What my followers on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ saw today:
• That first one is how I knew *Star Trek: Voyager* was going to suck so hard… How to Tell if a TV Show is Probably Not Going to End Well
• Well, this is depressing… Readers say, No need for movie critics
• Liking the innovations in retail #MrSelfridge is about. Things we may never have realized had to be innovated at all…
• Gorgeous retro-style film posters! Retropolis: The Art of Laurent Durieux
(hat-tips for today’s links: lescarr, Avedon’s Sideshow)
When the scriptwriters rip off The Most Dangerous Game, that’s usually a good sign that they’ve run out of ideas. When they do this in the first post-pilot episode, that’s a big warning flag for me at least.
Dollhouse?
That was the one that did it in the very first episode after the pilot, yeah – but lots of shows go to that particular well at some stage.
Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise are the bastard stepchildren of Star Trek. Extending that metaphor, DS9 was the unconventional stepkid that worked hard to make something of himself (and finding a niche fanbase), while VGR and ENT were the slacker screw-offs who didn’t amount to anything. But, ultimately, all three could never get out of the shadow of the Gene Roddenberry’s phenomenal two SF creations.
That’s because the creators of DS9 had a very good look at the Babylon 5 playbook before they created their show. JMS pitched Babylon 5 to Paramount before they came out with DS9 and they declined on because they didn’t see anything in a show based on a space station. And lo and behold JMS has barely left the building or they’re launching the production of DS9!
Coincidence? I think not. Especially since there is a lot of thematic resemblance between the to shows.
The episode “Trials and Tribble-ations” proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the DS9 creative team had a dedication to quality writing and brilliant visual storytelling, whether they had a a look at JMS’s “playbook” or not.
Oh, sure. They still had to get the scripts written; what was copied from JMS was only the early treatment. It’s still shabby even by Hollywood standards.
JJ abrams to direct star wars 7….was that your head I heard exploding patlandness?
Grew up on Next Generation, mixed in with original Trek. Then watched a bit of Voyager, but got too busy with life for a while to watch anything at all on TV. Years later, my husband showed me Babylon 5 and, as implied in other comments on the thread, it avoids these pitfalls. Having a planned beginning, middle and end from the get-go kept the story on track and maintained a tension across episodes and seasons that held my interest and never disappointed me.
(That being said, I never watched the “final” season, the one that got tacked on after the show accelerated the story to it’s conclusion because it was getting cancelled, then got unexpectedly renewed. I can’t imagine what it could have been about, since the story of the show was done, and I’m happy not to dilute my enjoyment by trying to find out.)