"The Menagerie" 16mm on eBay

[Talos IV]

Sure hope THIS goes to a Star Trek fan. That color is jaw-dropping.

It'll be interesting to see how high the bidding goes. If I were rich, I'd nab it.

Assuming this is from the original elements, the as-originally-aired music should be there after the opening titles (instead of the "Doomsday Machine" cue that somehow got in there since then).

 

[Ssosmcin]

Sure hope THIS goes to a Star Trek fan. That color is jaw-dropping.

It'll be interesting to see how high the bidding goes. If I were rich, I'd nab it.

Assuming this is from the original elements, the as-originally-aired music should be there after the opening titles (instead of the "Doomsday Machine" cue that somehow got in there since then).

If it's on 16mm it's got the right music, that was only changed in 1999ish. It should be the same mix as the original VHS release and it's one of the few the Blu Rays got right in the mono mix.

It's a little steep IMO, but the colors are brilliant. No orange tint and no vinegar. 15-20 years ago, I was able to snatch up 16mm reels of Trek, Lost in Space, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Fugitive and The Untouchables for $45 - $200 max. That $200 was LIS in vivid color. B&W TV shows were much much cheaper but because of the lack of color, they always looked amazing. My one Trek (Bread and Circuses) is as orange as a Sunkist.

He also has Part One.

 

[TrickyDickie]

I checked completed items. Where No Man Has Gone Before went for $405 and All Our Yesterdays went for $203.

 

[Talos IV]

I checked completed items. Where No Man Has Gone Before went for $405 and All Our Yesterdays went for $203.

And both of those had faded color.

LPP (Lowfade Positive Print) Star Trek episodes are super rare.

 

[Ssosmcin]

I would love a transfer of those. I'm a huge fan of 16mm copies of shows, it's as close to original broadcast as we can get.

 

[Qonundrum]

Sure hope THIS goes to a Star Trek fan. That color is jaw-dropping.

It'll be interesting to see how high the bidding goes. If I were rich, I'd nab it.

Assuming this is from the original elements, the as-originally-aired music should be there after the opening titles (instead of the "Doomsday Machine" cue that somehow got in there since then).

And both of those had faded color.

LPP (Lowfade Positive Print) Star Trek episodes are super rare.

LPP is definitely a new thing to me, looks really cool if they had the ability to store the material that would resist fading over this span of decades - wow!!

Could be genuine, indeed; there's plenty of diffused film grain, with detail such as the Talosian head mask where Pike is strangling... whatever scanner was used to get the snaps from would surely be lower consumer-grade gear.

Sorta tangential: Back when I did slide photography, specialized still film negative scanners that brought out the best possible detail and resolution cost a thousand (and whose warranty ended a week before I had mechanical problems, grr! But by then I was getting into digital photography directly... ) So taking a collector's reel and scanning a random assortment of cels with more consumer-grade equipment can be had for every cheap, but would look fuzzy like that... and would likely do color correction on the fly; I always did it manually to reduce issues like blooming or crush since the pre-set cutoff points induced those by accident on occasion...

But I'd love to see the actual canister and film within to go along with the surfeit of stills, which had to have been computer-adjusted since, by now, the color on the negs would have degraded somewhat. Even if kept in optimal conditions; my 35mm slides from 25 years ago still hold up, but the reds definitely have faded a bit.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Could be genuine, indeed; there's plenty of diffused film grain, with detail such as the Talosian head mask where Pike is strangling... whatever scanner was used to get the snaps from would surely be lower consumer-grade gear.

According to eBay listing, the images are photographs of the projected film. And that's bound to be a lot less sharp than the film. It's a picture of a projected picture. You lose a lot, compared to the 35mm film frame itself.

 

[Kamdan]

Seeing these images from the 16mm prints really sells the thrill fans must have felt back in the 70’s and 80’s when an entire room at a convention was devoted to screening episodes.

 

[Commander Troi]

This makes me wish I had the copies of episodes my grandfather had when he worked for a local tv station.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

This makes me wish I had the copies of episodes my grandfather had when he worked for a local tv station.

How did that work? After airing, 16mm syndication prints were supposed to be returned to the national distributor. Stations were even supposed to return the scenes they cut for time.

I know this because my Dad took me to visit our local independent station once, and the first thing on my mind was to ask if I could have film trims that were snipped out for commercials. The guy laughed and said, no, those have to go back. So, what was your GF keeping?

 

[Ssosmcin]

How did that work? After airing, 16mm syndication prints were supposed to be returned to the national distributor. Stations were even supposed to return the scenes they cut for time.

