Fanon Discontinuity/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions

Line 1:

[[File:Discontinuity.jpg|link=Doctor Who ~~(TV)~~|~~right~~|"Will it stop, Doctor? The [[Fan Wank]], will it stop?" ]]

[[File:Discontinuity.jpg|link=Doctor Who|frame|"Will it stop, Doctor? The [[Fan Wank]], will it stop?" ]]

Line 26:

** [[The Simpsons (Animation)|Marge Simpson]] was shown with a similar attitude, eating a story book about Joan D'Arc to avoid telling Lisa that the French warrior was burned at the stake, commenting it was easier to swallow than the [[Bambi (Disney)|Bambi]] video.

** In [[Stephen Colbert]]'s book ''I Am America and So Can You'', he mentions that he couldn't enjoy ''[[The Lion King]]'' Broadway musical because he couldn't turn it off before Mufasa's death.

* Some fans of ''[[~~Doctor Who (TV)|~~Doctor Who]]'' ignore everything after the classic series (the first 26 seasons). Others are fine with the 1996 [[Made for TV Movie]], but not the revival series. There are probably a few who insist the movie never happened and Christopher Eccleston is the Eighth Doctor as well, but more common is keeping the whole movie, except that Paul McGann never uttered the words "I'm half-human." These words are blasphemy, as the Emperor of the Daleks pointed out. {{spoiler|And as the series 4 finale appears to confirm -- there had never been half-human half-Time Lords before.}} An IDW comic explains away the whole "half-human" thing as being a trick he played on the Master with mind games and a half-working chameleon arch.

* Some fans of ''[[Doctor Who]]'' ignore everything after the classic series (the first 26 seasons). Others are fine with the 1996 [[Made for TV Movie]], but not the revival series. There are probably a few who insist the movie never happened and Christopher Eccleston is the Eighth Doctor as well, but more common is keeping the whole movie, except that Paul McGann never uttered the words "I'm half-human." These words are blasphemy, as the Emperor of the Daleks pointed out. {{spoiler|And as the series 4 finale appears to confirm -- there had never been half-human half-Time Lords before.}} An IDW comic explains away the whole "half-human" thing as being a trick he played on the Master with mind games and a half-working chameleon arch.

** One fanzine published an article explaining what ''really'' happened in Season 23 (The "Trial of a Time Lord" [[Story Arc|arc]]). The version we ''think'' we saw on screen, with the confusion as to what really happened in the [[Flash Back|Flashbacks]]; the gobbledegook explanation of what the Valeyard's up to; and the bizarre scenes in the Matrix all adding up to an unintentional [[Mind Screw]], was simply a mass hallucination caused by stress over the recent cancellation crisis.

** Most of fandom does not view the 30th anniversary special "Dimensions In Time" as [[Canon]] because the plot... well, it would be more accurate to say, "What plot?" An [[Expanded Universe]] novel also wrote the adventure off as being a nightmare of the Doctor's. The fact an article in the magazine "Doctor Who Adventures" about The Brigadier did not mention him meeting the Sixth Doctor (when mentioning the other Doctors he had met) suggests the BBC has [[Canon Dis Continuity|struck it from canon]] as well. Fans of ''[[Eastenders]]'' do not consider the special canon either due to the fact some characters who have died were depicted being alive in a future version of Albert Square, and the fact ''[[~~Doctor Who (TV)|~~Doctor Who]]'' is portrayed as a fictional television program within the show (and ''vice versa''). [[Word of God]] was desperate, almost pleading, for it to be canon, because, to his thinking, bad canon was better than no canon.

** Most of fandom does not view the 30th anniversary special "Dimensions In Time" as [[Canon]] because the plot... well, it would be more accurate to say, "What plot?" An [[Expanded Universe]] novel also wrote the adventure off as being a nightmare of the Doctor's. The fact an article in the magazine "Doctor Who Adventures" about The Brigadier did not mention him meeting the Sixth Doctor (when mentioning the other Doctors he had met) suggests the BBC has [[Canon Dis Continuity|struck it from canon]] as well. Fans of ''[[Eastenders]]'' do not consider the special canon either due to the fact some characters who have died were depicted being alive in a future version of Albert Square, and the fact ''[[Doctor Who]]'' is portrayed as a fictional television program within the show (and ''vice versa''). [[Word of God]] was desperate, almost pleading, for it to be canon, because, to his thinking, bad canon was better than no canon.

