Malachi Throne in The Cage -- pitched up from the beginning?

[Neopeius]

I just learned that Malachi Throne voiced The Keeper in "The Cage"!

That makes sense -- Throne has distinctive vocalisms that kept pinging on me, but I couldn't place why in the up-pitched voice.

Memory Alpha says the voice was up-pitched because Throne plays Mendez and the Keeper in the same episode, so there had to be a distinction. But in "The Cage" that I've seen, it's consistently the higher pitched voice.

Does anyone know what the Keeper's voice was like in the original "The Cage"?

 

[Neopeius]

(watching the deleted scenes on YT, it does appear that Throne's voice was not altered in the original!)

 

[ZapBrannigan]

I think it's super-weird to hear Throne's deep voice coming from little Meg Wylie. The higher pitched version is more believable, and more alien besides.

 

[Kamdan]

I think it's super-weird to hear Throne's deep voice coming from little Meg Wylie. The higher pitched version is more believable, and more alien besides.

It stands out compared to the rest of the Talosians.

 

[Christopher]

Throne's voice was deep in the original. However, the surviving black and white print has low-quality audio, so the reconstructed release uses the higher-quality audio from "The Menagerie" (with the Keeper's pitched-up voice) where available and the original audio from "The Cage" (with the Keeper's original voice) the rest of the time.

You can also note some bits where music cues from "The Menagerie" (stock from other episodes) are briefly heard. For instance, when Pike leads the Keeper through the hole in his cell wall near the end, a bit of tracked music from "The Naked Time" (part of the "Menagerie" sound mix) is heard before cutting to the original "Cage" music cue that wasn't heard in "The Menagerie" since that scene was cut.

I think it's super-weird to hear Throne's deep voice coming from little Meg Wylie. The higher pitched version is more believable, and more alien besides.

The original idea was to cast delicate-looking women and dub deep male voices over them to make them seem androgynous and alien. So the incongruity of the voice was the point. Pitching up Throne's voice kind of undermined that. But it's all a matter of what we're used to. And I guess it's true that the altered voice does have an inhuman quality that just Throne's normal voice didn't.

 

[Neopeius]

I think it's super-weird to hear Throne's deep voice coming from little Meg Wylie. The higher pitched version is more believable, and more alien besides.

I agree that it's very effective. However, the one other alien with lines ("Magistrate...") has an unaltered and deep voice.

The pitched-up voice actually adds to the androgyny of the Keeper, I think. The whole Talosian thing, from the prosthetics to the costumes really is very effective.

 

[mb22]

Here are some comparisons (although the sound quality of the original voice isn't that great, sounds like it was taken from an audio tape made at a public showing of the 16mm reel):

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(pt 2)

 

[Ssosmcin]

The DVD restoration, and then the blu ray, pitched up the remainder of the Keeper's dialog to make it match how it sounds in The Menagerie two part episode, rather than make the rest of it sound like Malachi Throne's voice. This could have been done if they had a copy of the original print, but they went the other way instead.

The all color DVD/BD restoration isn't perfect. The pitch matching was pretty well done but don't 100% match. The first shot of the Enterprise on the BD is in black and white, there is a line lost ("lou were like a wild little animal"), the music from "The Man Trap" is still there in the "we may soon begin the experiment" reaction shot, and some library version of the music are used in the Rigel VII scenes. Also, when the pilot was reconstructed in the 80's, they accidentally had a shot of the Keeper re-entering from the elevator after Pike says "they can't read through hate" just before we cut to the Enterprise bridge as the Talosians decide to swat them. This has never been fixed.

It's still a really nice job of restoration, but a new tweak would be lovely. Hell, I'd take a clean transfer of the 16mm workprint, but since CBS/Paramount simply wants to keep repackaging the same discs instead of addressing glitches, this is what we're gonna have.

 

[Methuselah Flint]

What's also interesting, is that they touched up the music cues for the DVD restoration of The Menagerie. Some of the music edits are smoother on the DVD compared with the VHS version.

 

[Neopeius]

The first shot of the Enterprise on the BD is in black and white, there is a line lost ("you were like a wild little animal".

I noticed that! Thank you for confirming I'm not crazy.

 

[Methuselah Flint]

I noticed that! Thank you for confirming I'm not crazy.

I think it probably got edited out for the Menagerie, and subsequent versions of The Cage haven't always reinstated it.

 

[Neopeius]

I think it probably got edited out for the Menagerie, and subsequent versions of The Cage haven't always reinstated it.

It's in "The Menagerie" -- otherwise, I wouldn't have remembered it.

 

[mb22]

Check the second Youtube link I provided above at :49.

 

[Neopeius]

So interesting that we have all these imperfect representations of the past.

I mentioned in my other thread that watching Trek with commercials creates a whole new (well, old) experience, one that actually improves the show since it was paced with commercials in mind.

 

[Unicron]

I have to admit, the altered version of the Keeper's voice sounds much better and more interesting to me.

 

[publiusr]

So interesting that we have all these imperfect representations of the past.

I mentioned in my other thread that watching Trek with commercials creates a whole new (well, old) experience, one that actually improves the show since it was paced with commercials in mind.

I’d like Mego commercials made to look retro replace the Calgon or whatever

 

[Neopeius]

I’d like Mego commercials made to look retro replace the Calgon or whatever

It's rather stunning how many products from back then are still around today!

 

[Christopher]

It's rather stunning how many products from back then are still around today!

Why wouldn't they be? Lots of brands have been around for generations, like Levi's or Campbell's Soup, which both originated in the mid-1800s.

 

[publiusr]

Pencils might be the oldest products made, stemware…

 

[Neopeius]

Why wouldn't they be? Lots of brands have been around for generations, like Levi's or Campbell's Soup, which both originated in the mid-1800s.

There's just this sort of feeling that this the past is a different universe. The continuity can be startling.