stevelabny
Explorer
Star Trek - I'm not a die-hard Trekkie, but I've seen just about every episode of every TV show, and every movie. Haven't read the novels. While I'm sure inconsistencies pop up, they pretty much went out of their way to write the new movie INTO continuity even though its a reboot.
Star Wars - Prequels sucking does not equal continuity errors. There's enough time between trilogies to explain away minor inconsistencies. The cartoons and the expanded universe novels and comics that have been declared "official" are also pretty well controlled. Why would you seriously count the Christmas Special?
Highlander - I really don't get you guys and your Highlander fascination. I had never watched it when it came out, and when I finally saw it a few years back, I thought it was a terrible terrible movie. And that was the FIRST one. I can only imagine how bad the second one is, that EVERYONE hates it so much. Even if these abominations are riddled with continuity errors, this franchise is so low on the pop-culture scale of relevance that it shouldn't win this poll.
Terminator - The continuity editor for T3 (hahaha) made an oopsie on the T2 dates, which screwed up John's age, but the time-travel nature of the story fixes most other problems. Simply a story of fate vs ability to control your own destiny. T2 "averted" Judgment Day, T3 said you could change the details, but that you can't change Judgment Day. The TV show was well on its way to creating problems, and will never be resolved. T4 was a pointless mess, and the biggest problem is just that John acts like he never met a friendly Terminator before. This could also just be a problem with Christian Bale, who's a disaster in almost every movie he touches.
Transformers - The cartoon made sense to me. The movie is a separate continuity, and should not be watched by anyone. The same way that every TV show or movie based on the comic book universes below has to be treated as its own continuity.
Fallout - Didn't finish 1 or play 2. But pretty sure that they take place in different parts of the same Wasteland. Things will be slightly different from place to place. The problem with this series might actually be that the games are too much alike.
Traveller - I know this is a D&D board, but this is too obscure.
Doctor Who - Can't really comment, but like someone said above, isn't this explained away with each new doctor / new series being the newest reincarnation of the Doctor?
DC Universe - They've been around for 80 years. And if you read the whole thing it could be a big mess. However, the first Crisis specifically rebooted the Universe, and would have been fine except that editorially control immediately after was sloppy. Byrne wrote out Superboy, and then the Legion had to adjust, etc etc. They went back to the well with Zero Hour and Infinite Crisis's Superboy-Prime continuity punch. Still refuse to acknowledge the problem of Bruce Wayne. Need to kill him for real, but keep pussyfooting around it, and now they've given him a clearly fake death. As long as he's stuck in his 30s, Nightwing and Tim and the entire rest of the DCU can't grow and we're stuck in the Peanuts / Archie universe of no character evolution and zero drama. BUT at least they bothered to hit a reset button twice to wipe away the most glaring of problems.
Marvel - Never bothered to hit a reset button. Just keeps changing character's ages, and wiping out major parts of their lives on a whim, without any cause for concern. Since the early years of the Marvel universe and the high points since them have actually had the characters aging/evolving, their picking up the same "our characters are icons, we can't really do anything with them" nonsense as DC is ridiculous. Peter Parker is their Bruce Wayne, and making him not a dad, not a teacher and not married, so he's more appealing to these imaginary children reading comic books is insane.
Sure, explaining the 80 years of the DC Universe might be tougher than the 45 years of the Marvel Universe, but since DC has at least TRIED to address this issue, Marvel is your big winner. Or loser. Whichever.
Star Wars - Prequels sucking does not equal continuity errors. There's enough time between trilogies to explain away minor inconsistencies. The cartoons and the expanded universe novels and comics that have been declared "official" are also pretty well controlled. Why would you seriously count the Christmas Special?
Highlander - I really don't get you guys and your Highlander fascination. I had never watched it when it came out, and when I finally saw it a few years back, I thought it was a terrible terrible movie. And that was the FIRST one. I can only imagine how bad the second one is, that EVERYONE hates it so much. Even if these abominations are riddled with continuity errors, this franchise is so low on the pop-culture scale of relevance that it shouldn't win this poll.
Terminator - The continuity editor for T3 (hahaha) made an oopsie on the T2 dates, which screwed up John's age, but the time-travel nature of the story fixes most other problems. Simply a story of fate vs ability to control your own destiny. T2 "averted" Judgment Day, T3 said you could change the details, but that you can't change Judgment Day. The TV show was well on its way to creating problems, and will never be resolved. T4 was a pointless mess, and the biggest problem is just that John acts like he never met a friendly Terminator before. This could also just be a problem with Christian Bale, who's a disaster in almost every movie he touches.
Transformers - The cartoon made sense to me. The movie is a separate continuity, and should not be watched by anyone. The same way that every TV show or movie based on the comic book universes below has to be treated as its own continuity.
Fallout - Didn't finish 1 or play 2. But pretty sure that they take place in different parts of the same Wasteland. Things will be slightly different from place to place. The problem with this series might actually be that the games are too much alike.
Traveller - I know this is a D&D board, but this is too obscure.
Doctor Who - Can't really comment, but like someone said above, isn't this explained away with each new doctor / new series being the newest reincarnation of the Doctor?
DC Universe - They've been around for 80 years. And if you read the whole thing it could be a big mess. However, the first Crisis specifically rebooted the Universe, and would have been fine except that editorially control immediately after was sloppy. Byrne wrote out Superboy, and then the Legion had to adjust, etc etc. They went back to the well with Zero Hour and Infinite Crisis's Superboy-Prime continuity punch. Still refuse to acknowledge the problem of Bruce Wayne. Need to kill him for real, but keep pussyfooting around it, and now they've given him a clearly fake death. As long as he's stuck in his 30s, Nightwing and Tim and the entire rest of the DCU can't grow and we're stuck in the Peanuts / Archie universe of no character evolution and zero drama. BUT at least they bothered to hit a reset button twice to wipe away the most glaring of problems.
Marvel - Never bothered to hit a reset button. Just keeps changing character's ages, and wiping out major parts of their lives on a whim, without any cause for concern. Since the early years of the Marvel universe and the high points since them have actually had the characters aging/evolving, their picking up the same "our characters are icons, we can't really do anything with them" nonsense as DC is ridiculous. Peter Parker is their Bruce Wayne, and making him not a dad, not a teacher and not married, so he's more appealing to these imaginary children reading comic books is insane.
Sure, explaining the 80 years of the DC Universe might be tougher than the 45 years of the Marvel Universe, but since DC has at least TRIED to address this issue, Marvel is your big winner. Or loser. Whichever.
