Watching Star Trek: Insurrection on Monday night (it might not have been me, this is somewhat out of character), I was shocked by the adverts. Not by the content; that was standard Linda Barker trying to sell me her range of sofas and flogging electrical equipment, but by the fact they were there at all. You see Star Trek, and indeed its Next Generation kiddies, were always on BBC2 in the UK.
I am not sure how parochial this is, but the five terrestrial channels in the UK have a certain identity, a certain personality even. When BBC2 shows its sci-fi shows, it rams them in a dinnertime, kid friendly ghetto (hence causing a few problems for Buffy). Saturday mornings on BBC1 is the home of the lumbering three hour kids show behemoth, only recently sabotaged by SM:TV – which has in all fairness now been sabotaged back. When Morcambe And Wise, and The Goodies, transfered from the comfy but nurturing BBC1 to ITV the magic was lost. When Kenny Everett and Roland Rat went the other way, the rough and ready anarchy that ITV allowed was dulled by the requirements of Auntie Beeb. What I am saying is that context, albeit something as nebulous as what channel something is on, still affects viewing. And it was just wrong to see Star Trek with ads in. (It was just wrong to see Star Trek: Insurrection at all, not only the ST film with the most slight plot, but also the one where you identify most strongly with the bad guys).
For fans of this kind of disconcerting action, the X-Files movie is on ITV on Friday.