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The Menagerie: Part 2

Personal log, stardate 3013. 1.

I find it hard to believe the events of the past 24 hours or the plea of Mr. Spock standing general court-martial.

How do you plead to the charge of unlawfully taking command of this starship?

Guilty.

Of sabotaging the computers of this vessel and locking it on a course for planet Talos IV?

Guilty.

And of forcibly attempting to transport Captain Pike to that planet?

Guilty.

Why? Why does Spock want to take to that forbidden world his former captain, mutilated by a recent space disaster, now a shell of a man, unable to speak or move?

The only answer Spock would give was on the hearing-room screen.

How Spock would do this, he refused to explain, but there, before our eyes, actual images from 13 years ago of Captain Pike as he was when he commanded this vessel, of Spock in those days, and of how the Enterprise had become the first and only starship to visit Talos IV.

They had received a distress signal from that planet and discovered there, still alive after many years, the survivors of a missing vessel, only to find it was all an illusion--

No survivors... no encampment... it was all a trap set by a race of beings who could make a man believe he was seeing anything they wished him to see, and Captain Pike was gone, a prisoner for some unknown purpose.

The images we've been seeing are--

Are coming from Talos IV.

You're aware of the orders regarding any contact with Talos IV.

You have deliberately invited the death penalty.

Do you know what you're doing?

Have you lost your mind?

Captain.

Jim, please.

Don't stop me.

Don't let him stop me.

It's your career and Captain Pike's life.

You must see the rest of the transmission.

Space-- the final frontier.

These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise.

Its five-year mission-- to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.

The court-martial of Mr. Spock has been convened in closed session.

Despite all we can do, images continue to be transmitted to us from Talos IV.

Starfleet has ordered no contact with Talos IV.

They made no exceptions.

You have no choice, sir.

I'm sorry.

The keeper has taken control of our screen.

Do you understand, sir?

As you saw before,

Captain Pike had been knocked unconscious and captured by the Talosians.

Can you hear me?

My name is Christopher Pike, commander of the space vehicle Enterprise from the stellar group at the other end of this galaxy.

Our intentions are peaceful.

Can you understand me?

It appears, Magistrate, that the intelligence of the specimen is shockingly limited.

This is no surprise, since his vessel was baited here so easily with a simulated message.

As you can read in its thoughts, it is only now beginning to suspect that the survivors and encampment were a simple illusion we placed in their minds.

You're not speaking, yet I can hear you.

Note the confusion as it reads our thought transmissions.

All right, then, telepathy.

You can read my mind. I can read yours.

Now, unless you want my ship to consider capturing me an unfriendly act--

You now see the primitive fear/threat reaction.

The specimen is about to boast of his strength, the weaponry of his vessel, and so on.

Next... frustrated into a need to display physical prowess, the creature will throw himself against the transparency.

If you were in here, wouldn't you test the strength of these walls, too?

There's a way out of any cage, and I'll find it.

Despite its frustration, the creature appears more adaptable than our specimens from other planets.

We can soon begin the experiment.

The inhabitants of this planet must live deep underground, probably manufacture food and other needs down there.

Our tests indicate the planet surface, without considerably more vegetation or some animals, is simply too barren to support life.

So we just thought we saw survivors there.

Exactly.

An illusion placed in our minds by this planet's inhabitants.

It was a perfect illusion.

They had us seeing just what we wanted to see-- human beings who had survived with dignity and bravery, everything entirely logical, right down to the building of the camp, the tattered clothing, everything.

Let's be sure we understand the danger of this.

The inhabitants of this planet can read our minds, can create illusions out of a person's own thoughts, memories, and experiences, even out of a person's own desires, illusions just as real and solid as this table top and just as impossible to ignore.

It's Captain Pike they've got.

He needs help.

If we buzz about down there, we may find their mental power is so great, they could swat this ship like a fly.

That entry resisted hand lasers.

We'll transmit the ship's power against it, enough to blast half a continent.

Engineering deck will rig to transmit ship's power.

We'll try blasting through that metal.

