Card of the Week: The Aliens
The STAR TREK TAROT matches every classic Star Trek episode one-to-one with its corresponding Tarot card, and presents the originally-unaired Star Trek pilot film on two bonus cards.
This bonus The Aliens card suggests an initial encounter with something previously unknown, and the careful and dispassionate scrutiny that may follow. Rather than rushing to a potentially questionable judgement or leaping to a possibly erroneous conclusion, this card urges patient and thoughtful study, to gain a more full understanding and appreciation.
Inverted, the Aliens card represents the natural tendency to experience fear of the unknown. It is a common initial response to unfamiliar situations, yet usually fades as more is learned.
In “The Cage” the Enterprise encounters a distress signal sent by a survey vessel lost in an uncharted region of space eighteen years earlier. They follow the signal to the planet Talos IV. Captain Pike leads a landing party to the surface, where they find what appears to be a rough encampment of aging crash survivors. But it is a trick, an elaborate deception created by the planet’s original inhabitants and projected into the humans’ minds as a telepathic illusion. The alien Talosian Magistrate and other Talosians watch the Enterprise crewmembers on remote viewscreens, evaluating their intelligence and adaptability. They select Captain Pike as a subject for further experiments, but after kidnapping Pike and forcing him through a series of additional illusions, they eventually decide that the humans are not suitable for their needs and release them.
