Real world article
(written from a Production point of view)
(written from a Production point of view)
Super 8 release | |
Series: | Star Trek: The Original Series |
No. of reels: | 3 |
Director: | Carey Wilber |
Release date: | unknown (1970s) |
Rating(s): | n/a |
Reference: | n/a |
Year: | 2267 |
"Space Seed" was an unlicensed Super 8 home video format release of the Star Trek: The Original Series season one episode "Space Seed". Released in the 1970s, it, together with its contemporary Super 8 Original Series releases, ranks among the very first Star Trek home video format releases.
Background information[]
- The release was produced and distributed by New York City based company "Canterbury Films".
- The episode was spread over three 400 feet, 7-inch film reels, packaged together in a single cardboard box endowed with photocopied imagery, glued on the box as cover art with the episode title printed on the cover art and on top of the box.
- The same cover art was also used for the "The Menagerie, Part I" Super 8 release, indicative of a concurrent release.
- Not being an official franchise release, Canterbury Films had, according to author Richard W. Haines, made use of a contemporary loophole in the then applicable copyright laws: "Canterbury discovered that some episodes of the Star Trek TV show did not contain a copyright in the credits and released dupes to collectors." (The Moviegoing Experience, 1968-2001, February 2003, p. 183)
- Though the three-reel release format had been the norm for Canterbury Films, single, 1,200 feet, reel variants have been reported as well, though these might well have been copies from other companies, such as "Thunderbird Films", as the practice of copying each others products was quite commonplace in the Super 8 market at the time. Canterbury Films endowed their films with their own original leaders which were cut from "pirated" releases. [1]
Previous release: "The Squire of Gothos" |
Star Trek: The Original Series Super 8 |
Next release: "The City on the Edge of Forever" |