The Continuity and Serialization of Voyager

[DigificWriter]

Take the article for what it's worth

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_(radio_and_television)#Popular_serial_dramas

Whilst Fringe, Homicde: Life on the Streets and The X-Files are listed VOY isn't.

H:LotS, Fringe, and The X-Files don't belong on that list; they belong on the Procedural Dramas list because they're "Serialized Procedurals".

I would also argue that Angel, Dollhouse, Enterprise, and Ghost Whisperer belong on the Procedural Dramas list and in the "Serialized Procedural" category as well.

 

[MacLeod]

But they are also examples of Drama shows are they not?, and you admit they are serialised, i.e. they are Serialised Drama's so they belong on the list.

 

[DigificWriter]

^ They're far closer to Procedural Dramas than they are to the majority of the other shows on that list, even with their serialization.

 

[Melakon]

A look at Wikipedia's Procedural Drama article lists a lot of shows, but none of them appear to be science fiction in Voyager's mode. I'm essentially unfamiliar with any programs on cable after 1990 or appearing after 2005 on traditional broadcast. Serialized television really didn't take off until the 21st century.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procedural_drama

 

[MacLeod]

Well it might be more accurate that they (serilaised Drama's) started to become more popular from the mid 90's or so. As there are a few examples from that era and before, with the earliest listed being DW 50 years old this week.

 

[Melakon]

Happy Birthday to Doctor Who! It didn't start airing on this side of the pond until the mid or late 70s, through PBS public television I think. The first Doctor I remember seeing was Tom Baker.

 

[DigificWriter]

Wikipedia's Serialized and Procedural Drama articles both need updating. Although it is still far more common to see crime-based Procedurals than Procedural Dramas of other genres, crime shows are no longer the only types of shows that fit the Procedural format.

 

[MacLeod]

Erm VOY ended in what 2001. Both those lists contain shows that started and finished before VOY aired, and shows which started and finishedd after VOY finished airing.

So are you saying they need to be updated because VOY isn't on there?

 

[DigificWriter]

I'm saying they need to be updated because there are shows listed on one list that actually belong on the other, and series that belong on the lists that aren't on them.

 

[Melakon]

I think the biggest problem here is wanting to shoehorn Voyager under two different categories without full understanding of the traditional meaning of the use of those terms.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I'm saying they need to be updated because there are shows listed on one list that actually belong on the other, and series that belong on the lists that aren't on them.

It's wikipedia, if you want to be right, then update it yourself.

 

[MacLeod]

The question would then be why hadn't it appeared onto the list until then, despite the show finishing over a decade ago? Oversight, perhaps but as I said other shows that aired after VOY fiinsihed are on it.

 

[Anwar]

Procedurals like Law & Order had a level of continuity and serialisation. Is VOY closer in terms of serialisation and continuity to that than say the likes of B5 and DSN?

B5 and DSN had more luxuries than VOY did when it came to maintaining every last little thing.

I'd say VOY was more like L&O, yeah.

 

[Guy Gardener]

DS9 is on the list

Enterprise is on the list.

Whoever respects Star Trek in general enough to put those two on the list recognized that Voyager, TNG and the Original Series were not serialized.

 

[DigificWriter]

There's very little difference between Voyager and Enterprise. If Enterprise is considered a Serialized Drama (although it's more of a "Serialized Procedural Drama"), Voyager should be as well.

Anyway, I finished Part 2 of YoH, and the only significant differences between the events of the "Year of Hell" itself as seen/talked about in Before and After and as seen in the YoH 2-parter are that B'Elanna didn't die, Kes wasn't involved in the events of the YoH any longer, and that the Doctor's program wasn't lost. Everything else that Before and After told us about the YoH itself was shown to have happened, even if it happened differently than in Before and After.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Enterprise series 1 and 2 is exactly the same Voyager.

Maybe they tried a little harder, but not by much.

Season three was a new mission in a new part of space against a new villain who Archer was gathering the tools to be the hero he needed to be to win. It was a quest. There were still several episodic episodes, but the further along they got, they serialized the shit out of it, even if in retrospect it's pretty clear that Braga didn't know what was going to happen a couple weeks in the future as he was making season 3.

Season 4 was several three and four part stories, and then those three and four part stories started becoming linked tying most of the season together into an ongoing story.

Enterprise evolved.

A producer getting kicked off set for making the women feel uncomfortable will do that.

 

[Harvey]

Agreed. Enterprise experimented with an X-Files style serialized story in seasons 1-2 (with occasional episodes that developed the temporal cold war, but mainly episodic stories), but in seasons 3-4 it matured into a more ambitious show than Voyager ever was.

(It didn't always succeed in those ambitions, of course, but it tried.)

 

[Guy Gardener]

You would think that, but really there were only a handfull of temporal cold war episodes in season one and two that were not the pilot or a season finale/start.

And in the end it's no more plotty than bringing back the Klingons as a species for another rut rather than the story of what's happening to an individual Klingon.

 

[Anwar]

Enterprise series 1 and 2 is exactly the same Voyager.

Maybe they tried a little harder, but not by much.

And seeing how DigiFicWriter has proven that Voyager did have serialization and continuity, that means they weren't doing a bad job.

They really should have just done what Rick Berman wanted to do and just wait til DS9 was done to do VOY.

 

[Guy Gardener]

There is not serialization.

With rare exceptions, the episodes do not carry on one after the other.

Digific only "proved" that Voyager had more than zero continuity.

And all that really proved is that you shouldn't speak figuratively to anal people.