Stuck on initial quest. Just standing in cell with no one coming in to start it.

Are you talking about the mainquest. when you are in prison. If so the Question is are You a custom race, it the answer is yes to that then you have to get a small mod to all the game to start http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1815. If the answer is no then you must go upto the gate and start the conversation with the other in mate.
If you are not on the starting quest IE mainquest start of game: then we need just a little more information from you.
hope this helps.

This is one of the more glaring evidences of Bethesda's poor consideration of mods...

Are you saying that when you walk forward to the cell door and step beyond the table, the Dark Elf across the way does not taunt you? Just standing where you start doesn't trigger the events that lead you out of the cell.

If so, are you using a custom race (without the Unofficial Oblivion Patch, or the standalone custom race fix for this issue)? Without such a fix, the Dark Elf prisoner across the hall only speaks to the standard races, and does not trigger the Emperor's entrance.

If you are not using a custom race, are you using any other mods that might affect the initial prison cell? If you don't know, you might want to post your mod list so that we can look at it.

If you're not using any mods, you've posted in the wrong section and should click the 'Report' button under your original post and ask to have a moderator move the thread to the Hardware/Software forum (for problems with the standard, unmodded game).