** "In A Fix With Sontarans", an episode produced for children's programme ''Jim'll Fix It'' is not regarded as canon either, possibly due to the fact it was produced for another programme, and at the end of it, a breaking of the fourth wall occurs with Jimmy Saville (the presenter) walking into the TARDIS and declaring Gareth Jenkins (who wrote in saying he wanted to appear in a ''Doctor Who'' episode) "fixed".

* A few ''[[Babylon 5]]'' fans have the mantra, ''"We do not talk about [[Post Script Season|season five]]."'' Also, any mention of units of distance, because [[Sci Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale]].

* A few ''[[Babylon 5]]'' fans have the mantra, ''"We do not talk about [[Post Script Season|season five]]."'' Also, any mention of units of distance, because [[Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale]].

** Other fans acknowledge that season 5 isn't up to the standards of 3 and 4, but don't think putting it into [[Fanon Discontinuity]] is worth losing [[Bittersweet Ending|"Sleeping in Light".]]

** Those who deny the 5th season generally accept "Sleeping In Light" because it was filmed with the 4th season but aired later.

Line 48:

** Even the [[Star Trek the Original Series|original series]] had several episodes (mostly in the third season) that fans consider non-canon. "[[Star Trek (Franchise)/Recap/S3 E1 Spocks Brain|Spock's Brain]]" specifically is almost universally condemned to non-existence. However Vulcan biology works, it shouldn't work that way.

** ''[[Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'' fans sometimes throw out Season Seven, as so much of what happens (magic books? Dukat posing as a Bajoran to get in Winn's robes?) is considered [[Seasonal Rot|significantly lower in quality]] than the previous six seasons. Other fans might be okay with most of season 7, but would like to pretend that pretty much every Ferengi episode in the series besides [[Good Troi Episode|The Magnificent Ferengi]] never happened. ''Let He Who Is Without Sin...'' is another episode that many would rather forget.

* Many fans of the rebooted ''[[~~Battlestar Galactica Reimagined (TV)|~~Battlestar Galactica Reimagined]]'' Do Not Talk about "Black Market." (Because you know that Apollo would ''totally'' abandon his pregnant girlfriend and never mention her again just to go to a hooker to placate his guilt over said incident.) Or "[[Possession Sue|The Woman King]]." Ever. [[Canon Dis Continuity|The writers seem to agree]].

* Many fans of the rebooted ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined]]'' Do Not Talk about "Black Market." (Because you know that Apollo would ''totally'' abandon his pregnant girlfriend and never mention her again just to go to a hooker to placate his guilt over said incident.) Or "[[Possession Sue|The Woman King]]." Ever. [[Canon Dis Continuity|The writers seem to agree]].

** And the latter half of the BSG finale may be on its way to joining them.

*** The consensus among these fans is that the show ended with "Revelations," the last episode of the first half of Season 4. This means no {{spoiler|mutiny, no revelation of who the fifth Cylon is, what Starbuck is, what the Head characters are, the backhistory of the Final Five and the humanoid Cylons, that the Earth they find is not "our" Earth, the defeat of the Cylons, the resolution of Cally's murder, and the finding of Earth.}} That is a ''lot'' to toss out.

** Fans of [[Battlestar Galactica Classic ~~(TV)~~|the original series]] feel the same way about ''Galactica 1980''.

** Fans of [[Battlestar Galactica Classic|the original series]] feel the same way about ''Galactica 1980''.

** To the extent that they willfully forget that many of the proposed continuation (as opposed to reboot) ideas would have included 1980 in the backstory.

** Some include the final episode of ''that'' series, where it explains what happened to Starbuck, in canon. But they immediately toss out any and all window dressing that comes from 1980.

Line 69:

* Some people ignore the last two seasons of ''[[Stargate SG-1 (TV)|Stargate SG-1]]'' altogether. Some accept the original movie ''[[Stargate (Film)|Stargate]]'' and ignore both TV series, like Devlin and [[Roland Emmerich|Emmerich]]; the majority of Stargate fans find this absurd, since the movie was clearly the franchise's weakest installment. Some accept the series and ignore the movie, and some accept the series and the movie but ignore all spin-off materials, including the RPG, even though it justifies a ''lot'' of [[Fridge Logic]] in both the movie and the series.

** The movie has enough inconsistencies with the rest of the franchise that some fans view considering it to canonical as not worth it because all the relevant bits were reinforced as canonical by other series, and all the other bits suffered [[Retcon|retcons]] or were just ignored.

