pittrek

From Bill Williams:

Hi Andy,

I have some comments on your review of Star Trek: Season 3, pertaining to "The Cage". You shared that both versions of "The Cage" are on the new DVD set. There are actually three different versions that have been released to home video, all of them with varying episode labels, along with a fourth unreleased variant. Allow me to explain:

The first version is the original hybrid version that was released on VHS in 1986 as "Episode 1". This is the same version that has appeared on both Vol. 40 of the single-disc releases in 2001, and on this new DVD set, as "Episode 99", containing as much of the color footage that was used in the 2-parter "The Menagerie", black and white footage from Gene Roddenberry's workprint version of "The Cage", and the wraparound commentary from Roddenberry on the ST movie sets. On the S3 set, this version is presented in a 2.0 mono mix.

The second version is actually the first full-color version that appeared to the public on October 4, 1988 as part of the syndicated TV special "The Star Trek Saga: From One Generation to the Next" (with 30 minutes of wrap-around interview segments with the Original Series and TNG casts). This full-color version was later released on VHS and LD in 1989 as "Episode 99". This version has the same 2.0 mono audio track as the original hybrid version, and some of the restored color sequences were electronically slowed to account for missing gaps of footage that have, unfortunately, been lost forever. This second version remains unreleased to date. Rumors surfaced during the 90's that the color footage was in fact computer colorized, but the footage is too precise in its color balancing and tinting to be computer coloring.

The third version is the recent restored version that first surfaced on the Vol. 40 DVD in 2001 and on the new DVD set. This version is labeled "Episode 1" and has the erroneous first broadcast date of October 15, 1988 on Disc 7 of the set. The major differences with this "Episode 1" and the 1988-89 version are a more balanced resequencing of the restored color footage, the digitally enhanced 5.1 mix, an additional 2.0 mix (this is only available on the S3 set), the digitally enhanced voices of the Talosians, and a better musical sound mix restoring nearly all of Alexander Courage's original score. In the case of the latter, one piece of music underscoring Pike and Vina on Rigel VII is NOT the original Courage score, but rather a re-scoring from a later date. If you listen carefully to this section of music in both DVD versions, you will notice some substantial differences in its performances, though the music is similar. Also, listen to the digitally enhanced voices of the Talosians in the restored footage. You can make out some very distinct sound hisses in the audio mix. Finally, to account for the restored color footage, some 5-6 second of footage has been trimmed from the overall re-edit.

Even with all of this restored footage, digital enhancing, and resequencing to the 1988- 89 VHS and 2001 DVD versions, there are still approximately 30 seconds of footage that unfortunately have been lost forever. The sad case behind it is, when it was decided to fold "The Cage" into the series' 2-parter "The Menagerie", Gene Roddenberry loaned out his only color master to the film editors, with the belief that they would make a duplicate print for editing purposes and return the original to him. The film editors, however, thought that Roddenberry had given him a duplicate print to begin with and went to work in editing the necessary footage for the 2-parter. Imagine the s--t that hit the fan as a result of this miscommunication!

This leads to a fourth, unreleased version, and that is Roddenberry's black and white workprint version of "The Cage". This one looks and sounds rougher in places, as Roddenberry had taken it to science fiction conventions over the years and showed it to fans. If you look at the 1986 VHS version ("Episode 99" on the DVDs), you'll notice portions of the black and white footage that is present only in that version and not in other versions. Some die-hard Trek fans have wanted to see this black and white workprint version released in an official capacity, but to this day it remains unreleased. (Of course, there is the case of the unreleased alternate version of "Where No Man Has Gone Before", but that is a story for another day.)

In addition, very rare outtakes from "The Cage", showing production occurring as late as December 15-18, 1964, have not been seen by a lot of people - except for those who saw the E! documentary on the life of Jeffrey Hunter. When StarTrek.com commented on the production of "The Cage" and referenced the Justman/Solow book "Inside Star Trek", I forwarded the editor a .wav file of the "Cage" outtakes as documentation, and the article has since been updated and clarified with this information.

While the restored 2001 DVD version of "The Cage" is not the original version as Roddenberry had originally filmed, it does remain as close as possible to what Roddenberry had intended and stands to this day as close to the original version that can be achieved. Hope this helps!

Originally posted by: Wookie Groomer




Who would that be? I used something entirely different and it will be obvious once you watch it from the beginning.

Originally posted by: Moth3r
People, please read our FAQ - especially points 3 and 8b.

Taking the GOUT DVD and adding alternative sound mixes (or converting to anamorphic, adding custom menus, whatever) does not count as a fan edit, nor as a preservation effort. The separate audio files are available to download, the GOUT DVDs are official releases and are/were available to buy.

Although we have no problems with you making posts about your own "custom" DVDs that you've made, please refrain from discussing distribution of such discs on the forum. Thanks.