Well - I mentioned a week or so ago that TPTB had dropped the ball on Rachel's age ( going from 10 to 12 in only 6 short months) and some other things - well it seems they think we really do have short memories because on the 6/1 repeat Luka actually stated that his family (wife and kids) was taken and THEN killed. Nothing at all like the story he gave Carol. If the writers every check out this site - I would like to tell them that they need to get their character's stories straight and then stick to the game plan.

Just a few thoughts...

-- Linda (l.brown@mindspring.com), June 02, 2000

Answers

I noticed that too. Others had mentioned it, but seeing the repeat again last night so soon after the "Luka tells his story to Carol" episode really made it stick out like a sore thumb.

Bad form.

-- valerie (vschwinn@yahoo.com), June 02, 2000.

This bothers me too. I just hope that this "slip" wasn't on purpose and we get another "wacko person masquerading as a doctor story" like Amanda Lee and the psych patient/effiency expert (I think it was Robert Carradine). I like the character Luka as a caring, competent doctor and I think that the character has been set up with so many potential dimensions to explore: obviously his background is so foreign to most Americans (having his country torn apart by war) that it influences every other aspect of his life, personal and professional. I don't want TPTB to screw things up with either storyline inconsistencies or another "Amanda Lee" set-up.

-- Christine (cmniekamp@aol.com), June 02, 2000.

I cpuldn't agree more! By the way what was the purpose of the "Amanda Lee" story anyways?

-- Cammie (rmaelhorn@home.com), June 02, 2000.

Who knows what the purpose of the "Amanda Lee" storyline was? I guess it gave Mark something to do, and mentioned Doug's "Portland" job offer (speaking of inconsistancies...though he did tell Carol in "The Storm: Part II" that he was thinking of Portland or Seattle).

-- Arianne (CarolRossSusanGreene@yahoo.com), June 02, 2000.

I was thinking today that we needed a thread to discuss this (and other) inconsistencies and here it is! I don't have nearly as big a problem with the Portland/Seattle thing (they finally decided on a city by the time the babies were born and stuck to it, I think), but the Luka thing has bothered me for a long time...as I've stated in previous threads and as others have stated. This was a GLARING error, or seems to be at least. If they can figure out a way to squeeze out of this one (the stories seem so incongruent), it'll be amazing. I bet they just let it pass, but I wonder which story they'll stick with...the one he told Kerry (who is still on the show) or Carol (who is gone). I've said before and will again, the writers should read the summaries at this site to keep up with the important issues! I still CANNOT believe they so totally messed up on something as important as Luka's family's story.

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), June 02, 2000.

Now that I saw that conversation, I agree it is very inconsistent. And since it's a pretty important part of Luka's character, it should come up again. I don't know what they will do. Maybe since people are more likely to remember then conversation w/ Carol they will stick with that one.

Also, it kind of bothered me that Carol declared Doug a "hethan"/"pagan" (sp?) in last year's Christmas episode when he wouldn't go to mass with her (at first), but in Fathers & Sons he did that crossing yourself sign when he entered the church (sorry don't know what exactly it is called, I'm not Catholic!), signifying that he was religious. It probably means nothing, maybe Carol was just commenting that he *seemed* like a hethan because he wouldn't go with her. It's not such a big deal, maybe not even an inconsistency, but it's there.

-- Elaine (mrsclooney78@hotmail.com), June 02, 2000.

The oddest thing about such glaring inconsistancies is that I think that er viewers are not used to such shoddy attention to detail...which is to say that er is usually so on the ball about everything. I'm thinking of the rerun I just saw from season one called The Gift in which Susan gives Carter a robe for Christmas (originally intented for Div, who mysteriously disappears) and he does a little twirl of delight...and this is the same robe he wears in May Day! Six seasons later, and they include that detail...that just blows my mind...such a little thing, and yet just so cool. And I think of all the other things that I must have missed...it was just a stroke of luck that I caught that. That continuity is maintained in such instances while not in what some may consider more major areas is a mystery...but I have faith that there is some sort of evolving game plan...maybe...ack!

-- vicki (6vm1@qlink.queensu.ca), June 02, 2000.

Elaine -- I noticed that, too, Carol calling Doug a "heathen" and him saying he preferred "pagan," when a year earlier we'd seen him cross himself. I think the subtle point was Doug wanted to believe in a God for his father, because he really did love his father, though normally isn't very religious. I think, also, they were saying that to tease him because he wouldn't go to Mass with her.

Another minor detail of continuity I noticed is the "infield-fly rule" one. Doug, in Season 1, telling Mark he hoped nobody on Jake's baseball team would ask him to explain the infield-fly rule, and then Carol in Season 6 struggling to explain it herself. ;-) Funny how TPTB can add such minor touches of detail and seem to make such glaring errors at the same time.

