a couple of early Trek episodes when the original series started) was very much like an Outer Limits in tone, style, and intelligence. I believe Robert H. Justman was the producer they brought in directly from Outer Limits to do The Cage, maybe partly accounting for the influence.

Hunter’s son told me he regretted not taking the role. I inserted that his wife ruined it for him.

It’s most unfortunate, but we lost one of the handsomest gorgeous guy like Jeffery hunter, he would’ve been the perfect captain of the USS enterprise William Shatner didn’t even come close. If only his wife didn’t object to him doing science-fiction Star Trek would’ve lasted a hell of a lot longer even in the Friday night timeslot I fell in love with him when I was 12 years old imagine liking a guy older than your own father, but then Jeffrey Hunter broke all the rules he appealed to women of all ages. Thanks for this upload you guys and love from all of us on Staten Island, New York.

Without a doubt, Hunter was great in the role. Leaps ahead of Shatner. I believe Anson Mount as the new Pike is terrific. I wish they would just commit to having more episodes with the present new world's cast. Okay, in the original series it is canon that Pike is injured, but what if they have an episode where it is revealed that this was just another mental image put in Pike's mind, and others by the Talosians? They could explain that this is what made this race so dangerous. Paramount has a great in in the Star Trek New Worlds, and they would be stupid to throw it all away. I honestly would rather see the STNW episodes or films more than I would like to see another iteration of the Kelvin timeline.

I'd love to see some references to Pike's past in Strange New Worlds, including his horse Tango.

In that era, Forbidden Planet influenced everyone - until 2001 came along. Those 2 films and Star Wars - for better or worse - are the 3 cinematic watersheds of modern sci fi, each a decade apart, by which all others in the genre would be measured.

I have the "Roddenberry hosted" Cage pilot with some in colour (used in "The Menagerie"), and some in B&W (Not used footage).

I have seen the Cage recently and I think DS9 comes closest to its complex themes- imo 🖖🏽

A great breakdown for sure and to me I felt given what Star Trek Discovery started out with the Federation Klingon war we should have gotten Pike as captain and it lasted as a big part of his first five year mission so that when you get to Talso IV Pike makes more sense. Because Pike to me always in rhat episode came off as a war weary vet, who's seen many a friend and comrade dead both under his command and along side his ship and doesn't know if he can do this or not. Also given how many people while not perfect prefer SNW to Disc I think with Spock as the familiar character and a small background on Pike and Number 1 you'd have plenty to play with as far as new characters and possible stories go. If you want more of that kind of Pike I can recommend The Vulcans Glory and Burning Dreams books pre Disco era and written by Star Trek ver D.C. Fontana. Children of Kings is another great Pike crew book as well written as a prequel to the J.J. films but feels more like a TOS era story for sure.

The old stiff humorless Pike doesnt come close to Anson Mount, who delivers a far less combattive captain, he is amiable, flexible yet strong. So good call to go for Shatner who did a fine job.

I wanted a Pike like the one in The Cage. Not one who cooks for his junior officers in his quarters wearing an apron who is surrounded by women, all of whom come off as smarter and more capable than him. Ortega would have been written up a dozen times for her blatant disrespect. She talks down to Spock as if he were an imbecile.

Roddenberry never wrote on the level he achieved with The Cage (and The Menagerie), before or after. The Talosians addiction to using their telepathic powers, a brilliant metaphor for human self-destruction. Scriptwise and thematically, imo, the best Star Trek entry of all time.

You missed the main influence on the cage. Horatio hornblower. A captain who always doubted himself and was awkward around women. Thats why pike acts like that. Rodenberry was copying hornblower. How could you miss that?

Great role, but wify put her foot down ... My husband won't do TV. He's a MOVIE STAR.

I like Discoverys Pike. Hunter is solid but stiff. The new Pike is more amicable.

Anson Mount's Pike is the polar opposite of how Jeff Hunter played it...... Almost as if the current Nu Trek regime find Hunter's more militaristic approach to Pike as too 'toxic' for today's liberal audience.

I had high hopes for Strange New Worlds, but the result was a poor retcon with a weak Captain in the center seat. Far from Hunter's Pike and Star Trek, we see a character who rarely takes command as his junior officers answer the call while their leader spoons up a salad in his luxury apartment quarters down below. 😒

Captain Pike is an extremely intriguing character and flawlessly portrayed by the late great Jeff Hunter. Much more grim and brooding than Kirk, and with a more professionally distant relationship with Spock, although Spock's stellar regard, unwavering loyalty, and utmost respect for him was made abundantly evident in The Menagerie. It was also made very clear in that dual episode that Pike was already a Starfleet legend and considered one of the greatest starship captains in the entire history of the Federation.