Keep Them Coming: Star Trek: The Cage

The start of a story is what decides whether you keep coming back for more or drop the series entirely. In ‘Keep Them Coming’, we look at the beginning of stories, whether it be the pilot episode of a show, tutorial level of a video game, or first chapter of a novel, and figure out what makes it effective or a dud. There will be spoilers, but only if you consider a plot twist within the intro to be a spoiler. 

Possibly the most different pilot episode in American history (that’s still considered canon with the show it came from) is that of the original Star Trek show of the 70’s, an episode called “The Cage.” Very little of what we think of Star Trek now existed in this pilot. We still have the Enterprise, yes, but it is captained not by Kirk but by a man named Christopher Pike. None of the crew we know is in the pilot either, except for Mr. Spock…kind of. Even he is vastly different from his iconic appearance now. In the pilot episode, he smiles.

Keep Them Coming: Attack on Titan

The start of a story is what decides whether you keep coming back for more or drop the series entirely. In ‘Keep Them Coming’, we look at the beginning of stories, whether it be the pilot episode of a show, tutorial level of a video game, or first chapter of a novel, and figure out what makes it effective or a dud. There will be spoilers, but only if you consider a plot twist within the intro to be a spoiler. 

Hey guys, sorry for the long wait between articles! As I said in my last post, I got a new job! It’s not full time yet, but with the hour-long commute into DC, it certainly feels like it. I’m going to try to keep a regular two-a-week schedule of articles, since I already have my articles planned all the way through March, but don’t be surprised if you see another picture of Julius’s butt here and there.

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s get back to business – beginnings! I haven’t been keeping as in touch with the anime world as I used to, but I’m not out of it totally either, and I certainly hear of the big names all the time. A trend I’ve noticed with recent animes is that their first episode seems to be pretty different than future episodes. It’ll be longer, or have a slightly different tone, or focus completely on one character, despite the rest of the series featuring a group of characters. The first time I really noticed this was when I watched Attack on Titan.

The episode starts with a minute or so of clips of people fighting huge beasts, but honestly, as there are no main characters and the fighting is generic and inconsequential compared to what we see later in the series, it’s very easy to brush aside. I almost instantly forgot about it after…

Keep Them Coming: The Hunger Games

The start of a story is what decides whether you keep coming back for more or drop the series entirely. In ‘Keep Them Coming’, we look at the beginning of stories, whether it be the pilot episode of a show, tutorial level of a video game, or first chapter of a novel, and figure out what makes it effective or a dud. There will be spoilers, but only if you consider a plot twist within the intro to be a spoiler. 

Since I’m trying this month to show both what to do in the beginning of a story and what NOT to do, and last week we looked at an amazing start to a video game, lets look at one that’s a bit more…iffy.

I have a love-hate relationship with the Hunger Games series. I started to read it before I even knew movies were coming out, and to be honest, I didn’t even make it past the first chapter before I was bored out of my mind, so I stopped reading. Then the movie came out, I rented it, and I really liked it. Later, I was given an audiobook service trial that gave me the first chapter of a book of my choice for free, so I decided to give The Hunger Games another try. The audiobook version was so well done that I proceeded to buy and listen to the entire series.

My opinion of the Hunger Games books continued to swing back and forth, especially during the last one, but we’re not here to talk about how the series ended, we’re here to look at how it began.

Keep Them Coming Editorial: The Importance of a Good Hook

The start of a story is what decides whether you keep coming back for more or drop the series entirely. In ‘Keep Them Coming’, we look at the beginning of stories, whether it be the pilot episode of a show, tutorial level of a video game, or first chapter of a novel, and figure out what makes it effective or a dud. There will be spoilers, but only if you consider a plot twist within the intro to be a spoiler. 

If you haven’t noticed yet, I’m dedicating an article a week throughout January to analyzing how stories begin and deciding just what exactly makes it good or bad. In fact, I have a whole section of my blog dedicated to this. So why do I put such an emphasis on beginnings? Because, without a doubt, they are the most important part of the story.

Keep Them Coming: Undertale

The start of a story is what decides whether you keep coming back for more or drop the series entirely. In ‘Keep Them Coming’, we look at the beginning of stories, whether it be the pilot episode of a show, tutorial level of a video game, or first chapter of a novel, and figure out what makes it effective or a dud. There will be spoilers, but only if you consider a plot twist within the intro to be a spoiler.

I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to get into Undertale or not, as I was first introduced to it by the wave of fanart that one day flooded my Tumblr dashboard. Who’s this kid? Is that a fish-person? Why is that robot flirting with that skeleton? Alright, this is far too weird for me. Not the best first impression. Then, a friend of mine gave me the game for my birthday and I was forced to finally give Undertale a try.

