DVD Edits

[Lonestar]

On the back of all the re-issue slimline DVDs it says something along the lines of 'Episodes may differ from original broadcast versions'
Is this just some sort of legal requirement for DVDs?

 

[Navaros]

^

That's some extremely weasley-wording in order to legally cover their butts regarding being sued for selling censored episodes in my lay opinion. Maybe Weyoun wrote that misleading weasley-wording for them?

Makes it sound as if it's just saying the DVD episodes are more full original versions rather than trimmed down broadcast versions. Thus, covering their butts while at the same time minimizing lost sales due to not making it clear to consumers that that statement exists solely for the sake of selling them incomplete, censored products without making it look like it does.

exalted one said:


Now I'm considering suing them for selling me the incomplete product while clearly offering the complete one.
However, who's "them" in this case? Should I sue Amazon.co.uk? Or should I sue Paramount? Or perhaps somebody else?

You'd need a lawyer to have a chance at potentially suing any of them sucessfully. If you have money to afford a lawyer, then might as well go ahead and ask that question to him or her. He would know that information a lot better than forum goers would. But you should probably leave the lawyer to the last resort, there's two other things to try first.

Step 1: You could try demanding a refund from Amazon.co.uk. If they agree then obviously you'd have to ship the product back to them in order to be refunded. If the first level CSR people don't agree to that, try climbing up their internal management totem pole, and those higher up on the totem pole may agree to that. In the event they are completely uncooperative and if you bought it with a credit card, then before ending your direct disussions with Amazon.co.uk, tell them you will do a chargeback (more on that in Step 2.) They will hate hearing that because chargebacks make a corporation look bad and in some cases, could jeopardize a corporation's ability to process credit card transactions (not that that would ever happen with a huge, legit company like Amazon.co.uk, but I'm just saying...they will still hate chargebacks and the threat of a chargeback even so.) Just saying to them that you will do a chargeback may convince them to give you a refund to avoid having a black mark chargeback from you on their company record.

Step 2: Next step in the event that that fails and Amazon.co.uk absolutely refuses to refund you. If you bought it with a credit card, you may have chargeback rights as part of your cardholder agreement. Call your credit card company and tell them you believe you received a product that was not as advertised, and as such, you wish to chargeback that particular transaction on grounds of them sending you something other than what you agreed to buy. Your credit card company may be able to start a chargeback disputes procedure for you, which can be a lengthy dispute process vs. the place of purchase. Whether you are able to start a chargeback dispute process or not depends on various factors and is time sensitive, so if you are really wanna do that, start the ball rolling about this stuff right away. Your credit card company will be the ones to tell you your rights about that and if you can start a chargeback dispute or not in regards to this.


Step 3: In the event the credit card company cannot process a chargeback dispute for you, or you lose the chargeback dispute, then talk to a lawyer. If you want you can talk to a lawyer as Step 1, but doing so is gonna cost you a lot of money whereas Steps 1 and 2 are free to do hence advisable to try first for the cost reason.

Also, I believe the UK has special consumer protection laws that are much stronger at protecting consumers than comparable (lack of) laws in other parts of the world. I believe there is a famous consumer protection legislation which is well-known in the UK, so you may want to ask around locally about that or do some web/phone research about that. In the events Step 1 and Step 2 fail, you may also have an ace up your sleeve by finding a way to invoke some of those UK-specific consumer protection laws, possibly without requiring a lawyer.

 

[CaptainStoner]

Censorship is so bizarre. In the U.S. they can have all manner of violence and gore in prime time without protest, but by God, show a breast and it's a national conspiracy. Apparently the U.K. is just as weird, only the other way around.
Because it seems in both countries, hapless children are watching TV unsupervised, and it's the government's job to be Mommy and Daddy.
Call it rubbish, call it bullshit, it's much the same.

 

[Ethros]

Personally I'm not gonna cry over losing half a second of someones neck snapping on the DVDs...
But what I do find weird is, Region 2 DS9 Season 4 is rated a 15- why not just NOT edit them and release it as an 18?
What's the problem?


