Reset button technique
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The reset button technique (based on the idea of status quo ante) is a plot device that interrupts continuity in works of fiction. Simply put, use of a reset button device returns all characters and situations to the status quo they held before a major change of some sort was introduced. Often used in science fiction television series, soap operas and comic books, the device allows elaborate and dramatic changes to characters and the fictional universe that might otherwise invalidate the premise of the show with respect to future continuity. Writers may, for example, use the technique to allow the audience to experience the death of the lead character, which traditionally would not be possible without effectively ending the work.
The term may be based on the reset button found on a video game console or computer. When pressed, such a button automatically restarts the machine, losing any unsaved data.
Effective use of this device depends on the audience being unaware of the continuity status, or successful suspension of disbelief that continuity is or will be interrupted, and the eventual communication of the status of continuity to the audience. It is usually employed as a plot twist that effectively undoes all the happenings of the episode. Common uses of this technique draw liberally from science fiction and metaphysical ideas, perhaps contributing to its widespread use in those genres. Examples of the reset button technique include dream sequences, alternate-history flashbacks, daydreams, time travel and hallucinations.
Continuity-wise, television shows belong in a continuum between the serial and episode-by-episode extremes. In serial shows, each episode not only follows but builds on previous material, and although it can still be used, any use generally leaves a negative imprint on the general continuity. In episode-by-episode works, on the other hand, the RBT is often utilized to eliminate dangling plot threads. Soap operas are almost universally serials; cartoons and sitcoms are almost universally episode-by-episode.[citation needed]
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[edit] History
The idea of a return to the status quo ante is certainly not original to television; Shakespeare scholars have recognized it as a regular device of his comedies[citation needed], and it is in fact a standard literary device in general.
[edit] Prime examples
The grand reset button is easily discovered in most sitcoms, with Gilligan's Island being a particularly notorious example: nothing the castaways do ever jeopardizes the continuation of the series, as nothing they do actually succeeds in getting them off the island. The television show Dallas also famously used a variation of this device, in which a season of the show, including the death of a major character, was written off as a dream of another character. The radio series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy also used the "Dallas technique", explaining the entire second series as being an hallucination by Zaphod Beeblebrox brought on by drinking too many Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters, thus bringing the beginning of the third series and third novel in line with each other - the reasons for this did not become clear until series five.
In some TV westerns of the 1960s and early 1970s (and notably prominent on the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service), if any male character on the show got seriously involved with a woman, as soon as he married her, she was killed off or died gruesomely in the same episode. This reset button technique was an inevitable side-effect of the writers wanting to have both love interests for characters on an episodic basis, but also allowing status quo ante, everything returning to normal by episode's end. This happened in The Big Valley each time one of the Barkley sons got married, and in Bonanza whenever any of the Cartright sons got married. This also was the case with the father in Bonanza, Ben Cartright, in that each one of his sons was the offspring of a different wife, who, when shown in a flashback episode, would die in the same episode (except for the wife who gave birth to Hoss, who lasted for two episodes). A more modern example of this technique was used in CSI:Miami, when Horatio married recurring character Marisol, only for her to get killed the very next episode.
The various Star Trek series, but most notoriously so Star Trek: Voyager, have provided a great deal of other prime examples. Sometimes the writers liked to kill off or significantly alter characters or circumstances, but still not wanting to make the change permanent so a semi-casual viewer doesn't have trouble keeping up, or because the actor whose character has died is still on the payroll. Another example occurs when the writers do not wish the story they have told to have any permanent effects on the canon.
Regardless of what happens in the span of one episode, by the end of that episode, everything is as it was at the beginning. An example of such an episode is the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Year of Hell", where the reset is an explicit part of the plot, as time travel causes the entire events of the episode to have never happened (and unusually for the show, no-one has any indication that anything occurred). Other Star Trek examples include the Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes "Yesterday's Enterprise," and "All Good Things...".
