When "fans" go too far
DW fans are truly their own worst enemies.
During my last rant, I talked about extreme Rose fans (known as batshippers) taking over certain LJ comms and casting a pall on fans that liked Rose but were able to move on. Now I'm boggled by the sheer negativity of some DW fans who seem to hate the show they profess to love.
Consider how Rusty attempted to give fans everything they wanted with lots of nods to Old School Who in Utopia. He threw in action, drama, reunions, snark, humor, pathos, and an old enemy with only time to tell part of a story in 42 minutes on a limited budget. He went for the fast paced big bang, wow factor. I expected reaction from the hard core fans to be quite positive, a big fat 9, 10, and even a 7 or 8 rating.
I expected constructive criticism; nothing can ever be produced to perfection in everybody's eyes. But what I've been hearing from these old fans is a bewieldering stream of nitpicking and prissiness of an ideal of show that never existed except in their own minds.
The old Who was a show built on being cheap and cheesey. The sets wobbled if bumped. A great story was one that sounded and looked fantastic until you thought about it later (and all the stories were patently silly and ridiculous under intense scrutiny). The monsters were a hoot (for the older crowd). Doctors regenerated. Companions came and went (and even died). But it was all done with sincerity and tongue planted firmly in cheek. The show was meant to be a fun romp: space opera entertainment. That is what we loved. Without some of the cheekiness, silliness and cheesiness, it wouldn't be DW. Rusty resurrected the Old Who for a new audicence and sensibility. He knew cheesiness wouldn't sell post Star Wars and FX, but tried to retain for the older audience the old flavor of silliness and cheekiness.
It seems to me that the show has been somehow transmuted in the minds of some older fans. They seem to have stopped watching for entertainment; it's something to pull apart for everything it's supposedly not, and has never been. Stories must now hold up to careful scrutiny despite the fact they didn't before. In reviewing Utopia, some complained that the location was a quarry; there shouldn't have been a quarry. The futurekind was an embarrassing old '80s cliche; nevermind all the cliches in Old Who. This and that is silly, apparently unforgivable in comparison to Old Silly. The Master was just mustache twirling, forgetting that he was the biggest send up of a mustache twirling evil archnemisis since silent movies. And they loved it!
I think while some fans hold dearly to Old Who, they should try to regain their sense of fun, delight and enjoyment instead of consistently concentrating on the shortcomings. If shortcomings are all some can see, maybe they should explore whether they are still fans. Fannishness comes and goes. I have left fandoms when I finally admitted to myself that him/it doesn't enthrall me any more. I would talk about my disaffection in my own blog. I would discuss it with friends. But I would not go so far as to frequent fan forums just to rain on the parade, while calling myself a fan. It boggles my mind that the ones who bitch the loudest are the ones who cried the most for the show's return.
I don't get it. *Why* do they watch? Just because everybody else is?
During my last rant, I talked about extreme Rose fans (known as batshippers) taking over certain LJ comms and casting a pall on fans that liked Rose but were able to move on. Now I'm boggled by the sheer negativity of some DW fans who seem to hate the show they profess to love.
Consider how Rusty attempted to give fans everything they wanted with lots of nods to Old School Who in Utopia. He threw in action, drama, reunions, snark, humor, pathos, and an old enemy with only time to tell part of a story in 42 minutes on a limited budget. He went for the fast paced big bang, wow factor. I expected reaction from the hard core fans to be quite positive, a big fat 9, 10, and even a 7 or 8 rating.
I expected constructive criticism; nothing can ever be produced to perfection in everybody's eyes. But what I've been hearing from these old fans is a bewieldering stream of nitpicking and prissiness of an ideal of show that never existed except in their own minds.
The old Who was a show built on being cheap and cheesey. The sets wobbled if bumped. A great story was one that sounded and looked fantastic until you thought about it later (and all the stories were patently silly and ridiculous under intense scrutiny). The monsters were a hoot (for the older crowd). Doctors regenerated. Companions came and went (and even died). But it was all done with sincerity and tongue planted firmly in cheek. The show was meant to be a fun romp: space opera entertainment. That is what we loved. Without some of the cheekiness, silliness and cheesiness, it wouldn't be DW. Rusty resurrected the Old Who for a new audicence and sensibility. He knew cheesiness wouldn't sell post Star Wars and FX, but tried to retain for the older audience the old flavor of silliness and cheekiness.
It seems to me that the show has been somehow transmuted in the minds of some older fans. They seem to have stopped watching for entertainment; it's something to pull apart for everything it's supposedly not, and has never been. Stories must now hold up to careful scrutiny despite the fact they didn't before. In reviewing Utopia, some complained that the location was a quarry; there shouldn't have been a quarry. The futurekind was an embarrassing old '80s cliche; nevermind all the cliches in Old Who. This and that is silly, apparently unforgivable in comparison to Old Silly. The Master was just mustache twirling, forgetting that he was the biggest send up of a mustache twirling evil archnemisis since silent movies. And they loved it!
I think while some fans hold dearly to Old Who, they should try to regain their sense of fun, delight and enjoyment instead of consistently concentrating on the shortcomings. If shortcomings are all some can see, maybe they should explore whether they are still fans. Fannishness comes and goes. I have left fandoms when I finally admitted to myself that him/it doesn't enthrall me any more. I would talk about my disaffection in my own blog. I would discuss it with friends. But I would not go so far as to frequent fan forums just to rain on the parade, while calling myself a fan. It boggles my mind that the ones who bitch the loudest are the ones who cried the most for the show's return.
I don't get it. *Why* do they watch? Just because everybody else is?