Big Budget TOS Episode

[johnnybear]

Another Enterprise scenario would have prevented them from making Mirror, Mirror in season Two! So I'm glad they didn't have another version of the ship in The Alternative Factor as we wouldn't have had the classic episode in the following year!
JB

 

[somebuddyX]

I don't think there's anything wrong with the episode but I think Tomorrow is Yesterday would be cool to expand on. Like, seeing the fighter jet inside the tractor beam and experiencing the horror as it's being ripped apart, or some location shooting at the military base to give it some more life.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Well.... according to Trek people, anyway. There's some evidence that the "No Place to Hide" pilot for Lost In Space might've been even more expensive than "The Cage" (see previous caveats about comparing budgets between studios).

True, and according to the book The Giants Are Coming, the 1967 pilot for Land of the Giants was quite costly, and its average episode actually cost more than TOS. Not sure how accurate Star Trek Myths Debunked is, but they posted a list of the per-episode cost of a number of sci-fi and/or high concept TV series from the 60s and 70s:

$250,000* — Land of the Giants (1968–1970)
$210,000* — Space:1999 (1975–1977)
$185,000* — Star Trek (1966–1969)
$180,000* — Mission: Impossible (1966–1973)
$140,000* — Lost in Space (1965–1968)
$120,000* — The Outer Limits (1963–1965)

Fascinating if accurate. Then again, LOTG required major FX shots (compositing) in every episode, and had a boatload of giant props constructed (including a partially animated hand) not recycled from older productions.

As to the "unprecedented" claim re the 2nd pilot @Harvey pretty thoroughly debunked this on his Star Trek Fact Check blog (link).

Sci-fi was a bigger gamble back then and it's harder to recycle props between productions - .

Not so much of gamble. Sci-fi had a healthy presence on 1960s American TV: The Outer Limits, four Irwin Allen series, TOS (of course), and The Invaders, not to mention that the pilot movie for The Immortal aired in 1969, so studios/networks were not necessarily shy about greenlighting sci-fi.

 

[Maurice]

Fascinating if accurate. Then again, LOTG required major FX shots (compositing) in every episode, and had a boatload of giant props constructed (including a partially animated hand) not recycled from older productions.

I know for a fact that Mission and Mannix had higher Network Licensing fees (CBS) and routinely came in costing more than contemporary Trek episodes, so I dunno that the Mission figure there is accurate...unless that is what they shows were budgeted for but routinely ran over. @Harvey knows this subject better than I though.

 

[Harvey]

I know for a fact that Mission and Mannix had higher Network Licensing fees (CBS) and routinely came in costing more than contemporary Trek episodes, so I dunno that the Mission figure there is accurate...unless that is what they shows were budgeted for but routinely ran over. @Harvey knows this subject better than I though.

If you follow the link that page cites for the Mission: Impossible budget, it says the budget was "at least $180,000 per episode." I don't have a ton of data points at the moment — I've only dabbled with the Bruce Geller papers — but I do have a couple of data points from the show's third season (1968-69), and they're both higher than that figure.

Mission Impossible Episode (Episode Budget/Actual Cost)

"The Heir Apparent" ($193,945/$198,328)
"The Mercenaries" ($192,883/$216,600)

I have more information regarding the second season of Mannix (also the 1968-69 broadcast season):

Mannix Episode (Episode Budget/Actual Cost)

"A Copy of Murder" ($183,977/$187,210)
"Edge of the Knife" ($188,974/$192,743)
"End of the Rainbow ($182,439/$188,568)
"Only Giants Can Play" ($186,763/$197,514)
"Pressure Point" ($179,517/$180,210)
"In Need of a Friend" ($182,458/$187,016)
"The Silent Cry" ($176,891/$183,884)
"To The Swiftest, Death" ($187,838/$191,364)
"Who Will Dig The Graves?" ($187,850/$206,995)

Bruce Geller couldn't keep costs down like Fred Freiberger (notice how none of these episodes came in under budget; something which regularly occurred with Freiberger on Star Trek's third season, also produced 1968-69). Apparently, Geller was eventually banned from the Paramount lot as a result of these cost overruns, becoming an executive producer in name only on Mannix and Mission: Impossible.

