Episodes that should have been longer/shorter

[Jedi_Master]

I was watching "Little Green Men" last night, and I thought what the episode needed - besides better acting from the guest actors - was more time to develop the story.

It would have been great if they could have shown Quark and Co. crashing in Roswell, N.M. and been able to develop some additional ideas. A longer episode could have allowed them to dump Odo, and allow the Ferengis to use their own ingenuity to get out of their dilemma,etc.

So that got me thinking. Was there other Trek episodes that deserved to be longer? Were their some two - parters that should have been shorter?

What do you think? Maybe we could list the episode and discuss why they needed to longer or shorter.

 

[USS Triumphant]

"Yesterday's Enterprise", just to get the obvious out of the way. More time, and a bigger budget. Probably should have been a film.

 

[Jedi_Master]

"Yesterday's Enterprise", just to get the obvious out of the way. More time, and a bigger budget. Probably should have been a film.

I agree, however, how much time in the extra episodes would have been spent in the alternate timeline and would have been just more "hey look what this guy is doing instead of what he is usually is doing" instead of focusing on the crew of the "C" and their triumphant dash into posthumous glory?

 

[T'Girl]

The Xindi Arc should have been stripped of side stories involving cowboy planets, cloned Trips, and time travel episodes. The entire Arc should have been tied up in about six or seven episodes.

Mudd's Women should have been expanded to include the scene where Mudd try's to sell Uhura the Venus Drug, it would have tied into the whole thing about Uhura's fear of aging.

 

[USS Triumphant]

"Yesterday's Enterprise", just to get the obvious out of the way. More time, and a bigger budget. Probably should have been a film.

I agree, however, how much time in the extra episodes would have been spent in the alternate timeline and would have been just more "hey look what this guy is doing instead of what he is usually is doing" instead of focusing on the crew of the "C" and their triumphant dash into posthumous glory?

Ideally, the bigger budget and additional time would have provided:

1. A different model for the Enterprise-D, since the Galaxy-class wasn't designed with a major war on or in mind.
2. Modified uniforms for the -D crew, instead of just adding silly straps and phasers.
3. MOST IMPORTANTLY, the opportunity to use the ship model, uniforms, and at least some of the actors from the Enterprise-A, rather than the -C.
and 4. The time to flesh out what is going on with BOTH crews a bit.

It could have been what Generations *should* have been, and the implications of sending Tasha back with them are fun to speculate on, too.

The Xindi Arc should have been stripped of side stories involving cowboy planets, cloned Trips, and time travel episodes. The entire Arc should have been tied up in about six or seven episodes.

Agreed.

 

[drt]

I'd nominate TNG's "The Chase", that concept deserved to have been streched into a multi-episode story arc (interestingly, that was Babylon 5's JM Straczynskiks idea for the overall arc of a Kirk-era reboot he pitched after Enterprise failed).

Shoot, a nunber of episodes in the TNG era seemed like they spent 85% of the episode building up a great premise, and I remember thinking "hey, this is going to be a two-parter" only for them to rapidly finish the episode in the last five minutes with a deux ex technobabblia.

 

[Tosk]

2. Modified uniforms for the -D crew, instead of just adding silly straps and phasers.

They were modified. The collars and sleeve cuffs were both changed.

 

[sonak]

I think that a lot of TOS episodes could be shortened, since they had a longer run time than modern Trek and often had one drawn out plot line. Even great ones like "mirror mirror" could be shortened. I've watched TOS with syndication cuts and haven't felt like I was missing tons.


specifically "Alternative Factor," "immunity syndrome," and "whom gods destroy" come to mind as candidates for editing.

 

[Melakon]

TNG: Birthright I & II really should have been two separate unrelated episodes, since the Data story doesn't even make it to the end of Part 1.

 

[Kevman7987]

2. Modified uniforms for the -D crew, instead of just adding silly straps and phasers.

They were modified. The collars and sleeve cuffs were both changed.

Those changes were made for the main cast, but the extras were still in the season 1 style uniforms with extra straps and phasers.

TNG: Birthright I & II really should have been two separate unrelated episodes, since the Data story doesn't even make it to the end of Part 1.

Some of Birthright II seems to be padded, your'e right about them needing to be separate episodes. Find another B-story to add to Data and his dreams, while Birthright is squeezed into 60 minutes.

