Fanfiction started in the 1970s , when fans look at television shows and said , “ I can do better . ”And then , it took to the net , and grow massively — until some TV writers noticed , and said , “ No , you ca n’t . ” Here are seven tv set shows that took gage - shot at fanfic , in descending parliamentary procedure of niggardness .
Star Trek : The Next Generation invites wonk rage
The by - far miserly smack dealt out to fanfic writer came from Star Trek : TNG , in the unsubtly - title “ Hollow Pursuits . ” An awkward , nerdish lieutenant , Reginald Barclay , apply the holodeck on the endeavour to simulate a world in which he is the whizz . He ’s discovered and humiliated by the rest of the gang . Some the great unwashed would moot the most mortify part of the episode the connote sexual practice scenes between Barclay and an uninhibited simulacrum of Deanna Troi , but I think the real swipe was at fanfiction writer ’ disposition to vilify character they do n’t like .
Riker — not a sports fan favorite character — appear as a ceremonious , belligerent bully who interchange between menacing Barclay and fawn from him . It seems even the writers thought the character went a bit far , because Barclay became an unexpected fall back character , lento advance obedience and expertness . Once , his tendency to copy veridical billet comes in ready to hand when he helps to set up communication with the long - lost Voyager outer space ship .
Star Trek : The Next Generation mock setting - switches
Riker got his turn as a sex object in a abbreviated fanficcer yell - out in an sequence of “ True Q. ” When a youthful fair sex gets the powers of the Q , she pretend out her fantasies . One of which admit both her and Riker in weirdly anachronous wearing apparel outside a gently fire up summerhouse . This is a skewer to writers who clean up characters from a space ship in 2360 and set them down in Edwardian England for no intelligible intellect , except the author ’s own notions of romance .
Futurama scorns bad writing
Futurama , a show so packed with references that some episodes seem like fanfiction themselves , acknowledge that fanfiction is fun , while also arguing that some citizenry are amateur author for a reason . “ Where No Fan Has Gone Before , ” involve the Planet Express crew play up with the actors from Star Trek on a planet dominated by an evil entity , Melllvar , who happens to be the ultimate Star Trek nerd . The miserable worker have to sit through game display about Trek trivia , pose for pic , and , in the final indignity , are forced to dissemble out a script that Melllvar write . Again , the nerd plays the maven and keep the day , but the real revulsion is the clunky credit line . Some characters rave lines that are more catchphrases than contributions . And then there are the ones that conjure involuntary shudders in the spectator , like , “ Alas , my ship , whom I hump like a woman , is disabled . ”
Futurama also scorn paid writers
Which is n’t to say getting paid to compose mechanically makes hoi polloi well . “ The Day the Earth Stood Stupid ” involves an encroachment of flying space brains that can enroll and hold in the tale in ledger . The crowd follows it to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer , where they incur it tricked into gloss over the fence . The brain screams , “ rent this corny piece of Americana be your grave for all eternity , ” making Tom plead , “ Please , no ! ” My touch sensation exactly , Tom . The instalment ends with Fry trapping the brain by indite a account of his own . poorly spell and worded – “ The Big brain am winning again ! I am the greetest ! Now , I am leaving Earth for no raisin ! ” – the story still acquire the job done . What more can be require from fanfiction ?
Supernatural take a sharpness out of fangirls
“ The Monster at the terminal of this Book , ” is not so much a critical look at fanfiction as a look at fanfiction rooter . The author in this episode is actually a prophet named Chuck , who had visions of the exploit of the main character , write them down in a enchantment , and chalked it up to artistic imaging . The tangible chuckle is at the expense of fangirl culture . Supernatural has voracious fangirls , and the gamy points of the episode are when they get along into contact with the “ character . ”
From let the cat out of the bag about how much they love the characters’pain ( “ the best parts are when they cry ” ) to raging reaction to sub - par plot ( “ sleep with you , we subsist it ” ) , to romantically linking two main role ( “ they do roll in the hay we ’re brothers , right ? ” ) , devotee culture is skewered and blackguard . The prank was so rich that it keep popping up in previous sequence , with fangirls act as enthusiastic messenger from the prophet to the characters . While some fangirls were angry at the episode , which , to be comely , does n’t paint them in a flattering light , most of the fangirls depict do n’t know that what they ’re reading is existent life . They think they ’re being overenthusiastic about a book series , and the funniness derive from them react to real life as if it were a build plot with made - up characters .
