Fanon query
Oz-specific fanon query.
Who can tell me about how "Victoria" came to be the fanon first name for Mrs. Beecher? It's been Victoria as long as I can remember (~2006) but I'm wondering where it originated. Mrs. Beecher is not given a first name on the show/in canon or on imdb or on durfee.net or anywhere I looked, and I'm soooo curious about how it became the go-to name for her character.
I've asked a few Ozzies who have been around way longer than I have, but no one's certain. Some people thought it was her canon name, but I can't find any documented proof of that. Does someone (Fontana?) refer to her as Victoria in the DVD commentaries, which I never listened to (oops) (except the infamous LeeeeEEEEEeeeeEEEEeee one, of fucking course) (and the reasoning that Fontana gave for why Toby stopped wearing glasses, of fucking course)? Was it transcribed accidentally that way at some point? Was there an interview with the actress where she named herself? Or did it just -- catch on, somewhere along the line?
Like sometimes I'll be reading SGA fic that was posted before Lorne had a first name, and I'm always jarred when he's referred to as Nick (or Stephen). And honestly I find it jarring when Mrs. Beecher isn't named Victoria, in Oz fic.
[I think I most reference it with
blackchaps's fic, because she's written such solid characterization for Victoria in multiple stories.]
I bring this up because I've seen two or three fics recently that have used "other" names in place of Victoria. I wrote a fic once that was from her POV and I remember, at the time, scouring the 'net for references, but I never found any, so I went with the fanon 'classic.' I think it's super interesting that after a certain point in fandom time, people revert to using those other names, and not using "Victoria," at all.
I'm intrigued is the point. Hivemind historian memory banks, help me out? :)
x-posted to oz_rapsheet
eta: colleendetroit has found the source! And the pictures to prove it.
My only quibble now is that Hill's journal wasn't published until 2003, so there were still a number of years when Mrs. Beecher went unnamed. What did people used to call her, if anything? Toby's mother? Did someone seriously guess Victoria and reach complete vindication after the book was released? :D
Nonetheless, even though it's not show-canon, it is the closest thing to canon that we're going to get and I will take it. Long live Victoria Beecher! \o/
*
You know, I never thought to look in the book! Amazon has that "look inside" feature and I'm staring at this page right now where it has pictures of the main characters and all of the names of their relatives -- like, did you know that Genevieve's parents were named Jonah and Margaret? If I ever did, I had definitely forgotten. I remembered Leo Glynn's brother Mark, but not his wife Mary or his oldest daughter Ardeth, even though there was a storyline around her *facepalm*
FWIW, Diane's last name is spelled Whittlesey, which... I don't think that's how I've spelled it in the past. Oh wello!
This entry was originally posted at http://trillingstar.dreamwidth.org/440946.html.