Star Trek: TOS: The Roddenberry Vault Season One (Blu-ray) Available for Preorder (1 Viewer)

[Josh Steinberg]

I found another minor error last night during the special effects documentary on Disc 2 "Strange New Worlds" - at one point, they talk about how the compositing of effects works, and how they turn a raw shot of the model into a finished effect. They show the model against the bluescreen, and then it morphs into a remastered/CGI shot of the Enterprise instead of one of the original completed effects. I can't remember if the ship itself was CGI or just the starfield, but either way, it was being represented as a demonstration of "before" and "after" and the "after" wasn't a 1960s-era effects shot. It's by far the worst thing on the set, but it's an odd error.

 

[Camper]

In a case of life imitating art--
Leslie Parrish heaps praise both in acting and sex appeal on Michael Forest, but doesn't say a word about James Doohan.
But I'm sure those interviews were reduced from their original length.
Actors I'm a bit surprised didn't do interviews for whatever reason are....
Anthony Call (Bailey) his may have been the largest part ever by a Enterprise crewman. Perhaps only McGivers, Stiles and Palamas had bigger roles.
Joan Collins
Diana Muldaur -- who did give an interview for a TNG supplement I think.
The one episode IMO that seems out of place is Return to Tomorrow. It just doesn't seem iconic besides Kirk's speech (Risk is our business)
Better choices IMO.....
Charlie X --Walker is alive
Balence -- Montaigne is alive
Conscience -- Anderson is alive and they had two nice deleted clips.
Amok Time -- Montaigne again
Shore Leave -- Baldavin, Mars, Bonne and the yeoman are alive.
Where No Man -- but they had Lockwood anyway. I heard Kellerman won't talk about her genre roles.
Taste of Armageddon-- Babcock and Sampson are alive
Squire -- Barrier (Desalle) is alive

Those would make god volume 2 if they corrected the mistakes (IMO) of this set.
Hmm. Perhaps I'm a victim of eternal Trek optimism.

 

[Carabimero]

It's one thing for CBS to scrape the bottom of a barrel that's already been scraped, but what the fans get shouldn't look like scrapings. In this set, both in quality and execution, they often do.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Yeah, if they did it right, they probably could resell me the entire series 12 episodes at a time.

 

[GlennC]

Rather unusually this is available in the UK for £19.99 ($25) which is considerably less.

I have watched the documentaries and listened to a couple of the commentaries.

I am disappointed that the newly found footage is not viewable outside of the documentary. Having watched all three I noticed that there were even repeats of the "talking heads" between the documentaries too.

What I found hard to believe is that from the considerably large number of film cans shown in the documentary that this is all there is.

I would have much preferred to have had a number of other videos showing just the new stuff perhaps framed around the existing footage as a clip. Although the new stuff is very good; having to watch it within a documentary is irritating.

They should have had commentaries on all the episodes from people actually involved in the episode and production itself.

During the past few days I have listened to Kenneth Johnson's commentary on the bluray release of the pilot episode of The Incredible Hulk. Now this is how to do a commentary which must be one of the most detailed and interesting ones I have every heard.

The benchmark for documentaries and commentaries must be the ones for Doctor Who (original series) and I would have expected that these Star Trek ones would be equally good. Alas they are not.

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

As best as I can tell without checking, the episodes with an isolated score are mostly the episodes where the score was written specifically for that entire episode. Though Space Seed I think has a tracked score. COTEOF is a mix of specifically written music and tracked music. I would bet the rights to Goodnight Sweetheart has been resolved in perpetuity. But perhaps it only applies to certain conditions and this set didn't meet that?

Only two episodes in the set have full scores ("Metamorphosis" and "Who Mourns for Adonais?"). Five episodes have partial scores ("The Corbomite Maneuver", "The City on the Edge of Forever", "Mirror, Mirror" "The Trouble with Tribbles" and "Return to Tomorrow") while the remaining five episodes are completely tracked.

Neil

 

[KPmusmag]

I found another minor error last night during the special effects documentary on Disc 2 "Strange New Worlds" - at one point, they talk about how the compositing of effects works, and how they turn a raw shot of the model into a finished effect. They show the model against the bluescreen, and then it morphs into a remastered/CGI shot of the Enterprise instead of one of the original completed effects. I can't remember if the ship itself was CGI or just the starfield, but either way, it was being represented as a demonstration of "before" and "after" and the "after" wasn't a 1960s-era effects shot. It's by far the worst thing on the set, but it's an odd error.

I noticed that also. I thought, What was the point of that?

 

[Camper]

Just read something on another site........

