Did anybody watch The Cage Extended Version? 1h13m

[moxpas]

Recently watched Star Trek TOS "The Cage (Original Pilot)", which can also be called S00E01 or S01E00, it lasts 1:03 or 1:04. Episode would be this one: https://trakt.tv/shows/star-trek/seasons/0/episodes/1

However now I want to watch the extended version "The Cage (Extended Version)" (original to me), length is 1:13 according to: https://trakt.tv/shows/star-trek/seasons/0/episodes/2

Did anybody watch it?

 

[Christopher]

The 73-minute version is the one that was originally released on videocassette and laser disc. I still have my copy. The extra runtime is not additional story content, but an extended introduction by Gene Roddenberry, which you can watch here:

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[NCC-73515]

I think there was also a version with title cards saying "Act 2" or something like that, that would extend the runtime a bit.

 

[Daddy Todd]

a version with title cards saying "Act 2" or something like that

That was WNMHGB, not The Cage.

 

[NCC-73515]

That might be right. But I do remember a transition scene where we just see the planet and the bridge crew fading in and out while the theme plays, and it's the Cage/TOS theme, not the WNMHGB theme...

 

[Warped9]

That might be right. But I do remember a transition scene where we just see the planet and the bridge crew fading in and out while the theme plays, and it's the Cage/TOS theme, not the WNMHGB theme...

Thats in the original version. It was purportedly an early attempt at showing the ship going to warp speed. Obviously it was never used again. It doesn’t really work.

 

[Christopher]

Thats in the original version. It was purportedly an early attempt at showing the ship going to warp speed. Obviously it was never used again. It doesn’t really work.

Yeah. I read somewhere that the intention was that the ship turned transparent in warp. Which would've been cumbersome if they'd kept using it. It could make sense as an optical for maybe one or two scenes per episode, like a transporter effect, but what if they had a long dialogue scene while the ship was at warp, as they often did?

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Thats in the original version. It was purportedly an early attempt at showing the ship going to warp speed. Obviously it was never used again. It doesn’t really work.

A big fancy to-do like that for warp drive would work better in a one-off movie than a TV series. Forbidden Planet had a big fancy to-do for its interstellar drive, where the crew had to be dematerialized to avoid inertial stresses. Again, too much fuss for an ongoing series.

 

[ChristopherPike]

Yeah, it's an extra on the last Season 3 Blu-ray disc. Straight SD transfer from the video release. Anything not used in The Menagerie is in black & white. It was released on DVD as Volume 40 in the late 90's paired with Turnabout Intruder, and later in the 2004 sets. Although it probably isn't in the last DVD set where due to disc space, the episodes are just the remastered CG fx ones.

 

[David cgc]

There are a couple other differences between the "extended" version and the main one on the disc, even the version with the original effects. The VHS version has the footage that wasn't seen in full-frame in "The Menagerie" in black-and-white, since a color copy of "The Cage" wasn't located until after the VHS was produced. Also, in the black-and-white shots, the lead Talosian has their original deep voice, which was shifted to a higher pitch for "The Menagerie" because the same actor was playing the Commodore in that episode. In the full-color version, those lines were also pitch-shifted to match the audio from "The Menagerie," so their voice doesn't switch back and forth.

 

[Ssosmcin]

A few other oddities:

On the Blu Ray "restored" version with original effects, the first shot of the Enterprise is in black and white (it's in color on the DVD).

Also, the shot of Spock and Number One approaching Pike in the transporter room at the end is really the shot from "The Menagerie" as the camera pulls back from the viewscreen projection at Spock's trial. You can even see the fram pull out and a VERY quick glimpse of the viewscreen.

Also never fixed: after Pike says "they can't see thought hate" there's a shot of the Keeper coming back into the corridor from the lift. Then we go back to the Enterprise as Spock decides to break orbit. After that we see the same shot of the Keeper walking in. This was an error created when they first did the reconstruction back in the 80's, they put the Keeper's return in too early.

