Earlier this month, TrekCore was excited to share an exclusive look at a workprint copy of “The Wounded”, featuring several minutes of scenes cut from the finished episode – and today we’re continuing our exclusive workprint series with a look back at “The Child“, the Season Two premiere of Star Trek: The Next Generation!
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| The original VHS tapes, generously shared with TrekCore by Cyril “Patchou” Paciullo | |
This tape of “The Child” is dated October 6, 1988, and like the other VHS recordings in this series, it contains an early, unfinished copy of the episode, with missing visual effects, music, and voice-over audio.
Workprint vs. Finished Episode |
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In addition to several scenes featuring alternate takes and camera angles, this “1st Cut” also includes nearly four minutes of additional scenes cut from the broadcast version of the episode!
We’ve been provided a copy of the original VHS transfer, and we’re happy to share an exclusive cut-down package highlighting the six most prominent deleted scenes – in proper context with the finished episode – along with a scene-by-scene breakdown!
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ACT TWO, SCENES 31 – 32 Our take: “Soon you’ll arrive, and so many questions will be answered.” A terrible line and a fairly poor delivery by Marina Sirtis makes this small scene jump right onto the cutting room floor. |
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ACT TWO, SCENE 34 Our take: The opening segment of this scene was used underneath a Captain’s Log voiceover in the final version of the episode, and for good reason – whether it can be blamed on the scripted lines or the performance of actor Seymour Cassel as medical specialist Hester Dealt, this conversation is really unbearable to watch. |
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ACT TWO, SCENES 42 – 44 Our take: The first segment cut from Troi’s birth scene features Pulaski revealing Ian Andrew Troi’s birth weight and gender. These are standard childbirth scene tropes, but just how did she measure the weight of the baby with her bare hands anyhow? Picard’s congratulations in the second restoration pulls the viewer right out of the emotional moment… and it’s certainly strange that he doesn’t even ask if there’s anything weird going on with the mysterious alien space baby! The final cut – Riker’s dismissal of Worf – is just a bit of unneeded, duplicated dialogue, since Pulaski already told him that “it’s just a baby”. |
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ACT THREE, SCENE 53 Our take: It’s a true novelty to hear Data refer to himself by his full name of record, but this scene does nothing but hold up the story while we wait around for him to assert his command authority. Jumping right to the computer’s approval is a much cleaner edit, and it also eliminates the terrible camera angle looking right up Colm Meaney’s nose. “NFN NMI Data” refers to his lack of first name and middle initial, seen listed on both his Starfleet Academy diploma and his classified schematics in “The Measure of a Man”; this is the only time we’ve heard it said aloud. |
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ACT THREE, SCENE 59 Our take: This short sequence of Ian dumping his lemonade is something we wish could have stayed in the episode – this “experience” shows the entity acting like a curious child, something missing from much of the episode. |
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ACT FOUR, SCENE 76 Our take: Removing this short scene of Wesley arriving at the bridge allows the ensign’s story to lead right from his conversation with Guinan into his discussion with Picard requesting to stay on board the ship – a good adjustment. |
One small update to our earlier report: A VHS tape which was labeled “Where Silence Has Lease” turns out to have been mislabeled during the show’s production; it contains a second, near-finished copy of “The Child”, missing the deleted scenes we’ve highlighted above.
Stay tuned to TrekCore as there are still several more Next Generation workprint recordings to come, and we’re excited to begin our research to discover what hidden gems the tapes may include! What do you think about the additional material discovered from “The Child”? Let us know in the comments below!
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