"The Cage" outtakes
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Thank you for sharing.
I add my thanks! Another gem for us to look at; another piece of the Star Trek history!
Desi-Lu was really reaching for the stars with their productions. This was amazing stuff the studio was producing for a potential audience. The Talosians from back then still look better than the crap versions done on DISCO.
No idea why they changed them. Remind me of the Vians from "The Empath".
Yes, they were published on startrekhistory.com. And previously they were used in the "E! Mysteries & Scandals" documentary dedicated to Jeffrey Hunter (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0567719/), so I suspect the reel came directly from Hunter's family.
That's on the Blu-ray set. It premiered as a pay-per-view on cable in October 1986, and I paid to see it.
I think that might be the version that was released on VHS? Wonder if the pay per view preceeded that release in the UK, @ZapBrannigan?
@Warped9, can you remember if the Talosian Keepers' voice was clearly Malachi Throne (who played Commodore Mendez in "The Menagerie") during the black and White sequences of "The Cage" version you recall, hence the electronic redub (phase shifted per Memory Alpha) for the Keepers' voice during "The Cage" footage being shown on the viewscreen for the court martial in the two parter?
It's like that in the VHS version, where the black and white sequences used to reconstruct the full version of "The Cage" (supposedly no full version now existed in colour, after being edited into the two parter, but Roddenberry had a b&w 'work copy' available) had Thrones' normal voice dubbed over actress Meg Wylies' voice, with the colour sequences having his electronically altered voice.
The idea was have actresses play male characters, to give an alien feel to the Talosians, but Wylie didn't realise her voice would be overdubed by Thrones'.
Isn't there now a fully colourised version of "The Cage" available?
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I’ve seen a clip of The Keeper with Throne’s normal voice, I don’t recall when or where unfortunately. It was very weird..
No, it wasn't colorized. The actual color film that had been missing for decades was found in an unlabeled can by a film lab in Hollywood. They returned it to Paramount, who then assembled the full color version of "The Cage" and released it on VHS.
That one aired in the late 80s, as I recall. I used to have it on tape.
There's one on Youtube. Also, the trailer for the Menagerie used Throne's original voice! (also on YT).
Malachi Throne originally voiced the Keeper in the Pilot. He came back and played Commodore Mendez for The Menagerie and was available to redo his lines so they could be altered. The lines at the end are the specific ones that he had to redo as The Menagerie has the Keeper Talking to Kirk where originally he was talking to Pike. I do not know what they had to do or what materials they had on hand. The only thing I recall is that that Roddenberry gave The Cage back and instead of copying the footage to edit into The Menagerie, they cut the original. During the entire process of cutting and reassembling, some frames were lost. Also, some damage to the B&W version (the only source for the full soundtrack) led to them needing to cut some. At least one line of dialog heard at a convention is missing in the current version.
And it is natural for some fans to think the full color version is colorized because that is how it was often referred to, but it is the original color film restored and reassembled. With the newer editions, the color is nicely matched so you can't see where the cuts were. But in the first airing and VHS for the color version, the cuts were very obvious.
And it is natural for some fans to think the full color version is colorized because that is how it was often referred to, but it is the original color film restored and reassembled. With the newer editions, the color is nicely matched so you can't see where the cuts were. But in the first airing and VHS for the color version, the cuts were very obvious.
"The Cage" came out on video in 1986/1987 (I'm not sure of the exact date). This was the black and white print combined with the color footage from "The Menagerie." Sections with The Keeper from the black and white footage had the original, non-processed voice. It was on VHS and Laser Disc and possibly Beta. This video had Gene Roddenberry's introduction with him walking around the sets from the movies and is still available on the current Blu-ray set.
I guess sometime shortly after this release color footage was found. That debuted on television in October 1988 with the special, "The Star Trek Saga: From One Generation to the Next" hosted by Patrick Stewart. "The Cage" portion of this special was released on video, although I'm not sure of the precise date. The Star Trek Laser Disc Database has a date of October 11, 1991.
When "The Cage" was remixed into 5.1 about 20 years ago for the DVDs the unprocessed Keeper voice was processed to match the footage from "The Menagerie."
I guess sometime shortly after this release color footage was found. That debuted on television in October 1988 with the special, "The Star Trek Saga: From One Generation to the Next" hosted by Patrick Stewart. "The Cage" portion of this special was released on video, although I'm not sure of the precise date. The Star Trek Laser Disc Database has a date of October 11, 1991.
When "The Cage" was remixed into 5.1 about 20 years ago for the DVDs the unprocessed Keeper voice was processed to match the footage from "The Menagerie."
This is Star Trek I loved; even the dangerous threat in their world still has a sense of style and wonderment. DISCO doesn't have a clue.
I’m pretty sure they just pitch shifted Throne’s original recordings. @alchemist is the expert on this.
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