*** There's also the group of fans (albeit a smaller group now that some of the years-long fan feuding has faded) who acknowledge everything ''but'' season 6, except three episodes: "Abyss," "The Changeling," and "Full Circle," which were when Daniel Jackson popped in from his stint as a [[Ascend to A Higher Plane of Existence|higher being]]. Unfortunately for them, there was also [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute|some weird guy]] running around and pretending he was on the team for these, but he was [[Put On a Bus|put in a wormhole]] and Daniel [[De Power|got over it]], so when fans count the show at all, they count season 7.

*** There's also the group of fans (albeit a smaller group now that some of the years-long fan feuding has faded) who acknowledge everything ''but'' season 6, except three episodes: "Abyss," "The Changeling," and "Full Circle," which were when Daniel Jackson popped in from his stint as a [[Ascend to A Higher Plane of Existence|higher being]]. Unfortunately for them, there was also [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute|some weird guy]] running around and pretending he was on the team for these, but he was [[Put On a Bus|put in a wormhole]] and Daniel [[De-Power|got over it]], so when fans count the show at all, they count season 7.

** There is a group of Fans who argue that there was only one season of ''[[Stargate Atlantis (TV)|Atlantis]]''. And that Ford didn't turn evil and vanish, Elizebeth wasn't killed off twice. Doctor Beckett was never killed off once holding the [[Idiot Ball]] and wasn't replaced by a borderline [[Mary Sue]]. And Teyla actually had something to do..

** Some fans of ''SG-1'' and ''Atlantis'' are ''preemptively'' labelling ''[[Stargate Universe (TV)|Stargate Universe]]'' non-canon due to a combination of disliking the premise and hating that ''Atlantis'' was cancelled despite strong final-season ratings to make way for it. The fact that some of the writers' statements come across as giving the finger to the current crop of fans (to wit, "lemmings") only heightens the effect.

Line 163:

* As far as fans are concerned, on ''[[Degrassi the Next Generation]]'', Ellie and Sean had sex.

** On the other hand, many fans will contest that Ellie and Sean never got together, and Sean and Emma never broke up. For that matter, Emma and Spinner never got married.

* With its high cast turnover and meandering plot, ''[[Earth Final Conflict]]'' has many potential points of discontinuity. The strongest are Boone's apparent death at the end of the first season and season five (the second off-screen), which some felt was a different show altogether.

* With its high cast turnover and meandering plot, ''[[Earth: Final Conflict]]'' has many potential points of discontinuity. The strongest are Boone's apparent death at the end of the first season and season five (the second off-screen), which some felt was a different show altogether.

* ''[[The Golden Girls]]'' ended for most people with {{spoiler|Dorothy's wedding, and the final scene of the three remaining girls crying and hugging each other}}, and the Bea Arthur-less eighth season of ''The Golden Palace'' did not happen.

* Due to [[Seasonal Rot]] and [[Executive Meddling]], the second half of Season Two of ''[[Twin Peaks]]'' (or the Wyndham Earle plot) is considered Discontinuity by fans. [[Executive Meddling|The network pushed for the show's main storyline to be resolved early]] leaving the writers grabbing at reasons to keep Cooper in ''Twin Peaks''. After we learn that {{spoiler|Leeland Palmer was the murderer}} the rest is filler up until the awesome [[David Lynch|Lynch]]-directed finale. Where the series ends is up for argument.

** In the name of the [[Fan Preferred Couple]], [[Love At First Sight|Annie]] and [[Last Minute Hookup|Wheeler]] never happened.

** In the name of the [[Fan-Preferred Couple]], [[Love At First Sight|Annie]] and [[Last-Minute Hookup|Wheeler]] never happened.

** Alternately, some fans will argue that the movie prequel ''Fire Walk With Me'' never happened and prefer to keep Laura's last days ambiguous. [[The Movie]] also changed {{spoiler|Leeland from a poor soul with demonic posession to a murderous incestuous paedophile. This appears to be [[David Lynch]]'s [[Take That]] at the [[Cop Out]] of Leeland's guilt that the series gave us.}}

* There's some disagreement as to where the discontinuity begins on ''[[House (TV)|House]]'', with fans devided between the departure of House's original team in season 3, Kutner's suicide in season 5, House and Cuddy's get-together in season 6, and {{spoiler|House driving his car through Cuddy's dining room}} in season 7. Many fans also refuse to acknowledge the episode, Teamwork, in which {{spoiler|Cameron professes her love to House and then leaves the show.}} Which of these factors is the reason for the discontinuity varies from fan to fan.