Help: looking for... 'Star Trek - The Cage' - narrated by Patrick Stewart, & more

Author: pittrek
Date: 5-Dec-2005, 4:57 AM

Author: pittrek
Time: 5-Dec-2005 4:57 AM (Edited)
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Hi, from what I know, there are 2 different versions of this classic pilot. The first version was a hybrid version in color with deleted scenes added to the movie in B&W. This Color / B&W hybrid was aired as a part of a special 3 hours (I think) show narrated by Patrick Stewart, which also featured a long documentary about the next generation crew.This show was very long and very good.

The second version of The Cage was released on VHS I think, it was completely in colour and had a unique Gene Roddenberry introduction.

Does anybody have at least one of these versions ? Maybe even the complete Patrick Stewart show ?
I think it would be really nice to see these things on DVD

Author: pittrek
Time: 5-Dec-2005 7:12 AM
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Aha, so the show narrated by P.Stewart was just 2 hours long

, and it's name was
Star Trek : From One Generation To The Next and it was aired between October 3 and 9 in 1988.

Anybody having it ?

Author: sy278
Time: 5-Dec-2005 8:35 AM
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Im pretty sure i have both the standard colour and the colour + B&W composite somewhere on VHS, I'll check and post back.

Author: skyjedi2005
Time: 5-Dec-2005 11:42 AM
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I have the dvd It has both versions and was not included in the star trek box sets. The other thing you mentioned is actually the star trek 25th anniversary special which is on vhs and laserdisc.

it was included in the final single dvd release of turnabout intruder on season 3 as bonus materials. The new completely remastered "lost Color pilot" in color and in 5.1 audio. It stars Jeffrey Hunter as captain christopher pike and is quite a lot like the movie forbidden planet.

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Author: SilverWook
Time: 5-Dec-2005 6:15 PM
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The special Patrick Stewart hosted was the first public airing of the complete pilot with the restored "lost" color footage. The footage was originally cut from "The Cage" when it was reworked into the two part episode "The Menagerie" of the original series. The early video release filled in these gaps with black and white footage from Gene Roddenberry's personal copy. For the tv special, Stewart did a short retrospective on how the show began and it's long history. After the pilot was over, Stewart narrated a short preview for the second season of TNG. (Which was delayed by a writer's strike at the time, the special also being a clever way to tide the fans over.) I may still have this on tape, but I'm pretty sure it was missing a few minutes at the beginning and the end credits.

Both versions of the pilots were released on Laserdisc and the last volume of Paramount's first DVD release of the series.

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Author: eros
Time: 5-Dec-2005 7:00 PM
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In the UK the first of the remastered VHS boxsets Star Trek The Original Series tape number 1.1 had the colour version of the cage as well as 'Where no man has gone before' and 'the corbomite manouvre' (spelling!!) It also had an introduction by James Doohan

Author: pittrek
Time: 7-Dec-2005 4:18 AM
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Well I saw the show just once , about 12 years ago on a german TV (Sat1, I think) and since then I'm looking for a copy. Are you sure this thing was officialy released ? From what I've read on a ST fan site,just the full-color version of 'the cage' with the Gene Roddenberry intro was released and only on VHS.Now I'm confused...

Author: eros
Time: 7-Dec-2005 6:17 PM
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Paramount VHS- STAR TREK The Original Series 1.1 -catalogue number; VHR 4301.

Author: pittrek
Time: 8-Dec-2005 7:33 AM
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Is here anybody who has the full anniversary show and ehm.. doesn't want it anymore ? Or makin' a DVD ?
Or anybody who doesn't want his/her copy of the official VHS anymore ?

Author: tbird97
Time: 1-Oct-2015 10:16 AM
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I'm fairly certain my dad has a vhs tape sitting around with the full tv special. If so, it was recorded over the air or cable tv onto an extended vhs tape (I'm sure it wasn't set to the 2 hour standard play).
If this is something you are interested in, send me a PM.

Author: Danfun128
Time: 1-Oct-2015 11:13 AM (Edited)
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Nobody sang The Bunny Song in years…

Author: tbird97
Time: 1-Oct-2015 11:32 AM
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Ha ha! Yes, brought it back from the dead. I just happened to be browsing the list of topics.

Author: Mavimao
Time: 1-Oct-2015 3:48 PM
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Just to update the information: there are 3 versions of The Cage. One is Rodenberry's personal b/w 16mm copy. Another is a blend of the 16mm and the color negative from The Menagerie and the 3rd is the full restored color version. For the latter, the actual full negative was discovered by a fan and the full version was finally intact. All except the sound... The stems were never found for the scenes that are not part of The Menagerie and the rest had to be ripped from the 16mm print.

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Author: TServo2049
Time: 1-Oct-2015 4:31 PM
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Actually, I believe what was located was color silent negative just for the stuff that was cut out for The Menagerie. A couple scenes that were used in The Menagerie had extra lines of dialogue on Roddenberry's print that didn't show up in any of the official releases, so I am assuming they were missing from the negative. (Not sure why they weren't in the hybrid version either; regardless, the only way you can hear these scenes are audio recordings from a sci-fi convention that are on YouTube.)

There was apparently a color print of The Cage, in private hands, that had completely faded to red. It was on eBay once, but I believe the reserve was not met, and now it seems to have been chopped up into individual frames to be sold as collectibles (not by CBS/Paramount, to be absolutely clear). I guess we will never know if it had the missing stuff that was only in the B&W 16mm.

