I am somewhat resistent to the idea of "fix-it" stories. Or, well, no, I'm resistant to the name "fix-it". As if the only way anyone responds to canonical event is to repair it, as if canon were broken somehow.
This is not to say there isn't a certain amount of that kind of story: people who don't like an episode that ends with the characters on the outs -- Never Again, for instance -- and who bring them back together. I find stories driven by straightforward dissatisfaction with canon don't often please me. But there's also the kind of story where, well, the writer just wants to go a different direction.
When I wrote Written on a Thumbnail, I wrote it not because I thought the show's resolution of the twinning arc in Farscape was wrong. In fact, the twinning arc ended in very much the way I'd expected it would: in tragedy. But I wondered what would have happened if it hadn't ended that way, if the two Johns had met up again, and what the repercussions would have been.
I don't consider that story a "fix-it" story. It's not written in opposition to canon, but in parallel. I'm not resisting Kemper, O'Bannon, and Manning's choice about what to do with the storyline; I'm just examining another possibility.
The one straightforward fix-it story I can think of that worked for me was Fialka's Reflections in a Stolen I, which was written to resolve the uncertainties around Aeryn's characterization in the first two-thirds of Season 4. But it was written in full knowledge that it was going to be jossed within 48 hours of posting, as a possible alternative.
I dunno. Like I said, I tend not to like fix-it stories: it implies that the ficwriter privileges her own views of the show above the writers of the canon. And even though I may bitch about the quality fo the writing of a show (SG-1, anyone?), I think, when it comes to fic, I have an obligation to set my personal feelings aside and work with the canon, rather than in opposition to it. Subvert it, sure, but don't pretend it didn't happen at all.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2005-08-06 07:19 pm (UTC)This is not to say there isn't a certain amount of that kind of story: people who don't like an episode that ends with the characters on the outs -- Never Again, for instance -- and who bring them back together. I find stories driven by straightforward dissatisfaction with canon don't often please me. But there's also the kind of story where, well, the writer just wants to go a different direction.
When I wrote Written on a Thumbnail, I wrote it not because I thought the show's resolution of the twinning arc in Farscape was wrong. In fact, the twinning arc ended in very much the way I'd expected it would: in tragedy. But I wondered what would have happened if it hadn't ended that way, if the two Johns had met up again, and what the repercussions would have been.
I don't consider that story a "fix-it" story. It's not written in opposition to canon, but in parallel. I'm not resisting Kemper, O'Bannon, and Manning's choice about what to do with the storyline; I'm just examining another possibility.
The one straightforward fix-it story I can think of that worked for me was Fialka's Reflections in a Stolen I, which was written to resolve the uncertainties around Aeryn's characterization in the first two-thirds of Season 4. But it was written in full knowledge that it was going to be jossed within 48 hours of posting, as a possible alternative.
I dunno. Like I said, I tend not to like fix-it stories: it implies that the ficwriter privileges her own views of the show above the writers of the canon. And even though I may bitch about the quality fo the writing of a show (SG-1, anyone?), I think, when it comes to fic, I have an obligation to set my personal feelings aside and work with the canon, rather than in opposition to it. Subvert it, sure, but don't pretend it didn't happen at all.
I don't know if that makes any sense.