![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Series Four thoughts
May. 26th, 2008 08:06 pmThis is the second DW series I've watched from the standpoint of a fan and it's quite striking how many similarities I'm spotting in fan behaviour and psychology.
I remember very vividly the outbreak of bad-tempered sniping roundabout the Eurovision break. It figures. Whatever you're hoping for, chances are that by E7 you're having a reality check. It's almost a year to the day since Martha fandom exploded at the words, "You're not my plus one". I was foolish enough to put it in a Martha-centric fic and ended up getting thrown out of two communities, one on each side of the divide. I remember going into work almost in tears because of some of the shit that was flying around, and how personal it got.
So what have I learned, apart from more respect for those who moderate communities, and a healthy awareness of the limits of shipping communities (not necessarily two mutually exclusive things)? Well, sadly I've a bad feeling about the way fandom will go over the next few weeks. I think we'll see people behaving badly in all the ways we saw last year. The outbreak of rage that greeted Martha's departure from the Doctor's life could well be equalled by similar howls of anguish from all those who, for whatever reason, hope to see the Doctor and Rose romance brought to a conventionally happy conclusion (I choose my words with care). And it's a fair bet that people will be looking around for someone to blame, rationally or otherwise, if the outcome isn't to their liking.
It appears that in some quarters this is being seen as an RTD vs Moffett fight. RTD is the shipper, the romantic, the one we trust to do right by the Doctor and Rose. Moff is the mysogenist canon junkie who can't wait to get his fundamentalist hands on our beloved show and purge it of all that emo crap like the Doctor crying and falling in love. Yes, that's ridiculously simplistic but who said fandom was rational? Personally, I trust both parties about as much as I trust the public pronouncements of any TV professional, and that's all I'm saying.
All this will no doubt be further explained by the recent spoiler announcement about the upcoming two-parter.
I remember very vividly the outbreak of bad-tempered sniping roundabout the Eurovision break. It figures. Whatever you're hoping for, chances are that by E7 you're having a reality check. It's almost a year to the day since Martha fandom exploded at the words, "You're not my plus one". I was foolish enough to put it in a Martha-centric fic and ended up getting thrown out of two communities, one on each side of the divide. I remember going into work almost in tears because of some of the shit that was flying around, and how personal it got.
So what have I learned, apart from more respect for those who moderate communities, and a healthy awareness of the limits of shipping communities (not necessarily two mutually exclusive things)? Well, sadly I've a bad feeling about the way fandom will go over the next few weeks. I think we'll see people behaving badly in all the ways we saw last year. The outbreak of rage that greeted Martha's departure from the Doctor's life could well be equalled by similar howls of anguish from all those who, for whatever reason, hope to see the Doctor and Rose romance brought to a conventionally happy conclusion (I choose my words with care). And it's a fair bet that people will be looking around for someone to blame, rationally or otherwise, if the outcome isn't to their liking.
It appears that in some quarters this is being seen as an RTD vs Moffett fight. RTD is the shipper, the romantic, the one we trust to do right by the Doctor and Rose. Moff is the mysogenist canon junkie who can't wait to get his fundamentalist hands on our beloved show and purge it of all that emo crap like the Doctor crying and falling in love. Yes, that's ridiculously simplistic but who said fandom was rational? Personally, I trust both parties about as much as I trust the public pronouncements of any TV professional, and that's all I'm saying.
All this will no doubt be further explained by the recent spoiler announcement about the upcoming two-parter.
( Read more... )
