Would the awful scene in one of the Batman movie sequels when Batman can save both Robin and the love interest at the same exact time in different locations because he's "two people" count?

ok people, i'd fuck tennant before i'd fuck any of you, so just get off his back.

Ooooh don't forget about the TNG character Q and his entire Q Continuum. There's a whole bunch of godlike beings and they all hate your guts.

I'm inclined to also mention Stargate SG-1 for its uses of both "we fixed time!" sort of timelines and its use of the "Ancients" as a sort of godlike being, but who are unable to directly interfere.

@fritosforlunch: I'll get off his back when I'm through, then you can have a turn.

Seriously, one of the worst thing Star Trek did to science fiction was the "hot alien babe with forehead accoutrement." I know it's no different from original Trek's green chick, but 20 or 40 years later we don't have the excuse of it being the naive 60s.

@fritosforlunch:
Too late. I'm already a tenant in Tennant.

That Doctor Who thing was made even worse by using the "Tinkerbell" solution. "Everyone think positive thoughts and clap your hands!

Davies might be a big atheist, but that was like watching Doctor Who act out "The Secret".

Star Trek has sucked since they started having star ships with carpeting.

are you KIDDING me, I could think of at least 5 non-trek usages right off the back.... even freaking Saved by the Bell used it. B5 used it, Andromeda flogged the button to death with Sorbo's hair... I mean the list is long. For all purposes Starbuck was a reset button, though of a different sort.

And how could you include Vanishing point yet forget to include Twilight which was one of the second best usages of the reset button behind Year of Hell.

Is it a plot devise thats overused? Yeah probably. But lets face facts here, sometimes a story CANT be told using red shirts, and in that case how do you tell the story, without killing off your castmemebers, breaking their contracts, pissing off your audience, and possibly destroying your entire show?

@mitchel_stevens: Ba-dum tish!

Another button of sort: All the characters magically forget that crappy plotline we wrote!

alright then.

i'll agree that the ending of LotTL sucked.

My favorite "button" is flying around the world really fast to get it spin backwards, thus reversing time.

@SeeingI: Trek got away from that by Enterprise, but people didnt care at that point.

Even I didnt realize now re-watching Enterprise on SciFi was how many Enterprise aliens who where not meant to be ones we have seen before happened to NOT be forehead aliens but completely off the wall types. Perfect example would be the Xindi aquatics, with their whale bodys and fluid filled ships.

@SeeingI: Totally agree. Nice to look at but it could be handled better. Load the ship with earth babes instead! We are not going to mate with green women from other planets! The stigma of it all... ugh... besides they smell funny.

@Mircea Suciu: I thought Q was the only one of that continuum that wanted to mess with people. The rest of them just kind of sat around and did nothing but play checkers and rock in chairs.

But back on topic. I agree that these plot devices are used to a sickening degree in scifi television and are generally found in shitty episodes.

I really don't know why there is so much Trek Bashing. Trek isn't perfect and it has it's stupid moments but still it is not horrible. I just don't get it...

I'm pretty sure the reset button is what they're going to do with the Futurama movies. Lucky for them, they pretty much announce at the beginning of Bender's Big Score that the universe is going to collapse on itself eventually anyway.

Red Dwarf's used the Button a few times, too. I'd like to think with a little more style, though.

To be fair that entire Doctor Who plot revolved around destroying the Paradox machine and setting things back to the way they were so it wasnt like it was an out of the blue Deus Ex Machina thing. And whats with all the David Tennant bashing on this site the past few days. I think you all are grumpy because there hasn't been a new Flash Gordon.

I have to agree, after all the build up that doctor who finale, the ending wasn't so great. Not the worst ending, but very meh. Nothing like the year before.
who could upstage rose's exit? sigh

@sandmanfvr: Because, aside from Chris Claremont on the X-Men, Trek did this the most often and the most obnoxiously.

I love this article and the person who wrote it.

@sandmanfvr: I dont get that or the Who bashing either. Im really not understanding the people who are running this site. It seems like every other story involves bashing scifi of some sort, be it Trek, Who, Terminator list goes on.

So what's the worse thing soap operas did to soap operas?

Or why do many scifi fans enjoy crapping in their own pants in order to complain about the crap in their pants?

@Falconfire: But at the same time they continue to support Flash Gordon news stories. Some people just have different views.

But what about Groundhog day? All resets, and still fun.

