Short Form Star tRek: Boldly Expanding the universe
In revisiting my previous venture into the world of short-form Star Trek fan fiction, I generated more Twitter-based Star Trek plots from the five Star Trek series (The Original Series [TOS], The Next Generation [TNG], Deep Space Nine [DS9], Voyager [VOY], and Enterprise [ENT]) in the same way that I did in my original project, bringing the total number to around 60 altogether. Additionally, I created plots for two entirely new shows: Captain Worf [WRF], and a mirror universe spin-off of Deep Space Nine [DS9M]). This time around, I focused more on the structure, the ideas behind the ideas of the plot elements that I published, in order to get at the deeper heart of the project itself rather than glancing at the entire database I had created as a whole. More than just studying the action of fan creation, I set out, in this essay, to explore the overall motivation behind the creative process as well as the results of fan creation at the professional end of the Star Trek universe (if any).
Motivation
How exactly does one become motivated to write short form fan fiction in a digital environment? For Henry Jenkins, the motivation is apparent for Star Trek fan fiction authors who "claim to be keeping Star Trek alive," who attempt to "preserve a certain degree of fidelity to program materials, even as they seek to rework them toward their own ends" ("Star Trek" 487). Granted, Jenkins is in this case speaking, in 1988, about primarily text based Star Trek fan fiction, but the basics still apply. Fan fiction, even in the digital realm, is still a process motivated by the desire to express one's internal desires to see the subject of one's fandom expand beyond its previous dogmatic borders and to spread the fandom to others. What's more, the state of Star Trek itself is similar to what it was in 1988. At the time, as Jenkins suggests, fan fiction writers, as well as other die hard fans, were motivated to combat "network indifference and studio incompetence" with regard to the Star Trek franchise ("Star Trek" 487). Today appears to be a literal repetition of these circumstances. Although it fared well at the box office, hardcore Trekkies (at a Las Vegas convention) voted Star Trek: Into Darkness, the most recent Trek feature film, the worst Trek film of all time. This suggests that the fan community believes the studios are certifiably incompetent. In the meantime, several projects for a new Star Trek television show have been brought forth, including a series captained by Michael Dorn's Worf character from TNG and DS9, though the powers that be (television networks and various rights holders) have mothballed them. They seem to think that a new television series would be a detriment to the reboot films, among which is, again, "the worst Trek film of all time." For fans, this attitude is quite apathetic indeed, and more than the necessary motivation to write fan fiction to fill the current creative void. I, too, am particularly motivated by the lack of new, official Star Trek content on the small screen. Having grown up watching TNG and VOY, I feel as if I have at least a budding interest in prolonging the tales of Trekdom. Inspired by various Twitter accounts, I set off on my journey, motivated by my insatiable desire for more Trek.
Project Process
My overall goal as I completed this project was to play into what Janet Murray calls the encyclopedic affordance of digital media. I used Twitter to organize my thoughts into discrete, segmented, 140-character units to present wide ideas in as little space as possible while still allowing for large audiences to access the project on a number of levels (personally, socially, digitally, etc). Because of Twitter's informational structure, "minimizing ambiguity and maximizing accessibility" with regard to my fan fiction became effortless, which allowed me to focus on the creative aspects instead of worrying about the project's reception (Murray 70). Speaking of which, the creative portion of this project took place during an approximately 6 hour long pressure-cooker-like writing session. During this time, I dredged up leftover ideas from the first iteration of this project as well as invented many new 140 character plot scenarios. Essentially, the plot points were fairly easy to generate. I simply wrote what I knew. I placed the various Star Trek crews into situations that either followed naturally from their previous exploits or had very little to do with anything they had previously encountered. Every single tweet is original, and the result of my own work, though some of them were more creative than others (in that they drew less on overplayed and expected Star Trek tropes than others). Chief among the more unique tweets were those of the DS9M and WRF portions of the project. In any case, for writing all of these creative tweets, I relied on humor, rather than pure regurgitation of Star Trek series norms, which, as a fan ficiton writier, was my choice. I just as easily could have written hundreds of slash fiction tweets, but I did not. I took the humor route because it, despite how fantastically serious Star Trek can be at times, can be lovingly described as, let's be honest, a campy space opera drama. What follows, in several sections, is my attempt at decoding this humor: why I used particular variations of humor in given spots, and why the humor itself is relevant (specifically with regard to the fact that it occurs in a digital medium).
