textfiles/sf/STARTREK/st_pilot.txt

From: ottoh3@cfsmo.honeywell.com (Otto Heuer #3)
Date: 2 Dec 93 07:53:59 GMT
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.misc
Subject: FAQL: PILOT EPISODES AND UNAIRED EPISODES

Archive-Name: faql.rec.arts.startrek.pilots

    PILOT EPISODES AND UNAIRED EPISODES (last updated 16 August 1993)

===========================================================================
 1) TOS pilot episodes
 2) TNG pilot episode
 3) DS9 pilot episode
 4) Pilots for other shows
 5) TOS episodes never shown
 6) TOS episodes never shown in Germany
 7) TOS episodes never shown in the UK
 8) TNG episodes never shown in the UK
 9) TOS end credit still shot NOT from an episode
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1) TOS PILOT EPISODES

What's the story behind Gene pitching TOS as a "Wagon Train to the Stars"?
Here's what he said in his intro to the 1987 showing of "The Cage":

"...  So far so good.  Except that TV in those days was at the peak of its
love affair with the Western Story.  I wanted to sell my series so I had
promised the network that my Star Trek idea would be little more than a
space western.  A Wagon Train to the Stars, zap guns instead of
six-shooters, space ships instead of horses.  But as I began writing that
pilot, I suddenly realized that here was a chance to do the kind of drama
I'd always dreamed of doing.  I had seen science fiction movies before but
I'd always thought to myself, not enough characterization, not enough
motivation.  perhaps I could use this as an excuse to go to those far off
planets, with little polka-dotted people, if necessary, and be able to talk
about love, war, nature, God, sex, all those things to go to make up the
excitement of the human condition, And maybe the TV censors would let it
pass because it all seemed so make believe.  So, instead of a space
western, I delivered a very different kind of story.  One which dealt
with...  (Continues) ...and when the network finally saw the pilot, some of
their executives were outraged, and I can't say I really blame them.  For
the considerable money they'd put up, they certainly did not get a western
space opera, in fact, nothing even vaguely like it.  ...  The networks'
very top program executive was impressed by the fact that this film made
him feel as if he'd accually been flying in a space ship.  Doing something
almost never done before, the network ordered a second pilot, and this one
had better be familiar action adventure, or else!"

"The Cage" was his first attempt to pitch a Star Trek series to the execs.
Thety thought it was "too cerebral".  He made a second pilot, "Where No Man
Has Gone Before", which was more to their liking.  It was *not* the firast
episode aired, however.  "The Man Trap" was the first episode on
television.

"Assignment Earth" was a pilot for a spinoff series that never got off the
ground.  One of a few.  Gene wanted to create some more shows.  The
reference for this is in the book T"he Making of Star Trek", (the white
cover, not the silver one).

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2) TNG PILOT EPISODES

TNG had no pilot (since they didn't have to pitch the show to any network).
"Encounter at Farpoint" was the first episode shown, and (I believe) the
first episode filmed.  When it was originally broadcast, it was a two-hour
show.  They then broke it up into two one-hour shows, and moved some of the
scenes around to make it fit better in the running time of episodes.

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3) DS9 PILOT EPISODES

"The Emmisary" was first episode shown for DS9.  Again, no pilot was needed
since there was no network to pitch it to.

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4) PILOTS FOR OTHER SHOWS

The Great Bird was involved with pilots for three different new TV series
in the early seventies.

Three different pilots were apparently shot for one of the series, not
unlike the series of pilots that had to be shot to get "Star Trek" into
production.  The first of these was "Genesis II," starring Alex Cord and
Mariette Hartley.  In it, Dylan Hunt, a NASA scientist doing research on
suspended animation in an underground lab, gets accidentally buried for a
half millennium or so, and emerges into a post-nuclear-holocaust world.
The story concerns the interaction of two societies, one devoted to Good
Works and the progression of all humankind, and the other to being
Nazi-style lords and masters.  "Planet Earth" was the second pilot.  Set in
the same future, with minor alterations in background and format, it
starred John Saxon as Dylan Hunt, with folks like Diana Muldaur and Janet
Margolin in major parts.  It was just an extended TV episode with some good
stuff in it; a mutant warrior race called the Kriegs (sp? never saw a
script in print) look a *great* deal like retconned Klingons.  The third
movie, apparently a sort of a last-ditch attempt to produce a
network-acceptable pilot, was called "Strange New World," and completely
gutted the earlier forms of the series format.  It starred John Saxon in
the lead, but no one else I ever heard of, and was such a lox I can
understand why G.R.'s name wasn't on it.  It seemed to be three scripts
pasted together, end-to-end.

