That Fandom Meme

[przed]

I've been enjoying reading everyone's responses to the fandom meme. Here's the questions:

1. What got you into this fandom in the first place?
2. Do you think you'll stay in this fandom or eventually move on?
3. Favorite episodes/books/movies, etc?
4. Do you participate in this fandom (fanfiction, graphics, discussions)?
5. Do you think more people should get into this fandom?

sc_fossil gave me MFU, Pros, and Sean Bean/Viggo Mortensen RPS, a.k.a. VigBean!


MFU

1. What got you into this fandom in the first place?
I was too young to watch the show in first run, and it wasn't re-run in Canada whilst I was growing up. Then I caught The Return movie when it was first aired when I was in university. It wasn't great, but I immediately fell for Illya. (I'd previously loved David McCallum in Invisible Man and Kidnapped.) Then a year or two later CBC started running the episodes early Sunday mornings, and I started dragging my sleep-deprived self out of bed every week too watch it. I got obsessed with the show. Bought the videotapes, bought the making of book, bought every issue of Epi-Log magazine that even mentioned the show. But this was before the internet made connecting to other fans so darn easy, and I had no idea about the fanfic. Move forward a couple of years, I'm in grad school, have discovered fandom through Blake's 7. Within a couple of years, I'm looking for a kinder, gentler fandom (those who say that Pros is a fandom that eats its young have never dipped their toe into the B7 pool) and stumble upon some MFU zines. Then I'm writing gen. Then a friend asks me to write slash for her first zine (Relative Secrecy 1!) and I never looked back.

2. Do you think you'll stay in this fandom or eventually move on?
As much as it pains me to admit it, I've sort of already moved on. UNCLE was my home fandom for years and years, but I've been down to only writing Christmas stories for a while, now. And this year my schedule is crazy enough that I didn't even sign up for the Christmas story exchange. But I don't feel I'm totally done with the fandom. I've got a long story cycle that's only half completed, and that's never been posted online. When I have some time, my plan is to post the finished ones, then get to work on the remaining stories. Fingers crossed, I'll actually do this in the next year or two. And now that the DVDs are out, I'd love to vid the show.

3. Favorite episodes/books/movies, etc?
Favourite eps include The Shark Affair (with a delicious Robert Culp as the sort-of villain), The Girls of Nazarone Affair, and The Terbuf Affair. I tend to the first season, black & white eps.

4. Do you participate in this fandom (fanfiction, graphics, discussions)?
See the above about having moved on.

5. Do you think more people should get into this fandom?
Absolutely. It's a wonderful show, in that goofy '60s spy mode. The comms are still wonderfully active. And there's decades of wonderful fanfic out there for the reading, both in zines and online.

Pros

1. What got you into this fandom in the first place?
Remember I said I bought a lot of Epi-Log magazines for the UNCLE content? Well one issue with an UNCLE episode guide also had an episode guide for Pros. The photos looked intriguing, and once I'd read the episode description for Discovered in a Graveyard, I knew I had to watch the show. But this was in the late '80s, I wasn't in fandom, and had no way of tracking down the eps. It took getting into fandom, and then tracking down grey market video tapes before I saw the eps, and then I bought as many zines and read as many online stories as I possibly could.

2. Do you think you'll stay in this fandom or eventually move on?
I'm pretty much here for the duration. For whatever reason, Bodie and Doyle hit something essential within me. I still love watching the show, reading the fic, writing myself, and vidding. Not to mention interacting with other Pros fans when I can.

3. Favorite episodes/books/movies, etc?
Favourite eps: Discovered in a Graveyard, Mixed Doubles, Hunter/Hunted, Wild Justice. Favourite fic: Georgina Kirrin's Spring-heeled Jack, Ellis Ward's Harlequin Airs, and just a ton of others.

4. Do you participate in this fandom (fanfiction, graphics, discussions)?
Yep. My fannish time is rather limited these days, but I write and vid when I can. And co-modded the Pros Big Bang. I get involved in discussions let frequently, but that due more to time considerations than inclination. If I can only do so much, the discussion is what's going to get cut out.

5. Do you think more people should get into this fandom?
Absolutely! The lads are gorgeous, the show is still interesting, and the fic is fantastic.