So some spotty 16-year-old teenager won't be able to buy it anymore? Big whoop, at it's original RRP of £84.99 I doubt they could afford it anyway. And if they could, just get someone else to buy it for you. Or even better, just buy it online where you can buy anything no matter how old you are

I don't see the problem

 

[Brolan]

UK censorship is really odd then. I rememeber how shocked I was at the second episode of (Spooks in the UK/MI-5 in the US) when the bad guy forced a women's face into a deep fat fryer to get her to talk. I had never seen something so in-your-face nasty before on TV. And this was made for the BBC so it must have passed the the censor.

 

[ALF]

Oso Blanco said:
Are the R4 DVDs in PAL?

NSTC all the way, sorry I hadn't noticed it actually region 2.

 

[Oso Blanco]

So, can anyone confirm that the Region 4 DVDs are uncut? I'm talking about the episodes "To The Death" and "Sons And Daughters" in particular.

Please, it's important for me to know, because I'm going to buy them if they are uncut!

 

[cbspock]

Patterns of Force is still banned in Germany I believe.


-Chris

 

[Oso Blanco]

cbspock said:
Patterns of Force is still banned in Germany I believe.

Not anymore.

And even if it was banned on tv, it has been released on VHS and DVD. The DVDs are exactly the same as in the UK and the rest of Europe, that's exactly my problem. Those two DS9 episodes have been cut for the UK, and now we all have to suffer from it.

That's because I have asked about the R4 DVDs. Anyone?

 

[Oso Blanco]

I just found the answer to my own question: R4 = R2! Seems that you Australians have been screwed by the British censorship as well!

 

[Phillip Culley]

No, R4 does not equal R2 - they're completely different! The BBFC edits releases in the UK (thus the British Board of Film Classification) - their decisions have no effect whatsoever on Australian releases.

A quick check for the relevant episodes on the Australian Classification Board website has this:
http://www.classification.gov.au/sp...mY=1970&sDateToM=3&sDateToY=2008&record=89285
for To the Death, and this:
http://www.classification.gov.au/sp...mY=1970&sDateToM=3&sDateToY=2008&record=98058
for Sons and Daughters.

There's nothing to suggest the episodes have been edited, however at the same time there's nothing to say they haven't.

 

[James Cole]

Looks like both R2 and R4 are cut. Check out http://www.dvdcompare.net, it is a good site for finding what DVD releases are cut, missing extras, or have music replaced in a particular region.

DS9 Season 6:

• OVERALL: R1
  
  For having all uncut episodes. The R2's and R4 have better extras over the R1, but they are also cut.
• 
  CUTS:
  • R1 America - (Paramount) - No Cuts
  • R2 France - (Paramount) - Yes, "Sons And Daughters" is cut by 20 seconds.
  • R2 Germany - (Paramount) - Yes, "Sons And Daughters" is cut by 20 seconds.
  • R2 Italy - (Paramount) - Yes, "Sons And Daughters" is cut by 20 seconds.
  • R2 Scandinavia - (Paramount) - Yes, "Sons And Daughters" is cut by 20 seconds.
  • R2 United Kingdom - (Paramount) - Yes, "Sons And Daughters" is cut by 20 seconds.
  • R4 Australia - (Paramount) - Yes, "Sons And Daughters" is cut by 20 seconds

Season 4:

• OVERALL: R1
  
  For having all uncut episodes. The R2's and R4 have better extras over the R1, but they are also cut.
• 
  CUTS:
  • R1 America - (Paramount) - No Cuts
  • R2 France - (Paramount) - Yes, cut by 2 seconds to remove a neck brake in episode “To The Death”
  • R2 Germany - (Paramount) - Yes, cut by 2 seconds to remove a neck brake in episode “To The Death”
  • R2 Italy - (Paramount) - Yes, cut by 2 seconds to remove a neck brake in episode “To The Death”
  • R2 Scandinavia - (Paramount) - Yes, cut by 2 seconds to remove a neck brake in episode “To The Death”
  • R2 United Kingdom - (Paramount) - Yes, cut by 2 seconds to remove a neck brake in episode “To The Death”
  • R4 Australia - (Paramount) - Yes, cut by 2 seconds to remove a neck brake in episode “To The Death”

 

[Michael]

Yes, "Sons And Daughters" is cut by 20 seconds.

