The Fickled Finger of Fandom

[puppetmaker]

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.

Comments

[auryn29a.livejournal.com]

Is it sad that I have no idea who Marian or Stingray are? And what the heck is Megan Fox doing on that list? Also, is there a link for that list?

I'm 36 and I suppose I've seen/read/heard a lot of sci-fi/fantasy in my day. Some of it forgettable, some of it good, some of it incredibly awesome. I think, like music and other forms of entertainment/stories/ideas, some things are fun for the time and some things simply last. And some things fall away for years and suddenly come back into fashion.

I was a Farscape fan. I still am, actually, considering that words like "frell" and "dren" are now permanently part of my vocabulary. There are even times I'll say "frell" and for a moment forget where it came from. But the series had an impact on me and I'm very glad it was around.

I think maybe the trends you speak of seem new because sci-fi hasn't been this popular in the past. I look around now and notice that it's now more mainstream than ever before. I can turn on the TV and find many sci-fi shows in a prime time slot. And they're popular! I used to latch on to every bit and morsel of sci-fi that I could find on television and I mourned the loss of each one. But now I can choose which ones I want to watch based on quality rather than "Oh wow! This exists!" Of course, that means there's lots more junk out there that calls itself sci-fi or fantasy. But still the gems shine through.

To me, this trend is most obvious with conventions. People want to grab the hot latest thing and make a hip costume to parade around Dragoncon or somewhere. There are costumers who care more for the art of making the costumes than for the fandoms they belong to. I have a friend who asks what costume she should make every year and when I throw out suggestions she responds that she has no idea what I'm talking about. Sometimes she'll watch a movie or an episode of a TV show just to get costume ideas.

When "300" came out some friends of mine put on shorts and wore KFC buckets on their heads and called themselves "300 Pounds!" *shakes head* They were so popular that the next year they refined their costumes and did it again! I fear that's something that may last a while.

I remember watching Blake's 7 on PBS when I was a child. I remember thinking I was watching something really special. I can barely remember it now. I'd like to see it again.

I remember trying to watch Dark Shadows a few times when it was on the Sci-Fi channel. I just couldn't get through it. I was incredibly bored.

And then there's stuff I remember as a child but nobody else seems to. Like The Raggedy Ann and Andy Movie. Or The Mouse and His Child. Stuff that I found awesome and just a tad traumatic but have, for the most part, vanished. They've never been released on DVD. (Though you can find them both on Youtube. Yay, technology!)

I'm glad you brought up audio. I'm loving the surge of audio stories out there! Big Finish is doing a lot of Doctor Who audio stories featuring the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th Doctors. And they're phenomenal! They can do so much more with audio! And the stories are so rich. Sometimes they smack me in the face and I have to wonder if I really just heard what I thought I heard. And they're not doing just Doctor Who. There are Highlander and Stargate adventures now.

I _think_ I saw Space Cases once or twice. I'll have to look for it.

Anyway, it's a great time to be a fan. Even if you're just a fair weather fan. (Would a hot weather fan be more useful?)

[xray-studios.livejournal.com]

I've heard rumor of Farscape webisodes. Hopefully there is some truth to the rumor. For me, nothing currently on TV quite measures of to what Farscape offered.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

There's a comic series running at the moment, though whether that will snowball into webisodes is anyone's guess.

[millysdaughter.livejournal.com]

I watched Dark Shadows in the late 60s.

Blake's 7

[jmswallow.livejournal.com]

The radio plays are really good

Thanks for the compliment! We're working on more for the coming year, and the good people at Mike's Comics will be selling 'em.

[timewalker.livejournal.com]

LOVED Blake's 7 on St. Louis PBS in the late 80's. I tried to get all of the episodes on tape and failed when our cable lost the PBS signal for several weeks. Argh.
Still trying to explain it to people who don't know it.
I'm thankful for Bittorrent for shows that haven't been released on DVD.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

Farscape is picking up new fans via the rewatch community (there's a bunch who are filtering over from BSG, and older fans, too)