 

[Kpnuts]

"Yesterday's Enterprise", just to get the obvious out of the way. More time, and a bigger budget. Probably should have been a film.

Yesterday's Enterprise is too long and dull as it is. The storyline may have been interesting but the execution was seriously lacking. Just too slow and boring, like they couldn't figure out what to fill each scene with.

 

[Richard Baker]

I wanted to see 'Yesterday's Enterprise' have the C return to the battle and watch it duke it out with the Warbirds. Spending more time with with the alternate crew and seeing how differently things worked, along with some All Good Things style modifications to the hull (not a third engine but make it look more like a warship).

I do agree with the Xindi Arc being sidetracked too often and having it end with alien Nazis was just stupid. Six or seven episodes and then move on.

Going out on a limb, but 'These are the Voyages' should have been two hours. Dump the whole Riker/TNG element and spend some time showing the build up to the Federation forming. Instead of cutting away during the big speech, show how it influenced the attending members and end it with them signing The Aritcles of Federation )or whatever the document would be called). This was one of the purposes of that series- to show what is was like before things were established and let us see how the TOS Trek's Federation got started.

 

[2takesfrakes]

Just as an aside, here, but not too outside the realm:

Is it conceivable that television shows like STAR TREK would ever come out with a U-Edit feature that lets you decide what parts are cut out, not just whole swaths like from this to that commercial, but moments specific to your desires? And it wouldn't have to be an abrupt kind of edit, when you ran the whole thing, after. There could be a soft fade out of the last scene's music, let's say, so it blends into the next scene you want to watch. I think it would do so much towards the enjoyment of the franchise and might even encourage people to buy more of it, if such an Edit feature were accessible and available, for home viewing.

 

[Robert Comsol]

I wanted to see 'Yesterday's Enterprise' have the C return to the battle and watch it duke it out with the Warbirds.

I believe from a storytelling perspective it might have been better to show what the Enterprise-C was up against prior to entering the temporal rift and leave the outcome of the battle to our imagination.

Same goes for the rationalization why Tasha wasn't immediately put away by the Tal Shiar, obviously not belonging to that crew of 2344:

At least, we can choose from two different interpretations what happened at Narendra III after the Enterprise-C from "Yesterday's Enterprise" had returned.

Bob

 

[T'Girl]

All of those statements by Picard make it puzzling as to why he permitted Yar to travel back in time.

")

 

[CaptPapa]

I think that a lot of TOS episodes could be shortened, since they had a longer run time than modern Trek and often had one drawn out plot line. Even great ones like "mirror mirror" could be shortened. I've watched TOS with syndication cuts and haven't felt like I was missing tons.


specifically "Alternative Factor," "immunity syndrome," and "whom gods destroy" come to mind as candidates for editing.

Bite your tongue!!!
Okay, yeah, a couple maybe could be shortened, but is that just because those are ones we don't like as well and therefore could stand to see less of?
However, I definitely disagree with the Mirror, Mirror evaluation - I think that one coulda/shoulda been longer.

ME

 

[Robert Comsol]

All of those statements by Picard make it puzzling as to why he permitted Yar to travel back in time.

Well, "bumbling" Picard in "Yesterday's Enterprise" quite often says things one moment and something else the next one (maybe that's why the Federation is loosing? ).

The script was rushed, acts were written by different screenplay writers (who hated the experience), Michael Piller admitted plotholes and Jonathan Frakes probably still has no idea what was actually going on, but "liked the look".

According to Ronald Moore (screenplay) and David Carson (director) - as late as of 2008 - they felt they had established during the episode that Tasha Yar was certainly going to die upon arriving in the year 2344 (hence travelling back in that uniform was no longer relevant).

Inevitably that required a premise change for "Redemption II" but this is not a popular issue here at the BBS.

Bob

 

[T'Girl]

and the children shall lead, while one of my personal bottom ten tos episodes, is one of the episodse that would likely have improved if made longer

coupled with a replacement actor as the angel

some exploration of who the friends on marcus 12 were

 

[BillJ]

Inevitably that required a premise change for "Redemption II" but this is not a popular issue here at the BBS.

Bob

Why would fandom embrace it? Lets take an actress who bailed on us in season one and cram her back into the series in the most awkward and unlikely way possible.

Brilliant!

 

[T'Girl]

Lets take an actress who bailed on us in season one and cram her back into the series in the most awkward and unlikely way possible.

Gates McFadden?