Episode 6: Endgames DVD extra musings.

[Korvar]

When I first started reading Shadow Unit, and the hints about Worth's past and her first Gamma experience, I immediately thought that the pilot episode should have been that very incident, with the audience following Daphne as she comes into contact with the Anomoly, and the Shadow Unit coming in and explaining.  By the end of the first half of the Feature Length First Episode, Daphne makes the decision to join up.  The second half is structured more like a normal episode (as all good Feature Length First Episodes second halves are), as Daphne takes part in her first investigation ("Breathe", perhaps).

And, like many pilots, there would even be cast changes between that and the first episode!  Obviously, the actor playing the press liason didn't come back for the series, so we got Lau instead...

[Elizabeth Bear]

I can't speak for Emma, Will, Sarah, or Amanda, but I'm constitutionally opposed to starting things with Origin Stories, as it happens. In terms of TV, that seems to be a construct of the last twenty years or so--older TV shows preferred to pick up In Media Res, and the backstory (if any) came out along the way.

Trying to insert an Origin Story is much of the problem with many modern cinematic remakes of classic TV shows--The Wild Wild West, Mission: Impossible, and so on. (Okay, there's also that ugly Tom Cruise thing, but the first rule of Tom Cruise is we don't talk about Tom Cruise.)

YMMV, of course, but that's my take on it.

[Emma Bull]

I think if the series had been about Worth--and I mean about her in and out of work, not just in Shadow Unit--that would have been a good way to start. But with an ensemble show focused on Shadow Unit's operation, starting with Worth's first encounter would have set you up for a kind of series we weren't going to deliver. And though we are sneaky, sneaky writers, we're not that mean. 

Does that make sense?

[Korvar]

I wasn't thinking so much of an origin story - where the Shadow Unit comes from - so much as following someone as they find out about the Shadow Unit.  Introduce the audience to the existance of the Anomoly by watching as Daphne is so introduced, as it were.  Part of me - a very little part of me, to be sure - found the way that the Anomoly and its associated strangeness was already a known quantity in the first episode kind of deadened the impact a little.

But then, This was just musings.  When I have a website of people reading my fiction, then I'll be in a position to tell people how to do things

Oh, and did you know that nutrients can be extracted from eggs by means of suction?  Perhaps this is something I should instruct my grandmother on.

[Emma Bull]

Oh, and did you know that nutrients can be extracted from eggs by means of suction?  Perhaps this is something I should instruct my grandmother on.

OwOwOwcoffeenoseoutofOw

[Elizabeth Bear]

Oh, and did you know that nutrients can be extracted from eggs by means of suction?  Perhaps this is something I should instruct my grandmother on.

OwOwOwcoffeenoseoutofOw

*snrch*

[ebony14]

Oh, and did you know that nutrients can be extracted from eggs by means of suction?  Perhaps this is something I should instruct my grandmother on.

OwOwOwcoffeenoseoutofOw

Maybe that should be a warning label when IE or Firefox is loaded. "Warning: You are about to enter the Internet. You may see things that will shock and/or amuse you. Please do not handle or consume hot liquids while surfing."

[AntoniaTiger]

I wasn't thinking so much of an origin story - where the Shadow Unit comes from - so much as following someone as they find out about the Shadow Unit.

I can see your point, but I think it would have thrown off the balance. And feature-length pilots seem to me to be something of an abortion anyway. A pilot is a way of testing whether you can grab the audience by the throat within the standard slot--around 45 minutes--and a TV-movie, while giving you more options, doesn't really test the format.

But think about how The Cage was turned into The Menagerie. Maybe there is an unaired pilot with an ambulance driver.

[Bunny M]

I can't speak for Emma, Will, Sarah, or Amanda, but I'm constitutionally opposed to starting things with Origin Stories, as it happens.

So, no reason you couldn't have the double-length origin episode happen later in the series. *cough*Firefly*cough*

Best of both worlds, after all.

[ebony14]

I can't speak for Emma, Will, Sarah, or Amanda, but I'm constitutionally opposed to starting things with Origin Stories, as it happens.

So, no reason you couldn't have the double-length origin episode happen later in the series. *cough*Firefly*cough*

Best of both worlds, after all.

Except that that was the first pilot, created to be aired first and mucked up by Fox Television. Not that an origin episode doesn't have merit, if you feel the need for one. I like the way it's going, personally. Unless you begin at the beginning (i.e., Episode/Issue 1 is the beginning of everything), origins seem a bit forced if they're told all at once. Flashbacks seem more realistic; no one ever thinks about their whole story unless they're explaining it to someone else.

[Emma Bull]

Oh, see, I thought Bunny M was talking about "Out of Gas," which I think is a neat way to tell origin stories.

My preference is for finding out things about the character--origin or otherwise--as they become relevant in the story. Pretty much the way you find out about your friends' pasts.

[Elizabeth Bear]

Oh, see, I thought Bunny M was talking about "Out of Gas," which I think is a neat way to tell origin stories.

My preference is for finding out things about the character--origin or otherwise--as they become relevant in the story. Pretty much the way you find out about your friends' pasts.

I very much agree with Emma on this point. Besides, our guys origins are pretty spread out in time and location.

(If you have a problem. If no-one else can help. Maybe you can hire... the A Team.)

[txanne]

Oh, see, I thought Bunny M was talking about "Out of Gas," which I think is a neat way to tell origin stories.

My preference is for finding out things about the character--origin or otherwise--as they become relevant in the story. Pretty much the way you find out about your friends' pasts.

"Out of Gas" is my favorite origin story ever, and that's why. You have these people you care about, and you get to see what got them where they are. Traditional origin stories are kind of "yeah, and I should pay attention why, again?"

[ebony14]

Oh, see, I thought Bunny M was talking about "Out of Gas," which I think is a neat way to tell origin stories.

My preference is for finding out things about the character--origin or otherwise--as they become relevant in the story. Pretty much the way you find out about your friends' pasts.

Exactly. And I loved "Out of Gas." But that was a single hour, isn't it? I thought it was.

[sleary]

It was. It's both my favorite origin story and my favorite Firefly episode.

However, I like the way things are going in SU so far.