Alternate Star Trek TOS Pilot Found

Raver32 sends news that the lost second pilot for Star Trek has been found, and will be released next month on Blu-ray. "Star Trek fans know there were two pilots for the original series. The first, 'The Cage,' was rejected by NBC for being 'too cerebral' (ah, some things never change). The second, 'Where No Man Has Gone Before,' replaced the actor who played the captain with William Shatner and was more action driven. That pilot had an alternate version which was largely lost and has never aired. Apparently, a film collector in Germany acquired the print and 'recently brought it to the attention' of CBS/Paramount. CBS is now releasing this version on Blu-ray Dec. 15."

Comments

Nice marketing

[Anonymous Coward]

This episode has been available at conventions for years. The only thing they "found" was access to the master copies, giving them better quality.

Re:Nice marketing

[natehoy]

"Where No Man has Gone Before" was in fact aired as Episode 3. You are absolutely correct.

However, the article states there was an alternate version of "Where No Man has Gone Before" which did not air, but was the version used to sell Trek to NBC execs. That version never aired, and is what is now being offered up on the DVD.

Technically, most of "The Cage" also aired as part of "The Menagerie".

Re:Nice marketing

[Inner_Child]

The cage has been out for many years now. Is this the cage or is it something completely different. or a different cut of the cage?

Really? You couldn't even read the summary? Or even comments above yours? It's an alternate version of "Where No Man Has Gone Before".

Re:Nice marketing

[Chris Mattern]

If you can't Read The Fine Article, could you at least Read The Fine Summary? This is an *uncut* version of that pilot, containing a great deal of footage that wasn't aired.

Re:Nice marketing

[donaggie03]

To be fair, the summary is a bit confusing. It says there were two pilots, "The Cage" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before." It then says an alternate pilot was found. From just those facts in the summary, does that mean a different cut of "The Cage" or a different cut of "Where No Man Has Gone Before" or a different episode entirely? Also, he was replying to another comment waaay up the page. He wasn't down here to see the "comments above yours."

Good God!!!

[FloydTheDroid]

This is the equivalent of ringing a bell at Pavlov's dogs!

Re:Good God!!!

[Jezza]

Don't you mean Chekov's Dogs?

No wait ... that isn't right.

Re:Good God!!!

[gyrogeerloose]

Don't you mean Chekov's Dogs?

No, Pavlov. You know, the researcher who developed an obsession to ring bells whenever he saw a dog salivating.

Re:Good God!!!

[gyrogeerloose]

No, I think said whoosh was right over your head. Read my post again.

Re:Good God!!!

[Tumbleweed]

>> Don't you mean Chekov's Dogs?

> No, Pavlov. You know, the researcher who developed an obsession to ring bells whenever he saw a dog salivating.

Chekov did a different experiment with dogs. He'd ring a bell when they failed to get a joke.

Re:Good God!!!

[hairyfeet]

No Checkov had nuclear wessels.

zomg it's trek

[florin]

In other less important news, a stone tablet containing 5 alternate commandments was excavated in the Iraqi desert today.

Re:zomg it's trek

[PopeRatzo]

a stone tablet containing 5 alternate commandments

And #11 was "Thous shalt not listen to so-called "religious leaders""

Number 1 was supposed to be "Thou shalt read all instructions before beginning" and #15 was "Thous shalt ignore #2-14"

Re:zomg it's trek

[DrCode]

#12: Thou shalt not use goto's in they code.

alternate universe

[rossdee]

do they have goatees?

Typical..

[Bentov]

'too cerebral' the phrase of death for way too many shows....Come on now, we can't let the sheeple start thinking about more than sports, reality tv and porn...ok, the porn is ok, but please more than sport and reality tv.

Its not you its me

[Ada_Rules]

Sure there are some shows that were killed for being 'too cerebral' where it was true, but plenty of shows that received the ax with that phrase had a slightly different underlying problem. They were too f*ing boring.

'Too cerebral' allows the network to break it off without hurting the feelings of the fans or the producers. It will be interesting to see which category this pilot falls into...Maybe if it does not turn out well the pilot and I can just be friends.

Re:Its not you its me

[hson]

Seriously - you believe the phrase "it's not you, it's me" ever spared anyone's feelings?

It's not you, it's me. I don't like you!
I find that statement a lot more honest (and funny),

Re:Mad rush on Blu-ray predicted

[Enderandrew]

If you have old, grainy, low-quality footage, there is no other way to release it other than Blu-Ray!