Humor Analysis: Series Stereotypes
The adage "It's funny because it's true" addresses much of what my tweets tap into. Here, in what I have labeled the "series stereotypes" section (as well as in the next section), my humor draws on widespread nuances picked up after watching the various incarnations of Star Trek throughout my life. In "stereotypes," these nuances are mostly fond memories of the unique quirks and patterns of each particular series, rather than "shortcomings." For example, Troi is obsessed with chocolate on TNG, VOY verges on pseudo-science far too often, DS9 focuses heavily on interpersonal relationships, ENT has it's Temporal Cold War (which verges on a shortcoming), and TOS tends to make up very far fetched alien races for plot reasons. In terms of humor, these sorts of references amount to what Trekkies would consider inside jokes. Those that have watched the series will have at least a basic concept of their inherent stereotypes. My humor plays on this nostalgia. More than just an attempt at humor, this comedic appeal resides at the very heart of fandom and fan fiction as we know it. The reason why humor works for fan created fiction is something that Jenkins, in my opinion, alludes to in his essay entitled "Star Trek Rerun, Reread, Rewritten: Fan Writing as Textual Poaching." Fandom's integral ability to "transform personal reaction to social interaction, spectator culture into participatory culture" is crucial to its ability to bring fans together under an umbrella of understood facts and facets within the fandom's universe ("Star Trek" 473). Humor, then, is the main means of facilitating this interaction and participation.
The sense of community that fandom creates is unmistakable, but when digital media is introduced as a platform for this sort of interactivity, both the number of members as well as the level of communication among fans increases. Jenkins, in a later essay, describes digitized fanbases in the following manner: "They are expansive, self-organizing groups focused around the collective production, debate and circulation of meanings, interpretations, and fantasies in response to various artifacts of contemporary popular culture," namely Star Trek ("Interactive Audiences?" 158). What better medium is there to do this through other than digitally mediated humor? One can hardly ignore the call to join in laughing when others are already laughing (just as it is hard not to yawn when you see someone else yawning), thus the natural desire to expand this act to the digital realm. The laughter is even harder to ignore when you're in on the inside joke, as well, which is why Star Trek is so prolific (because most people, at least, know of Kirk and Spock's alleged "bromance" through our cultural zeitgeist). Humor and the digital media, with regard to their wide reaching effect, go hand in hand, especially in this project. Together, they afford fan fiction a wide, highly receptive audience that can interpret and reissue the fandom exponentially. Hence, I too have relied upon referencing broad, occasionally oversimplified stereotypes, for the sake of humor, to bolster the reception of my own 140-character fan fiction. [Extra Credit, beyond the scope of this essay, but worth a glance: a fan edited youtube video featuring every time Worf is shamed, disagreed with in TNG, a series stereotype.]
Humor Analysis: Series Shortcomings
I find that next to humor being used to point out stereotypes of a positive nature within Star Trek, the next most potent power of short-form fan fiction involves pointing out the numerous failures or low points of Star Trek in an act of humor-mediated commiseration. Fans do not need to enjoy everything their particular subject presents them. In fact, it is often in pointing out the failures of Star Trek that I realized where the real strengths of each series were, mostly outside the shortcomings. Call what follows a litany of ways to beat a "dead" horse (Star Trek) back to life. By complaining about the show, fans hope future generations can avoid similar mistakes and guide the franchise correctly.
ENT is the main recipient of such playful ribbing, though no series is safe. When did the executive producers of ENT realize that "Faith of the Heart" (oh no... there's more than one verse...) was the worst thing that ever happened to Star Trek? Immediately? I bet it was immediately. Regardless, most of the ENT tweets, I hope/feel, represent my belief, and possibly many others' belief, that literally every character on the series (yes, even T'Pol) acts like an inexperienced, spoiled teenager trying to forcibly prefigure the other series while attempting to keep their libido in control (to little avail; see any episode). VOY, in my opinion, has a very large number of two-part episodes in which fewer events occur than in a typical stand alone episode. For this reason, I tweeted a number of my own two-part VOY episodes in which very little actually happens, some of which fall under the next category of humor (those featuring non sequitur). Another tweet, in particular, voices my own complaint that far too many aliens in each of the series inexplicably have names that begin with the letter J which in my opinion, shows a lack of originality (here is a list of what I refuse to believe is every J named Star Trek character). I decided to set it in DS9 so that I could also poke fun at Jake Sisko, who does not draw much admiration from Star Trek fan communities (though, he is less hated than Wesley Crusher). What each of these tweets has in common is that the jokes were made with kind intent. Sure, Jake is constantly working towards becoming an author, but perhaps we fan fiction writers can appreciate that. And, sure, VOY is boring as all get out sometimes, but that's what made the more serious, dramatic episodes in the series work by comparison.
