On Sun, 2 Mar 2008 16:20:03 -0800 (PST), Arbitrar Of Quality
<tsmtsm@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>Okay, I know ME isn't big with such things, but I spent a little time
>fruitlessly trying to work out the chronology involved in this year.
>Basically, the issue is that "Deep Down" is explicitly established to
>take place about three months after "Tomorrow." So, roughly the same
>time as "Lessons." Now, S7 of BTVS may not last all the way until May
>(the apocalypse comes early this year...), but it clearly takes place
>over a number of months. I can't imagine it not being spring semester
>by the time of "Lies My Parents Tell Me." In the meantime, ATS has a
>lot of "one episode leading right into the next one" stuff; almost
>every show of S4 begins either at the moment the previous one ended or
>the next day. Most of the story takes place over a few weeks. Yet
>the same amount of time theoretically has to have elapsed when the
>shows intersect again at LMPTM/"Orpheus."
>
>So, where's the missing half-year in the ATS continuity? My original
>fan-wanky plan was to presume a lot of not-much-happening time during
>the first few episodes of the year, between the end of "Deep Down" and
>the beginning of THAW (although it certainly doesn't feel like months
>are elapsing). The problem is that Lorne has already been a Vegas
>star for some time in "Deep Down" - presumably since early in the
>summer because that's the explanation for why he isn't in contact with
>the L.A. gang. In "The House Always Wins," a sign tells us that Lorne
>has been performing at the Tropicana for 17 weeks. By the logic used
>above, it's probably been a little bit more than a month since DD,
>which "feels" right from the play of the episodes. (That's not set in
>stone, though. Maybe his act was booked at a different hotel before
>the current run at the Tropicana?) THAW, of course, leads directly
>into "Slouching," and that kicks off the arc that never really stops.
>There may be a little bit of down time between "Slouching" and
>"Supersymmetry," but certainly not months. Ipso facto, Joss and
>company suck at math and keeping track of fictional time.
As you know Bob, we have certainly played this game on the newsgroup
before. The first thing to do is to nail down the 'timestamps' we do
know.
Deep Down takes place about three months after Tomorrow.
We don't know how much time p***** between Deep Down and Ground State, but
they are not heel and toe like the Beast/Angelus eps are.
We don't know how much time p***** between Ground State and THAW either,
but again they aren't heel and toe.
THAW and Slouching are heel and toe, the closing scene of THAW leads
directly to the opening scene of Slouching.
Slouching and Supersymmetry are not heel and toe.
Supersymmetry and Spin the Bottle are not heel and toe, and, in fact, the
point is made that the frission between Fred and Gunn has had time to
simmer.
Time also p***** between Spin and Apoc.
And then we're into 9 episode run where, for all practical purposes, no
time p***** between episodes, only during episodes.
Over on Buffy, there are virtually no heel and toe episodes until the end
of the season. We know that Lessons is the first day of school, we know
CWDP takes place on November 12th at 8pm (it says so right at the front).
We know that Bring On The Night takes place just before Christmas. We
know
Potential takes place in early January after school has started again. We
have some time passing references for TKIM and Storyteller, and, of
course,
we know that LMPTM takes place concurrently with Orpheus.
Tracking the internal passage of time through the Beast/Angelus run, the
whole thing takes place between 15 to 20 days. Figuring backwards from
LMPTM, that means that entire run takes place between TKIM and LMPTM,
maybe
even between Storyteller and LMPTM.
That means Deeo Down to Apocalypse Nowish takes place from September to
February.
We know that Deep Down is in September sometime. We know that Lorne has
been at the Tropicana for 17 weeks in THAW, but we don't know when he
started (except that it was sometime after May). If he didn't start at
the
Tropicana until August, then THAW and Slouching could take place in
November, Supersymmetry in December, Spin the Bottle in January, and
Apocalypse Nowish through Orpheus from late February through early March.
--
"Oh Buffy, you really do need to have
every square inch of your ass kicked."
- Willow Rosenberg
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