Writing good plots and characters leads to good scripts.
The curse(?) of small universe syndrome
- Thread starter Laura Cynthia Chambers
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If there were a simple, consistent formula for how to produce good TV, everyone would do it.
If anything, Galactica had fuller worldbuilding off the bat than Star Trek did. It was a worse show because its writers weren't as talented, although network meddling played a role too.
If anything, Galactica had fuller worldbuilding off the bat than Star Trek did. It was a worse show because its writers weren't as talented, although network meddling played a role too.
The ship, the Battlestar Galactica was great! Alright. In the last few days I realized why operationally the small center engine was red, a dull red at that, ad opposed to bright blue-white.
That is a measure of how much energy they were absorbing from the reaction energy...
The function was for the Galactica's FTL system.
In other words, there wasa reason.
That is a measure of how much energy they were absorbing from the reaction energy...
The function was for the Galactica's FTL system.
In other words, there wasa reason.
Perhaps the writer's motivation is a factor in whether the small universe situation works or doesn't? Is it just to be kewl? Is it a fanchild response? Is it all that compelling?
Sometimes it is compelling. Having McCoy's daughter appear would have been interesting if done right.
I don't want to derail this topic but I would enjoy discussing this further. I'm interested in your opinion or observations on the fuller worldbuilding aspect.
Sometimes it is compelling. Having McCoy's daughter appear would have been interesting if done right.
I don't want to derail this topic but I would enjoy discussing this further. I'm interested in your opinion or observations on the fuller worldbuilding aspect.
Well, sure -- no trope is intrinsically bad, and it's just a question of whether its used intelligently in a way that benefits the story, as opposed just being a gratuitous self-indulgence or a failure of imagination.
I didn't put much thought into it. I just meant that Galactica started out clearly defining its characters' world and backstory, the Twelve Colonies and their culture and beliefs, the war with the Cylons, etc., and it maintained that backstory fairly consistently throughout -- in contrast to Star Trek, which only gradually established things like the name of Spock's species, what organization the Enterprise answered to, and the existence of the Federation. Galactica started by establishing where the characters were coming from, while Star Trek: TOS consciously avoided revealing more about future Earth than it had to. But that's not a difference in quality, just a difference in focus, since Galactica was about refugees coping with the loss of their home (or at least started out that way) while ST was about explorers looking outward to the frontier. Also a difference in format, since BSG was conceived as an ongoing saga and started with an origin story, while TOS was conceived as an episodic series and began in medias res.
The SNW episode which has Trelane in it, and he was Q's son? That felt like something a fan film would do. It was too small for my tastes, but mileage varies a lot on these things.
I do love when modern Trek will mention a random place name on some planet from a novel or tie-in book. For me that's cool.
Modern Trek definitely plays everything smaller, but they've got significantly more canon to draw from than the older shows, TOS and TNG in particular, that were just making everything up as they went along.
I do love when modern Trek will mention a random place name on some planet from a novel or tie-in book. For me that's cool.
Modern Trek definitely plays everything smaller, but they've got significantly more canon to draw from than the older shows, TOS and TNG in particular, that were just making everything up as they went along.
Beat me to it. The "was Trelaine a Q?" question is the very definition of small-universe syndrome. Why not suck in the Doud as well? Everybody with magical powers MUST be related? Please, no.
Similarly, the "was V'ger and/or the Mudd Androids related to the Borg?" question makes me scream "Just stop it!"
It's much more interesting and expansive to the universe if these things are NOT related, and occurred on their own.
Ironically, that was the background of another series culled from ideas by Roddenberry--Andromeda. Earth joined the Systems Commonwealth, an interstellar government that had already been around for thousands of years. Earth was only noteworthy as the birthplace of the often bossy Human race, but it wasn't crucial otherwise to the Commonwealth government.
On the other hand, if Humans are seen as the catalyst of the Federation and are a major player in the Federation/Alpha Quadrant/Milky Way, any episode that does make them feel small and insignificant has a greater punch to it if that feeling is rare, not a single item on an infinite checklist of rationale for their raging inferiority complex.
That's the bigger question. Things being interconnected can make sense, especially with a smaller portion of the population in Star Trek being in Starfleet, or bring out on the frontier. Those stories inevitably might have crossover of encounters.
Again, it needs to be in there for a story purpose. One of the biggest challenges I've gotten from writer feedback and reviewers is "Does this need to be here?" I have found that a useful question.
I have to say I've always liked the notion that the Borg were connected to the machine planet.Similarly, the "was V'ger and/or the Mudd Androids related to the Borg?" question makes me scream "Just stop it!"
Then I suggest you read the TNG novel Immortal Coil by Jeffrey Lang.
Instead of everybody being a former colleague, relative, mentor, classmate, etc. in order to create drama, guest characters/problems of the week can remind our main hero character of someone they knew/something that happened to them.
In addition to the story's plot, you get:
a) more backstory for a main character ("something similar happened to me 20 years ago")
b) two new characters added to the lore for the price of one ("she's just like a girl I once knew in school")
c) the additional plot point of unfair comparisons ("he's not your dad, so don't take out your anger on him.")
d) possible solutions to a problem ("this is just like that time we _____, so what if we just ____?")
In addition to the story's plot, you get:
a) more backstory for a main character ("something similar happened to me 20 years ago")
b) two new characters added to the lore for the price of one ("she's just like a girl I once knew in school")
c) the additional plot point of unfair comparisons ("he's not your dad, so don't take out your anger on him.")
d) possible solutions to a problem ("this is just like that time we _____, so what if we just ____?")
Trelane as a Q is already over 30 years old. It was presented in a novel in the early '90s, one I've actually read. So bringing that idea into canon was going to happen eventually, just as many of the bigger concepts from the novels do.
Except they have nothing in common aside from that. "The Squire of Gothos" made it explicit that Trelane's powers came from technology, so there was nothing "godlike" about him at all. Heck, aside from moving Gothos (which could've been an illusion), he didn't do anything you couldn't do with a transporter, replicator, and holodeck -- and his illusions weren't even as good as a holodeck's. So the idea that he has any relationship to beings as powerful as the Q is preposterous. The only things they have in common are imperious attitude and cosplay.
The problem is that people tend to lump all advanced species together into the "godlike" category, arbitrarily assuming they all have equally limitless power instead of recognizing a hierarchy of different power levels. Like the tendency (unfortunately now canonized) to interpret the Metrons as Organian-like energy beings when there was absolutely nothing in the episode to suggest that (aside from some sparkle that was just sunlight reflecting off the Metron's shiny costume into the camera lens). Heck, even screenwriters are guilty of that kind of power inflation. In "Encounter at Farpoint," the Q were implied to be inhabitants of that particular newly explored region of space, which is why they hadn't been encountered before, and Q needed a forcefield-sphere "ship" to pursue the Enterprise rather than just instantly teleporting wherever. But as soon as the second Q episode, their powers were inflated to the level of being able to resurrect the dead.
Talking about more than power source. In fact I wasn't talking about that at all.
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