Plot bunnies live over here

[chrisbishop]

This thread was started in another topic called 'Wish list for Season 3 and 4 of NCS" - In the CGI Discussion board. It was moved over here when it became a different - and still very interesting - subject by itself.

Chris C: do I have to shout "FAN FICTION" again?


StevieP: Check out this story presently online: Parallax View (by your truly. And wait until next year's Dark Horizons - which had been announced for the past year or so and that I didn't have time to write much of.

Yeah, I know... Shameless advertising from my part

A lot of Classic Scarlet fanfic use the subject of parallel universes and such. One of the most interesting probably being the multi-parts Synchronicity, by Marion Woods. It's a very good read, and I suggest it strongly.

[shadokp]

Hmmmm...

I wish that Colonel White would wake up to find that the NCS Universe is all some sort of weird nightmare and find himself safe and sound in his own quarters on Cloudbase and seasons 3 & 4 & 5 (ad infinitum) can all be about OCS....

Doc Denim.

Then he wakes up for real this time on Skybase and can't understand what he ate the night before to make him dream that he was a puppet.

This brings up an interesting point and question - I was under the impression that most OCS fans liked NCS but I have just read a few postings that say otherwise. My question is a bit odd, but of those who didn't like the NCS but love OCS - how many are big into fan fiction (writing or reading??) How many that like NCS as much or more than OCS are into fan fiction?


Just curious.....

KP

[Sage]

I'm very prolific/obsessive as a writer and reader of fanfic. Guess I do like OCS more, as it's what I am more familiar with and can't quite shake making comparisons. Am not going to make apologies, everyone is allowed their opinions and preferences.

NCS is good too of course, have read some fic for that. Don't have any great conpulsion to write for it though. Maybe that's just because it's newer and I'm not so familiar with the characters and back story.

My idea
Some explanation as to why Green & Ochre are now girls. Could have serveral angles with that...
Reasons behind recruting women
How the other captains reacted to it
Problems the female recruits faced
etc
And the inevitable... what happened to the male Green & Ochre (perhaps not relevant, but still intriguing)

Kinda like to do that as fanfic myself, with OCS (for reasons stated above) but would hate for it to go 'Mary Sue'.

[chrisbishop]

Like Sage, I'm a long-standing fan of Original Scarlet, and, as you know writer and reader of fan fiction. Actually, I'm a reader of ALL thing Original Scarlet, I must precise - comic strips, story books, novels, 'technical books', you name it.

Bear in mind that for long years, for original Scarlet long-standing fans, there has been nothing else to bear on teeth into (or read). Which might be a reason for either reading or writing fiction.
New Captain Scarlet is another show, and, like the name implies - it's quite new, and still on the airs. It could be the reason why there's probably not many New Captain Scarlet fanfic available right now. So far, I have only found a few on FanFiction.net. When the show is off the air, and there's nothing else to content with, I suspect there will be more fanfic on the net - that is, if the fans are as dedicated as the original Scarlet's fans!

You might argue that there isn't any New Captain Scarlet on this site... the reason for that is that I didn't receive any so far. Well, one actually, but I'm still waiting for the author to answer a question I asked of her before sending it online.

I do like NCS, but not as much as the original, obviously. And like Sage, I still prefer to write about the original one. I'm certainly more comfortable with it, and know the subject better. I will be honest and will admit that I don't know if I'll write NCS stories. Time will tell.

As for my reason of writing fanfic - well, I have a love of writing that goes back - WAY BACK - years ago. And I wasn't really writing fanfic, but original stories of all kind - although, admittedly, I did try a few scripts of the Scarlet episode, of memory (not really a success there). Writing fanfic came later in life, quite be chance - when I discovered at the time, that there wasn't that many Scarlet stories online (contrary to other fandoms I like!). Well, now, I think we can safely say it changed...

As for me... I was hooked. And I guess that writing Scarlet fiction is one way to keep on writing (and you got to write about something you know and like, is it not?)


