Scenes and Situations which never have value in a TV show, but are still used as filler.

[Overmind One]

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Have you ever noticed that some science fiction and fantasy and drama shows make use of certain situations and scenes as "filler" to burn time stretching a paper thin storyline or weak episode? I have. I have a short list of the most loathsome ones I can think of:

1. Baby Showers

WHY? Even in a full-on soap opera, I can understand the romance, the hot steamy sex scenes, the flirting and cheating on husbands and wives and long lost relatives. But I don't understand why any show needs to actually SHOW a baby shower. It is assumed there will be one if the mother to be has some female friends or relatives. How does depicting a baby shower add to a story?

A possible WHY?: To burn at least 15 minutes showing gifts being opened, to hear inane comments about the gifts (one for each gift), and to show smiling faces and hear the sound "awwwww" at least 5 times in rapid succession.

WORST EXAMPLE: TJ's baby shower on Destiny in Stargate Universe

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A close runner up is B'Elanna's baby shower on Voyager. Not only did they show it, but EVERYBODY who was anybody was in attendance, including the men. Wow, they really are in the future, aren't they? :facepalm:

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2. Weddings

Similar to baby showers, the on-air TV wedding between characters in shows seems to add nothing to the story, even in a soap opera IMO. The romance of the couple in question has no doubt led up to the wedding, but some shows still resort to the ultimate time waster of showing the whole ceremony. Some even show the preparations for the ceremony as well. WHY? Do we really need to see the wedding? This one is partially answered by market research which shows that a large segment of women will watch a TV wedding episode, especially if they have invested in the characters. But I doubt many men (of any preference) would find TV weddings enjoyable to watch.

WORST EXAMPLE: IMO, the worst one I have seen in science fiction has to be between Will Riker and Deanna Troi in Nemesis. WHY?

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In this case, there was a known gap between the Generations and Nemesis, and we could have started the movie with Riker and Troi already married and serving aboard the Enterprise E. But noooooo....they started the movie with the dumbass wedding where Data gets to sing "Blue Skies". :facepalm:. Waste of time. They could have opened Nemesis up with the enhancements of the new ship...the flagship, and most powerful ship in the fleet. But that Trek is no longer. .

3. Running/crawling/climbing/hiking...extended scenes

I really hate this one. Our heroes are trapped in a room/cell/lab/, and they need to use the ventilation ducts to get out. Im okay with that. But sometimes, we get extended scenes of somebody crawling through ducts, turning left, turning right, peering through vents, etc. Do we really need all of that? We do if 15-20 minutes needs to be killed. Variations are running through tall grass, through cornfields, through forest underbrush, through caves, climbing mountain passes, etc. Show us some climbing, but I don't need to see stakes being driven into rock faces or people chopping jungle foliage with machetes.

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4. Births

Unless they are showing the delivery (abbreviated) of a royal or a leader or some heir of importance, why do we need to see it? Why do we have to be in the room with the midwives/nurses/doctors/good Samaritan who happened to be there to help? These birth scenes are usually set up in advance, by making sure we see the pregnant mother saying how she could have her baby "any day now". We sometimes even get the initial labor pains, the husband taking the mother to the hospital, pacing outside of a waiting room or actually in the operating room assisting with the birth. WHY is this needed to tell any story about the birth of a child in a story? It isnt. But it's good for at least 20 minutes of filler time.

5. Funerals

Not as cheesy as showing baby showers and births and crawling through tubes, but still...WHY? A character dies, or is murdered or in some way or another is killed and some hack writers need to show us the funeral services. :facepalm:. This includes violin-laden scenes of somebody being ceremoniously burned in a funeral pyre.

EXCEPTIONS TO THIS: Space funerals. Why? Because they invariably involve few well chosen words, and shooting the corpse off into space. Short and sweet:

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[/RANT]

Anybody else think of filler stuff you see a lot in film and TV? Do we need to see women putting on makeup, guys shaving, people going to the bathroom, people undressing/dressing (unless it is before/after sex scenes), etc.

