ST:TMP - Lost Footage from the Trench

[alchemist]

For those of you who haven't heard, startrekhistory.com was recently hacked and infected with malware. So, unfortunately, its content needed to be removed. Curt is hard at work on restoring the site, and when it comes back, it will have an all new look, expanded content, and new, never-before-seen interviews. In the meantime...


Last year, startrekhistory.com was contacted by an individual who possessed 2-1/2 minutes of lost footage from ST:TMP. I had the pleasure of telecining that footage (from fading anamorphic work prints), and, when the site is up and running, you will be able to view it there along with some other gems from the movie.

In brief, it appears that the footage is comprised of five takes of three scenes, i.e., two takes each of two scenes and one take of one scene. The scenes are of Kirk in the V'Ger trench encountering the crystals and then being overcome by them. As a teaser, below is a color-corrected image from a single frame located at the beginning of the film. Enjoy!

 

[Kirk1980]

Looks like it was going to be very very ambitious, doesn't it?

 

[USS Mariner]

trevanian, TGT, DS9Sega, Probert and I are all very pleased.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

As am I.

 

[trevanian]

trevanian, TGT, DS9Sega, Probert and I are all very pleased.

The wide shots are probably spectacular; the antibodies attacking bit I think might be rather too funny, but I'll be happy to be wrong on that.

Finally something I want to see of trek in 09!

 

[alchemist]

trevanian, TGT, DS9Sega, Probert and I are all very pleased.

The wide shots are probably spectacular; the antibodies attacking bit I think might be rather too funny, but I'll be happy to be wrong on that.

Finally something I want to see of trek in 09!

IMHO, you're more right than you know...

And I'm glad that everyone is pleased!

 

[Firebird]

I have only two words to use for this:

EPIC. WIN.

Seriously, I've been waiting for a long time to see any of the actual Memory Wall sequence footage. Thank you guys for making it available since Paramount and Bob Wise seemed reluctant to even admit that they even shot any of it.

Quick question on the footage, is there any audio at all with these (i.e. an optical audio track), or are they silent clips?

 

[Joe_Atari]

Thanks alchemist; looking forward to the return of startrekhistory.com!

 

[alchemist]

Quick question on the footage, is there any audio at all with these (i.e. an optical audio track), or are they silent clips?

The footage I telecined was from raw, unedited work prints, so unfortunately, there is no audio. However, you only really notice sound missing in one scene that shows a medium close-up of Kirk. In that scene, he is reacting to getting swarmed with the crystals (which haven't been added yet, BTW) and calling to the bridge.

 

[ChristopherPike]

An utterly fantastic discovery. I can't wait to see it.

I presume it's still true that the Memory Wall filming was never finished, which is why no attempt has ever been made to piece it back together. Of course with advances in CGI, an attempt at depicting an escape from the V'Ger interior could restore some missing continuity. But I guess the DE producers didn't have access to as much raw footage as we'd like to think. The footage in the Extended Version, basically shows Kirk going outside, looking at the orifice and awaiting Spock's return. It's a puzzle how they thought this was ever going to work.

 

[Basill]

Awesome stuff! I've always loved imagining how those scenes could have played out with the limited images and DVD test footage that's been released. I can't wait to see it. I hate hearing about the hacking though.

 

[Ziz]

The footage in the Extended Version, basically shows Kirk going outside, looking at the orifice and awaiting Spock's return. It's a puzzle how they thought this was ever going to work.

I always took that as Kirk just being too late to make any progress in chasing Spock down. By the time Kirk got out of the ship and was ready to go, Spock was already tumbling his way back after the meld overload. Kirk catches him right there under the saucer and pulls him back in.

 

[ChristopherPike]

^ Thinking about, you're absolutely right there. The way the footage was slotted back, Kirk ends up just a few hundred yards away from Spock... as his thruster pack finishes counting down. Presumably Kirk would've been going through the same procedure, while we're watching Spock's journey inside.

 

[cardinal biggles]

Was Kirk's suit fitted out with a big thruster pack, or did he just have the built-in RCS thrusters? If it was the latter, there's no way he could really follow Spock once Spock passed through the orifice.

 

[JDF]

Was Kirk's suit fitted out with a big thruster pack, or did he just have the built-in RCS thrusters? If it was the latter, there's no way he could really follow Spock once Spock passed through the orifice.

... and there's no way that Kirk could calculate in his head, the way Spock did, the exact timing to set off the thruster pack to make it through the orifice when it cycled open again.

 

[Christopher]

Was Kirk's suit fitted out with a big thruster pack, or did he just have the built-in RCS thrusters? If it was the latter, there's no way he could really follow Spock once Spock passed through the orifice.

Well, that depends on which suit you mean. In the restored footage in the Extended Edition, he's wearing a different spacesuit than the one he's wearing in the footage from the final version.

So maybe one could say that the reason for his delay was that something went wrong with the one spacesuit and he had to go in and change into the other one. Although that wouldn't explain why you can see the wooden beams holding up the piece of the hull behind Kirk as he exits in the earlier spacesuit...

 

[Kirk1980]

Shhhhhhhh, don't look at the wires....

Errrrrrrrr...large support girders?

 

[cardinal biggles]

Was Kirk's suit fitted out with a big thruster pack, or did he just have the built-in RCS thrusters? If it was the latter, there's no way he could really follow Spock once Spock passed through the orifice.

Well, that depends on which suit you mean. In the restored footage in the Extended Edition, he's wearing a different spacesuit than the one he's wearing in the footage from the final version.

Either suit, though the footage of Kirk in the newer suit pretty clearly doesn't have a thruster pack mounted to it.

 

[Bad Atom]

Can't wait to see the restored footage. It's a shame there's no audio, but hey, I'm not complaining.

 

[trevanian]

^ Thinking about, you're absolutely right there. The way the footage was slotted back, Kirk ends up just a few hundred yards away from Spock... as his thruster pack finishes counting down. Presumably Kirk would've been going through the same procedure, while we're watching Spock's journey inside.

Well, you gotta keep in mind that the orifice was something devised long after the trench was shot ... these guys were just supposed to be spacewalking along the area where the ship was being held according to the artwork, and they kind of go round the corner and duck through a passage and find the memory balls. So the whole 'zoom through before the thing closes' isn't part of the original walk so he neither would have had to wait and do a countdown to use a thruster pack, because there was no need, they were just cruising.