When that pilot was deemed to serious for TV audiences, a second pilot was made with William Shatner in the lead. That is called “Where No Man Has Gone Before.”

According to The Live Feed, an alternate version of this pilot was made and up until now, has never been seen by the general public.

CBS says they were very excited to learn of the find. They remastered the rare film and they’re releasing it as part of the “Star Trek: Original Series – Season 3″ Blu-ray release due out December 15.

The Live Feed goes on to say that this piece of footage from YouTube is a widely circulated clip from that rare pilot.

Photo: Amazon

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The 1968 series stars Patrick McGoohan as a man caught in a nightmare. After leaving his super-secret job, he is kidnapped and wakes up in The Village, a happy, Waldenesque town where people are numbers and no one is allowed to think for themselves. Under the watchful eye of Big Brother, Number Six, as he is labeled, must decode the secret of The Village so he can escape and get back to the real world. . . that is if the real world still exists to return to.

This Blu-ray features a newly remixed 5.1 surround sound track and hours of bonus footage including:

• ‘Don’t Knock Yourself Out’: a feature-length documentary chronicling the production
• Two Brand-New Featurettes: ‘The Pink Prisoner’ and ‘You Make Sure it Fits!’
• Newly restored original edit of ‘Arrival’ with an optional music-only soundtrack featuring Wilfred Josephs’ complete and abandoned score
• Ooriginal edit of ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’
• Production crew audio commentaries on seven episodes
• Archive textless material, including the title sequence with clean  themes by Ron Grainer, Wilfred Josephs and Robert Farnon
• Image Archive with over 1200 stills
• Production Paperwork Archive, featuring scripts, call sheets and press releases (DVD-ROM Feature).

I love behind the scenes materials, so that DVD-Rom feature makes me giddy with joy.

If you would like to win the original The Prisoner: The Complete Series on Blu-Ray (remember, this will not play on your DVD player, you must have a Blu-ray player), here’s how you enter:

ENTER TO WIN

Leave a comment on this post with the answer to this question: If you were a number, what number would you be?

Deadline to enter is November 18 at midnight PST. Winner will be notified by email and will have three days to respond.

US only please.

Photo: Amazon

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Legend of the Seeker

Even if you’re a fan of this kind of fantasy series you may have missed it on TV.  The show is syndicated which means it airs on local TV channels usually outside of primetime hours; early or late on a Saturday or Sunday is common. (Check the website for times and dates in your area.) Because of this, the show is sorely under promoted and that’s a shame because it’s an excellent series.

The story revolves around woodsman Richard Cypher (Craig Horner) who finds out that he is what legends call The Seeker. Together with the lovely and magaical Kahlan Amnell (Bridget Regan) and with the help of the wizard Zedd (Bruce Spence) Richard sets out on an epic journey to stop the bloodthirsty, sinister tyrant Darken Rahl (Craig Parker) from conquering all mankind

The series is based on “The Sword of Truth” book series and is produced by Sam Raimi (“Spiderman”), Rob Tapert (”Xena:
Warrior Princess,” “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys”), Joshua Donen (”The Quick and the Dead”), Ned Nalle (”Xena: Warrior Princess,” “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys”) and Ken Biller (”Star Trek: Voyager”), all of whom know something about epic heroic journeys!

Shot in New Zealand, Legend of the Seeker transports you with their gorgeous locations, detailed costuming and rustic village sets. It may be full of magic and monsters but you’ll buy into every second of it thanks to the talents of the cast and crew.

What I find particularly refreshing about the series is the way the leading lady, Kahlan is played as a capable warrior without losing any of her femininity. She handles and sword and fights as well, if not better, than the men of the series but you still feel a softness that makes her a very likable and relatable character.

Craig Horner is also very likable as Richard Cypher, the average Joe who suddenly finds out that the fate of the world rests on his shoulders. In this first season, you see him go from a confused boy to a man on a mission but he always keeps his performance grounded.

