Game Of Thrones' Failed First Pilot Has An Eerie Connection To The Real-Life Titanic
One of the stranger things about the history of "Game of Thrones" is that two pilots were filmed for the series. General practice in television is that a network will order one episode of a show to see how it turns out. A test subject, if you will. Based on the success of that pilot, they will green light the series or can it. Rarer are the instances of a pilot being shot and not going well, but the network has some faith in the show that they opt to shoot a new pilot for the series. This is what happened with "Star Trek" all the way back in the 1960s, where the original pilot, "The Cage" (which didn't even include Captain Kirk), was shelved and a new pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before," was made and aired as the show's third episode.
"Game of Thrones" is another one of these shows. Unlike "Star Trek," the stories of the two pilots for the series adapted from George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" books were somewhat similar, but in execution, they were quite different. Jennifer Ehle played Catelyn Stark, and Tamzin Merchant played Daenerys Targaryen. King's Landing didn't appear in order to save money. The White Walkers' design was universally panned. Showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss were inexperienced people helming a television show and weren't entirely sure what they were doing. Luckily, HBO let them redo it all, and only a few things from that original pilot made their way into the actual first episode.
Perhaps they should have seen a disaster incoming with that first pilot, as the studio they filmed it in sat atop the ground on which the ill-fated Titanic was built.
History repeating itself
"Game of Thrones" filmed in several countries over the course of its run, from Iceland to Croatia, but their home base for the show was always Belfast in Northern Ireland. As shooting in England or Wales was deemed to be too costly, Northern Ireland was chosen. It also provided many benefits crucial to the look of the show, particularly around Winterfell. In Bryan Cogman's "Inside HBO's Game of Thrones: Seasons 1 & 2," David Benioff said of the location:
"Northern Ireland offers a broad array of diverse locations within a short drive. Windswept hilltops, stony beaches, lush meadows, high cliffs, bucolic streams — we can shoot a day at any of these places and still sleep that night in Belfast."
Something else happened to be made in Belfast, and that was the RMS Titanic. Paint Hall, the large studio in which "Game of Thrones" filmed, is called that because it's the building in which the painting of ships built by the Harland & Wolff company was done. One of those ships was the Titanic, which as we all know sank on its maiden voyage. The entire complex is even called Titanic Studios.
If you are someone who believes in omens, be them good or bad, shooting in that same space must have been odd, especially if you consider the parallels. That was the "Ship of Dreams," ready to take ships to the next level. "Game of Thrones" was hoping to do the same for television, and on their maiden voyage, they sank just like ship. Unlike a ship, though, "Game of Thrones" could pick up the pieces and try again, which is what HBO let its creatives do.
They couldn't have dreamed of a better second go-around. Meanwhile, Titanic II is still waiting to make its maiden voyage.