I know this because my Dad took me to visit our local independent station once, and the first thing on my mind was to ask if I could have film trims that were snipped out for commercials. The guy laughed and said, no, those have to go back. So, what was your GF keeping?

Well, I can tell ya that two guys I got a lot of VHS copies of shows from got their reels by dumpster diving a local station in the 80's. I have two storage boxes of 16mm reels of a few shows, some still on the production company reels. Collectors have them, we can see that for ourselves, so apparantly the retun system wasn't closely monitored.

There are tales of Trek fans getting film trims from local stations going back to the 70's.

 

[alchemist]

Well, I can tell ya that two guys I got a lot of VHS copies of shows from got their reels by dumpster diving a local station in the 80's. I have two storage boxes of 16mm reels of a few shows, some still on the production company reels. Collectors have them, we can see that for ourselves, so apparantly the retun system wasn't closely monitored.

There are tales of Trek fans getting film trims from local stations going back to the 70's.

Yeah, I have a 10.5-in 16 mm reel of TOS trims that a station threw out. I’m a bit puzzled though because some of the trims are first season “Next Week” trailers.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Yeah, I have a 10.5-in 16 mm reel of TOS trims that a station threw out. I’m a bit puzzled though because some of the trims are first season “Next Week” trailers.

They were the original "Next Week" clips??? Not "Next Voyage"? That's an amazing acquisition.

 

[alchemist]

They were the original "Next Week" clips??? Not "Next Voyage"? That's an amazing acquisition.

Correct. Five or six from the first season and two or three from the second season. The rest of the reel is bits and pieces of various episodes. I don’t know why theses trailers would have been sent to the stations when the series went into syndication.

 

[drt]

Correct. Five or six from the first season and two or three from the second season. The rest of the reel is bits and pieces of various episodes. I don’t know why theses trailers would have been sent to the stations when the series went into syndication.

Some stations only showed Star Trek weekly, maybe they could request those trailers as part of their package.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Correct. Five or six from the first season and two or three from the second season. The rest of the reel is bits and pieces of various episodes. I don’t know why theses trailers would have been sent to the stations when the series went into syndication.

Back in the day, when I was able to get WTNH, New Haven, they would run Star Trek daily and keep the previews in. But they all said "next voyage" so people wouldn't think the show was run weekly. I honestly thought Paramount made those for the syndication package and discarded the original "next week" frames since none of them made it to home video in any incarnation. That's why I find it astounding that you have any of them.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

You know how I learned to pronounce Nimoy? This might have been 1973 or '74. One night our local station ran "The Menagerie" Part 1, and for the only time it ever happened, they included the next episode's trailer— which began with an urgent "Leonard Nimoy speaking!"

Seeing a trailer was such an unexpected thing in our syndication market, I never forgot it. Not that I knew the terms "trailer" and "syndication market" at the time. Far from it. But now I knew Nimoy.

 

[Ssosmcin]

I remember when I discovered Star Trek on WTNH. I'm on Long Island (New York state). My uncle gave us a rotor for our TV antenna and se we were able to grab Connecticut stations that way. And quite clearly. So my sister was thrilled because they ran I Dream of Jeannie (she's a huge Larry Hagman fan) and I was naturally a born Trekkie. WPIX in NY cut 5 minutes out of Trek and 2 or 3 out of Jeannie. WTNH ran both totally uncut. And when I first saw the previews attached to Trek, I was gobsmacked before I even that term.

What's funny is that my memory groups a lot of those years together, so I always thought I watched Star Trek daily on WPIX for decades. But recently, I've gone over period TV Guide's and there were plenty of times when WPIX gave Trek a break, but WTNH was still running it. So I was watching Trek daily but on two different channels. And when we got cable, we had WTXX 20 and WVIA 44 (PA) which also ran Trek, so it was on constantly over four different stations. Connecticut was the only market within my reach which ran them uncut.

Looking over those TV Guides is a great reminder of how many amazing shows were on TV, back when you had only a few channels and most of them were indie stations. So many shows with short runs in the 60's got eternal life in constant reruns.

 

[Commander Troi]

How did that work? After airing, 16mm syndication prints were supposed to be returned to the national distributor. Stations were even supposed to return the scenes they cut for time.

I know this because my Dad took me to visit our local independent station once, and the first thing on my mind was to ask if I could have film trims that were snipped out for commercials. The guy laughed and said, no, those have to go back. So, what was your GF keeping?

Honestly, I don't know. I was a little kid and didn't know to ask and Pap's long passed now.

 

[Talos IV]

Part 1 just sold for $920.
Part 2: $1,275.