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From: otto@whuxle.UUCP (George V.E. Otto)
Newsgroups: net.startrek
Subject: Reason for The Managerie
Message-ID: <394@whuxle.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 26-May-84 17:32:25 EDT
Article-I.D.: whuxle.394
Posted: Sat May 26 17:32:25 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 1-Jun-84 21:12:34 EDT
Organization: Bell Labs, Whippany
Lines: 35

* 
* Mark Vita writes:
*      However, Roddenberry still had the first pilot, and it was
* too good to waste.   So, a "framework" was constructed during
* the "current time" of the show,
* --------------------
* This is not quite how I heard it.  I heard that they were getting behind
* schedule, due to the fact that they were so ambitious, and no one had
* done such an elaborate TV show before.  So, they realized that they
* could make up some lost time by making a shorter new episode and filling
* in the time with the unseen pilot.

Well, as long as we are trying to correct the original statement, *The
Making of Star Trek* points out that the production of the special effects
used (rather primitive by post-Star-Wars standards, to be sure) put a severe
strain on the limited special-effects facilities available in Hollywood.
Even with special effects farmed out to three different companies, they were
not being produced quickly enough.  They were loosing ground in the
production of shows and in danger of not completing them in time for
broadcast.

As a way of playing for time, it was decided to use the original pilot as
the basis for an episode -- or rather two episodes, since the original pilot
was more than an hour long.  Thus only an "envelope" of new scenes needed to
be filmed to make two, hour-long shows.  This, it was hoped, would allow a
breathing space that would allow the regular production to catch up.  Thus
was *The Cage* transformed into *The Managerie*.

The irony of the whole thing was that this "stop gap" show, produced merely
to allow the production company to catch up with its regular schedual, was
the one that won the Hugo award!

					George Otto
					AT&T Bell Labs, Whippany
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