 

[Joelist]

Riker and Troi's wedding was at the start of the abomination known as Star Trek Nemesis, not First Contact...

 

[Overmind One]

Riker and Troi's wedding was at the start of the abomination known as Star Trek Nemesis, not First Contact...

Correct...I will change the post.

DONE.

 

[Joelist]

Need to do a bit more editing. The Enterprise E debuted in First Contact so in Nemesis it is not new anymore. Interestingly, they did open First Contact with introducing the Enterprise E as the most advanced starship in the fleet.

 

[Overmind One]

Need to do a bit more editing. The Enterprise E debuted in First Contact so in Nemesis it is not new anymore. Interestingly, they did open First Contact with introducing the Enterprise E as the most advanced starship in the fleet.

The point of the OP is pointing out filler in TV and film. I will change the info in that reference, but I was focusing more in the wedding between Riker and Troi as being unnecessary filler. Thanks for pointing it out! Ill edit.

 

[Overmind One]

Need to do a bit more editing. The Enterprise E debuted in First Contact so in Nemesis it is not new anymore. Interestingly, they did open First Contact with introducing the Enterprise E as the most advanced starship in the fleet.

DONE.

I was focusing on the filler elements in the shows...I should have been more attentive with my references, but the point is still made.

Comments on filler?

 

[ParagonPie]

Padding! Best ones are the ones where people simply walk and say absolutely nothing, or when they do, it has zero meaning to the current situation and/or development of said characters.

Also this

My goodness jesus on a pogo stick that camera. Like 20% of that shot is taken up by an extra and a large blurry thing to the right. Its right there. In the fore ground. Whoever did the camera work for that show I would of seriously slapped him hard, then glued his feet to a concrete block. STAY STILL.

 

[Joelist]

I guess it depends on what is considered filler.

In a movie pretty much anything not advancing the storyline is filler. In a series you also have to develop backstory and characters so that the overall series storyline makes sense. So let's say anything not doing one of those three is filler.

I would agree most of those items above are problems when they do not advance the plot. Another one is overly long, slow scenes of traveling to a ship/place. Star Trek The Motion Picture was guilty of this with the initial reveal of the refitted Enterprise that took so long that by the time they docked the viewer was disengaged. The Black Hole also did this as did a lot of others.

 

[Tripler]

All the prevues to next weeks episodes of SGU :wanking::wanking::wanking:

 

[Overmind One]

All the prevues to next weeks episodes of SGU :wanking::wanking::wanking:

That is actually a VERY good one! Sometimes, there is a full 15 minutes of recaps (going back to the beginning like they do in Helix). :facepalm: Oh, and that is another one....dream sequences (those not having anything to do with the story).

 

[shavedape]

What I hate about filler crap like baby showers is that it's done to show us, the viewers, that the characters are trying valiantly -- oh so valiantly -- to maintain their humanity under duress. :rolleye0014::rolleye0014::rolleye0014:

Gimme a break! If I wanted over wrought, needless drama I'd watch a Telemundo soap opera. At least they're honest about the maudlin BS and don't try to sneak it in as a subliminal reminder that the show is about "real people in extraordinary circumstances, blah blah blah" the way scifi shows do nowadays.

 

[Overmind One]

I guess it depends on what is considered filler.

In a movie pretty much anything not advancing the storyline is filler. In a series you also have to develop backstory and characters so that the overall series storyline makes sense. So let's say anything not doing one of those three is filler.

I would agree most of those items above are problems when they do not advance the plot. Another one is overly long, slow scenes of traveling to a ship/place. Star Trek The Motion Picture was guilty of this with the initial reveal of the refitted Enterprise that took so long that by the time they docked the viewer was disengaged. The Black Hole also did this as did a lot of others.