Thousands of us are already probing the creature's thoughts, Magistrate.

We find excellent memory capacity.

I read most strongly a recent death struggle in which it fought to protect its life.

We will begin with this, giving the specimen something more interesting to protect.

Come on.

We must hide ourselves.

Come.

Come.

Hurry. It's deserted.

There'll be weapons and perhaps food.

This is Rigel 7.

Please, we must hide ourselves.

I was in a cage, a cell, in some kind of a zoo.

I must still be there.

Come on.

They've reached into my mind and taken the memory of somewhere I've been.

[ Grrr ]

The Kaylar!

It's starting just as it happened two weeks ago.

[ Grrr ]

Except for you.

A brilliant deduction by Captain Pike, gentlemen.

Yes, he was still inside his cell, but knowing that couldn't help him.

The Talosians controlled his brain.

And could make him live any place, any time, any situation they wished.

He would see, taste, suffer with the same reality as you gentlemen sitting there.

Longer hair, different dress, but it is you, the one the survivors call Vina.

Roar!

Or rather the image of Vina.

But why you again?

Why didn't they create a different girl?

[ Grrr ]

[ Grrr ]

[ Grrr ]

Quick.

If you attack while it's not looking...

But it's only a dream.

[ Grrr ]

[ Grrr ]

You have to kill him as you did here before.

Tell my jailers I won't go along with it.

I'm not an animal performing for its supper.

What ever you call this, you'll feel it.

That's what matters.

You'll feel every moment of what happens to you.

[ Clanging ]

[ Grrr ]

[ Grrr ]

[ Grrr ]

[ Grrr ]

[ Grrr ]

[ Grrr ]

[ Grrr ]

[ Grrr ]

[ Grrr ]

Oh!

Aah!

[ Grrr ]

Ohh!

Aah!

Ohh!

[ Grrr ]

Aah!

Aah!

[ Grrr ]

It's over.

Why have they stopped the images?

Because they know that Captain Pike is fatigued.

We can reconvene later.

Then they care about the captain?

They want him back alive, sir.

I demand to know why.

If you'll be patient, the answers--

You're forgetting you're on trial, Spock.

You will answer all questions put to you.

My answer to your question would be quite unbelievable.

I regret we'll have to wait and see it there.

Personal log, stardate 3013.2.

Reconvening court-martial of Mr. Spock and the strangest trial evidence ever heard aboard a starship.

From the mysterious planet now only one hour ahead of us, the story of Captain Pike's imprisonment there.

Why are you here?

To please you.

Are you real?

As real as you wish.

No. No.

No, that's not any answer.

I've never met you before, never even imagined you.

Perhaps they made me out of dreams you've forgotten.

And dress you in the same metal fabric they wear?

I can wear whatever you wish or be anything you wish.

So they can see how their specimen performs?

They want to see how I react?

Don't you have a--a dream, something you've always wanted very badly?

Or do they do more than just watch me?

Do they... feel with me, too?

You can have whatever dream you want.

I can become anything, any woman you-- you've ever imagined.

You can have anything you want in the whole universe.

Let me... please you.

Yes. Yes, you can please me.

You can tell me about them.

How can I keep them from probing my mind, from using my thoughts against me?

Does that frighten you?

Does that mean there is a way?

You're a fool.

Since you're not real, there's not much point in continuing this conversation, is there?

All circuits engaged, Mr. Spock.

Standing by, Number One.

Take cover.

10...

9...

8...

7...

6...

5...

4...

3...

2...

1...

Increase to full power!

Can you give us any more?

Our circuits are beginning to heat.

We'll have to cease power.

Disengage.

The top of that knoll should have been sheared off the first second.

Maybe it was. I tried to explain.

Their power of illusion is so great, we can't be sure of anything we do, of anything we see.

Perhaps if you asked me some questions

I could answer.

How far can they control my mind?

If I tell you, then will you pick some dream you've had and let me live it with you?

Perhaps.

They--they can't actually make you do anything you don't want to do.

But they try to trick me with their illusions.

They can punish you when you're not cooperative.

