Original Opening of Where No Man...

[gomtuu20]

YouTube has an alternate opening for Where No Man Has Gone Before in sort of a Quinn Martin style. Disregaring the Quinn Martin aspect, I think this opening is more effective.

It starts with a picture of a galaxy that is supposed to be our own and has a voiceover by Kirk. He talks about how everything they have known will be a speck and that they are heading into the black void beyond. I think this gives more of the feeling of being out in space and would have made the episode more effective.

The voice over stating that until now their mission had been one of space law regulation is a non-starter. This was one of Roddenberry's early ideas that was eventually scrapped (thankfully), but not before this voice over was done. I have an audiobook introduced by Shatner where he talks about Roddenberry's idea on this and he says something like "Commerce regulation....we didn't even have pockets." Anyway, he says that they are now a probe going to where no man has gone before. This makes the revelation of a signal from a ship missing for 200 years far more effective.

I also noted that Shatner is the only star listed in the opening credit before the commercial break. When they come back, Nimoy is listed as a co-star. But I digress.

The shot of Gary in the Mitchell sort of lusting after the hot yoeman gives a lot of depth of understanding into Mitchell's character that is only hinted at in the final aired version. One could see him and a younger Kirk womanizing together.
The scenes of the corridors that were cut out also increase the feeling that this is a ship, and not a set.

The Quinn Martin "Tonight's episode" etc. stamps do not really contribute anything. I'm glad they dropped those.

Anyway, my humble opinion is that overall, this would have made a more effective opening to the episode, and for the series overall.

This is listed on YouTube as "STAR TREK UNAIRED VERSION 2ND PILOT INTRO from 16mm film". http://youtu.be/GFtc2Ypwzl0

[Grant]

it's on the season 3 blu-ray

[Valin]

Neat. I hadn't seen that before.

[Gary Mitchell]

Grant wrote:

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it's on the season 3 blu-ray

Is it blu ray quality or does it look as rough as it does on Youtube?

[Green Shirt]

Its been on VHS since at least the late 80s.

[ssosmcin]

Gary Mitchell wrote:

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Is it blu ray quality or does it look as rough as it does on Youtube?

It's not super restored like the other episodes, but it looks a TON better than the You Tube vid which was taken from the 16mm print that's been circulating for years. It's actually a really nice print, all things considered.

Check out the Kirk vs Gary fight at the end. You can see the complete fight. with a couple of "knee shots" that were censored in the 60's by putting Sally Kellerman reaction shots over them.

I prefer this version myself. Plus it's got the original sound mix, the only episode on video that's 100% the same as when it was first shown to anyone.

[M]

ssosmcin wrote:

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It's not super restored like the other episodes, ...

Are you sure? Looked just as remastered to me as the rest of the set, to be honest.

[Oso Blanco]

I wish they would release that episode seperately, I don't want to buy the whole box set just for one episode!

[TOSalltheway]

Back in the early 1970s, before DVD PVR, VHS or any other letters I used a cassette player and audio recorded TOS. I had an audio recording of Where No man Has Gone Before with the standard TOS opening but no Kirk narration over it, music only. I have never seen this again.

Any comments ?

[Green Shirt]

TOSalltheway wrote:

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Back in the early 1970s, before DVD PVR, VHS or any other letters I used a cassette player and audio recorded TOS. I had an audio recording of Where No man Has Gone Before with the standard TOS opening but no Kirk narration over it, music only. I have never seen this again.

Any comments ?

Yes, but I'll let someone else explain.

[Mr_Homn]

Here's the youtube video he's referring to.



edit- Ah the embedding doesnt work with that video, but you can still click it to watch on youtube.com

[Oso Blanco]

TOSalltheway wrote:

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Back in the early 1970s, before DVD PVR, VHS or any other letters I used a cassette player and audio recorded TOS. I had an audio recording of Where No man Has Gone Before with the standard TOS opening but no Kirk narration over it, music only. I have never seen this again.

Any comments ?

That's how it appears on my non remastered dvd, the one from the box set.

[ssosmcin]

NCC-1701 wrote:

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Are you sure? Looked just as remastered to me as the rest of the set, to be honest.

Yep, there are many scratches and bits inherent in the age of the film that have not been removed. The colors are not nearly as bright as the rest of the series. They might have done some minor cosmetic work on it, but it really was not given the full treatment. Not only do I think it's pretty obvious, I very much prefer it. I always felt the Blu-Ray prints were "too good" and revealed far too many of the limitations of the time. The prints made for the DVDs were about as far as they should have gone, in my opinion. They look great and you don't see behind the curtain as much.

[Warped9]

I like some of the extra clips, but I do prefer the opening and introduction we actually got. It just smoother and to the point.

I would like to see that extended fight sequence.

[RandyS]

Green Shirt wrote:

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Its been on VHS since at least the late 80s.

And I've had it on VHS (and now DVD-R) for at least that long.

Personally I liked it. Mostly as a curiosity. You know, a sort of "Star Trek that might have been".

Somebody upthread asked about the Blue Ray version. I don't have the Blue Rays, but if you're curious, TrekCore.com has screencaps of both versions under their TOS screencap section. It looks the same as the regular version, only with slightly less color.