Who's next for the confession?

[Doc Denim]

Well, let me see – I didn’t say I wanted the puppets back (although I didn’t specifically not say that) so let me clarify:

I still wish for OCS – not for the puppets (for they were only the medium*) but for the characters and situations as they were originally presented in Classic Captain Scarlet.

I don’t mind the CGI – the hardware and the action is all spiff, no complaints there, but I don’t like the ‘format’ and the changes to the classic premise (most of which I still find pointless, beyond some copyright issue). There are characters that I now simply dislike (and one or two that I do, but they are in a minority) and these New Mysterons defy logical explanation of any kind – they strike me more as a useful plot device than ‘real’ characters like the old ones were.

I suppose my bottom line is that I miss my old friends and enemies and this new lot, no matter how well rendered, simply cannot replace them. It’s not that I ‘hate’ NCS – it really doesn’t arouse anything like that sort of passion in me – but I don’t especially ‘like’ it either. I have seen all of Season 1, and don’t find myself the least bit compelled to watch it for a second time. Nor am I particularly eager to see Season 2 based on the Season 1 eps (though I’m sure I will watch it when it’s available to me).

As to the fan-fic – well, now - it’s the best! Composing fan-fic is the sole thing that got me through at least two decades of No-Captain-Scarlet-of-any-kind – and I’ve found a great many kindred souls here at Spectrum Headquarters who managed to get through the dry years the same way! I’d highly recommend a browse though the Fan-Fic Archives here – there’s a lot to be excited about! (and, as Chris has pointed out above – some of the plot bunnies outlined in this thread have already been written – and they don’t disappoint!)

Doc Denim

* as to the medium: we’ve seem CS in marionation, comics, novels, merchandise and now CGI – it shouldn’t matter how the characters/stories are ‘presented’ – hopefully the audience is possessed of imagination sufficiently capable of translating them into real people and places and getting some sort of personally satisfactory experience out of it.

[Captain Indigo]

(Deep breath)

I have a confession to make - when I first stumbled across this site, all those years ago, it was purely to do research for a Thunderbirds/Space:1999/CS crossover; neither I nor my co-writer had seen CS in nearly nine years (the '92 run) (and we were only fifteen when this 'research' was being done). Up until the '01 repeats, some six months later, when I was a firm 'fan' and writing my own FF, my only real exposure to CS was through the fan-fic that Chris provided.

It took me up until last month to realise that I preferred the fan-fic to the series (which is still good, don't get me wrong) .

I prefer OCS to NCS, but that is only because it has the characters I know and love in it. However, NCS has the potential to spawn a universe of FF that could one day rival the one that exists for OCS.

I will continue to write soley for OCS, although I may nick a few concepts from NCS along the way (oh, wait - I've already done that, three years before NCS was written ).

Please don't kill me...

Oh, and in case anyone was wondering (I'm sure you're not, but I'm gonna mention it anyway), the x-over was never finished - barely started, in fact - and I can't see it ever being revived. Sorry.

[Marion]

I have written fiction to amuse myself since I was a child. Mostly historical in nature I have to admit, but if you wanted new adventures starring long dead real people, you had to write your own, by and large. Captain Scarlet was the first Fan Fiction I ever wrote and the first time I ever showed my imaginative writing to anyone, since I stopped doing 'compositions' at school.
I started writing CS fiction after the BBC showed the series in the 1990s - also the first time I had ever seen every episode. I loved it - I had enjoyed it as a child - when I read it in TV21 - but the TV shows started me writing my own CS adventures... (okay - I admit it - I wrote Captain Blue adventures, and I still do. I don't actually like Captain Scarlet very much - he is priggish and I don't find him handsome enough He gets into my stories by default really. Anyone who has read any of my fiction may perhaps notice that I classify my stories as 'Spectrum' stories not 'Captain Scarlet' stories now.)
I do not like NCS much - it has its moments, some of it can be exciting - but I miss the depth and scope given to the original series by the background information - patchy and unlikely as it is. I suppose I really came to CS largely in a literary medium - so the TV shows were like seeing the film of the book, for me! NCS is set in an unexplained world, adrift from anything that pins it to a reality - albeit a fictional reality. I cannot believe in it and I cannot get involved with the characters, who are so flimsy as to be almost interchangeable... and for me - the characters are what drives a series - not the technology they use nor the technology used to make the shows.
The original TV show was not perfect, but it had enough charm - in its graphic and TV formats - to make me care about the people it portrayed.

