This is going to be a shorter than normal write up, since there is probably less than 15% new material in this episode. Other than occasional interruptions where Mendez and Kirk get mad and then convict Spock of violating a law punishable only by death and then go back to watching the pilot, there isn't much new to see here. Having just watched the Cage 11 days ago I did notice right at the end they did a little clever editing by not showing the illusion of Pike left behind to keep Vina happy.
The other clever thing the episode does to resolve Spock being conivted of all sorts of dire offenses is to have the entire court martial be a ploy to keep Kirk busy when in reality Mendez was back on Starbase 11 watching the same video Kirk and Spock were watching. It may seem like a silly cover, but the idea of an unpleasant court martial to keep Kirk too busy to work hard at getting back control of his ship was actually a pretty good idea. When Pike does beam down to the surface they use the edited out piece of footage of Vina and Pike happy together to show Kirk and the audience (who hadn't just watched the Cage at the time) how things had turned out ok.
Review time! I guess if I had a complete pilot episode that was close enough to Trek to sell as an adventure on the Enterprise pre-Kirk I would have done something like this too. The added in story line is better than many Simpsons clip shows which are my main basis of comparison. They turn what could have been a disaster into a watchable episode.
5 out of 10
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