One-Shot Revisionism: Difference between revisions

[['''One Shot Revisionism]]''' occurs when a writer notices an illogical trope or plot device and attempts to avert it. More often than not, the attempt only draws further attention to the illogic of the convention - "if X didn't happen here because of Y and Z, why does it happen every other time?" - and at the same time makes it harder for other writers to [[Hand Wave]] the whole thing away. Especially bad when the plot device in question has been used multiple times in the same [[Canon]] where the one-shot revision is set.

The important thing about [['''One Shot Revisionism]]''' is that it ''works''; generally the only problem with it is that it draws attention to all the other times it theoretically could and should have been used but wasn't. This distinguishes it from a [[Voodoo Shark]], which doesn't even work on its own terms.

** In the TNG episode "The Wounded" we see a space battle at 250,000  km. This make all those occasions where ships fight nose-to-nose all the more dumb.

* In ''[[Star Wars]]'', [[Space Is Noisy]] is just a convention that fans accept, along with the use of the convention of sound traveling at the speed of light, as being imaginary sound effects for the viewers' pleasure. The [[Expanded Universe]] goes further and [[Hand Wave|Hand Waves]]s that these sound effects are [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Aural_sensor for the pilots' use as well]. ''Attack of the Clones'' tried to portray space more realistically, only to stop halfway: there is sound in space, but it travels slower than light!

** [http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/origin.htm Another such explanation] was given by writer Mark Gruenwald in ''Quasar''; That all superheroes and villains in the [[Marvel Universe]] are the result of a cosmic being's influence, and that "themed" beings are naturally drawn to each other. This also counts as [['''One Shot Revisionism]]''', as the idea's never been acknowledged by other writers; of course, since this was in Quasar, it's likely no one knows about it.

* An untold story of the [[Crisis on Infinite Earths]] comic book series was published in 1999, featuring Earth-D, a perfectly racially mixed world. On it, all the aliens pointedly did not have human racial features. What makes this [['''One Shot Revisionism]]''' is that it makes it harder to forget that the aliens still had most human features ''not'' associated with race.