The Fickled Finger of Fandom

There was a YAL (yet another list) on the internet of “25 Women who shook SciFi” which had a number of misfired but it did put a female puppet in the mix with Marian from Stingray. Personally I would have gone for Lady Penelope or Miss Piggy but that’s me. Of course in the comments were all the characters that didn’t make it and a lot of questioning of why people like Megan Fox were for Transformers and Claudia Black was not for Farscape. My thought was where is June Lockhart for Lost in Space? Or if you have Buffy, why not Samantha from Bewitched? They did have Uhura and Marian from the 60s but most of the characters picked were the sexy females of more recent vintage.

I love FarScape when it came out. I found it one of the more original series on TV. Yes, I started watching because it was Henson but stayed for the show which appealed to me on so many levels. Farscape has been off the air since 2004 which makes it 5 years. I have watched the fans of the series dwindle down to the hardcore lovers of the show. And many fans know Ben Browder and Claudia Black from their roles on Stargate and are rather surprised that the two of them were on another show together and it was SciFi to boot.

Dark Shadows has a rather loyal, if disappearing, fan base. You have series like True Blood, Moonlight, and movies like Underworld but the grand-daddy of them all and the first vampire not played for laughs on TV is Barnabus Collins. I was telling one of Ariel’s friend about the series because they were happy of the idea of Johnny Depp playing a Vampire not knowing where this vampire came from. They were amazed to find an entire fandom out there that they had never heard of. I have a feeling if Burton and Depp ever get around to making the Dark Shadows Movie, the fandom is going to explode with new people which is not a bad thing since I am on the young end of having watched it on TV in the dark times before VCRs and DVRs.

Battlestar fandom had a major resurgence with the series. Now there are lots of Battlestar fans running around in costume. But how many will there be in 5 to 10 years? Because, before the current TV series, anyone wearing an original BSG costume had to explain it to others and tell them about the series.

I have found this new habit of some fans to try to figure out what is going to be BIG next so they can get in on the ground floor of the fandom a little disconcerting. They want to say that they were a fan before you had even heard of the project. Insta- fandom kind of makes my stomach churn a bit. Many of these people vanish onto the next new and shiny fandom trying to find something that makes sense to only them.

And for older fandoms, I think the old fans forget that they are not going to be around forever and the younger fans will keep their fandom going. This “hey kids, get out of my fandom” attitude I see cropping up disturbs me greatly. I will admit to be an inclusive fan rather than an exclusive fan and that may color my views here but I think getting the younger set interested in the shows that we were fascinated with when we were their age is not a bad thing. We are up to our 3rd or even 4th generation of Star Trek fans. How amazing is that? Same for Doctor Who.

Now I remember this really great series that has fallen by the wayside called “Blake’s 7” which is now being produced as radio plays. The radio plays are really good and they do have a number of the original actors in the cast. Blake’s 7 took the idea of the federation as presented in the original Trek and moves it to the logical conclusion of a dystopia so you have some people fighting against an oppressive regime that was created with the best of intentions but along the way some got greedy and the whole thing came crashing down on them. I remember when Blake’s 7 fandom was the hottest fandom to be in. We got the episodes from friends in England and had to play them on VCRs that could play PAL. We felt hip and cool because we knew this show. Now I would like to beat the drum for new fans which is hard since the DVDs are only in England and the video tapes are long gone. The radio plays may be purchased from Mike’s Comics and there may be a new series in the works.

I am grateful that I can still find fans of shows that I loved including Space Cases which has become even more dear to me for various reasons.

The Fickled Finger of Fandom

There was a YAL (yet another list) on the internet of “25 Women who shook SciFi” which had a number of misfired but it did put a female puppet in the mix with Marian from Stingray. Personally I would have gone for Lady Penelope or Miss Piggy but that’s me. Of course in the comments were all the characters that didn’t make it and a lot of questioning of why people like Megan Fox were for Transformers and Claudia Black was not for Farscape. My thought was where is June Lockhart for Lost in Space? Or if you have Buffy, why not Samantha from Bewitched? They did have Uhura and Marian from the 60s but most of the characters picked were the sexy females of more recent vintage.

I love FarScape when it came out. I found it one of the more original series on TV. Yes, I started watching because it was Henson but stayed for the show which appealed to me on so many levels. Farscape has been off the air since 2004 which makes it 5 years. I have watched the fans of the series dwindle down to the hardcore lovers of the show. And many fans know Ben Browder and Claudia Black from their roles on Stargate and are rather surprised that the two of them were on another show together and it was SciFi to boot.

Dark Shadows has a rather loyal, if disappearing, fan base. You have series like True Blood, Moonlight, and movies like Underworld but the grand-daddy of them all and the first vampire not played for laughs on TV is Barnabus Collins. I was telling one of Ariel’s friend about the series because they were happy of the idea of Johnny Depp playing a Vampire not knowing where this vampire came from. They were amazed to find an entire fandom out there that they had never heard of. I have a feeling if Burton and Depp ever get around to making the Dark Shadows Movie, the fandom is going to explode with new people which is not a bad thing since I am on the young end of having watched it on TV in the dark times before VCRs and DVRs.

Battlestar fandom had a major resurgence with the series. Now there are lots of Battlestar fans running around in costume. But how many will there be in 5 to 10 years? Because, before the current TV series, anyone wearing an original BSG costume had to explain it to others and tell them about the series.

I have found this new habit of some fans to try to figure out what is going to be BIG next so they can get in on the ground floor of the fandom a little disconcerting. They want to say that they were a fan before you had even heard of the project. Insta- fandom kind of makes my stomach churn a bit. Many of these people vanish onto the next new and shiny fandom trying to find something that makes sense to only them.

And for older fandoms, I think the old fans forget that they are not going to be around forever and the younger fans will keep their fandom going. This “hey kids, get out of my fandom” attitude I see cropping up disturbs me greatly. I will admit to be an inclusive fan rather than an exclusive fan and that may color my views here but I think getting the younger set interested in the shows that we were fascinated with when we were their age is not a bad thing. We are up to our 3rd or even 4th generation of Star Trek fans. How amazing is that? Same for Doctor Who.

Now I remember this really great series that has fallen by the wayside called “Blake’s 7” which is now being produced as radio plays. The radio plays are really good and they do have a number of the original actors in the cast. Blake’s 7 took the idea of the federation as presented in the original Trek and moves it to the logical conclusion of a dystopia so you have some people fighting against an oppressive regime that was created with the best of intentions but along the way some got greedy and the whole thing came crashing down on them. I remember when Blake’s 7 fandom was the hottest fandom to be in. We got the episodes from friends in England and had to play them on VCRs that could play PAL. We felt hip and cool because we knew this show. Now I would like to beat the drum for new fans which is hard since the DVDs are only in England and the video tapes are long gone. The radio plays may be purchased from Mike’s Comics and there may be a new series in the works.

I am grateful that I can still find fans of shows that I loved including Space Cases which has become even more dear to me for various reasons.