I know I’ve seen it on TV at least once, probably in the 80s when that “lost” print of the pilot was discovered.
The B&W version, or in color?
Yes it has. For the first time in October 1988. Full colour. Not sure if it’s aired since, though it has been released, since, on VHS, DVD and BluRay.
If we’re giving honorable mentions here, I’d like to nominate
Majel Barrett
Played:
“Number 1” in The Cage
Nurse Chapel in Classic Trek
Dr Chapel in the first movie
Commander Chapel in the fourth
Lwaxana Troi, Deanna Troi’s mother, in TNG
The computer voice on all the other TV series and quite a few of the movies as well.
… and married Gene Roddenberry.
I’m just being a Trek übernerd and splitting hairs. It was ‘shown’ and ‘released’ on DVD & Blu-ray and because it was incorporated into the two-part The Menagerie episode of TOS it has always been considered canon. But it never aired as a stand-alone episode during that time and therefore The Cage is not considered one of the TOS 79 episodes (or is it 78?! :D). It was a rejected first pilot.
It’s also, however, the worst episode for trying to stay in continuity with the rest of Star Trek, since it was actually written for a different universe where human history was different. The Kzinti-Human wars were current and had been going on for a long time, but there is no sign of such a conflict outside this episode.
It makes the most sense if you see it as taking place in an alternate universe. And maybe Kirk, McCoy and Scotty aren’t in or the same characters as in the main universe.
I would disagree that Nimoy’s portrayal of Spock is at all disposable. The Vulcan is an absolute necessity on Star Trek, and appears in all incarnations.
What? Aw c’mon. Worf and Data provide the “humorless, robotic foil for human excitability” that the show thrives on. Tim Russ’s portrayal on Voyager is awesome – he seems constantly angry, in the most unemotional way. Maybe its all sloppy, easy writing, but it defines the Star Trek phenomena.
The first movie was pretty bad, but it didn’t kill the franchise. I think they could have continued without several characters. I seriously doubt there existed any circumstance where Nimoy wouldn’t return to play Spock, he never did anything else substantial in his career, but he could have been replaced with another Vulcan. Kirk has to be the most necessary character, he couldn’t be replaced with another actor, but the movies could continue without him if he had died and there were enough of the other crew members there. The other characters, like the audience would have made comparisons between the new captain and Kirk.
I contend that the Star Trek universe was greater than the characters, and it has proven out by the success of the sequel series and movies without the original cast.