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Sci-fi Channel's Star Trek Special edition (a WIP)

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From wikipedia :

From September 1 to December 24, 1998, the Sci-Fi Channel broadcast a “Special Edition” of all The Original Series episodes in an expanded 90-minute format hosted by William Shatner. Approximately 3–4 minutes of each episode that had been edited out of the syndicated shows for additional commercial time were restored for the “Special Edition” broadcast. In addition to introductory and post-episode commentary by Shatner, the episodes included interviews with members of the regular production team and cast, writers, guest stars, and critics (titled as “Star Trek Insights”). The episodes were broadcast in the original broadcast sequence, followed by “The Cage” (in a 105-minute segment). (for details on each episode’s original airdate, see List of Star Trek: The Original Series episodes). Leonard Nimoy hosted a second run from December 28, 1998 to March 24, 1999, but not all the episodes were broadcast because the show was abruptly cancelled before completion.

Did anybody from this forum record these “special edition” episodes ? I managed to found some of them on youtube, e.g. on this guy’s channel : http://www.youtube.com/user/potablog but all of the segments are

  1. incomplete

  2. very, VERY low quality

  3. watermarked

Is there any chance that somebody of you have recorded the episodes when they were broadcast ? I don’t care about the episodes themselves, the same versions were released on the DVDs which I own, I’m just interested in the documentary segments

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I have every single one. It was a big event for me. I might even have a few from when Nimoy hosted a replay once I discovered he wasn't stating the same anecdotes. Even labeled them "Limited Edition" since what George did was too fresh at the time.

 

That said, I currently have no way of backing them up digitally. Sorry about that.


Made for IE Forum's Episode III theme month - May 2005.

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Klingon_Jedi said:

I have every single one. It was a big event for me. I might even have a few from when Nimoy hosted a replay once I discovered he wasn't stating the same anecdotes. Even labeled them "Limited Edition" since what George did was too fresh at the time.

 

That said, I currently have no way of backing them up digitally. Sorry about that.

I would gladly transfer them.  You have a pm.

:)

I believe I have a few episodes on VHS ..... I will dig out the tapes to see if it's the Shatner or Nimoy hosted series .....

 

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Not all the Nimoy host segments were aired. Nimoy's were taped first, and were SUPPOSED to air first, but Sci-Fi ended up pulling a switcheroo and starting off with Shatner's instead. (Maybe Shatner had a better agent?) When they were two-thirds of the way into the Nimoy versions, the new programming manager Bonnie Hammer initiated a change of direction at the network (the "SciFi 2.0"/"I am SciFi" era), and the Star Trek SEs were abruptly taken off the schedule.

Transcripts of the unaired Nimoy host segments subsequently surfaced on Sci-Fi's Dominion message board (which no longer exists), and were mirrored on a Nimoy fansite (which also no longer exists). Fortunately, through the power of Internet Archive, I salvaged the transcripts and put them into a text file. They could make an interesting bonus for this project.

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You guys are great, I hope this collaboration will lead to something great :-)

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Chalk up another fandom Bonnie Hammer flipped the bird at. Glad someone recorded these. :)

Major blunder for Paramount not to license these and put them on the boxsets. I imagine the actors would have to be compensated if the segments were used.

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

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I'd love to see this happen. I started off taping them, but then gave up and didn't even save what I had.

This might seem a silly request, but there was one episode of this Sci-Fi run (and unfortunately I don't remember which one) that aired the original art card (of the Enterprise in orbit around a planet with the ST logo beneath) that exists on the negatives after the opening credits. It's silent, to allow room for a network audio cart to be played on air of an announcer saying "Star Trek, brought to you by"...at which point an ad would have been spliced in.

The card lasts maybe 4 seconds, and seems odd and out of place in a modern context, especially without an announcer. It's the only time I've ever seen it aired, (not being quite old enough to have watched the original network run), and to me is an interesting document of how the episodes were delivered to the network. So, if and when you're digitizing the intros, please zip forward though the credits and see if you can find the one time this happened, and preserve it, too.

Thanks! :)

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I saw a commercial bumper (with a few musical notes not heard elsewhere in TOS scores) once or twice in syndication. I presume it aired accidentally.

Third Season Commercial Bumper (with off screen production details)

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Where were you in '77?

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Neat! How silly of me, I hadn't thought about bumpers for all the act breaks.

Anyone who's seen the recent remasterings of The Twilight Zone on DVD and bluRay knows how fun it is to see this stuff intact.

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Color me interested in this if it happens. I've grabbed all the ones I can find on youtube, which is all of season 1 and scattered bits of seasons 2-3.

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Jetrel Fo/Klingon_Jedi - any news ? :-)

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pittrek said:

Jetrel Fo/Klingon_Jedi - any news ? :-)

I have gotten no response from Klingon_Jedi with regards to my offer.  Sorry.

:(

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My brother has a ton of these, if not all of them. I just bought a video capture device, but I don't know if he even has a VCR any more. I'm visiting him this summer, I should see what he's got.

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Imrahil said:

My brother has a ton of these, if not all of them. I just bought a video capture device, but I don't know if he even has a VCR any more. I'm visiting him this summer, I should see what he's got.

 

This is a good alternative option to have and I know we've got plenty of folks who would appreciate it, including myself. :)
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Imrahil said:

My brother has a ton of these, if not all of them. I just bought a video capture device, but I don't know if he even has a VCR any more. I'm visiting him this summer, I should see what he's got.

So.. did you visit your brother?

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I did! However, I didn't bring the VC device :p.  I can talk to him and see if he wants to rip any. I have a new kid on the way (due date in 2 weeks), so it's probably not happening for me anytime soon.

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Imrahil said:

I did! However, I didn't bring the VC device :p.  I can talk to him and see if he wants to rip any. I have a new kid on the way (due date in 2 weeks), so it's probably not happening for me anytime soon.

Congrats for sure.  Too bad your brother wouldn't loan them out to be archived.  I've got the necessary equipment to do the initial transfer.  Any editing for clean up or what not is a different story.

Please keep us posted and have fun with daddyhood, it's awesome.

:)

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Is the only thing that makes these different from modern releases the fact that there are Shatner/Nimoy chats in the beginning?  I know that some material cut from the original broadcast was restored for these, but is this same material restored for the DVD/BDs, or does it actually include material never released on DVD/BD?

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As I recall, the material restored was only material that was cut to make space for ads as the program went into syndication over the years. I'm reasonably certain that it's all been restored for DVD/BD. I think the main reason for the Shatner/Nimoy bumps and the other interview material was to get the program up to a running time for a 90minute timeslot, which is how it aired on SciFi, so they wouldn't have to sacrifice commercial time to add back in the material cut for syndication.

I used to be very active on this forum. I’m not really anymore. Sometimes, people still want to get in touch with me about something, and that is great! If that describes you, please email me at [my username]ATgmailDOTcom.

Hi everybody. You’re all awesome. Keep up the good work.

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darth_ender said:

Is the only thing that makes these different from modern releases the fact that there are Shatner/Nimoy chats in the beginning?  I know that some material cut from the original broadcast was restored for these, but is this same material restored for the DVD/BDs, or does it actually include material never released on DVD/BD?

The "episodes" restored for this TV broadcast were released on DVD. The BluRay versions are again different. The interviews were only shown on TV, they were not released anywhere.

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Thanks guys.  I'm glad to know I'm not missing anything :)