Did they ever live on the surface of this planet?

Why did they go underground?

War, thousands of centuries ago.

That's why it's so barren up there?

The planet's only now becoming able to support life again.

So the Talosians who came underground found life limited here and they concentrated on developing their mental power.

But they found it's a trap... like a narcotic, because when dreams become more important than reality, you give up travel, building, creating.

You even forget how to repair the machines left behind by your ancestors.

You just sit, living and reliving other lives left behind in the thought record.

Or sit probing minds of zoo specimens like me.

You're better than a theater to them.

They create the illusion for you.

They watch you react, feel your emotions.

They have a whole collection of specimens, descendants of life brought back long ago from all over this part of the galaxy.

Which means they had to have more than one of each animal.

Please.

They'll need a pair of humans.

Where will they get the Earth woman?

You said that if I answered your questions--

That was a bargain with something that didn't exist.

You said you weren't real, remember?

I'm a woman as real and as human as you are.

We are like Adam and Eve.

If we--

Don't! Please!

Don't punish me!

I'll die!

Ohh! Aah!

An Earth woman?

You were captured as breeding stock?

Why?

Just to maintain a supply of zoo specimens?

Much more, Captain.

The vial contains a nourishing protein complex.

Is the keeper actually communicating with one of his animals?

If the form and the color is not appealing, it can appear as any food you wish to visualize.

And if I prefer...

To starve?

You overlook the unpleasant alternative of punishment.

Aah!

[ Screaming ]

From a fable you once heard in childhood.

You will now consume the nourishment.

Why not... just put irresistible hunger in my mind?

Because you can't, can you?

You do have limitations, don't you?

If you continue to disobey, from deeper in your mind, there are things even more unpleasant.

That's very interesting.

Now to the female.

You were startled.

Weren't you reading my mind?

As you've conjectured, an Earth vessel did crash on our planet, but with only a single survivor.

Let's stay on the first subject.

All I wanted for that moment was to get my hands around your neck.

We repaired the survivor's injuries and found the species interesting.

Do primitive thoughts put up a block you can't read through?

It became necessary to attract a mate.

All right. Let's talk about the girl.

You've gone out of your way to make her attractive, to make me feel protective.

This is necessary in order to perpetuate the species.

Seems more important to you now that I begin to accept her and like her.

We wish our specimens to be happy in their new life.

Assuming that's a lie, why would you want me attracted to her, so I'll feel love in a husband-wife relationship?

That would be necessary only if you intend to build a family group or perhaps a whole human community.

With the female now properly conditioned.

You mean properly punished!

I'm the one who's not cooperating!

Why don't you punish me?

First, an emotion of protectiveness.

Now one of sympathy.

Excellent.

You want some coffee, dear?

I left the thermos hooked to my saddle.

[ Whinny ]

Tango!

You old devil, you.

Uh, I'm sorry I don't have any sug--

Well, they think of everything, don't they?

Is it good to be home?

They read our minds very well.

Home, anything else I want if I cooperate, is that it?

It turned out to be a lovely day, didn't it?

You're home.

You can even stay if you want.

But we're not here, neither of us.

We're in a menagerie, a cage!

No.

I can't help either one of us if you won't give me a chance

Now, you told me once they used illusions as a narcotic.

They couldn't repair their ancestors' machines.

Is that why they want us, to build a colony of slaves?

Stop it.

Don't you care what they'll do to us?

In my cage, it seemed for two minutes our keeper couldn't read my thoughts.

Do emotions like hate, keeping hate in your mind, does that block off our mind from them?

Yes.

They can't read through primitive emotions, but you can't keep it up for long enough.

I've tried.

They keep at you and at you year after year, tricking and punishing.

And they've won.

They own me.

I know you must hate me for that.

Oh, no. I don't hate you.

I can guess what it was like.

But that's not enough.

Don't you see?

They read my thoughts, my feelings, my dreams of what would be a perfect man.

That's why they picked you.

I can't help but love you.

And they expect you to feel the same way.

If they can read my mind, then they know I'm attracted to you.