Charmed constantly used the reset button in episodes in which one of the main characters was transformed into some kind of demon (like vampires, furies, etc) or magical creature for the duration of the episode, though there was always some kind of loophole that allowed the character to return to his/her original state.
Early episodes of The Simpsons mocked the reset button by having Mr. Burns being unable to remember Homer even though Burns' assistant Smithers reminds him that "All the recent events of your life have revolved around him in some way." Sometimes the show would explain at the end of an episode why Mr. Burns doesn't remember Homer in the next, such as having Mr. Burns fall out a window and forget most of the episode's events. This has since been mostly abandoned on the show, however, and the tendency has simply been absorbed into Mr. Burns' character, who for example in "Who Shot Mr. Burns, Part 1" forgets Homer's name several times in the same episode.
The Simpsons has also parodied this in the episode "The Principal and the Pauper", where it is discovered that the Skinner we know is an impostor, replacing a man he thought died long ago whose dream was to become a principal. In the end of the episode they cart the "real" Skinner away because they prefer the presence of the fake Skinner, real name Armin Tamzarian. The entire population of Springfield then promises that they will never speak of this incident again. In a much later episode ("I, D'oh-Bot"), the Simpson family's cat Snowball II is killed. Lisa gets a Snowball III, then IV, only to have them die as well. Eventually she gets a Snowball V that she says she will just call Snowball II to avoid confusion and to save money. Skinner then walks by (his only appearance in the episode) and makes a snide comment on these affairs saying "Isn't that a cheat?" Lisa replies by saying "I guess it is, Principal Tamzarian." Startled, he acknowledges "Snowball II" by name and leaves. In contrast, the episode "A Milhouse Divided" leads up to Milhouse's parents getting reunited, but they end up permanently separated. This was done on purpose to defy viewers' expectations that the events will get reset.
As stated, animation series (especially anime) are also often keen to employ the reset button so that no new design work is required, and to be able to reuse existing cels. Animation writers enjoy poking fun at the constraining practice when possible; for example, Cardcaptor Sakura has an episode where Sakura captures The Time. This event has the card's spirit continuously repeat that same day over and over again, using the reset button multiple times in the duration of the episode.
Another anime - the Excel Saga - has widely parodied the whole concept, with "the Great Will of the Macrocosm" repeatedly resetting the whole universe whenever things head off unsatisfactorily. Over 5 resets occur in the first episode alone due to the main charcter dying multiple times.
In the French animated television series Code Lyoko, the main characters have access to a supercomputer that can turn back time. This is used consistently through most first season episodes to undo nearly every unwanted change, wiping the memory of weird events from people not part of the team. In the second season, Code Lyoko embraces a story arc technique, and the reset button technique is used only to reverse emergency situations, such as one of the major characters nearly dying, because they found out doing so strengthened their enemy.
Writer may also use the technique after long story arcs to bring a series back to its original ideals. An example of this is in the Doctor Who eighth Doctor novels, after the Faction Paradox storyline, The Doctor is left with no memories of his travels, has his ability to travel in space and time taken away, and is left alone on earth, therefore resetting the series of novels. This sort of reset button allows writers freedom from complicated story arcs, and allows them to focus on individual adventures for the series.
One science fiction television series that presents a notable exception to the reset button rule is Babylon 5. Due to the fact that creator J. Michael Straczynski served as a writer for the vast majority of the episodes, the series was able to maintain a progressive continuity, consistency that isn't reliant on the reset button technique. Hence, the series was able to feature many interspersed stories, spanning multiple episodes, where characters evolved substantially over the course of the greater story arc, and events from one episode had serious repercussions throughout the rest of the series. Since then, the reset-button technique appears to have gone out of style; Witchblade, Lost, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (although its spinoff series Angel did use the reset button technique for dramatic effect in the episode I Will Remember You), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Alias, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis and the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica all do not use the reset button (though some, such as the Stargate SG-1 in the episode "Window of Opportunity", have exploited the reset button for comedic effect).
