Continuity Lock Out: Difference between revisions

* This trope is often blamed as one of the contributing factors to the cancellation of the original series of ''[[Doctor Who]]'' - amongst a lot of other issues that the show was facing at the time, the fact that a fairly large portion of the stories broadcast during the 1980s seemed to hinge upon the audience being aware of characters, events and storylines which hadn't been seen for upwards of ten or even twenty years didn't make the show any easier to watch. Matters weren't helped by the fact that this was well before VHS and DVD was prominent enough to allow [[Better on DVD|people to catch up on the old stuff]], ''and'' that a lot of this old stuff had been deleted from the archives anyway, meaning that even if the technology had existed, the original material didn't.

** In the new series of ''[[Doctor Who]]'', the later into any given series an episode occurs, the lower the likelihood of a casual viewer having any clue who the characters are or what is going on. The most extreme example is the cliffhanger of "Turn Left": the [[Arc Words]] from ''the first series''. We are then introduced to nearly every Companion or character who had appeared in multiple stories from the past four years, as well as a few of the main characters from the spin-off shows.

** "The Impossible Astronaut"/"Day of the Moon" may leave people baffled as to why {{spoiler|why the future Doctor and the girl in New York are glowing some strange light}}, or why the Doctor seems visibly concerned with the word "Silence".

* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]''. Good Lord, ''Heroes''. The writers really wanted to give the impression that there were characters with powers ''everywhere'', which is one of the reasons it was so interesting and complex. On the other hand, even viewers who watch every week could be confused with all of the new characters and [[Put on a Bus|old characters simply disappearing]]. Not to mention all of the [[Face Heel Turn|Face Heel Turns]] and [[Heel Face Turn|Heel Face Turns]]. Just [[Better on DVD|buy the DVDs]]. It's more comprehensible that way.

 

== Video Games ==

** As a sort of alternative, the ''[[Metal Gear Acid|Ac!d]]'' games happened in an alternate universe, but they still expected a familiarity with the main phase series with its [[Spoiler|spoilerrific]] character cards. In the first game's story, a lot of hints about Snake's identity and motivations require some knowledge of his main phase [[Canon]] [[Backstory]], such as his sterility.

* Some games or companies attempt to keep world bibles in order to allow their development teams to keep track of what is what in a setting. It works... sometimes.

* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' is like this at times. Events happen outside the game's continuity that still affect the game. Why is the king of Stormwind back for Wrath of the Lich King, and where was he? Why is {{spoiler|Cairne}} dead in Cataclysm? Op, better [[Gotta Catch Em All|read the expanded universe material]] to find out!

** Said series somehow manages to play this trope straight at the same time, as many character appearances and associated in-jokes will doubtless leave many new players scratching their heads.

* Continuity in ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' games works in a similar way to avert lockout. You don't NEED to know about the Warp in the West to play and enjoy Morrowind--but if you'd LIKE to know how the previous game's multiple endings were resolved, just read the in-game book about it! Of course, business and technical challenges sometimes force some bizarre contortions of continuity, but that's [[Executive Meddling|another trope]].

* ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]''. [[Groundhog Day Loop|Theoretically]] you can jump in about once every four or five episodes and understand what's going on immediately, but eventually you're going to have to [[Kudzu Plot|review everything you missed anyway]].

* The ''[[Legacy of Kain]]'' series is hard enough to follow even if you play them all. If you missed one, you have no chance.