Cuts???

[morganminstrel]

So I'm catching the last half of the second Doctor Who episode on Scifi Channel and I've noticed two things:

1. Lots more commercial breaks than the CBC had, I'm sure.

2. I would swear SciFi has made cuts to the episode in order to accomodate the extra commercials. I'm sure (at the very least) a scene with Rose talking to her mother over the cell phone in "End of the World" has been cut.

Can anyone who's seen either the (shhhh!) torrented BBC feed or the CBC version and is watching tonight confirm this? If so, I'm pretty darn disappointed. I understand that commercials are necessary for SciFi, but hell, the shows are only 45 minutes long and the CBC managed to show the whole thing with only 15 minutes of commericals intercut at decent intervals. Sigh Well, I still have the videotapes and will have the DVDs in the near future. And I still have a CBC feed when season two shows....

And, of course, even with the cuts, it's a great show...!

Comments

[mscongeniality.livejournal.com]

We ended up watching 'End of the World' and, yes, there were a small ton of commercial breaks. It felt to me like there were cuts, but I couldn't think of anything immediately and I was planning to check the die-hards on all the Who communities today because they'll know.

As for a conversation with her mother being cut, IIRC there's only one call she makes home and that was shown in its entirety.

[mscongeniality.livejournal.com]

http://community.livejournal.com/doctorwho/670280.html?thread=8037704#t8037704

http://community.livejournal.com/time_and_chips/1470398.html?thread=15103166#t15103166

[morganminstrel.livejournal.com]

Excellent, thanks. :-) Nice to see an impression confirmed, even if my specifics were off. (As I said, I only caught the last half of EotW, and I thought the phone scene was there, not earlier.) The worst thing about the commercials was that, coming so frequently, they totally destroyed the flow of the story. Completely. I mean, the CBC was at least careful about where they put breaks and it kind of worked. But when the breaks come every ten minutes, especially right around the episode's climax.....argh.

[mscongeniality.livejournal.com]

I just file the ridiculous amount of commercial breaks under 'general hatred of the Sci Fi channel' and leave it at that.

As for the cutting...someone pointed out in another comment thread on one of those posts, that NTSC is 24 frames per second while PAL is 25 frames per second. It doesn't sound like a lot, but over a 45 minute episode (aka hour long program) it comes to something like 2-1/2 extra minutes.

If I understand correctly, CBC is at least partially government funded and, as such, may have a bit more leeway in cutting down on advertiser revenues to make up that 2-1/2 minutes. On the other hand, Sci Fi could easily make up the time by showing fewer of its own piece of crap ads. (IMHO, anyway)