Re:WOW

[aplusjimages]

Man I just hope this original story keeps with the canon of the Star Trek Universe.

Star Trek Act I...Warp II...

[rirugrat]

Star Trek...In Color!

Starring Rex Hamilton as Abraham Lincoln.

Replace William Shatner? REPLACE William Shatner??

[Provocateur]

What are you going to do? Get a bald headed guy with a British accent to play him? I got news for you
pal, baldness will be cured in the 23rd century!

It's a plot Jim, but not as we know it

[syousef]

Stardate 5191.5.

While googling frantically for pornographic footage of green three breasted alien women, have come across a place called "the pirate bay". Apparently this is an exchange post for all kinds of illicit material, but based on an analysis of the comments, quite inexplicably, it is only frequented by pre-pubescent teenage boys and social misfits who lack a fundamental part of the anatomy: a sense of humour.

Recommend we study these life forms to learn what we can from them. They seem to have formed a lawless society loosely based on an earlier society that advocated rape and pilleage on the high seas . Furthermore they have technology that allows them to store an infinite number of files on a loose connection of inter-0networked machines, but strangely none of these files are complete, which often results in cursing and requests to perform a strange ritual invoked with the words "please seed".

To guard against their natural enemies - a group who have become rich and successful by making entertainment audio and video recordings for a completely different group of pre-pubescent teenagers - they use a new kind of anti-mater which they call "peer guardian".

Mr Spock believes they are "fascinating" and I am hopeful we will soon encounter green alien dancing girls with 3 breasts. I have therefore committed all resources of the Enterprise to cataloging and studing this group.

Re:It's a plot Jim, but not as we know it

[Kjella]

Stardate 5191.5. While googling frantically for pornographic footage of green three breasted alien women

Clearly this is TOS, in TNG you'd just say "Computer, list all pornographic footage of green three breasted alien women." Not surprising that it's Google delivering that amazingly context-sensitive half mind-reading search assistant though, the way they're going it's either that or Skynet.

Re:It's a plot Jim, but not as we know it

[Anonymous Coward]

No, in TNG you'd say "Computer, create simulation of green three breasted alien woman on holodeck 9. Run program extra slutty-1." After first kicking out Ensign Barclay, of course.

They leave the galaxy?

[brunes69]

From the clips on youtube linked in the article, it says they leave the milky way - that would be a huge departure from the current canon, in which they have never left he galazy under their own power, in any series or movie.

Re:They leave the galaxy?

[iluvcapra]

I watched "By Any Other Name" last night and they certainly did leave the milky way, crossing the "galactic barrier" in the process. Also they do enter the barrier in "Is there no Truth in Beauty," but by then it's a little more casual and no one gets godlike powers in the process.

Re:They leave the galaxy?

[caseih]

Umm, no. In the original airing of this episode they did in fact leave the galaxy. And that's not the only time either. Also in "By any other Name" the Kelvins take the enterprise at "warp 11" through the barrier and into the void.

So yes, in the "canon" they have absolutely left the galaxy on two occasions. What kind of trekkie are you! :)

Re:They leave the galaxy?

[Abcd1234]

Have you not watched "Where No Man Has Gone Before"? Jesus christ, the entire plot is centered around them deliberately flying through the galactic barrier in order to find a lost ship.

Re:They leave the galaxy?

[meringuoid]

Much like the Bible Star Trek did have it's inconsistencies.

Nonsense, and I find that very offensive. If you think there are inconsistencies in Star Trek, you clearly haven't watched it carefully enough. While I'm sure you may think you have found an inconsistency or contradiction in the canon, you have to bear in mind multiple alternate and mirror universes, extra adventures between episodes that were not screened, the literary agent hypothesis, and the limitations of 1960s television as a medium. To so bluntly declare Trek inconsistent is an insult to millions of faithful Trekkers worldwide, and is criminal hate speech.

Re:They leave the galaxy?

[skeeto]

There have been a few mistakes made, but nothing terribly important. The ones I know of can possibly be attributed to character confusion. For example, there was that TNG episode where they find Scotty trapped in a transporter buffer after an accident. When they free him he believes that Kirk has brought the Enterprise to come rescue him. However, Scotty had already witnessed what was believed to be Kirk's death in Star Trek: Generations, so Scotty should believe Kirk to be dead at that time.

