When The Roddenberry Vault project was announced to the world earlier this year at Comic-Con, it was a huge surprise to the legions of Star Trek: The Original Series fans. The Original Series is 50 years old this year, and fans thought that whatever there was to see from TOS had been seen; after all, for the 40th anniversary it had been given a proper HD scan, which meant digging all the film out of the CBS/Paramount archives. So what else is there? Read on to find out…
So where did this new source of alternate takes, deleted scenes, and more come from? The answer to this probably won’t surprise long time Star Trek fans. Majel Barrett and Bjo Trimble started Star Trek Enterprises (later named Lincoln Enterprises) to sell Trek merchandise towards the end of the production of TOS. They grabbed discarded film “dailies” along with other extra footage and sold segments of the film to ravenous fans. Jump forward to 2007, Gene and Majel’s son Rod is going through his family’s assets and realizes there’s a warehouse filled with old film canisters.
Quietly, he and the Okudas check through these canisters as time allows over the next few years, hoping there’s enough worthwhile content to make something out of them. With the 50th anniversary coming up, Rod, the Okudas, and documentarian Roger Lay Jr., work with CBS Home Entertainment to form a plan for a new TOS Blu-ray set that will showcase the found footage. The people who put this together are all Star Trek fans as much as we all are, and it really shows. The work on The Roddenberry Vault feels like it was done by people who love the show and wanted to do right by the discovery of all this footage.
A look at the unique “vault” packaging motif
The Roddenberry Vault is a rather unique home video release in that most people aren’t as interested in what’s considered the “main” content, the episodes themselves, as they are the “bonus” content, where all the found footage resides.
What’s included on each disc
Disc One:
Episodes
- The Corbomite Maneuver
- Isolated Music Track
- Arena
- Isolated Music Track
- Space Seed
- Isolated Music Track
- This Side of Paradise
- Isolated Music Track
- Audio Commentary by Dorothy “D.C.” Fontana and Gabrielle Stanton
- Special Features
- Inside the Roddenberry Vault (Part 1)
- Star Trek: Revisiting a Classic
Disc Two:
Episodes
- The Devil in the Dark
- Isolated Music Track
- The City on the Edge of Forever
- Audio Commentary by Roger Lay Jr., Scott Mantz and Mark A. Altman
- Operation – Annihilate!
- Isolated Music Track
- Metamorphosis
- Isolated Music Track
- Special Features
- Inside the Roddenberry Vault (Part 2)
- Strange New Worlds: Visualizing the Fantastic
Disc Three:
Episodes
- Who Mourns for Adonais?
- Isolated Music Track
- Mirror, Mirror
- Isolated Music Track
- The Trouble With Tribbles
- Isolated Music Track
- Audio Commentary by David Gerrold and David A. Goodman
- Return to Tomorrow
- Isolated Music Track
- Special Features
- Inside the Roddenberry Vault (Part 3)
- Swept Up: Snippets from the Cutting Room Floor
Episodes
Each of the 3 discs includes four episodes that the producers of the set felt reflected TOS and enough new footage to be specially highlighted.
The episodes themselves are same as the 2009 TOS Blu-ray sets, you get a choice between the newer CG VFX or the original.
A new option included with the episodes, except for “The City on the Edge of Forever”, is an isolated music track. For folks interested in the music this is a unique feature of the set; hard core TOS fans who know the episodes by heart probably don’t need the dialogue to enjoy the episode anyway.
Commentaries
Three new commentaries were recorded for this set:
- This Side of Paradise – Dorothy “D.C.” Fontana and Gabrielle Stanton
- The City on the Edge of Forever – Roger Lay Jr., Scott Mantz and Mark A. Altman
- The Trouble With Tribbles – David Gerrold and David A. Goodman
These new commentaries are nice extras — importantly “Paradise” and “Tribbles” include people who were actually involved in the production.
