Anyone know if the Star Trek shows are aired in their entirety, or are scenes cut out for more commercial time like on BBC America?
Also are the original versions of TOS and TNG being aired, or are they the remastered versions?
I believe, as is the case with sister service MeTV, TOS are the remastered versions, and likely edited for additional commercials--although H&I may not cut out as much as other channels only because they have less commercial time sold to fill the block--but this is quite likely as MeTV also removes portions of almost all of its classic shows to add commercials and fit the block evenly, but MeTV likely has more commercials. On the other hand, MeTV/H&I, being sister stations, are likely using the same edit (cost savings), and it could be the awful edits for syndication CBS inc. sent out to local stations some years ago. I don't watch ST OS on either MeTV or H&I because MeTV does have edits, and I can't stand the material missing. More on how they edit SCENES to make it look as if un-edited, later.
TNG is most likley un-edited on H&I (BBC Am has larger audience numbers so they had greed for MORE commercials)--but I can't say for certain--because by this time non-major broadcast stations and networks (like the UPN) were airing network programming with a lot more commercials than the big nets of the era. I can tell you for certain that by the time Voyager was airing, that show was 40 minutes of programming and 20 minutes of commercials, etc. for the one-hour block That pretty much fits today's commercial cable and Digi-Net channels, but anything much less is gonna find some program material cut OUT, but don't think 20 minutes of commercials is enough for some channels because they may indeed cut something from the only 40 minute Voyager, as well.
The approximate length of a ST OS episode from the 60's was around 52-54 minutes. That length just won't allow anywhere near enough time for all the commercials for today's commercial cable channels or Digi-Nets. Also, TNG airs on MeTV in HD, and one can safely say that the same HD master is used for H&I, but H&I may NOT have an HD feed.
It has been my observation that my local H&I does truly broadcast in HD. The program content--while looking much better than on SD channels--is likely NOT HD as it looks worse than the same show on my local HD MeTV, such as Star Trek OS which looks GREAT on MeTV and somewhat fuzzy on H&I with noticeable digital artifacts. If you are a distance away, H&I up-scaled by the broadcaster does look quite good, but if you look closely at a close distance, it seems to fail as HD.
And
beware of the the EDIT. It is not about cutting out entire scenes anymore (althogh that still does occur frequently enough). Now they practice the art of carefully editing a scene so it looks as if it were not edited for more commercials. The most egregious example of this was CBS (by this time ST OS was moved from under the Paramount umbrella to CBS inc.) remastered Star Trek TOS edited for syndicated broadcast. While the editing preserved every scene, they--sometimes with clumsy technique--regularly edited OUT
parts of scenes giving the effect of the episode being un-edited while allowing more time for commercials that locals had as their SOP.
IMHO the only way your are gonna see Star Trek OS, and likely TNG, un-edited is if you watch it on a streaming service or buy the Blu-rays because they are just too long for today's commercials blocks on channels like commercial cable and MeTV and H&I, etc. Even the major broadcast nets today would have to make special consideration (less commercials or a long block for more than one episode) to air old shows from mid 1990's and before in their entirety to fit an even block of time.
Even the 1970's Columbos that were originally aired in a 90 minute block (a few episodes were longer and aired in a 2 hour block), that air on MeTV in a
2 HOUR block, still have material edited OUT to fit all the commercials into a even block of time.
There was a truly masterful edit aired on MeTV of a scene in a Columbo about the high IQ man who killed his victim using a record player. In the final scene when the killer is named by Columbo, the killer asks if Columbo if he ever considered another line of work, to which Columbo responds. "Oh, no sir. No . . ." and the music plays and Columbo's faces fills the screen and the episode ends. It looks and sounds like the ORIGINAL edit at original broadcast, but it is NOT! In the ORGINAL edit, after the killer asks Columbo if he ever considered another line of work, several minutes of material were cut out with the killer asking Columbo IQ test problems and Columbo cleverly answering them and the killer being impressed thinking Columbo having a high IQ, but Columbo explaining that his intelligence was all hard, extra work to keep up with far more intelligent people and the two continued their conversation, and then the "Oh, no, sir, No . . ." that ends the final scene of the episode.
The point is don't think that just because a SCENE is present means that they did not cut out portions of that scene in a very skillful way to make it seem as if no material were sacrificed for more commercials.
Only Sundance airs 1970's Columbo in its entirety, but at the cost of an UN-even block of air time, so Sundance airs an additional episode immediately after so they can end on an even block of time: kind of like how Comedy Central used to air Absolutely Fabulous with nothing cut out.
It's all pretty sad.