Short Horizons...

[ide_cyan]

There's an article about the success of the new Dr Who series at Strange Horizons this week:

Regeneration: The Return of Doctor Who, by Alasdair Stuart.

And it is staggeringly ignorant. I mean, come on:

However, this change in format also went hand in hand with the adoption of one of the most influential narrative techniques of the last decade:

Comments

[brit0martis]

Not to mention that 12 part epic back in the sixties, The Dalek's Master Plan.

[satanicharisma]

All true, but I don't think these are really good examples of story arcs. In fact, for better example of story arcs in Doctor Who, how about the BBC books range from before the new series began?

It's true that Babylon Five really was the first science fiction show to my knowledge to pull this off completely. Others, including Blakes Seven, may have had linking continuity elements, but you could really pick up the gist of the show from tuning into nearly any episode. I tried that with B5 and was completely lost.

[brit0martis]

That really depends on how you want to define "Story Arc". Loosely, it means that all stories in the season or most of the season are related in some grand plot. I would say most soaps on TV do that and have since the early days of television. The Key to Time was a great example that spanned a whole season. But other stories such as The Keys of Marinus(7 eps?) and The Daleks Master Plan (12 eps)and even The Wargames (10eps) although long, didn't. However, I can't say they were not Story Arcs in that most the episodes were stories in themselves and each could stand alone for the most part.

[satanicharisma]

Do you really think they could? I mean, does searching for a key in some weird city ruled by artificially maintained brains make any sense out of the context of "THe Keys of Marinus"? I think that's the clincher when it coems to story arcs. I suppose it's a definition that falls somewhat to interpretation, but to me a story arc implies some pretty significant linkages, to the point where following the story without sufficient background in previous events is difficult to almost impossible. TO my mind, televised Doctor Who, new or old, has never *really * done that, although they've come close with some of the examples already mentioned (maybe closest with the Black Guardian trilogy?). When I think "story arc", I think of something that's set up at the beginning of a series of episodes or books ... something which slowly moves towards its clonclusion until it's ultimately resolved in a final installment, with any number of myriad single-story subplots being covered along the way. I suppose this kind of covers the Key to Time, although

[eryx_uk]

Those are stories, not full blown arcs that run through the whole show.

Babylon 5 was the first to do this right from the get go and last all five years that the shows was plotted to run for.

[endless_psych]

I reckon that the description given their of a story arc fits really well into blakes seven. Perhaps a better definition of a story arc would be that it is predefined other than it just happens...?

[marlowe1]

Key to Time lasted only one season and it wasn't so much an ongoing storyline as an ongoing series of individual stories that contained the same goal. Pretty much the same thing with Trial of a Time Lord.

I didn't see Blake's 7 but didn't that one get walloped in the ratings and kill off its characters?

B5 was much more original and ambitious as not only was there a continuing storyline, but the series changed over time. Characters that began as fools became tragic heroes. Villains became holy men and the focal point of the series shifted from an interstellar UN to a war to an endorsement of Imperialism.

Buffy and Angel also contained story arcs but on a season by season basis. And in my mind, a character has to grow and change for it to be a proper story arc.

[snowgrouse]

I didn't see Blake's 7 but didn't that one get walloped in the ratings and kill off its characters?

B7 had consistently good ratings, often hovering in nine to ten million viewers, especially in season 3 when the stories got weaker. S2 had the main story arc and they tried for something of the sort in S4, but with fairly weak scripts it didn't really work out. If one looks at the end-of-season cliffhangers they're all pretty bleak and can be interpreted as "and then they all died":D. *has massive B7love*

[edders]

I agree, and that's why B5 is the only show that can compete with Doctor Who in my heart ;) Unfortunately most people don't have the patience for such an overbearing concept as a multi-season arc, it's quite an investment.

[endless_psych]

Much as I do love B5 it did resort to unoriginal sci fi staples - war, anti gravity and distopian visions of Earths future. And the reasoning behind the shadow wars - was baws. A difference of philosophical opinion... really...

Also anything else set in the B5 universe since the main arc has been universaly terrible...

[londonkds]

According to interviews I've seen, by the end of Blake's 7 Boucher and co. didn't know what they'd be doing in five episodes' time, let alone five seasons.