There are a few other glitches here and there.

 

[Poltargyst]

the lead Talosian has their original deep voice, which was shifted to a higher pitch for "The Menagerie" because the same actor was playing the Commodore in that episode.

Say what now?

 

[Ssosmcin]

Malachi Throne provided the voice of the Keeper. When he was cast for the two part episode, they went to the sound track of the pilot and pitched up the Keeper's voice so it wouldn't sound like Commodore Mendez.

In the black and white scenes of the video release of the pilot, you would hear both voices: regular and pitched up. For the restored color version, they pitched up all of the Keeper's scenes to match.

 

[Christopher]

For the restored color version, they pitched up all of the Keeper's scenes to match.

Well, that's annoying. If the goal was to recreate the original as closely as possible, they should've pitched all the dialogue down. Unless somehow the pitching-up process wasn't reversible, because some information was lost or the waveform of the voice altered too much or something.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

The pitch shift was done with 1960s analog electronics, obviously. It was a box called the Eltro Information Rate Changer. It could change the pitch without changing the speed, or change the speed without changing the pitch:
https://www.wendycarlos.com/other/Eltro-1967/

It was all done by reading from and writing to audio tape, because there was no "stored in memory" for those guys.

 

[ChristopherPike]

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Roddenberry's entire black & white print was seemingly released in South America with subtitles. As late as 1995- 2001 judging by the Viacom period Paramount logo. I wonder if the Keeper's voice in it was the original deep pitch of Thorne's voice, throughout? No way of knowing without access to more of where this came from.

 

[David cgc]

I remember that it was a peculiar choice when DSC revisited Talos* and gave the Keeper a deeper voice, joking that, apparently, they were trying to pander to the people who'd only seen "The Cage" off of Roddenberry's black and white print at conventions in the '70s and not anyone who watched "The Menagerie" or any of the home video releases.

*I could just end the sentence there.

Though I just had a thought, "The Menagerie" does have some additional dialog from the Keeper at the end of the episode. I wonder if that had anything to do with Malachi Throne being cast as Mendez. The whole reason they made the episode was to save time and money, and casting someone else as Mendez and having to pay Throne to record a couple new lines (or another actor to re-record all of the Keeper's dialog) would cost more money.

 

[mb22]

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Roddenberry's entire black & white print was seemingly released in South America with subtitles. As late as 1995- 2001 judging by the Viacom period Paramount logo. I wonder if the Keeper's voice in it was the original deep pitch of Thorne's voice, throughout? No way of knowing without access to more of where this came from.

I have it, and it is the original voice.

The country in question was Brazil. Here is a discussion on the topic:

https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/whe...from-that-brazilian-vhs.308956/#post-13950361

I've wondered why Paramount/CBS never recreated an accurate as possible version of "The Cage" using a cleaned-up rendition of the 16mm soundtrack for the original Keeper's voice, together with all the Cage/Menagerie footage available.

 

[mb22]

Though I just had a thought, "The Menagerie" does have some additional dialog from the Keeper at the end of the episode. I wonder if that had anything to do with Malachi Throne being cast as Mendez. The whole reason they made the episode was to save time and money, and casting someone else as Mendez and having to pay Throne to record a couple new lines (or another actor to re-record all of the Keeper's dialog) would cost more money.

What would they have done if Throne had been unavailable for "The Menagerie"?

 

[Ssosmcin]

That workprint is fascinating and there are other differences, such as there is no overlaye of Fay Wray screaming in the Rigel VII combat scene. Which makes since because you can hear Vina screaming and gasping at the same time. That always bothered me.

Also missing is the music from The Man Trap which was put in after "we can soon begin the experiment." That has been in that scene since 1966 and never removed from the restoration of The Cage. A few line trims here and there are also evident. It's a shame Paramount didn't release the b&w workprint as an extra - if they even still have a copy. It would have been lost between the Brazilian VHS release and 2006.