Wheres the Original 16mm Version of "The Cage" from that Brazilian VHS?

Hi everyone, new member and new trekkie fan from brazil here!

After about 20 years of watching my dad being a Star Trek fan, i finally decided to watch it (started with TOS) in these past Covid months and to my suprise (i am not someone who enjoys much TV programs at all) i couldnt stop watching them, i still havent finished TOS, but i kinda started watching a bit of everything at once (probably not the best route, but when i obsess over something, i go overboard!).

But anyway, after some bonding moments over TOS episodes with dad, the talk about "The Cage" came up, long story short, a long discussion about The Keeper's voice also issued, after a bit of research and talk with him, we were trying to figure out what 100% "black & white" version he had watched many years ago that had The Keeper's voice being female, it turns out that apparently the only known original broadcast of "The Cage" was done to brazilian television back in the day (something to do with an ease of transmission), this version eventually got a VHS release in the 80s and thats how he adquired this version. Sadly we are unable to locate his tape and even if we did, we dont have VHSs anymore.

So i took it to the internet to find this version, sadly i have searched high and low, both in english and portuguese sites for it and came up with nothing. Not even places to buy this version seem to exist anymore.

But i did found a thread in this forum, where apparently a forum member here managed to not only adquire this VHS all the way from brazil, but he digitalized it too:

https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/dvd-blu-ray-release-email-query-re-the-cage-b-w.292807/

So in the end, i ask... is it possible some kind soul, be it the poster from that thread or someone who happens to have this version able to share it with me? It would really bring happiness to me and dad over here!

I hope i am not breaking any major rules, i dont even have the rights to private message anyone, otherwise i would message the guy from that thread, but i am not asking for just any content a person can buy, but rather and oddity that seems to have faded from everyone but the hardcore fans!

At any rate, any help is appreciated in locating this, i leave you guys with a video of the only tidbit i found about the aforementioned version:

 

Hi, welcome to the forum!

I'm from Brazil as well, but I never heard of The Cage being shown here. Back in the day do you mean in the 60s? As far as I know, The Cage was only released in 1986 on VHS, which came from a black and white 16mm workprint from Gene Rodenberry which is the version shown in the video.

 

Just to be absolutely correct, the Keeper never had a female voice. The original pilot film had the Keeper's voice dubbed by actor Malachi Throne. When the pilot was incorporated into the two-part production episode "The Menagerie," Throne played the character Commodore Mendez. Since it would have been confusing for Mendez and the Keeper to have the same voice, the Keeper's voice was pitch-shifted using an analog reel-to-reel tape machine called an Eltro Information Rate Changer.

Of course, it's possible that the Keeper was dubbed with a female voice in Portuguese (or some other language).

 

While i cant personally attest to anything, my father here insists that he saw The Cage on TV before its VHS release, so it would have to be before 86, at the very least.

Well, does the brazilian VHS have brazilian dubbing? If so that might be the case. I know normal TOS has had dubs here, but i am not sure on the pilot episode. I assumed this original 16mm version would have Meg Wyllie's voice, but thats clearly not the case.

 

TOS was always shown dubbed on Brazil, so that's were the confusion about the voice might come from. The closest thing to the pilot are "The Menagerie" episodes, perhaps that's what his thinking about.

 

The black and white work print appears under the special features on my DVD boxset of season 3 of Star Trek. The disks are Region 4, as I'm in New Zealand but I believe Region 4 includes Central and South America. This is the red plastic box that was released in 2004. I'm pretty sure this is the version released on VHS in the 1980s as it has an introduction by Gene Roddenberry standing in one of the film sets.

 

The old rumor was the Vic Perrin (the Halkan Council guy in "Mirror, Mirror") replaced Throne as voice of the Keeper.

Was it really Throne's voice all along, electronically pitch shifted?

 

Yes. If you listen to both versions, you can clearly hear that it's the same voice -- the inflections and intonations are exactly the same. Only the pitch is different.

 

Nice to know theres more than one version out there of the workprint. The DVD version we have here does not contain this workprint (but i think this is an US DVD, so that probably explains it). Only the version with Gene Roddenberry intro.

At any rate, i am far from a film expert, but after watching the blu-ray release and this brazilian 16mm workprint back to back, theres a bit over 30 seconds of additional footage, mostly seems to be lingering shots on many scenes (specially noticiable on Enterprise scenes) that cut just a bit too late. The main attraction is still Malachi Throne's unfiltered voice.

 

That is not the black and white workprint. That version utilizes color footage from the two part episode The Menagerie with The Keeper’s voice not being consistent. The Brazilian VHS is the only time the entire black and white version of the pilot which was In the possession of Gene Roddenberry from his college lectures.

 

Thanks for the clarification @Kamdan as much as I'd like to believe otherwise my memory really is an unreliable source of information. I'd completely forgotten about those colour bits until you reminded me.

 

According to a Brazilian website that is now dead (and can't be retrieved with Internet Aarchive):

"Here in Brazil, the 1986 version was not released, but it is in extras in the Star Trek DVD Box, as was the restored version of 1988. The restored version was released here by the defunct CIC Vídeo in 1990 and was released in 1998 for the market of sell through by the same CIC Video, the 16 mm copying version without restoration. From what appears this version of 16 mm was only released here."

 

I just put "Como tudo comcou" in Google Translate, and it comes back as Portuguese detected: "As everything started."

 

Or, colloquially, “How it all began.”

 

Yes, I have the Brazilian b/w tape.

 

Have you considered doing another transfer of it using HDMI hookups? I’ve done a complete capture of the original series episodes Skybox VHS tapes this way and this is the one episode that would complete it.

 

How do you do it?

 

PM sent.

 

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