Post #1234275

I doubt one’s body being completely ravaged by radiation was a common thing for most people in the 60’s, certainly not from exposure aboard a damaged Class J Starship. It was a Sci-Fi trope usually leading to mutation of one kind or another.
In The Menagerie, it was a plot device to get around the absence of Jeffrey Hunter, and a plausible reason for Pike to willingly re-join the Talosians more than anything else.