Offshoot fandoms
Want to know one of the things I like most about writing in new fandoms?1 It's easy to keep track of canon.2 Four episodes into a tv show, there are no huge arcs and mind-boggling timeline and endless lists of secondary characters to keep a track of. When you're writing multiple fandoms, and you have a memory as slippery as mine, that's a huge advantage. Plus, I'm lazy, and the thought of huge amounts of canon research doesn't thrill me!
But what if the fandom is an offshoot of another? Torchwood is a baby fandom, but it's got decades of Dr. Who behind it. And there's Stargate Atlantis (Stargate SG-1 tv and movie), Angel (BtVS) and probably lots of others I can't think of.3 In a variation of that, there are tons of movies based on comics/books/tv shows etc, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who will go to movies without having ever read the comics (books are a different matter, but that's just me and my books trump movies attitude).
What do you think? How much do you like to be familiar with the original fandom when you're writing an offshoot? Would you be happy catching McKay's and Weir's episodes of SG-1, just so you have their background, do you think even that is unnecessary, or do you feel obliged to buy a shelf-load of DVDs to catch all the Stargate related canon? What about writing movie-verse with no comic background - does that feel off to the purists, or does it not really matter as long as it's stated that it's movie-verse?
Personally, I veer on the side of getting at least a fair amount of the background canon, but I guess only that relating directly to the characters, or important aspects of the show. Take Captain Jack for example - no way can I write him yet, not without getting hold of the Dr. Who episodes he appeared in. And I'd probably want to do a bit of research on aliens that have appeared in Dr. Who first too. But as for watching episodes going back to 1963… not going to happen! An overview on wikipedia will do for that, as far as I'm concerned.
The Stargate fandom isn't really an issue for me, because I have seen most of SG-1, and the movie, though I wouldn't say I know SG-1 well enough to write it competently (again with the too much canon, and SG-1 makes it even harder with the multiple timelines). I did do some research on SG-1 wormhole theory for 'Serpentine Curves' though, just to make sure I didn't contradict SG-1 canon, and actually used bits of information given out by Sam when Teal'c was caught in the stargate buffer for my own story.
Would it even be possible to write Angel fiction without having seen at least the first two seasons of BtVS? I'm inclined to think not - you'd miss the first part of Cordelia's character arc, miss the history Angel has with Buffy, miss Wesley's origins. And without that background, I think any characterisation would be lacking in the richness that is so appealing about them.
When it comes to movies based on comics in particular, I run into problems. I don't like comics, never did even as a kid, and I don't want to start reading them now. But if I were to attempt to write Batman movieverse, or X-Men movieverse, I think I'd feel a bit at a loss, not having all the wealth of detail and characterisation that so many others, including potential readers, have. Which, now I come to think of it, is probably why I haven't written either of those fandoms.
1 New as in brand spanking new, not just new to me.
2 I also love trying to get the hang of new character voices, and the feel of a fandom, but that's a whole other story.
3 Are the CSIs individual shows, or are there links?
But what if the fandom is an offshoot of another? Torchwood is a baby fandom, but it's got decades of Dr. Who behind it. And there's Stargate Atlantis (Stargate SG-1 tv and movie), Angel (BtVS) and probably lots of others I can't think of.3 In a variation of that, there are tons of movies based on comics/books/tv shows etc, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who will go to movies without having ever read the comics (books are a different matter, but that's just me and my books trump movies attitude).
What do you think? How much do you like to be familiar with the original fandom when you're writing an offshoot? Would you be happy catching McKay's and Weir's episodes of SG-1, just so you have their background, do you think even that is unnecessary, or do you feel obliged to buy a shelf-load of DVDs to catch all the Stargate related canon? What about writing movie-verse with no comic background - does that feel off to the purists, or does it not really matter as long as it's stated that it's movie-verse?
Personally, I veer on the side of getting at least a fair amount of the background canon, but I guess only that relating directly to the characters, or important aspects of the show. Take Captain Jack for example - no way can I write him yet, not without getting hold of the Dr. Who episodes he appeared in. And I'd probably want to do a bit of research on aliens that have appeared in Dr. Who first too. But as for watching episodes going back to 1963… not going to happen! An overview on wikipedia will do for that, as far as I'm concerned.
The Stargate fandom isn't really an issue for me, because I have seen most of SG-1, and the movie, though I wouldn't say I know SG-1 well enough to write it competently (again with the too much canon, and SG-1 makes it even harder with the multiple timelines). I did do some research on SG-1 wormhole theory for 'Serpentine Curves' though, just to make sure I didn't contradict SG-1 canon, and actually used bits of information given out by Sam when Teal'c was caught in the stargate buffer for my own story.
Would it even be possible to write Angel fiction without having seen at least the first two seasons of BtVS? I'm inclined to think not - you'd miss the first part of Cordelia's character arc, miss the history Angel has with Buffy, miss Wesley's origins. And without that background, I think any characterisation would be lacking in the richness that is so appealing about them.
When it comes to movies based on comics in particular, I run into problems. I don't like comics, never did even as a kid, and I don't want to start reading them now. But if I were to attempt to write Batman movieverse, or X-Men movieverse, I think I'd feel a bit at a loss, not having all the wealth of detail and characterisation that so many others, including potential readers, have. Which, now I come to think of it, is probably why I haven't written either of those fandoms.
1 New as in brand spanking new, not just new to me.
2 I also love trying to get the hang of new character voices, and the feel of a fandom, but that's a whole other story.
3 Are the CSIs individual shows, or are there links?