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I was taking a look at io9 today and I saw this article about how someone thinks Babylon 5 ruined television Sci-Fi. Basically they say it's because of how it had story arcs and how those make it hard for one to easily get into the show if they join in partway through. To a point I agree with this. There are many television programs and even movies where if you didn't watch the previous ones you are less likely to get the new ones.
But I agree with the statement that story arcs work for some series and not for others. For shows like Doctor Who which have almost always been serialized they work just fine. Sliders for example was a great show until they added in a story arc and a reoccurring villainous race so you would see the same villain every week. I lost interest in that show when they did that.... That show was about going to parallel Earths and it was more exciting and interesting when they had something different each week. But I guess they may have either ran out of steam by the season where they started doing that or they wanted to compete with the likes of B5 and Deep Space 9 that had long story arcs back then.
I think part of what makes it work or not depends on how the show starts off. If it's to be a show about a variety of situations\settings such as Sliders versus whether it's a show about a small community that doesn't go places rather the adventure comes to them (B5, DS9). Story Arcs also worked pretty good for the X-Files I would say but it's a very different kind of show than Sliders.
Having a story arc in TORCHWOOD isn't a far cry from having it in Doctor Who so I don't see why anyone should complain.
But I agree with the statement that story arcs work for some series and not for others. For shows like Doctor Who which have almost always been serialized they work just fine. Sliders for example was a great show until they added in a story arc and a reoccurring villainous race so you would see the same villain every week. I lost interest in that show when they did that.... That show was about going to parallel Earths and it was more exciting and interesting when they had something different each week. But I guess they may have either ran out of steam by the season where they started doing that or they wanted to compete with the likes of B5 and Deep Space 9 that had long story arcs back then.
I think part of what makes it work or not depends on how the show starts off. If it's to be a show about a variety of situations\settings such as Sliders versus whether it's a show about a small community that doesn't go places rather the adventure comes to them (B5, DS9). Story Arcs also worked pretty good for the X-Files I would say but it's a very different kind of show than Sliders.
Having a story arc in TORCHWOOD isn't a far cry from having it in Doctor Who so I don't see why anyone should complain.
