With Star Trek : The Original Series celebrating its 50th day of remembrance this year , you would n’t think there was still more new footage to be found . You ’d be amiss , and the expert behind the Star Trek Encyclopedia have spent nine years work to show it to us . io9 spoke with Denise and Michael Okuda about what there still is to discover about Star Trek .
“ To be dependable with you , this was a warmth projection . It was a lot of work and we ’ve been working on it on and off for nine years and we did it because we wanted to get this footage out so that fans of Star Trek could see it , too , ” Denise Okuda told us at the oddment of the conversation . After utter to her and Michael , we think it .
io9 : How are there still new things to find about Star Trek ?
Michael Okuda : We were as shocked as anybody . We had hoped that this variety of footage exist , but every place we calculate , everyone we asked — dead ends . But Denise hold back believing that there was something .
Denise Okuda : I did . I believed that there was all lost footage because we had seen still photographs of things we had not seen in the aired episode . Particularly at the end of an episode call “ Operation : Annihilate ! ” there ’s a view where Peter Kirk comes on the bridge deck and we ’ve get a line stills , so we knew it was take . But we had no idea for years [ if it still existed ] . We would ask the great unwashed and no one would eff . Nine years ago we were reach by Rod Roddenberry and meet him at a storage warehouse , we contract a non - revealing and we went in and we saw these rows and rows and wrangle of film cans and in the film lav were these tiny — some braggy , some lilliputian — rolls of plastic film . And bingo ! It was the holy grail and here we are so excited to blab about the Roddenberry Vault .
What was the most exciting discovery ?
DO : There were quite a few . I cerebrate the Peter Kirk validation — that it was shoot , that we do have it . I mean , Mike and I were follow the disk and we literally came off the lounge and then we called Phil Bishop over at CBS Home Entertainment and we say , “ We found it ! ”
MO : We started talk to him .
DO : We did , he ’s been very patient with us . So that was really a neat one .
MO : And another one that we ’re so activated about was that we knew there was a aspect written for “ Who Mourns for Adonais ? ” in which we would have acquire that Carolyn Palamas , Lieutenant Palamas , was pregnant from the Greek god Apollo . And we knew it was written and we have it away it was script but we had no idea if it was film . Now we did n’t really find the scene , but we found one shot of Spock from that scene in which he ’s reacting to off - silver screen lines being take by the script supervisor . And he show McCoy lines , and bingo ! We find out after all these years that it was really filmed .
DO : And that was very exciting and then when we traveled to talk to Leslie Parrish , who was the actress who flirt Lieutenant Palamas , she said , “ Yes , indeed it was take . ” And we found a lilliputian bit of coverage of Nimoy . So that was a mountain of fun .
What do you intend the canyon status of these are ?
MO : That ’s a really good and surprisingly complicated inquiry . As authors of the Star Trek Encyclopedia , we do n’t see them to be prescribed scenes if they were n’t in a terminal cut of an installment . But manifestly , your fuel consumption rate will vary . And we ’re just so emotional the material is out there .
DO : We kind of feel these deleted scenes , alternating takes , are ice on the cake . They ’re footage that we were never mean to see , it was meant to be swept away with the crank on the cutting way floor . The footage was rescue and continue and here we are , almost 50 years later , and we ’re able share with everyone this amazing gem trove .
What do you think the time value of the strong-arm Star Trek Encyclopedia and actual DVD is in a time where everything is online ?
MO : For a lot of fans , the physical media is an icon that represents their love and tenderness for the show . That I have this , and it ’s my verbalism to myself of something that I love . In the sheath of the encyclopedia , certain you could look stuff up [ online ] and a lot of people do that , and it ’s fine . But we find a lot of people but enjoy curling up with a good script while they ’re follow the show . And likewise , with the Roddenberry Vault we were able to deliver a lot of bit that you would n’t typically include in streaming episodes .
Do you palpate like these discovery keep the original series animated 50 years later ?
MO : Well , for us , absolutely . Even though a lot of the poppycock is similar to what was on the air , it ’s another moment , another slant , it ’s another way of doing something that we have a go at it . So yes , absolutely .
DO : We ’ve been require with this off and on for nine years and jolly intensely . It take away us three years to go through and catalog all of the footage . And then we spent the last twelvemonth with our producer and our coworker , Roger Lay Jr. , making infotainment . We interviewed citizenry who worked on the Original Series and also contemporary fans of the show like Bill Prady , the Centennial State - Jehovah of the Big Bang Theory , who ’s a big Star Trek fan . And in doing this and interweave the suffer footage into these documentaries we hope that we give the viewer circumstance . Because a lot of the footage was what was on the slip room floor , not intact scenes , but snippets of dialogue that was overlook . Perhaps because of time . So we hope that the spectator will be guided through the footage give context so it will intend something to everyone .