I tried to explain all this earlier on a thread - I havn't really changed my opnions...
http://spectrum-headquarters.com/v-web/ ... 59&start=0

I'd rather NCS succeeded rather than failed, but personally - I think it has failed. It's failed to grab my attention, interest and - most importantly for me - my heart....

[shadokp]

I too like the original Captain Scarlet and was ready to slam NCS into the ground but as I didn't grow up with OCS (nor NCS for that matter) I may not be as invested in OCS. I saw the episodes many times, collected the merchandise but never wrote or read that much fiction on it. I know the characters of Scarlet, Blue, White, Green and Destiny and that is it. The rest of the characters are just minor guests in the series in my mind and Captain Black is really personalityless.

How much do I know these characters? Very little. I understand and can see some structure there but despite great voice acting and excellent stories, I never saw any characterization beyond what was on screen.

Is it possible (and don't kill me here) that writing and reading fan fiction expands the OCS story and characterization to the point that when you say you love the OCS characters, you are basing that on almost 40 years of watching OCS, reading and writing comics and fiction?

Now I know this happens with all TV series and movies. Fans create more to the universes given us. There is nothing wrong with that but I was examining Doctor Who and how certain fans have seen the series with years of fiction (novels) incorporated within it.

To say that Captain Magenta was a major character in Captain Scarlet is fine, but I have trouble identifying his character from the many background characters. He probably had two really good moments and that is it.

The same could go for some of the secondary characters of NCS but I think (personally) the new series has done a really good job with the characters and I have identified with more from the NCS than the OCS and this includes Black (Conrad).

Again, not to stir the pot - I generally have a greater acceptance on remakes than some and it is just an opinion. I may actually dust off my keyboard and write a short story for NCS just to give it a try, someday.

KP

[Doc Denim]

(I am enjoying this thread a lot, BTW....)

Is it possible (and don't kill me here) that writing and reading fan fiction expands the OCS story and characterization to the point that when you say you love the OCS characters, you are basing that on almost 40 years of watching OCS, reading and writing comics and fiction?

Yes.

One does not just forget 40 years worth of love and devotion...

Doc Denim!

PS - we don't often kill anyone here....

[theMysterons]

WE DO. LEAVE THE KILLING TO US, EARTHMEN.

[Marion]

I Shadokp says:
s it possible (and don't kill me here) that writing and reading fan fiction expands the OCS story and characterization to the point that when you say you love the OCS characters, you are basing that on almost 40 years of watching OCS, reading and writing comics and fiction?

I'd say that's perfectly accurate - the characters I write about probably have very little to do with the originals I read about and saw on TV in the 60s and 90s. I've never denied that. And NCS has every right to tamper with them - as do all fan fiction writers.
I just don't happen to like the way they've done it. I was looking forward to the NCS - what I saw was a big disappointment. Not the quality of production - about which I know nothing - but the poor storylines and the creaky dialogue.
Yes, the original had dodgy plotlines - there are threads on this forum examining them - and some dialogue was as wooden as the puppets' acting - but almost 40 years after, I'd hoped for an improvement.
NCS lacks any kind of 'warmth' in the characters (hard to express what I mean exactly here) - the Spectrum officers might have always been ciphers - but they were interesting - again maybe because the backgrounds we had about them 'fleshed' them out - NCS characters are not. This may be due to the writing, or the voice actors, or the director, or the way children's TV shows have to be made these days (the all-embracing power of political correctness) - I don't know - but for me - they don't work and I think that's a shame.
There have been a few episodes I have enjoyed, and occasionally the inter-play between characters has made me smile, but not often enough to change my over-all opinion.
I hope it is a big hit - I hope the kids of today fall in love with ithe world of Captain Scarlet the way I did - I think it's unlikely, but here's hoping!