The DVD has all 22 episodes of the first season, audio commentaries, deleted scenes and several featurettes. If you’re a fan of Terry Goodkind, there’s an extended interview with him where he takes you inside his home and talks about his career. My favorite feature is “Forging the Sword: Crafting a Legend.” Craig and Bridget take you behind the scenes for a closer look at what goes into creating this mammoth production. I was amazed to see how many scenes that I thought were filmed on location, were actually filmed on a sound stage. You’ll learn more about the actors, see some fight choreography and spend time with the horse wrangler who cares for the animals on the show.

This series looks so beautiful in HD and here it’s presented in widescreen with Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. Can’t beat that.

If you have even a mild interest in sword and sorcery or fantasy TV, you should check out Legend of the Seeker. It really is the only thing like it airing on TV today.

Buy Legend of the Seeker: The Complete First Season on Amazon, then check your local listings for new episodes beginning November 7.

Photo: Amazon

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I got to revisit that era this past week when I reviewed the new classic Doctor Who US releases from BBC Worldwide. Two of the DVD’s are from the Tom Baker era (1974-1981), “Image of Fendahl” and “The Deadly Assassin.” The third is “Delta and Bannermen” starring Sylvester McCoy who reigned from 1987-1989.

Two things impressed me about these DVD releases. First is the quality of the print. Having only seen these as grainy copies on TV with rabbit ears, anything would have been an improvement. But these digitally remastered prints are far beyond what I was expecting. Obviously, they don’t have the depth and high definition of today’s Doctor, but they’re very clean and watchable.

The other thing that impressed me was the array of special features on each DVD. All of them have commentary with the Doctor himself and other actors and crew members. “Image of Fendahl” has Wanda Ventham, whom I remember from UFO. They each include a behind the scenes looks with interviews by key players, photo galleries, trailers and a PDF of the Radio Times listing from the era.

“Delta and the Bannermen” also includes Clown Court outtakes of McCoy on The Noel Edmonds Saturday Roadshow and a Seventh Doctor Comic Strip Retrospective. On “The Deadly Assassins” we look deeper at the novel The Manchurian Candidate which inspired the episode and find out the Doctor’s Frighten Factor.

Real die-hard fans will get a kick out of the deleted and extended scenes on “Image of the Fendahl.” These clips are made up of poor quality, black and white footage, because the original copies of these bits have been lost or destroyed. So kudos to the DVD producers who made the effort to include these rare scenes.

And here’s a hint: If you own these DVD’s I’m told there’s an Easter Egg on at least two of them.

I really enjoyed traveling through time with Doctor Who and his companions. As a fan who rediscovered the show thanks to the newest incarnation, it was nice to go back and relive my first memories of the show.

The DVDs were released on September 1 and are available at Amazon or any large DVD retailer.

Photo: Amazon

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Fringe: The Complete First Season hits stores on September 8 and it has a ton of great special features including production diaries and even an homage to Gene the cow.

Have you signed up for the Fringe Tweet-Peat party? Peter, Walter and the producers will be Tweeting away during tomorrow night’s episode. Click here for all the details including the Twitter addresses you need to follow.

Fringe returns with all new episodes Thursday, Sept. 17 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX.

©2009 Fox Broadcasting Co. CR: Brian Bowen Smith/FOX

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If you have a Target in your area, you might want to buy your copy of the DVD there. They’re offering a 45 minute bonus DVD of the Supernatural panel at Comic Con. That’s the only bonus I’ve seen on this edition, so if you know of one please do post it in the comments.

If you have iTunes, visit the Supernatural page to download a free clip from the season premiere. You’ll find it in the listings at the bottom of the page. You might also find it other places around the net. . . . SPOILER HERE. . . the clip deals with a Supernatural fangirl playing off the book idea from “Monster at the End of this Book.” I’m not all that happy about their interpretation of the fanbase but having spent the whole weekend following #vancon Twitters, I’m hardly in a position to complain.

If you want to know what happened at the Vancouver con, check out the Supernatural Wiki con page, it’s a fabulous listing of all the pics, reports and even those vids that aren’t supposed to exist. If you don’t mind mild visual spoilers, several fans stumbled on a very public filming location late last week and you’ll find pics from that around the web. There are some great ones right here.