Documentaries
Here’s where we get to the good stuff! Inside each of the new documentaries is the found footage.
| A disclaimer about the footage: these are very old (not well cared for either, I’m sure) bits of film, most were left on the cutting room floor, many are from cheaper film stock used for the dailies. They’re presented here quite raw, with dirt and scratches, audio pops and hisses, and shifted color tints, which all come with aging film. |
On each disc is a 30-minute segment of “Inside the Roddenberry Vault” (combined 90 minutes). This documentary follows the episodes included on the disc. Each episode is highlighted and then deleted scenes and alternate takes are woven into the information from Trek experts (including Richard Arnold and Mark A. Altman), notable fans who are now making TV that have been deeply influenced by TOS: Bill Prady (The Big Bang Theory), David Mirkin (The Simpsons), and Gabrielle Stanton (The Flash). New interviews with William Shatner, members of the production crew, such as Dorothy Fontana, David Gerrold, Joe D’Agosta (casting director), and Richard Edlund (VFX), and the guest stars of the episodes: Clint Howard, Craig Hundley, Elinor Donahue, Barbara Luna, Charlie Brill, Michael Forrest, and Leslie Parish, give depth to the documentaries.
Some highlights from the vault:
- Gene Coon’s influence on TOS is brought front and center; often “the other Gene” has been passed over when discussing the production of TOS.
- There is a deleted scene from “Space Seed” which shows Khan promising McGivers a place at his side as she mans the transporter controls after beaming him back to the Enterprise with his crew from the Botany Bay.
- There is another deleted scene from “Space Seed” which shows how ballsy and no-nonsense McCoy is: while being held by Khan’s men, he confronts Khan about how he (McCoy) had saved his life earlier in the episode.
- There’s quite a bit more to Kirk and Edith Keeler’s love story from “The City on the Edge of Forever” which really helps drive home how much the two fit with one another, even though they’re from such different time periods.
- The famous Peter Kirk on the bridge scene from “Operation: Annihilate!” was found.
- The equally famous (thanks to the James Blish novelization) original ending from “Who Mourns for Adonais?” where McCoy announces that Lt. Palamas is pregnant with Apollo’s child, couldn’t be found as a complete scene, but they did find a reaction take of Leonard Nimoy as Spock, with the script coordinator reading Kirk and McCoy’s dialog off camera, confirming that the scene was indeed filmed.
- They found an extended version of Kirk’s “risk is our business” speech from “Return to Tomorrow”.
There is a second documentary included on each disc; these are standalone pieces on different topics.
Star Trek: Revisiting A Classic (30 min.) – This is a look back at the origins of the series and the initial production of TOS. We hear from the surviving main cast members, Adam Nimoy and Chris Doohan are interviewed on behalf of their fathers, plus casting director Joe D’Agosta, and others. Naturally this has plenty of behind-the-scenes photos and “vault” footage. This segment does a good job introducing TOS to more casual fans, and also throws in bits and pieces of found footage for the more versed TOS fan to enjoy.
Strange New Worlds: Visualizing the Fantastic (30 min.) – This is a really worthwhile feature that talks about the design of the show, the cutting edge visual effects that TOS used, and how it was accomplished on a TV budget. Of course the huge volume of work that Matt Jefferies created for TOS is highlighted. We’re treated to newly unearthed original visual effects photography interspersed by interviews with Richard Edlund (who was the right-hand man at The Westheimer Company during TOS and later helped to found ILM), and more recent TNG-era visual effects crew, Doug Drexler, Dan Curry and Gary Hutzel help describe the visual effects processes of TOS.
A collage filmed for use as The Companion effect in “Metamorphosis”
Swept Up: Snippets from the Cutting Room Floor (20 min.) – This a grab bag of various unseen footage, such as alternate takes, and omitted dialogue. Basically, anything else worth including that didn’t belong in one of the documentaries is bundled up in this final piece.
Test footage of the nacelle cap lighting
Final Thoughts:
It’s hard to describe all the bits and pieces included, some are tiny trims, or brief alternate takes, others are complete deleted scenes. It’s really something you’ll have to see for yourself. As a life-long Trek fan, whose first love is TOS, this is an easy recommendation. The glimpses back in time are well worth it. There’s a lot of love put into this set by all involved.
Mirror Chekov reminds Sulu that Uhura is deadly with her knives
The only thing that saddens me, is that we know other deleted scenes exist, and this taste of them leaves you wanting to see even more. Those other deleted scenes must really be lost at this point, chopped up and sold to folks in the ’70s and ’80s, or worse, tossed in a trashcan by an editor long long ago.
