I have watched the deleted scenes! They are half an hour long, so let me tell which to skip and which to watch.

PILOT
hospital room - Skip. Terribly boring, not very interesting, and Eliza sounds like Eliza
echo at club, club cont'd, club conversation - Watch. Eliza is a little better in these scenes, even if the guest star still outacts her. This is a more interesting storyline than the one that ended up in either pilot.
adelle and travis - Watch. Part of the cut storyline.
topher and saunders - Watch. It's a little different from the scene in "Echo" and has some good stuff.

GHOST
echo and crestejo - Skip. Unless you really liked that character or something.

STAGE FRIGHT
rayne and echo - Skip. Rayne gives her a bracelet, the end, yawn, whatever.

GRAY HOUR
sierra watches victor - Watch. Victor does yoga!
boyd and cyril - Watch. Short, cute Boyd scene.

TRUE BELIEVER
loomis and paul - Skip. Not that different from what was in the episode.
echo gets sisters - Watch. Short, cute scene.
joyful cult dinner - Watch.

MAN ON THE STREET
street interview outtake - Watch.

NEEDS
actives plan escape - Watch.

HAUNTED
echo at funeral - Skip. Nothing too great here.
paul gathers evidence - Skip. I have no idea why this scene is even here.

A SPY IN THE HOUSE OF LOVE
mellie gets dressed - Watch. Oh, Mellie. Your handler sucks.
victor gets dressed - Watch. Very short, but amusing.

OMEGA
alpha imprinted echo - Watch.
actives ride away, actives handle paul, alpha escapes - Watch! This is that great deleted bit where Sierra and November are bounty hunters.

I just watched Epitaph. Seriously, it s a very different show based on whether or not you've seen it. And I don't know where you go from here.

I'm starting to get confident season two might actually be great.

Also, Polter, I liked the rooftop stuff from Omega, but what is with Paul when he gets wacked? It's a curious scene... Also, Alpha getting away didn't really work for me.

I'm watching the unaired pilot now. I like this version so much better.

the unaired pilot was a million and one times better than what we say. once again proving FOX doesn't know how to market Joss.

Or proving that Fox just needs to be more hands off and let Joss do what he does best.

I can see the problems with the unaired pilot, though. I mean, the original version involves taking out the initial Faith-beating scene and replacing the first deleted scene (the long, long, long hospital one). Bit boring. Then it gets confusing. Never a good combination.

I didn't find any of it boring or confusing.

That whole TV writing thing? Not as easy as it looks. Making my rookie attempt, I salute the people who do it well, and sadly? It'll even be a little harder to say "Dude, I could do better than that!" in future. Which is too bad; I *loved* doing that. But, you know, omelette, eggs, yada, yada, yada.

Pfah. I'm a horribly sluggish beta, but IMO when your rookie effort is done, you'll still be able to say "Dude, I could do better than that!" Only by that time you'll have tangible proof of doing it better.

Maybe not better than the shiniest gods of the doing-that pantheon, but better than a lot of the writers on what Hec and I call the low channels (you know, the places where the universally beloved Raymond and the King of Queens and their ilk hang out). Which is still not one bit shabby for a rookie.

And now I'm all curious to see Joss and Tim and Jane et al's rookie efforts. Were they all that right from the start, even as infant screenwriters, or did they have to work at it like the rest of us mortals?