From: no@spamthank.s   
      
   OM wrote:   
   > On Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:33:14 -0600, "Frosty"    
   > wrote:   
   >   
   >> No surprise, it's the future of TV. People dont seem to have the   
   >> stamina to watch 22 eps like the old days.   
   >   
   > ...That's not quite it. The problem results when a series doesn't   
   > maintain quality for at least 20 of those 22 episodes. Most TV   
   > analysts are convinced that the US networks will fully implement the   
   > UK model by 2012; most hour-long series have six episodes to prove   
   > themselves, and then get a series extension determined by ratings   
   > and/or costs. Most half-hour shows will get 13 eps guaranteed, and   
   > extensions will simply be carried over into a new season. In the end,   
   > we'll wind up seeing the "New Season" events put out to pasture like   
   > the oatburners and variety shows, and series premiers will simpy be   
   > staggered out over the course of a year.   
   >   
      
   I think part of the problem to be addressed is that what viewers want-   
   especially in the sci-fi/fantasy/et al genres- has changed over the decades   
   and is no longer well suited to seasons of episodes, as such. If you take   
   the original Star Trek, or indeed BSG, or any other comparable series,   
   episodes were self contatined with only marginal continuity; discover   
   problem, have adventure, fix problem, back to the ranch (something that to   
   modern eyes looks incongruous sometimes even in classic stories; e.g. Kirk   
   and crew having a wrap-up joke at the end after a story featuring mass   
   death. The Ultimate Computer's a classic of that).   
      
   The birth of fandom, arguably inaugurated by JRR Tolkien, the world's first   
   and most successful fanfic author, manifested a new desire in viewers and   
   readers. Rather than being interested in engaging self contained stories as   
   entertainment, we now wanted "world building". Tolkien is the perfect   
   example; The Lord Of The Rings isn't a normal novel as such; it doesn't   
   exist to tell a story, it exists to tell you about Tolkien's created world.   
   In fact one suspects he never thought about readers at all, he just had that   
   fanboy desperation to make his imaginary world as real as possible, and   
   stories achieved that for him.   
      
   It's a very different mindset. In normal storytelling, locations and events   
   are just there for the narrative. You write "conference in conference room"   
   in the script and that;'s it, no more thought is given to the conference   
   room as an entity. In world-building, everyone wants to know where in the   
   ship the conference room is, on what deck, how close it is to the toilets,   
   is it the same conference room in which the Salt Vampire masqueraded as   
   Doctor McCoy? The settings, the characters and so on are more important than   
   narrative, because what everyone is interested in is them being as "real" as   
   they possibly can be. When was Kirk at the Academy? We have a right to know!   
      
   So this naturally leads to "arcs" rather than stories, to exploration of the   
   world rather than the world merely as backdrop. And that doesn't fit well   
   with seasons of episodes, because a run of the mill adventure episode feels   
   trivial. We haven't learned any more about the world. It's just "filler".   
   The series has a higher purpose for us. We want to see the world, and the   
   stoires are just a vehicle for that.   
      
   As such it'd make more sense for these types of world-building narratives to   
   be mini-series- release an arc every now and again- rather than 26 stories   
   to come up with every year. You do the latter, guaranteed the fans will be   
   disappointed with all the "filler" that doesn't explicitly advance the   
   realness of the world they study with all the scholarly intensity of   
   professional historians.   
      
   Which by the bye is why BSG ultimately failed. Ron and his chums failed to   
   grasp the audience's primary interest was in backstory- which by the end the   
   writers effectively abandoned as they'd written themselves into corners they   
   had not the wit to write themselves out of. Sci-fi fans want worlds-   
   coherent, consistent worlds as real as they possibly can be.   
      
   Blame Tolkien. He started it.   
      
      
   Ian   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)