I'm surprised that more writers haven't exploited the possibilities opened up by cyberspace, since it lets you put the characters virtually anywhere you could imagine.
Neil
That may actually be part of it. People like defined spaces and boundaries. Virtual reality makes anything possible, but where anything is truely possible people become uncomfortable. Is anything what it seems to be? Can you expect the laws of physics to stay in effect? How many writers want to stretch the borders that far? How many readers are willing to give themselves over to a story where a scene between Avon and Blake could end up with Servalan removing the VR gear and telling Travis, also stepping out of gear, that they seem to have finally managed the perfect imitations of the rebels, and now they can get on with creating computer generated news vilifying them. The character junkies would probably feel cheated that the scene wasn't real at all. Likewise a caper story with Avona nd Vila might turn out to be a consensual shared hallucination they are using to speed-train each other in their respective skills, because Avon would be seeing through Vila's eyes and feeling through his fingers as he handled his lockpicks, and Vila was shadowing Avon's movements through computer screens. The cross-skilling would be valuable and if they had the equipment and trust, they very well might try it. But the rebel-cheering enthusiast might feel let down that no power plant was really blown up in the making of this shared hallucination.
Helen Krummenacker wrote:
That may actually be part of it. People like defined spaces and boundaries.
True. And some people don't like to stray too far from the kind of thing we saw in canon, not because of lack of imagination, but because they enjoy making their B7 fic as "B7-like" as possible. ("Reprographic," like Neil said.)
Virtual reality makes anything possible, but where anything is truely possible people become uncomfortable. Is anything what it seems to be? Can you expect the laws of physics to stay in effect?
Although, truthfully, things turning out to be exactly what they seem to be and consisitency in obeying the laws of physics are not exactly major properties of the show itself... :)
Likewise a caper story with Avona nd Vila might turn out to be a consensual shared hallucination they are using to speed-train each other in their respective skills, because Avon would be seeing through Vila's eyes and feeling through his fingers as he handled his lockpicks, and Vila was shadowing Avon's movements through computer screens. The cross-skilling would be valuable and if they had the equipment and trust, they very well might try it. But the rebel-cheering enthusiast might feel let down that no power plant was really blown up in the making of this shared hallucination.
Actually, I rather like that idea. Though I'd certainly like it much better if it was clear from the outset that this *was* a virtual caper. (But then, maybe I don't count as a "rebel-cheering enthusiast," if that's meant to contrast with "character junkie.")
From: Betty Ragan ragan@sdc.org
Virtual reality makes anything possible, but where anything is truely possible people become uncomfortable. Is anything what it seems to be? Can you expect the laws of physics to stay in effect?
Although, truthfully, things turning out to be exactly what they seem to be and consisitency in obeying the laws of physics are not exactly major properties of the show itself... :)
A lot of fanfic goes off in all manner of strange directions which lose touch with the canon, but could be hauled back into canon through the use of cyberspace (in the Gibsonesque use of the term). When I was working on a now long-aborted PGP, I envisaged a scene with a shotgun-toting Avon flying around on a winged horse (admittedly I concocted it deliberately to take the piss out of people who actually go for that sort of thing). Virtually anything is possible. The only real problem is getting the characters into cyberspace in the first place - I find it hard to imagine the whole crew jacking in simultaneously without a bit of authorial contrivance, though one or two at a time wouldn't be difficult.
Neil
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Betty Ragan -
Helen Krummenacker -
Neil Faulkner