Wow, I didn't know that. I wanted to know what exactly was cut so I searched and found this on Memory Alpha:

Although it is not widely known, the BBFC cut this episode by approximately 25 seconds. In the last scene, as Martok initiates Alexander Rozhenko into the House of Martok, there is a ritual performed which involves Martok placing the insignia of his house into a chalice. He then slides a knife across his palm and lets the blood drip into the chalice. In the UK version of the episode, he then pours in some bloodwine and sets the mixture alight, but in the uncut version, he hands the knife to Alexander, who also cuts his palm and lets his own blood drip into the chalice. Although, visually, there is no evidence of the edit, if you listen closely, you can hear a slight jump in the music key at the moment of the cut. The reason given by the BBFC for the censorship was that because the show was aimed primarily at teenagers, they felt that a scene in which two characters mix blood could encourage viewers to do likewise, hence increasing the risk of HIV transfer.

I never noticed the glitch in the music. Although it's quite obvious when you know it. I don't think it was necessary to cut it though.

 

[CaptainJon]

I know that To the Death was heavily edited for its broadcast because of the amount of violence at the climax. I wish they would've put that stuff back in for the DVD as an extended edit of the episode. That would've been so cool!

 

[JoeZhang]

UK censorship is really odd then. I rememeber how shocked I was at the second episode of (Spooks in the UK/MI-5 in the US) when the bad guy forced a women's face into a deep fat fryer to get her to talk. I had never seen something so in-your-face nasty before on TV. And this was made for the BBC so it must have passed the the censor.

Material shown on the telly is not passed before a censor - there are editorial guidelines and the relevant authorities will take action if people complain about what they have seen but pre-reviewing of material is done internally.

 

[Tulin]

UK censorship is really odd then. I rememeber how shocked I was at the second episode of (Spooks in the UK/MI-5 in the US) when the bad guy forced a women's face into a deep fat fryer to get her to talk. I had never seen something so in-your-face nasty before on TV. And this was made for the BBC so it must have passed the the censor.

Material shown on the telly is not passed before a censor - there are editorial guidelines and the relevant authorities will take action if people complain about what they have seen but pre-reviewing of material is done internally.

Wow - that's SO weird as because I started reading the above post,


:UK censorship is really odd then. I rememeber how shocked I was at the second episode of (Spooks in the UK/MI-5 in the US) when .......?

And my mind INSTANTLY went to the scene of the woman's face being put into a deep fryer.

I must've seen that YEARS ago and it STILL stayed with as being HORRIBLE.

Yes - English censorship is incredibly weird when you hear things like TMNT cannot have nun-chuks but women can have their heads thrust into deep fryers.

That REALLY affected me and was AWFUL!!!!

 

[Tulin]

The episodes can be seen UNCUT on German tv in the afternoon! The only episode cut for German tv is TNG: Conspiracy, the one where Remmicks head is exploding. Strangely enough, this scene passed the British censorship without problems.

Case in point with the weird British censorship!

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Wait, wait. Swords are okay but nunchucks are not?

...WTF?

 

[Richard Baker]

Walmart is a big enough seller of CDs & DVDs that they can order a production run of a product solely for themselves. There was a time when they were editing films and music to be more family friendly- it used to even be in they advertising. I took back a film (The Chronicles of Riddick) because it was an edited version but you have to examine the packaging closely to discover this.
I don't know if this is still the case, but I buy from Amazon now...

The British have their own sensibilities about what is proper and what should not be seen, much different than here in the US. The BBC shows that PBS used to broadcast in the evenings had frontal nudity at times for example. I remember seeing a mystery show where the police captain enters the crime scene, a body is on the floor covered in a cloth. "What have we here?" "A murder most foul sir" Where was she found?" (Whoosh goes the cloth and there she is, stark naked on the floor) "In the bath..."
IMO much better memories than the deep fryer...

 

[voyager1]

My understanding was the Siege of AR558, was never aired. Can that be confirmed?