Sunday, January 21, 2007

Via Kung Fu Monkey: a fella named Keith Martin has made sense of Star Wars IV in light of what we know from Star Wars I-III. And it's not what you thought...

This is a good thing to do when you jump onto a show. Usually you have the benefit of veteran writing staff to interpret for you what's been going on in prior episodes, but if you can figure out something they might not have thought of, you'll look get bonus points and you might get to introduce a new story arc.

We had to do a huge retcon on Charlie Jade when we landed in Cape Town because the prior writing team either hadn't made any story plans, and were still trying to figure out where to take the story, or they had made plans but hadn't told anyone; and our showrunner was very open to new ideas. So we had to look at 8 episodes and figure out, "If this all made sense, what sense would it make?" I think we came up with some interesting stuff.

We also nipped some story ideas that weren't leading anywhere. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin, etc.

Labels: Crafty TV Writing

9:48 AM

8 Comments:

After watching the last 4 eps of CJ last night, I still have tons of questions, too! Great for a show. . .but so annoying when you know that another season won't be coming soon.

I need a retcon on why the hell "This has never happened before"! =D

I am still trying to figure out on an academic level why the second half worked better. The first half still drew me into it well enough.

Honestly, though, even a comic book, standalone movies, or something would help fill my need for dealing with some unanswered questions. . ..

And yes, I guess you could consider me a CJ fanboy.

By  Anonymous, at 1:25 PM  

That Star Wars retcon is seriously messing me up.

It's like, 20th level paladin with sword of righteous asskick and and a potion of instant awesomeness, geeky.

By  Anonymous, at 3:23 PM  

Yeah, have to agree with dmc on this one. Occam's Razor works much better here:

A New Hope works more like a pilot. It can act as a standalone or start a series/trilogy. The Matrix acted as the same thing, to me.

Then once A New Hope and the rest of the middle Star Wars episodes became such a success, mythology built up around it, built up its own momentum and became a great franchise cash cow.

Really, how much of a bible did George Lucas have for A New Hope?

I've got the same idea for a novel I'm working on. If it becomes something of a success, I've got three more afterward. But no success, no sequels, in my eyes.

By  Anonymous, at 3:41 PM  

No, actually, what I meant was, I can totally view this guy's reinterpretation as sound.

It's just a very geeky take.

I think if you are going to mess with chronology, that's the chops you have to deal with.

By  Anonymous, at 3:45 PM  

I took DMc's comment as a compliment, too.

Of course you're right IRL, Lex, but that's what makes the retcon so brilliant. And that's the point of any retcon, right? To retroactively make up for poor narrative planning.

However, I wouldn't accuse Lucas of making up his mythology later on. I've seen some of the early drafts of The Star Wars, and he clearly had a lot in his mind that Laddie wouldn't let him cram into the first script. (A good thing, that. Too bad he didn't have to keep listening to Laddie, eh?)

By  Alex Epstein, at 4:15 PM  

OK. I'll admit it, the prequels really really disappointed me. Big reason why I have such a hard time tolerating ANY attempt at reconciling the two trilogies with each other.

By  Anonymous, at 4:38 PM  

The prequels disappointed anyone over the (emotional) age of 9.

By  Alex Epstein, at 4:45 PM  

I hate when my emotional displacements cause me to misinterpret things people say. . .sorry, dmc.

By  Anonymous, at 7:09 PM  

Post a Comment

Back to Complications Ensue main blog page.