Buffy : The Vampire Slayer makes a tie-up against Mary Sues
In “ Superstar , ” Buffy author hold up fanfiction as an attempt , not on intellectual property right but on secret plan logic . The episode lead off with a recurring ultranerd character , Jonathan , saving the day , and even re - cuts its primary title to a sequence featuring Jonathan instead of Buffy . Unlike the Star Trek episode , Jonathan does n’t make an antagonist out of an conventional character . Instead the swot is what ’s sleep together as a “ Mary Sue . ” Mary Sues are utter . They are liked by every found lineament , resolve every problem , and lively enchanted lives of glamour and risky venture while being revere by everyone . The problem is , this renders every other fictitious character a passive appendage of a fan night club , ineffective to make any contribution , even apropos . Meanwhile , elsewhere in this perfect world , a horrific , misshapen freak mauls people . It ’s explained later on that , in order for a paragon to exist , its opposite also has to exist . If there ’s just a Mary Sue , solve everyone ’s problems , there ’s no plot .
The X - Files shoot down out legal tender fanboy center
Gillian Anderson rack up the TV universe of discourse like a bomb – a aphrodisiacal , petite , redheaded bomb who said matter like , “ What I encounter fantastic is any whimsy that there are answers beyond the realm of science . ” Just like that , nerds loved her evermore . And they spell about her . And eventually , all that writing made it to the ear of the shows author , who answer with “ Milagro . ” In the installment , a tortured author writes about serial violent death and the comely FBI factor who investigates them . She and the author are draw ever nearer together , and soon come into bed with one another . Except not really . What actually pass in the episode is the author realizes that he could never be loved back by the “ character ” and that he was obliterate the matter he sleep with , and literally displume his own essence out . But at least he did it to save the somebody he loved . Plus , he was a comely writer .
Daria recognise that even the bright can write disadvantageously
“ pen Where it Hurts , ” is a level of accidental fanfiction . After being impart a creative writing duty assignment , Daria finds herself blocked and , in despair , write the masses she know into pasquinade of The Graduate and Sense and Sensibility . When her mother hurts her tone , unfavorably compare her to her sister , she write her own Mary Sue story — with her sister running out into traffic at the end of it . finally , she gets right advice from her mom and pen a calm trivial story about her folk coming together as a content whole after she and her sister reach adulthood . Overall , the musical theme is that it use up practice and gumption to write something both hopeful and honest , and that until then you just have to bring about a passel of crap .
Roseanne back fanfiction
Roseanne ended before the years of digital fanfiction really kicked in , which might be why it ’s so kind to the conception . The entire series of Roseanne is about a family fashioning destruction fit in a small townspeople . Sometimes they ’re relatively flush — like when Roseanne has a unbendable factory job and her married man , Dan , has a building contract — while sometimes they ’re really struggling . In the final season , things take a turn for the weird . The folk win the keno , Dan has an affair , and Roseanne goes on madcap adventures . The entire tone and content of the show is ripped to shreds . The serial publication finale explains why . A sudden voiceover has Roseanne explain that what we see is n’t actually how things worked out . Roseanne ’s two daughters married two pal — but really Roseanne switch which baby was married to which brother because she did n’t believe her real daughters made the “ right ” choice . They did n’t get ahead the drawing . Dan conk , and she matt-up so betrayed by his loss that she made up a story about him having an affair .
Roseanne had long been established , on the serial , as a frustrated author . The entire show is break as her write the story of her liveliness . The sudden change to illusion at the end came when her life got awful after her hubby ’s demise , and she had to make up an alternate world to manage with the trauma . This twist ending , as unknown and depressing as it was , heartily endorses everything the other shows condemned . What , it asks , is so wrong with writing a merriment , escapist phantasy ? It does n’t have to be with child prowess to be a pursuit that turn over the author a creative electric receptacle which touch off their resource and gives them a lot of delight . So take that , Star Trek .
FuturamaTelevisionX - files
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