Previous Trope Repair Shop thread: Ambiguous Name
, started by alfredo094 on Aug 11th 2013 at 8:19:58 PM
Not sure the Breaking Bad example belongs here. I don't seem to recall many fans quitting the show because of Season 3.
proud infrequent contributor
Is it possible for someone to come up with a new name for this? I saw a link to this and had no clue who on earth (or other planets) Cris Carter was until I clicked on the link and scrolled down.
It also falls under "The X Effect" names that don't make any sense to those who don't know what X is.
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Hard to do that on a trope with over 7000 outside references.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
It's super effective.
Hold on, I've not seen Supernatural, but how is abolishing plot threads and killing off characters this trope?
Thar be flabbergasting!
Does this trope have any relation to Arc Fatigue? It seems like if a series gets any form of Arc Fatigue, it'll invariably succumb to The Chris Carter Effect too.
It's super effective.
- The Big O [...] never got to complete the overall story that was planned, but it's hard to believe that it really would have suddenly started explaining all the bizarre events and cryptic utterances that were being built up continuously over the first 26 episodes[.]
- The Big O's problem was that they had planned on wrapping everything up - and then were ordered by Cartoon Network to leave in SequelHooks for a third season that never came to fruition. Concept art from the time the episodes were made shows a number of ideas that were left out of series two for this very reason - the show may well have wrapped things up with more finality had the original plan been left intact.
- Actually, the original writer wrote a carefully-plotted 2-season story, but they ended up leaving out a lot of the setup when it became clear that there wasn't going to be any funding for a second season. Later, when Cartoon Network agreed to co-produce a second season, the missing setup was re-introduced, again prepping for "next season" (i.e., a third season). In the end, Cartoon Network decided not to fund a third season, leaving the whole thing unresolved.
- The Big O's problem was that they had planned on wrapping everything up - and then were ordered by Cartoon Network to leave in SequelHooks for a third season that never came to fruition. Concept art from the time the episodes were made shows a number of ideas that were left out of series two for this very reason - the show may well have wrapped things up with more finality had the original plan been left intact.
Can someone explain this a bit better as to what's going on?
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Heh, a two-and-a-half-year-late reply, but better than none.
The Big O was intended to be 52 episodes in length (2 seasons of 26 episodes each), spanning one long story arc, but only got enough funding from Cartoon Network for 26 episodes. Thus, the story was tweaked to be simpler and accelerated to fit in 26 episodes.
Later, The Big O got better ratings than expected, so more funding was given to fill it to the intended 52-episode scope. The subplots scrapped for the truncated version got re-introduced and became the forefront for this series's second half. It was to end at the 52nd episode with all plot points and big mysteries resolved.
When it became clear that The Big O was doing even better, Cartoon Network told the development team mid-season that they wanted to make a third season. The people behind The Big O complied and changed gears, leaving some subplots unresolved while adding in more questions.
However, there was some shakeup at the executive level at Cartoon Network before third-season funding could happen, and the new executive in charge (I think it's Stuart Snyder, but don't quote me on this), not quite as optimistic about The Big O as his predecessor, immediately cut off funding and deemed the show canceled. Thus, the show was left with a ton of plot threads hanging and the second season with a MAJOR cliffhanger. Due to the nature of the contracts involved in this show and most of its creative leads having moved on, it's very unlikely The Big O will ever get any resolution short of a full-on series reboot.
Stargate Universe Natter -> ** Stargate Universe cannot abort arcs because its first season didn't have any. The basic premise of the series is flawed right from the start because the script writers and producers have faithfully replicated each and every stupid mistake that made Star Trek Voyager suck, such as a bunch of mostly boring or unlikable characters tied up in tedious und unneccessary interpersonal conflicts, Planet Of The Week syndrome, a ship flying in a straight line literally never stopping anywhere long enough to actually explore anything or develop a story, random alien agressors as plot devices, etc. "We're stranded beyond the map trying to find a way home" is not a plot! It's just a bare-bones premise. "Save someone and shoot some aliens" isn't a plot either if it isn't tied into anything, it a string of action scenes punctuating the episode to make it appear as if something dramatic is happening. If you don't believe that, watch what Andromeda devolved into from Season 3 onwards.
