In the Star Trek pilot episode The Cage, Captain Christopher Pike is captured by the Talosians, who impose upon him a series of dreams either drawn from his recent experience or his repressed desires. He returns from his latest dream to find not only Vena in his cell, but also his personal yeoman and Number One, his second-in-command. As Pike discovers that their communicators and phasers don’t work, the aliens’ gift of two more potential mates makes no meaningful impact upon him: rather, their presence just gives him another reason to resist the Talosians’ mind control. But their action reveals noteworthy aspects of the Talosian species.
Pike continually fights his attraction to Vena, apparently even resisting her seduction during the erotic dream of her as a green animal woman slave. So the Talosians pluck two females from the Enterprise with whom he works closely. The aliens suggest that either could serve Pike as an alternative, life-long mate.
Once the Talosians traveled between the stars, and captured representatives of the various species they found on habitable planets. When war made their surface uninhabitable, they built a fabulous city to live in. They concentrated on developing their minds, and perfected such fantastic powers as telepathy, creating convincing illusions, and the ability to force their subjects to live out specific dream-scenarios.
In its proper place, entertainment can relieve stress, lighten our spirits, and inspire us. But overexposure to its delights can dull us to reality. No doubt, when the Talosians traveled among the stars and built their underground city, the ability to vicariously experience the dreams of their captives served some benefit to their society. Yet, at some point, the easy access to the thrills such dreams offered proved too alluring. As a species, they stopped traveling, ceased to build and create, and contented themselves with the vicarious experiences they imposed upon their specimens. In the process, they no longer enriched themselves through travel or experience, and thus lost both the will and the ability to create a better future for themselves.
One day, some small awareness of their decline awoke in their leaders’ minds. But it came too late. Their species was dying: they lacked sufficient numbers and the requisite abilities to survive. Then one of them hit upon a plan. If they could use their captives to breed a servile race who could rebuild their world for them, perhaps the Talosian species could survive. Through a process of selection, they determined humans as the race that could serve them best. But they only possessed Vena, and would need to capture a mate for her. Unforeseen in their desperate plan was the unsuitability of the kind of man whom Vena would feel most attracted to. Their dulled sensibilities could not conceive that a human capable of interstellar travel would not accede their purposes. Nor could they envision that Vena’s choice of a man such as Pike, one who had dedicated his life to completing tasks of great importance to his race, might resist their plans with every fiber of his being.
Through our technological creations, we have instant access to information and communication that can enhance our understanding of how to more readily accomplish our daily tasks, as well as how to achieve our long-term goals. These devices also offer us an infinite variety of entertainments and diversions, which, when used to excess, can dull us to the present and blind us to the potential futures we might create. To what purposes we marshal the varied riches available to us determine not only our individual worth, but also the future of humanity.
Pike continually fights his attraction to Vena, apparently even resisting her seduction during the erotic dream of her as a green animal woman slave. So the Talosians pluck two females from the Enterprise with whom he works closely. The aliens suggest that either could serve Pike as an alternative, life-long mate.
Once the Talosians traveled between the stars, and captured representatives of the various species they found on habitable planets. When war made their surface uninhabitable, they built a fabulous city to live in. They concentrated on developing their minds, and perfected such fantastic powers as telepathy, creating convincing illusions, and the ability to force their subjects to live out specific dream-scenarios.
In its proper place, entertainment can relieve stress, lighten our spirits, and inspire us. But overexposure to its delights can dull us to reality. No doubt, when the Talosians traveled among the stars and built their underground city, the ability to vicariously experience the dreams of their captives served some benefit to their society. Yet, at some point, the easy access to the thrills such dreams offered proved too alluring. As a species, they stopped traveling, ceased to build and create, and contented themselves with the vicarious experiences they imposed upon their specimens. In the process, they no longer enriched themselves through travel or experience, and thus lost both the will and the ability to create a better future for themselves.
One day, some small awareness of their decline awoke in their leaders’ minds. But it came too late. Their species was dying: they lacked sufficient numbers and the requisite abilities to survive. Then one of them hit upon a plan. If they could use their captives to breed a servile race who could rebuild their world for them, perhaps the Talosian species could survive. Through a process of selection, they determined humans as the race that could serve them best. But they only possessed Vena, and would need to capture a mate for her. Unforeseen in their desperate plan was the unsuitability of the kind of man whom Vena would feel most attracted to. Their dulled sensibilities could not conceive that a human capable of interstellar travel would not accede their purposes. Nor could they envision that Vena’s choice of a man such as Pike, one who had dedicated his life to completing tasks of great importance to his race, might resist their plans with every fiber of his being.
Through our technological creations, we have instant access to information and communication that can enhance our understanding of how to more readily accomplish our daily tasks, as well as how to achieve our long-term goals. These devices also offer us an infinite variety of entertainments and diversions, which, when used to excess, can dull us to the present and blind us to the potential futures we might create. To what purposes we marshal the varied riches available to us determine not only our individual worth, but also the future of humanity.
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