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San Francisco, 3:38 AM
Sat Nov 28
17 posts in the last 24 hours
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10/19/09
10/19/09
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10/19/09
10/19/09
10/19/09
You can also have time travel used as a predictive tool. So its not about changing the future, merely knowing what it is.
(eg, buying the winning lottery ticket using time travel requires no paradox, as long as you dont claim till after you return).
You can even use time-travel in a story merely as a direction to travel in. Seeing the universe from a 90 degree rotated angle gives you a very weird perspective on the universe. (hmz cant quite remember the short story that had that). #paradox
10/20/09
Watching Flashforward after seeing Primer is like being forcefed baby food after dining on the world's finest cuisine. #paradox
10/19/09
10/19/09
You simply have to write with possible endings in mind. Every question you raise, you must already know *a* answer too.
You cycle the plotlines, wrap up some, introduce more. Farscape pulled this off very well (imho). They had zero-day notice of cancellation, but as they didn't have so many ongoing plots, a miniseries pretty much wrapped it all up.
Thats the problem with BSG.
They had a whole season to wrap stuff up and failed too. Length wasnt their problem, just bad writting. They had enough notice.
Of course, sometimes the opersite can happen.
Babylon 5 wrapped everything up really nicely in its 4th seasons, only to get renewed and struggled :P #paradox
10/19/09
I would see SGU kind of like Star Trek Voyager. Lost in space, have to get home, have some adventures along the way. We knew Harry Kim was attached to his parents but we didn't have to go into every hockey game his father failed to attend or how heartbroken they were when they found out he was lost in space. Janeway had a husband but a simple picture of him on her mantle was enough to get the message across that she cared for him. Each season ends with a cliffhanger, but the crux of the show is that they have to get home.
BSG had a premise of "we have to get to earth", but then got distracted with the destinies and visions and so forth. The second main storyline was the religious angle. They could have really done something with that and I felt ripped off with what we got. I think the two storylines about the voyage and religion caused conflict as to which was more important and the show to lose direction, of course this falls on the heads of the writers as you say. #paradox
10/19/09
10/19/09
God I hate twists. #paradox
10/19/09
10/19/09
10/19/09
10/19/09
Coming up with new ideas is hard, so we'll keep running the same one into the ground, and if it's successful for even one second, expect a slew of knock-offs on the other networks. And we'll make another version of the same show, but with different characters in a different city. So, expect FlashForward:NY next season to run right after CSI:Saskatoon #paradox
10/19/09
10/19/09
10/19/09
Having said that, the BBC still doesn't back off from criticising the government if it feels it has to - the Dr David Kelly affair being an obvious case in point.
(Sorry, I just like distancing the Beeb from other less impartial state-run channels). #paradox
10/19/09
Still does get to enjoy certain merits compared to our own. #paradox
10/19/09
For every well made short (Jekyll) theres dozens of absolutely rubbish ones.
Basically like sci-fi miniseries. Shorter dosnt not magically make thing better. Nor does it garenty new ideas.
Quality wise, US TV beats british for dramas hands down.
Sometimes dramas take awhile to get going, but then get pretty fantasic. Would Farscape have been better with just a miniseries? No, not really. would have become a straightforward "lost in space..gets home" style. Would Lost? No...for much the same reason.
Sometimes shows only get interesting when given time to grow. Writting a good short-story is much much harder then a strong long one.
And yes, I'm british.
Give me someone as well made (and planned) as Lost for 5 seasons any day over having 3 hours of decent tv every few years.
10/19/09
10/19/09
Paradox, the show mentioned, sounds like it fits a short form better. #paradox
09/30/09
09/29/09
On a separate note, the obligations and Faerie magic very much remind me of White Wolf's Changeling: The Lost.
[en.wikipedia.org]
09/29/09
That would be because the author is a Changeling player and has been kicking around on mushes for forever.
09/29/09
Next on the line: Wraith, Hunter, Demon.
09/28/09
09/29/09
@Now With More Bob!: Adrian Monk was my first thought as well. I just can't think there'd be enough wipes in the city for him to ever leave his apartment in this version of San Francisco.
09/29/09
Pixie dust.
GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF! WIPE!
09/28/09
The main character has human blood in her which makes her somewhat mortal in the realms of the Faerie world and despite being of royal lineage, shes somewhat a pariah.
So she disappears into the human world to work as a detective until shes being hunted down by her own kind.
That plus the amount of suitors in her life and responsibilities and plight she has to face being a Fey. It's hard not to draw any comparison between the 2 books.
09/28/09
I didn't like the Merry Gentry books (or at least the first one, I didn't even get more than half way through) so I'm not sure I would like this either.
09/28/09