Back then, people just shrugged and said “Huh, I guess he moved his lab”.
No hands were wrung.
New Trek TV/ Media continuity
- Thread starter Jsplinis
- Start date
Back then, people just shrugged and said “Huh, I guess he moved his lab”.
No hands were wrung.
People in this thread are overestimating both what is (supposedly) obvious to anyone and who is (supposedly) paying attention, along with underestimating what needs to be forthrightly stated to such an audience.
More likely they didn't even remember the earlier versions of the lab, because they didn't have constant TV reruns or online streaming to refresh their memories of those details. They just remembered the broad strokes of the earlier films, so that was all the later filmmakers needed to evoke.
Or they just understood the difference between a change that happens within a story and a change that happens in the telling of a story. I doubt anyone wasted any effort trying to figure out how Elsa Frankenstein changed from Evelyn Ankers in The Ghost of Frankenstein to Ilona Massey in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man; they just understood that this is theater, that roles are performed by actors on stage sets. Cinema was new enough that audiences didn't expect literal realism; they were used to theater sets being impressionistic and roles being routinely recast. They understood that you suspend disbelief and ignore the imperfections during a story, but once the story is over you come back to reality and just accept that it was make-believe, and any discrepancies with different stories are just alternative interpretations of the storytellers.
I think the modern obsession with "canon" and continuity probably does stem from both the advent of home video and also the fact that live theater is less prevalent than it used to be.
Even still, I think it's worth remembering that the modern approach to continuity is not the only approach, let alone the only acceptable one. And who knows? This current mania for seamless continuity may prove to be just a temporary blip or fad, with future audiences opting to embrace the old, more laissez-faire approach because it seems fresh and fun and less like homework.
Even still, I think it's worth remembering that the modern approach to continuity is not the only approach, let alone the only acceptable one. And who knows? This current mania for seamless continuity may prove to be just a temporary blip or fad, with future audiences opting to embrace the old, more laissez-faire approach because it seems fresh and fun and less like homework.
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