SciFi UK broadcasts censored??

POSTED BY: karr0ck
UPDATED: Wednesday, September 17, 2003 23:04
VIEWED: 9488
PAGE 1 of 2

1 2 NEXT PAGE

KARR0CK

Tuesday, September 16, 2003 12:18 AM

I just watched my downloads of "Heart", "Trash" and "Message" -- these are the new ones that were recorded last month from SciFi UK and posted to the Internet (I got mine thru eDonkey2K).

Odd thing I noticed is that the love scene between Mal and Nandy was cut down to a kiss. It's not like there was anything overly bad in there, just her bare back facing the camera and maybe a hint of her butt cleavage.

So my question is, did SciFi UK cut the scene to shorten running time or in the name of censorship? I haven't gone over the other episodes scene-by-scene, but I'd wager that there are other little snips here and there.

I also noticed the pitch of all the voices were a little higher than usual, which tells me that they sped up playback speed enough to be audible to my ears... again, likely in the name of shorter play time.

And even though they seem to have played all 13 episodes in the "correct" order, they did not edit out the scene at the end of "Heart" where Inara announces that she's leaving.

SERGEANTX

Tuesday, September 16, 2003 1:15 AM

I noticed the same thing about my copies of Trash and Message, but the copy of HOG that I'm in the process of downloading doesn't seem to have the high pitched voice thing going on.

It might be and artifact of converting to various web formats. Hope its not like that on the DVD.

SergeantX

"..and here's to all the dreamers, may our open hearts find rest." -- Nanci Griffith

FFYING2

Tuesday, September 16, 2003 1:59 AM

Are the high-pitched voices eunuque to those few episodes?

Ying/
Firefly Funsite
http://members.aol.com/fireflyfunsite

KARR0CK

Tuesday, September 16, 2003 2:30 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by FFYING:
Are the high-pitched voices eunique to those few episodes?

As far as I can tell, yes. I have all the rest from US broadcast and they don't exhibit the same audio problems.

KARR0CK

Tuesday, September 16, 2003 2:34 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SergeantX:
It might be and artifact of converting to various web formats. Hope its not like that on the DVD.

I don't expect any issues with the DVD -- I'm sure it was done to either shorten running length or like you said, an encoding issue.

SIMONF

Tuesday, September 16, 2003 6:23 AM

I'm not sure but I think episodes shown in the US are longer than the UK because of the TV format. In the UK, shows runs slightly quicker.

But saying that Sci-Fi UK could have cut the episodes.

SARAHETC

Tuesday, September 16, 2003 1:25 PM

I've only seen Trash in the UK format but I immediately thought that the theme song seemed quick. Just maybe 10 beats a minute or so quicker. The Message UK rip is on deck for viewing this morning and I'll listen for it.

Sarah

I'm a dying breed who still believes, haunted by American dreams. ---Neko Case

TABITHA

Tuesday, September 16, 2003 1:51 PM

These are possibly the rips that I made - I didn't notice the cuts that you mention, or the speeding up of voices, but I will double check my copies as soon as I can.

One thing that might be an issue is the 'watershed'. SciFi was airing Firefly eps at 8 and 9. Generally speaking they would re-run the previous weeks new ep at eight, and then the new ep at nine. Perhaps the version that was shown at 8 was cut a little because of the nudity?

SciFi in the UK is pretty bad for having very long ad breaks, but they aren't known for shortening programs in order to jam more ads in, and often will air a short interview or film review in between one hour shows (I assume this is something to do with the limits on advertising minutes per hour that UK channels are subject to). I wish the SciFi UK forum would come back online, it has been defunct for about a month now :(

www.ascifi.com

HJERMSTED

Tuesday, September 16, 2003 8:49 PM

I noticed the pitch issue with my BTVS PAL-DVDs when I played them on my multi-format DVD player. (This was back before any Buffy seasons had been released in the States and I was impatient)

I thought the slightly higher voices had something to do with the NTSC (masters) to PAL (Euro format) back to NTSC (my player) conversion. However I was in Denmark touring last month and caught a Buffy episode at a relative's house. Sure enough, the higher register voices were in effect. So I figure the pitch difference is either due to the initial transfer into PAL or the eps are indeed sped up a tad to shave a minute or two off of the run time.

Considering NTSC and PAL are video formats (audio technology between the regions remains identical), I don't see how the pitch increase could be caused by anything other than speeding up the eps.

mattro

JOSH294

Tuesday, September 16, 2003 9:00 PM

Quote:
And even though they seem to have played all 13 episodes in the "correct" order, they did not edit out the scene at the end of "Heart" where Inara announces that she's leaving.

In the Objects In Space teaser, Inara says to Mal "I don't know why I haven't left yet." Is she not referring to the final scene in Heart of Gold? I assumed that she was, and she was finding it impossible to break away from Serenity. So Objects In Space naturally followed Heart of Gold as the last episode for me- but some people said they didn't think that comment was a reference to the last scene of Heart of Gold. One person I talked to thought a bigger deal would have been made out of it, but I thought a big deal wasn't made because that is what you would expect from a regular show, and Firefly isn't some stupid histrionic show full of weeping and over-amplified emotions. Plus we don't know how long after Heart of Gold OiS takes place, and as OiS takes place over about one night, there wouldn't be much developement of stories like Inara's within it.

1 2 NEXT PAGE