Star Trek: Pick A Plot

Vinnie_333 writes "This article on the New York Times sounds out on the often repetitive plots of the 10 Star Trek films to date (this include ST: Nemesis, coming soon). It refers to the film franchise as '10 films with 5 plots' and lays them all out in front of you. This does have a ring of truth. As a fan of Sci Fi (but not particularly Star Truck), I have to admit that there are only so many unique plots out there, and most of them have been well used by HG Well's time. Star Trek is, after all, a genre franchise and the story lines are held back by certain restrictions of the genre." I personally would pay Berman/Braga et al $20 if they never have a holodeck or time-travel-based plot ever again.

And?

[Ed Avis]

Don't all the Bond movies essentially have about three or four plots? What about Police Academy? Indeed, is there any series of movies that *doesn't* have the same few plots repeated again and again?

Re:Truth about plots . . .

[THB]

Those are actually types of conflict, not plots. There is a difference.

Re:In case NYTs ever gets /.ed

[bahamat]

quit yer karma whoring, they never have in the past. Modrators! Pay no attention to the karma whore with a reprint!

The Hero With A Thousand Faces

[re-Verse]

There are only a few stories to be told. One of the largest - the main story - goes something like this.


1. Hero is confronted with unbeatable challenge / unsurmountable odds.

2. Hero experiences personal growth/enlightenment

3. Hero overcomes challenge / odds.


The matrix? Star Wars? Lord of the Rings? There is nothing wrong with the recycling of ideas in film or books or anything. Its part of human nature.. there are only so many ideas.

The Hero with a Thousand Faces is a book that explores this very idea. Its worth checking out.

"The Myth of Superman" (& Star Trek too)

[mactari]

Umberto Eco points this out in his article The Myth of Superman (I'm afraid a quick google only turned up this synopsis [udel.edu], not the whole text). Here are some key quotes from that link, and, I assume, the article (come on, it's been nearly six years since I've read it! :^D Maybe I did earn that B.A. degree after all...). I try to recall a few more important bits below.

Traditional mythic heroes were governed by a law, therefore these heroes were predictable and held no suprises for the audience.

... and ...

Authors preferences are not considered when writing a novel. They are forced to write along the guidelines of a cultural model. In this case, "authors. . .construct on a small scale 'analogous' models which mirror the larger one."

Basically the deal was that if you started at A and went to B, you might pass through C or D or E but your story must end up at A again or you'll have spoiled the myth.

There's only so much a mythical figure can do (or mythos o' figures). Here are some of the more horrendous deviations from the "A leads to B leads to A again" that I can think of off-hand (a little Spidey-centric, I'm afraid):

* The brilliant folk at Marvel kill off Aunt May. (She's back now)
* The brilliant folk at Marvel decide Spider-Man is really a clone. (The clones have all disappeared now)
* The brilliant folk at DC kill off Superman and then have several return. (I think we're back to one, but I don't read Superman)
* Patrick Duffy leaves Dallas. :^) (Last season was a dream!)
* Felix Lieter (sp) has his leg eaten by a shark in Licensed To Kill. (Haven't fixed that yet, but they did ditch Dalton, even if it isn't his fault that movie stunk to high heaven)

This is why, I believe, these fictional stories rarely do things that are irreversable, like have Peter Parker age [much] or main characters get married (last I looked, Marvel was still struggling with that one, even having MJ disappear). It's also why shows tend to die after the leading man & woman get romanticly involved -- see Moonlighting. Or why they die when they switch tone -- see all those Carol Burnett[-esque] episodes later on in Magnum, P.I.

So, in one sense, the reason Star Trek is always the same is the same reason everyone was on pins and needles when Diane left Cheers. :^) Anyhow, it's no surprise Star Trek is often similar. It's part of the myth that "resonates with our archetypes". Hey, someone much smarter than me said that. Stop making fun. :^)

Only So Many Plots

[pyrrho]

I hate it when people say "there are a limited number of plots", imo, it's nonsense. There are only so many plots that taste like sugar, play to preconcieved notions and which thereby are likely to be hockable to the mass public of media consumers --- there are a limitted number of boring and pointless plots!

All the plots were explored by Shakespeare... by the Bible, I've heard it all... PROVE IT!

limited imagination, if you ask me... which you didn't. For example... Stanislaus Lem's plots... try to map them to HG Wells and find yourself making quite a big stretch.

Re:Plot, splot

[fm6]

Don't blame the writers. The franchise is notorious for underpaying and even cheating [kithrup.com] writers. They seem to think that writers are like teamsters -- you only hire them because they have a strong union. So they spend millions on a special effects, and a few thousand on writing. Who neeeds a story, as long as you got lots of Good Stuff?

actually, joseph campbell...

[intermodal]

...has a theory [geocities.com] that all stories are basically flavors of the same cycle, in a sense...setting it in the same place with more or less the same characters with teh same writers will often get you similar stories in general

Shut up, Wesley! I'm walking through a door!

[CleverNickName]

...producers had to 'shush' the actors every time they came on stage...

This is true. I hope I don't ruin anyone's good time, but those doors were opened by a SFX guy, who sat on an upturned bucket behind the set wall, pulling on a cable. (In the second season, the advanced technology of a wooden handle was added!)

Imagine the sound a sliding glass door makes when the track is rusty, and you know what those doors sounded like...a far cry from the pleasant "woosh!" we hear on TV.

Watch TNG, and you'll see that actors RARELY speak while doors are closing behind them. Sometimes you'll see an actor walk into a room (usually the transporter room) and you'll hear the doors close while they're speaking, but you won't see them. This happened because that rusty door noise was replaced with the happy "woosh!" sound in post production.

Interesting side-effect of this for me is that even in real life, I rarely talk while a door is closing behind me. It just became a habit to wait.

Re:History-talkers

[Amazing Quantum Man]

The episode was "Darmok", with Paul Winfield as the alien captain.

"Darmok and Jalad at Tenagra".

Re:$20

[Fweeky]

Look out for the movie(s) based on Greg Bear's Forge of God [amazon.co.uk] and Anvil of Stars [amazon.co.uk] books.

They might not suck, even if I can think of 10 much better books-that-should-be-films off the top of my head.

Re:Technobabble...

[Captain Nitpick]

The most convincing portrayal of the ultimate in virtual reality with the "holodeck". AFAIK, the holodeck was an original concept. In fact I'm surprised Paramount didn't patent the idea (or maybe they did).

Ray Bradbury's 1950 short story "The Veldt" significantly predated TNG. Yes, Virginia, the malfunctioning holodeck story is at least 52 years old.

Re:Memories

[cheezehead]

Hmmm. According to The Nitpicker's Guide for Next Generation Trekkers by Phil Farrand (ISBN 1-85286-513-X, First Edition, 1993), Data still uses a contraction in Datalore: 'One of Data's last lines in this show is "I'm fine"...'. (page 36).
Since I don't have a tape of every episode in a magnetically shielded vault, I can't verify this. Guess it's too much to hope that you could remember it...