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Old 03-02-2019, 10:46 PM
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Every once in awhile SF Debris converts one of his video reviews into a shorter, slideshow format to get around YouTube's content ID claim system. Today's video was "The Visitor." One of the comments on the video is:


This episode is just one of many episodes that are one and done and don't actually matter in grand scheme of things that Star Trek likes to do. This is why I prefer Babylon 5 over any Star Trek series and why I don't hate Star Trek Discovery like some others. My personal taste is more towards one big story with beginning, middle and end rather than episodic were single episodes don't matter and everything is reset after episode so that later on no one even mentions what happened.


PNQ1: What does serialization vs. episodic have to do with the quality of a show as a single, standalone factor?



Is this guy claiming that any given serialized show is better than any given episodic show, a single factor deciding everything regardless of acting or directing? Because I have a real problem with this philosophy. He can prefer serialized shows, but that's not an objective judgement even though he's claiming that it is. This is one reason why I didn't like Stargate Universe and gave up on it relatively quickly. Supposedly it was more serialized and everything mattered, but they did it very poorly. Often they had scenes that reminded us that a given plotline existed but really didn't add to it.



PNQ2: There's a difference between "events are never called back on" and "events don't matter", right?


Let's take "The Visitor", for example. Sisko remembers what happened, he has to explain what happened to Jake. This episode will affect his decisions as a father even if he never explicitly says "oh, it's because of that time with the wormhole inversion."



Picard's experiences in "The Inner Light" definitely affected his attitudes going further, even if we only saw direct ramifications in "Lessons." Look at him in "Generations", wanting a wife and family. He doesn't have to look at the camera and say "this is because of my experiences on Kataan", but as the audience we get more meaning from the action if we remember. And that's another thing: if we as the viewer remember previous events and the actions on screen can be enhanced by the memory even if technically the prior episode wasn't referred to, it still means that the previous episode matters!


And think about Pulaski's relationship with Data. The episodes are standalone, but you do see her relationship with Data evolve. Sure, she still throws jibes at him, but it's only because she knows he can take it, like Spock and McCoy.



PNQ3: Isn't "episodic=bad" a similar inane opinion to the ones I mentioned earlier in this thread....


PNQ: Why do some people apply modern technological standards to older products that didn't have said technology available?

You know what I mean. Silent movies gave way to sound, some people thought that all silent movies were worthless and boring. Black and white gave way to color, some people thought all black and white movies were worthless and boring. SD gives way to HD, some people thought all SD movies were worthless and boring. It'll happen again when glasses-free 3D is perfected, count on it.



So, what? Now that serialization is popular that automatically means all episodic shows are worthless?
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