Secondary Plots: When (and Why)?

[I am not Spock]

I think sometimes they got the stories the wrong way around. Like in 'The Swarm', where I found the titular aliens a lot more interesting than the Doc losing his marbles storyline.

Or in 'Playing God' where I found the tiny universe B story fascinating, and it was annoying when they kept cutting back to the Trill initiate story.

 

[Michael]

... the kid who stole the shuttlecraft never dealt with his parental issues ...

That, however, was not the B-plot of Coming of Age. That episode had two plots: Wesley taking the Starfleet exams and Picard being examined by Remmick. Jake's story was more or less a by-product of that second plot thread and was actually neatly resolved. He didn't have any "parental issues" I can think of.

... no mention was ever made of a treaty with the, I don't remember who they were, that their 'king' tried to kidnap Tasha...

I guess you're talking about Code of Honor here. Well, there was no treaty to be made with the Ligonians. Picard was there to negotiate for the vaccine, which, in the end, he got. Plot resolved.

But let's see, the conflict between the Anticans and the Selae was never resolved, or ever mentioned again ...

That one is kinda valid, though. We never learned whether they were able to put aside their differences in the end. While not a terribly interesting B-plot to begin with, this one was never resolved, right.

But my point still stands, I can't think of many unresolved B-plots from the first half of The Next Generation's maiden season.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

the reason a lot of television shows have gone the A and B route, since the A plot is reserved for issue-of-the-week and the B plot allows for character development.

This is why Trek on TV is better than a Trek feature film which are really sci-fi action movies.

I personally prefer there to be character development

So do I. A Story/B Story is what made me really love most of the characters on VOY over 7 years.
Same with about 5 or 6 years of "ER" & "NYPD Blue" .

 

[Anji]

If you've ever written anything in the long form, like a script or novel, you'll discover it's very hard to integrate a secondary plot (B) into the primary (A). Usually you're so tired of developing the primary that you just don't have the energy to properly develop the secondary.

All professional writers are also under time restrictions. When the script is due, it's due no matter what condition it is in. And unless they can correct it at the shooting stage (i.e. Nick Meyer did with TWOK) you're pretty much stuck with what is on the page.

 

[toughlittleship]

Without "B" plots (and "C" and "D" plots sometimes) DS9's characters wouldn't be as well developed as they are.

 

[plynch]

Without "B" plots (and "C" and "D" plots sometimes) DS9's characters wouldn't be as well developed as they are.

Agreed. Maybe TOS coulda used more. Spock became more Spockish, but other than that, they were all pretty stagnant, weren't they. Kirk actually became less nuanced over time. Good point.