andre@compulink.co.uk (Andre Willey) (09/29/90)
Well, for those that are interested in what goes on over here in the UK,
here's the low-down on TNG so far (OTOH, press 'N' if you don't care...)
The BBC screened Encounter at Farpoint on Wednseday 26th Sept at 6.00pm on
BBC 2 (our minority-interest channel). I know, I know; stupid scheduling -
even the BBC employees I spoke to are complaining about the slot because
they don't get home from work in time to see it!
Although it was billed at the 90-minute feature-length version, the beeb
unfortunately only received the two 45-minute episodes, which they then had
to edit together to make 90 minutes! By the time you allow for the bits that
were missing from the two-episode version anyway, then the missing set of
credits/titles, then the scenes they had to cut out from the start of part
two because of the on-screen writer/guest star credits, we were left with an
episode which ran for 1:24:20 (as opposed to 1:31:00 for the original
full-length version). To add insult to injury, after persistently editing
all of the TOS episodes so that the opening titles were shown BEFORE the
teaser sequence, they finally get to screen the only episode of Trek to date
to be actually *designed* in this way, and they ran it in the episodic
format of teaser/titles/episode! Needless to say, I was not too
impressed!
It was also in shown in mono, even though London and some other areas
already receive digital stereo TV broadcasts (with the rest of the UK over
the next 12 months). Since I am a journalist, including acting as the Star
Trek correspondent for a number of British SF magazines, I have been looking
into this situation. Hopefully I have now managed to sort out stereo master
copies for the beeb (from CIC, the video company which releases the series
over here; no thanks at all to Paramount UK). I spoke the the Head of Sound
at the BBC today, and I'll post more details as and when I get them
confirmed.
Next week (3rd Oct, at the same time) we have The Naked Now, and hopefully
they'll leave that one unedited! Unless I manage to persuade them otherwise,
the next few weeks episodes are as follows: Naked Now; Code of Honor; Where
No One Has Gone Before; Lonely Among Us; Last Outpost; The Battle; Haven;
Hide and Q; Justice; Too Short a Season; The Big Goodbye; Datalore. If
*anyone* can work out the slightest bit of sense in that running order,
please let me know by e-mail - it's not original US screenings, stardates or
production order... Personally, I think it's the order they got the tapes
out of the box.
In short, you folks in the US just don't know how lucky you are when it
comes to Star Trek. Please keep on updating us with the latest season four
news; many thanks Jim, Vidiot & co - please don't restrict your distribution
to the US. Oh, and don't forget the spolier warnings for anything after
Farpoint :-) :-)
[Note - as I told Andre, he doesn't have to worry about *me*. Except for
select articles which are clearly only of regional interest (I've had
two so far), I always post to r.a.s.i. with a distribution of "world".
- ed.]
Andre
Andre Willey | Email: andre@cix.UUCP (preferred)
7 Oaklands Road, Sutton Coldfield, | andre@cix.compulink.co.uk
West Midlands, B74 2TB, England. | ...{mcsun}!ukc!cix!andre
Phone: (UK) 021-308-5251 | "Il est mort, Jean Luc..."
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