Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
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Yeah, Yeats' TSC is often quoted in SF shows, these lines in particular:
quote: Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.
He should get posthumous royalties, or something. B)
Registered: Nov 1999
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The problem with B5 titles is that, by the time the show gets into season 4, there's a tendency for overblown titles involving metaphoric words that tell you nothing about the episode. "In the Shadow of Z'Ha'Dum" was cool, but by the time we get to "Movements of Fire and Shadow", I really just want to punch JMS in his stupid shadowed face.
Friends really should get some sort of credit here for, basically, doing the most perfect episode titles of any TV series ever.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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by the time the show gets into season 4, there's a tendency for overblown titles involving metaphoric words that tell you nothing about the episode.
"Falling Toward Apotheosis" comes to mind. Personally, I like the titles, so I suppose it's a matter of taste.
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
Registered: Mar 1999
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That's not so bad. It's the middle lot of ones, because by that point, the series had firmly stopped being individual episodes all connected, and was just one long story broken down into 45 minutes parts.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
"In the Shadow of Z'Ha'Dum" was cool, but by the time we get to "Movements of Fire and Shadow", I really just want to punch JMS in his stupid shadowed face.
Right! Why bother with heavy metaphors when you can have such scintillating titles as "Demon" or "Riddles" instead?
Anyway, who says that a title must necessarily be descriptive or directly related to an episode? Is that some vague unwritten rule every writer has to obey, or do people just not like to crack their brains too much?
Registered: Nov 1999
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quote:Originally posted by Cartman: [i] Anyway, who says that a title must necessarily be descriptive or directly related to an episode? Is that some vague unwritten rule every writer has to obey, or do people just not like to crack their brains too much?
You mean like SG1's "The Torment Of Tantalus"? Not only does the episode suck like a black hole, the characters repeat the episode's title twice and then give a webster's definition of who Tantalus was, why he was in torment AND how it applies to the episode's featured characters! It had all the subelty of a Pokemon cartoon.
Worse still: they play that ep every month at least once on Sci-Fi channel like it's a classic.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
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Hey, hey, hey. I didn't say the episode was a classic, only that I liked its titular mythological allusion. OK, actually I didn't say that either, but there you go. B)
Registered: Nov 1999
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Well, you managed to use "titular" in a sentence without it being a sexual joke, so I hereby forgive you. Go: and watch crappy episodes no more....
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Cartman: [i] Anyway, who says that a title must necessarily be descriptive or directly related to an episode? Is that some vague unwritten rule every writer has to obey, or do people just not like to crack their brains too much?
You mean like SG1's "The Torment Of Tantalus"? Not only does the episode suck like a black hole, the characters repeat the episode's title twice and then give a webster's definition of who Tantalus was, why he was in torment AND how it applies to the episode's featured characters! It had all the subelty of a Pokemon cartoon.
Worse still: they play that ep every month at least once on Sci-Fi channel like it's a classic.
ToT is a GOOD episode... it changes what we know about the history of the Stargate and is important for the rest of the series!
Registered: Mar 1999
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A good episode can do that and still stand on it's own: like The Search Part II. Or tat episode where Troi explains being annoying and sounding phony are Betazed traditions.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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Except that "The Search part II" really wasn't that good at all.
quote:Originally posted by Cartman: "In the Shadow of Z'Ha'Dum" was cool, but by the time we get to "Movements of Fire and Shadow", I really just want to punch JMS in his stupid shadowed face.
Right! Why bother with heavy metaphors when you can have such scintillating titles as "Demon" or "Riddles" instead?
When it's the same heavy metaphor that the writer has already used 7 billion times in the series, it's no longer interesting, original, or clever.
quote:Anyway, who says that a title must necessarily be descriptive or directly related to an episode? Is that some vague unwritten rule every writer has to obey, or do people just not like to crack their brains too much?
Er, because an episode title that doesn't relate to an episode in anyway is pointless?
"Hey, let's have Archer come across a planet where the government is trying to hide extra terrestrial contact from it's populace. We could call it 'The Moonlight Dances On An Open Grave With The Grace of Time Itself".'
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
"Er, because an episode title that doesn't relate to an episode in anyway is pointless?"
Ah, ah, ah. Not "in anyway", but "directly". Most of B5's later titles do still have some bearing on the episodes (or at least on the show as a whole), even if they are a bit convoluted. But that's only JMS indulging himself, and since the man couldn't write dialogue to save his ass, just grant him that one pleasure, will you? B)
"The Moonlight Dances On An Open Grave With The Grace of Time Itself"
*sigh*
Liam, I love you like a baby, but there is exaggerating, then there is stretching to absurdity, and then there is tapping into a new dimensional plane of ridiculousness, which is what you're doing here.
Registered: Nov 1999
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Tsk. When that episode gets made, you'll be forced to apologise.
It's just that the episode titles become interchangable. "In the Shadow of Z'Ha'Dum" and "Z'Ha'Dum" both work for their respective episodes. "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars" works, but, well, I'm looking at the season 5 titles, and I honestly couldn't tell you what happens in most of them. Or a fair few season 4 titles. "The Wheel Of Fire", "Rumors, Bargains and Lies", and more, whereas I can identify pretty much every season 1-3 episode.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
Yeah, that's true, but I don't think the interchangeability syndrome is caused by the somewhat overblown titles so much as it is by the predominantly craptacular S5 episodes themselves.
-------------------- ".mirrorS arE morE fuN thaN televisioN" - TEH PNIK FLAMIGNO
Registered: Nov 1999
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"Rumors, Bargains and Lies" was the ep where Sheridan tricks the League into letting the White Star fleet patrol their borders, and the religious caste thought Delenn was going to surrender to Neroon. That ep title fit, and made me remember the episode. You're right in general, of course, but not on that one.
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
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