Paramount Press Release: Star Trek TOS Season One (Blu-ray) (1 Viewer)

[Michael Rogers]

For the record, I enjoy Man Trap but it's not exactly a good representative Star Trek episode.

I remember Leonard Nimoy talking about TOS in (I think) that Mind Meld DVD conversation between Shatner and Nimoy.

He had invited an interviewer over to the set and had talked up Star Trek as different than the usual "rubber suited monster from space" shows that were on at the time. And when the interviewer came, they were filming "Man Trap" and they were doing the scene where Spock was recovering from an attack from the "rubber suited monster from space". I guess "Man Trap" is not one of Leonard Nimoy's favorite shows.

 

[SilverWook]

Redshirts on landing party duty shouldn't be playing Tetris or texting on their communicators anyway.
When I can flip my cell phone open and call people simply by speaking their name, and be able talk to someone in orbit, then we will have surpassed TOS tech. The Enterprise's computer can be a little clunky, but you never see Spock or Kirk needing to use mice or keyboards either!

 

[Sam Favate]

My copy arrived yesterday, and I popped in Where No Man... just to check it out (didn't watch full episode), and it looks great. I have long said that the earlier DVDs looked great, and for these to be an improvement on those is really something. I watched with the enhanced effects, only because I haven't seen all of them; in some ways it was very different not to see what I consider that iconic image of the great barrier, but the new effect was pretty cool. To see the original Enterprise in action again is a nice bonus.

 

[Jason_V]

I wholeheartedly agree that from a 2009 perspective where we analyze every little bit of a television show, things like that could be very very odd. The Bones thing, for example, could be rationalized as McCoy being on some other off-screen mission and Dr. Piper filling in for him. However, Roddenberry and company only created the episodes; they certainly didn't have the creative/"political" power to say when they aired.

 

[Johnny Angell]

It also mentions a show produced in 1983 called "ST Memories" in which Nimoy recounts his memories of working on TOS. It would be nice to have that and The Cage included on one of the next 2 seasons sets. Think of The Cage as a "deleted scene".

 

[Jason_V]

I would bet a substantial amount of money The Cage will be included on the S3 Blu-ray set. It was on the final two-episode DVD volumes. It was on the S3 boxset. It was even on the Remastered set. The show is done, it airs this weekend...if it's NOT on there, Paramount is in for a world of hurt.

I don't think Nimoy's show will be on any set. I can't even find a reference for it on Memory Alpha. :frowning:

 

[Joseph Bolus]

If it helps, when NBC first aired "The Man Trap" it was advertised as being a "Preview" of a "Spectacular New Science Fiction Show" which was created "with the aid of NASA". (By the way, it was "promoed" heavily during NFL football games and in other high profile primetime slots for about two weeks prior to the initial airing.) The Official NBC "Fall Season" didn't start that year for another two weeks.

And when "Where No Man" aired, NBC promoted that as a "See How it All Began"-type episode.

So I don't think the initial fans of the show were all that confused by the out of order nature of the first presentations.

What they *were* confused about was being promised a new, fresh, science oriented extrapolation of current technology, and instead being presented with a more-or-less standard "monster" show -- similar in vein to the ABC "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" series. I remember when I viewed that initial episode my impression was that it had tremendous potential, but it needed to get away from a "monster-of-the-week" theme. It wasn't until "The Corbormite Maneuver" aired that I was satisfied that the series was really going to "go".

By the way, in its second season Star Trek was always in the Nielsen Top 10 (and most of the time in the Top 5) for the male 18-36 demographic. But guess what? In those days the network "suits" wanted shows that appealed to women over 40! It was thought at the time that they represented the largest pool of disposable income(!) Just months following Star Trek's cancellation during the third season the Nelson demographics were altered such that younger demographics received a larger bias in the ratings. And NBC immediately realized they had made a huge mistake! But Nimoy had already committed to CBS' "Mission Impossible" at that point, and NBC didn't think the show would work without him.

 

[Gary Seven]

In situations like this, use a hair dryer set on high heat and while it is blowing on the sticker, carefully remove the sticker and you will see it comes off easily with no scarring of the package.

 

[ATimson]

True, but there were also a lot less shows on at the time.

 

[Jason_V]

Thanks Joseph!

Man, it would be very interesting if Paramount/CBS ever got their hands on the those promo's or print ads and put them on discs. There are some from S2 and S3 over on YouTube, though.

 

[Gary Seven]

Nor do you see their computers get a GPF or BSOD.

 

[Michael Rogers]

This one talks about the premiere and uses the original NBC promo art for the show

YouTube - star trek 1st season nbc premiere promo

 

[ATimson]

Hmm. Slight difficulty there in that I don't have a hair dryer, but I'll look into borrowing one the next time I buy another stupidly-stickered Blu-ray.

 

[Johnny Angell]

Yes, the advertising would help viewers to be prepared to meet the characters with little exposition and the "how it all began" would help to explain the missing Dr. McKoy.

I hope Jason is right about The Cage being included on one of the season sets. I'm not sure if ST is even broadcast here in Little Rock (TV-wise, this is a backwater), but I'm going to look for it.

 

[Joseph Bolus]

Actually, the disparity in the number of scripted shows that were on the air then vs. now is not as great as you might think. When "Star Trek" was on the air the three major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) aired three-and-a-half hours of "Prime Time" programming per night, seven days a week. And 90% of that was comprised of original scripted shows. You didn't see shows being "re-aired" on Saturdays for example. About the only deviation from scripted shows was in the "edited for TV" presentations of theatrical movies and some "Game Shows" (which usually only comprised about two-and-a-half hours total per week).

 

[Nelson Au]

Johnny, you sound like you're not too familiar with Star Trek and Trek on DVD. Don't worry, the Cage will be included, it's always been part of the Star Trek releases going back to the late 80's.

 

[Joseph Bolus]

As has already been stated in this thread, "The Cage" will definitely be included with the Season 3 set. That's also the order it was presented in with all of the DVD releases of the series. (It was on Volume 40 of the "Two-Ep-Per-Disc" initial DVD release; and included with Season 3 on both of the other DVD releases.)

 

[Nelson Au]

It's always great to find those promo videos when Star Trek first aired, gives you a better sense of the times and that NBC really did want to promote it. Thanks for the link Michael.

That first one is great as it includes the artwork done by James Bama. The same painting is used on the first James Blish Star Trek book adaptations of early Star Trek scripts from 1967.

The ones from the second season are cool too!

 

[Jason_V]

TrekMovie is an invaluable resource for these kinds of these, including the remastered air schedule.

Thanks Michael for pointing to that vid. Gonna have to do some YouTube diving when I get home tonight!

 

[Johnny Angell]

To be clear, I'm a longtime fan (but not at the trekkie level) of ST. However, since this is the first time I've bought a season set, yes I'm not familiar with previous issues.

Good news that the Cage will be included. I checked and ST is not syndicated in Little Rock, so the BD will be my best chance to see it.