The Bonding with 6 min of extra footage

[RAMA]

http://trekcore.com/blog/2013/05/ex...y-recovered-footage-from-tng-s3s-the-bonding/

Guess who! Trekcore posts another in the series of rediscovered videos.

RAMA

 

[destructive]

The unused Troi scene was great! Anyone know what the next VHS episode workprint will be?

 

[Melakon]

I couldn't stand that kid actor. And some fans thought Wesley was bad.

 

[jimbotron]

You think that was bad? Check him out in Robocop 2.

 

[Borjis]

You think that was bad? Check him out in Robocop 2.

ha ha I was just going to say that!!

 

[Melakon]

Yeah, i hated him in that too.

He could have made a career out of playing little pricks.

 

[Takeru]

I really liked the Troi scene, I wish they would have kept it.

 

[BillJ]

It was a chore to get through the regular forty-five minute episode yesterday. I'll view the extended version in 2525 if I have the chance...

 

[LeadHead]

I liked some of the extended scene in sickbay. I always got the feeling from the original scene that Picard was in some way disappointed in Worf for Asters death. I liked their interaction, I think it adds something to the episode that they shouldn't have ditched. The end of that scene with Beverly could easily go, however.

And for crying out loud guys, the kid was a kid. Not the world's greatest actor, yeah, but give the kid a little slack will ya?

 

[SeerSGB]

Watched the clip. Marina did great, but the kid reminds me why I've not rewatched the episode in ages. And (I know it was a kid and in the script) but when he said "You're a betazoid...", I thought 'racist little prick'. It's just the way the line was delivered.

 

[Melakon]

According to some reports, some of the cast didn't think highly of him either, due to his on set behavior.

 

[Aatrek]

It was a chore to get through the regular forty-five minute episode yesterday. I'll view the extended version in 2525 if I have the chance...

The TrekCore video is just the deleted scenes, in their in-episode context.

 

[Bad Atom]

I agree, the Troi scene was well done and should have been kept in, maybe cut down a bit for pacing reasons. The rest of the scenes were wisely cut.

 

[jimbotron]

I'm very thankful for Roddenberry's creation, but there are times he really to let the writers tell their stories.

The story got hamstrung because he declared that children in the future would accept death easily and then move on. Piller and Moore obviously didn't like that idea because it makes these characters difficult to understand and accept. Moore elaborates in the commentary that the alien angle was added to bring the mother back instead of Jeremy using into the holodeck to escape from the reality.

I guess the idea of escaping to the holodeck remained in the minds of the writers and adapted it for Barclay in Hollow Pursuits. If damaging the story of this episode gave us Lt. Barclay, then I'd say it was a good deal.

In the commentary, I think Moore said he was happy with the kid, but I think he was just being nice.

 

[Maxwell Everett]

^ That commentary's great, by the way. Listened to it last night. It was more of a freeform discussion of Moore's time on TNG rather than a screen specific commentary for the episode (which is fine by me)... and some details are repeated from the Writer's Room doc and the main Resistance is Futile doc, but he goes much more in depth. And Mike Okuda shows a bit of restraint, only interrupting Moore's train of thought twice to point out some non sequitur detail in the shot.

He shows similar restraint in the BOBW commentary. I was slightly bummed by how the commentaries on S2 turned out. I think maybe he listened to them and realized he was interrupting the featured speaker too much.

 

[Christopher]

I guess the idea of escaping to the holodeck remained in the minds of the writers and adapted it for Barclay in Hollow Pursuits.

Except that "Hollow Pursuits" wasn't conceived by the writing staff. It started out as a spec script by freelancer Sarah Higley (under the pseudonym "Sally Caves"), and she started writing it in fall 1988, which as far as I can tell is before Moore wrote "The Bonding" (also as a freelance spec script).

 

[jimbotron]

Except that "Hollow Pursuits" wasn't conceived by the writing staff. It started out as a spec script by freelancer Sarah Higley (under the pseudonym "Sally Caves"), and she started writing it in fall 1988, which as far as I can tell is before Moore wrote "The Bonding" (also as a freelance spec script).

Ah ok, you learn something new everyday.

 

[SeerSGB]

I'm very thankful for Roddenberry's creation, but there are times he really to let the writers tell their stories.

The story got hamstrung because he declared that children in the future would accept death easily and then move on. Piller and Moore obviously didn't like that idea because it makes these characters difficult to understand and accept. Moore elaborates in the commentary that the alien angle was added to bring the mother back instead of Jeremy using into the holodeck to escape from the reality.

I guess the idea of escaping to the holodeck remained in the minds of the writers and adapted it for Barclay in Hollow Pursuits. If damaging the story of this episode gave us Lt. Barclay, then I'd say it was a good deal.

In the commentary, I think Moore said he was happy with the kid, but I think he was just being nice.

I think the kid using the Holodeck as a way to keep from facing that his mother was killed works better than the alien angle.

 

[ALF]

Spoiler: Minor Robocop 2 spoilers!!!!

This episode always makes me think of how that kid gets wasted in the middle of Robocop 2.

Jeremy Aster was such a flat character but it incredible to see that they put some effort into establishing him as a normal kids having a regular day at school when this tragedy occurs.

The science classroom scene... what an excellent looking set! So unbelievably 80s... and the ponytail/Jem and the Holograms style pyjamas student was the perfect touch. Even a teacher with a few lines of dialogue.

Was that a standard "classroom" set decorated with potted plants or a unique set to this episode? I wish the quality were better but it's incredible that these archives exist.

Screaming yellow walls with those shelves (are they designed to accelerate the growth of plants for study?) - it looks so bizarre as if schools in the future would be colored like a candy shop! It's prophetic too, most classrooms now have terminals for kids to use.

I like Jeremy more that he was a bit racist toward Troi about her Betazoid heritage - only because it gave him more depth than the final cut provided. He was unbearably boring if I recall... and that creepy hairstyle didn't help. Overall I've never before enjoyed The Bonding, despite the great scenes with Worf. The alien story didn't go places for me.Here's a freaky-deaky comparison on that theme - a quote from Wikipedia on Peter Weller's experience working on Robocop 2:

"This was the last time Weller played the role. He complained about how cumbersome and exhausting it was to wear the suit and found RoboCop 2 to be a very negative and disappointing film to work on. He was also upset that some important scenes did not make it into the final cut: "There was a couple of things that made the character more human that weren't used. I can't remember exactly what the scenes were, I just remember wondering why they weren't in." These deleted scenes have never been included on home video releases."
​

Props to TrekCore. Overall that was incredibly enjoyable and look forward to rewatching The Bonding.

 

[Takeru]

I like Jeremy more that he was a bit racist toward Troi about her Betazoid heritage - only because it gave him more depth than the final cut provided.

How is pointing out facts "a bit racist"? She is betazoid, she does know how she's feeling so her question seemed to be pointless. To him it probably made as much sense as being asked what color his clothes were "You can see them, why do i have to tell you?!".