Creative ways to use filler is better than the packaged "been there done that" cliche fillers we see these days. How many times are we going to have to see people crawling through air ducts? Do the writers know that people actually can see the air ducts in their offices and in hospitals and that they are usually large enough for maybe a cat to crawl through? No excuses for baby showers or weddings. And for future writing, no Bar Mitzvahs, Quinientos, or test tube conception ceremonies either.

The bolded comment you made is a great example! A variation on that is "awe inspiring" scenes of scenic views or approaching a sparkling city at night from the darkness, etc.

 

[shavedape]

Creative ways to use filler is better than the packaged "been there done that" cliche fillers we see these days. How many times are we going to have to see people crawling through air ducts? Do the writers know that people actually can see the air ducts in their offices and in hospitals and that they are usually large enough for maybe a cat to crawl through? No excuses for baby showers or weddings. And for future writing, no Bar Mitzvahs, Quinientos, or test tube conception ceremonies either.

The air duct gimmick is one of my major pet peeves. I've mentioned this before but feel the need to do so again: Quite simply, air ducts large enough for humans to crawl through are rare. I've only seen one once, in a warehouse I was working in, and it was suspended from the ceiling. It was not in the ceiling and it was not in the wall as air ducts that size can't fit in ceilings and walls for obvious reasons. The particular air duct I refer to was maybe fifteen feet long at the most and was fed via a much smaller wall vent that entered thru a large fan. There was no way for a human to enter the air duct without taking it apart completely as the exit vents were the size of a shoe box.

Also, and this is even more important, air ducts are small for a reason -- to concentrate the air flow and allow for pressure for forced air to move through the building it supplies air to. If buildings had people-sized air ducts ( especially ones that ran through walls and ceilings) it would be incredibly inefficient at heating/cooling and it would be cost prohibitive in terms of the monthly utility bill.

God how I hate the air duct thing! It's beyond moronic to have these labyrinthine highways in every building in every scifi/horror show around.

 

[Tripler]

The air duct gimmick is one of my major pet peeves. I've mentioned this before but feel the need to do so again: Quite simply, air ducts large enough for humans to crawl through are rare. I've only seen one once, in a warehouse I was working in, and it was suspended from the ceiling. It was not in the ceiling and it was not in the wall as air ducts that size can't fit in ceilings and walls for obvious reasons. The particular air duct I refer to was maybe fifteen feet long at the most and was fed via a much smaller wall vent that entered thru a large fan. There was no way for a human to enter the air duct without taking it apart completely as the exit vents were the size of a shoe box.

Also, and this is even more important, air ducts are small for a reason -- to concentrate the air flow and allow for pressure for forced air to move through the building it supplies air to. If buildings had people-sized air ducts ( especially ones that ran through walls and ceilings) it would be incredibly inefficient at heating/cooling and it would be cost prohibitive in terms of the monthly utility bill.

God how I hate the air duct thing! It's beyond moronic to have these labyrinthine highways in every building in every scifi/horror show around.

You are absolutely right !!!. I am a retired HVAC and Sheetmetal Worker and the only place you will see huge ducting is on the rooftops from the chillers which heat and cool a building . Some you could drive a pickup truck through . Once they enter the building they are zoned with PTO's ( Plenum Take Offs )( much smaller ducting though some will retain a large size due to the distance that they may have to travel ) and each section will have Fire Dampers between walls and the ductwork will also become smaller at the end to create static pressure to keep the air flow moving and reaching its diffuser at the end of the duct line . Also there will be Y branches again with zoning dampers so it would be a prig to travel through a building from one end to the other . The defusers or air vents that you see in the ceiling are usually a 12" 10" 8 " or 6" flex pipe 10 feet long coming off the main supply trunk as we call them with a top or side PTO . Nobody is gonna crawl threw that ,,,. Believe or not but a hell of a lot of people have no idea what or how there homes and offices are heated and cooled so I guess the duct routine will pull the wool over some eyes