I think part of what makes the difference between a fic-inclusive world and a fic-exclusive world is how well the creator succeeds in telling the story - well-executed single tales (book/movie) are less likely to be ficced because s/h/it already told it so beautifully that it seems unnecessary, somehow. But less consistent and controlled creators - or episodic series that aren't strictly planned (think Babylon 5) - always mess it up at some point, just enough that we can play with it, or sometimes go horribly off the rails and don't do justice to their own characters/canon. When that occurs in the plots or the writing (more so than the casting/acting/directing), the temptation becomes great to pick up the pieces and see if you can do better. Or at least more satisfyingly.
I still have Buffy & X-Files fic that I consider active WIPs, even though I haven't worked on them in years, because by the end of each of those shows I was so pissed at how the shows ended and the precipitous drop in quality when it became apparent that the creators were paying other people to phone it in for them, that I grew weary of their worlds. But there's plenty of room because the characters were originally so, so great and then something happened and that wound can be healed in fic.
I do continue to wish that I'd stopped watching X-Files after S4 though. The Darrin episodes excepted of course. But I really didn't need to see Doggett & Reyes. Or the movie, really.
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Date: 7/21/07 03:22 am (UTC)I think part of what makes the difference between a fic-inclusive world and a fic-exclusive world is how well the creator succeeds in telling the story - well-executed single tales (book/movie) are less likely to be ficced because s/h/it already told it so beautifully that it seems unnecessary, somehow. But less consistent and controlled creators - or episodic series that aren't strictly planned (think Babylon 5) - always mess it up at some point, just enough that we can play with it, or sometimes go horribly off the rails and don't do justice to their own characters/canon. When that occurs in the plots or the writing (more so than the casting/acting/directing), the temptation becomes great to pick up the pieces and see if you can do better. Or at least more satisfyingly.
I still have Buffy & X-Files fic that I consider active WIPs, even though I haven't worked on them in years, because by the end of each of those shows I was so pissed at how the shows ended and the precipitous drop in quality when it became apparent that the creators were paying other people to phone it in for them, that I grew weary of their worlds. But there's plenty of room because the characters were originally so, so great and then something happened and that wound can be healed in fic.
I do continue to wish that I'd stopped watching X-Files after S4 though. The Darrin episodes excepted of course. But I really didn't need to see Doggett & Reyes. Or the movie, really.