Fannish Five!
Jul. 24th, 2009 11:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
st_aurafinaFrom Fannish Five: Name the five best uses of flashback/non-linear storytelling.
1. Out of Gas, Firefly. Every step forward in the narrative makes sense and progresses the story, despite the back and forth from the past to the future. We get to see the history of Serenity and her crew, the characters grow through the storytelling, and it's all seamlessly woven together. I love this episode.
2. House's Head, House MD. The season four finale, where House pieces the story of the bus crash together using faulty memory that changes every time he recalls the event. House at his most instinctive also means House at his most self-destructive, and this episode is heartbreaking and ruthless as House unravels the mystery. (I could have chosen the second season finale, No Reason, told all in hallucinations, but that episode didn't have Cuddy performing a striptease in a little tartan skirt. No sir.)
3. Blink, Doctor Who. Terrifying and clever, and exactly what I would expect from a show with a time-travel premise. The broken time line works amazingly well, both to reveal the facts of the story, and also to show us horrible, inevitable events that we know have to take place. This is one of my favourite episodes ever. Ever. Of any show ever.
4. Monday, X-Files. The Groundhog Day premise is an old chestnut, but there's nothing wrong with using a cliche if you play with it a bit. There are rules that must be adhered to, and this episode obeys them: the same events must happen over and over, so that we learn the routine, the characters should be unaware of their circumstance, yet the story must progress. Within these strict parameters, this episode tells a good tale while giving us good character insight. It's gruesomely fascinating to see the way that tiny changes in the routine bounce around the timeline and correct themselves, and there's a good, character-based resolution to the episode. Also, there is an amusing waterbed.
5. Cause and Effect, Star Trek: The Next Generation. This is another Groundhog Day episode, but this one works for me because the utter competence of the crew is fascinating. And the last few cycles through the time loop, as the crew becomes aware earlier and earlier that they're going to die, and they still keep knotting away at the problem fearlessly - that epitomises what being in Starfleet is all about. Also, this episode provides us with the most fundamental rule of time-travel: don't second guess yourself.
Don't second guess yourself - good advice in any timeline.
This post at my Livejournal, here
1. Out of Gas, Firefly. Every step forward in the narrative makes sense and progresses the story, despite the back and forth from the past to the future. We get to see the history of Serenity and her crew, the characters grow through the storytelling, and it's all seamlessly woven together. I love this episode.
2. House's Head, House MD. The season four finale, where House pieces the story of the bus crash together using faulty memory that changes every time he recalls the event. House at his most instinctive also means House at his most self-destructive, and this episode is heartbreaking and ruthless as House unravels the mystery. (I could have chosen the second season finale, No Reason, told all in hallucinations, but that episode didn't have Cuddy performing a striptease in a little tartan skirt. No sir.)
3. Blink, Doctor Who. Terrifying and clever, and exactly what I would expect from a show with a time-travel premise. The broken time line works amazingly well, both to reveal the facts of the story, and also to show us horrible, inevitable events that we know have to take place. This is one of my favourite episodes ever. Ever. Of any show ever.
4. Monday, X-Files. The Groundhog Day premise is an old chestnut, but there's nothing wrong with using a cliche if you play with it a bit. There are rules that must be adhered to, and this episode obeys them: the same events must happen over and over, so that we learn the routine, the characters should be unaware of their circumstance, yet the story must progress. Within these strict parameters, this episode tells a good tale while giving us good character insight. It's gruesomely fascinating to see the way that tiny changes in the routine bounce around the timeline and correct themselves, and there's a good, character-based resolution to the episode. Also, there is an amusing waterbed.
5. Cause and Effect, Star Trek: The Next Generation. This is another Groundhog Day episode, but this one works for me because the utter competence of the crew is fascinating. And the last few cycles through the time loop, as the crew becomes aware earlier and earlier that they're going to die, and they still keep knotting away at the problem fearlessly - that epitomises what being in Starfleet is all about. Also, this episode provides us with the most fundamental rule of time-travel: don't second guess yourself.
Don't second guess yourself - good advice in any timeline.
This post at my Livejournal, here
no subject
Date: 2009-07-24 11:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-27 12:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-27 12:28 am (UTC)