- Except that everything you just said is wrong. The first season did have story arcs if you cared to look, which included breaking Destiny's master code, Telford being a double agent for The Lucian Alliance, who boarded and tried to capture Destiny in the season finale, and setting up numerous plot threads that have been continued into the second season. Throughout the entire series there have only been four or five firefights, including space battles (or lack thereof), and every one of them has been organic to the plot. It isn't remotely like Star Trek Voyager because
- a.) They're not an actual starship crew and it shows.
- b.) They're too far away from Earth to make it back in anywhere near their own lifetime and they know it, so they're not just turning around and heading straight there. Though it hardly matters because
- c.) They don't have full control over the ship anyway. On the subject of which
- d.) Destiny, unlike Voyager, was deliberately launched on its mission to learn the origin of the universe and it means to fulfill it. What's more
- e.) Thanks to the Communication Stones (read: intergalactic space radios) they've been in constant contact with Earth from the very beginning.
- Furthermore, out of 28 episodes to date, only 8 of them have spent any significant amount of time on an alien planet, and not so much as a single one of those planets was the focus of the episode. Hardly Planet Of The Week material. And those "random" aliens you were talking about? They've appeared in 4 episodes so far, with consistent behavior and goals in each of them, Word of God says we'll be seeing them again in a couple episodes, and they've brainwashed Chloe. On the subject of Chloe: she, Eli, Scott, Greer, Camille, TJ, Young, and Rush have all undergone some degree of Character Development. In closing, how dare either of you insult Atlantis and Voyager?
- Except that everything you just said is wrong. The first season did have story arcs if you cared to look, which included breaking Destiny's master code, Telford being a double agent for The Lucian Alliance, who boarded and tried to capture Destiny in the season finale, and setting up numerous plot threads that have been continued into the second season. Throughout the entire series there have only been four or five firefights, including space battles (or lack thereof), and every one of them has been organic to the plot. It isn't remotely like Star Trek Voyager because
Could someone help, please? The Stargate Universe/Atlantis entry seems to me to need a bit of a cleanup. Right now, it reads like a merged discussion rather than an entry/example.
But I honestly don't think I can do it. The only Stargate I ever watched was the original movie and the SG-1 series. I never saw either Universe or Atlantis, and while there is a truly gorgeous Stargate wikia available, I don't feel comfortable -at all- editing the entry when I haven't seen the show(s) myself. It's not just what actually happened or not, it's what's important to the entry as an example of the relevant trope. A copy-edit is one thing; an info-edit something else.
Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. -Terry Pratchett
Couldn't we just merge this with Kudzu Plot? The examples on both pages are practically mirrors of one another, for good reason. While this page refers specifically (and unnecessarily, I think) to a potential audience reaction to a Kudzu Plot, audience migrations are way harder to document than overgrown storylines, so you end up with most of the examples here being about that instead of about how the audience reacted. Besides that, any dubious writing technique can drive the audience off. Do we really need a specific trope page for readers/viewers/whatevers driven off by each specific one? There are so few entries on this that wouldn't be as (or more) appropriate on Kudzu Plot that I'm not even sure we need to merge them so much as just axe this entirely.
Edited by Venatius Hide / Show Replies
The problem with that is Kudzu Plot refers to the end of a plot that creates sequel hooks while this refers to NO meaningful plot progression. Also, both of these tropes are too ubiquitous to merge them without some serious trimming.
Some things are meant to be eaten
Why isn't there an X Files entry under Live-Action Television?
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The X-Files used to be covered in the page intro but somebody deleted that, so I tracked the paragraph down and restored it in the TV section this time.
Removed Babylon 5: Crusade. If a show sets up a bunch of mysteries and story arcs and then gets canceled before it even starts airing, that's Screwed by the Network, not The Chris Carter Effect. The fans have to give up on the show for it to be Chris Carter.
Edited by Dausuul
Linking to a past Trope Repair Shop thread that dealt with this page: Needs a rename
, started by TwoGunAngel on Jul 9th 2011 at 8:33:09 AM
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman