All Good Things - Alternate version or faulty memory?

I'm watching "All Good Things" on Netflix, and I don't know of my memory's playing tricks on me or if it's just because it's been so long since I've seen it, but there are some snippets of scenes which I just don't remember seeing in previous viewings.

I'm not all the way through yet, but these are the bits I've noticed so far:

In the scene in the 'past' when Picard speaks to Riker at Farpoint and has the conversation with Troi about whether the crew trust him yet - I remember that part, but then afterwards she tells him about her and Riker's past relationship, and Picard then orders a tea from the replicator and it tells him it hasn't been programmed into the database yet. I don't remember seeing this part at all.

On the Pasteur, after Beverly leaves Picard in her ready room, 'Old Q' appears and has a conversation with Picard, including jokingly mishearing a question about 'the anomaly' as 'where's my mommy?' - again, no memory of this.

Worf hesitating and then speaking in Klingon after Beverly tells him to signal their surrender when being attacked by the Klingons.

I've seen this episode many times, and remember the majority of it like the back of my hand, so it seems strange that I'd have no recollection of these bits whatsoever, but as I say it has been a long time since I've seen it.

Am I going mad?

 

Another short bit: A few lines in Picard's conversation with Q in the empty courtroom after collapsing the anomaly: Picard thanks Q for "getting me out of this", Q responds that it was he who got him into it (on orders from the Continuum), but that the helping hand was his idea.

I really don't think I'm imagining this. Was there some kind of alternative cut? Like, for the DVD release or a director's cut or something?

 

Im just watching this again too. I think you might be right i dont remember some of these scenes. I know the netflix version is the bluray remastered edition but without checking my DVD copy (which is in storage) i cant tell for sure.

On a side note would’nt it be great to see a reshot version of the future scenes with the cast as they are now? Not to replace the original but just as an excuse to have them all back together.

 

The scenes you're describing were all cut from the syndicated, cut down two-part version of the finale. You're probably remembering that version.

The version on Netflix, Blu Ray and DVD is the full length cut as originally shown.

 

Syndicated versions always cut out good scenes to make feature length episodes into two parts. It's annoying but it gives the shows more episodes to sell.

Picard and O'Brien's final scene together in Emissary being cut is a travesty.

 

I might be wrong, but I seem to recall being outraged that the syndication edit of "Way Of The Warrior" removes Garak & Quark with the root beer -- one of the single most iconic scenes of the entire series! -- and "What You Leave Behind" takes out the final scene between Garak and Bashir. Travesties all around!

 

You're correct. I initially saw the syndicated version of WYLB on Sky but I thought it was the full length version as it was shown as one long episode. It wasn't until I brought the DVDs years later that I finally saw the Bashir/Garak scene and realised I'd been duped!

 

I remember all those scenes being in the original. Watched All Good Things the other day, it was exactly as I remember it.

 

Thanks all. I clearly must have only previously seen the edited 1hr individual versions of the episode before then, which makes sense - I've never owned it on Blu Ray/DVD/VHS.

As for the other episodes listed above that had both feature-length and cut down syndicated versions, I'm pretty sure I've only seen the full-length version of Emissary as I don't remember not seeing the Picard/O'Brien scene - same with What You Leave Behind, too. Whereas I've seen both versions of Way of the Warrior.

 

Yeah, I concur. All those scenes were there in the original airing.

 

Those scenes are missing from the feature-length Syndication cut and the 2-Part Syndication cut.

I still have on VHS from November 1999 the broadcast airing of Voyager’s “Dark Frontier” on CHRO-TV, and it features the credits for both parts at the beginning of part 1. However it’s missing scenes, especially the scene where Janeway scolds B’Elanna for going through Seven’s personal files after Seven returned to the Borg. I was surprised to see this scene on the DVD when I got the DVD set about 8 years later, and I figured that CHRO had aired the syndicated version that was most likely made for foreign markets like Canada, whereas the DVD’s used the UPN masters.

 

Syndication edits are annoying but also sometimes I prefer them. I remember thinking the first time I ever seen the 2 part version of "Encounter At Farpoint" feeling like the pace of the story was much improved and less meandering when cut in two with a break in the middle than it was as a movie length episode. Subjective opinion of course, YMMV etc

 

I'm the opposite. I want completeness. When I bought the MASH DVDs years ago, I was shocked by how much got cut from the syndicated versions.

 

Fair point.

Related, but the two part syndicated Voyager pilot "Caretaker" was played on Australian TV today, and it's (to my memory) the first time I'd ever seen this two part version. It struck me that unlike TNG's and DS9's pilots, Caretaker was clearly written more carefully to present itself as two individual but connected parts. The others both felt a little awkward, but this one seems to have natural arcs in both episodes that make each feel relatively satisfying in their own right.

 

The BBC made a right mess of TOS and it got worse right up until the nineties!
JB

 

TOS was always worse as the years went on because the original Broadcast version in the 1960ies were 50 minutes and by the 1990ies and later (at least in the U.S. - for syndicated commercials) said runtimes had to be chopped to 42 or even 40 minutes; so that's 8 minutes of material they needed to cut.

 

Still doesn't make it right though, Noname!
JB

 

You narrowed in on exactly the ep where I agree -- that syndication edit of "Farpoint" is a real improvement on the feature length version. I was introduced to the cut-down edit first, and when I later was seeing the original, I could not believe how much more of a slog it felt. It's not really that much screentime and I don't even really know what's missing, but it makes a significant pacing difference somehow.

 

I must admit I don't recall some of those lines already mentioned, until I watched it yesterday.