A Roddenberry Perspective On Star Trek

"Truth be told, I'm the cheapest one out of everyone involved," Roddenberry jokingly told SyFy Portal's Michael Hinman ahead of the special two-night screenings that begin Nov. 13.

"The Menagerie" -- the original two-part episode that served as sort of an "envelope" to the original pilot, "The Cage" -- will be shown Tuesday and Thursday on select movie screens across the United States. The episode focuses on Spock (Leonard Nimoy) finding his former commanding officer, Capt. Christopher Pike, severely disabled after a training accident. Acting on compassion, he kidnaps Pike and steals the Enterprise. However, Capt. Kirk (William Shatner) is able to catch up with the Enterprise on a shuttlecraft, and Spock is court martialed in a trial that includes flashbacks to the original first mission of the valiant starship.

"'The Cage' was my father's original concept for 'Star Trek' and the one NBC said was too intellectual for their audience," Roddenberry said. "When people watch this on the screen, it is the beginning of Star Trek, the ultimate idea of what my father wanted to get out there, that humanity won't be caged, human beings wanted to explore, they wanted to be free."

CBS Corp., which now owns the rights to the television side of Star Trek following the Viacom split, has been presenting the classic episodes in a remastered fashion, including new special effects. "The Menagerie" screenings will include such new effects, as well as digital enhancements, that will open it up to entirely new audiences, but that doesn't mean some long-time fans aren't a bit resistant to the idea. Even Roddenberry said when he first learned of the remastering, he was willing to support it as long as the studio didn't go crazy in changing storylines, like some claimed happened in the reworked versions of the Star Wars trilogy in the 1990s.

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