canon in movies and shows
I watched Stargate: The Movie last night on a whim, and hey now, apparently Abydos is on the other side of the known universe! In an other galaxy. Kaliam, if I heard right. And Jack had blue eyes ten years ago - and I'm guessing Kurt still does. And the Goa'uld? Well, they weren't worms. Show, how you have changed things! I, for one, find this amusing mostly because it just makes me realised how some rather important bits of the movie-canon is just um, shifted aside for the show-canon (and I don't mean the blue eyes). It's not a bad thing, with stuff like this these things have to be done (books to movies, comic books to movies/tv shows are some prime examples.) It's natural, it even needs to happen for these things to work well. But wow, it's a completely different experience in some ways, because oh yeah, obviously the Abydos gate didn't translate for the team either. Maybe because it was in another galaxy. Or Sam had yet to come in and stabilise some diagnostics.
In fact, if you really look at it, the movie revolves around Daniel. Yes, Jack and the military are there, but really it's about Daniel and his journey. Jack's redemption is there too, but it's, well, secondary. The movie is still an scifi-action flick, but it's base is this nerdy archaeologist.
The show again differs from that. It's not the Daniel Show. A good thing, because even though I love Daniel, (And I love Jack.) I would have thrown something at the screen if it had been the Daniel Show all the time, every day, for 10 years. Which brings me to this point: the show revolves around the Team. It's not the [insert character's name here] Show. It a show about a Team. And Teams change. The characters are important, of course. They're what bring you back, what you relate with, but people grow. Things change. Teams change and as long as you keep the core stable, I think it keeps working fine. Yes, it might get bumpy, but hey, you still tuned in. Most of the time.
Now, this isn't about justifying how characters get written off, or the politics behind it, I'm just saying it happens. And if your show can survive it, well then all the better. But this is another argument for another time.
Still, I'm so very happy that the movie was expanded on. It gave us 10 years, one spin-off, and tons of characters we love.
Ooh, and do we remember in Buffy - Pike? (Yes, I watched the movie and yes, it was the reason I even tuned into the show. I was a pre-teen. Sue me.)
Back to Pike; he too was completely forgotten as was the baddie of the film (they didn't mention him in the show ever, did they?) and except for the burning down of the gym there was real no other mention of the movie canon in the show. Also how she meet her watcher in LA was completely different than how they should it in the show. (They met in the mall in the movie and on the school steps in the show, if memory serves me correctly.) Again, understandable, the movie wasn't exactly brilliant cinematography. Yet now, I can't help but think it would have been brilliant if Angel had run into Pike in L.A. because you know Pike could have/would have gone the underground vampire hunter route like Gunn did after the Buffster left for the Hellmouth, right? Come on you know you like it. Or you know gotten very drunk and then killed vampires. *G*
Another example is in Firefly and Serenity. And while it's tv to film, and that I think is easier since it's more about compressing things than expanding upon them, they have their moments too. It's small in Serenity but it's there. It's about Simon and the process about breaking River out. In the show, for the most part, we are lead to think that Some Underground Movement broke River out (and, man, now I'm all curious about *them*) and got her to Simon. In the movie we clearly see Simon himself breaking River out. This is justified with a little turn of phrase. In the show it's 'the people who broke River out' in the movie it's 'the people who helped me break River out'. It's small but it changes context, imho. Granted, it's plausible because Simon doesn't need to give them all the details about River's jail-break, but had the show gone on would have Simon been the guy breaking River out? Dunno. Maybe. Who knows.... (that isn't Joss....)
sidenote: I didn't mean for both of the secondary examples to stem from the Jossverse, it just worked out that way. *g*
In fact, if you really look at it, the movie revolves around Daniel. Yes, Jack and the military are there, but really it's about Daniel and his journey. Jack's redemption is there too, but it's, well, secondary. The movie is still an scifi-action flick, but it's base is this nerdy archaeologist.
The show again differs from that. It's not the Daniel Show. A good thing, because even though I love Daniel, (And I love Jack.) I would have thrown something at the screen if it had been the Daniel Show all the time, every day, for 10 years. Which brings me to this point: the show revolves around the Team. It's not the [insert character's name here] Show. It a show about a Team. And Teams change. The characters are important, of course. They're what bring you back, what you relate with, but people grow. Things change. Teams change and as long as you keep the core stable, I think it keeps working fine. Yes, it might get bumpy, but hey, you still tuned in. Most of the time.
Now, this isn't about justifying how characters get written off, or the politics behind it, I'm just saying it happens. And if your show can survive it, well then all the better. But this is another argument for another time.
Still, I'm so very happy that the movie was expanded on. It gave us 10 years, one spin-off, and tons of characters we love.
Ooh, and do we remember in Buffy - Pike? (Yes, I watched the movie and yes, it was the reason I even tuned into the show. I was a pre-teen. Sue me.)
Back to Pike; he too was completely forgotten as was the baddie of the film (they didn't mention him in the show ever, did they?) and except for the burning down of the gym there was real no other mention of the movie canon in the show. Also how she meet her watcher in LA was completely different than how they should it in the show. (They met in the mall in the movie and on the school steps in the show, if memory serves me correctly.) Again, understandable, the movie wasn't exactly brilliant cinematography. Yet now, I can't help but think it would have been brilliant if Angel had run into Pike in L.A. because you know Pike could have/would have gone the underground vampire hunter route like Gunn did after the Buffster left for the Hellmouth, right? Come on you know you like it. Or you know gotten very drunk and then killed vampires. *G*
Another example is in Firefly and Serenity. And while it's tv to film, and that I think is easier since it's more about compressing things than expanding upon them, they have their moments too. It's small in Serenity but it's there. It's about Simon and the process about breaking River out. In the show, for the most part, we are lead to think that Some Underground Movement broke River out (and, man, now I'm all curious about *them*) and got her to Simon. In the movie we clearly see Simon himself breaking River out. This is justified with a little turn of phrase. In the show it's 'the people who broke River out' in the movie it's 'the people who helped me break River out'. It's small but it changes context, imho. Granted, it's plausible because Simon doesn't need to give them all the details about River's jail-break, but had the show gone on would have Simon been the guy breaking River out? Dunno. Maybe. Who knows.... (that isn't Joss....)
sidenote: I didn't mean for both of the secondary examples to stem from the Jossverse, it just worked out that way. *g*