What about all the deleted alternate footage from the teasers? You watch the teasers from the main box set and you will find deleted dialogue, alternate takes and line readings, early and alternate FX -- such as the flames outside the Galileos windows. The Snippets documentary is 8 or 9 minutes shorter than the other 5 docs. It is a "catch-all' for all the footage that doesn't belong in the others. When then doesn't it catch all? Why didn't they review all 79 episode promos, find additional deleted footage and extract the bits that were not part of the regular episode. I know, I know, it would take 40 minutes to watch all those promos and look for lost footage and they only had 9 years for the project.
Another thing pointed out is the fact that in the documentaries they included some stills where the footage wasn't found. But I personally have seen dozens of photos from deleted scenes for years. If you have the scripts (they do) and you have stills of cut scenes -- why not throw up the stills with the accompanying dialogue on screen ( as they did for the lost audio of Spock's meld with Sargon?)
I've seen stills of Jamie Finney holding her dad from Court-Martial, brainless Spock on the ship with the gizmo on his head before he beams down, the non-descript crew socializing on Mudd's planet, Vina attacking the servant from Cage, additional material from Elaan in the expanded rec room, Rand holding Kirk's clean uniform from Corbomite, recent found footage of McCoy in the court room fro Menagarie part II, Kirk saluting the Romulan Commander from Balance of terror.
Are these people experts on Trek or not? How can they not know this stuff exists and find a way to include it so fans can find all the material in one convenient place?
If they are not saving this stuff for a volume 2 -- then they are just plain incompetent. The above footage and stills I mentioned would not have taken more than tem minutes and guess what? -- that would have rounded out the snippets section to a full 30 minutes.

I know, I said I wouldn't do this. Sorry.

 

[Camper]

On the subject of commentaries....

I listened to all 3 and Tribbles was the best. City was too crowded with 3 persons and a little too fanboyish and hyper -- but still better than Paradise.

Paradise bugs me because 50 minutes is a lot of time and they left too many things unsaid. Paradise had 11 speaking parts with 5 being regulars, 3 minor recurring characters, DeSalle, Kelowitz and Leslie, a bit part crewman and two main guest stars Ireland and Overton. They spoke about a fair amount Ireland, but had only one line of mention for Overton.
Overton was a fantastic character actor and a great get for a fairly small part. He had two major roles on Twilight Zone and played the sheriff in To Kill a Mockingbird. Sadly he passed away 3 1/2 months after Paradise was filmed of a heart attack. He was the second Star Trek actor to pass away and one of 5 who died while the series was still on the air -- Leonard Mudie (Talos survivor) Theo Marcuse (Korob), Grant Woods (Kelowitz) and Jeff Hunter. Overton died one day after his last TV appearance on Bonanza on April 24, 1967. He was 49. That really makes me think, since as a kid I thought of him as this really "old" dude and now I am years older than he ever lived to be.
Other, more efficient commentators might have had a couple of things to say about him.

Also, while they mentioned Mr. Leslie -- they failed to mention that Kelowitz and DeSalle each had 2 other appearances. I kind of was frustrated that the other lady was trying to get Fontana to talk about some glass ceiling breaking and Fontana didn't seem that interested in the subject. We all respect what Fontana did for the show and know how rare female sci-fi writers were in the 60s. Once again, they seemed to be aiming the information at more casual fans than the die-hards who would buy this set.
No big deal for me really, as I bought the set for the footage not the commentaries.

Credit to the Tribbles commentary -- they gave shout outs to virtually everybody -- Adams, Bissel, Raymond, Schallert, Campbell, Pataki, Brill. Everybody except Trek regular "stunt-actor" Paul Baxley (Ensign Freeman) who actually got a few lines in Tribbles!

 

[Blimpoy06]

I feel the same frustration in this presentation. There are web sites for Star Trek that do nothing but discuss the missing scenes with early scripts and/or missing footage. I have wanted to see the entire Elaan of Troyius scene since I first read about it. I even purchased the script so I could read the dialogue.

I like how Gene L. Coon was mentioned a bit more than usual for a documentary. It would have been nice to hear Dorthy Fontana mention the work overload he was under to produce scripts and the rift he and Roddenberry reportedly had over the tone of the series. Roddenberry not liking the comedy aspects that were creeping in and wanting to keep Kirk as more professional among the crew. This is what many believe led to his departure in year two. And even if you hate season three, at least talk about it. And the biggest omission of all producers over the decades, John Meredyth Lucas. He wrote, directed and produced.

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

I have wanted to see the entire Elaan of Troyius scene since I first read about it. I even purchased the script so I could read the dialogue.

The title of the set is "The Roddenberry Vault", not "All of the Deleted Scenes from Star Trek". These are the little bits and pieces they were able to recover from that source, presumably the last place it would exist. There are things I would have loved to have seen on this set, but I accept the reality that little survives.

Neil

 

[Camper]

^How about, "All the deleted material that still exists." We know there has been stuff lost, but what excuse NOT to show what does exist. If it wasn't found in "the Vault" it has no right or need to be included?

It seems they really did have very little footage from season 3. Loved the extended bit with Kirk and Miramanee!
"If you can only love a god --then you can't love me -- because I'm just a man."
The bit from Elaan where Urura asks to learn the Vulcan lyre would have been a big continuity error though -- because she played it in Conscience of the King, didn't she? Great to see though.

The supporting and guest cast had quite a bit cut that was shown.
Scott, Uhura and Sulu from Metamorphosis
Scott from "Taste of.."
Sulu and Uhura from Corbomite
Chekov and Sulu from Mirror
Uhura had a line in the "Operaton.." clip
Chapel and Mulhall had lines cut from "Return.."
McGivers and "Angela" from Seed
Khan and McGivers also from Seed
Windom's alternate take from Doomsday -- the one they used was better.
Organians from "Errand.."
Kids from "...the Children.." -- no great loss there!