We’re incredibly lucky as fans to have The Roddenberry Vault. It shows us new material from a TV show made 50 years ago, long before the concept of home video — today deleted scenes are purposefully preserved since they make for great bonus content.
Support TrekMovie by ordering The Roddenberry Vault through the link below:
How disappointing that the extended deleted sequence from “Elaan of Troyius” couldn’t be found or included; I was looking forward to seeing that. (For that matter, it’s a pity that nothing from season three seems to have been included. I know the third season of TOS wasn’t Star Trek at its best, but there were some diamonds in the rough. Oh well.)
There’s a little bit of S3 stuff in the “Swept Up” segment. A portion of the Elaan of Troyius deleted scene of the arboretum was found. It’s not much, it’s just the portion where Uhura talks about learning to play the Vulcan harp with Spock.
I’m interested in seeing that portion. If the dialogue between Spock and Uhura is the same as that published in James Blish’s adaptation of “Elaan of Troyius” in “Star Trek 7,” then it’s well and good that the scene was deleted, because it’s inaccurate.
Blish’s dialogue has Uhura saying, “I’d certainly like to learn how to play that lyre,” to which Spock replies, “I’d be glad to give you the theory, Lieutenant. However, to my knowledge no non-Vulcan has ever mastered the skill.”
“Elaan of Troyius” is third season. Uhura already knew how to play Spock’s lyre in the first-season episode “The Conscience of the King” when she sang “Beyond Antares.”
Still, as I said, I’d love to see this lost scene as a curiosity. And as one of the very few appearances of the brand-new Recreation Room for Season 3.
Lord Edzo,
Re: Uhura already knew how to play Spock’s lyre in the first-season episode
But maybe she wasn’t up on the new Slack key tuning that was the third season rage? ;-)
It’s the same dialog (Blish usually got early draft scripts to work from). And yes I’ve always thought this deleted scene is odd since, as you pointed out, Uhura is seen using the Vuclan lyre in Season 1
Matt, a very excellent review. Congrats.
I’m sure this is something I would really love to see. But at Amazon’s $50 price tag I think I will have to pass. Maybe if the discs were available to rent….
It’s actually $39.99 at Amazon. And the steelbook from Amazon Germany, which I bought, is slightly cheaper at about $36, including shipping from Europe to the US.
Still a bit pricey from something I will likely only watch once. Would rather the discs be available for rent.
This set sounds great, but I’m disappointed to see Richard Arnold included, given the damage he did to the franchise.
Hi Dandru, can you expand on this? Met him at a convention and he seemed quite knowledgeable although I am not sure of his role?
See Robert Justman’s remarks about Mr Roddenberry’s ‘errand boy’ and those of licenced book authors who clashed with him. I don’t know the guy personally, so I can’t comment about him (let’s face it, in creative industries, personality clashes are commonplace) but there are quite a few articles around. The usual search engines are your friends…
The deleted scenes and special features sound interesting but I have zero interest in purchasing the actual episodes yet again. I have the special edition blurays and before that I had the dvds, laserdiscs and VHS tapes (remember those?). If the scenes and special material were being sold as a standalone disc I’d be all in, but I just cannot justify picking up the episodes again. Sorry.
I’m with you on this. I’d buy the set at a reasonable price if it didn’t include the episodes that I already have in multiple formats.
So, have the VFX sequences been located – and could they be recomposited like for TNG? The CGI versions of the effects were OK for 2006, but are pretty shoddy compared to the model work.
No, nothing new of the final episodes was found. These are all discarded and/or alternate footage. Sadly, the original VFX plates appear to be long gone :-/
@James. It’s a shame, given the massive restoration of the original Enterprise model at the Smithsonian, that they can’t get some new ‘sweeps’ of the ship model to build into the HD versions. There are some great new ship angles added to the TOS-R versions which I’m utterly in favour of retaining (simply re-shoot them using the physical model) and I suspect we can cope with most of the other CGI model work of alien craft being retained. But the original model Enterprise would definitely ‘sell’ a lot of the other enhancements.
I guess it might look something like this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIIxDs9oPMc
:)
Indeed it might :-) Love that video
As far as I’m aware, NBC owned all of the footage that Gene and Majel ‘grabbed’ from the Desilu lot. So, by purchasing this particular set, are you not essentially rewarding theft?
