Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Theme of Being Trapped In "The Menagerie"
In the last episode of Star Trek we watched we see that Captain Pike is trapped by the Talosians and he can only relive memories through fabrications the Talosians put him through. Still in his present state he trapped and cannot communicate with anyone else except through 'yes' or 'no' signals. Similarly the Talosians are trapped within their own 'narcotic' of studying other species through their memories. Because of their dreaming they don't rebuild their civilizations. There seem to be a common theme of being trapped within this two part episode and I was wondering what you guys thought of this and if the episode contains any messages of how to escape being trapped. Or any thoughts in general of what the rest of the mission Spock has brought the Enterprise on entails (I really don't know why they are going to Talos IV).
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I thought it was really interesting that the Talosians were stuck in a dream-state; it was as if their wholes lives were nothing but illusions. When Captain Pike was escaping in the last part of the episode, it seemed that the only way he could actually escape this illusion was to confront it. That is, he could only see life for what it was when he captured one of the Talosians and forced them to show life as it really is. It was only when the Talosian revealed this did Captain Pike realize that there was a clear escape route the whole time. The only thing I did not understand was that if there was a hole in the cage the whole time (from when Captain Pike shot it with his gun), why did he not feel it? Are the Talosians only capable of visual illusions or can they deceive all five senses?
ReplyDeleteSeeing as how they could make illusions of Pike’s memories as he could relive them in his cell, fighting a monster (or a really tall misunderstood pseudo-Viking) and listening to seductive music and such, I believe that the Talosians are capable of five sense manipulation. But going back to Charles’s comment on how the Talosians are trapped in their own illusions, it certainly appears as though that captain Pike at the end of the episode, was able to find freedom in their illusions. The illusions originally appeared to be only a method to escape reality, however, when captain Pike had been trapped by the reality into an immobile body, he was able to find freedom in the world of illusions. Just in that same sense, the fate of Spock seemed to have been trapped to a death sentence due to the Talosian illusion of the commodore. However, it actually worked to give Spock a degree of freedom from his Vulcan ancestry and his role as a fateful servant.
ReplyDeleteOkay this is seriously the third time I have tried to post on this blog lol but this idea is very interesting. I think not only in Star Trek but a lot of the characters we have been reading about have been trapped. Dr. Malone was sort of trapped in this mindset that he needs to be a man of fame and power just so that he can please Gladys and hopefully win over her love. He works towards nothing else but being that man that Glayds wants to love. In essence he is trapped by his own ambition and need. Frankenstein and the monster were equally trapped as well. Frankenstein wanted to create something beautiful but he was left with the ugly monster. The monster was constantly trying to seek love and friendship but he just never found true anything. They are both trapped by their feelings.
ReplyDeleteDually, Spock is surely trapped in this human world where he is the only Vulcan. He is constantly judged by his peers and can never truly be understood. I guess a lot of characters are trapped by either their human characteristics or their feelings. This is all over literture and would be interesting to write a paper on I think. Too bad we are done writing papers lol!