Poll The Cage or The Menagerie

[Methuselah Flint]

I've messaged alchemist...

 

[alchemist]

It's not.

Not a good assumption, and it's not your fault. GR had a print, not a workprint.

Non sequitur, your facts are uncoordinated. But seriously, I have an unassembled workprint of the pilot that has all the originally-filmed material including the deleted portions of the Orion illusion sequence.

I want to clarify this because, in my haste, I didn't make the point I wanted to. That is, that there were at least a couple of different workprints made for the pilot and I have a previously assembled version of one of them. My rolls contain some unused and unseen material including some of the deleted portions of the Orion illusion sequence. Other workprint versions may have different content.

 

[Ssosmcin]

So for example, those two sleazy dudes in the Orion slave girl sequence sound like their lines are abruptly cut off and the shot suddenly changes. There’s more to these?

 

[alchemist]

So for example, those two sleazy dudes in the Orion slave girl sequence sound like their lines are abruptly cut off and the shot suddenly changes. There’s more to these?

Yep.

 

[Ssosmcin]

I always wondered why guys like Solow and Justman said the pilot was around 90 minutes. I have no idea how much closer a completely restored cut would run to that, but it’s tantalizing to consider

 

[Methuselah Flint]

Exciting, wow!! Do you have any extra footage or set up stuff of the Vina aging sequence?

 

[mb22]

So when are we going to the editing bay?

So for example, those two sleazy dudes in the Orion slave girl sequence sound like their lines are abruptly cut off and the shot suddenly changes. There’s more to these?

http://startrekhistory.com/cagepage.html Scroll down and read excerpts from the script and images of deleted parts.

 

[Noname Given]

I always wondered why guys like Solow and Justman said the pilot was around 90 minutes. I have no idea how much closer a completely restored cut would run to that, but it’s tantalizing to consider

^^^
It was 90 minutes because if it didn't sell as a pilot, they were planing to release it as a one shot film in some theater markets of the time (and they had it in the Leads contracts that they could be asked back to do some re-shoots if that came to pass).

 

[Ssosmcin]

^^^
It was 90 minutes because if it didn't sell as a pilot, they were planing to release it as a one shot film in some theater markets of the time (and they had it in the Leads contracts that they could be asked back to do some re-shoots if that came to pass).

Actually, from what I thought, it was said it was 90 minutes. There are also memos I believe of Roddenberry asking if they can film additional material in order to make a motion picture. So on one hand it was either 90 minutes (Solow’s recollection) and on the they didn’t have enough material to make it a full motion picture.

If it truly was 90 minutes that’s almost 20 minutes of footage missing.

 

[Noname Given]

Actually, from what I thought, it was said it was 90 minutes. There are also memos I believe of Roddenberry asking if they can film additional material in order to make a motion picture. So on one hand it was either 90 minutes (Solow’s recollection) and on the they didn’t have enough material to make it a full motion picture.

If it truly was 90 minutes that’s almost 20 minutes of footage missing.

It could be that either the script had 90 minutes of material (IE the story was padded out more); or they filmed 90 minutes worth of material, but cut it down to 60 or whatever the final cut they showed to the NBC execs and test audiences. (And I know the pilot was test screened because both my mother and father told me they went to screen a 'free pilot' and it was a version of Star Trek that didn't have James Kirk and a woman was second in Command. They told me the audience roared with laughter when Spock cam on the screen. Many thought the ears and eyebrows looked ridiculous).

 

[mb22]

Go to the script and see if the missing material would come to 20 minutes:
http://www.knowitalljoe.com/exclusive-star-trek-cage-unreleased-original-pilot-script/

The lengthiest cuts that I can think of offhand are in the Orion illusion:
http://www.startrekhistory.com/cagepage.html

and this discussion among Pike and the female captives:
https://intl.startrek.com/article/first-look-star-trek-lost-scenes

 

[ZapBrannigan]

(And I know the pilot was test screened because both my mother and father told me they went to screen a 'free pilot' and it was a version of Star Trek that didn't have James Kirk and a woman was second in Command. They told me the audience roared with laughter when Spock cam on the screen. Many thought the ears and eyebrows looked ridiculous).

Fascinating. And I've never heard the thing about people laughing. But that could be part of the test audience story that Roddenberry would choose not to tell.

Bjo Trimble has said that she went to a science fiction convention in 1966, and a then-unknown Gene Roddenberry screened WNMHGB. The crowd liked it, and then he said something like, "I have another film to show you, but this one's in black and white." And apparently that was his personal copy of "The Cage", the one later used to assemble the hybrid color release. Again no mention of laughter, but that crowd would be more open minded to a sci-fi film.

The con attendees who got in to see that double feature got their money's worth. How great that must have been, to get your first ST experience on a big screen.

 

[Noname Given]

Fascinating. And I've never heard the thing about people laughing. But that could be part of the test audience story that Roddenberry would choose not to tell.

Bjo Trimble has said that she went to a science fiction convention in 1966, and a then-unknown Gene Roddenberry screened WNMHGB. The crowd liked it, and then he said something like, "I have another film to show you, but this one's in black and white." And apparently that was his personal copy of "The Cage", the one later used to assemble the hybrid color release. Again no mention of laughter, but that crowd would be more open minded to a sci-fi film.

The con attendees who got in to see that double feature got their money's worth. How great that must have been, to get your first ST experience on a big screen.

Well, on a further note, I brought up that the creator had said the women of the audience LIKED the fact that a woman was the Exec and second in command. My mother actually didn't, and she said not because she was against women's lib or anything (although she said she didn't care about women's lib one way or the other back then; but thought women going out and burning their bras was ridiculous) - but more because she didn't want anyone in the Military to maybe get the idea - "Hey, we COULD draft women for the armed forces too." I do have a sister but had they continued the draft, and included women, she wouldn't have been of draft age until 1973; but even in 1966, nightly Vietnam fighting reports were appearing on network news.