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Would a theatrical star trek work during tos 66-69 run.

remember...

Lieutenant
Red Shirt
Both Batman and man from uncle had film runs during its tv run.I believed the batman
Film was a original while uncle was t.v. parts.
I was thinking if they could get Jeffrey Hunter to return.they could do the fight on Rigel 7.
 
Both Batman and man from uncle had film runs during its tv run.I believed the batman
Film was a original while uncle was t.v. parts.
I was thinking if they could get Jeffrey Hunter to return.they could do the fight on Rigel 7.
Batman did film an actual feature film between seasons 1 and 2 at the height of its popularity.

The Man From Uncle 'films' were just a couple of two part episodes (aired in the U.S.on TV), that were released as films in European and some other countries theaters, and the latter was not all that uncommon in the 60s for expensive high profile U.S. series.

As for TOS, it's claimed that The Cage as originally edited is longer because if it didn't sell the series; they had the cast optioned to come back and film more scenes to make it a TV movie of the week in the U.S. and released as a film in International territories.
 
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If it were today, they probably would indeed have released The Cage on a streaming platform after the show proved popular, or that it had a passionate following.
 
If they hadn't already used it, I could see The Menagerie being tweaked into a movie release quite easily. But then, I'm from one of the countries where we got US TV movies released theatrically. (Like V and The Ewok Adventure) :)
 
There were several '60s TV series that had feature versions, most of them sitcoms. McHale's Navy had two feature films released during its run. Munster, Go Home! was shot right after The Munsters ended, and The Man Called Flintstone came out just 4 months after The Flintstones ended, as a kind of series finale. Dark Shadows had one film released near the end of its run and a second shortly after it ended, but they were out of continuity with the series, I gather.

I can't think of any examples of an hourlong drama series having a contemporaneous or immediately subsequent theatrical version. Maybe it would've been harder to fit into the budget and schedule?


Batman did film an actual feature film between seasons 1 and 2 at the height of its popularity.

The original plan was to do the movie first, so they could budget for more elaborate vehicles and sets and produce a library of stock footage they could then reuse in the series. But ABC insisted on an earlier start to the series, so they had to shoot season 1 before the movie, which is why the Bat-copter and Bat-boat don't debut until then. But I think maybe they were able to use some of the movie's allocated budget to build the sets for the series. Though I'm not at all sure of that part.


The Man From Uncle 'films' were just a couple of two part episodes (aired in the U.S.on TV), that were released as films in European and some other countries theaters, and the latter was not all that uncommon in the 60s for expensive high profile U.S. series.

The 2-parters had additional footage shot to add more sex and violence for overseas markets. There's one where they brought back David Sheiner in a bald cap (since his hair had grown back since the episode) to film a new opening sequence of his character breaking into a military installation and killing a bunch of guards -- only to cut to the opening scenes of the TV episode, in which he’s still waiting outside the gates of the installation and breaks in again. There's also a tacked-on subplot with Yvonne Craig, who's clumsily inserted as the one answering the radio when Solo calls into HQ, flirting with him for a few moments before forwarding him to the person he actually called.

The hourlong pilot episode of TMFU had a whole new subplot filmed to expand it to movie length for overseas release, with Solo on a side mission investigating the murder of an agent killed early in the pilot. The subplot was later cut into a season 1 episode, combined with a parallel plotline taking the place of the original plot, and with the agent's name redubbed from Lancer to Dancer (no relation to April Dancer, introduced later as "The Girl from UNCLE").
 
As for TOS, it's claimed that The Cage as originally edited is longer because if it didn't sell the series; they had the cast optioned to come back and film more scenes to make it a TV movie of the week in the U.S. and released as a film in International territories.

They didn't have an option for theatrical pickups on the cast of pilot one, only a series option.
 
They didn't have an option for theatrical pickups on the cast of pilot one, only a series option.
Wasn't there a suggestion that if the series didn't sell, the cast were later considered to be offered back to film extra scenes to make it film-length such as the crash of the Colombia and the crew after the Rigel mission?
 
It would have been nice to see Datin and company with movie budgets

What kind of "movie budget" might they have gotten, though? I doubt a spinoff of a TV series would've been given an A-picture budget back then, so we might be talking a more modest B-movie budget. And "The Cage" already had production values rivaling the movies of the day, or so I've often seen it described.
 
Not the highest budgeted ones. I don't think the "Cage" production values compare to those of Forbidden Planet, This Island Earth or the George Pal films, all made a decade earlier.
 
Not the highest budgeted ones. I don't think the "Cage" production values compare to those of Forbidden Planet, This Island Earth or the George Pal films, all made a decade earlier.

Err, my whole point is that big-budget SF movies like those were the exception, not the rule. Those were the "A" movies, but the majority of sci-fi films back then were "B" movies produced on more modest budgets. When they were made is irrelevant, because expensive "A" movies and cheaper "B" movies coexisted in parallel for decades.

What I'm saying is that even if Paramount had brought Trek to the big screen in the pre-Star Wars era, they would've been more likely to make it at a B-movie level, which wouldn't be that much fancier than what we got in "The Cage."

I mean, most of the Trek movies from TWOK onward had modest to mid-range budgets, and TWOK was originally developed as a TV movie. So it shouldn't be assumed that any Trek movie would've automatically been given a top-tier budget. TMP was the exception in that regard, until 2009.
 
Gene suggested this to Jeffrey Hunter in a letter shortly after the first pilot didn't sell. But it didn't happen.
Ah right. I remember Doohan talking about it in the introduction to either The Cage or The Menagerie on the UK 3 episode per tape VHS.
 
I get your point.

"The Cage" was made for a small TV screen; but a 70s (or 60s?) theatrical release even at a B level budget (al la TWOK) probably would have had widescreen photography. TWOK, of course was fortunate to have stock footage and sets, costumes and props left over from TMP.

Not sure about previous scripts, but Planet of the Titans would likely have cost at least a bit more than typical SF B movies of the time.
 
but a 70s (or 60s?) theatrical release even at a B level budget (al la TWOK) probably would have had widescreen photography.

Hmm, I guess so. I looked up the '66 Batman film for comparison, and apparently it was filmed in 1.33:1 (4:3) ratio but released in widescreen. No doubt so footage of the Bat-vehicles and such could be recycled as stock on TV.


Not sure about previous scripts, but Planet of the Titans would likely have cost at least a bit more than typical SF B movies of the time.

But we're talking about the prospect of a Trek movie during or immediately after its TV run. The question is, would Paramount have been as willing to spend big bucks at that time as they were in the '70s, after the show had proven a hit in syndication?
 
The first pilot retooled for theatrical release would not have been vastly more expensive. My guess is they'd have shot the Rigel fight as the action opener (I think Roddenberry intimated as much) and maybe the equivalent of the scrapped sequence when they docked with a small ship and sent some wounded off as Colt came aboard. They'd certainly have shot more of the ship exterior, probably, since they barely got any of it into the pilot.

The Batman movie was budgeted a bit over a million dollars (reportedly $1,377,800). I doubt Desilu/Paramount would have spent even that much given the show's lackluster ratings.
 
But we're talking about the prospect of a Trek movie during or immediately after its TV run. The question is, would Paramount have been as willing to spend big bucks at that time as they were in the '70s, after the show had proven a hit in syndication?
Not 'big' bucks, but certainly fancier than the TV show. Can you think of any late 60s early 70s theatrical films with a budget that might be analogous ton a contemporary Trek film?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_science_fiction_films_of_the_1960s
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_science_fiction_films_of_the_1970s
 
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