Star Trek S1 Intro Narration Variation?

[yotsuya]

I would guess most, if not all, the edits were done on tape. Tape was not the medium of choice for making or archiving TV episodes (and Lucy herself was the pioneer of using film rather than live broadcast), but it was the medium of choice for distributing and broadcasting. My knowledge on the subject is tied to my interest in Doctor Who. Now that was made on PAL 1 inch tape. The first surviving episode in that medium is in the 7th season. Since the BBC distributed world wide to PAL, NTSC, and SECAM locations, they filmed the episodes and distributed film well into the 70's, but many of the recovered 70's episodes (and not many were lost) were recovered tapes. So sometime around 1974 the BBC (not known for adopting technology early) was distributing tapes. By the time TNG was being distributed, it was by satellite. As many stations airing TOS then aired TNG, I have always assumed that TOS had been distributed the same where. When that started I cannot say. From what the BBC was doing, a lot of the format depended both on what they offered and what the broadcast station needed. They had a considerable overlap of tape and film. It would have been easy for Paramount to make a master distribution copy on tape that was edited for time. It would also be easy for a station to get a film, transfer it to video and edit it for time (though time consuming). Some stations (as happened with Doctor Who) would have done it the old school way and edited the film. So I'm sure there was no consistent way that they were edited for time. The only thing I am certain of is that they were NOT done from the master negative, but from a distribution master that Paramount had. The master negative was not revisited until relatively recently.

 

[ClassicTVMan81]

I can definitely relate to the whole new version on one episode, then go back to the old one on the next... I have seen these back-and-forth changes on other Paramount shows, like Mission: Impossible and Cheers.

Mission: Impossible's fifth season (1970-1971) was the first one to have the new, higher-pitched version of the theme tune that would only last for this particular season. But four episodes still had the more familiar version that we'd heard on the previous four seasons: "The Killer" (9/19/70), "Flip Side" (9/26/70), "Homecoming" (10/10/70) and "Butterfly" (10/31/70). The first episode to debut the newer version was "The Innocent" (10/3/70) and was made permanent from "Decoy" (11/7/70) forward.

Also, about Cheers: the first episode of that series to have the opening teaser with the words "Cheers is filmed before a live studio audience" was first heard on episode 13 of season 1, "Now Pitching, Sam Malone" (1/6/83). But the episode aired after that, "Let Me Count the Ways" (1/13/83), went back to the older version without this narration.

Therefore, I believe that "The Enemy Within" was the first season 1 episode of Star Trek to have the newer cello theme, and that "Mudd's Women" went back to the old electric violin version. I remain under the impression that "Miri" and/or "Dagger of the Mind" were the last two to use the older version.

~Ben

 

[Ssosmcin]

I can definitely relate to the whole new version on one episode, then go back to the old one on the next... I have seen these back-and-forth changes on other Paramount shows, like Mission: Impossible and Cheers.

Mission: Impossible's fifth season (1970-1971) was the first one to have the new, higher-pitched version of the theme tune that would only last for this particular season. But four episodes still had the more familiar version that we'd heard on the previous four seasons: "The Killer" (9/19/70), "Flip Side" (9/26/70), "Homecoming" (10/10/70) and "Butterfly" (10/31/70). The first episode to debut the newer version was "The Innocent" (10/3/70) and was made permanent from "Decoy" (11/7/70) forward.

Also, about Cheers: the first episode of that series to have the opening teaser with the words "Cheers is filmed before a live studio audience" was first heard on episode 13 of season 1, "Now Pitching, Sam Malone" (1/6/83). But the episode aired after that, "Let Me Count the Ways" (1/13/83), went back to the older version without this narration.

Therefore, I believe that "The Enemy Within" was the first season 1 episode of Star Trek to have the newer cello theme, and that "Mudd's Women" went back to the old electric violin version. I remain under the impression that "Miri" and/or "Dagger of the Mind" were the last two to use the older version.

~Ben

Based on all of that, and other shows where it's happened, I definitely am open to the possibility. I don't remember it having the cello theme before 1985ish but that is meaningless. Memories suck. I just wish there was a definitive answer somewhere...

 

[Methuselah Flint]

I wonder if my pre-cert UK VHS are the original prints?

 

[Ssosmcin]

The cello theme was recorded on September 20, 1966. By that date, the following episodes had completed dubbing and/or aired: "Where No Man Has Gone Before," "Mudd's Women," "The Man Trap," "The Naked Time," and "Charlie X." Therefore, they must have used the electric violin arrangement of the Star Trek theme.

On another message board, we've been discussing on the off when the theme was changed in the first season. I dug back into my laserdiscs and made some observations.

Most telling is Mudd's Women. The Steiner theme is on the Laserdisc prints but Leonard Nimoy's credit is missing the "also starring." As this is an artifact of the original airing, that means Paramount would have had to go back and lay new audio over the existing credits. Yes, they did that for the end credits, but why bother doing this for the opening of one episode when they could just pop in the same piece of film they used for the other episodes? I'm not saying it's impossible, but it feels unlikely (unless there was some kinda legal thing going on). ... So, yeah, it's possible they wanted to keep the Nimoy credit as it was but standardize the sound. But then the first two episodes had different credits as well: no "starring" or "also starring" and with Roddenberry's "created by" up front, but they dropped those for the post 1984 syndication. This is getting really complex ... I'm just looking for clues.