There was a ton of great stuff in there and apparently even more hat was lost.

 

[TravisR]

The title of the set is "The Roddenberry Vault", not "All of the Deleted Scenes from Star Trek". These are the little bits and pieces they were able to recover from that source, presumably the last place it would exist. There are things I would have loved to have seen on this set, but I accept the reality that little survives.

Neil

I'd give my left nut to get something like this from The Twilight Zone or Twin Peaks or The X-Files.

 

[Camper]

I'd give my left nut to get something like this from The Twilight Zone or Twin Peaks or The X-Files.

X Files has lots of deleted scenes on the discs. If I'm not mistaken they had deleted scenes on the disc with the specific episode and then repeated the deleted scenes on the final disc of the season so you could view them separate or all at once. At least it was like that on the DVDs.

That would have been great on this set and it's what a lot of us would have preferred.

And what about the deleted scenes from Where No Man...--? The ones from the alternate extended version on the season 3 set.
"Oh, if you want to see those, take out your separate season 3 box set and put in disc 5 and fast forward thru it to the added bits -- we're not going to put them on this set for your convenience."
Don't have that set? It's available for sale at these fine retailers....

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

^How about, "All the deleted material that still exists." We know there has been stuff lost, but what excuse NOT to show what does exist. If it wasn't found in "the Vault" it has no right or need to be included?

That's right! It's called "The Roddenberry Vault". They released cut scenes from moments found in that archive. That's it. Other deleted bits probably don't survive. I'm okay with that. That any of it survives is startling.

Neil

 

[TravisR]

X Files has lots of deleted scenes on the discs. If I'm not mistaken they had deleted scenes on the disc with the specific episode and then repeated the deleted scenes on the final disc of the season so you could view them separate or all at once. At least it was like that on the DVDs.

That would have been great on this set and it's what a lot of us would have preferred.

My point is that if they emptied out Chris Carter's or Rod Serling's closest and found a bunch of stuff like what's on this set, I'd be pretty ecstatic. I realize that fans criticize because they love and their hopes may have been raised too high for what was eventually delivered with this set but Star Trek fans have it better than any other fanbase and while they have to pay for it, no series has been treated better in the history of home video than Star Trek.

 

[Camper]

My point is that if they emptied out Chris Carter's or Rod Serling's closest and found a bunch of stuff like what's on this set, I'd be pretty ecstatic. I realize that fans criticize because they love but Star Trek fans have it better than any other fanbase and while they have to pay for it, no non-current series has been treated better on video than Star Trek.

The Twilght Zone sets had more comprehensive extras of any vintage TV I know. Hundreds of commentaires. Extended version of the pilot, "Where is Everybody" The unofficial pilot. Radio versions of the episodes. Dozens of isolated scores. Audio interviews. Alternate colorized version of "Miniature." Two soundtracks (original and restored) for EVERY episode.
And I have no doubt if they had found lost deleted footage they would have included it.

Have to disagree with the bolded part. Twilight Zone went far above and beyond what Star Trek did. They gave every bit they had the first time it was released on Blu-ray. They didn't save some extras for the third partial re-release of the series. Plus they restored the entire series twice in HD. Once for the DVD release and again for the Blu-ray release. They could have saved the expense of the second better restoration.

 

[Camper]

That's right! It's called "The Roddenberry Vault". They released cut scenes from moments found in that archive. That's it. Other deleted bits probably don't survive. I'm okay with that. That any of it survives is startling.

Neil

Other deleted bits do survive and are in CBS' possession and could easily have been included so the fans wouldn't have to jump from set to set, disc to disc to view all the cut material. Haven't we proven our loyalty enough to get that little favor?

 

[Josh Steinberg]

My point is that if they emptied out Chris Carter's or Rod Serling's closest and found a bunch of stuff like what's on this set, I'd be pretty ecstatic. I realize that fans criticize because they love and their hopes may have been raised too high for what was eventually delivered with this set

My complaint isn't really so much about what material they found or didn't find - I'm impressed with the raw material that was found. My complaint is about the way that material is being presented on the set. I'd also love something similar for Twilight Zone and maybe X-Files, but it's all about the presentation.

On this set, you do not have the option to watch the newly found footage outside of the documentaries. Within the documentaries, they frequently talk over the footage and/or interrupt it. The people interviewed in the documentaries keep saying things like "When you finally get to see this footage it'll blow your mind" but it often felt to me that I didn't finally get to see it, because there's no way to watch the raw footage outside of the documentary. By all means, make a documentary that explains what there is, but also allow a "play all" feature for just the footage. Finally, there was a mistake made somewhere in the ending or exporting process where the footage is riddled with interlacing artifacts and has been rendered with the aspect ratio distorted, so that the actors appear unnaturally heavy. These are not issues inherent to the original film elements themselves, but rather, a mistake in the video editing process.

What they found was amazing. How they put it on disc was less so.

 

[Carabimero]

What they found was amazing. How they put it on disc was less so.

This is the absolute truth.