Author: Mavimao
Time: 1-Oct-2015 4:59 PM
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TServo2049 said:

Actually, I believe what was located was color silent negative just for the stuff that was cut out for The Menagerie. A couple scenes that were used in The Menagerie had extra lines of dialogue on Roddenberry's print that didn't show up in any of the official releases, so I am assuming they were missing from the negative. (Not sure why they weren't in the hybrid version either; regardless, the only way you can hear these scenes are audio recordings from a sci-fi convention that are on YouTube.)

There was apparently a color print of The Cage, in private hands, that had completely faded to red. It was on eBay once, but I believe the reserve was not met, and now it seems to have been chopped up into individual frames to be sold as collectibles (not by CBS/Paramount, to be absolutely clear). I guess we will never know if it had the missing stuff that was only in the B&W 16mm.

That is true. The negative was cut to use certain scenes for The Menagerie and the rest was put away. This is the negative that was later discovered for the restoration.

Interesting about the lines. I looked them up on Youtube. It's not very much, but it bizarre why they would be missing from both the restored versions...? It could be that the first restoration had some missing frames and cut around it and the new color restoration used the previous "edited" restoration as a guide.

What’s the internal temperature of a TaunTaun? Luke warm.

Author: TServo2049
Time: 1-Oct-2015 8:26 PM (Edited)
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They may have ignored them so that they could use uninterrupted picture/sound from The Menagerie without cutting back and forth between the Menagerie picture/sound and the B&W Cage picture/sound in the space of a few seconds.

For the color restoration, my suspicions are that there is no color negative for those parts. (Or maybe they WERE lazy - for example, even in the modern restorations, they don't seem to want to do the effort to put Malachi Throne's Keeper dialogue back in and still use the higher-quality Menagerie audio surrounding it. I know it can be done.)

Author: Molly
Time: 2-Oct-2015 2:17 AM
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Could some of the color, perhaps, be interpolated?

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Author: dlbsyst
Time: 4-Oct-2015 9:12 PM
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tbird97 said:

I'm fairly certain my dad has a vhs tape sitting around with the full tv special. If so, it was recorded over the air or cable tv onto an extended vhs tape (I'm sure it wasn't set to the 2 hour standard play).
If this is something you are interested in, send me a PM.

I have this special in my collection of old VHS recordings. It was recorded in SP mode and is of pretty good quality. It wasn't, however recorded by me because back in 1987-88 I was only 22-23 years old and didn't even own a VCR. At this point I'm not even clear who did record this for me. Might have been my older sister. I do remember asking someone to record it for me though. Anyway, I have begun transferring all of my old tapes to digital. I have purchased a JVC S-VHS VCR for playback and a Hauppauge Colossus capture card to capture the recording. Also, I am upscaling the image to 1080i using a DVDO Edge video Processor. I have then taken the resulting .TS file with AAC 2 channel audio and placed it into a .M2TS container. Then I have converted the AAC audio to AC3 and made a Blu-ray. I am watching the Blu-ray now on my Sony player and while not perfect, I am very pleased with the results. My goal was to capture the tape 1:1 with the best possible quality. Also I have not attempted any processing or cutting of the image or sound with the exception of upscaling the image to 1080i and converting the AAC to AC3 (AAC is not compatible with Blu-ray).

Author: SilverWook
Time: 4-Oct-2015 9:43 PM
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Would be nice to have a more complete version than my old recording out there. Mine was missing a bit at the beginning. :)

Are the commercial breaks intact?

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Author: dlbsyst
Time: 4-Oct-2015 9:53 PM (Edited)
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SilverWook said:

Would be nice to have a more complete version than my old recording out there. Mine was missing a bit at the beginning. :)

Are the commercial breaks intact?

Hi SilverWook. Yes, all of the commercials are intact as are the end credits. Where does your recording start. Mine starts with Patrick Stewart which is the actual start of the program. I was looking at a YouTube video and it shows an intro talking about the special before it starts. My recording doesn't include that part.

Author: SilverWook
Time: 4-Oct-2015 10:07 PM
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Been a while since I've watched mine, but I think it starts in mid sentence talking about what the world was like in the 60's when Star Trek began.

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Author: dlbsyst
Time: 4-Oct-2015 10:35 PM
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SilverWook said:

Been a while since I've watched mine, but I think it starts in mid sentence talking about what the world was like in the 60's when Star Trek began.

Oh, OK. Does sound like you are missing a few minutes from the beginning.

Author: pittrek
Time: 5-Oct-2015 3:05 AM
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Wow, I completely forgot I was a member 10 years ago :-) I have a feeling that I have my copy from you, Silverwook, correct? If so, I have a feeling it starts during Roddenberry's interview.

dlbsyst - any chance that you share your recording?

Author: dlbsyst
Time: 5-Oct-2015 1:27 PM
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pittrek said:

Wow, I completely forgot I was a member 10 years ago :-) I have a feeling that I have my copy from you, Silverwook, correct? If so, I have a feeling it starts during Roddenberry's interview.

dlbsyst - any chance that you share your recording?

Yes but I'm not willing to post to the organ site. I would be willing to share it with someone here directly if that person is able to post to the organ site. This person also needs a fast download speed of at least 20 mbps. If someone is willing pm me for details.

Author: Jetrell Fo
Time: 5-Oct-2015 1:34 PM
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dlbsyst said:

pittrek said:

Wow, I completely forgot I was a member 10 years ago :-) I have a feeling that I have my copy from you, Silverwook, correct? If so, I have a feeling it starts during Roddenberry's interview.

dlbsyst - any chance that you share your recording?

Yes but I'm not willing to post to the organ site. I would be willing to share it with someone here directly if that person is able to post to the organ site. This person also needs a fast download speed of at least 20 mbps. If someone is willing pm me for details.

This is great news. I hope we get to see it. Me love Star Trek, LOL.