Star Trek reboot: fandom or festival?

[crypto]

Remember when Merlin was the new insta-fandom, the latest fandom that ate fandom? It didn't take over my friendslist, but it seemed like it suddenly got very big very fast, quickly attracting many very talented and highly regarded writers and vidders. Whether or not you watched the show or were interested in the fandom, all the signs seemed to point towards Merlin becoming the next big media fandom.

I was realizing today that I haven't heard much about Merlin lately. I'm sure the fandom is still chugging along during the long interval before the show returns, but I have no idea whether it's still on track to becoming a mega-fandom, or if the show lost some of its shiny luster after that initial burst of squee and fanworks and has settled into its niche as a minor-to-medium sized fandom.

So what's going to happen with the Star Trek reboot? Will it end up being a summer fling fandom or turn into a long-term commitment? Right now it almost feels like it could be a -- I want to say meta-fandom, not in the metafandom sense but rather a panfandom celebration of media fandom itself. That is, maybe it won't necessarily become a fandom on its own terms, singular and durable, where people would refer to themselves as being "in" the fandom and develop stuff like a sense of identity and community and culture as reboot fans. Maybe it'll be more of an amusement park, a carnival, a vacation spot, a rave -- but, for most, not a new fandom home. Which would work out pretty well, since it's something of a lingua franca for media fandom: it seems as though almost everyone's seen the movie or is familiar enough with the iconic original series & characters to join the conversation.

(I got the sense that slash and residual Arthurian legend fannishness were the primary drivers of the initial Merlin fandom explosion. In skimming the Trek LJ newsletter community, it was hard to tell whether there was a main driving force was based on the fan fiction listed -- shipping? fleshing out the characters? porn? worldbuilding? There's apparently nearly as much het as slash, and a sizeable amount of gen being written [though that doesn't factor in relative length of stories, number of comments & recs, etc.]. I did notice that the stories rated R and NC-17 were primarily in the slash category rather than het, but I have no idea if that's typical for other fandoms as well.)

Comments

[thirdblindmouse]

My sense is that once new Merlin episodes start airing it'll go back to being the intimidatingly large presence on my flist that it was before ...but I have no specific data to support this premonition. I like your theory about the Star Trek reboot. No major fandoms have been dominating my flist these last few months, but Star Trek has been mentioned by pretty much everyone.

I've been enjoying the lull, and I hope it will continue. I'm rarely in tune with the latest fad -- my current fandom focus is on shows that finished airing anywhere from several years to several decades ago -- so it works for me when fandom has time for old reliables instead of just the new and shiny.

[crypto]

I wonder if we're entering a 'big fandom' drought; a friend of mine recently pointed out that there are few SF genre shows left on U.S. television, and little on the horizon with "new and shiny" potential. It could almost be like what's happened in general over the last few decades with U.S. network television, where the top shows used to command tens of millions of viewers but now the audience has fragmented as a lot of niche programs attract followings on cable.

[wembley]

Maybe it'll be more of an amusement park, a carnival, a vacation spot, a rave

You have a way with words. :D

My money's on Star Trek because TNG was my first fandom and I'm totally biased and also I'm not into Merlin due to the fact that it has so much... STUFF there, so much canon, so much room to play. At the same time, I could see it being a festival, as you say. That's a really interesting thought.

Because it's a movie franchise, it will probably have a boom-and-bust thing going on, like POTC; TV shows seem to be more steady.

[crypto]

Thanks! ;)

It does look like Star Trek is gearing up for the long haul, with new comms springing up and tons of meta discussions about the characters and the implications of the AU for established canon/fanon. Plus there's a fair amount of what's essentially mentoring of fans drawn in through the movie by long-term fans viz. the highways and byways of canon, etc.

[wembley]

BTW, I hope it didn't sound like I was being sarcastic re: your writing style! Because I wasn't! I like how you write!

Plus there's a fair amount of what's essentially mentoring of fans drawn in through the movie by long-term fans viz. the highways and byways of canon, etc.

What's really been interesting me is the ONTD people leaping onto it, because I always have seen ONTD as so... non-nerdy, which is mostly why I don't go there. I still have this middle school lunchroom mentality in some ways: "But, celebrities and tabloids? The popular kids care about that! Nerds like me are the Trek fans!" I mean, I read popslash, so it's not like things are that stark IRL (but then, I always felt like popslash really was nerding up the pop world to a certain degree).

[crypto]

Maybe the ONTD embrace is a sign that ST has transcended its nerdiness and become pop culture? Or at least the lines have shifted -- like, it's okay to be into Hugh Jackman as Wolverine but it's still nerdy to know enough about comics canon to complain about how the movie deviates.

(And thanks, you didn't sound sarcastic!)

[idlerat]

I think Reboot reopened a canon that people already knew really well but that had gotten closed up by so many iterations. Reboot set the clock back, like going back to Book 4 of Harry Potter or something. People have tons of canon to draw on, not just the movie, but it's no longer binding - one big AU.

Not saying I think it will last, but I think that's one reason it's so generative.

Merlin was a very short season, with a big gap between UK and US airing. This is apparently to be the wave of the future - wonder how that will work.

[crypto]

I haven't started reading any of the fic, but I've gotten the impression from discussion posts that there's two contrasting tendencies: being unshackled from established canon and starting with a near-blank slate, and trying to work through the precise ramifications and implications of the AU on established canon. I wouldn't expect the latter to generate as much fic as quickly as the former approach, but the stories that do come out of that working through will probably be more influential in shaping fanon for everybody.

I was thinking that in between Merlin and Star Trek, there was a flurry of infatuation with Leverage, which was also a short season by U.S. broadcast network standards. Maybe we'll ultimately end up with seaasonal fandoms that flourish for three months at a time each year?