But nowhere near as inconsistent as the bible, with its multiple, incompatible creation myths. :-)

Far from new or unseen

[earlymon]

If you're a fan of the ST TOS, go look at the embedded clip in the TFA - you've seen this episode.

As one commenter at the TFA stated: "Different music, graphics, some additional dialogue."

It was a great episode - Sally Kellerman (babe alert) and Gary Lockwood - where the eyes turn silver and mental powers abound.

http://www.slashcontrol.com/free-tv-shows/star-trek-the-original-series/3461344488-star-trek-where-no-man-has-gone-before

Season 1, episode 3.

See also - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_No_Man_Has_Gone_Before

So - that was the alternate pilot. I did not know that. Very cool.

I mention all this for those us not on the Blu-ray bandwagon who will have to wait for this one.

My favorite part of the clip:

[Bob Hearn]

"George Takei as Chief Physicist"

Helmsman, swordsman, physicist... the guy can do everything!

Re:My favorite part of the clip:

[hyades1]

"Helmsman, swordsman, physicist... the guy can do everything!"

Except girls.

Don't care...just sayin'.

Re:I hereby tag this:

[pthisis]

you can bet your butts that this single episode will first be sold for the price of a full movie.

According to TFA, the episode will be included as part of the bonus material for the season 3 release on blu-ray:

"The restored pilot will be included in the "Star Trek: Original Series - Season 3" Blu-ray release.."

Sounds like true Star Trek alright

[Anonymous Coward]

"The USS Enterprise, under the command of Captain Christopher Pike, receives a radio distress call from the fourth planet in the Talos star group. A landing party is assembled and beamed down to investigate. Tracking the distress signal to its source, the landing party discovers a camp of survivors from a scientific expedition that has been missing for 18 years. Among the survivors is a beautiful young woman named Vina.

Captivated by her beauty, Pike is caught off guard and is captured by the Talosians, a race of humanoids with bulbous heads who live beneath the planet's surface. It is revealed that the distress call, and the crash survivors, except for Vina, are just illusions created by the Talosians to lure the Enterprise to the planet. While imprisoned, Pike uncovers the Talosian's plans to repopulate their ravaged planet using himself and Vina as breeding stock for a race of slaves."

Yep, quality TOS here.

Re:What's the point of releasing old TV on Blu Ray

[dianebrat]

not so, this is old TV that was on film, that film has a higher theoretical resolution.
had this been old TV on video tape, that would be different.

Blu-Ray you say?

[future assassin]

What about DVD? Oh those of us who don't own or wanna waste money on the next "best" in spinning disk technology gonna have to wait? I guess I'll just have to download it the day it comes out.

Re:WOW

[MightyMartian]

In this alternate cut, Spock uses Red Matter to go back and kick his younger more emotional self in the nuts and state "You're not a fucking Martian, Roddenberry is out to lunch."

As well, Scotty's weird wrench sex fetish is finally fully explained, the final great mystery of Star Trek after Patrick Stewart revealed Picard's affinity for Klingon circle jerks.

Re:Replace William Shatner? REPLACE William Shatne

[Hurricane78]

Actually, scientifically, we rather move in the hairless direction. The idea is, that there is no need for it anymore, anyway.

No Picard really is a rather advanced specimen. ^^

Sigh

[Foobar of Borg]

If you're going to do a first post on an article like this, you could at least do it right and say something like

I'm Captain Kirk! I'M CAPTAIN KIIIRRK!

Re:What's the point of releasing old TV on Blu Ray

[Dogtanian]

the film that they used is higher resolution than HD.

That's true, but people forget that the production values will have been made with television in mind- and 1960s televisions at that. In other words, at high enough resolution you might (for example) be able to see the obvious limitations and crudeness of props that would have been less apparent at ordinary TV resolution.

Just because the source material was recorded at a high enough resolution, doesn't mean it was filmed with that in mind. Given the budgets of TV shows, they wouldn't have wasted money on extra detail that wouldn't have shown up on televisions of the time; but the lack of it will show if scanned at high enough resolution and shown on modern HD sets.

Re:Mad rush on Blu-ray predicted

[Foobar of Borg]

If you have old, grainy, low-quality footage, there is no other way to release it other than Blu-Ray!

That was my thought, exactly. Even on lower quality DVD, you can see every pore, as well as the makeup Shatner and Nimoy are wearing.