And it was more normal at the time when the show aired for episodes to function as discrete if linked units rather than installments of contiguous plot. The quotient of metaplot could shift from episode to episode, sometimes the A-plot, sometimes the B-plot, always something contributing to the overall arc, but not always the same amount and not always given the same prominence, and in the meantime you would still get a three-act structure with a story that you could watch and not be totally cliffhung every week. Without spoilers, there will be patches in the show where it is basically all metaplot all the time, but not where you were just watching.
Yeah, and honestly I wish modern shows would do more of that, because that way you get the best of both worlds - the ongoing metaplot and also individual episodes that are focused on other things, so you can still have bottle episodes, holiday episodes, spotlight episodes on specific characters outside the dictates of the main plot, etc. I like that we do have so much more flexibility in TV series plotting now than in the old network TV days, but I also really enjoy the relatively leisurely pace of not having to cram all the plot and character development into 6 or 8 episodes.
And again it's such a neat choice to give the Shadow-sighting to Garibaldi, even if he didn't understand what he was seeing at the time, because he's not the character you would expect to have an eldritch encounter in his past, and yet. Of the main human characters, he's the one who looks the most standard-issue down-to-earth and he's got all these little filigrees of quirkiness and damage and openness beyond what is expected of a security chief.
Yes! I love how he's got so many little incongruous character touches that make him far more complex and layered than you would initially guess from his rough-around-the-edges working-man persona. I remember noticing even in the earliest episodes that he's one of the people who most readily makes friends with the nonhumans on the station (he invites Delenn over to watch movies with him, even not really knowing her yet!). And so, perhaps it's not too surprising that he's also got some brushes with the eldritch and strange in his past as well. I like it.
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Yeah, and honestly I wish modern shows would do more of that, because that way you get the best of both worlds - the ongoing metaplot and also individual episodes that are focused on other things, so you can still have bottle episodes, holiday episodes, spotlight episodes on specific characters outside the dictates of the main plot, etc. I like that we do have so much more flexibility in TV series plotting now than in the old network TV days, but I also really enjoy the relatively leisurely pace of not having to cram all the plot and character development into 6 or 8 episodes.
And again it's such a neat choice to give the Shadow-sighting to Garibaldi, even if he didn't understand what he was seeing at the time, because he's not the character you would expect to have an eldritch encounter in his past, and yet. Of the main human characters, he's the one who looks the most standard-issue down-to-earth and he's got all these little filigrees of quirkiness and damage and openness beyond what is expected of a security chief.
Yes! I love how he's got so many little incongruous character touches that make him far more complex and layered than you would initially guess from his rough-around-the-edges working-man persona. I remember noticing even in the earliest episodes that he's one of the people who most readily makes friends with the nonhumans on the station (he invites Delenn over to watch movies with him, even not really knowing her yet!). And so, perhaps it's not too surprising that he's also got some brushes with the eldritch and strange in his past as well. I like it.