Roddenberry made two other pilots during this era:  "Spectre" and "The
Questor Tapes."  "Spectre" was a lovely idea that could have made a great
series, since its format allowed the inclusion of most major horror
fiction, even including H.P.  Lovecraft's "elder gods."  It starred Robert
Culp and Gig Young, and is a *FUN* movie, if you ever get a chance to see
it.  I believe it would have gone series, if made in the last few years,
but at the end of the Nixon era, horror, even humorous horror, was
unacceptable fare to the majority of TV watchers.  ("Spectre" deals with an
occult investigator and his M.D.  sidekick, who keep getting involved with
nasty superbeings from other times and dimensions; the hero's housekeeper
is a witch, and puts a no-drinking geas on the alcoholic M.D.  sidekick in
the opening scenes.)

"The Questor Tapes" starred Robert Foxworth and Mike Farrell, providing
some of the best acting ever seen in a a TV SF movie.  (Foxworth does a
scene as the robot learning how to use vocal inflection while carrying on a
conversation with the first human it's ever spoken with.)  The movie
suffers a bit from the obviousness of the series format it sets up; noble
alien with sideck, on the run from various governmental authorities, while
trying to learn human emotions and fulfill its mission to help the human
race.  A bit of a yawn in print, but it could have been a *good* series,
with decent writing.

Dorothy C. Fontana wrote a novelization of "The Questor Tapes" in
paperback, and you might be able to find it in a used book store.  I
believe scripts for at least the best four are available from "Lincoln
Enterprises," or folks like that.

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5) TOS EPISODES NEVER SHOWN

"The Cage" was never shown during the original run of "Star Trek".  A black
and white original of "The Cage" was pieced back together with the color
clips stolen for "The Menagerie" which has since been televised.  Just
before the premier of TNG, Paramount "found" a copy of "The Cage" which was
all in color (which they then televised).  It is marred by drastic changes
in the Talosians' voices in mid-sentence, otherwise it is fun to watch
(along with a grinning, shouting Spock).  The color version they show now
has been cut down to an hour and has Spock's famous "grinning at the
singing plants" scene removed.  Sigh.

"He Walked Among Us" (unfilmed) Teleplay by:  Norman Spinrad &Gene L.  Coon
(1st draft:  25/09/67)

"Tomorrow the Universe" Written by: Paul Schneider (1st draft: 03/03/67)

"The Stars of Sargasso"

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6) TOS EPISODES NEVER SHOWN IN GERMANY

"Patterns of Force" was never shown in Germany, for reasons I trust are
obvious.

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7) TOS EPISODES NEVER SHOWN IN THE UK

"Whom Gods Destroy", "The Empath", and "Plato's Stepchildren" were *never*
shown in the UK, as they were deemed unsuitable for children.  "Miri" was
only shown once.  It generated lots of mail from angry parents.  After
this, the BBC started previewing episodes before airing them.  In 1993, the
BBC finally showed the entire run of TOS episodes.

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8) TNG EPISODES NEVER SHOWN IN THE UK

"Justice" was cut in the UK since TNG is broadcast in an earlier time slot
than the BBC will show skin.

"The High Ground" was never broadcast by the BBC.  SKY showed it on 30
April 1993, but the references to the successful Irish liberation in the
21st century were cut.

"Conspiracy" was also cut by the BBC for graphic violence.  

Can anyone that watches these on Sky verify that they show censored
versions of episodes in the 17:00 time slot and uncut versions in the 23:00
time slot?

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9) TOS END CREDIT STILL SHOT *NOT* FROM AN EPISODE

In the still shots during the credits of "The Immunity Syndrome" (and
others) there is a picture of a rubbery-faced man with blank eyes.  This is
from "Return to Tomorrow", but wasn't aired with the episode.  Sargon was
building android bodies, which were actually actors covered in latex-like
rubbery stuff.  They filmed him as he was removing the latex (in the
background, a props man is saying, "You wanted showbiz, you got
showbiz...").  One still of this ended up in the credits.  The whole shot
ended up on the blooper reel for that season.  As far as I know, it is the
only still which doesn't come from an actual Star Trek scene.

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