According to AnimeOnDVD's boards, the Japanese and French versions are cut differently from each other and it was intended this way from the beginning. The French version includes scenes that the Japanese version does not and vise-versa. The English dub version is based off the French version. It is a Japanese-French co-production, so the both French and Japanese versions would be considered original versions.

I have only heard of the Nickelodeon broadcast being edited for content, so I would assume the BBC masters would be more complete.