Star Trek Season 3 Blu-ray to Include Alternate Pilot

According to The Digital Bits, when the third and final season of Star Trek is released on Blu-ray on December 15th, one of the bonus features will be a rare alternate version of the second pilot episode. “Where No Man Has Gone Before” aired as the third episode of the first season on September 22nd, 1966. The alternate version includes act breaks like those used in Quinn Martin shows.

It also features a different opening voiceover from William Shatner and different opening and closing themes:

Enterprise log, Captain James Kirk commanding. We are leaving that vast cloud of stars and planets which we call our galaxy. Behind us Earth, Mars, Venus, even our sun are specks of dust. The question: what is out there in the black void beyond? Until now our mission has been that of space law regulation, contact with Earth colonies and investigation of alien life. But now, a new task. A probe out into where no man has gone before.

The pilot also includes a few alternate lines of dialogue. It has never been commercially released but has been circulating in collectors circuits for years. It runs three or four minutes longer than the broadcast version. There will be three versions of the episode in the set: the original broadcast version, the recent “remastered” version with new special effects, and the alternate version that never aired.

If only I had a Blu-ray player!


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5 Replies to “Star Trek Season 3 Blu-ray to Include Alternate Pilot”

  1. I’ve seen the complete “unaired version” of the second pilot (thanks to a “collector” friend of mine a long time ago, who’s now deceased), and it’s about time CBS/VIACOM “officially” released it on home video! For those who’ve never seen “Where No Man Has Gone Before”, “in the raw”, it’s GREAT! It also has some dialogue that was snipped out in the “final version” due to objections from NBC’s “Standards and Practices” division {i.e. KIRK: (to Spock) Terrible, having bad blood like that…[smiles] but you may learn to enjoy it someday!}. Alexander Courage indeed wrote a new opening and closing theme for “Pilot #2”: Gene Roddenberry, however, insisted the original theme {as heard in #1, “The Cage”} be reinstated for the series. The closing credits listed only the primary actors involved, not the production crew (they got their due in the version that aired).

  2. I haven’t seen the complete unaired version but I have seen most of the extra scenes and the alternate opening. I wonder what the quality of the episode will be like. Does CBS have the original elements or will it be rough like the versions floating around?

  3. Most likely their “source” is Roddenberry’s 16mm print of the “unaired version” [apparently the only “masters” they have of the original series are the 79 episodes themselves; I could be mistaken]- if the “restorers” improve the images to the quality of what we see now on broadcast/cable and home video, it will be worth it!

  4. Tiny error in your article. In the text you refer to the episode as “Where No One Has Gone Before”. Of course, as I’m sure you know, the correct title is “Where No Man Has Gone Before”.

    I’m really glad this is finally coming out. I have had a “collector copy” of the alternate edit for years, and have wondered why they wouldn’t include it as an extra on one of the DVDs.

  5. Barry, re: your quote:
    KIRK: (to Spock) Terrible, having bad blood like that [smiles] but you may learn to enjoy it someday!

    — I’ve never seen this unaired version, but I’m positive (well, reasonably sure) that line is in the version that ran in syndication as far back as the ’70s. Certainly the first half is. Was it the second half that was cut from the aired version?

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