In a message dated 2/17/01 2:11:29 AM Eastern Standard Time,
N.Faulkner(a)tesco.net writes:
<< From: <Bizarro7(a)aol.com>
> Fans don't write fanfic about characters and plot elements they feel were
> 'mishandled'. You seldom see much of that. Again, I feel it's simply
ignored.
>Like, say, the Orbit shuttle?<
The fans aren't fans of the mishandling. The number one attraction of ORBIT
is the horrible situation of Avon, trying to survive by hunting down someone
who was supposed to be his friend, with an eye toward murdering him. Not the
science or mechanics, faulty or otherwise, of the shuttle.
>>Or the cellar scene in Rumours? Or Avon's
final showdown with Blake?<<
I think maybe we are misinterpreting the word 'mishandled'. The terrible
events you cite aren't mishandling. They are high drama, melodrama, script
choices. We may or may not agree with them, but they were deliberate. In
"Blake", the final scene was deliberately done to be upsetting and
ambivelant, in hopes of generating a cliffhanger that would make a 5th season
possible. The fact that the 5th season never happened created the frustration
that makes so many B7 fan writers seek closure. It wasn't planned that way,
but it wasn't mishandling. Similarly, the end of "Rumors" was high tragedy. I
never saw it as any sort of mishandling. I don't see fanfic generated by
these scenes as 'corrections' so much as necessary elaborations, because the
show didn't have the time or will to carry the story elements forward
themselves.
I thought the moments you cited were highly *original*, something hard to
achieve in a script, nowadays. Maybe originality is one of those extra
ingredients we need to add to your list of the previous post, Neil.