jp@tellab1.UUCP (John Perretto) (05/26/84)
There has been a lot of interesting discussion as to why "The Cage" wasn't shown as the Star Trek pilot and why "The Menagerie" was made. I have heard some interesting theories about this and here's the one I find most plausible: Jeff Hunter, the actor who played Capt. Pike in "The Cage," supposedly died shortly after the pilot was made. Since the producers of Star Trek intended Hunter to be the star of the show, they were left in a difficult situation. The solution was to come up with the new pilot which introduced William Shatner as Kirk. "The Cage" was scrapped at this time. Later on, however, the producers felt that they should not let "The Cage" footage go to waste, so they came up with "The Menagerie." This theory sounds most plausible to me. Obviously they could have used a different actor to portray the disfigured Pike in "The Menagerie." Has anyone else heard this theory?