I was from the very first moment I saw you.

You were like a wild little animal.

I'm beginning to see why none of this has worked for you.

You've been home, and fighting as on Rigel--

That's not new to you, either.

A person's strongest dreams are about what he can't do.

Yes, a ship's captain, always having to be so formal, so decent and honest and proper.

You must wonder what it would be like to forget all that.

[ Flutes And Drums Play ]

Nice place you have here, Mr. Pike.

Vina?

That's Vina again, as the green Orion slave girl?

[ Mendez ] They're like animals-- vicious, seductive.

They say no human male can resist them.

[ Kirk ] Strange evidence from the past, how the Talosians, planning to breed a society of human slaves, tempted Captain Pike with the Earth woman they held in captivity.

As she appeared to him in many forms, each more exciting than the last,

Pike was beginning to weaken.

Suppose you had all of space to choose from and this was only one small sample.

Wouldn't you say it was worth a man's soul?

You all know the situation.

We're hoping to transport down inside the Talosian community.

If our measurements and readings are an illusion also, one could find oneself materialized inside solid rock.

Nothing will be said if any volunteer wants to back out.

The women!

Captain.

Captain...

No! Let me finish!

But we were a party of six.

We were the only ones transported.

It's not fair. You don't need them.

They don't work.

They were fully charged when we left.

It's dead. I can't make this thing work.

What is it?

Don't say anything.

I'm filling my mind with a picture of beating their huge, misshapen heads to pulp, thoughts so primitive they black out everything else.

I'm filling my mind with hate.

How long can you block your thoughts?

A few minutes, an hour?

How can that help?

Leave him alone.

He doesn't need you.

He's already picked me.

Picked her?

For what? I don't understand.

Now, there's a fine choice for intelligent offspring.

Offspring... as in children?

Offspring as in, he's Adam.

Is that it?

You're no better choice.

They'd have more luck crossing him with a computer.

Shall we do some time computation?

There was a Vina listed on that expedition as an adult crewman.

Adding 18 years to your age then--

[ Door Opens ]

It's not fair.

I did what you asked.

Since you resist the present specimen, you now have a selection.

I'll break out of this zoo somehow and get to you.

Is your blood red like ours?

I'm going to find out.

Each of the two new specimens has qualities in her favor.

The female you call Number One has the superior mind and would produce highly intelligent children.

All I want to do is get my hands on you.

Can you read these thoughts-- images of hate, killing?

The other new arrival has considered you unreachable but now realizes this has changed.

The factors in her favor are youth and strength plus unusually strong female drives.

You'll find my thoughts more interesting, thoughts so primitive you can't understand.

Emotions so--

Oh!

Wrong thinking is punishable.

Right thinking will be as quickly rewarded.

You will find it an effective combination.

Captain--

No.

No. Don't help me.

I have to concentrate.

They can't read through hate.

You hold still, or I'll--

Don't hurt them. They don't mean to be evil.

I've had some samples of how good they are.

[ Grrrr ]

You stop this illusion, or I'll twist your head off.

All right.

Now, you try one more illusion, you try anything at all, and I'll break your neck.

Your ship... release me, or we'll destroy it.

He's not bluffing, Captain.

They can make your crew work the wrong controls or push any button it takes to destroy your ship.

I'm going to gamble you're too intelligent to kill for no reason at all.

On the other hand, I've got a reason.

I bet you've created an illusion this laser is empty.

I think it blasted a hole that you keep us from seeing.

Want me to test my theory out on your head?

Captain.

Seems the Talosians have deserted you.

Gentlemen, a moment, please.

Well, Mr. Spock?

May I have your verdict?

Signal you want them to wait.

Captain, please. It's your life now... at least a chance for life.

You keep talking about life, a chance for life.

How? As a prisoner, caged, a zoo specimen, living the illusions that amuse his keepers?

No, Captain. there's more to it.

Watch.

Guilty, yes or no, Captain?

Yes.

I must also vote guilty as charged.

And you, Captain?

Guilty... as charged.

Security control affirmative.

Stand to, forward phaser.

