• more about #storyarcsarebad more comments →
    AliJagar: Joe Straczynski here (speak the devil's name and he shall appear).... I think there's an inherent problem in the discussion based on the several term... more »
    twophrasebark: JMS did not invent the long story arc. more »
    Moff: @Peeps (re: no particular comment of yours or anyone else's): This is what McLuhan means when he talks about people taking a moral stance on what are ... more »
    malo-ji: Serialized novels (story arcs) have been around at least 150 years. "The greatest novelists of the time, including Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Will... more »
    Pope John Peeps II: Wow. This thread is full of venom and stupidity. Stupidity mostly because people aren't reading the original article, but are just whining over what t... more »
    RRich: It's abject nonsense. JMS' fault? Laughable non-sequiter. more »
    Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.: He's forgetting that: A) the very TERM "arc" as applied to this kind of TV storytelling was invented in the 1980's (yes, the Eighties) by the show "Wi... more »
    grendel_khan: What a weird excuse to talk about Babylon 5. And just when that underwhelming serial high school play was quietly slipping from our collective conscio... more »
    ManchuCandidate: The problem isn't the story arc, but how it is being used. JMS had a plan and he (mostly) stuck to it unlike other shows. It seems to me that "Story... more »
    ticktockman: JMS ruined Spiderman, not science fiction television. Besides, do we really want to return to the kind of TV programming we got in the 80's? I know w... more »
    aspiringexpatriate: If you're going to blame any show for long story-arcs, shouldn't it be St. Elsewhere? And while B5 did have an incredibly well set up story-arc, shows... more »
    The_Thing: I think the big hole in his logic is the long lag between B5 and the current glut of arc based TV shows. LOST is probably more to blame as it was the ... more »
    starfury5: "...it became clear that JMS, a control freak who wrote 92 of the show's 110 episodes himself..." What a wanker. JMS created the show, was executive p... more »
    Jim Topoleski: Well Wright would be wrong. Dr Who ALWAYS had arching visions for its serials, from day 1, and even Star Trek TNG had some series lasting storylines (... more »
    ZanipoloLebron: Um I hate to tell you but DOCTOR WHO invented the Story Arc Craze. more »
  • #storyarcsarebad

    Did JMS Ruin Television SF?

    Babylon 5 has been credited with many things before, but ruining science fiction television wasn't one of them... until British television writer Jonathan Wright started thinking about Torchwood's new season. More »