Thoughts about the character changes from S1 to S2 with reference to Connor's techie skills

[deinonychus_1]

Recently I've been having some quite intersting discussions with Munchkinofdoom re the change between S1 and S2 with Connor, and the sudden appearance of his techie computer and engineering skills. Leaving aside how much you take canon at face value for the use of these skills (which myself and Munchkin do entirely disagree about), I've been thinking about the reasons behind the changes, and why they were so radical.

In S1 Connor was largely just a dino-geek, and with his database he was clearly set up to be the character that provided information about the creatures and the time periods. However, I have a feeling that the writers dropped a bit of a clanger, because that role, to a great extent, was already taken by Cutter, who is clearly the star of the show, and Connor's knowledge merely duplicates Cutter's, and Cutter is also better at it.  See, for example, 1.2, where Cutter got trapped in the underground and without him the others had to resort to consulting Connor and his database to identify the arthropleurid. On emerging from the underground, Cutter himself then demonstates that he has come to exactly the same conclusions re the identification, without any reference to Connor or his database - he simply knew it. It could be taken as bad editing, or if you chose to take canon at face value it can also be taken as an example that Cutter is simply better and knows more than Connor - not surprising considering one is a professor and the other his student.

The problem here is that in ensemble shows, it generally works better if each team member has something different to bring to the mix. Okay, certain things, such as action and fighting, tend to be across the board to some extent (although there are usually a couple of specialist characters in the actions roles - see Ryan and Stephen), but in terms of skills and knowledge there's usually a bit more of a distribution, with very little overlap or duplication. This then gives the opportunity for episodes where each individual member of the team can shine in their own unique area. Hence the problem with Connor. In S1 he had nothing unique to bring to the team. Anything he could do, Cutter could do better, so Connor was fequently just used as the comic relief character.

It has been said in interviews that the writers to some extent used the timeline shift in S2 to re-work the characters a little, and to rectify where things didn't quite work in S1. I suspect they realised what they had done with the duplication of skills, and that was why they made such a radical change to Connor. They expanded and extraploated from the database that we saw in S1, and gave him previously unseen computer/electronics/enginering skills, and at the same time they subtly shuffled the dino-geekery to one side. This kills two birds with one stone - it gives Connor a skill set that is unique to him, and it stops him stealing any of the limelight from Cutter, the star of the show, when it comes to palaeontological info-dumping.

It will be interesting to see what they do in S3, given the rumours of the potential... absence... of Cutter in S3 and beyond, and whether or not they quietly shuffle Connor back in to the role of dino-geek, should the position become vacant.

Now all they need to do is give Abby some decent opportunities to use her animal skills and we will all be happy.
 
These are just my thoughts, and I thought it would be interesting to throw them out for discussion. What do you guys think?

Comments

[missyvortexdv.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't call it a radical change myself. Tech skills may not have been at the forefront but by the existence of what looked like a potentially custom coded database application in S1 still speaks of vastly more computer skills than any other characters show. Not to mention if I recall correctly there were some videos on there too and whilst Connor may have collated info including the videos from other sources, but he may also have animated them himself possibly based on the other info he'd got...

I'd definitely concede that at the very least they have considerably emphasised his hardware tech skills. S1 was more about knowledge, both explicitly pointed out dino-geekery and more implicit software/coding and research skills.

[deinonychus-1.livejournal.com]

I'd quite like to think that the computer skills were there all along in S1, and it is possible to argue that it was merely a case that they were never relevant to any plotlines, so were never obviously used. Certainly the database was impressive, and maybe hinted at more techie skills than we ever actually saw in S1, but to me it just felt like a big jump away from what we had previously seen of the character.

I suppose there isn't enough evidence in canon to be certain either way, but I defintiely feel that the writers deliberately went in a different direction with Connor in S2, and made far more of an effort to give him something that was 'his' area of expertise.

[joereaves.livejournal.com]

But in S1 those computer skills were clearly *software* skills. Being able to program a complicated database is a completely different skill to being able to engineer the moon rover thing or the Anomaly Detector. Nothing in S1 suggested he spent his spare time building computers or such - nothing specifically said he didn't, but it's a skill that there was no evidence of before S1. I could probably, at a push, figure out the database, but I couldn't build a moon rover :D

I don't mind it suddenly appearing in S2 because they are, to a certain extent, different characters/different people, to me it's no different than Claudia becoming Jenny. I will however be irritated if in S3 he reverts to more of a mini-Cutter, because he seemed to lose some of those skills in S2 and there's no time change to explain them coming back.

Unlike Munchkin I'm happy to accept his tech skills in S2 simply because he is a different person, although I can see why she has issues. I don't see the fact that he used a hairdryer in the moon rover as incongruous since he was, presumably, building the ADD at government expense and with government resources, whereas the rover was a personal project and he was no doubt making do with whatever he had to hand.

[missyvortexdv.livejournal.com]

It may be moot considering S2 changes, but personally I didn't have a problem thinking he could make for example the moon rover.

They *are* different skills, but based on the software geeks I know - who do not have any more experience than repairing or putting together pc's on occasion - they're quite happy to go with the school based electronic they did and figure out how with the help of the internet guides.

As for the ADD, we never have any evidence he made the hardware, do we? I can't believe he orchestrated it all himself - that's got to take a team, even if he was leader of it (which seems unlikely to my mind unless it's a title for sake of ego).

[deinonychus-1.livejournal.com]

different skills, yes, but in a related area. I have to admit I'm not techie in the slightest, so I dont know just *how* different, but surely if he started with software as a precocious 14 year old with the database, then it isn't much of a stretch to say he branched out into interests in hardware and engineering at a later stage when he was a little older.