darth_ender said:

I have here some screencaps between the two versions I now have obtained. Obviously I was not terribly concerned about getting the exact frame. As you can see, SilverWook's is clearer, though there is a slightly noticeable vertical bar present in the near-middle of the frame most of the movie. Also there are a few seconds missing at times when resuming recording after a commercial break. I have not watched the more common version yet, but it's obviously much fuzzier and has seriously blended frames. I'm not yet aware if there are commercials or cut off seconds after breaks. My preference between the two goes for SilverWook's. If one were to preserve this, his would be the version I'd go for.

First off, thanks to Silverwook and darth_ender for making both of these recordings available. I've been curious about this cut for decades, and now two versions in one week. Thank you!! After seeing them both in action I agree about the Silverwook recording being superior.

The black area in the middle of the screen looks to be some disturbance in the broadcast signal at the time of airing. It is all but invisible if the contrast is raised a bit.

There are, as you say, missing bits here and there, but I can't tell which are edits for television or abrupt commercial break offenders. The Chekov/Terrell torture scene has obviously been censored for broadcast, and I feel a reconstruction of the ABC televised version should replicate that. (As well as the "Edited For Television" legend at the beginning.)