For those who speculate on how Star Trek might have turned out had the original cast from the original pilot been used, the two part episode The Menagerie is your chance to see. Instead of dying after an injury on a film set Jeffrey Hunter had been with the Star Trek series for it's three season run, would it have become the iconic thing it has? Would Hunter be the cult figure that William Shatner has?
In Menagerie Shatner on a space station lay over with the Enterprise discovers his predecessor Captain Christopher Pike now confined to a futuristic wheelchair, his body destroyed pretty much by an explosion. Leonard Nimoy was part of the crew that served with Captain Pike.
The arrival of the Enterprise at the space station however is all part of a carefully laid plan by Leonard Nimoy. He takes the Enterprise out with Captain Pike on board and they're heading to Talos IV a planet where the Federation has prohibited visiting under penalty of death.
Shatner with Malachi Throne the commander of the space station gives pursuit in a shuttle craft. But when the craft runs out of fuel Nimoy halts the Enterprise and submits himself for court martial. As his defense we see very accurate computer records of Captain Pike's journey to Talos IV when it was unexplored by the Federation.
Here we see Jeffrey Hunter as Pike answering a distress call on Talos IV and when they arrive there he and an away team beam down to get the survivors. But the Talosians take Hunter prisoner down to an underground city where they live.
What they want him for and why visiting Talos IV is death is in the second part, but it has a lot to do with the beautiful Susan Oliver one of the survivors.
A lot of Christopher Pike's character is later incorporated into James Kirk. I would say Captain Kirk is a far more intellectual character than Pike, but Pike's no slouch in the brain department. Spock is not a fully formed character, we really have no point of reference for him in the Menagerie episode only. The rest all come in the cast we all have come to know.
In Menagerie Shatner on a space station lay over with the Enterprise discovers his predecessor Captain Christopher Pike now confined to a futuristic wheelchair, his body destroyed pretty much by an explosion. Leonard Nimoy was part of the crew that served with Captain Pike.
The arrival of the Enterprise at the space station however is all part of a carefully laid plan by Leonard Nimoy. He takes the Enterprise out with Captain Pike on board and they're heading to Talos IV a planet where the Federation has prohibited visiting under penalty of death.
Shatner with Malachi Throne the commander of the space station gives pursuit in a shuttle craft. But when the craft runs out of fuel Nimoy halts the Enterprise and submits himself for court martial. As his defense we see very accurate computer records of Captain Pike's journey to Talos IV when it was unexplored by the Federation.
Here we see Jeffrey Hunter as Pike answering a distress call on Talos IV and when they arrive there he and an away team beam down to get the survivors. But the Talosians take Hunter prisoner down to an underground city where they live.
What they want him for and why visiting Talos IV is death is in the second part, but it has a lot to do with the beautiful Susan Oliver one of the survivors.
A lot of Christopher Pike's character is later incorporated into James Kirk. I would say Captain Kirk is a far more intellectual character than Pike, but Pike's no slouch in the brain department. Spock is not a fully formed character, we really have no point of reference for him in the Menagerie episode only. The rest all come in the cast we all have come to know.