So that’s it. You are now up to date on all things Supernatural.

Photo: Amazon

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Stargate Atlantis

If you’ll recall, some months ago, MGM asked fans to vote for their favorite Stargate Atlantis episodes for inclusion on this DVD. I don’t know if it was fate or more than a little nudging from a higher power but the two episodes that were chosen were the first and last of the series.

This Blu-ray disc includes the pilot episode, Rising and Enemy at the Gate and I imagine they look better than ever.  If you’d like to win this Stargate Atlantis: Fans’ Choice, simply leave a comment in on this post and it would be even better if you mention your favorite episode (but you don’t have to.)

Remember this is a BLU-RAY disc and will not play in regular DVD players.

Deadline to enter is August 9 at midnight PST. US residents only. Winner will be chosen at random and will have 1 week to respond to the notification email.

Don’t want to wait? You can order Stargate Atlantis: Fans’ Choice right now at Amazon.com.

Box art: Amazon.

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Stargate SG-1: Children of the Gods

Re-cut and re-imagined version of the pilot film of the Stargate series that started it all.
Release: July 21, 2009
Extras:

• New Edit with Never-Viewed Scenes
• New and Enhanced Visual Effects
• Revoiced Performance by Christopher Judge
• Original Score by Joel Goldsmith
• Special Features includes: Commentary by Co-Creator Brad Wright and Actor Richard Dean Anderson and Back to the Beginning Featurette

Red Dwarf: Back to Earth
Release: October 6, 2009
Extras: commentary, documentary, outtakes, deleted scenes

The boys are back, and while they may be older, they’re still none the wiser. The crew discover a dimension-hopping leviathan, but Rimmer is threatened with replacement by the new, improved holograph Katrina. She is determined to guide Lister to his home planet, but no one is prepared for Earth 2009, where the hapless crew face death unless they can track down their creators.

Knight Rider: Season One
Release: July 28, 2009
Extras: I’m not seeing any. . .

This is the much slammed remake of the old series with Justin Bruening as the reinvented Michael Knight. I liked this show but apparently I’m alone in that.

Box Art: Amazon

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The DVDs will come in exclusive Comic Con packaging and each will be numbered. Only 5000 (2500 Blu-ray/2500 DVD) copies were created and they must be picked up at the Fox Booth at the event.

There will be a limited quantity on sale at the con, but if you want one you better hit FoxStore.com TODAY to pre-order your copy. Remember that photo ID will be required at the time of pick-up or purchasers must designate at checkout someone who will pick-up the DVD on their behalf.

The “Dollhouse” Season One Comic-Con Blu-ray Disc will be available for a suggested retail price of $69.99 and the DVD will be available for $49.98. Regular versions of “Dollhouse” Season One BD and DVD will be available everywhere July 28.

Box Art: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

Post from: SF Universe

Farscape ran on SCI FI Channel from 1999-2003 and it developed quite a fan following. The series revolved around a lone astronaut (Browder) who falls through a wormhole and lands in the middle of an intergalactic war. Produced by the Jim Henson Company, the show had two animatronic puppets in the main cast as well as several humans in alien garb, also designed by the talented people at Henson’s Creature Shop.

In honor of the 10th Anniversary of the series, A&E Home Entertainment is releasing Farscape: The Complete Series Megaset. The DVD package will include the entire sereis run along with an amazing amount of bonus features including commentary, interviews, and behind-the-scenes featurettes. They’ll be jump-starting the promotional efforts with a Farscape panel at this year’s Comic Con which will include executive producer Brain Henson, creator Rockne O’Bannon, and stars Ben Browder and Claudia Black.

The DVD release is scheduled for November 2009 and remember, “you gotta know how deep the doo-doo is, if you’re gonna dig your way out.”

24 June 2008 – Universal City, California – Ben Browder and Claudia Black. 34th Annual Saturn Awards held at Universal Hilton Hotel. Photo Credit: Charles Harris/AdMedia

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