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Robbie Parry
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| Posted: 10 January 2018 at 8:04pm | IP Logged | 1
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In the 90s, CIC Video released all the two-part TNG episodes as "movies" in the UK. This wasn't uncommon. Two-parters for shows like THE A-TEAM, KNIGHT RIDER and so many others often were released as "movies".
There was nothing sophisticated, they simply released them as feature-length "films", omitted "To be continued..." and all that, and packaged them as "films".
I have to say, I feel that the likes of "Time's Arrow" and "All Good Things..." work better as "movies". I first saw them in that form as I tended to buy VHS copies of TNG rather than watch it on TV. Something like "All Good Things" worked much better for me as something to watch in one sitting (I felt it flowed better); had I watched it as two episodes over a fortnight, I am not sure if it'd have been quite the same.
Thoughts?
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Ray Brady
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| Posted: 10 January 2018 at 8:25pm | IP Logged | 2
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Keep in mind that most of the two-parters weren't intended to be "two episodes over a fortnight" either. Most of them were split across seasons. The premise was you watched Part I in the Spring, spent your Summer fretting over the cliffhanger, then got your payoff in the Fall. I have to suspect that a large amount of dramatic tension would be lost by having that payoff come immediately after the cliffhanger moment.
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Robbie Parry
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| Posted: 11 January 2018 at 4:45am | IP Logged | 3
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That's a good point, Ray.
I did still enjoy them as "movies". I will state that "The Best Of Both Worlds" worked better for me as a cliffhanger. I think I waited about three months for the resolution (the BBC showed TNG back then). I'm glad I did.
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Mike Benson
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| Posted: 11 January 2018 at 5:41am | IP Logged | 4
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And wasn't "All Good Things" originally a two hour episode?
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Jack Bohn
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| Posted: 11 January 2018 at 8:36am | IP Logged | 5
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Yes. Both "Encounter at Farpoint" and "All Good Things" were originally shown as a whole. I'm thinking one in the middle, too, but I'd have to look up a list.
(I wonder how that went down in the syndication. I imagine most stations were happy to have it, but someone must have cursed having to run over the normal show scheduled for the hour after (or the hour before), and what show did they get for the 26th week of the contract?)
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John Byrne
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| Posted: 11 January 2018 at 10:15am | IP Logged | 6
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This is reminding me of the MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. movies that were released in the Sixties. Each was composed of a couple of episodes spliced together, with new footage added. (Some of that new footage included Robert Vaughn sliding his nose down the cleavages of Playmate of the Year Donna Michelle. Sucks to be an actor, no?)
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Eric Sofer
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| Posted: 11 January 2018 at 10:40am | IP Logged | 7
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I think we agree that the key issue is the aspect of a cliffhanger. "Encounter at Farpoint", "Time's Arrow", "All Good Things..." - these are episodes that probably are best enjoyed in one sitting. As I recall, the "episode breaks" weren't really very intriguing - not much more than a commercial break.
"The Best of Both Worlds", while entirely enjoyable in one sitting, is more exciting to see the resolution after a bit of a wait.
Ray B. expressed it quite well - that tension, the cliffhanger, is what the made the wait worth it. Of course, I'm also the type who isn't all that happy about cliff hangers because - while I don't need immediate gratification - I don't like waiting for my story to be completed, and especially if it's not in the cliffhanger nature of the original serials. To me, it worked well for TBoBW, and it was a rare pleasure to wait. Otherwise... eh. I hated it at the end of "The Empire Strikes Back", and I've never much liked it any other time.
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Robbie Parry
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| Posted: 11 January 2018 at 10:49am | IP Logged | 8
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John Byrne wrote:
| This is reminding me of the MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. movies that were released in the Sixties. Each was composed of a couple of episodes spliced together, with new footage added. |
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They used to show those "movies" around Xmas on the BBC when I was young. Long before there was an IMDB or internet to check, I thought they were actual movies rather than episodes spliced together.
It seems very much a British phenomena. The 70s SPIDER-MAN series spliced together episodes and palmed them off to us Brits as "movies". As a kid, I saw a Spider-Man film at the cinema. Two-parter "The Deadly Dust" was spliced together and released in the UK as "Spider-Man Strikes Back".
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Peter Hicks
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| Posted: 11 January 2018 at 12:17pm | IP Logged | 9
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When TNG was in pre-production, it was common for US studios to splice together two (unrelated) TV episodes, redub the dialogue, and release them as "movies" to theaters in Europe. To save costs, TNG composited special effects shots using digital video, which has a slightly grainy resolution, but was fine for 1987 TV. But it was too grainy for European movie theaters, and TNG had to get a ruling from Paramount that it was OK with lower VFX costs, but knowing they were giving up European theater revenue.
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Bill Collins
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| Posted: 11 January 2018 at 1:08pm | IP Logged | 10
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If i remember correctly All Good Things was released or
was about to be released in an edited version in the
UK,i remember a Paramount rep apologising profusely at a
Star Trek Con i attended prior to release,around the
beginning of October 94,the video was released on Dec
5th,i got the limited edition which was the full
version,not sure if the standard version was edited.
As Robbie mentioned the Spider-man release in UK
cinemas,Battlestar Galactica had similar treatment.
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John Byrne
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| Posted: 11 January 2018 at 1:48pm | IP Logged | 11
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Gene Roddenberry shot the first STAR TREK pilot with "movie money" so it could be released theatrically if it didn't make it to series. (How different would my life be if THAT had happened!)
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Robbie Parry
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| Posted: 11 January 2018 at 3:06pm | IP Logged | 12
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Wow, I still learn new things about STAR TREK. All those years of reading "Star Trek Magazine" and still there are nuggets of information I was unaware of.
Thanks!
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