Deleted Scenes on Youtube

[ZapBrannigan]

I've been checking out the deleted scenes posted by "Mego Star Trek" on Youtube. What I'm finding is that the episodes, as shot on set, were a lot more conversational and "realistic talk" oriented than the finished versions. And I feel like most of the deleted dialogue I'm seeing would just slow the story down. Despite "natural" dialogue being a sophisticated literary approach, it doesn't seem to help Star Trek at all. It comes off as awkward and meandering.

Years ago I heard that Irwin Allen had a rule against casual exchanges that did not advance the plot on Lost in Space. And I thought that show would be better if the characters did have stuff like that to play with. But now I think Irwin might have been dead right. The "final cut" Star Trek episodes are tight. They're generally lean and sleek. They flow. The film editors cut in the right places, even without a series rule preventing unfocused talk.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Such things are best left to fanfiction and anthology entries, I gather.

 

[Grant]

They were cut to fit a time slot. That is all.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

They were cut to fit a time slot. That is all.

From what I'm seeing in the youtube clips, the cut lines are never as good as what stayed in.

 

[DonIago]

It wouldn't be very good cutting if they were cutting things that were better than what stayed in.

 

[FredH]

It wouldn't be very good cutting if they were cutting things that were better than what stayed in.

Must happen, though; it certainly does in the movies. (TMP really needs to have the line “We all create God in our own image” spoken onscreen, I think.)

 

[Richard S. Ta]

From what I'm seeing in the youtube clips, the cut lines are never as good as what stayed in.

Which is of course why they were excised in the first place.

I’ll have to go and have a watch!

 

[DonIago]

Must happen, though; it certainly does in the movies. (TMP really needs to have the line “We all create God in our own image” spoken onscreen, I think.)

I'm sure on occasion, and perhaps subjectively, it does, but if it was a pattern, that would be...a weird pattern.

 

[Grant]

The TMP line was cut because Wise didn't like it.

 

[I am not Herbert]

I agree that most of the deleted scenes, although highly enjoyable in isolation for a TOS completist like me, would probably be a net negative if tacked on to the completed episode, due to their impact on pacing and flow. (Also, I personally dislike the pregnancy twist at the end of Who Mourns for Adonais.) Exceptions to this would be the Paradise Syndrome and Requiem for Methuselah clips, both of which add something meaningful. Although not having watched them within the larger context of the episode, this is speculation.