(1966, portions in b/w, the extended version of the unseen TV pilot) Except for Mister Spock (Leonard Nimoy), in a limited role, the rest of the Enterprise crew of 203, under the command of Capt Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter), would be unfamiliar to fans of the series.

Weary of his command, Capt Pike, considering resigning and returning home, expresses his ennui to the ship's surgeon: "This isn't the only life available." Dr Phillip Boyce (John Hoyt) dispenses medical and friendly advice, bucking up the captain: "A man either lives life as it happens to him, meets it head on and licks it, or he turns on it and starts to wither away."

To his second-in-command, Lt Number One (Majel Barrett), Pike says apologetically: "I can't get used to having a woman on the bridge." (Neither could the NBC executives.)

Responding to a distress signal, the Enterprise discovers a missing group of aging scientists, missing for 18 years, on the planet Talos. Among them is an attractive young woman, Vina (Susan Oliver), only an infant when the spacecraft crashed. However, when she leads Capt Pike off to reveal the secret of their survival on what appears to be a barren planet, it's a trap.

Residing underground, the real Talosians, having large craniums with big brains, communicate through telepathy and employ mind reading and illusions formed from their subjects' own memories and desires for control. Confined in a cage, Capt Pike becomes the subject of their experiment, in which he's given an opportunity to escape from reality inside a menagerie with Vina.

Back onboard the Enterprise, Number One assumes command in Pike's absence; but the Enterprise under the Talosians' power won't respond to human coontrols. Since he and his fellow humans only see what they expect to see, Dr Boyce observes that because their minds are being manipulated the Talosian's "power of illusion is so great, we can't be sure of anything we do or see."

Number One organizes a landing party with the hope of rescuing the captain, but only she and Yeoman J.M. Colt (Laurel Goodwin) are permitted to teleport down where Pike is told to choose from among the three females his Eve. Directed by Robert Butler, the first episode was written and produced by creator Gene Roddenberry, who supplies an introduction and epilogue on the DVD.

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Copyright © 2011 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
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