The Cage Workprint Petition

[Methuselah Flint]

Hi guys,

Is there a contact email we can send requests to Paramount? I know I'm only a small voice, but, for if nothing else but historical significance, I'd love Roddenberry's black and white workprint to be released, even if unrestored/basic cleaning up, as it's the authentic cut of the pilot, albeit in monochrome. It could even be advertised as a bonus feature for another feature.

I know my efforts are probably futile, but any thoughts, as always, are most welcome

 

[Green]

What is it supposed to contain we haven't seen?

 

[Methuselah Flint]

From my understanding - the authentic pitch of the Keeper's voice
2 omitted lines of dialogue - one by Vina in picnic scene, another as Pike and Number One have phaser on overload near the end
Longer pauses between some Keeper/Pike lines
The genuine music track as the Keeper attempts stealing the phasers
Music cues as proper

 

[Methuselah Flint]

No music after 'We can soon begin the experiment'

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

A reference for everything as it was. There were a lot of scenes where the timing was different and cuts made for The Menagerie were never restored. It's such a historic piece of film that it should be available for scholarship.

I wonder who has the print now.

 

[Green]

So it doesn't contain deleted scenes?

 

[Push The Button]

I think there would be a certain charm associated with seeing it in B&W again, a nice 50's "golden age of television" vibe. Of course you can just mess with the settings on your TV and sort-of get the same result.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

GR never regarded any one version of the timing as a treasured artistic decision. He had "The Cage" shot to run longer than a TV episode so that, if the show didn't sell, he could try to get a theatrical release out of it. He said somewhere, roughly misquoting here, "We can do some long cutting to pad out the length." Meaning that the actual length of the pilot, plus long cutting, would be barely enough to qualify as a movie. That was his thinking.

I personally think the all-color pilot with original fx, as released on VHS, DVD, and BD, is pretty much the Roddenberry-definitive version of "The Cage."

 

[tomswift2002]

Meaning that the actual length of the pilot, plus long cutting, would be barely enough to qualify as a movie. That was his thinking.
"

Or he might've been aiming for B-movie length. At 63 minutes it's at the right length for what was called a "B-movie" back in the 40's and 50's. If you check out movies like "Dick Tracy, Detective", "Dick Tracy Vs. Cueball" and "Dixk Tracy Meets Grusome" that were made by RKO in the mid- to late-40's, those movies run between 61 and 64 minutes, even when you had a major star like "Boris Karloff" in them. So at 63 minutes, Roddenberry might've been thinking of getting "The Cage" sold as a B-movie if it didn't sell for TV.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Or he might've been aiming for B-movie length. At 63 minutes it's at the right length for what was called a "B-movie" back in the 40's and 50's. If you check out movies like "Dick Tracy, Detective", "Dick Tracy Vs. Cueball" and "Dixk Tracy Meets Grusome" that were made by RKO in the mid- to late-40's, those movies run between 61 and 64 minutes, even when you had a major star like "Boris Karloff" in them. So at 63 minutes, Roddenberry might've been thinking of getting "The Cage" sold as a B-movie if it didn't sell for TV.

It seems like that could make greenlighting "The Cage" almost risk-free. Desilu was sure to get something back, with rentals to theaters and drive-ins around the country. Except, wasn't NBC paying for it, which muddies the ownership?

 

[tomswift2002]

It seems like that could make greenlighting "The Cage" almost risk-free. Desilu was sure to get something back, with rentals to theaters and drive-ins around the country. Except, wasn't NBC paying for it, which muddies the ownership?

Not necessarily. By paying for it, all that NBC was doing was saying that they would get first-run rights. So even if NBC hadn't picked it up, Desilu could've sold it to theatres, with NBC being able to air it as a TV-movie-of-the-week.

 

[Grayh]

I'd love to see the workprint, the change in pitch of the Keepers voice has intrigued me since I first saw the colour/b&w VHS with brief interludes of the original low tones. It would be a real treat to hear the soundtrack as originally recorded.

I watched the Cage (again!) this morning and it really is one of my favourite pieces of Trek.

G

 

[mb22]

A fan once recorded the original voice Keeper's dialog at a B & W "Cage" screening and posted in on Youtube. CBS has since taken it down.

 

[uniderth]

I would love to see the deleted scenes mentioned here:

http://www.startrekhistory.com/cagepage.html

Though, I expect they're lost forever.

 

[Methuselah Flint]

Ive got that audio!

 

[BillJ]

I think there would be a certain charm associated with seeing it in B&W again, a nice 50's "golden age of television" vibe. Of course you can just mess with the settings on your TV and sort-of get the same result.

Pretty sure a black and white version of the pilot is on the TOS season 3 Blu-ray.

 

[Methuselah Flint]

No - its the b/w / colour hybrid.