Production
"The Menagerie" solved two problems, by reusing the extensive footage from "The Cage" and was a script crunch. The script was written by Gene Roddenberry, creator of the show, also the writer of "The Cage." The script for both parts of this episode is only 64 pages long, shorter than the scripts for some single episodes. Part I is 43 pages long, whereas Part II runs to only 21 pages.
New filming took place for the framing story for "The Cage." Because actor Jeffrey Hunter was unavailable to reprise his role as Captain Pike, a look-alike actor, Sean Kenney, played the injured captain in the new scenes, although Hunter was represented in the "Cage" flashback footage and credited accordingly (along with the original "Cage" cast).
Also in the new scenes, Malachi Throne (who provided the voice of the Keeper in the original "Cage") portrayed Commodore Jose Mendez, while Julie Parrish played personal assistant Miss Piper. Because Throne played a second role in "The Menagerie," the Keeper's voice was re-dubbed by another actor, Vic Perrin (Perrin's voice work would replace Malachi Throne's in the remastered and new "Original" versions of "The Cage" released later.). The preview trailer for Part II uses Throne's original Keeper's voice.
The framing story was directed by veteran Trek director Marc Daniels. Because most of his footage was used in Part I, he was given directing credit for this part. The director of "The Cage," Robert Butler, was given credit for Part II, because most of that footage was from the original pilot.
In the scene on Rigel VII, Vina actually plays the slave girl painted in green makeup and dancing for Captain Pike. During preproduction makeup tests (using Majel Barrett as a stand-in), they sent the footage out for printing and when the film returned, there was little difference. The lab thought there had been an error in colorizing and thought they should compensate. The first time this happened, they reshot the film with a darker green and sent it out again for printing. The same thing happened again, but eventually the lab was notified to make no color changes.
Footage from the master negative of "The Cage" was edited into the master negative of "The Menagerie." No other color or 35 mm copy of "The Cage" existed, only a black and white 16 mm print owned by Gene Roddenberry. In 1987, the full-color negative "trims" from "The Cage" that had not been used in "The Menagerie" were discovered at a film laboratory in Los Angeles and returned to Paramount Pictures.
Read more about this topic: The Menagerie (Star Trek: The Original Series)
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