The Family Guy episode "Mind Over Murder" uses Stewie's time machine as a reset button, resulting in the episode's events never having happened. Likewise, in the episode "Da Boom", the episode's events are revealed to have been a dream by Pam Ewing, parodying the Dallas season reset mentioned above. It is also used in "He's Too Sexy for His Fat"; in this episode he has his fat surgically removed and at the end he falls into a large vat of lard, returning him to his exact weight as earlier. Stewie also gains weight in an effort to taunt Chris, though no explanation is given as to how he returns to normal size. In the Family Guy movie Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, the reset button is used when Stewie travels back in time to save himself from the lifeguard chair; before he can explain the events of the future to his past self, he is vaporised by the present Stewie, thus putting everything back to the way it was and having Stewie having no knowledge of the future.
The Japanese series Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon has inventively used a Magic Silver Crystal first as a macguffin, then as a reset button. In the final act, it restores the lives of just about every character in the series except Usagi, who survives throughout. How Chiba Mamoru survives being slain by Usagi at the end of act 48 is not mentioned. Aino Minako somehow gets resurrected after an illness kills her during act 47. Yet, strangely, after the reset button gets pushed, the Senshi know each other despite not knowing each other at the beginning of the series (Usagi and Ami probably know each other, and they both know who Minako is, but that is about it).
On older episodes of South Park, Kenny would always be killed, only to be brought back to life in an unexplained fashion. In one episode when his mother was pregnant, the new baby was identical to Kenny, and even shared his name. His parents have mentioned that it has happened multiple times before, although it does not explain why he is the same age as the other boys at the beginning of each episode, having only been born a short time before. The running gag of killing Kenny grew old, so for a period Kenny did not return to life, and was replaced by some of the other children. Eventually, he returned to life and ceased to be cannon fodder. Since then the reset button's use is less obvious, and is some times not used all together.
Johnny Vaughan, in discussions about his sitcom 'Orrible, stated one rule about the writing. "No richer, No wiser", meaning that everything must be back to normal by the end of the episode.
The Futurama episode "When Aliens Attack" mocks the widespread use of the reset button technique. In the final scene, Fry remarks that the secret of television is that in the end, everything is back as it was - all the while the camera zooms out to reveal a New New York in ruins. The joke, of course, is that the city will be restored, without explanation, by the next episode.
The video game Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time incorporates the reset button directly into the game play, by allowing the player to use the Sands of Time along with a magic dagger to "rewind" time by a few seconds in order to correct fatal mistakes. At the end of the game, the entire episode is rewound to the beginning by replacing the Sands of Time into the giant hourglass whence they came, then destroying the villain who would have released them.
[edit] Time-Loop Stories
Main Article: Time loop
Some movies and television shows use the reset as a mysterious plot device; in these cases, the events of the story happen repeatedly. Usually, one character is aware of the reset, struggles to understand the cause, and/or attempts to return "time" to its forward flow.
The Stargate SG-1 episode "Window of Opportunity", involves a time loop that two of the main characters must escape.
The comedy film Groundhog Day is probably the best-known example. Whenever Bill Murray's character dies or goes to sleep, he wakes up to realize that the same day is happening again. This premise was also used in the series Day Break and the movie 12:01. In another series, Tru Calling, the main character would be asked for "help" by the ghost of murder victims; this would cause her to wake up on the day of the victim's death, giving her a chance to prevent the tragedy.
An episode of Xena, Warrior Princess saw the heroine reliving the same day. She eventually learned that the goddess Aphrodite had caused the time-loop so that Xena could aid a pair of star-crossed lovers.
In "Cause and Effect", an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the Enterprise crew discovers that for 17 days it has been caught in a time-warp repeating the events leading to the ship's destruction.
The movie Galaxy Quest (in which the stars of a canceled Star Trek-like show are called upon to crew an actual space ship and defend an alien race from attack) uses the Omega 13 device to "rewind" the last 13 seconds.
