In a surprise reveal today at its own San Diego Comic Con panel, STAR TREK: THE RODDENBERRY VAULT, a years-long endeavor to recover lost and cut footage from the making of the original Star Trek series, debuted with never-before-seen clips from production of the series.

The source of the recovered material (to be released as part of an extended documentary) comes from hundreds of film reels of archived, unused Original Series footage – called the “Holy Grail” by Denise Okuda – which remained in Gene Roddenberry’s possession after the conclusion of filming on the classic series.

Mike and Denise Okuda spoke to the motivations behind the nine-year (!) project, starting from hints of cut scenes in the James Blish novelizations of the classic Trek episodes to occasional publicity photos that the pair had never seen before.

Producer Roger Lay, Jr., who worked on the Next Generation and Enterprise Blu-ray releases, also confirmed that a Blu-ray release of this recovered footage will be arriving before the end of 2016 – but the team has not yet finalized the documentary, and could not specify how many minutes of recovered footage will be included.

UPDATE: Here’s the full press release for the upcoming Blu-ray:

STAR TREK®: THE ORIGINAL SERIES – THE RODDENBERRY VAULT

Details On New Blu-ray™ Release From CBS Home Entertainment
And Paramount Home Media Distribution Exclusively Revealed At
Comic-Con International: San Diego 2016

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (July 23, 2016) – CBS Home Entertainment, Paramount Home Media Distribution and Roddenberry Entertainment announced today at Comic-Con International: San Diego that STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES – THE RODDENBERRY VAULT, a collector’s edition Blu-ray set, will be released later in 2016.

During the production of Star Trek: The Original Series, bits and pieces of episodic footage were left on the cutting room floor, then stored away in film cans for decades by the Gene Roddenberry Estate. Now, in celebration of the show’s 50th Anniversary, The Roddenberry Vault has finally been opened. Along with 12 of their favorite episodes, fans can see and own behind the scenes footage from the making of the series as well as alternate takes, deleted scenes, omitted dialogue, outtakes, and original visual FX elements.

STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES – THE RODDENBERRY VAULT Blu-ray set includes newly-produced special feature documentaries that incorporate the “Vault” materials and feature all-new interviews with cast and production personnel, including new insights from William Shatner (Captain James T. Kirk), writers Dorothy “D.C.” Fontana, David Gerrold, & John D.F. Black, director Ralph Senensky, casting director Joseph D’Agosta, visual effects artist Richard Edlund, and more.

Also featured is an exploration into the series’ long-lasting appeal through interviews with some of Star Trek’s biggest fans including The Big Bang Theory co-creator Bill Prady, The Simpsons writer/producer David Mirkin, Family Guy writer/producer David A. Goodman, NASA’s Bobak Ferdowsi, Bill Nye (The Science Guy), and many more.

The special feature documentaries are:

· Inside The Roddenberry Vault – A multi-part glimpse at classic episodes from new angles and perspectives.
· Star Trek: Revisiting A Classic – A look at life on the set during production.
· Strange New Worlds: Visualizing The Fantastic – An inside look at the groundbreaking work of the series’ designers and visual effects artists.

STAR TREK: THE RODDENBERRY VAULT includes 12 classic Star Trek episodes in high-definition Blu-ray chosen for their relevance to the Vault’s lost/unseen material:

· The Corbomite Maneuver
· Arena
· Space Seed
· This Side of Paradise
· The Devil in the Dark
· The City on the Edge of Forever
· Operation: Annihilate!
· Metamorphosis
· Who Mourns for Adonais?
· Mirror, Mirror
· The Trouble With Tribbles
· Return to Tomorrow

STAR TREK: THE RODDENBERRY VAULT Blu-ray set is executive produced by Rod Roddenberry and Trevor Roth. Special feature documentaries are produced by Roger Lay, Jr. and Michael and Denise Okuda.

The entire panel event was streamed live on the official Roddenberry Facebook page, embedded here for your convenience, with a video introduction to the film recovery project starting at the seven-minute mark.

We have no information yet on the timetable for release of this fantastic-sounding new Blu-ray, but as Lay reiterates at the end of the panel, this is a Fiftieth Anniversary production that WILL be out before the end of 2016.

As soon as we have more detail on this release, we’ll be sure to update you all!

Order The Roddenberry Vault

Order Star Trek Lost Scenes