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The Official BSG S3 Spoiler Thread
- Thread starter Recoil
- Start date
Chilli
High Treason Prevention Officer
I'm a bit worried about where the show will go when they find earth .. the possibilities for crap are limitless.
Looking at the summaries of upcoming episodes, I do get the feeling that they are indeed improvising. Oh well .. let's hope they make the most of it.
Looking at the summaries of upcoming episodes, I do get the feeling that they are indeed improvising. Oh well .. let's hope they make the most of it.
The Juche Warrior
Regular
Eh, look at Lee's promotion to commander as a brevet. He returned to his previous post when the need for his promotion dissappeared....or blew up in this case. It's like a battle field promotion that is rescinded once the hostilities are over.
GaribaldisHair
Regular
Except, they even made a lot of S1 up on the hoof as they were only originally contracted for 12 episodes. The (rightly) much maligned amnesia suffered by Teri being a case in point. And Nina being the bad guy for that matter.
vacantlook
Super Moderator
SCI FI Wire says that BG is being moved to Sundays at 10pm starting January 21.
Recoil
Regular
Interesting choice.
Many TV shows consider the Friday night slot the "death slot" but Sci Fi channel has adequately marketed it as "Sci Fi Friday" which, given their general audience, is probably not unreasonable. They have done very well with SG1, Atlantis, and BSG (I loved that lineup). They have now mixed in Dr Who as well.
Its funny that going to more of a traditional "prime time" slot is actually a questionable move. Granted, 10pm EST is the very end of Primetime on Sundays, but still...
Eh. Either way, my TiVo doesn't care.
Many TV shows consider the Friday night slot the "death slot" but Sci Fi channel has adequately marketed it as "Sci Fi Friday" which, given their general audience, is probably not unreasonable. They have done very well with SG1, Atlantis, and BSG (I loved that lineup). They have now mixed in Dr Who as well.
Its funny that going to more of a traditional "prime time" slot is actually a questionable move. Granted, 10pm EST is the very end of Primetime on Sundays, but still...
Eh. Either way, my TiVo doesn't care.
Chilli
High Treason Prevention Officer
That's actually the main reason I was really looking forward to the second season of 24.
IIRC, they only had 13 episodes confirmed when they started making the show, and only planned that far - after that, they had to start improvising.
With season 2, I was hoping that they would manage to do a better overall structure that did not fall apart at the end - a mini-B5. Alas ... I don't think seasons 2 and 3 came close to season 1 (though season 3 was, at its best times, seriousley awesome). And starting with season 4 .. no comment necessary. (though I'm still quite enjoying it - if only for the "oh my god, they did WHAT???" factor)
Recoil
Regular
See, this is the thing about Hollywood and TV shows that is completely unacceptable to me. How much more freakin effort is it to plan a rough outline of a show for an entire season vs 13 episodes? I'm sorry but they could have easily planned out the first season all the way thruogh, even though only 13 were bought up front, and if/when they got greenlit for the rest of the season, then they would have been set.
Granted 24 Season 1 didn't suffer so much in the second half as other shows where the planning clearly ran out. Other shows that started strong and had the appearance of a well planned story arc, but fell apart rather quickly
Alias (loved the show, but the Season 2 finale made it clear they were making the Rambaldi thing up as they went)
Lost (yes, I'm convinced that this show isn't as deeply planned as some people think. They have an overall concept, and thats about it)
BSG (Ive seen numerous interviews about how Ron Moore is "planning out how he wants next season to go." I think he has messages and themes he wants to deliver, but the overall story and many elements of it seem to be made up as he goes. He still doesn't have an ending yet either).
Again though, this I just dont get. If I was going to put a show like BSG together, or drop story arc points like Alias, I would have at least worked out the major pieces. How can you not? It just doesn't seem that hard to me, but no one seems to do it. Yes, JMS was the first person to have a real 5 year fully planned arc but even B5 went through some changes in process --- but it went smoothly because he had a plan. These other shows its glaringly obvious when they started improvising.
This is one thing I have never understood.
