This is going to be a short intro because I don’t know the full story of this edition. Still, I thought this compilation of videos was a good connection to our recently completed look at the guide and original sales pitch for the original Star Trek.
“Where No Man Has Gone Before” is the first official episode of Star Trek, although “The Man Trap” was the first one aired. “Where No Man…” was also the second pilot, NBC having rejected “The Cage” and asked for certain changes, which led to the Star Trek we know and love.
Recently I stumbled up a collection of 4K. 48 frames per second remasters by Tales From SYL Ranch DARKROOM on YouTube. This is how they describe what we’re about to see:
There is an edit of STAR TREK’s second pilot known as the STUDIO EDITION that has a number of differences from the aired edit. It was screened only to studio and network execs. This is the first scene, now remastered to 4K/48fps, fresh from the Tales From SYL Ranch DARKROOM! 👍
Original Shooting Date: July 19, 1965 I
IMDB Entry For Aired Version: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061027/
Remastered With:
- Handbrake: https://handbrake.fr/
- Topaz Video Enhance AI: https://www.topazlabs.com/video-enhan…
- Flowframes: https://nmkd.itch.io/flowframes
So my guess is, like we saw earlier this week with Knight Rider, this was a version screened for the network executives who didn’t have time to watch the full version, or this was a partially completed one so they didn’t spend all their time on all the details until they got the greenlight for the version we eventually saw. “The Cage” would of course show up later, reworked into “The Menagerie” as stock footage while the original finally made it to television when Sci-Fi Channel did a tribute marathon for the show’s anniversary.
Tonight I’m bringing you those clips, and you can go the clips’ respective YouTube pages to see the comments and further information. Remember that this isn’t the full episode. Someone doesn’t want to get sued by Paramount or whoever ends up buying them as of this writing. I’m surprised this is up given all the games I had to play just to keep the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles intros around and I’m afraid to check to see how many are dead video embeds now. Still, this is rather fascinating. Enjoy.
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