The Strangeness of Fans

This post is going to be about Battlestar Galactica. Well, not exactly. Keep reading : I promise, no spoilers. For those of you who live in Canada and who watch the series on the SPACE channel, you're only at episode 9 or 10. The point I'm going to make in this post doesn't require me to reveal any heavy spoilers, but if you're one of those people who don't want to know ANYTHING about what happens next -- you may want to skip this post. If 10 was "highly spoileriffic" and 1 was "not very spoiler-y at all" I would put this post at a 2. It's about fan reaction, not content. I would ask anyone who comments on this post to follow my lead and not mention specific details of plot for any of the "Season 2.5" BSG episodes. There are plenty of BBoards where you can go have your say on that. I reserve the right to delete any comment I find spoiler-y. Okay? Let's skip down a bit.


















Now, to keep my promise and make my point, I'm going to say this: In the finale of the 2nd season for BSG, something strange happens. It's a bold move, and dramatically, it's a really exciting one. It allows Season 3 to go off in all sorts of fun and interesting directions. It makes perfect sense in terms of storytelling economy, and moving the thematic base of the series forward. It shuffles the deck, and is probably one of the boldest season finale moves I've ever seen.

And when it was over, I put my head in my hands and thought to myself:

"the fanboys are going to go INSANE."

I've had my experience with this, working as I did for the Canadian Sci-Fi channel, SPACE. Heck, I was there from the beginning of that channel. I helped get it on the air. Fans, of course, come in all shapes and sizes and temperaments -- but when it comes to sci-fi, there's also a lot of what we came to call, "crazies."

I think Shatner, in that famous sketch, called 'em "Get-a-Lifers."

Anyway. Some of the things that surprised me most when I got my dose of exposure to scifi fans was the following: a) as a whole they're really really conservative (they hate change) b) they think of themselves as very smart and sophisticated and c) they're really not as smart and sophisticated as they think they are.

I never really watched or followed soaps, so I have no firsthand knowledge of this, but I've heard that every fandom has its quirks. Soap-fan friends of mine report that yes, there are Soap-crazies, including those who don't really seem to grasp the difference between Actor and Character. But when it comes to Sci-fi, the thing that always struck me most was that gap: the gap between how they viewed themselves and how they actually were. Ronald Moore has done a lot to mess with that gap with his re-invention of Battlestar Galactica. There are still those fans out there, frothing, furious that the new series didn't follow the old. They're mad about Starbuck being a girl, and -- this is my favorite part -- they keep insisting that the show is one moment away from death and cancellation -- despite the fact that critically and by every measurement imaginable, this is a sea-change hit for SciFi.

A lot of fans seem to hate sex. Objectification, awesome. But actual sex between people? Icky. Others insist that the vision of humanity on the run is too dark. They prefer the original's escapist hijinks. Whatever you think of that artistic taste issue (and it is a taste issue) the thing they seem to hate the most is that this show is drawing accolades and praise from non-scifi viewers. It's reached beyond the core audience. By my reckoning, only two genre shows have done that in the last 20 years: Star Trek: The Next Generation (which everybody watched. In fact, every incarnation of ST lost more of the "non-scifi" people til Enterprise, sadly, was left with the rump) and X-Files. Now, BSG has got that cachet. And it's driving them crazy.

I know for a fact that here in Canada, BSG has proven to be a portal show -- ie: people who don't watch the channel much are seeking it out. I have no reason to believe it's any different in the USA. That's incredibly significant.

And the culture clash between sci-fi fans and (for lack of a better term let's call them) drama fans is making for some very interesting reading. Because the drama fans DO tend to be a little more sophisticated. They know a little more history, a little more about politics, a little more about relationships. (These are all wild generalizations, I know, but they are my impressions.)

I'm still working through what my policy's going to be on reading BBoards once I get a show on the air. I'm sure it will happen eventually, though it might be an act of hubris to think that there will be an online community that cares enough about any show I create enough to comment. But let's take that as read. I don't know what I'm going to do -- how much contact I'll have. I doubt I'll go into the point-by-point lunacy of, say, Kevin Smith, responding in kind. I'd like to think I'd go the Ronald D. Moore route. Do a podcast. Answer questions submitted by online people, that sort of thing. I cringed when I saw that Moore's wife was wading in to threads on the SciFi Channel boards. I wonder if she knows what she's getting into.

Writers dealing with fans and how to handle it is a thing that a lot of people are talking about right now. Artful Writer has an excellent post that touches on this.

But after all my rambling, here's the thing that I find interesting. Fascinating, really. And I don't understand it.

Now this is a highly unscientific measurement, and I did not read every post. But if you go to the Sci-Fi Channel's Battlestar Galactica board and read the reaction to "Lay Down Your Burdens" -- it's really, really negative. Classic Sci-fi fan reaction. "Gaah! Change! Hate it! I'm betrayed.!"

If you go to the BSG board on Television Without Pity, and read that reaction, it's way more positive. And what's more, the analysis is smarter.

So...here's my question. And I really don't know the answer.

Is this a Jets and Sharks thing?

Are the sci-fi geeks at the Sci Fi Channel and the Drama fans at TWOP?

I don't know.
But it sure is weird.