Alluveal
Regular
Alias and Lost are both by JJ Abrahms. I really enjoyed Alias. I felt Garner and Vartan (and Garber) really MADE that show. I thought I was a die hard fan until they offed Vaughn in Season 5 because JJ said "well, I uhhh.. didn't know what to DO with the character anymore." Fans were so pissed and the ratings took such a dip that he had to eat crow and resurrect the character, but the damage was done. Season 5 was the last.
I just watched MI:3 for the first time last night (directed by JJ) and all I can say is that it was like watching a long version of a mediocre Alias episode. No originality, nothing new.
I'm really not a fan of Abrahms work anymore. I think this guy is like anti-JMS: no planning, no forethought, and it shows. You can only wing it for so long.
I just watched MI:3 for the first time last night (directed by JJ) and all I can say is that it was like watching a long version of a mediocre Alias episode. No originality, nothing new.
I'm really not a fan of Abrahms work anymore. I think this guy is like anti-JMS: no planning, no forethought, and it shows. You can only wing it for so long.
GKarsEye
Regular
Maybe it's different with JMS because he was planning and tweaking the story for like 6 yrs before he actually got to do the show (yes fanboys, I'm winging the estimate- I vaguely remember reading that he came up with the B5 idea in '88, and I think it started airing in '93).
B5 fans are always clamoring for more arc stories on TV... well check out Recoil's examples (and don't forget to include X-Files!) for why that's not necessarily a good idea.
B5 fans are always clamoring for more arc stories on TV... well check out Recoil's examples (and don't forget to include X-Files!) for why that's not necessarily a good idea.
Alluveal
Regular
What B5 did RIGHT in the story arcs was that "filler eps" became less and less and the episodes were more about the overall storylines. With shows like the X-Files, you had to wade through a whole bunch of filler crap to get to the good stuff and by the time it did pay off, it felt a bit anti-climatic.
Recoil
Regular
Yea but the XFiles arc wasn't really an arc. Chris Carter, the creator, said they never expected the show to be such a hit and go so long. He admitted that the whole "background arc" with the alien conspiracy, supersoldiers, and all that was totally made up as they went along, which is why it never seemed to mesh, and why the finale was all over the place.
It may have had an arc, but it wasn't a pre-planned or even a thought-out arc, which is the point of a lot of this.
It may have had an arc, but it wasn't a pre-planned or even a thought-out arc, which is the point of a lot of this.
GaribaldisHair
Regular
What B5 really did right was that JMS knew how the story was going to end right from the off. As he is so fond of saying, if you make a show about WWII, everyone knows that the allies will ultimately prevail - it's how you get there that matters.
Neil Gaiman made an interesting comment in his foreward to JMS' Rising Stars comic series. He said (not necessarily word for word, it's been a while) "If he is anything like me, he will know how it starts, how it ends and some but not all of how it middles". Strikes me if you are going to write a coherent story you need to have the destination firmly in mind otherwise "how it middles" can potentially become a complete mess.
The X-Files "arc" left me completely cold precisely because it came across as an incoherent mess that clearly wasn't leading to a well planned conclusion.
Neil Gaiman made an interesting comment in his foreward to JMS' Rising Stars comic series. He said (not necessarily word for word, it's been a while) "If he is anything like me, he will know how it starts, how it ends and some but not all of how it middles". Strikes me if you are going to write a coherent story you need to have the destination firmly in mind otherwise "how it middles" can potentially become a complete mess.
The X-Files "arc" left me completely cold precisely because it came across as an incoherent mess that clearly wasn't leading to a well planned conclusion.
Chilli
High Treason Prevention Officer
The master wanker in this area must be Rick Berman though. I remember reading an interview with him in the very early days of Enterprise's run .. when future guy was the great big mystery.
.. and he kept going on about how ... "oh, we don't know yet who he is. But I'm sure we'll think of something!"
....!!! .. if you'll be *that* cheap, one would expect you'd at least be embarrased enough to not admit it that freely ..
IIRC, the resolution of that plot did end up being as shit as I expected the moment I read that interview (I had long given up on Enterprise by that time). Who'd have thought ...
GaribaldisHair
Regular
Absolutely, I never said different. That falls under the "some but not all of how it middles". The important point was that he knew what the final destination was to be.