Gladly.
Well, Desilu/Paramount would have owned it, not NBC. But since Roddenberry was a part-owner of STAR TREK, he had some claims to the footage, too. But since Paramount likely would have tossed the footage by the 1970s, and thus would have lost their opportunity to make their share of the money this blu-ray set will generate, I’m sure they’re reasonably grateful to the Roddenberrys for preserving it.
I suppose it’s been a long day. That’s the only explanation for my saying NBC when I know very well Paramount/Desilu owned the footage. They did own it though and the Roddenberrys did not. Gene may have had a creative stake in Trek but he had no legal or financial one. As for the idea that Paramount would have dumped the footage eventually-well maybe. That’s not certain though.
Still, the whole thing has a bit of a stink to it. I wouldn’t purchase it myself. But hey, each to their own.
Incidentally can anyone explain why this set seems to be so expensive in the States? I note that Amazon uk are selling it for £20. That’s what, $25? So what’s the deal with Americans paying $50? Given there are fewer Trek fans in England, you’d think they’d be paying a premium for that content. Or is this CBS’ post-DISC pricing policy for those living in The Land of the Free?
Both Roddenberry and William Shatner had/have an ownership state in STAR TREK:
(via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek, but sourceable elsewhere, I’m sure) “At Star Trek’s creation, Norway Productions, Roddenberry’s production company, shared ownership with Desilu Productions and, after Gulf+Western acquired Desilu in 1967, with Paramount Pictures, the conglomerate’s film studio. Paramount did not want to own the unsuccessful show; net profit was to be shared between Norway, Desilu/Paramount, Shatner, and NBC but Star Trek lost money, and the studio did not expect to syndicate it. In 1970 Paramount offered to sell all rights to Star Trek to Roddenberry, but he could not afford the $150,000 ($916,000 in 2007) price.[15]”
I think Leonard Nimoy retroactively got a piece of the show to match Shatner’s but I’m not 100% sure. Nor am I sure why the set is cheaper in the UK.
Worse Horse,
That would be a work, NBC: AMERICA’S NETWORK, I’ve referenced in TrekMovie’s comment chains before trying to disabuse people of their notion of Paramount of then “investing” or buying STAR TREK which they did not do. It was dumped in their laps, which they did not want, by virtue of their too, same as Desilu, getting into financial straits and being bought out by Gulf+Western:
https://books.google.com/books?id=lhmw637JRgUC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA218#v=onepage&q&f=false
the tome’s particulars:
https://books.google.com/books?id=lhmw637JRgUC&source=gbs_navlinks_s
They’re selling it for what they think they can get for it. But I don’t think it’s over-priced (at $40) for a 3-disk blu ray set. Also the packaging is quite elaborate. I’m happy with it at the price.
Since this is now an officially blessed product of CBS (the current rights holders of TOS), this has basically come full circle.
Tobeornottobe2…
Let’s get things clear here: CBS Home Entertainment owns “Star Trek”, not NBC (networks rarely own their own shows… Showtime’s “Homeland”, for instance, is owned by Fox, actually) and it’s CBS Home Entertainment who put out the DVDs. So I guess you can rest assured that nothing has been stolen and that theft is not being rewarded.
As I stated in my last post, I am well aware that NBC did not own Trek. I am also perfectly aware that CBS H.E. does own it now. But they didn’t own it back in ’69, when Gene and Majel were (seen) transporting Trek film materials into the back of their car on the Desilu lot, just before they drove off it for the last time. And that was my point. As stated in the review, the contents were ‘grabbed’, so there is a definite problem there ethicallly if not legally.
CBS now being perfectly happy with the situation doesn’t make that any less so.
Tobeornottobe2,
You are imagining a situation that did not quite exist at the time. Responsibility for managing STAR TREK had merely changed hands from one bankrupt entity to another. If anyone “owned” STAR TREK properties by way of actually paying cash for it it would have been Bludhorn and his Gulf+Western. But he ordered an almost as freshly purchased Paramount protesting all the way, because it would only cost them more money and they were already in the red, to manage it. Paramount didn’t have any spare money to police, catalog and properly store any STAR TREK production properties.
