From: hades@coos.dartmouth.edu (Brian Hughes)
Newsgroups: news.groups
Subject: Re: Proposed startrek split & the crossover issue
Keywords: crossovers, rebuttal
Date: 22 Jan 93 22:37:28 GMT
Reply-To: hades@Dartmouth.Edu
Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Disclaimer: Personally, I really don't care who you think I speak for.
Moderator: Rec.Arts.Comics.Info

cstone@husc8.harvard.edu (christopher stone) writes:

>Let me first reiterate one of my main points as to why there won't be 
>many crossovers: it would damamge the credibility of both series.  It's
>a big galaxy, and just why would the Big-E wind up at an isolated
>space station every three weeks?  Maybe the crew misses O'Brien?

    Who says that the Enterprise has to appear at the space station for
there to be a crossover?

>Well, not quite.  If I am correct, Paramount -- which, in the final
>analysis, want to make $$$ off Star Trek -- still needs advertisers
>to buy air time in order for the show to be profitable.  Network
>affiliates are not above playing tit-for-tit when it comes to 
>upstaging rivals; and more importantly, they can influence the kind
>and cost of commercials that are shown during syndicated programming.
>Would anyone in the FCC care to elaborate or correct me if I am wrong?

    Ever looked at the satellite uplink version of the episode? It comes
complete with commercials for the space that Paramount has sold BEFORE
it gives the episode to the individual purchasers to fill the rest of
the commercial time with their local spots. My guess is Paramount has
already made the money off the show that you are talking about.

>>    This is true, somewhat. Paramount uplinks the shows in a particular
>>order which should be the order that they are broadcast in by the
>>stations that have purchased both shows. And even if they didn't it
>>would be quite easy for them to have a part 1 episode on DS9 one week
>>and then have psrt 2 on TNG the next week.

>Except... suppose the TNG crew goes to ds9.  Then on ds9, the next week,
>the crossover concludes.  In the intervening time, just what are the
>Big-E's crewmembers supposed to do?  Go visit some other planet
>and then warp on back to ds9 for the conclusion of whatever they got
>themselves into?  Of course, no one ever gave Paramount points for
>credibility :)

    Just becuase the shows are happening within the same time frame in
no way limits them to following each other in complete chronological
order from episode to episode. Ever follow crossovers in comic books?

>On a more serious note, there is one major problem: audiences
>have a limited attention span.  Don't forget that Paramount must
>interest casual viewers far more than us Trekkies.  Casual viewers
>will get confused by protrated storylines.

    It is limited yes, but do you remember the level of gossip that was
caused by the "casual viewers" of Dallas over "Who shot J.R.?" Or ever
listed to a discussion about a soap opera? Limited attention span
doesn't not mean no attention span.

>Actually, I understand that some shows which get TNG would have liked
>to get DS9, but were outbid by a rival affiliate.  When I was at home
>in Albuquerque over break, I called the local NBC affiliate, which airs
>TNG, and asked when DS9 would be.  They told me it was on Fox!  I was 
>disappointed since Fox's reception quality is poor and asked why --
>she said that Fox outbid them and they would really have liked to have
>the show.

    This is true, but there are still some areas that do not get one or
the other of the shows (like the Dartmouth area not receiving TNG), and
having crossovers will cause the viewers to pressure their local
stations to carry the shows. In fact this has already started to happen
here in the Dartmouth area...

>>    Well, obviously they would have to pay him to appear on DS9, but
>>that doesn't mean that they aren't planning to have numerous crossovers
>>with people who have TNG contracts (Guinan, Q, Lwaxana, as well as the
>>regular cast members). And vice-versa.

>Well, aside from the logistical problems above, there is the issue of
>paying them...and they would probably demand a lot, given that it would
>probably not be so easy to deliberately write them out of a crossover :)

    I think that the actors should be given a little more credit than
this, but to each his own...

>Of course, but remember that *general* comparisons rightfully belong
>in .misc anyway, not in current unless they are discussing an insight
>generated by a new show.  And when that scenario occurs, why not just
>discuss the insight under the group that pertains that show? 

    You are asking for a lot out of the readers of rec.arts.startrek.*.
It is a well known fact that common sense doesn not run rampant throught
the Net. 

>>    At this point there is no official proposal to split
>>rec.arts.startrek.current.

>Wasn't there a RFD on creating r.a.s.c.ds9 and r.a.s.c. tng?  Or was I
>seeing things?

    I'm pretty sure you were seeing things, otherwise all of these posts
would have RFD: somewhere in the subject line.

>>    You are free to predict anything you like. But the fact remains that
>>Berman and Pillar have said that the two series are linked and that
>>there will be frequent crossovers with the cast members. This is one of
>>the main reasons they set DS9 in the same time as TNG.

>Logistics have a way of not bearing out people's promises.  Khrushchev
>also said the USSR would bury the West and move from its socialist phase
>to the true communist stage of development by the 1980's.  Look what
>happened in reality.

    Television has nothing to do with logistics. Berman and Pillar are
the producers of the both TNG and DS9. If they decide to have a
crossover every week then that is what will happen (please not that this
is an exageration used to prove my point). Producers are basically the
Gods of television, what they say goes.

>OK, but her appearance on ds9 would likely not *affect* the TNG characters
>in any way.  She would interact only with the ds9 characters, and her
>presence on ds9 would in no way change daily operations on the Big-E.

    And you think that she won't talk about it to anyone on TNG? I'm not
saying that it would be a big thing, but it would happen.

>Hence, as far as I'm concerned, her appearance on ds9 is part of ds9
>alone.  Now, if she were to bring Deanna along with her, things
>would be different, but see my points above about that.

    Believe it or not, Lwaxana Troi is a fairly important recurring
character on TNG, and her appearance on DN9 would be considered a
crossover by a great many people.

>For two weeks, yes.  But that's better than a phenomenal amount
>of postings in a unified r.a.s.c. the whole year round.

    Two weeks? The discussion of Odo's nose has lasted longer than that!
If you think that a crossover discussion would only last for two weeks
then you haven't been reading rec.arts.startrek.* for very long.

>Those experienced posters who write reviews could, of course, set
>follow-up lines....

    "Experienced posters" make up about 10% of the posters and about 1%
of the readership of rec.arts.startrek.*.
--
-Brian V. Hughes 
"December 1 - What begins as a friendly transitional get-together between
 the Bushes and the Clintons ends in tragedy when Millie ralphs up what
 is later identified as Socks the cat." Dave Barry 1992 Year in Review
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