We’re back with the next round of deleted scenes from TNG Season 7, exclusively available on the new Blu-ray release!
On the Blu-rays, each cut sequence is featured in context with clips from the final episode, and we’ve got a full breakdown and analysis of the first scenes below.
Episode 7.07: “Dark Page”
Scenes 43 & 44: Deanna and Lwaxana flash back to Kestra’s death.
This brief snippet shows more of an overwhelmed Lwaxana and Ian Troi, bawling with grief. Not much here.
Episode 7.07: “Dark Page”
Scene 48: Lwaxana tells Deanna about her big sister, Kestra.
In a lovely extension of the final scene in Lwaxana’s quarters, the elder Troi describes how she worked to keep Kestra’s existence a secret, by asking Ian never to speak of their first daughter. Deanna also reports that she spoke to Mr. Homn, who sent a photo of Kestra to the Enterprise for Lwaxana to remember.
This conversation would have been nice to see in the final episode, and was likely removed for the sake of time. Lwaxana’s regret over her efforts to hide Kestra from the world really come through here, and her description of how loving Kestra was with the then-infant Deanna serves to add more depth to a character we barely see on-screen.
Episode 7.10: “Inheritance”
Scene 3: Juliana Tainer tells Data about his father, Noonien Soong.
Tainer gives Data an idea about how Soong worked to make his android creation as human as possible, describing a failed attempt to program Data with an occasional bought of hiccups.
It’s an amusing anecdote, imagining Data being distracted by hiccups, but the fact that the tale ends with Julianna convincing Soong to “forget it” leaves this as a fairly irrelevant bit of history.
Episode 7.10: “Inheritance”
Scene B8: Data looks to Counselor Troi for advise.
Data expresses his concern that Juliana’s interest in him seems to be “unlimited,” allowing Deanna to compare her affections to Data’s own attention spent on his deceased ‘daughter,’ Lal.
While it’s largely a duplication of material presented elsewhere in the episode, it does explain why Data tells Julianna he’s going to visit Troi — and then the episode just cuts to Data elsewhere on the ship. One wonders why the reference to visiting Troi was kept in the final cut of the episode.
Episode 7.10: “Inheritance”
Scene 15: Juliana talks about the powerful effects of guilt.
A minor extraction from their conversation in Ten Foward, Juliana begins to explain how guilty she felt for leaving Data behind on Omicron Theta — but she knows Data can’t understand the emotional impact guilt can have on someone.
It’s a tiny cut, and it really just serves to tighten up the dialogue in Ten Forward.
Episode 7.10: “Inheritance”
Scene 31: After their recital, Data’s friends congratulate the pair on their performance.
While Picard and Beverly express their praises to Juliana — where they “see where Data gets his musical talents” — Data gets an unexpectedly warm welcome-to-the-family sentiment from Pran Tainer, Juliana’s husband, who has expressed his anti-android preconceptions elsewhere in the episode.
These are some nice bits of character work, but their removal allows Data go right from the end of the performance directly to sickbay, where he tells Crusher of his suspicions about Juliana’s true identity.
Episode 7.11: “Parallels”
Scene 44: The senior staff discuss the implications of Data’s quantum reality theories.
As Data gives some examples of how things could be different in these alternate realities through which Worf has been shifting, Beverly tries to wrap her head around the thought that there are an infinite number of Dr. Crushers which could be having the exact same conversation.
Parallel universes were a relatively new concept to the general viewing audience when “Parallels” aired back in 1993, so it’s understandable why episode writer Brannon Braga wanted to include as much explanation in the script as possible — but the trim made here allows the discussion to move along quickly without “hand-holding” the audience through what’s happening on-screen.
Episode 7.14: “Sub Rosa”
Scene 1: Beverly eulogizes her beloved, deceased grandmother.
At Felisa Howard’s funeral, Beverly talks about her memories of her grandmother’s cooking, and that she was writing a cookbook when the passed away. She then proceeds to read, out loud, Felisa’s entire gingerbread recipe, which includes descriptions like “a happy oven” and “a welcoming pan.”
This may have been a good idea on paper, but watching Gates McFadden read an entire recipe, including metric measurements for each ingredient, seems to take forever and its removal makes the opening sequence pass by much more smoothly.
Episode 7.14: “Sub Rosa”
Scene 1: Beverly eulogizes her beloved, deceased grandmother.
At Felisa Howard’s funeral, Beverly talks about her memories of her grandmother’s cooking, and that she was writing a cookbook when the passed away. She then proceeds to read, out loud, Felisa’s entire gingerbread recipe, which includes descriptions like “a happy oven” and “a welcoming pan.”
This may have been a good idea on paper, but watching Gates McFadden read an entire recipe, including metric measurements for each ingredient, seems to take forever and its removal makes the opening sequence pass by much more smoothly.
Episode 7.14: “Sub Rosa”
Scene 19: Ned Quint tries to warn Beverly about the strange happenings on Caldos II.
Ned Quint, Felisa’s groundskeeper, warns Beverly about her childhood home being haunted by ghosts, and all the unexplainable things he’s seen around the colony.
This one’s a little much, and it’s hard not to roll our eyes at the actor who leans a little bit too deeply into a stereotypical spooky Scottish role, approaching Groundskeeper Willie territory. This one was cut for good reason.
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There’s plenty more to come, as we’ve still got eight more episodes worth of deleted scenes in Season 7 — stay tuned!