[Clya Brown]

There's a very deep point underlying this discussion, it seems to me. It's undeniably true that there's a tendency among fans - and not just us - to fill in the gaps that have been necessarily left in the original TV series - and it certainly can't be assumed that different fans will fill in the gaps in the same way. Sometimes they do - I've found myself adopting basic assumptions about characterisations in my own fanfic that have originated in other fans' work - but not necessarily, and I don't think it's inaccurate to comment that if I were to interpret the characters too dissimilarly to everybody else then my own work wouldn't be accepted by the group, irrespective of the quality of it. It's not unknown (though as far as I know it hasn't happened here yet!) for two fans almost to come to blows over how their respective extrapolations of the original series might be reconciled - which is a very interesting phenomenon if you think about it, because it's a microcosm of the sort of situation you get when two cultures clash over their concept of God: something that's been described as being as silly as two schoolboys having a scrap in the playground over who's got the best invisible friend.

It's almost as if as both individuals and groups we create realities for ourselves to live in - and then feel we have to defend those realities against invaders who by implication threaten our very identity. What makes it interesting is that we obviously need to be able to reconcile those realities simply to co-exist: if we couldn't do that, we couldn't function as a species. For example, if I go down to the corner shop to buy a box of washing powder that costs £5, I need to have the same basic concept what £5 is and how it works as the assistant behind the till. But that £5 isn't actually "real" at all - it's just a specific example of a formalised system of owing favours to people. If we couldn't agree on the validity of that system, I wouldn't be able to get my clothes washed - which is a very practical concern!

The lesson - it seems to me - has to be that both tolerance and intolerance are actually necessary for us to function as a group of individuals who share a common interest. Total tolerance would result in the disintegration of the group through the lack of a common frame of reference, whereas total intolerance would result in war. Somewhere in the middle we get both shared experiences and arguments - occasionally heated, but without which there would be nothing to discuss at all.

It's all very interesting - particularly in view of the same issue regarding the conflict of philosophies between humans and an utterly alien life-form like the Mysterons, which ought to be so profound as to make communication between the two species almost impossible. But actually, the Mysterons are so human-like in their general philosophy that it's uncanny. Strange, that!

[Jay]

I write fan fiction for a number of sites and I have to say that many fan writers have both a better grasp of characterisation and plot dynamics than many professional writers.

I also teach creative writing to adults, many of whom have never written a creative sentence in their lives and using established characters is a great way to get people thinking creatively.

Many fans do write out of love for what ever show they are fans of but for some fan writing is a way of building up confidence and writings skills in a realitively safe environment before attempting original works.

I came to this site via its fan fiction and I do plan to contribute myself at some point (so many stories, so little time ) and I cannot praise highly enough the standard of fiction on the board.

[Sage]

Jay: Totally agree with you
I write original fic too, am planning to make a career of it. So yeah good to know the fanfic helps. Other great thing is it's so much easier to get feedback and betaing, which definetly improves writing skills.

Marion: We are true kindred spirits, lol.

[Jay]

Other great thing is it's so much easier to get feedback and betaing, which definetly improves writing skills.

Not only that, but writing fan fiction helps a good writer (however inexperienced) to hone crucial skills such as pacing and maintaing tension which are very difficult to teach. Fan fiction is a method of learning without risks or rejection and, for my part, I love writing and reading it.

I must find time to write up some of the ideas buzzing around my head - damn plot bunnies