I really have to disagree. It has made a tremendous difference that Russell T. Davies, himself a man drawn from the deepest hell of Who fandom, has put all of his fevered fannish dreams onscreen as canon. It has meant authorial encouragement to those who would be inclined to write such things on their own, and suggestion to the rest. Also it has changed the tone of the fandom, in terms of the people it drove away, and the people it attracted.
Who fandom always did have a strange undercurrent (prior to the new series, Five/Adric was a staple in certain circles -- and Adric is an adolescent boy), but I have never ever seen anything in any fandom like the eruption which occurred very quickly -- once it was clear what the writers were doing and encouraging -- after the start of the new series.
And the degeneracy has not simply been in matters sexual -- take the following bit from this article:
…And there’s also a very interesting entry where Davies discusses the way he writes Doctor Who, which answers a recurring criticism. Discussing rewatching a repeat of “The Sound Of Drums”, he ponders the fact that you suddenly learn about things like the Archangel network, the Valiant, and the TARDIS becoming a Paradox Machine out of nowhere, with no advance seeding or foreshadowing in the script. It’s a fascinating passage, worth quoting at length:
“I can see how annoying that looks. I can see how maddening it must be, for some people. Especially if you’re imposing really classical script structures and templates on that episode, even unconsciously. I must look like a vandal, a kid or an amateur… The simple fact is, all those things were planned. All of them were my choice. They’re not lazy, clumsy or desperate. They’re chosen. I can see more traditional ways of telling those stories, but I’m not interested. I think the stuff that you gain from writing in this way – the shock, the whirlwind, the freedom, the exhilaration – is worth the world. I’ve got this sort of tumbling, freewheeling style that somersaults along, with everything happening now - not later, not before, but now, now, now. I’ve made a Doctor Who that exists in the present tense. It’s happening now, right in front of your eyes! If you don’t like it, if you don’t join in with it then… blimey, these episodes must be nonsensical. But those classical structures can be seen in Primeval, in Demons, in Merlin, in all of them – and yet we stand with millions more viewers. And I think that’s partly why.”
I think we have all heard such positions from a certain kinds of fan-writers before.
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Date: 2010-02-01 07:17 pm (UTC)Who fandom always did have a strange undercurrent (prior to the new series, Five/Adric was a staple in certain circles -- and Adric is an adolescent boy), but I have never ever seen anything in any fandom like the eruption which occurred very quickly -- once it was clear what the writers were doing and encouraging -- after the start of the new series.
And the degeneracy has not simply been in matters sexual -- take the following bit from this article:
I think we have all heard such positions from a certain kinds of fan-writers before.