#60 EPISODES OF ONE (1) ARC HAPPENS IN BASICALLY A FEW HOURS

[angel13xo]

ITS THAT TIME YES IT IS

soooo what will my next watch be?? YOU PICK

(so my indecisive ass doesn't have to)

[yeonchi]

Kisekae Insights #3: Series Overview (Classic, New and 50th Anniversary Series)

For an imaginary project developed over at least a decade, there’s an ungodly number of series and episodes in it compared to the actual BBC Doctor Who. Even with Doctor Who alone, 17 series were broadcast over six years with 12 being broadcast over the space of three years. Let’s take a deep look into each series.

For the purposes of this project, my main focus is on the Fifth Doctor’s episodes, but I will talk briefly about the other four Doctors as well. In case you haven’t been following this series, everything I talk about will be in the context of this project. I’m bolding it because I don’t want to have to keep explaining this when asked.

Before the Fifth

1999 to 2007 was the classic era of this project’s Doctor Who, with episodes being 25 minutes long until November 2005; following that, they would be 45 minutes long (exceptions aside). Sometimes, we would have one episode per week, maybe two or even four.

The First Doctor had 190 episodes broadcast over 38 stories, covering six seasons and a pilot series. The first actor was in the pilot series and the first two seasons for a total of 73 episodes and 17 stories. The second actor took over thereafter for a total of 117 episodes and 21 stories.

The Second Doctor had a TV movie, then 181 episodes broadcast over 53 stories, covering six seasons and a set of specials. The Third Doctor did have thirteen 45-minute episodes and three specials at the start of 2008 that were considered part of the Classic Series.

In the middle of the year, the show was transferred to another station and the Third Doctor was recasted. This would be the start of the first “New Series”. Each individual series consisted of thirteen 45-minute episodes, which would be the norm hereafter. Unlike his counterpart, the BBC Ninth Doctor, being in only one series, the Third Doctor was in four series. The original BBC Series 1 was split after The Long Game and the remaining episodes were broadcast at the end of the fourth series.

The Fourth Doctor was in three series and seven specials, with most of them being broadcast over a year. Not all the BBC Tenth Doctor’s episodes were adapted. For the remaining five specials, he was replaced by another actor, who also reprised that incarnation for one series while also playing the next incarnation. By that time, the show was transferred back to its original station, paving the way for another “New Series”.

The New Series

Broadcast 2012 and early 2013. Series 1-5 episodes were broadcast twice a week (with an exception during Series 3+4), then once a week thereafter.

Series 1: Based on BBC Series 5 with the exception of Amy’s Choice and with four additional episodes for a total of 16 episodes. Amy and Rory were replaced with Ritsu Tainaka and Kunikida (first name Doppo, not to be mistaken with the character from Bungo Stray Dogs). For the last four episodes, Kanade Tachibana and Yuzuru Otonashi were introduced as new companions. In the Easter Special, The Pony Doctor, the Doctor’s pony counterparts, Doctor Whooves and the Pony Doctor, are introduced.

Series 2: Based on BBC Series 6 with three additional episodes for a total of 16 episodes. Ritsu and Kunikida are the primary companions with Kanade and Yuzuru appearing in the final two episodes, including a crossover in the series finale, A Canterlot Wedding. An additional episode was broadcast following Day of the Moon, which introduced Nayu Hayama from Chu-Bra!! (voiced by Catherine Tate).

Series 3+4: Series are (mostly) original from this point. Kanade and Yuzuru become the main companions after the Doctor left Ritsu and Kunikida behind in the last season. The first five episodes of Series 3 are specials, the first being an adaptation of The Five Doctors (the special edition, FYI). Here’s where things get complicated. In the original version, Series 3 had 9 episodes and Series 4 had 5 episodes, with both series being followed by a special weeknight drama, consisting of 9 and 15 half-hour episodes respectively. Elements of the drama were based from the BBC Series 3 and 4 finales. The main villain of the series was the Kikuchi Clan, led by a renegade Time Lady named Ayaka Kikuchi. In the following years, both series went through a restructuring for home media releases and rerun broadcasts. The loose episodes and dramas (with a two-episode buffer) were condensed into what would respectively be the new Series 3 and 4. A couple of episodes were also replaced. This is how I will be addressing those series from here on out.

Series 5: Based on BBC Series 4, with the Doctor now taking on some of the Tenth Doctor’s character. The first three episodes were set in Equestria and circled around the events that led to My Little Dashie. Following a lone adventure, Nayu joined the Doctor as his main companion for the rest of the season. Don’t worry, her ending isn’t as tragic as Donna’s was. The series finale was a two-hour special and instead of Davros and Dalek Caan, it featured Antoni and Specter. Aside from the free-to-air broadcast version, there was a premium version that was broadcast on a satellite channel. It had an additional 23 episodes and featured more anime crossovers. Oh what the hell, this series was mostly anime crossovers anyway. I didn’t think about putting those episodes in when I made this series, but Kanade and Yuzuru do return in a three-episode arc adapted from the episodes that featured the return of Martha Jones.

