The Fanfic Phenomenon

I was talking with a friend over dinner tonight and the conversation got me thinking about how much I enjoy reading amateur writing on the Internet. In fact, one of my favorite time wasters is to surf the net looking for a good story based on a TV or movie that I enjoy.

Buffy and Star Trek are easy; there are literally thousands of stories created by fans. However, would you like to try a little Starsky and Hutch? or MacGyver? or Scarecrow and Mrs. King? or The A-Team? or The Sentinel? All of these shows have at least one (and some hundreds) of websites devoted to fiction that take the characters beyond the lines set up by the canon (or official) story. My first fanfic love was Star Trek. To this day I sometimes prefer reading a story on the internet to watching the show. I know, it sounds almost sacrilegious to a fan -- but one of things that frustrates me to no end about Star Trek is how rarely the characters are allowed to grow and change. In a fan created story, there are no limits. Characters can encounter situations and make decisions that they never could on network TV. (I find it curious that there are relatively few sites devoted to Babylon 5 fanfic. I think the series satisfied our desire for a real story to unfold.)

Anyway - sometimes this freedom to create a completely different story is wonderful -- sometimes it's absolutely terrible. One aspect of fanfic that is relatively common is the dreaded "Mary Sue" fic. This is a fanfic that includes an original character who is brilliant, beautiful, misunderstood and an usually becomes instant friends with the crew. This character often solves the story problem and usually acts suspiciously similar to the author and sometimes is named the author's middle name... Yes - the "Mary Sue" is a way for the author to take part in the universe of the show. These stories are usually atrocious. (One interesting fact - one of the most famous and generally recognized Mary Sues is Wesley Crusher. The creation of Gene Wesley Roddenberry.) :-)

Well, that was a little rabbit -- The point is that it's character change that I love. What happens to these people??? How and why do they make the decisions they make? Who do they fall in love with? Why? How do their families function? Where are the personal tensions and how are they resolved? While the space battle is nice and I enjoy good special effects as much as the next sci-fi geek, it's the emotions that bring me back every week.

I confess that I am an unashamed "shipper." (Someone who reads relationship stories.) Yep - I enjoy a good romance story. Please make it really long and full of tension, misunderstandings, good conversations, and if someone gets rescued and comforted -- that's just icing on the cake. I especially enjoy a good unconventional "ship." Put a character together with someone unexpected and then tell me the story of how that happened! Sometimes I even enjoy a good crossover (putting the characters from two shows together, ie. Willow goes to SG-1 or Mulder and Scully investigate Smallville.) You can get some very unexpected tensions in a good crossover. You can also get some dumb situations. It's a bit of a gamble.

Fan fiction gives fans the chance to explore scenarios that would never happened on TV. It kind of makes me sad. Why can't writers figure out a way to have growth and change in an hour long drama without ruining the dynamic or losing the fan base? Would it really hurt anything if Grissom realizes that he lives his life behind a wall and tries to make baby steps to connect with people? What if any sitcom (insert title of your choice) decided to let their characters grow? I think that's why Friends is the only sitcom I have ever been faithful to. The characters grew. (Except perhaps for Joey, but that's another story...) :-)

If anyone reading this has a good fanfic recommendation, please put it in the comments. I'm always up for a good long read. :-) If you are interested in reading fanfic, I suggest typing the show or movie of your choice into the search engine of your choice. It wouldn't hurt to include the word "recs" because you get a list of someone's favorite stories. Please watch the ratings. There is a lot of fic out there that isn't suitable for family viewing. Go for G, PG, or PG-13 stories if you are concerned about that sort of thing. One of the most massive sites is www.fanfiction.net; however, it has no quality controls. Anyone can post and a lot of the stories are poorly written. The best bet is to look for a recommendation or archive site that you like and settle in for good times....Catch you on the flip side.