The Alternative Factor Film Length

[Sham Mountebank]

Does anyone know the length of an unedited 35mm film print of The Alternative Factor? It's a slightly random question, but I've recently been sent some information by the BBC Written Archive Centre about their Star Trek broadcasts. Included in this information is the film length in feet, which seems to have been their standard unit for recording the running time.

The Doomsday Machine has a length of 4512'; Miri 4508'; Mirror, Mirror 4500'; but The Alternative Factor only runs to 4200'. There are a few websites which let you calculate the running time from the physical length, and this suggests that the BBC print of The Alternative Factor ran for about 46 minutes and 40 seconds which is a quite a way short of the full running time of the episode.

Does anyone know if the film print of The Alternative Factor was shorter than usual, or could the BBC have done some fairly radical editing before it was broadcast? Of course it's always possible that the person typing up the documentation misread a 5 as a 2.

 

[HGN2001]

I know the episode has some troubled history, but the length on my Blu-ray comes out to pretty much exactly what the other episodes time out at: 50 min and 33 secs.

If there's a 46 minute version, it's likely the chopped version for syndication.

Harry

 

[Michael]

Whoa, for a second there you had me actually contemplating the existence of a feature-length version of “The Alternative Factor”. The episode as is already feels twice as long as it should to me.

 

[Sham Mountebank]

I know the episode has some troubled history, but the length on my Blu-ray comes out to pretty much exactly what the other episodes time out at: 50 min and 33 secs.

If there's a 46 minute version, it's likely the chopped version for syndication.
Harry

Good point. I'd forgotten about the syndicated versions. The BBC does seem to have been sold the syndicated prints because when I brought And The Children Shall Lead on VHS I remember being confused at the existence of a long cave scene on Triacus I had never seen before.

Whoa, for a second there you had me actually contemplating the existence of a feature-length version of “The Alternative Factor”. The episode as is already feels twice as long as it should to me.

A feature-length version of The Alternative Factor might be the only occasion when too much Star Trek would be a bad thing.

 

[FormerLurker]

Unless they fixed everything wrong with it to do so. Little things like Lazarus's beard, and huge things like the story making no sense whatsoever.

 

[toonloon]

I've always wished Vic Mignogna and his team would take The Alternative Factor and 'fix' it by re-shooting the stuff with Lazarus (with Vic in the role) and Lt. Masters (a new actress) to bring the love story to the fore and to be more like the script that John Barrymore agreed to play and then didn't turn up for work when he didn't like the rewrite. This type of retro-fitting was done brilliantly in the 90's with DS9 so I'm sure it could be amazing to see what they could do today.

 

[Unicron]

Whoa, for a second there you had me actually contemplating the existence of a feature-length version of “The Alternative Factor”. The episode as is already feels twice as long as it should to me.

I thought the same thing at first.

 

[Maurice]

The "love story" was junked because it was felt that Masters was pulling a Lt. McGivers, and it was bad to do that twice. The script is a mess. Let it rot in peace.

 

[Lt. Tyler]

I like dozing off to The Alternative Factor on Sunday afternoons.

 

[Borjis]

AAAAAAHHHHHHH! (falls down another cliff)

 

[Sir Rhosis]

...more like the script that John Barrymore agreed to play and then didn't turn up for work when he didn't like the rewrite. This type of retro-fitting was done brilliantly in the 90's with DS9 so I'm sure it could be amazing to see what they could do today.

This is the first time I've heard that Barrymore failed to show because he didn't like the rewrite. I'm curious where you heard this from.

Thanks,

Sir Rhosis

 

[Harvey]

This is the first time I've heard that Barrymore failed to show because he didn't like the rewrite. I'm curious where you heard this from.

Thanks,

Sir Rhosis

That's how Marc Cushman's version goes, based largely on a memo from Joe D'Agosta (emphasis mine):

"Between 4 and 5 p.m., [Barrymore] sent word that he did not want to do the role and refused to accept a work call for filming the following morning, November 17. With the cooperation of his agent and lawyer, I told him that he was committed and had to report to work. Mr. Barrymore then became unavailable and out of reach. His reasons were that the script changes had altered his character."

 

[UnknownSample]

The awkward moments in AF never spoiled it for me. It's always been a favorite of mine, because of the great, compelling core of the story, and the SF content.

 

[ChristopherPike]

From what I recall reading about this episode and the very last minute recasting of Lazarus - Barrymore had a history of frequently falling off the wagon... and his failure to turn up on set was for this reason. One wonders whether this official memo about having issues with a script rewrite is entirely accurate. Not simply a way of avoiding disgrace for a distinguished actor.