Question about The Cage colour film

[Stevie Trek]

We know that the camera negative of The Cage was cut up so that most of it could be edited into The Menagerie in 1966 and this is why the late 80s colour reconstruction was a combination of parts copied back from The Menagerie combined with the unused parts of The Cage camera negative. My question is, was there ever a colour print made from the original negative? Wouldn't all the dailies have been viewed from colour positive prints so that the colours could be judged properly? Even the optical effects shots would have been viewed this way, so the whole production should have existed as a colour positive, at least in its unedited form. Also, my guess is that when finished pilot was shown to NBC, they were watching a colour positive when deciding whether to commission the series?
If I'm correct in my assumptions, then what happened to the colour dailies (positive prints) and the finished product shown to NBC? Might there still be a full colour print in its original form waiting to be rediscovered? Thanks for any clarification anyone can give.

 

[Harvey]

I just read a memo last night describing how a color print and a black and white print of the pilot were to be run side by side (presumably, to evaluate going to color) for network and studio people in early 1965. It's unlikely they ran the cut negative, I would think, so they must have had a print made. No idea what happened to it.

 

[Christopher]

My understanding is that the master color print of "The Cage" (or "The Menagerie," as it was called during production) was actually physically recut into the 2-part version of "The Menagerie." The pilot footage in the master of the 2-parter wasn't a copy of the pilot film, it actually physically was the pilot film.

 

[scotpens]

We know that the camera negative of The Cage was cut up so that most of it could be edited into The Menagerie in 1966 and this is why the late 80s colour reconstruction was a combination of parts copied back from The Menagerie combined with the unused parts of The Cage camera negative.

It's my understanding that the 1988 full-color reconstruction of "The Cage" incorporated footage from a 16mm color print that had only recently been discovered (unless I've had it wrong all these years.) Prior to that, the only known copy of the original pilot was Gene Roddenberry's 16mm black-and-white print, which was much the worse for wear after being schlepped around and shown at conventions for more than a decade.

 

[Christopher]

^No, as explained in the first post, the b&w portions were restored to color with the rediscovered trims from the original master. They were picture only, no soundtrack, which was why the restored version still used the hybrid soundtrack from "The Menagerie" and the Roddenberry print.

 

[scotpens]

^^ Ah, I stand corrected then.