 

[Spectre Of The Fun]

If only there was a blog out there with an unnecessarily detailed, book-length series of posts about the making of "The Alternative Factor."

If only...

(Check my signature...)

Thanks I am getting through your posts. Great stuff. I like this flawed episode better than most fans. I find it more compelling than "Operation Annihilate" (which is decent). For me "The Alternative Factor" is delightfully whacked.

Liking TAF is a minority position around here but even if you hate it more than a root canal why TAF failed in production is still a fascinating story.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

If you follow the link that page cites for the Mission: Impossible budget, it says the budget was "at least $180,000 per episode." I don't have a ton of data points at the moment — I've only dabbled with the Bruce Geller papers — but I do have a couple of data points from the show's third season (1968-69), and they're both higher than that figure.

Mission Impossible Episode (Episode Budget/Actual Cost)

"The Heir Apparent" ($193,945/$198,328)
"The Mercenaries" ($192,883/$216,600)

I have more information regarding the second season of Mannix (also the 1968-69 broadcast season):

Mannix Episode (Episode Budget/Actual Cost)

"A Copy of Murder" ($183,977/$187,210)
"Edge of the Knife" ($188,974/$192,743)
"End of the Rainbow ($182,439/$188,568)
"Only Giants Can Play" ($186,763/$197,514)
"Pressure Point" ($179,517/$180,210)
"In Need of a Friend" ($182,458/$187,016)
"The Silent Cry" ($176,891/$183,884)
"To The Swiftest, Death" ($187,838/$191,364)
"Who Will Dig The Graves?" ($187,850/$206,995)

Bruce Geller couldn't keep costs down like Fred Freiberger (notice how none of these episodes came in under budget; something which regularly occurred with Freiberger on Star Trek's third season, also produced 1968-69). Apparently, Geller was eventually banned from the Paramount lot as a result of these cost overruns, becoming an executive producer in name only on Mannix and Mission: Impossible.

I don't have the book handy at the moment, however, according to The Complete Mission Impossible Dossier the first four season episodes were almost always over budget.

A writer once submitted in a script that could be brought in under budget, and Bruce Geller had him rewrite it to make it more expensive.

He said if an episode was ever brought in under budget, then Paramount would want all the scripts written so that they came in under budget and Bruce wanted the show to look its best, even if it meant going over every single episode.

It wasn't until Bruce Landsbury (sp) took over as producer in the fifth season did the episodes come in under budget.

 

[Spock's Barber]

Herb Solow wrote an anecdote about Bruce Geller spending several long, expensive post production days trying to get the ‘perfect’ recording of the crunch of an aspirin tablet.

 

[Warped9]

It's a minor thing, but one thing that seems missing to me in "The Cage" (though not the reuse of the footage in "The Menagerie" given the different context) is the lack of ship exterior shots. This is based on seeing the regular episodes countless times before getting to see the original pilot on its own. Throughout the series the action has exterior shots of the Enterprise interspersed throughout the story, but that is distinctly missing in The Cage" except for the opening and ending sequences. Maybe it was due to a lack of time and budget, but it always struck me as odd.

Small example. We watch Pike and Vina down in their subterranean cell and then we flip to what is happening in the Enterprise breifing room. During TOS we most likely would have gotten a shot of the Enterprise in orbit thereby cueing the viewer the story has switched location for the next scene. We don't get those in "The Cage."

It's a small thing, but it really jumps out for me as something missing.

 

[mb22]

Had "The Cage" run as an actual episode, I assume that orbit shots would have been added.

 

[Maurice]

Roddenberry apparently took so long to decide on a final Enterprise design that they only got the 11' model in time to do the opening shot and everything else was done with the 33" proof of concept model. That's why you don't see the ship much.