-- Arianne (CarolRossSusanGreene@yahoo.com), June 02, 2000.

Hey, Elaine, it's called blessing yourself or making the sign of the cross but "crossing yourself sign" works too! :) (I am a Catholic, BTW.) I don't remember the specifics of either epi but I think he might have been trying to be respectful of his father (he'd died, right?) in "Fathers and Sons" (perhaps as a child he'd gone to Church and it was a hold over from those days). Then for the Christmas epi, Carol might have been trying to coerce him to go to Church. I really don't like it when someone tries to coerce someone to go to Church and maybe he didn't like it either. Also, another little piece of info for you: on Easter and Christmas Eve Midnight Mass the Church is filled with people you never see any other time and maybe (if he'd been raised in the Church) he knew how crowded it would be. I attend Mass "religiously" (LOL), but don't go to Midnight Mass and avoided Easter even this year because I wasn't up for a fashion show. Didn't mean to go on this long, but wanted to point out some possible reasons these two scenes might not be so opposed as they certainly appear on the surface.

And I think Vicki is right, when we regular ER viewers have such glaring inconsistencies as Luka's story, they stand out because we normally have so much consistency and they do so much to make it realistic (including using real Chicago newspeople, though people outside of Chicago wouldn't know that except to research or be told). Elaine might be right, they might use the Carol story but for me the other rings in my mind as the "real" one probably because I heard it first and it struck a chord then with its correlation to the two brothers and their story and his confrontation with Kerry about it. Plus it was the first time we'd found out for sure where his family was. I can drop whichever one they tell me to, but TPTB need to make up their minds and let us know which one they're going with. The first one seems to leave room for the possibility of a family member surviving (as was discussed at great length here), while the second one doesn't. I think that's another reason I prefer the first one.

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), June 03, 2000.

I just wanted to comment (again) on the two conflicting scenes about Doug being religious. He was, actually, sort-of being coerced into going to Mass, but it was more Helen than Carol, from what I remember (though, deep-down, Carol did want him to go). In the end he did go, I believe, so I don't think it's a big inconsistancy. Both cases were probably something from his childhood -- either knowing his father was Catholic or having attended the Church with him, and then perhaps Christmas wasn't a big thing in his household growing up (even though both grew-up without fathers, Carol had a huge family for support and holidays, and it seems Doug did not). Okay, that was longer than I intended, just thinking about it with nothing much to do!! :-)

-- Arianne (CarolRossSusanGreene@yahoo.com), June 03, 2000.

For more on Luka's conflicting stories, go down to the "Characters, etc." category and find the thread called "Luka's family." There are lots of good comments about the contradictions.

-- Annie (GoldenLaur@aol.com), June 03, 2000.

I was thinking about this inconsistency in Luka's story some more and the only way TPTB are going to be able to make it right is to explain it some more. Maybe Luka's family WAS taken and put in some camp or something for awhile, but then maybe for some reason (I wouldn't know why) they were released and allowed to go home and then bombed. They can make it work if they explain it to us a little better. It really was a noticable error as is shown by the many discussions on this site about it. I hope they will be more careful in the future.

-- amanda (amanda.rehm@home.com), June 06, 2000.

Somebody mentioned that Carter wears the same bathrobe now that Susan gave him for Christmas in Season 1, the robe that was originally supposed to be a gift for Div Cvetic. I was recently watching "The Healers" on my tape, and noticed that the black boots Carol is wearing in that episode are the same black boots she wears at the end of "SSS"!! Hmm...maybe the writers should take some tips on continuity from the wardrobe department? ;-)

-- Arianne (CarolRossSusanGreene@yahoo.com), June 07, 2000.

Good try, Amanda, but I don't know if they'll be able to do much but pick one to use in the future and ignore that the other ever happened. He told Kerry that they were taken away and then killed...no mention of them returning...and he said it when a family was being separated so I think he meant they were when they died. That, of course, directly conflicts with his story to Carol when he told her that he'd left to run to the market, causing what was meant to be a brief but self-imposed separation. I too have thought about this a bit more and have wondered why Goran didn't notice. There's so much talk of the actors being involved with their storylines and I hope they'd feel comfortable pointing out a glaring inconsistency like this to TPTB. On the other hand I'll give him some slack for two reasons: he's new and might not feel comfortable speaking up yet and he's only learned English in the past few years and might not have fully understood (somehow) the inconsistencies. Still, I fear they'll have to drop one of the stories and pretend it never happened. I'd like it to be the Carol one because the other might leave room for a survivor (which has been discussed at great length on other threads so I'll leave that alone).

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), June 07, 2000.