Episode 6.01: “Time’s Arrow, Part II“

Scenes 10 – 11: Back in 19th century San Francisco, Beverly tries to cope with ancient medicine and ancient attitudes. Her shipmates are increasingly concerned about the mysterious invaders.

Set in and around the Sisters of Hope hospital, this extension of Beverly’s undercover work as a nurse leads her to clash with the on-duty doctor — who is not pleased with suggestions of medical treatments coming from a mere nurse. Across the room, Geordi and Deanna interview a sick patient who reports on a ‘very bad doctor’ who seemed to have motivations other than helping patients. Meanwhile, Picard and Riker act as if they don’t know each other to avoid drawing suspicion to themselves… as the two aliens with the snake-head cane enter the hospital behind them.

None of these cuts really make a difference to the plot, and were easy targets for removal when trimming down the running time of this episode. Good choices for elimination.

. . .

Episode 6.04: “Relics“

Scene 20: Scotty feels sorry for himself because he doesn’t fit into the world of the 24th century. Troi tries to help, but only manages to make things worse.

After Scotty blows up at Geordi in Engineering, he receives a surprise visit from Counselor Troi, who mysteriously wants to know how he’s feeling. He admits that the experience of arriving in the 2360s has been “bewildering,” but declines Troi’s offer to assist with looking up the fates of his friends and family in the Federation historical database.

At this point, he stops the conversation and asks exactly what a “counselor” is. Troi reveals that the position began on Starfleet vessels “about forty years ago” — and Scotty suddenly realizes she’s a psychologist. “I may be old, but I’m not crazy!” he shouts, and storms out of his quarters, heading to Ten Forward for a drink.

Lost footage of James Doohan makes this the crown jewel of deleted scenes, and we’re so happy that it was able to be restored for this Blu-ray release. Ron Moore, the writer of this episode, had this to say when interviewed for the UK Star Trek Magazine in 1997:

“I hated to lose all that, but the show was eight minutes long and something had to go. It would have been nice to explain why she comes up and kissed him at the end!”

. . .

Episode 6.06: “True Q“

Scene 10: Amanda is frightened that others will discover her new-found powers, but she clings to her dream of a normal life and a career in Starfleet. Also, she loves puppies.

Deanna arrives at Amanda’s quarters with a surprise in tow: a cute-as-a-button white Pekinese puppy named Henry, who needs a dog-sitter while his owner is on an extended away mission. Amanda readily volunteers, and then the two women discuss her future career path in the sciences, or engineering, or medicine — she can’t decide.

This cute scene is a nice moment, but really doesn’t serve any purpose in the episode and made an easy cut from the story.

. . .

Episode 6.12: “Ship in a Bottle“

Scene 3: Barclay is surprised to learn that holodeck character Moriarty experiences discomfort whenever he flashes on or off.

In this extension of the final scene, Barclay has to try multiple times to turn Moriarty “off” before he leaves the holodeck, a process Moriarty finds “most unpleasant.”

It’s not much of a trim, just fifteen seconds or so, and was a simple cut to save remove some of the extra running time from the final episode.

. . .

Episode 6.12: “Ship in a Bottle“

Scene 8: Moriarty wants desperately to gain physical existence, but the Enterprise crew does not yet know the lengths to which he’ll go to leave the holodeck.

As Moriarty pleads his case that his will is stronger than the holodeck’s limitations, Barclay concedes the point that the Enterprise has encountered other beings capable of altering matter with mental powers. Data shoots Barclay down, emphasizing that Moriarty’s consciousness is computer-generated, and can’t possibly affect reality outside of the holodeck.

Again, it’s a section of dialogue easily removed without affecting the narrative, but it’s nice to see that at least one person on board doesn’t believe that Moriarty’s plan is totally impossible.

. . .

Episode 6.14: “Face of the Enemy“

Scene 10: DeSeve, the former Romulan defector, now realizes the Federation is no longer home to him; in his quarters, he realizes that he’s more alone than he’s ever been.

Before Picard visits his quarters, DeSeve attempts to order coffee from the replicator — only to find that he asks the computer in Romulan rather than in Federation Standard. He pauses, thinks hard, and finally remembers the English word for the beverage.

This brief trim is a nice little character beat that serves to emphasize just how long DeSeve was away from humanity during his twenty years on Romulus.

. . .

Episode 6.15: “Tapestry“

Scene 7:  Picard finds it hard to believe that he’s really dead; Q does what he can to convince him otherwise.

“Check your heart rate!” says Q, working to make Picard believe his situation. It’s not a huge piece of the story, but it’s a nice conversation that provides some insight into why Picard believes Q so quickly. This would have been nice to keep in the final cut.

. . .

Episode 6.15: “Tapestry”

Scene 26: Picard and Marta, the morning after — everything’s different between them now, and not in a good way.

Marta tells a wonderful story in this scene, recounting their first day at Starfleet Academy and her first encounter with Jean-Luc Picard, wanting to be friends with him right away… and despite Picard’s protests, she now believes that their night together ruined that friendship.

Marta’s description of a young Picard with “that cocky look on your face” is a lovely piece of character backstory, but it really just drags out an already long scene.

. . .

Episode 6.15: “Tapestry”

Scene 34: Lieutenant j.g. Picard visits Engineering, and his conversation with Geordi brings the shocking dreariness of his new life into even sharper focus.

It’s one more Picard-is-a-nobody scene, this time with La Forge. Geordi is having trouble isolating some technical problem in the warp engines, and though Picard offers a few proper-sounding suggestions to identify the issue, La Forge gives him the brush-off and walks away from the blue-shirted Jean-Luc.

It certainly feels like this sequence was cut for time, as it has a bit of a duplicated point from the Riker/Troi evaluation in Ten Forward that immediately precedes it; it’s definitely a nice inclusion in this Blu-ray collection.