Frankenstein's Meme: Q30

[purplecat]

Q30. Name three things you wish you saw more of in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice).

Errr... I'm interested, in a way, that my mind is immediately blank when asked "what do you want to see more of in Doctor Who fandom?". Possibly it is because the fandom is such a juggernaut that it already contains everything, but a I suspect it has more to do with the fact I have so little time, that there is plenty of things I'm interested in consuming, sufficiently plenty that I wouldn't want any more of them. However, best attempt:

1. More target style novelisations of the new series would be nice - if only to assuage my completist gene.
2. More general interest articles in DWM - easier said than done at this stage of the fandom, but I find myself increasingly dissatisfied that DWM contains a mixture of what seem to be essentially puff pieces about the current show (previews, gushing reviews, quick interviews), or agonisingly detailed articles about, for instance, a lemonade commercial that Tom Baker once made. It's not devoid of good stuff - its articles on the costumes and special effects for Flux were about the right level for me. I get that all the obvious articles about the classic series (at any rate) were written at least five times by the turn of the century but I think that the podcast eco-system shows you can still generate entertaining content revisiting stories, or common themes like monsters or costumes.
3. Toby Hadoke should revisit the 1980s Doctor Who cookbook in a far more thorough fashion than he did in the VAM for the season 23 box set and get every surviving celebrity who contributed a recipe to cook every recipe they contributed. Possibly random associates should be forced to cook the recipes provided by celebrities who no longer survive!

Someone should also persuade Apple to provide a decent blu-ray player for Macs so I can watch (and screen cap) the blu-rays on my laptop without going through various contortions and downloading jailbroken codes of the internet. This isn't really a fandom wish, but more of my generic bemusement that Apple, while getting so many things right, has some weird things it apparently won't do in principle that just make life difficult for no apparently good reason.

1. What's changed about your fandom life in the last 365 days?


2. Your newest fandom.


3. You've got your OTP, you have to throw a third into the mix (from the same fandom), creating an OT3. Who is the OTP, and in your opinion, why would they make a perfect third for them?


4. What are the origins of your penname/username?


5. What's a fandom that you wish had a bigger following?


6. What’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandom? What fandom was it? Not necessarily your oldest fandom, but a fandom that you started and still continue to read/write/create content for in some way.


7. What would make you leave a fandom, or prevent you from getting into it in the first place?


8. Squicks - What are some things that squick you in fandom - not necessarily "icky", though it can be. From anything involving blood, to bad grammar.


9. What's the hardest thing about writing, and why are titles the Worst™?


10. Do you have a fandom that you follow - either regularly or casually - with little to no knowledge of canon?


11. Ships that you currently like a lot. (They don’t have to be OTPs because not everyone has OTPs.) Friendships, pairings, threesomes, etc. are allowed.


12. A ship you have never liked and probably never will.


13. Do you prefer art, fic, or vids? Why? Bonus: If someone was to give you a fandom gift, what format would it be?


14. A pairing – platonic, romantic or sexual – that you initially didn’t consider, but someone changed your mind.


15. What was the first thing you ever contributed to a fandom?


16. Do you remember your first OTP? Who was in it?


17. What is your favourite source text for fandom stuff (e.g., TV shows, movies, books, anime, Western animation, etc.)?


18. How many fandoms have you written for? How many have you been in, and how many are you still in?


19. Has social media caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why?


20. What fandom broke your heart?


21. Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves. (Characters you’re neutral about are fair game, as are characters you dislike or even loathe.)


22. Name a character that you’d like to have for a friend.


23. Your rarest fandoms.


24. A fandom you’ve abandoned and why.


25. Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending?


26. A trope which you are virtually certain to love in any fandom.


27. A trope which you are virtually certain to hate in any fandom.


28. How did you first get into fanfic, and what was the first fandom you wrote fic for?


29. Have you ever tried to write for a fandom or ship, and found you couldn’t?


30. Name three things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice).

So. Done. It only took me 9 months to do a one month meme!!!

Comments

[sir_guinglain]

DWM *might* be limited in what they can print by the current attitude of the licence managers and the production office, as well as the straitened circumstances of the magazine market, though things are slackening now that we are between production offices, with the old one having wound down and Chibnall and Strevens no longer I think on salary, and the new team being very secret so as not to spoil Jodie Whittaker's last two episodes with too much crowing about the future (though they will have to reveal the new Doctor before they are spotted on location). I think they are inventive in context (though of course I have to declare an interest, however occasional).

[purplecat]

I realise it's completely impossible to do serious critique of the new stuff - it has been thus since 2003. Though I have been a little surprised at the lack of in depth interviews with the main cast. We had a nice interview with John Bishop a couple of months back, but I think the previous Fam never got anything more serious than the Tardis Tin. Though I get the impression Chibnall/Strevens/Whoever has also made it harder to do set reports and the like.

I do think there is a line to be found with the older stuff that is in more depth than the "This is what an Ice Warrior is" articles of DWW (though there is a certain charm to those), but less detailed than "here is everything there is to know about some obscure facet of fandom", which could both inform new fans and still engage older ones like me (as I say, I think the podcast eco-system shows this can be done). I recognise it isn't easy, and there is still stuff in DWM from time to time that really engages me - but there is a reason there are two unread issues on my bedside table at the moment.

Actually, I suspect I'd get more mileage from the themed bookazine things, which I think are much more the sort of articles I am looking for, but I am loathe to risk adding yet more unread magazines to that pile, and they are harder to get hold of.

And note, I'm not saying this is easy, or I even know how to do it. I do appreciate that it's very difficult for DWM to appeal to old fans, while drawing in new readers, and working with the production team (particular the current production team that are secretive to a fault), I'm just pointing out that at the moment, whatever it is they are doing isn't really working for me personally.