From: no@spamthank.s   
      
   catpandaddy wrote:   
   > "Ian B"  wrote in message   
   > news:4b036786$0$2536$da0feed9@news.zen.co.uk...   
   >>   
   >> 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). 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.   
   >   
   > Excellent work Ian.  When does your book come out?   
   >   
   > That question is only a half-joke... I think you should consider   
   > writing one if you haven't already so considered.  Practically every   
   > subject you speak on becomes a good read.   
      
   For some reason my 2000 word polemic, "Rhubarb: The Case For Global   
   Prohibition", keeps getting rejected by publishers. I cannot fathom why, but   
   suspect some kind of a conspiracy.   
      
      
   Ian   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)