Series 6: Based on BBC Series 7 Part 1. This series featured the departure of Ritsu and Kunikida. Following that, we have the return of Tsukasa Hiiragi and Squid Girl, having previously had adventures with the Fourth Doctor.

Series 7: Based on BBC Series 7 Part 2 with a split in the series. The first five episodes, which featured Tsukasa and Squid Girl as companions, were a part of an original story centred around the Salacian Time War and made up Part 1 of the series. Following that, six Christmas Specials were broadcast over the Christmas period before Part 2 resumed at the same time as its BBC counterpart. Part 2 featured Clara Oswald as companion.

The 50th Anniversary Series

Broadcast mid-late 2013. The original plan was for a singular special, but then I just kept adding preludes to it and called it a series instead. After that, I added more sequels and made the series even crazier than it already was. Linearly, there are a total of 46 episodes, along with an extra 26 episodes for the other Doctors and characters featured in November. Oh, don’t worry, I didn’t write those extra episodes. I only wrote like 33 of them. Most of the episodes are 60 minutes long. For most of the series, the Doctor is travelling with Clara, Squid Girl and Takeru Aizawa.

Block 1: The first three episodes, written by me, were centred around the other protagonist and his girlfriend. The last three episodes, not written by me, featured Hackbot and Heavy Metal Monster, monsters from a game I used to play with friends as a child (I’ll explain later), and Reimu Hakurei (voiced by Mai Nakahara who also voiced her in Musou Kakyou: A Summer Day’s Dream), who also had adventures with the Fourth Doctor.

Block 2: Four episodes featuring the return of the Kikuchi Clan as villains. Some characters and themes from Koihime Musou and Ikki Tousen/Battle Vixens (who also appeared in the spinoff series The Kongming Adventures) are also featured.

Block 3: Six episodes written by different writers and featuring different Doctors (including both Third Doctors). They revolve around Kumiko Hayashi and her “mother” as they go on strange and successive adventures with the Doctors. Kumiko accidentally gets an instantaneous MTF sex change near the end of this; from that point on, the name “Kumiko” becomes her real name instead of an assumed name. I also introduce a group of Impossible Girl-esque characters that are explained in Block 6.

Block 4: Four episodes revolved around the other protagonist’s friends thinking that it would be a good to forcibly marry him with another autistic classmate of his. That was also the plot of the first half of Series 4 and I should point out that the classmate has Asperger’s (that’s not why he doesn’t want to marry her btw, it’s because they don’t have feelings for each other).

Block 5: Four episodes of separate adventures (with one written by Steven Moffat). One of the episodes signifies a changing of an era as we see Fifi Forget-me-not pass away (based off a fanfic from EmmaKoeni) and Akari preparing for her wedding. It should be noted that by this point, the protag had already parted with Fifi long before that episode happened. He came back and stayed with her for a day as she passed on, so I dunno if others would consider that cheating.

Block 6: The big one to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who. This is where the extra 26 episodes are set; everyone is in the same episode for the start and end, but they have their own adventures inbetween. The entire thing would have taken up 16 channels (my list has separate feeds for channels because at the time, I was going with what Japan was doing for their digital TV) unless you put them back-to-back or something. I also adapted The Name of the Doctor for the protag; basically, he would make a contract with Kyubey to become a magical boy, then scatter himself throughout his timeline, creating the Impossible Girl-esque characters from Block 3.

Block 7: Two episodes broadcast back-to-back as an experimental format. The first episode just revealed mysteries (most of them didn’t matter after that) while the second features segments with the prototypes and their partners.

Block 8: Five episodes of random stuff circling around the protagonist as he has adventures both with the Doctor and by himself. I took quite a few ideas from other episodes.

Block 9: Another big one with five Christmas Specials. The prologue features the wedding of the soon-to-be Hiroki and Akari Ichigo and the departure of Clara, Squid Girl and Takeru. The next three episodes go full-on as Girl Power teams up with the Daleks, Antoni and the Master in a war unlike any other. There is also a Dalek civil war arc going on with the bronze and gold Time War Daleks going up against the red and multicoloured New Paradigm Daleks (I don’t know why they were so hated, I personally think the BBC should have used them more). The epilogue is Hiroki Ichigo’s first adventure before he officially coins the name by the start of the next series.

Spinoffs

I had little to no involvement in these, but these are the spinoffs that spawned in the two years of my time writing Doctor Who:

The Fourth Doctor Adventures: As I stated before, this series is an extension of the Fourth Doctor’s adventures. Some episodes lay the groundwork for the animes and cartoons that are still featured in the series.