Now granted when such a cat’s away production closes a lot of theft often occurs but in no way would it have been limited to the Roddenberrys nor would others doing it make it suddenly ethical, merely understandable as I don’t believe anyone’s calling Gene a saint. But I was on their LINCOLN ENTERPRISES mailing list and I certainly don’t recall anything along the lines of them offering set props and costumes that they claimed actually were used on screen which if they were thieving as you say why not those items instead of only scripts, memos, photos and film clips; and their reproductions? I do recall there was a lot of stuff Paramount had tossed in the dumpster and dumpster diving wasn’t against the law back then, but I don’t believe Gene ever claimed to get his catalog inventory that way? I do clearly recall the catalog saying the film clips they offered were things that were from “the cutting room floor” and would have been trashed.
If Gene and Majel were (seen) transporting Trek film materials into the back of their car on the Desilu lot in ’69, it seems more likely it was because Paramount asked them to clear the area for Paramount’s next paying client’s use. Now Paramount may have had the expectation that the only place they could have been heading next was the dump, but that’s a gray area with Paramount’s stewardship or rather lack of it as they tried to get out from under to the point of offering to sell STAR TREK to him.
‘It seems more likely it was because Paramount asked them to clear the area for Paramount’s next paying client’s use.’
That is an extremely optimistic interpretation of the situation. To put it mildly. But hey, let’s not all get aggravated about it. Let’s just agree that with regards to the original ownership of said materials, there is a huge grey area there.
Tobeornottobe2,
No need to keep flailing about getting it needlessly wrong. It says right at the bottom of this web page which CBS entity owns it:
“STAR TREK® and its various marks are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc”
@Tobeornottobe2
No, picking up discarded material isn’t really ‘theft;’ it’s salvage. If people working at TV and film companies hadn’t held on to old film cans down the years, a lot of TV history was UK’s have been lost. Every few years, for example, an old Doctor Who episode turns up. A season one episode of the Ian Hendry/Patrick Macnee show, The Avengers, was located just a few weeks ago, unseen since transmission 55 years ago.
Having worked with film stock a bit myself, a lot of the offcuts simply end up in bins. After all, it’s low quality reference print material, made with key numbers to indicate frame locations that gets filthy dirty and marked with Chinagraph pencil to indicate fades and dissolves, in order to provide information for the negative cut. It’s the negative discards that are the mother lode, if they ever show up!
Mine arrives today – super excited!
Hailing frequencies open, message from Captain Kirk prime:
https://twitter.com/WilliamShatner/status/808704814259445762
Is any of the NEW footage spliced into the episodes included on the discs? I can watch those episodes on BBCA any night of the week (never mind rent them if I’m desperate). The lost footage is the only thing worth purchasing and should be released as a stand-alone documentary, unless of course, the lost footage is cut into the episode.
I just bought it and have it on now. Totally worth the price and then some! Fans who love the history of the show will love it. Very well made.
re: “Cutting room floor” film bits
I have some such bits and pieces of footage from two 1960s filmmaker friends of mine (both deceased), and yes, these have gone pink-to-red in color. Luckily, I also have some black and white clips from the same films (workprint clips, probably) and those look good, not faded. I believe the color shift to red was because of the type of dyes in the emulsion. Come to think of it, some of my own late ’60s/early ’70s 8mm and Super 8 films have shifted as well. :/ I also have some minor TOS film clips as well, from Lincoln Enterprises and other sources. Haven’t looked at them in decades, so don’t know how they’ve held up.
I think you’re right about the dyes. I was talking to somebody back in 1990 or 2000 who knew Ernie Farino and mentioned that Ernie had a 35mm print of Kubrick’s 2001 that looked pristine – except for the whole thing having gone red.
kmart,
Re: right about the dye
Indeed, and it is a common enough phenomenon that it seems even the most primitive of digital photo processing software can correct for it.
I seem to recall that some dyes were vegetable-based (Kodachrome?), as those have over the years attracted mites that chew on the emulsion, leaving little marks around the edges of the film part of old 35mm slides I have. I have 35mm color clips from a couple of low-budget ’60s sci-fi films that I remember having beautiful color, and when I ran across them in a box a couple years ago, they were very red, while the black and white strips of 35mm footage look beautiful. I prefer B&W anyway, so I’m not too upset.