I have now decided that friend is a wonderful person and an amazing judge of games. (Even if she has gifted me Hatoful Boyfriend as well. We’ll see how that goes…)

Keep Them Coming: Doctor Who: The Christmas Invasion

The start of a story is what decides whether you keep coming back for more or drop the series entirely. In ‘Keep Them Coming’, we look at the beginning of stories, whether it be the pilot episode of a show, tutorial level of a video game, or first chapter of a novel, and figure out what makes it effective or a dud. There will be spoilers, but only if you consider a plot twist within the intro to be a spoiler.

Nothing says “Christmas Special” like alien invasions, killer Christmas trees, and the threat of extinction, at least not to the British. Doctor Who Christmas specials have been going strong for a while now, with this Christmas marking the tenth straight year of new episodes on Christmas Day. The Christmas specials are some of the most-watched episodes of the Doctor Who series, but besides being aired on a holiday, what’s so special about them?

Keep Them Coming: The Nightmare Before Christmas

The start of a story is what decides whether you keep coming back for more or drop the series entirely. In ‘Keep Them Coming’, we look at the beginning of stories, whether it be the pilot episode of a show, tutorial level of a video game, or first chapter of a novel, and figure out what makes it effective or a dud. There will be spoilers, but only if you consider a plot twist within the intro to be a spoiler.

Is The Nightmare Before Christmas a Halloween or a Christmas movie? It’s both, but for our purposes, we’re going to use it as a Christmas movie, since October was already full to the brim with horror and there simply aren’t enough stories for the holiday season. If you haven’t already seen this movie, I would suggest checking your local cable listings for it because different channels, especially Disney, love showing this movie from October all the way through December.

Right this way…

Keep Them Coming: Maximum Ride

The start of a story is what decides whether you keep coming back for more or drop the series entirely. In ‘Keep Them Coming’, we look at the beginning of stories, whether it be the pilot episode of a show, tutorial level of a video game, or first chapter of a novel, and figure out what makes it effective or a dud. There will be spoilers, but only if you consider a plot twist within the intro to be a spoiler.

I suppose I should put a disclaimer on this article – I haven’t actually read the complete Maximum Ride novels. Don’t get me wrong, I did read the chapters I’m reviewing for this article! I just didn’t read very far past them, and you’ll see why by the time I’m done. I do know the basic plot of the books from reading their manga adaptation. In fact, the manga adaptation was why I was interested in reading the novels in the first place, because they were well done enough for me to want to know the original source material. Then, after buying the entire novel series, I began to read the first book, Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment…and wished I had saved my money.

Keep Them Coming: Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time

The start of a story is what decides whether you keep coming back for more or drop the series entirely. In ‘Keep Them Coming’, we look at the beginning of stories, whether it be the pilot episode of a show, tutorial level of a video game, or first chapter of a novel, and figure out what makes it effective or a dud. There will be spoilers, but only if you consider a plot twist within the intro to be a spoiler.

Welcome, one and all, to our very special Legend of Zelda week! We’ll be taking a look this week at my favorite video game series of all time and just what it is that makes it so special and causes it to have such a strong hold on the hearts of gamers all over the world. Normally, for a Keep Them Coming, we look at the beginning of the very first game in the series, but we’re going to shake things up a bit – Ocarina of Time was not the first Zelda game, but the fifth game, coming out more than a decade after the original Legend of Zelda. However, it is considered by many to be the best and most central Legend of Zelda game ever made and is always suggested as the game for newcomers to play. It was the first in the series to feature 3D graphics, but that wasn’t the only thing it was first to do. We’ll talk more after we look at what actually happens in the game.

Keep Them Coming: Fallout 3

The start of a story is what decides whether you keep coming back for more or drop the series entirely. In ‘Keep Them Coming’, we look at the beginning of stories, whether it be the pilot episode of a show, tutorial level of a video game, or first chapter of a novel, and figure out what makes it effective or a dud. There will be spoilers, but only if you consider a plot twist within the intro to be a spoiler.

Seriously, can I have Liam Neeson read the entire Bible to me?

There’s quite a few things going on next week, particularly on November 10, and because one of those things is going to be getting a week-long celebration, we’re going to look at the other big event today. The long-awaited Fallout 4 is coming out! Admittedly, I’m new to the Fallout series; I know next to nothing about Fallout and Fallout 2 and never finished playing Fallout: New Vegas, but there is one game in the series I’m in love with: Fallout 3. It was my introduction to the series, as it makes the list of my boyfriend’s favorite games and he was determined to get me to play it. There were three things that grabbed me and didn’t let go. First, the playable character’s father is voiced by Liam Neeson. I could listen to that man talk all day. Second, the game takes place in what they call the “Capital Wasteland” – Washington D.C. 200 years after the nuclear apocalypse. Third, I LOVED the game’s method of character creation.