At Hollywood’s Desilu Studios, filming begins on The Cage, the unaired first attempt at a pilot episode of Gene Roddenberry’s science fiction series Star Trek. Starring Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike and Leonard Nimoy as the exotic-looking alien science officer Spock, filming proceeds at a brisk pace, despite numerous delays due to the show’s then-novel special effects, set and costuming requirements. Though the result is viewed enthusiastically by all involved, the completed pilot stirs little enthusiasm at the television networks. NBC thinks the series premise has promise, but that as it stands, The Cage is “too cerebral” for prime time. Ironically, exactly two years later, most of the footage from The Cage is broadcast anyway, as part of The Menagerie – a fast favorite among the viewers for whom it was deemed to be too brainy. 
Stardate not given: The starship Enterprise, commanded by Captain Pike, runs across a distress signal which Pike discounts as being outdated, but when a follow-up message concerning survivors of an Earth ship is picked up, Pike follows the signals to Talos IV. Pike and a landing party find a group of almost-too-healthy survivors there. Among them is a young woman named Vina who catches Pike’s eye and then leads him into a trap while showing him the crash site. Pike is captured by Talosians, aliens with much larger brains than humans, and is subjected to illusions which are designed to compel him to mate with Vina, who turns out to be a human in captivity. The rest of the crew, meanwhile, struggles to recover Pike, aware that the Talosians’ power of illusion is an effective weapon.
written by Gene Roddenberry
directed by Robert Butler
music by Alexander CourageCast: Jeffrey Hunter (Captain Christopher Pike), Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock), Susan Oliver (Vina), Majel Barrett (Number One), John Hoyt (Doctor Boyce), Peter Duryea (Lt. Tyler), Laurel Goodwin (Yeoman Colt), Meg Wylie (The Keeper)
Originally broadcast: October 1988 – the original pilot was never broadcast as part of the series run, with portions of it instead being incorporated into the two-part story The Menagerie as a desperate measure when production fell behind schedule. The Cage was released on video in 1986 with a special introduction by Gene Roddenberry, and was finally aired in its restored original color print during a special aired in late 1988 to bridge the gap between the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation and the second, which had been delayed due to a Writers’ Guild strike.
LogBook entry by Earl Green