A careful analysis of the first season of ‘Scrubs’ will reveal that Neil Flynn’s Janitor never interacts with anyone other than main character, J.D. The reason for this, according to the creators, is that they initially meant for Janitor to be nothing more than a figment of J.D.’s imagination. While I can understand why they gave up this conceit (for one, Neil Flynn is the show’s comedy ace-in-the-hole, and reportedly begged for the chance to play off other characters), it’s somewhat of a shame that they didn’t get to play out that concept on-screen. Of course, I’ve long been of the opinion that Star Trek: Voyager would have been better served (and, to be frank, would be considered a better show) if they had actually played out the two-part ‘Year Of Hell’ storyline as an actual year of the show, and had ramifications for the characters rather than a reset button at the end. It could have knocked the characters out of the moribund blandness that really hurt the show (especially in pre-catsuit seasons) and would have felt more “realistic” in my mind.
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) started it all with a penny in the door, asking: What lost/abandoned concepts, characters or set pieces do you wish your favorite creators had been able to see out to their logical conclusions?
14 Comments
I wish MGM wouldn’t have shelved everything Stargate so we could have seen the SG-1/Atlantis movie they were working on as well as a SGU wrap-up of sorts (while most suggested a movie would be made, others suggested they might just make it part of the SG-1/Atlantis movie simply to provide closure to the SGU story).
I wish Star Wars: Imperial Commando 2 had been written even though Karen Traviss left. I realize the Mandalorians of the Clone Wars animated series caused a bit of a problem with the Mandalorians established in the Republic Commando and Imperial Commando novels (as well as other Star Wars Expanded Universe material), but it wouldn’t be the first inconsistency in Star Wars to be addressed or retconned. While Traviss does have a quick outline of what she would have done to tie up the storyline on her website, I’d still like to actually read the story and get some closure on the story of the Skirata clan.
I’m also curious how different Power Rangers might be if they had gone through with the idea of having Toei update the Dinozords rather than adapting Dairanger footage.
http://www.big-metto.net/Upload/files/ThunderMegazordConcept.jpg
The movie “Final Countdown” – it was a great concept – a modern nuclear aircraft carrier gets sent back in time to Dec. 7, 1941 and positions itself to intercept the Japanese task force. After two hours of mucking about, the ship and planes are pulled back to modern times just before the attack. The movie always felt like a cheat. I recommend the Axis of Time trilogy of novels by John Birmingham to see this concept done right and carried to the logical conclusion.
I wish Marvel had just run with the idea that Wolverine wasn’t a man, but a mutated wolverine.
Imagine the possibilities!
John K. on Ren and Stimpy, Peter David on Hulk (although whether an ongoing would be allowed to conclude is debatable), and Richard Pryor in Blazing Saddles. Since I imagine the tone of that film would be quite different, and I have such unabashed love for Cleavon Little’s performance, my perfect world would somehow contain both films, with identical casts and crews outside of the lead.
Left out Cerebus, perhaps subconsciously fearful of opening an appreciable can of worms.
Season 4 of Firefly. Just watching how good some of the later Buffy season got, and projecting a similar quality arc in Firefly… it nearly makes me cry.
Seconded!
Never noticed or knew that about Scrubs S1, and the idea that the janitor was going to be a figment of JD’s imagination would have seriously altered the course of the entire show. Interesting.
With NBC’s, The Office, wrapping up this season there was talk of spinning off Dwight’s character into his own show titled The Farm. However the idea was canned after they filmed the pilot episode.
I’m well past being done with The Office, but was actually looking forward to what they would come up with for Dwight out on his own.
I still want to know what the pictures Larry Zbyszko & Baby Doll were trying to hold over Dusty Rhodes’ head were.
It was probably Dusty’s secret rendezvous with Ronda Singh…
Star Trek Voyager – continued the idea of a split crew, one half Starfleet, the other Marquis – each side not trusting each other with conflict driving the crew. It was a pity they didn’t run with the idea rather than absorbing the Marquis crew into the Voyager crew with little or no problem by the end of the pilot
Heroes getting older! Maybe I’m the only continuity nerd who likes this stuff, but as I invest time in following characters, while getting older and passing through various stages in life, I like to see them also evolve and grow, even if at a retarded pace. Peter Parker going from high school, to college, to grad school, to marriage was a nice developmental arc, even if it did take 40 years. You don’t have to write every iteration of a character to appeal to the new reader. The fact is, you actually don’t really have that many new readers anyway. Most of them are old farts like me, who might like to see someone deal with careers, marriage, children, and even retirement at some point. A forty something Peter Parker, looking to safeguard his family, and trying to pass on the web head legacy would have been fascinating. That’s what makes Batman Beyond interesting to me.
@Dan Hunter
I would have liked to seen the ship get run down. The hull would be scorched and patched. Make the Ship’s Computer glitchy.
@AllenBT
Spidergirl was a perfect illustration of that.
was going to say voyager as a whole, but all of Enterprise…