The pic above the Shatner clip …
Talk about a “pasty-faced” Khan! Hee!
Nice bit of commentary in the clip above from Shatner
And of course, Kirk’s babe magnet van… banned by the NBC censors.
Hot Wheels real riders. Shat’s babe magnet van indeed. With all the talk of TOS theft I seem to recall the Shat absconded with his TOS toupes, so ethicists shoudl refrain from watching any Shat featured production from the late 60s to the early 70s.
Very nix. How about extras from the TOS movies? TNG?
Trek movies are controlled by Paramount not CBS, and they don’t seem to care about new content. They’ve been recycling the same movies since 2009, aside from the recent TWOK DC.
TNG has deleted scenes included in most of the Blu-ray seasons.
Matt Wright,
Re: recycling the same movies since 2009
And in the 5 movies after TMP, definitely recycling the same beauty shots and some of the other FX bits.
Not to throw a wet blanket on this thing, but there’s a reason most of these scenes ended up on the cutting room floor. I think its Super Cool that these things were found, restored and I’m sure the documentary is great. But I’ve yet to see extra footage that really was all that desirable..otherwise it would have ended up in the final product.
Like the original opening to “Generations” with Kirk, Scotty & Chekov in the cornfield….A scene not needed…A scene that just makes you ask…where’s Spock and Bones…
I can see a day where we’ll see extra footage from “Star Trek IV” like Kirk’s scene with Saavik or whatever else landed on the cutting room floor but…the original films and tv segments are better without this extra fluff. Sad to say it, but true…
The 3 little mini scenes or was it 2 added to “The Undiscovered Country” when it came out on video…it just made it cheesier…less like a big time movie, IMO.
Steve Gennarelli,
For the most part you are probably right, but ST has a history of battles with censorship such that I wouldn’t mind a STAR TREK UNPLUGGED edition where the scenes and dialog that the production sincerely wanted – not the erotica included to misdirect the Censors – included, but the network had cut, were restored.
Received mine in the mail yesterday, worth every penny!
getting the bluray for christmas, so looking forward to it, i should get a bit before i leave for work ,dammit jim
Santa answered my letter too.
I’ll definitely buy this at £20, just for the docos and deleted scenes. The isolated scores are a wonderful addition; I’m thrilled about those. I’m exactly the kind of lifelong fan this works for. Heck, I still treasure my copy of The Star Trek Compendium!! It’ll be good to see some of the material I’ve read so much about represented on TV.
Maybe I’m alone in this, but my perfect 50th anniversary ‘treat’ would have been for a massive burying of the hatchet between CBS, Paramount and Harlan Ellison so they could shoot the original teleplay version of City on the Edge of Forever with the new cast. The comic book adaptation was tremendous and what better celebration could there be than to see the legendary script finally reach our screens?
I’m not interested in the Vault but I’m with you on City. Although I’d happily settle for an animated version a la ‘The Killing Joke’. Of course it will never happen, but we can dream.
Yeah, it’s a shame they won’t countenance some animated Star Trek films . There are loads of novels and comicbooks that would make great cartoons. Also, I accepted that Adam West sounded old in Warner’s Return of the Caped Crusaders, because it was just so much fun to see have the old show’s gang back together. And finding an excuse to have Adam West’s Batman spout lines from The Dark Knight Returns and the Tim Burton films was hysterically funny. Looking forward to William Shatner playing a Two-Face in the next film. All they need is to get David Hasselhoff on board for a third film and I’ll be happy! I’m more than willing to accept Patrick Stewart, for example, might sound a bit older. But they could easily make a post-Nemesis TNG cartoon if they wanted to!
All it takes from CBS and Paramount to make animated straight-to-video Star Treks is a little imagination!
You should be able to get the set on http://www.zoom.co.uk at £18 if you sign up and get their 10% off :)
One thing I noticed that didn’t surprise me was that in the features were comments on how Star Trek is about “understanding” others… not once did anyone indicate that “Star Trek should be about kicking alien ass”! Lol… It made me think of the recents posts here regarding Brian Fullers comments on Discovery. While I wasn’t necessarily needing episodes yet again (after buying them on VHS then DVD then Blu Ray), I am looking forward to the ones with commentary. And seeing raw footage of some of the SFX shots was very interesting.
