Retroactive Continuity and Beverly Hills 90210

WTF

For those who do not know what retroactive continuity is please brush up:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retcon

You know what grinds my gears.

For those who have been watching the new and improved 90210 know that something stinks in that part of TV Land.

To be honest, I was an avid watcher of the original Beverly Hills 90210 and it's spinoff Melrose Place. Should we forget that Rob Estes played Kyle McBride on Melrose Place and is now playing some random principal from Kansas who grew up in Beverly Hills. Are we destroying the world of Beverly Hills 90210 for better television.

This is retconning. Taking a world and screwing it up. Now we all know retconning happens. Professional Wrestling is the predisposed harbinger of destroying it's previously established historical data. George Lucas is also a big fan, changing the Star Wars universe and blowing it up. In the end most people go along with change, but not me.

Where is the authenticity within writing. Is it really so hard to keep a consistent stream of words over time.

One of the biggest disappointments was Stephen King's Dark Tower odyssey. For those who do not know The Dark Tower, it is a core seven books with several other books feeding into it. One of these feeder books, Insomnia, had a character named Patrick Danville. Patrick was a kid an he was an artist. The whole ending of Insomnia revolved around the fact that Patrick was going to die saving two men, one of whom must not die. This was a prophecy in the book clearly linking Patrick to the Dark Tower books and a teaser that in the end he would save the gunslinger before he ascended to the fabled Dark Tower. This, sadly, did not happen. He did make an appearance in the final Dark Tower book, however he did not save two men. His only purpose was to "erase" the Crimson King (the antagonist), and he never died.

Stephen King sort of retconned the situation with some early plot devices, but how hard would have it been to create a situation where Patrick Danville would have to save two men. The same with George Lucas, how hard would it have been to shoot a scene showing Yoda on Dagobah with Luke, or Obi wan having interaction with Uncle Owen. Why create something and then not give it your all.

Rob Estes is an easy thing to ignore on 90210, however is it really staying true to the 90210 world?

Nevertheless, the new 90210 is pretty cool.