Here is another question for Trek fans: how badly are the episodes butchered in syndication? Am I missing anything terribly important or notable? I get all twitchy thinking about the difference between watching the full episode online and the shorter episode on TV.

I do wonder if the character was more fleshed out in earlier drafts, because I really can't imagine justifying an actor as big as Eric Bana for the role as it appears in the theatrical cut.

As someone who still associates him with the hokey sketch comedy show Full Frontal, I love that he now counts as 'an actor as big as Eric Bana'.

Huh. Just checking out on imdb, he had a part in The Castle. I should watch that again.

Oh, here's another tidbit. Prior to playing a Romulan in Star Trek, Eric Bana also played the titular character Romulus in Romulus, My Father.

Here is another question for Trek fans: how badly are the episodes butchered in syndication? Am I missing anything terribly important or notable? I get all twitchy thinking about the difference between watching the full episode online and the shorter episode on TV.

I think there's, what, two or three minutes missing in each syndicated episode?

I downloaded The Doomsday Device (or whatever it's called) from iTunes because I wanted to see the new special effects (the original special effects were horrible in that episode). It was cool, as I'd never seen the stuff they cut for syndication before (I think the extra stuff was when the Commodore escaped from security and stole the shuttlecraft.) (Whitefont in case PC hasn't seen this yet.)

Anyway, in regards to your question - I don't know. In theory they cut out the least essential bits.

Um, I saw all the TOS episodes in the early '70s in syndication. When you watch it in syndication now, do they cut out more time?

I'm babbling - I think I need more coffee....

I think there's, what, two or three minutes missing in each syndicated episode?

I think it's more like six or seven. The original episodes are 50 minutes long, and episodes today are generally about 43.

In theory they cut out the least essential bits.

Heh, true. I'm usually a completist, so I'm already neurotic about deliberately not watching the whole series. If I'm only watching some of the episodes, I should at least be watching the whole episodes! Right?

Um, I saw all the TOS episodes in the early '70s in syndication.

But then again, that's a good point. I watched "The Enemy Within" yesterday and didn't really notice where they might have cut things (although there was one scene where it looks like Kirk's going to give a whole monologue and he only gets out one line).

Although there was one scene where it looks like Kirk's going to give a whole monologue and he only gets out one line.

This may be a plus rather than a minus.

Heeee. I can see the editor being all, "Shut it down!"

was left kinda horrified at the body count and the lack of any reaction from the characters.

Just listening to the A&D book had this effect on me. Superduper graphic descriptions of the torture and condition of the bodies and than a big skiptomylou on to the next idea. Ick.

I agree that the problem with the Trek villain lay in his just being there to justify the building of character relationships. His stuff made sense, but the projection of the hologram just wasn't enough to make us really care one way or the other about him .

My friend said immediately on exiting the theatre, "I could see that again!" Perhaps some IMAX research is in order.

Regarding ST:TOS episode lengths - when we were kids, my brother and I would record Trek onto audio cassettes. Then we'd record our own bits of dialog to go along with the episode. (I've forgotten most of what we did, but at one point we had Nurse Chapel bring Spock some "Vulcan diarrhea soup", so that should give you some idea to the level of humor we employed.)

Anyway, we used 90 minute tapes, and one episode was just a little too long to fit on one 45 minute side of a tape.

I kinda wish we still had those tapes....

Bana had some killer lines in there that seemed so freaking iconic, like "I should have killed you when I had the chance!" and "Fire everything!!!

and then there were his hilarious modernly casual "Hi Christopher, I'm Nero."