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I’ll have to look into that for you. I’ve never done anything like that before.

I presume your confusion about the B&W workprint version is that you are assuming the audio was a single composite mono track? I’m not sure it has ever been stated anywhere that this was the case. Work prints rarely had sound striped onto the film. On a professional flatbed editor there were generally 3 additional platters for sound, typically edited in music, efx and dialogue. I believe I recall reading that this was in fact the case. They were able to find the original workprint sound elements (which would be very poor quality as is the print since it was often several generations away from the original sources which would be re-cut to conform to the workprint).

What is still mysterious (to me, at least) is that in the original B&W footage there is a shot near the end of the Keeper speaking to Pike saying “She has an illusion and you have reality.” The voice is in sync with the Keeper’s lips, but it is Throne’s normal pitch of voice. How were they going to pitch that up and yet keep it in sync? That shot does not exist in “The Menagerie” although most of the dialog is played as voice over at the end. I think the only thing Mendez may have re-recorded specifically for “The Menagerie” are the words “Captain Pike…” to be put in front of “has and illusion…” etc.. Otherwise, the readings sure sound the same.

My guess is, like Mark Lenard, they liked him and brought him back for another role he would be good for and fitting in a way that he had done the pilot. Considering residuals today, he would have had to have been paid for two roles, so unless the rules were different in ‘66, it wouldn’t have made any difference. There are no coincidence’s in casting!

#66. swh1939 – I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR THAT ORIGINAL AUDIO CONVERTED TO AN MP3. Any chance you will ever post it? What a thing to have in your possession.

I came to a somewhat similar conclusion after watching the episode again. It appears that the Keeper’s initial halting speech is probably just intended to indicate that the Keeper is unused to speaking.

Oh, well. As I said, it was just a theory.

I think you are right that the mag track was run slower – probably at 20fps -but, if you assume that Throne was looping the original actress’ dialog (rather than the actress lip-syncing Throne’s playback performance), then the visual that Throne viewed during the session also had to be running slower than normal and Throne had to be speaking slower than normal in order for the cadence to be correct when it was sped up.

When you slow down the Keeper’s voice, that’s what it sounds like, i.e. Throne speaking unnaturally slowly – in an almost a “soothing” cadence.

I wonder about the re-casting of Throne as Mendez. Coincidence? Just a favorite of the casting director? Or was there some economic advantage (with, say, residuals) that prompted the choice.

This is why there are professional sound people. Yes editing on mag-stock before digital or even 1/4″ tape was time consuming that’s why there are editors unions to protect them from the laborious hours spent sitting over a flatbed. There were often MANY such tiny edits throughout a sound and sometimes picture track. But you assume too much, even if they re-synched individual words, they would still not synch as perfectly. Today we have software that allows us to stretch individual syllables to fit a word in someone’s mouth, but there was NO WAY to do that in the 60s.

But, the way they actually did it in the 60 was this:

The original Malachi Throne elements were re-recorded onto a mag-unit running at a calculated slower speed. When the elements were then run at the proper speed they were not only pitched up but in perfect synch with the picture. When he recorded the new dialogue, most likely he simply recorded it directly onto a recorder running at the properly calculated slower speed.

Today, this is all done with software algorithms to maintain speed but change the pitch. AND I AGREE, I would love for them to produce a secondary audio track with the original soundtrack restored from the original for the Blu-ray offering.

However, I agree that for the purposes of syndication broadcast, the voice needs to match that of the Menagerie to avoid confusion among the casual viewer of Star Trek. It’s too bad they made this choice to recast Throne in the same episode he provided the voice for flashbacks originally. I think having the lower man’s voice, rather than the typical sci-fi genre alien voice is much more effective against the frail imagery. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the network’s hand behind that one following the pilot screening – I can just see the note now: “creepy aliens should sound different than humans”.

The remastered live action is as great as it was on the HD-DVD if not better and the new effects are great to see and extremely well done in many places.

The broadcast version cuts out Spock’s grinning over the plants, as well as his startled “The WOMEN!!” line. Hmph.

I would be all for re-mastering TAS except…

The real question is whether or not the original cast recordings still exist as separate elements from the final mix. Otherwise, you would have to retain a lot of the original music and sound effects. For me, the thing that makes TAS hard to watch is not the animation, but the repetitive use of the same music cues (which are themselves internally repetitive). It also doesn’t help that the producers felt that the underscore needed to be wall-to-wall most of the time. In its day, TAS had a far more sophisticated score than your typical Saturday morning cartoon, but the overall effect, even back then, was pretty grim.