Same story with my local station. They wouldn't edit...they would tear the film to remove scenes. I would cringe in anger every time the station editors would violate my favorite television show.
The Man Trap - thoughts and recriminations
- Thread starter Qonundrum
- Start date
Same story with my local station. They wouldn't edit...they would tear the film to remove scenes. I would cringe in anger every time the station editors would violate my favorite television show.
Yeah, there were two eras of syndication cutting. In the 1970s and up to about 1985, each local station would receive 16mm film prints, cut them as they pleased, and then at least in theory they were supposed to splice the trims back in before returning the episodes.
And it wasn't just the loss of dialogue you vaguely remembered and hadn't heard in years. It was the loss of music that bugged me, before any CDs were released. For instance, I always wanted to hear the somber cue from Kirk's final turbolift ride in "The Naked Time." It was re-used after the landing party beams down in "Return of the Archons." But it was always cut from both episodes. We know it today as "The Big Go." But it was gone.
Then in 1985, Paramount syndicated the show on video tape. It was remastered and pre-cut for time, no longer ragged and faded, but now the cuts were tiny and extremely numerous. It was a weird trade-off that messed with a lot of dialogue.
And it wasn't just the loss of dialogue you vaguely remembered and hadn't heard in years. It was the loss of music that bugged me, before any CDs were released. For instance, I always wanted to hear the somber cue from Kirk's final turbolift ride in "The Naked Time." It was re-used after the landing party beams down in "Return of the Archons." But it was always cut from both episodes. We know it today as "The Big Go." But it was gone.
Then in 1985, Paramount syndicated the show on video tape. It was remastered and pre-cut for time, no longer ragged and faded, but now the cuts were tiny and extremely numerous. It was a weird trade-off that messed with a lot of dialogue.
Right, and scenes that I was so used to actually seeing were now cut to their bare essence. At the time, my cable provider gave us access to a Pennsylvania PBS station, WVIA Channel 44. They ran Star Trek commercial free every Saturday night at 11:30 and would run three episodes per night. In production order. For awhile, they ran uncut 16mm prints. Then, one day, they simply switched to the Paramount provided pre-cut episodes. That drove me nuts. I couldn't understand what a commercial free PBS station had to run episodes which were edited to make room for commercials. But, Paramount probably mandated it. There was no notice to my knowledge. I remember because I started taping them partway into the first season after having seen some uncut episodes. By the time I got up and running, they were the pre-cuts. And the episodes I saw uncut before were now 45 minutes long.
However, on the bright side, WPIX and WVIA were running the series at the same time. So, I was grabbing Trek at a rate of 8 episodes per week. I got the series completed in no time, while still getting the odd episode I could afford on prerecorded tape. Even when I started getting the Columbia House volumes, I still watched it on TV. Good days...
Slightly OT for the thread, but I watched Squire of Gothos tonight, and of course McCoy does a brief freaked out reaction when he sees the salt creature in Trelane's room. But this time I noticed DeSalle looking at McCoy looking at it and making a "well, this is awkward" face as if he knew about what happened in that episode with "Nancy" and such. I burst out laughing, hadn't noticed that before.
Somewhat on-topic, but who here has ever seen the movie Omer the Tourist in Star Trek, known in some quarters simply as Turkish Star Trek?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ömer_the_Tourist_in_Star_Trek
How is this relevant to this thread? The entire movie is a comedic remake (rip-off, really) of The Man Trap:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ömer_the_Tourist_in_Star_Trek
How is this relevant to this thread? The entire movie is a comedic remake (rip-off, really) of The Man Trap:
The BBC were notorious for cutting the show down! In fact the first time I ever saw the show complete was in 2004 with the DVDs! For me it was like watching a new version of the old show! 
JB
JB
Great episode. u ppl r high
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