Sime~Gen(tm) Inc.

Where Sime and Gen Meet, Creativity Happens

WorldCrafters Guild

Workshop:  B5 vs VOYAGER - RELATIONSHIP DRIVEN PLOT

 

 

B5 vs VOYAGER - RELATIONSHIP DRIVEN PLOT

by

Jacqueline Lichtenberg

(1999 comment -- I believe this opening quote below is from rickshay who does not understand or like Voyager for a variety of very good reasons JL)

Richshay:   I'll give you the conclusions that we have made.(at least the way I see them)  JL feels that the character relationships of Voyager and DS9 when done well  make up for any plot and background errors made in an episode. I can't see the   relationships because I'm upset with the errors.(I am doing a better job since   I started the discussion though)

JL here: This is an accurate summary - except for the "pat" statement "JL feels that the .... make up for". That's not EXACTLY what I meant though it might be what I said. Let's try it this way.

Plots are like cars - you can order them from the factory customized. RELATIONSHIPS are one engine option that you can have as the source of movement for your vehicle. EVENTS are another engine-option. There are other available options.

The presence of ONE of these options does not "make up for" the absence of the other.

Some vehicles are sophisticated enough to have two engines - (dual cam?) - and those are more "powerful".

B5 has the potential to be that sort of very powerful vehicle. However, there are some linkages - connections - between the RELATIONSHIPS and the PLOT that are missing.

For an example of a TV product that has BOTH the RELATIONSHIP ENGINE installed and the EVENT engine installed, hitched up to the wheels and running at full revs - see if you can locate and view a tape of the old MINISERIES - NOBEL HOUSE. Not the book - which was a disaster as an example of the writing craft - but the MINISERIES which was a triumph of the writing craft. Substitute Minbari for Chinese and make the 3 Tycoons who fought it out in Hong Kong into Human and Alien and Alien, it would blow B5 out of the water.

And I would STILL have philosophical problems with WHAT it says! But it would say it in such a way that I could answer the statement.

Richshay:  JL thinks that B5 is very well done but the change from The last best hope for  Peace to The last best hope for Victory was a philosophical slant she can't   abide. I had no problem whatsoever with it.

This is an accurate reprise of a very, very long exchange that was the most fun I've ever had with a computer! And I learned a lot about B5 that I really appreciate knowing. I admire the show more because of Rick's insights.

Rickshay:  Now that the Shadow War is over and finished with PEACE, is it a fair statement  that in order to have the ending that was presented it was necessary to change  from PEACE to VICTORY to PEACE?

Yes, in order to have the ending that was presented. NO in order to have the ending that BELONGS to the beginning LAST BEST HOPE FOR PEACE. In the Workshop on this List, we've been discussing Plot, Conflict, and Resolution. The B5's "resolution" of the Shadow War does not resolve the initial CONFLICT B5 started with in show #1 - therefore to me it represents a ghastly writing blunder that is so well hidden under glitz and bezaz - great writing, fabulous production values etc - that very few people would notice. It's that hiddenness which makes the flaw so terrible to me - because it "sells" subliminally an idea I find odious - that Victory is indeed better than Peace.

But that's a personal, ideosyncratic, opinion. I wouldn't seriously expect there are many people in the world who would agree. Nor would it necessarily be a good thing if there were! I'm not trying to convince anyone; I'm only trying to display another pov so you may choose which you like better for yourself. If you can't SEE the other pov's you can't make a freewill choice for yourself. So you end up believing what you've been told - and in a fast changing world, that can be deadly.

On this List under the topic WORK: Conflict - somehow we got into a discussion of how male and female approaches to life differ - and Jean commented on her "fight" to victory in attaining Full Professor status, and that the men on the faculty who artificially made this into a fight instead of a simple achievement were working from a different world-paradigm than those who didn't need to make it into a fight.

I think that discussion is relevant to my definition of PEACE as being different from the absence of war.

Noting Larry's comments on Rick's post here - I am again wondering if this B5 vs. Voyager contrast-compare study we've been doing is relevant to the masculine/feminine metaphor discussion in the VERBAL SELF-DEFENSE (see Rereadable Books review of the Elgin books) books we've discussed before on this List. And to the CONFLICT discussion on the WORK topic. The WORK topic is the writing workshop and is all about writing techniques. Knowing too much about writing technique can spoil story-enjoyment for some people, so we don't inflict our natterings on the whole List.

(1999 comment: we no longer use a topic mask. The Workshop is now this section of the WorldCrafters Guild website you are reading, plus occasional posts on WorldCrafters-L Newsletter, plus posts on writers-l (the Listserv of the Guild). Sign up now at http://www.simegen.com/archives  .)

How Does This Relate to Sime~Gen? Easy - the sf postulate in the Sime~Gen universe is that the masculine~feminine dichotomies continue to exist more or less unchanged after the mutation, but that a NEW dichotomy arises to preempt the M/F dichotomy in its immediate urgency for survival. This takes the "pressure" off the M/F problem and allows new solutions to it to emerge. Of course, meanwhile, Life gets short and nasty.

Live Long and Prosper,

Jacqueline Lichtenberg