Should TOS have used B-stories?

[Shawnster]

True, but on the other hand, A "B" story could have been useful in that it could have given Scotty, Sulu, Chekov, and Uhura more to do.

Modern FX would have been useful, too. Again, it's not fair to judge TOS by today's production standards

 

[RandyS]

Modern FX would have been useful, too. Again, it's not fair to judge TOS by today's production standards

I wasn't. Since I prefer older shows to most of the stuff on TV now, I'd be the absolutely LAST person to do that.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

True, but on the other hand, A "B" story could have been useful in that it could have given Scotty, Sulu, Chekov, and Uhura more to do.

I think that's part of the reason that both "The Trouble With Tribbles" and "Mirror, Mirror" are such popular episodes. They both do a spectacular job of utilizing everyone in the cast. And they didn't even have to split up the plots to do it!

 

[Kor]

Yes, everything was intertwined and connected to the main story, rather than some pointless, meandering soap opera stuff that had nothing to do with anything like in later Trek.

Kor

 

[J.T.B.]

One of St. Elswhere's running secondary themes was "what can we do to fuck up Jack's life this week?" kill his wife in a shower accident, have his toddler shoot a burglar...

... have him raped in a prison riot...

 

[The Old Mixer]

True, though it occurs to me that those shows had an unusual kind of disjointed narrative: go on a call, go back to the station or in service, take another call.

True, now that you mention it. But another poster brought up their predecessor in format, Dragnet, which typically had a single storyline dominating the episode. Adam-12, for its part, also tended to have a single main story that their other calls broke up...one might consider the other calls themselves to be "B-stories".

Emergency! is a bit of an odd duck format-wise...it's basically a half-hour paramedic/firefighter show and a half-hour hospital show fused together into a one-hour format.

 

[Masao]

BTW: I posted a similar question about B-stories in the TNG forum. I wanted to know what fans thought when TNG is their favorite show. They certainly know more about how the show was produced (and they've probably seen, gosh, EVERY EPISODE!!!).

 

[Methuselah Flint]

You could argue A Private Little War has a B plot with Spock's condition. It is caused by the main plot, but goes off on its own and the two never merge back together.

 

[Nyotarules]

BTW: I posted a similar question about B-stories in the TNG forum. I wanted to know what fans thought when TNG is their favorite show. They certainly know more about how the show was produced (and they've probably seen, gosh, EVERY EPISODE!!!).

I like B stories but I grew up on Hill Street blues, St Elsewhere etc so B stories on TNG/DS9 etc did not bother me as at all - maybe its an age thing

 

[dave_columbus]

I wish I would have be able to read this thread before I collected the data for my 50th anniversary project. Sounds like it might have fit in well to the graphic I'm doing. Perhaps it's not too late.

 

[Ronald Held]

In general no B stories should have been the rule.

 

[Spot261]

I always rather liked the B stories in TNG. As has been pointed out, where the main plot is a life and death race then it makes dramatic sense to narrow the focus, but the B stories served to present an image of a crew and setting larger than those involved in just one set of circumstances. I often rather wished we would see more of the lower ranked characters in the B stories, but in either case it helped reinforce the idea that a ship is a big place with lots going on at any one time

 

[Anwar]

TOS only had 3 Central characters, it's inherently easier to tell a story with a smaller cast like that.

TNG had about 3 times as many characters in the cast that had to be utilized. In those situations you need B and even C plots to give the characters something to do.

 

[Mudd]

No. Neither should TNG.

 

[T'Girl]

... rather than some pointless, meandering soap opera stuff that had nothing to do with anything like in later Trek.

Unless of course you actually want character development, personal stories, slice of life on a starship, because then the "meandering soap opera stuff" is priceless.

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