Episode Discussion 4.03, "Conventions of Space and Time"

[htbthomas]

Comments

[donna_c_punk]

I mostly watched the background, picking up on the nods to Doctor Who cons and whatnot than paying real attention to the episode itself. I enjoyed it on the basis of presenting a DW con. And really loved they set the American remake of the series' first episode in San Francisco. Wonderful nudge at the Eighth Doctor TV movie. The tag and Abed's reaction at the end made it worth sitting through, too.

[ir3actions]

Bear in mind that I thought the first two episodes were absolutely fine when I say that "Conventions of Spacetime" was an utter disaster. Not a single joke worked, not a single character arc felt natural, and while individual scenes functioned, they didn't edit together properly. Britta sneaking out of Troy's room was completely devoid of any actual physical comedy. The Inspector Spacetime convention lacked a single specific or meaningful DOCTOR WHO reference

[midori_yee]

WELL SAID, WELL SAID. "Conventions of Space and Time" is production code 402, so it was actually filmed second. Regardless, though, the episode never found its rhythm. Like you said, it was disjointed and dismally lacked both humor AND heart

[ir3actions]

I honestly can't bring myself to be too hard on this episode or the creators. COMMUNITY is not an easy show to write. Getting the tone and pacing correct was going to be a struggle. "Paranormal Parenting"'s scene of Britta poking at Jeff until he admitted his father issues in a fit of rage was well-scripted, well-timed, well-edited, well-scored, and "Conventions" would suggest that there was a learning curve involved in getting to that point with "Conventions" being at the start.

We always knew the new team would make some mistakes early on. The season was not shot in the airing order and this episode represents one of their earliest and most awkward efforts.

[xfortytwo]

I agree with this comment entirely

[ohifonly_x]

Good God nothing could make me care about Annie and Jeff. I've done something that I've never done before and I skipped through their scenes. I liked the Troy & Abed in the end, maybe the handshake made it worth it. I don't mind Troy & Britta, they're kinda cute and harmless. Overall, it wasn't good, I never much cared for Inspector Spacetime after the few times they started mentioning it :(

[indigomartini]

Agreed on all of this!

[midori_yee]

Inspector Spacetime used to be one of the best parts of Community. Obviously, the parody was a success because the writers at the time (Harmon, McKenna, etc.) were Whovians themselves, and knew exactly how to make it hilarious, but not demeaning to fans of Doctor Who at the same time.

"Conventions of Space and Time" failed to live up to the incredible Inspector Spacetime legacy that Harmon built throughout season three.

Think about some of the other ways in which "nerd culture" has been respectfully teased at in popular culture: Galaxy Quest and Paul. Both succeed in capturing the spirit of sci-fi conventions.

"Conventions of Space and Time," however, used InspectiCon mainly as a backdrop for the contrived drama between Abed, Tobey and Troy. I am so sad for this episode, because Harmon had been throwing around the idea and did you know that he wanted to cast Richard Ayaode for the part of Tobey???? Didn't we almost have it all?I find little to no insight into the Doctor Who fandom in yesterday's episode, other than obvious

[ir3actions]

I can't help but think the problem with an INSPECTOR SPACETIME convention is that there is no INSPECTOR SPACETIME show. It's impossible for any references to the show to have any real weight because it's not referring to anything that actually exists, so the convention is simply a generic backdrop of sci-fi paraphernalia of meaningless names and context-free images. It was an interesting idea, but in telling it, INSPECTOR SPACETIME turns out to be little more than a blank slate that doesn't give the characters much to do.

[xfortytwo]

I kind of agree with this. The episode, to me, lacked the feeling of... "we're all fans and geeks here, let us tell you a story from us geeks to you geeks" that Community has always had before. Instead it veered into the recent BBT area of going "hahaha look at those silly nerds." I didn't feel like Community and I were sharing an in-joke together, I felt like Community was making a joke on its audience expense. And that's why a lot of it fell really flat for me.

(Although, the end tag was amazing. But that doesn't make up for the rest of it.)

[author_by_night]

I find little to no insight into the Doctor Who fandom in yesterday's episode, other than obvious references that the Inspector also travels through time and space, and is British. It shows a marked lack of understanding of Doctor Who if you can't parody it correctly.

That's it exactly. It feels like what I thought Doctor Who was before I watched it; a show that had been around since the sixties and had made a few comebacks since, wherein a man traveled in time via phone box. And "exterminate." Oh, and there was some Rose person and some Donna person. That's basically all I knew. I partly started watching the show because I was writing a character who did love DW, and I wanted to get it right. I'd really rather they just stick to parodying things they obviously know; the short DW/IS joke at the beginning of S3 was funny, but when it became obvious they had no idea what they were talking about even last season, it was just awkward. Why not just have had the whole thing be a general convention?

Think about some of the other ways in