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Episode 8: Gone With the Wings
Fox surprises by airing a new episode with only a modicum of changes. -- Who'd-a thunk it?
Act 1: Fiddling with the soundtrack...
Where a Fixed Idea flings Cybersix to the pavement by her cape, the more violent sound of her impact has been removed. When she rotates to see the goblins winging down on her, Fox has put in some ripply synthesizer sound: not particularly bad, but why bother? When breaking rays of sunlight send the creatures scrambling, an extended scream has been added, followed by car horns from the street below, and another "plink" scene-sweetener is given to a startled civilian's blink. As the goblins tromp their way through the crowded subway car, you can hear a frantic woman pleading, "Here, take whatever you want...[the rest becomes unintelligible]." I have no idea which episode (if any) Fox got this from, or why they thought its addition was necessary.
The bewildered passengers watch from the back door of the train as the goblins disappear into the depths of the subway tunnels. The scene should FADE TO BLACK before dissolving into the shot of the city and the reporter's interview on the street. From description, this alteration doesn't sound substantial, but that briefly silent black void makes quite a difference to the mood of the original scene.
The first bit of trimmed footage is a shot of Julian hopping from the subway platform down to the tracks. (Don't wanna give kids any ideas, y'know....) When he stumbles into the darkened goblin's nest, Julian lights a match and burns his fingers (making a cross-eyed facial expression as the flame goes out) before finding the lightswitch.
Act 2: Playing with the transitions...
A few seconds coming out of the first commercial break were cut. It starts with a violet-pink sunset, pans down to an active street scene, then continues panning down into blackness (where Fox picked it up) and into the subway station below.
For no obvious reason, Fox decided to use a circular wipe for the transition to the restaurant scene. Nothing was cut in the timing here, I guess they just wanted to punch it up with some visual pizzazz.
There is a scene here where you might think that something was edited, even though it wasn't. In her apartment, Cybersix (as Adrian) recognizes Julian's hat; the next thing you see is Data-7 and Cybersix racing over the rooftops. This sloppy bit of storytelling could have been handled better with a transitional shot of them leaving her apartment window, or else benefited by using a wipe or dissolve.
Act 3: Skipping with the beat, and skipped beatings
At the train yard, the music jumps where they cut a shot of the pursuing goblins passing high overhead, as seen from Cybersix's point of view. Some shots of Data-7 fighting the goblins were missing, with a bundle of white-flash edits littering moments of impact in Cybersix's closing fisticuffs.
Finally, when the goblins erupt into flame, we cut to an exterior shot of the train: There is a pause... then the scene goes dark as the windows blow out, more shots of goblins crumbling amid blue flames, then (where Fox jumps in) back to the exterior shot with more windows blowing out. The ending of the episode also faded out early.
Except for energy lost from these edits to the goblin's fiery demise, and the distracting screams of that subway lady, I'd say Fox did a pretty good job on this one.
Next: Halloweekend spookyness! 
A darkening climate as Cybersix gets slapped around
in hand-to-claw combat against a werewolf or three!
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