Conventional wisdom among canonistas (and Memory Alpha) is that the events depicted in “The Menagerie” take place in 2267. The method behind this is simple. Add 300 years to the production date of a TOS episode, and there you go.

2265-2266: 1st year
2266-2267: 2nd year
2267-2268: 3rd year
2268-2269: 4th year
2269-2270: 5th year

For example, “The Deadly Years” was produced in 1967. Kirk is born in 2233, and in TDY, claims to be 34 years old. 2233+34 years=2267. “Space Seed” was also produced in 1967, therefore TWOK takes place circa 2282 (2267+15 years=2282).

Since Spock’s court-martial, as depicted in “The Menagerie”, takes place in 2267, 13 years prior to that (the events depicted on the viewscreen) would be 2254.

2254+11 years (approximate time Spock spent serving under Pike)=2265 (the start of the 5 year mission under JTK).

And explain how those numbers line up again: The Cage happened 13 years before the Menagerie, Spock served with Pike for 11 years before Kirk took command, so despite this being an early 1st season episode, it is actually taking place during the 3rd year of the 5 year mission, or Spock served with Kirk for 2 years before the 5 year mission started?

Actually, it is standard practice. In fact, there is even an official “Change Of Command Ceremony”, in which a Captain relinquishes responsibility for the vessel to his successor after the orders are read.

“But if it is MORE usual, then we may be able to infer another Captain commanding the Enterprise between Pike and Kirk.”

That would seem to be precluded by Spock’s claim that he served with Pike for a total of around 11 years (unless he followed Pike somewhere else after the Enterprise, only to return when Kirk was given command), coupled with the fact that the events depicted on the viewscreen occured 13 years before the court-martial, which takes place in 2267. VOY “Q2″ establishes that the five year mission under Kirk ended in 2270, which in turn suggests that Kirk took command directly from Pike in 2265.

Moreover, Pike’s promotion to “Fleet Captain” likely occurs on the same day as the change of command.

What doesn’t make sense is Commodore Mendez’s question in the first place. It seems unlikely that he would not know that Kirk succeeded Pike in commadning the Enterprise, which would suggest that they would indeed have met before.

Hunh? I think whatever reference you intended went zooming right past me at about Warp 10.

Quite correct. But there’s one thing in The Menagerie that has always left me wondering. If I recallthe dialogue correctly Kirk mentions that he met Pike when Pike was “promoted to Fleet Admiral”. He does NOT say “when I took command of the Enterprise”.

In contemporary navies, I don’t know it is more usual or UNunusual that one Captain directly relieves his predecessor. But if it is MORE usual, then we may be able to infer another Captain commanding the Enterprise between Pike and Kirk. That of course is pure speculation, not directly borne out by any onscreen dialogue, etc. It also has nor particular bearing on the case of Captain April.

I would read something like that.

I agree with the idea for a George Kirk movie – also with Winona Kirk and Capt Robau. I sort of thought that if Pike did his paper on George Kirk, then there has to be a little more backstory to him.

I think that if Paramount was on their toes fully, then when I go to see Transformers 2 tomorrow, then there should be an attached trailer for Trek which touts the critcal acclaim and points out that it is the same writers as Transformers and Transformers 2. There will be a lot of people seeing Transformers which haven’t seen Trek and it would be a good time to hit them up to see it.