How about when they hit the reset button between episodes and never explain it, like the way the Voyager lost a shuttle every week, but they never ran out.

@joemono: Yeah, that's a pretty big one.

@sandmanfvr: I sometimes imagine Charlie hugging reams of Star Trek fanfic to her chest with one arm as she types these posts with her free hand, muttering, "'Not for us, but we thank you for your efforts,' my ass, Viacom."

My two personal irritations at Trek are somewhat related.
1. There was always someone who wasn't affected (Data, Seven, Holographic doctor). Essentially this is the magic bullet concept. 55 minutes setting up a conflict or problem and then a simple instant solution is found at the last second. Instant plot resolution, just add water.

2. The episodic nature of most of it. Most every episode is self contained and doesn't really carry over any implications to the next episode. This is why DS9 became my favorite with the dominion war. At least there was a continuing plotline. They tried this with enterprise with the temporal cold war, but was lame.

@Falconfire: Well said. Twilight was probably my favorite Enterprise episode, and it showed that when you do these types of stories correctly, they can be a lot fun. I can't remember which episode it was, but Stargate SG-1 had a very memorable time-loop episode (the finale also used a half "reset" button, as Teal'c remembered the whole thing). Anyways, I agree that the "reset" button allows you to tell some entertaining episodes that otherwise you wouldn't be able to tell (and please, they're not going to kill off the whole cast, so get off it).

@Falconfire: We praise Doctor Who and Terminator to the skies, regularly and embarrassingly. When we post about Flash Gordon, it's usually about how it's so-bad-it's-good.

@moff: It's all true. If only they'd accepted my Data-Learns-To-Square-Dance spec script, dammit!

This is stupid to be begin with but especially idiotic on a site that continually champions a shit show like Flash Gordon.

@Charlie Jane Anders: His technical prowess is undeniable, yet his delivery lacks a certain je ne sais quoi that makes it truly art.

What about Techno-babble? That, to me is the worst part about Star Trek, where they use awful pseudo-science and logic to try and explain how the tech works.

Wait, when did B5 hit the reset button?

And itf you're talking about Lorien, that was once in five years, and the actions had consequences.

Voyager was the absolute worst for reset-buttons.

@fritosforlunch:

Someone pee in your cereal?

@Macloserboy: It's true. We've regularly posted that Flash Gordon is the greatest TV program of all time. If only J.J. Abrams was directing a Flash Gordon movie, with the TV cast, instead of Star Trek!

@Macloserboy: Dude, I dare you to find one post I've done about Flash Gordon where I haven't made fun of it extensively and cruelly. Or where I've liked it without extreme irony. Do your really think it's "championing" a show to say we like it when the heroes are tortured and killed?

@moff: Exactly! We could bring back Joe Piscopo, in a straw hat....

@Annalee Newitz:

I think the problem is that the show exists.

I admit it would've been cool if, for the next star trek series, they'd destroy the ship and crew halfway through the season and start over with another ship and crew.

@Charlie Jane Anders and Annalee Newitz: I believe his little picture explains his anger.

That said, be careful. Arguing with such positions is usually "stupid to be begin with."

star trek also had a recurring thing that I used to call "Aliens ate my brain and made me crazy" - the constant posession of people's brains by alien forces that made them act all crazy was so stupid. if it happened for real as often as it did in Trek, they'd never leave earth and build a ring of gold plated Death Stars to keep the aliens from brain screwiness.

@Charlie Jane Anders: Let's make it part of a larger series focusing on Wesley and Alexander Worf's adventures as 12-year-old friends. We'll give them a mischievous animal companion. That should please the fan base.

fritosforlunch said, "ok people, i'd fuck tennant before i'd fuck any of you, so just get off his back."

You *totally* win the thread. :-)

As for godlike beings, if handled well they can be OK. I always liked "Q" from ST-TNG, although much of that can probably be attributed to John de Lancie handling of the character.

wingbatwu said, "I admit it would've been cool if, for the next star trek series, they'd destroy the ship and crew halfway through the season and start over with another ship and crew."

Take it a bit further. I've advocated a Star Trek anthology series for a long time now. It's about the only thing that would get me interested again. Every story would take place somewhere different and with different people. You could revisit characters and situations that fans particularly liked, of course, but it would be an anthology much like Twilight Zone and Outer Limits were.