I’m just glad to see Gene Coon getting some recognition. I was never comfortable with the Roddenberry cult that developed following the launch of TNG. There were so many talented people involved in developing Mr Roddenberry’s initial concept who were properly recognised until they were seemingly airbrushed out from the late 1980s onwards. Without the likes of Gene Coon, Dorothy Fontana and John Meredyth Lucas, I’m not convinced the original Star Trek would have lasted as long as it did.
Got mine yesterday. Looking forward to making time over the holidays to watch.
So Maj and Gene didn’t cut up every last piece of 35mm film to see as clips! Interesting what was kept was completed footage and dialog when most of the clips sold were without soundtrack – just picutre.
Unbelievably disappointed!!!!!! I saw the promotions which showed the vault that had what looked like thousands of reels. The opening with the Okuda’s shows the same scene. What we get is at the most about 10 – 15 minutes of total new scenes… The rest is new commentary, and episodes that I can see on-line anytime. THAT’S IT!
While I love what I see, I feel very ripped off that they show how much there is but include so very little.
They only showed you that to milk the cow at a later date and you guys at a later date. There will be more of these probably coming out in the future.
I am sure that is the plan. What is there is magical, and awesome, but just not enough.
They stated that there was nothing more to release & that was it, the rest wasn’t marketable & they weren’t even considering releasing more or all of the footage. the idea was exhausting.
I wish they would just collect them by season & release them on Youtube for anyone who wants to sit through them to watch them.
Got it, watched it, its odd, there is not alot of the actual foottage in the documentaries which focus more on the production of the series episodes, then they put the rest of them, about 18 minutes in one featurette. I wish they had included all the footage in the featurette, even the ones seen in the doco which you have to look or wait for.
& its all in standard DVD quality like 480 with no correction.
If they were going to include episodes they should have restored the footage as best they could & did a with or without deleted scenes branching option.
But the deleted scenes & extra dialogue is great.
Seriously dvd? Why not Beta? We’re now on the next generation of Blu Ray. I have vhs still, but surely you didn’t expect this release on dvd.
Want want want want want want want.
Say, with only 15 more shopping days to go maybe I can drop hints… MUWAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA
An extended version of “Risk is our Business?”
Oh man…how much more Shatnery will that speech get???
Great review Matt. Many thanks. I’ll certainly be ordering this set. The isolated scores are a nice and much appreciated touch.
I would LOVE to see the original black & white workprint of “The Cage” again, exactly as it was when GR carried it around to conventions in the early ’70s!
Instead of the chopped up, color/b&w/color, Keeper voice low/Keeper voice high version. Just the B&W version. Nothing else, just “The Cage” as it was run in 16mm B&W back in the day. :|
If you’re not averse to color, the version included with the blu-ray 3rd season set is perfect. It’s full length. They even got the original actor (Malachi Throne) to do the lines (sped up as in the original). Also, all the original color footage was found, so all of it looks great! The only way Roddenbery’s 16 millimeter workprint was utilized was as a source for a few bits of sound not found anywhere else.
Thanks for the info. I saw that 16mm B&W print when GR carried it in a film can in Detroit in 1972, and when it was projected, it blew away everyone in attendance. Maybe I’m just nostalgic, but I’d love to see that same old B&W print again. :)
“IF” you can find it. Paramount Home video on VHS released 2 versions of the Cage. One has Roddenberry doing an opening sequence presenting it(in the movie transporter) in the edited existing color footage and his copy of it in black and white, he took to CONS.(Till years later the full version in color print was found..some same colorized) And another VHS version in less number was issued in just B/W.
Enjoyed all the documentaries, loved the found footage ( especially loved the BTS Enterprise model footage ). Did notice one flaw in the only episode I’ve watched from this set; In “Metamorphosis”, not all of the ‘remastered’ changes are carried over into the ‘remastered’ version. Notably, the extended, panning landscape shot is the same as in the original version, as is the shot of Cochrane yelling “HELLO!” and running towards the Galileo. In the ‘remastered’ versions on the DVD and Blu ray TOS sets, the “rock” piece at the top of the screen ( probably used to cover the exposed ceiling of the set ) was replaced by an extended CGI sky. On here, both the remastered and original versions have the same original shot. Granted, this a minor nitpick, since I didn’t get this set for the episodes, but it’s there.
