A zoo is an institution or facility where animals are kept in cages or other separated enclosures, and displayed for the benefit of a curious public. The word zoology (and hence zoo...) comes from two Greek terms meaning "animal" and "study." The first zoo in the world opened for the public in the mid 1800s.
In cult-TV history, the zoo has proven an irresistible location for many science fiction and horror programs.
Indeed, many famous sci-fi series feature an intriguing inversion of the "zoo" principle which might be called "the people zoo." In stories of this type, intelligent humans find themselves housed in extra-terrestrial zoos, gawked at by curious (but unsympathetic) alien beings.
Perhaps the most famous of such tales is The Twilight Zone's (1959 - 1964) first season entry, "People Are Alike All Over," which stars the late, great Roddy McDowall as an astronaut who fears his upcoming journey to Mars. He is assured by a friend that people -- even Martians -- are really alike everywhere, and hence there is nothing to fear.
The episode's final, unforgettable twist puts a spin on that observation. People are alike all over, all right, and people everywhere enjoy seeing primitive creatures in the zoo...
The Twilight Zone revival on CBS (1985 - 1988) returned to the concept of people zoos with the short segment called "Children's Zoo." Here, an unhappy girl has the opportunity to put her misbehaving parents in a "children's zoo," while she picks out new, presumably more satisfactory custodians.
The third season Lost in Space (1965 - 1968) episode "A Day at the Zoo" featured a story line in which Penny Robinson (Angela Cartwright) is captured by an alien showman, Farnum B, for display in his galactic zoo. The Robinsons must come to her rescue.
Over the years, the Star Trek franchise has also explored the "people zoo" trope as well. The first Trek pilot, "The Cage" (later re-purposed as "The Menagerie") finds Captain Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter) trapped in a subterranean zoo on Talos IV. As a sturdy specimen in this Talosian zoo, he is also expected to breed and produce a race of slaves.
In the Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973 - 1974) episode "Eye of the Beholder," Kirk, Spock and McCoy are captured on distant Lactra VII and held in an elaborate zoo by giant intelligent slugs. The giant creatures judge the humans (and half-Vulcan) to be hideous and primitive, but eventually a conversation between species is begun, and the zoo-keepers tell the Starfleet officers that they will be welcome back on the planet in twenty or thirty centuries.
In the 1990s, The X-Files (1993 - 2002) also spotlighted a story of aliens and zoos called "Fearful Symmetry." In this case, aliens are found to be abducting animals from the Fairfield Zoo, and then returning them to Earth...but invisible.
Stories about zoos have also appeared on Buffy the Vampire Slayer ("The Pack") and Primeval (2006 - 2011). In the former case, malevolent hyena spirits possess Xander (Nicholas Brendan) and several Sunnydale High Students after a field trip to the zoo...
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