VigBean RPS

1. What got you into this fandom in the first place?
This was a complete accident. Ya see, I'd loved Sean Bean since he was in Stormy Monday, and Viggo Mortensen since he was in The Indian Runner. I watched both of them in a multitude of dodgy films and TV shows. (I saw G.I. Jane in the freaking theatre.) Then they were cast in Lord of the Rings as Aragorn and Boromir, my two favourite characters in the books, the two characters I was slashing as a ten-year-old before I even knew what slash was. Before the first movie was over, I knew I was going to read Aragorn/Boromir, and probably write it. I inhaled everything out there, read everything that was posted as it came out, and eventually ran out of stories. I went looking for more and started hearing rumours of RPS and rugbytackle. Which led me to LJ. (Yes, RPS got me on LJ.) I was hesitant at first, read a few not great shorter stories. Then I read cinzia's complex, angsty and cathartic A Long Journey and fell for my first (and so far only) RPS fandom. It was a fandom that utterly consumed me for a good few years. I was literally waking up in the middle of the night with story ideas for months.

2. Do you think you'll stay in this fandom or eventually move on?
Alas, this is another one I've moved on from. I'll always have great fondness for the stories, but I don't think I can write it any more.


3. Favorite episodes/books/movies, etc?
Cinzia's A Long Journey is still my fave story. The Orange Grove, an epic collaboration between her and viva_gloria is a very close second.

4. Do you participate in this fandom (fanfiction, graphics, discussions)?
Not any more, though I do get a shiver of pleasure whenever I see any of the old crew posting VigBean. And I have an unfinished AU set in WW II that I may finish one of these days.

5. Do you think more people should get into this fandom?
The old fic is still worth reading--there's some really fantastic stuff there--but it's not really as vital fandom as it was back in the day.

Comments

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

2. Do you think you'll stay in this fandom or eventually move on?
As much as it pains me to admit it, I've sort of already moved on. UNCLE was my home fandom for years and years, but I've been down to only writing Christmas stories for a while, now. And this year my schedule is crazy enough that I didn't even sign up for the Christmas story exchange.

I always remember the one you wrote for me. It's one of my very favorite.

But I don't feel I'm totally done with the fandom. I've got a long story cycle that's only half completed, and that's never been posted online. When I have some time, my plan is to post the finished ones, then get to work on the remaining stories. Fingers crossed, I'll actually do this in the next year or two. And now that the DVDs are out, I'd love to vid the show.

We can only hope. :-)

[przed.livejournal.com]

I've very glad to hear you still enjoy your Christmas story. I have to say it's one I'm rather fond of.

I've been feeling the need to finish off my UNCLE story cycle more in the last few months. I've left poor Mark hanging horribly in a few of the unfinished stories, and I feel like I need to give the poor boy some closure.

[gritsinmisery.livejournal.com]

For whatever reason, Bodie and Doyle hit something essential within me.

*nods vigorously* I feel they're the best balanced of all the buddy cop / secret agent fandoms I enjoy. Despite having different backgrounds, neither is really at a disadvantage in their current job, neither is a "fish out of water" like say, Blair or Illya (a Soviet in Red-Scare America) or even to a slight extent Hutch (upper class -- or at least upper-middle -- background working an inner-city beat.) The short, thinner partner is not the younger one. One is not really portrayed in canon as more of a Lothario than the other. Viewing the fandom as a whole, even fanon tends to woobify / vilify / celebrate them equally.

[przed.livejournal.com]

The equality between them, and the way they play off each other, completely comfortable in their environment, though with different strengths and weaknesses, is a big draw in Pros. That they're utterly adorable together also doesn't hurt.

[halotolerant.livejournal.com]

For whatever reason, Bodie and Doyle hit something essential within me.
Sometimes I think it's extraordinary that a show that finished airing before I was born still has a more active fandom than hundreds of others, and then I watch an episode again and realise that there's this *heart* to it that's missing from many a shinier, newer, better-planned show. The chemistry between Bodie and Doyle is so damn intense and complicated and fascinating.

[przed.livejournal.com]

The chemistry between them is very much a lightning in a bottle sort of thing. It's a magic mix of the writing, the characters, and the spark the actors bring to their roles, and I wouldn't have them any other way.

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

I was interested in the third pic mainly because I think RPS is so strange. I can't get my mind around the concept so it's interesting to read your thoughts on your pairing. Thanks!

I'm glad you're in Pros to stay!

[przed.livejournal.com]

One thing RPS offers you is the opportunity to cast your favourite actors in a story of your own creating.

Which doesn't entirely explain my affection for VigBean, but that's part of it.

[draycevixen.livejournal.com]

I've never got in to RPS so I'm always interested to see what people have to say about it.