When I wrote that earlier today, I totally forgot about @Harvey's note that dubbing was completed on Mudd's Women by the time the new theme was recorded. While the rest of the episodes had the same piece of film edited into the prints to standardize the theme, Mudd's Woman still had Nimoy's original credit. My question is why would Paramount go to the trouble of laying over the cello theme rather than just splicing in the same piece of film as the others? Even though dubbing was completed, couldn't the Star Trek producers have gone back and cut in the new theme before air?

I'm of the mind that 5 episodes had the electric violin theme, but that would mean either The Enemy Within or Mudd's Women didn't. Or maybe they both did and there were 6. But that doesn't feel right. Sigh, f'n Paramount couldn't you have just left them alone?

 

[STEPhon IT]

Some of the answer to this may lie in the music. In the complete series soundtrack recordings it is revealed that they rerecorded the music a couple of times during each season. It is possible that they used two different takes of Kirk's speech on some of the early episodes. But at this point I believe we can be pretty certain that the episodes were not touched following their broadcast. It is more likely that some have a false memory (I have one from Star Wars which I now know was never even an edit choice). As far as I know the episodes were prepared in production order (or the order they were finished) and left that way. The fact that Where No Man Has Gone Before has never had the opening narration and a completely different version of the theme (though the end credits of all of season 1 have the matching end theme) indicates that what is cleaned up and remastered for the Blu-ray (the original version not the redone special FX version) is how it was first seen on the original airdate. I believe that scan was also the first time the original negatives had been scanned rather than the master prints. The more green tone of the Command uniforms is a giveaway (the proper color is a yellowish-green avacado).

I love the fact the command uniforms looks the way it was supposed to look on screen. AVOCADO Green!

 

[johnnybear]

Just to veer off the point for a second but I saw WNMHGB on DVD last night for the first time in fifteen years and I was surprised to find that Shatner's narration was not on the episode!!! Even though I'd read that on here before a while back! Plus the music seemed different! I always remember on my taped from TV video that the Shatner bit was on there, so why add it if it never was on there?
JB

 

[Indysolo]

Plus the music seemed different!

That's the original main title with the electric violin recorded at "The Man Trap" sessions and used on the first few episodes of the show. It was later replaced with the familiar cello version arranged by Fred Steiner recorded on September 20, 1966.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Just to veer off the point for a second but I saw WNMHGB on DVD last night for the first time in fifteen years and I was surprised to find that Shatner's narration was not on the episode!!! Even though I'd read that on here before a while back! Plus the music seemed different! I always remember on my taped from TV video that the Shatner bit was on there, so why add it if it never was on there?
JB

Did the UK put in the standard opening for this one? I recall they standardized the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea opening on the one episode that had the Jerry Goldsmith theme (Jonah and the Whale) on one print I had. This is the one early episode that always had the electric violin theme and lacking narration and sound effects, even after the standardization in the 80’s. It was only when they made the TOS-R version was there a narration added.

 

[mb22]

I remember watching the syndicated episodes in the 1970s. WNMHGB was the one episode without opening narration back then, as well.

 

[johnnybear]

The BBC print I recorded from the television back in 1984 had the usual music and narration yes as I remember!
JB

 

[johnnybear]

Did the UK put in the standard opening for this one? I recall they standardized the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea opening on the one episode that had the Jerry Goldsmith theme (Jonah and the Whale) on one print I had. This is the one early episode that always had the electric violin theme and lacking narration and sound effects, even after the standardization in the 80’s. It was only when they made the TOS-R version was there a narration added.

Was that on the UK version of the Voyage DVDs? I have the US region 1 sets and haven't watched that episode for quite a few years!
JB

 

[Methuselah Flint]

The UK two-tape VHS didn't have Shatner's narration.

To clarify - are we saying as originally broadcast the narration was on or off WNMHGB?

 

[Ssosmcin]

Was that on the UK version of the Voyage DVDs? I have the US region 1 sets and haven't watched that episode for quite a few years!
JB

Nope, the PAL DVDs have the Goldsmith theme like the US sets. Time Bomb, on the other hand, has the Goldsmith theme at the end, which is incorrect. I have that episode on 16mm and broadcast TV reruns and that always had the Sawtell theme before. There were a couple of theme changes on the DVDs that always confused me. Land of the Giants also has issues in the first few second season episodes.

 

[johnnybear]

Yes the first few episodes of Land have the first season music, I remember! Do you know if that is a fault on the UK discs as well or only the region 1 discs?
JB

 

[Ssosmcin]

Yes the first few episodes of Land have the first season music, I remember! Do you know if that is a fault on the UK discs as well or only the region 1 discs?
JB

The US discs have the same daily. Fox provided the same prints globally, so it wouldn’t be any different. The only Irwin Allen tv series that didn’t get some kinda weird audio glitches was The Time Tunnel. The blu rays in particular are about 99% perfect.