In the directors commentary you actually hear...I think it's Rick McCallum say "And that's actually Christopher Lee," I suppose poking fun at it lol
I never thought much about it... removing it is an idea... looking back and your edit, DarkHelmit, I can now see what you mean by removing it... It does kinda take away a little bit though...
In a way, I kinda like that it's in simply because it shows that he's not this frail old man... that he can still do things... although it's a bit dramatic to do that much lol...
If only there were another way to have him get down the stairs... without cutting away for so long...
Good points... and I'm glad you liked my edit :-p