Just wanted to say thanks to all you guys who were so surprised by my choices for episodes! I had a little time earlier and so I pursued a thought I have had a couple years now and dug out my Blu Ray of Star Trek again and for only the 2nd time in many years found and watched the complete, original pilot for Star Trek The Cage again as it had been seen by the network! Before it, there was no Star Trek. No Enterprise or anything. Everything was formative, scene by scene as they felt along the cracks creating a new universe of the imagination and the show was for that ONE TIME--- Star Trek, the true original idealistic vision and idea of Star Trek unfettered and uncompromised by any network external forces to be itself and with the budget and time to do it right, something Star Trek never saw again.
I'm sure the network when they watched that in 1964, used to TV ideas gestating like Voyage To The Bottom of the Sea and Lost In Space must have seen this new drama, a complete and suddenly holistic world with palpable 3-D characters yet set centuries into the future as they watched this incredible, unbelievable ship that looked like it really belonged in space with its captain aboard anguish to his doctor over his own personal doubts after returning back from Rigel now considering giving up the service and escaping to a new career to get away from the pressure as MAGNITUDES above the usual type of soapbox-selling tripe they expected. The show must have shocked them on every level including having the most awesome painted alien scenery never again equaled since and dealt with the very underpinnings of a person's sense of life and accomplishment within--- that both drives and haunt us in our lives, and it literally brought me to tears a couple of times imagining someone seeing this for the first time ever almost 60 years ago.
At one point, they even bring down one of the actual spare ship's phaser banks bolted to a table and try to blast the top off a mountain.
But it was just too scary for NBC to gamble on, too different on so many levels yet they saw so much real potential in it as if they had just really been to a far different world far into the future that they gave it a 2nd chance, so then I watched the original unaired complete 1965 pilot Where No Man Has Gone Before set in four acts. Star Trek was now so much better focused and refined now having already worked out all the basic ideas in The Cage plus casting issues, they melded #1 into Mr. Spock together and moved him up while getting rid of Majel whose strong female role scared them, and now the show was set much more boldly as an action drama now for the first time defining the future character of the series where a more swashbuckling captain leaves the galaxy on a mission only to end up dealing with both losing his best friend to tragic forces while dealing with the frailties of mankind's nature projected with unlimited opportunity suddenly realizing Godhood in the process of destroying himself. Very heavy.
Thanks for inspiring me to watch them again as if it was my first time all over again as well.
