Recently, I 've been watching the 1970s TV series, The Incredible Hulk, courtesy of Netflix. I hadn't seen it since it originally came out, but I had fond memories. Rewatching it confirmed my feelings that this was a really well-done show for its time.

Now, I'm not a comic-book fan. Oh, I understand the appeal, and I get the method: the interaction between the visual image and the text, the strong emotive quality of the storyline, etc. It's just that usually, the themes don't grab me particularly. I fail to emote in tune with the Caped Crusader, and Superman makes me chuckle at best. But I like the Hulk, bad science and all. The green guy is endearing, funny, and sometimes downright insightful.

The thing is, comics heroes and their writers rely on gimmicks. There's a setup. In The Hulk, the setup is the usual Bad Science. To wit, we have to swallow the idea that:

1. Dr David Banner is so dumb that he waits until everyone else has left the lab, and then doses himself with gamma rays, just to see if that will make him stronger.
2. This actually does, by a process usually called 'fun with DNA'.

Okay, so we put up with this. This give us the gimmick: as a result of a lab explosion, everyone believes that:

1. Banner is dead.
2. The Hulk is a murderous monster, because he killed Banner and his lab partner.

This leaves Banner on the run, in search of neurosurgeons with radiation labs, and in need of a constant supply of new shirts. The Hulk is hard on shirts. Which brings me to one of the puzzles about gimmicks. You're going to get stuck with awkward plot problems. The Hulk always rips Banner's clothing. Banner never anticipates the transformation fast enough to obviate the problem by, say, removing his shirt¹. That would seem too premeditated. So he has to buy new shirts all the time. Or borrow them. Or steal them off washing lines, leaving money behind. (He's very honest, is Dr Banner.)

This brings up another question: Banner works at odd jobs, because he's peripatetic. But The Hulk doesn't understand all of that. How does Banner manage not to lose his luggage, his money, etc, due to all the mayhem? Worse, how does he keep track of all his aliases? Sure, he's 'David Blaine' one day, and 'David Benson' the next, but where does all the fake ID come from? The show is reticent on this detail, as on so many others.

See what I'm getting at? If you hang your plot on a gimmick, you get stuck with a lot of plot baggage. Be sure you can turn at least some of this baggage into productive plot devices.

The opening for this series contained the wonderful line, 'Mr McGee, don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.' This line is particularly wonderful because the actor, Bill Bixby, says it, not in a threatening voice, but wistfully, almost pleadingly. He really does worry that McGee won't like him when he's angry. Although once The Hulk saves McGee from the Vegas mob, he sort of feels differently about the lovable green goof.

Of course, The Incredible Hulk works for a beautifully metaphysical reason: the story has replaced the Frankenstein myth with a new one: the mad scientist as his own monster. That changes things. And it makes us sit up and take notice.

Can you do this? Can you turn what looks like a mere gimmick into a productive plot device? Consider these stories:

• Psych: The fake psychic as crimesolver.
• Medium: The genuine psychic as crimesolver.
• Life: The ex-con cop as Zen adept.
• The Fugitive: Detective on the run.
• Seven Days: Short-term time traveller as problem-solver.
• And etc.

Whatever device you use, you'll be asking the audience/reader to suspend disbelief. And you've got to make it worth their while. You've got to make the gimmick pay off for them. Give them jokes. Let them do a ride-along with the character as he/she figures out how to cope with the unwanted baggage of the gimmick. Make a deal out of the coping mechanisms, such as Banner's exasperated, 'I have got to buy shirts that stretch!'. Somewhere, somehow, this piece of gimcrackery might just turn into a way of exploring new territory.

Writing Right with Dmitri Archive

Dmitri Gheorgheni

23.06.14 Front Page

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