Talosians

Plot

The Talosians are native humanoids with bulbous heads who live beneath the surface of the fourth planet in the Talos star group. They create telepathic illusions, including a distress call and a camp of elderly male survivors from the missing scientific vessel Columbia, to lure the Enterprise to their world. Captain Christopher Pike is captured after being captivated by Vina, a beautiful young woman who is also an illusion. The Talosians intend to force Pike and Vina to mate, breeding a race of slaves to expand their civilization to the barren surface.

They tempt Pike with illusions: a Rigellian princess, a lush Earth farm, and a green-skinned Orion dancing girl. The Keeper reveals the Talosians have sabotaged the Enterprise. Number One threatens to detonate her weapon rather than be enslaved, and Pike prepares to do the same. The Talosians, having learned from the Enterprise's computers that humans hate captivity, despair that without Pike their people face extinction.

Production

The Talosians were given an androgynous appearance, played by women, with men later dubbing their voices, to show their physical weakness from prioritizing mental growth. A prop head from The Outer Limits episode "Fun and Games" was reused to depict a Talosian as a threatening being. Malachi Throne provided the Keeper's voice in "The Cage," but his deep tones were electronically raised in pitch for "The Menagerie," since he also played Commodore Mendez there. The higher-pitched voice from "The Menagerie" was kept for later releases of both the remastered and some original versions of "The Cage."