Elissa Klotz
Entertainment Weekly #461, Internet suppliment
"I don't know why in the world you think this is hot, Mulder," Walter Skinner laughed mockingly. "This is not hot, this is pathetic." He wrapped his arms tighter around Fox Mulder, pulling him closer, and lightly nuzzeled the back of his neck.
-from "Harder Than it Looks," J. Blast
No, that little scenario wasn't on the Fox network last Sunday. It's on the Web -- and welcome to the world of "fan fiction." Hovering online, just out of sight of the mainstream, stories written by die hard afficiondos of TV shows, movies, even musicians, have grown into an ongoing online wonderland, one in which T.J. Hooker has coffee with Captain Kirk, Agents Mulder and Scully investigate strange happenings in Sunnydale, and Buffy and the gan solve a mystery with scooby-Doo.
Is it illegal? Yes -- but most TV networks ignore the fictional happening of their characters as long as the writers credit the proper sources and on't ask for money. For instance, while the studio may own the copyright on Buffy and her pals -- and your story about her running for President is technically an infringement - in reality the rule is hardly ever enforced. Is fan fiction immoral? Well -- sometimes; the subculture known as "slash" specializes in graphic sexual encounters (usually gay, often written -- as is most fanfic -- by women) between characters that are officially "just friends."
The majority of fan fiction is far less steamy, though. Most of the stories written about the musical group Hanson, for example, fall into the genre informally known as "Mary Sue," in which the author, a teenybopper, happens to meet the boys and starts a Disney-like innocent romance. Even stories at The Princess Diana Memorial Fiction Library (www.mmjp.or.jp/amalang.atc/fiction) have a romantic feel to them.
In a world in which entertainment conglomerates often treat audiences as afterthoughts, fan fiction is about regaining control. "People love to fill in the blanks," says Babylon 5 fan fiction writer Pam Buck, "or if a show goes in a direction they don't approve of, they'll write stories about what hey wish would happen." In some cases, fanfic keeps the soundstage well lit after the network has pulled the plug. How else do you explain healthy sites for moribund television shows like Quantum Leap (members.xoom.com/gcalvarex.ql.html) and Highlander (www.seventh-dimension.simplenet.com), keep writing stories in hopes they'll convince the network to ressurect the show.
How popular has fanfiction become? There are fanfic sites devoted to such hit shows as ER (www.willamette.edu/~jhadden/er.html) and The Nanny (www.geocities.com/televisioncity/studio/8064), and ones that continue the plots of movies like Titanic (countingdown.com/c2t/absolution) and Star Wars (www.fanfix.com). There are even some Jane Austen sequels out there (www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Boulevard/5436/fanfiction.html). But the royal family of the medium is Star Trek: The Definitive Guide to Star Trek Fan Fiction on the Web (www.erols.com/imppub/fanfic.htm) lists more than 100 fanfiction based websties based on Gene Roddenberry's original series and its endless permutations. It's not surprising that frustration over Trek's 1969 cancellation was the seed from which all fanfic ultimately grew: Whereas writers first explored bizarre plot twists in original stories printed in fanzines, the rise of the Internet allowed fans to post their efforst on bulletin boards and to a devoted Usenet group (alt.startrek.creative).
As the Web widens, fanfiction is slowly leaking into the mainstream -- and into mainstream television itself. Last season, a fan-fiction like comic book was used as a plot device in an W-Files episode, and ongoing Homicide and Pretender "webisodes" on NBC's official site (nbc.com) are an intriguing corporate response to the alternative-narrative concept.
As sad as it is to report, they're also better written than the majority of fan fiction. Passion is the motivating factor in this medium, not grammar, spelling, or scintillating banter. Here's Dawson Leery entering a jewelry store in a typical Dawson's Creek fan tale: "Looking around everything costed a bundle of money, which he didn't have, looking through the glass casing he spotted something that stood out a thin red necklace with a heart hanging off it." At least the author didn't break the three most important rules of fanfiction: spell check, spell check, spell check.
Most fanfiction authors write for one reason: feedback. But there are those who, dreaming of going legit, submit their work to publishers or to their favorite television shows. Their efforts aren't well received. "We get tons of terrible stuff," says John Ordover, editor of Pocket Books' lucrative Star Trek novelization series. "Fan writing is not the farm team for legit novels, and should be abandoned at once by anyone who wants to be a pro writer of any kind."
Ordover may be missing the point, though: As with so much about the Net, fanfic is about community. Jaque Whitworth, a student at Ball State University, describes the people who write the stories for her Tommy Lee Jones Fan Fiction website (www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Studio/5841/fanfic.html) as "the most creative, hardworking, intelligent, and friendly bunch of people I've ever had the pleasure of working with." Over at the X-men obsessed Subreality Cafe (shifting-sand.la.ca.us/~dragstar/scafe/subrc.htm), members use a chat room for 24 hour support in times of personal crises. Site creator Kelly Newcomb testifies to the notion that "for some, fanficdom can be almost a surrogate family". Now why can't someone in Hollywood make a TV series about that?