Awesome mistake, that was one of the few preferred original shots I had- glad I don’t have to switch back to see that lol
Seeing that ginormous room filled with film canisters sorta raised my expectations a little overmuch! But, wow, to see new trek after all these years!!! And the cut moments and scenes are of surprisingly excellent quality, funny, moving, great stuff!I would love to see that material cut back into City on the Edge (even if it doesn’t look as good). One sour note for me personally, it just happens that I’ve spent many hours trying to assemble and edit together the complete musical score for my obsession: City on the Edge of Forever. Rotten luck that that was the one featured episode without an isolated score!
I must go on the record at being miffed at the many disgruntled fans who felt this release was too light, too expensive, didn’t allow the viewer to simply run the lost footage as a separate option, over having to watch each portion be dropped into the 6 featurettes. I could sum this up to people nowadays want things fast in easily digested time frames, cause their attention span is damn near nil, for free, or pirated video. Or they feel the retail price is not worth the many hours the Okuda’s & many others took to rescue,clean up, assemble, and give context to the footage that was viewable enough to be enjoyed. Many felt like Rod, and the Okuda’s mislead them with a supposed GLUT of footage that they’d hoped was many hours long. Any thinking person would have to have been illogical to think a dumpster filled holy grail surely had been unearthed. I for one and amazed, thankful, gleeful, excited, and blessed to have the footage that was presented finally in my hands. Several scorching reviews on Amazon also have awful reviews berating the method the footage was finally Why wasn’t it color corrected, easily done from the work prints? Why wasn’t the snippets,dropped scenes, alt camera angles, bloopers restored to HD and 4K? Because my dear Trekkers, this footage would have cost FAR MORE to bring you to home video. People are complaining it’s $40.00 price tag is too costly when it’s initial pre-orders was $80.00. I’m NOT getting the mentality of this! I get millennials wanted things free or next to nothing…but are these the target audience for TOS? I ended up getting this through Amazon for less than $40.00, and I feel that’s quite fair. I DO get why a majority are upset having to re-buy 12 episodes “again”. But the footage in this release was presented as bonus/supplemental material in context to existing tv episodes. Not as a stand alone project. I’m not completely in the know why this is the manner in which it MUST be released..but look at the much later TNG series sets. The individual 2 part’er’s got more budget to do even more supplemental material CBS nixed when that same episode was released in a season set. If ANYONE knows if this Vault release is in fact “IT” as far as all footage that was found, LMK! To date I haven’t read that any further Vault releases are expected. But I’d be like…..TAKE MY $ if they did!
Completely agree with you. The sense of entitlement is disgusting.
This is a fantastic release, and in an era when the studios are cutting back on special titles like this, people should be grateful they got anything at all.
Between this and the remastering of TOS and TNG, CBS has gone out of their way to give us releases that fans of other franchises would die for. Enjoy it instead of whining about it.
Brian Drew,
Re: This is a fantastic release
Agreed. Perhaps some of the problem stems from the CBS name stamped on the box making some reviewers think CBS was far more involved with this release than they were, i.e. going in predisposed to thinking that it was just another boxed anthology of episodes rushed out merely to exploit the present exchanging holidays seasonal market?
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I get the impression that perhaps CBS’ greatest contribution to this release was that they made the episodes available and then got out of the way [No mean feat in the history of STAR TREK’s dance with corporate behemoths.] of the Roddenberry archivists allowing them to put it together as THEY saw fit.
Surely a pity that some can’t see the love with which this was obviously assembled, the impossibility of these extras ever having emerged from CBS’ archives, and enjoy it just for that. I certainly did, which is why I was glad Santa made it happen for me. But then I’m just an old audio/visual geek from the 1960s; maybe they don’t make new ones of these enthusiasts anymore which would make me a member of a dying breed?
It would have been more practical to assemble the deleted footage back onto the original episode, it could have been color corrected and probably would have made the disc set much more attractive to buyers …. It just seemed crazy to include the episode exactly as it appears in the past sets.. The added soundtrack score selection was a good move..
Also; would have been much better if the entire episodes deleted footage was included all together, like in “Metamorphosis” where you have some footage here and other footage on another forum – it just appears to jump all over the place .