The curse(?) of small universe syndrome
- Thread starter Laura Cynthia Chambers
- Start date
It's all good. It took me a second to realize your mistake.Damnit, I did it again!
Dont get old, Jonny.
That's what I meant.
I still tend to mix up "Metamorphosis" and "The Changeling." The titles are so generic I have to think hard to remember what the actual plotlines of those episodes are.
Similar situation SYNDROMEs. (Mudd-stomach poke.)It's all good. It took me a second to realize your mistake.
I still tend to mix up "Metamorphosis" and "The Changeling." The titles are so generic I have to think hard to remember what the actual plotlines of those episodes are.
If memory serves, IMMUNITY SYNDROME is also one of Space 1999's episodes. And another in their collection was almost a LOST IN SPACE swipe (''All That Glisters'' in 1999's case).
That's right. Back when I was a kid in the late '70s, our local station had a weekly "Showcase" programming block showing Star Trek and Space: 1999, and one week, some wag at the station scheduled both shows' "The Immunity Syndrome" episodes back to back.
Part of the reason the universe is small is because of a desire to learn (viewers/readers) and develop (writers/authors) more details about things (tech, species/cultures, planets etc.) that didn't exist until a writer invented it.
If you write a factually correct story about the city you live in now, set in the present day, anything a reader wants to know about the city can be learned without somebody having to create it from scratch for that purpose - from books, the Internet, an expert who lives there.
If you write a story now about an alien planet you invented and tell your readers ten things about it, they can't pick up a reference book written five years ago and learn twenty additional things about it (though of course they can speculate with other fans or in their own mind).
If you write a factually correct story about the city you live in now, set in the present day, anything a reader wants to know about the city can be learned without somebody having to create it from scratch for that purpose - from books, the Internet, an expert who lives there.
If you write a story now about an alien planet you invented and tell your readers ten things about it, they can't pick up a reference book written five years ago and learn twenty additional things about it (though of course they can speculate with other fans or in their own mind).
That block certainly could have gone to town with temporarily dead male TOS regulars.
@Christopher where did they get the title from?
You mean "The Immunity Syndrome?" As far as I can tell, it's just a term from medicine, though the references I can find are parts of longer phrases like "altered immunity syndrome" or "androgen immunity syndrome." (Or AIDS, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.) It's quite possible the Space: 1999 episode cribbed the title from the Trek episode.
Between that and The Paradise Syndrome - was the term "syndrome" a big thing generally in the '60s?
You're asking that in a thread that actually has "syndrome" in the title? A thread you started, by the way?
Yes, it's used a good deal now, too. I meant how often were people using the phrase in general back then, to label every phenomenon?
From "The Paradise Syndrome"
MCCOY: What's the matter, Jim?
KIRK: What? Oh, nothing. It's just so peaceful, uncomplicated. No problems, no command decisions. Just living.
MCCOY: Typical human reaction to an idyllic natural setting. Back in the twentieth century, we referred to it as the Tahiti Syndrome. It's particularly common to over-pressured leader types, like starship captains.
KIRK: Ah, the Tahiti Syndrome. Let's go take care of that asteroid. But first I want another look at that obelisk.
My research (Google) indicates that Star Trek made up the term "Tahiti Syndrome". And here I thought it was real all this time.
Syndrome comes from a Greek word that combines the root “to run” (dramein) with the prefix “together” (sun-). When many or all of the symptoms for a disease “run together,” that's a syndrome. You can also use syndrome in a figurative way to describe a type or pattern of behavior. If you have the “I'll do it tomorrow” syndrome, you put off doing a lot of things. At least you got around to reading about syndrome today.
Phrase _____ syndrome, indicating a characteristic complex of beliefs, behaviors, etc., is by 1955, from psychology.
www.etymonline.com
Apparently it gained notoriety in the 1950s as a result of the growing popularity of psychology.