@Annalee Newitz: Okay, there's this one [io9.com] and then this one [io9.com] and then this one [io9.com] and then this one [io9.com]

And I'm not even counting the freaking recaps done as if anyone needs to be reminded this show exists.

@PVIII: Ah, yes, O'Neill and his oatmeal!

Any Marvel comic series with the word "Infinity" in the title is guaranteed to include a universe-wide reset button. All of existence has been obliterated and remade at least a half dozen times.

Does the Omega 13 from "Galaxy Quest" not count because they were basically making fun of this plot device?

Or does it not count because that is the most awesome movie on the face of the planet?

Charlie Jane Anders said, "It's all true. If only they'd accepted my Data-Learns-To-Square-Dance spec script, dammit! "

Wait. Let me guess. It turns out in the end that it wasn't a square he was dancing, but a rhombus, and so Data's quest to be human must continue.

Best and funniest reset-button was in the sci fi spoof, "The Ice Pirates". In the climactic fight as the hero ship and the villain ship are caught in the time warp.

Everybody is aging years by the minute, and people/robots die or generally fall apart. Then suddenly, poof everybody's back to their young self and standing in the bridge of the hero ship.

The villain ship was "off by 1 degree" so they're gone forever.

I think 2 factors were in play: First, it would be hard to end the movie with a bunch of old dudes dying of old age in their ship to end a comedy. Second and most importantly, I think the producers of the relatively low budget film probably ran out of money and settled for the "Zap, here we are!" ending.

@92BuickLeSabre: Oh please, let him have his say. Just because you don't agree that a blog might fail to provide what some people are looking for it doesn't mean you should come away from every argument about it's worth brown faced.

Personally I think this place has picked up a lot, so I commend it, but if he wants to voice his disappointments let him.

Oh, and yes, the Doctor Who series finale was awful. Most series use the reset button at some point or another, but I've never seen such a blatant use of one in a finale!

@Punty: Both reasons.

Why the Reset Button is Good:

Sure, ultimately these stories have no concequence, and we kind of know that going in. So it's hard to worry about the outcome.
But these stories also serve another purpose, they show us events and characters that we'd never see otherwise. In the case of Voyager (my least favorite of the Treks), it shows how the crew would sacrifice themselves for the greater good. What would happen to the ship and crew under different circumstances. It's not a reset button, it's a 'What if?' button. With this, they can tell stories and show circumstances that they could never do in regular storytelling because they can't deal with the ultimate outcome.
Sometimes (as is often the case in Voyager) the stories aren't necessarily worth telling. Other times (in the case of Marvel's Secret War) it's just for pure shock value. But occationally it leads to actual character development and story development you wouldn't see otherwise (in the case of Dr. Who).

@AaronZ: Can you really argue the story aspect for Doctor Who though? I'd struggle to say that anything other than some rarely referenced character development came out of Last of the Time Lords.

@PriorMarcus: I got no problems with comments that contain intense anger and fierce disagreement, just with comments that only contain anger and fierce disagreement.

What can I say? "This is dumb, and you suck" generally fails to amuse me.

"It's the kind of sloppy writing and lack of consequences that gives science fiction a bad name among casual viewers."

Which is odd, as every other TV show refuses to have consequences for its characters as well, except like, the few and far between 'good' tv show. Shockingly, some of those are sci-fi shows as well.

As for the story aspect of Doctor Who, well, seeing as we haven't seen any more eps of Doctor Who, we don't really know how the story aspect affects it.
We have seen Martha and Jack post 'the year that never was' and while Jack is unaffected, Martha definitely seems to have realized that she can handle herself, which she didn't seem to know before. And fighting off the end of the world all by yourself would probably do that.
Course, the Doctor will be unaffected, because he's ended and seen the end of thousands of worlds, so this was just one more adventure.

@Macloserboy: Dude, did you READ any of those posts? In one of them I say, "I wish Aura would kill Flash and become the star of this show." In another one I talk about all the things wrong with the show. In another one, Graeme makes fun of me by claiming I like the show. In yet another one, which is a POLL, our readers voted Flash Gordon the worst show. And if you bothered to READ my recaps, you'd discover that every single recap is making fun of the show. Dude, if you can't have a sense of humor about "so good it's bad" TV then you my friend are going to have a rough time of it in the world of scif.

Don't the Daleks and Cybermen get wiped out every cycle of Who, only to be brought back with the next doctor?