I've tried explaining the lure of Pros to mates several times and for me too it really does come down to something essential. It's always so difficult to explain chemistry, isn't it? *g*

[przed.livejournal.com]

I fought the RPS thing for a good few weeks, but in the end the VigBean won me over. I've tried to articulate some of the reasons why, but when it comes right down to it, it's like my affection for Pros. It strikes some chord inside you that cannot be ignored.

[saintvic.livejournal.com]

Love seeing all of these answers and what has kept people in one fandom and let them move on from others. However I am mostly commenting for an excuse to post my Sharpe icon *g*.

[przed.livejournal.com]

I approve of the gratuitous posting of Sharpe icons. Mmmm, Sharpe. *g*

Fandom Question

[beauregard.livejournal.com]

I sometimes feel like I have repeated this ad nauseum. I got internet access late (stubbornly refusing to leap into new territory). Around 1996 I was deeply involved watching Forever Knight and X-Files was new to me. I finally broke down and got internet. Didn't know what to do with it ...so entered Forever Knight in search engine and wow...stories. I read and printed and bound and read but my problem was...I read slash but I couldn't believe any of the relationships. I loved the story concept but none of the principals were attractive to me as sexual beings. X-Files was hotting up for me and I did a search and hit the motherlode. Mulder and Alex. Alex, Skinner, Mulder. Ah and such abundance. Such variety. Alex the little black dress of fandom. Yummmy. I was reasonably involved ...I collated/edited a huge RPG. I met a few of the fans. I betad for a dozen writers. My favourite zine of all time is The Gift of an Enemy by Sylvia in X-Files fandom. Then my best beloved Starsky & Hutch came on television in Toronto in 2000 for the first time in well over twenty years. Eureka, I was in love again and young. This fandom was an eye opener. I went to my very first con (SHarecon) in 2002 and then in 2004. I started the Canadian Library and spent a fortune copying old zines and stories and shipping them out across Canada. I read and reread till I had the stories memorized. Starsky & Hutch has a large zine presence but at the time its internet presence was just growing. It didn't and doesn't have a Circuit archive where fans have collected all as many of the original paper stories to be shared by disk or online. I just read everything and was complaining to an S&H writer friend about the dearth of new stuff. It wasn't coming quickly enough for me. She had started out in Star Trek and moved on to Pros. First she gave me all the Star Trek zines that had her very amusing stories. I bought my own copies of those zines but the fandom did not grab me (I had been a huge Star Trek fan but somehow never fell in love with the print stuff).

Part Two of my lengthy rant

[beauregard.livejournal.com]

Still whining and betaing in order to get my hands on new stuff as fast as it was coming out, I managed to aggravate her into handing over a bunch of tapes and zines in Pros. (as she said...a sort of erzatz S&H). Ah, love at first sight...not quite. British actors are not pretty boys...but boy do they grow on you. I realized as I read my way through the zines and bought every one I could get my hands on...that Pros was a lot like X-Files. It could be dark, it could handle AU, its story lines could be more varied. I realized that Starsky & Hutch was not only vanilla but had many restriction. It was too contemporary and its characters would not translate to AU with ease. Also, they were loved in such a way that there was little or no flexibility with many of the darker themes. There was just too much that our boys 'just would not do". I went to the final Zebracon in 2005 because of Starsky & Hutch and Pros. I have reread my zines and worked my way through most of the Circuit CD. I bought a Sony Reader but the first series I put on it was my X-Files ...all the stories I saved/downloaded from a multitude of lists and archives. Next up is Pros and finally Starsky & Hutch. Somehow I really burned myself out on Starsky & Hutch and it is too recent for me to go back yet. I let X-files lay fallow for over ten years (while still collecting all the stories posted). It has few zines compared to other fandoms so my collection is not big. One thing I do every year at least twice is reread The Gift of An Enemy...it is comfort food for any bad time. Pros, at present is my main fandom and I am looking forward to delving into all my collected stories and rewatching all the dvds. I am actively avoiding any new fandoms and that is helped, I think, by my age and the fact that I don't fall in love with characters or actors like I did in the past. Old faithful here has a select few special loves. It really helps to keep one's interest alive when a fandom is so active and activity is ongoing and new and old writers are prolific and Pros fandom meets all criteria for a long life. It is, above, all flexible. Any disagreements are short lived. There are no hardnosed, nasty minded, knife tongued BNF's that crush newcomers and make the pond an unhappy place for long time fans. Cheers for us all. Sorry to go on so long. eeeek it is time to walk the dog. Karen-Leigh