Here is a fun bonus :
Amok syndrome is an aggressive dissociative behavioral pattern derived from the Malay world, modern Malaysia, which led to the English phrase running amok.
The term amok originated from the Malay word meng-âmuk, which when roughly defined means "to make a furious and desperate charge".
en.wikipedia.org
MCCOY: What's the matter, Jim?
KIRK: What? Oh, nothing. It's just so peaceful, uncomplicated. No problems, no command decisions. Just living.
MCCOY: Typical human reaction to an idyllic natural setting. Back in the twentieth century, we referred to it as the Tahiti Syndrome. It's particularly common to over-pressured leader types, like starship captains.
KIRK: Ah, the Tahiti Syndrome. Let's go take care of that asteroid. But first I want another look at that obelisk.
My research (Google) indicates that Star Trek made up the term "Tahiti Syndrome". And here I thought it was real all this time.
Syndrome comes from a Greek word that combines the root “to run” (dramein) with the prefix “together” (sun-). When many or all of the symptoms for a disease “run together,” that's a syndrome. You can also use syndrome in a figurative way to describe a type or pattern of behavior. If you have the “I'll do it tomorrow” syndrome, you put off doing a lot of things. At least you got around to reading about syndrome today.
Phrase _____ syndrome, indicating a characteristic complex of beliefs, behaviors, etc., is by 1955, from psychology.
Syndrome - Etymology, Origin & Meaning
"a number of symptoms occurring together," 1540s, from medical Latin, from Greek syndrome… See origin and meaning of syndrome.
Apparently it gained notoriety in the 1950s as a result of the growing popularity of psychology.
Here is a fun bonus :
Amok syndrome is an aggressive dissociative behavioral pattern derived from the Malay world, modern Malaysia, which led to the English phrase running amok.
The term amok originated from the Malay word meng-âmuk, which when roughly defined means "to make a furious and desperate charge".
Amok syndrome - Wikipedia
I won’t name names because I know the author posts here but the only peeve I have about one of my favourite Trek novels is that it crams about 20 peripheral characters who shouldn’t know each (from various Trek shows) into one major plot line.
So small universe storytelling usually takes me out of the story. It ends up making everything seem too far fetched.
I was prepared to dislike SNW when it was first announced because it featured Uhura, M’Benga, and Nurse Chapel (and a Noonien-Singh). Luckily, it turned out fine.
So small universe storytelling usually takes me out of the story. It ends up making everything seem too far fetched.
I was prepared to dislike SNW when it was first announced because it featured Uhura, M’Benga, and Nurse Chapel (and a Noonien-Singh). Luckily, it turned out fine.
In TV there's also a scenario I call ''regulars only'' syndrome in which M*A*S*H and TOS ditch their 1st year ensembles and limit their major meetings to cast VIPs during their ending years. I myself enjoy the 1st year TOS shows in which almost anyone got to beam down, not just the predictable opening-credit trio in the vast majority of Year Three adventures. (Sometimes I swear KS&M seem to be glued together).*
It would've been nice to see secondary guests get invited to the TNG table as well in order to add to the nearly nonexistent drama. There WERE over 1000 other souls on board.
(*I don't care if they're great friends. Give other people a chance. These are LANDING parties, not beach parties.)
Good idea in principle, but in practice, the more actors you have delivering dialogue, the more it costs. And as a struggling show, TOS had to cut its budget in successive seasons to stay on the air, which is why the focus tightened on the regulars and the landing parties got smaller.
Plus, the regulars are under contract and have to appear every week (though that's seemingly less the case now than it used to be), so you have to contrive excuses to use them even when another character would make more sense.
Crowded ensembles like HILL STREET and ST. ELSEWHERE would sometimes take out a few actors out of various episodes, though since they were so many to begin with, they almost always seemed to be there anyhow even if not.
Such as having the head of a department read/paraphrase a report written by their subordinate. It costs nothing to drop a random name. ("Lieutenant ______ says in her report, and I quote,....")
Similar threads