Aft scanner to bridge.

Bridge to commander.

Mendez here.

Sir, we're entering orbit Talos IV.

Talos controls the vessel now, sir, as they 13 did years ago.

You've asked me why.

You'll see the answer now.

Make contact, Number One.

They kept us from seeing this, too.

We cut through and never knew it.

Captain.

As you see, your attempt to escape accomplished nothing.

I want to contact our ship.

You're now on the surface where we wished you to be.

With the female of your choice, you will now begin carefully guided lives.

And start by burying you?

That is your choice.

To help you reclaim the planet's surface, our zoological gardens will furnish a variety of plant life.

I'll make a deal with you.

You and your life for the lives of these two Earth women.

Show proof our ship's all right, send these two back, and I'll stay with Vina.

It's wrong to create a race of humans to live as slaves.

Is this a deception?

Do you intend to destroy yourselves?

What's that?

The weapon is building up an overload, a forced chamber explosion.

You still have time to get underground.

Well, go on!

Just to show you how primitive humans are, Talosian, you go with her.

If--if you all think it's this important, then...

I can't go, either.

I suppose if they have one human being, they might try again.

Wait.

Their method of storing records is crude and consumed much time.

Are you prepared to assimilate it?

We had not believed this possible.

The customs and history of your race show a unique hatred of captivity.

Even when it's pleasant and benevolent, you prefer death.

This makes you too violent and dangerous a species for our needs.

He means that... they can't use you.

You're free to go back to the ship.

And that's it.

No apologies... you captured one of us, threatened all of us.

Your unsuitability has condemned the Talosian race to eventual death.

Is this not sufficient?

No other specimen has shown your adaptability.

You were our last hope.

But wouldn't some form of trade... mutual cooperation...

Your race would learn our power of illusion and destroy itself, too.

[ Intercom Whistles ]

Captain, we have transporter control now.

Let's get back to the ship.

I can't.

I can't go with you.

Sir, it just came on. We can't shut the power off.

- [ Intercom Whistles ] - Mr. Spock here.

All power has come on. The helm is answering to control.

The captain.

You see why I can't go with you.

This is the female's true appearance.

They found me in the wreckage, dying, a lump of flesh.

They rebuilt me. Everything works.

But they had never seen a human.

They had no guide for putting me back together.

It was necessary to convince you her desire to stay is an honest one.

You'll give her back her illusion of beauty?

And more.

Mr. Spock, the system is coming on again.

What's happened to Vina?

Isn't she coming with us?

No.

No, and I agreed with her reasons.

All decks prepare for hyperdrive.

All decks are ready, sir.

Engage.

Commodore, don't you think that--

What you now seem to hear, Captain Kirk, are my thought transmissions.

The commodore was never aboard your vessel.

His presence there and in the shuttlecraft was an illusion.

Mr. Spock had related to us your strength of will.

It was thought the fiction of a court-martial would divert you from too soon regaining control of your vessel.

Captain Pike is welcome to spend the rest of his life with us, unfettered by his physical body.

The decision is yours... and his.

Mr. Spock, even if regulations are explicit, you could have come to me and explained.

Ask you to face the death penalty, too?

One of us was enough, Captain.

[ Intercom Whistles ]

Yes.

[ Uhura ] Message from Starbase 11, sir.

"Received images from Talos IV.

"In view of historic importance of Captain Pike

"in space exploration,

"General Order 7 prohibiting contact Talos IV

"is suspended this occasion.

"No action contemplated against Spock.

"Proceed as you think best.

Signed, Mendez, J.I., Commodore, Starbase."

Chris... do you want to go there?

Mr. Spock... would you care to take Captain Pike to the transporter room... see him off?

Thank you, sir.

For both of us.

Uh, Mr. Spock, when you're finished, I want to talk to you.

This regrettable tendency you've been showing lately towards flagrant emotionalism--

I see no reason to insult me, sir.

I believe I've been completely logical about the whole affair.

[ Talosian ] Captain Kirk...

Captain Pike has an illusion, and you have reality.

May you find your way as pleasant.