Doctor Whooves/Doctor Who Equestria: Adaptations of Doctor Who featuring Doctor Whooves and the Pony Doctor respectively.

MLP:FiM: Storm Dasher Series: A webcast series featuring new adventures for Storm Dasher. I think it may have been cut short because the last 12-13 episodes are the same as some of my own episodes in the main Doctor Who series.

Torchwood: Basically what it says on the tin. I wrote two episodes for that, then realised that most of it is also the same as the main Doctor Who series. This is getting stupid, honestly.

The Kongming Adventures: Adaptation of The Sarah Jane Adventures, but with Zhuge Liang instead of Sarah Jane.

Pobol y Dinas/EastEnders: I don’t know what the hell I was doing with that one, because these are two unrelated soap operas that came as spinoffs from a sci-fi series. The name Pobol y Dinas is “People of the City” in Welsh and I got the name from the actual S4/C soap opera, Pobol y Cwm.

Puella Magi Takumi Magica: Details Takumi Kamijō’s adventures following his regeneration and the establishment of Torchwood Pleiades, an organisation dedicated to bringing together magical girls around Mitakihara and beyond.

Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb: Different to the actual series of the same name, this details Kumiko Hayashi’s adventures of living as a girl in a boy’s body due to the circumstances she was placed in following his regeneration.

Well, that took a bit of work to get through. We’ll continue this in the next instalment.

[purplerakath]

Active Time and Passive Time - Part 1

Part 2 is today labeled “How Filler would Fix Next Class” and will be up later today.

So I need to cover the uses of two different times in a fictional story, I wasn’t sure what to label them but I decided basic is best.

Active Time is anywhere you know what the character is generally doing. Either through seeing it, or referencing it. Or being very obvious (Tris in a coma is active time, because we know Tris isn’t doing anything but being in a coma). A more standard example would be Maya’s depression arc being almost all active time.

Passive Time is anywhere you can’t be sure of what they’re doing, but you can be sure they’re doing something. This is space to allow things to change from where they are without having to follow them. Zig’s joining a gang and becoming homeless was passive time.

Most people get the use Active Time, but Passive Time is a little more confusing. Passive time allows writers two things. The first is smoothing over poor writing choices and weak character items, the second is allowing characters to reset into new ‘standards’ that suit the narrative moving forward. But there is a caveat as to how Passive Time works, which is where Degrassi is having issues.

But first smoothing over weak character items. After the events of Hunter and his friends torturing Maya we went into a break between semesters, this allows (some) abandoning of those traits to try and make Baaz, Vijay, and Yael to start over. While Hunter’s more direct role required a mental health storyline to explroe his role. And if NC2 completely separated Maya from Baaz and Vijay this would have worked (but they didn’t, one of Vijay’s only roles in NC2 was antagonizing Maya even if Maya wasn’t right). A stronger use of Passive Time was between NC2 and NC3, burying any animosity between Zoe and Grace over Grace not being gay by using time to their advantage.

Which is where passive time needs to be used, you don’t need every little detail of Zig and Esme boning each other, but knowing that they’re not a new relationship meant we could skip the new relationship plot points of first dates first times, etc. And allowing for characters to cozy into a new dynamic with people before shattering it with a hammer is a very good writing tool. Now of course this has an issue I intend to solve later today. Degrassi’s placement and lack of use for passive time.

So if you look at NC3 and NC4 you’ll notice the seasons both have very weird timelines. 301-303 are a few weeks, at the most. Nobody knows how much time happens between 303 and 304, or 304 and 305. 305 and 306 are within 48 hours? Probably the next day. It’s a few weeks between 306 to 308. Then 309 and 310 are back to back. NC4 has the same jagged timeline. 401-403 are close together, 404-406 are also slammed close together. 407 is somewhere... then 408-410 is close together again. Meaning there’s no way to use any of this passive time during a season, since it’s all... random. Like this.

Since the pacing of skipped time is so badly handled, there’s no way to execute it to really invest in its use. There’s no real way to mark that a lot of time passes, just a lot of time had to pass to stretch 10 episodes across 3-4 months. We’re suppose to assume Frankie, Zig, and Esme have settled into their polyship, but there’s no actual sign a lot of time passed because... we went straight from ‘I think I have two girlfriends’ to ‘the episode where Zig breaks up with them both.’

If you want to see the reverse of this problem, having no time for passive time, you get 40 ep seasons. Given each school year was about 60 episodes of time there was no space for passive time to be put in. You know too much of what was going on, and meant when a skip was needed you just had to... keep them out of episodes. Which has it’s own issues, but we’re not going back to that.

Fortunately, there is an answer to this...