The Roddenberry Vault mark focuses on 12 episodes , how did you pick those ?
MO : We picked the 12 instalment that we felt were most relevant to the material we had . But , in addition to the 12 instalment we have a three - part documentary called “ Inside the Vault ” and there are also infotainment called “ revisit a Classic ” and “ Strange New Worlds . ” We also have a standalone feature that we call “ Swept Up : Snippets From the Cutting Room Floor , ” in which we have magazine and snippers and alternate bloodline from a luck of other episodes . So we ’re not restricted to the 12 , even though we ’re focused on them .
How much of the footage you found is in the set ?
MO : Honestly , we never visualise out precisely how much footage we used in the thing . I will say that we tended to use as much as potential of the most interesting and best clobber .
DO : What we remind people is that these are snippets , very rarely do you get an intact scene . We have a couple , but they ’re mostly delete lines , alternate takes , so we have the best stuff in The Roddenberry Vault .
What do you intend is the reason the show is still remembered , 50 age later ?
DO : I cerebrate a pot of the great unwashed have a lot of opinion . For Mike and I , yes it ’s in force entertainment . You ’ve get great characters , you ’ve got howling floor . But for us , it ’s the Roddenberry doctrine of Leslie Townes Hope and that we are all as humanity , who are , really , on this slight planet together , and someday we will reach for the star and we will take on other organism and to know that there is that hope and that optimism , I think that that is crucial . Especially today .
There ’s so much negativeness , you deform on the news and you hear about hateful thing , and to us Star Trek represent the positive and the goodness in people . And I think that keep it live for many .
What would someone new to the show get out of this footage — someone not as haunt with knowing everything about Star Trek as , say , I am ?
MO : Let me first entirely match with you about Roddenberry ’s vision of the hereafter . Roddenberry make a macrocosm in which if we ’re smart , if we ’re ethical , if we ’re compassionate , we can touch for the star together . And I think a mickle of fan , include ourselves , want to be a part of that vision . You want to live in that population .
For us as Star Trek devotee look through the Roddenberry Vault footage , we do work on a lot of Star Trek but we did n’t work on the original series . And the sixth sense you get into the footage is that you come away with an even greater amount of admiration for these author , these directors , these worker , for the clothes designer , for the visual effects the great unwashed . What an brassy , arresting achievement this was .
Some people look at the original Star Trek and say , “ That ’s kind of date . The impression are very simplistic . ” But , in fact , for the 1960s they were at the right-down hemorrhage edge of the technology at the sentence . They used state of matter - of - the art picture - chemical , optical , and ocular impression , and it was such an incredibly gay thing to do , to assay that kind of piece of work on a hebdomadal television agenda . So our respect for and admiration for what multitude did has arise .
DO : One of our goal in create The Roddenberry Vault was to get hold of rooter of all levels . If you bang the show so well that you could secern the difference of opinion between one take and another , you ’re go to have a blast . But if you only have a passing familiarity with the Star Trek universe , with the Original Series , that ’s what the documentary are there for . Besides being fun , they give you context . And you could ascertain it , even if you ’re not familiar with Star Trek , you could look out it and you could be guided through the process and I suppose that can be pleasurable for all different levels of fans .
MO : We talked to all kinds of fascinating mass work on these documentaries , from Bill Shatner to Dorothy Fontana and David Gerrold . A fair number of doer and behind the aspect the great unwashed , and all of them lent fascinating viewpoint and information about the episodes .
outdoors of Roddenberry ’s sight , which we speak about earlier , what would you say is Star Trek ’s prominent bequest ?
MO : I think that it really was among the first skill fictions that rightfully was aggregate medium . It put forth the whimsey of what scientific discipline and technology and human ingenuity could do for us in the future . And you see that whenever there ’s some new invention , science writers will bend over rearward to say , “ Yes , it ’s something like what we saw in Star Trek . ” Star Trek has become the touchstone of what the future can be , and the future that we strive for .
Star Trek : The Original Series – The Roddenberry Vault is release on Blu - shaft tomorrow .
Blu - rayStar Trek
Daily Newsletter
Get the best tech , scientific discipline , and culture news program in your inbox day by day .
News from the hereafter , deliver to your present .
You May Also Like