Following the logic of all of these tweets, one may plainly see that fan fiction acts as a platform for critique, quite often. Rather than openly complain among fans on fan pages, the overt jibe in a short form fan fiction outlet becomes more readily spreadable due to the digital nature and nature of re-posting. These one sided, digital fan fiction flame wars against the original material should, hopefully, strengthen the fandom against a common enemy: bad writing and poor quality Star Trek.
Humor Analysis: Non sequitur, Breaking the 4th Wall
Lastly, I shall address my usage of completely off the wall scenarios, primarily those that incorporate non sequitur events and characters breaking out of the limits of their diegesis. I believe that this sort of humor, while paying homage to various successes and failures within the Star Trek canon, parodies the fan fiction community itself. For no reason should Neelix get sick, nor should the Enterprise be renamed Exitprise, nor should the Enterpise stumble into the Star Wars universe, nor should there be a Temporal Cold War (oh, wait, there actually was one...), except within the expanded universe. Anything is possible in fan fiction, and these tweets make fun of that fact. Of course, as with much humor, there is sometimes a bit of truth to every joke. Many of these nonsensical plots could have made fantastic episodes, as strange as it seems, considering some of the plots that ACTUALLY got made (TNG's Sub Rosa, TNG's Masks, VOY's Threshold, much of season one of ENT, much of season two of ENT, much of season 3 of ENT, etc).
Beyond commenting on the ability of fan fiction to create bizarre scenarios apropos of nothing, my usage of humor overall, though mainly humor featuring non sequitur action, speaks in a more general way about the power of the digital medium my fan fiction finds itself in. Although fan fiction was present well before the advent of the web, as has been stated before, the digital nature of Twitter fan fiction allows it to spread rapidly, like a comic brush fire. The design behind this is something that Murray calls the participatory affordance of digital media which assures that media "appears to us as something to be cut, pasted, reassembled, and distributed with ease" (Murray 57-58). This affordance granted me the chance to compile the wacky thoughts in my mind into concise, discrete packets for others to intake and re-purpose. If I did not take advantage of this particular affordance, my tweets may very well have remained in print form, waiting for someone to ask me about them, rather than becoming searchable, accessible results of code. My humor adds another layer to this affordance in that it makes these accessible tweets relatable, granting my fan fiction greater understanding and potential for participation.
New Frontiers: DS9M and WRF
Though this portion of the project still retained some of the humor from previous sections, I had a more serious intent when I began writing these tweets (as evident in my tweeted frustration with scripting WRF). Strictly speaking, I was writing fan fiction. Realistically speaking, I was tweeting made up plots of Star Trek episodes from two series that never aired. However, academically speaking, I hope that, in some small way, I've participated in a larger trend, a digital one that "pushed that hidden layer of cultural activity [fan fiction] into the foreground, forcing the media industries to confront its implications for their commercial interest" (Jenkins "Star Wars?" 205). While adding my own twist to these tweets, I made sure to make them plausible stories, relatively speaking with regard to the rest of my tweets, stories that could very well be polished, honed, and expanded into actual episodes of gritty Star Trek.
In choosing DS9 as a base for my first mini-series, so to speak, I left the door for extrapolation, from my perspective, in the mirror universe (a parallel universe in which Earth (Terran) is populated by cruel versions of your favorite Star Trek regulars; think Star Trek Bizarro World). Open exploration, after all, is highly encouraged in the digital medium. Unfortunately, it remains to be seen if my more realistic plots have gained any notice whatsoever. Instead, they will have to represent what I hope is happening in more official fan fiction domains, specifically with regard to Star Trek: Captain Worf. Only through action in the front end of Web 2.0 will the powers at the back end (wealthy companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, etc) see the support of the expanded universe, support that will hopefully translate into new, officially created scenarios.
The Bigger Picture
Jenkins notes that, with regard to fan fiction in this digital age, "None of this is new. What has shifted is the visibility of fan culture. The web provides a powerful new distribution channel for amateur cultural production" ("Star Wars?" 203). My desire to undertake this project is a symptom of a much wider phenomenon than fandom. Instead, it is indicative of my membership in the mixed folk influenced/trumping, mass media convergence culture that Jenkins discusses at length in his essay entitled "Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars?: Grassroots Creativity Meets the Media Industry" (206-210). Though he discusses primarily fan fiction filmmakers, the same creative drive is present on the side of fan fiction writers. Perhaps there wasn't a Star Trek folk culture to leave behind, but certainly, the convergence of official canon and fan created mass culture is evident in the Star Trek universe. While there seems to be little done by the Star Trek rights holders to halt the expanding fan fiction universes so far, I volunteer Jenkin's argument that "there is no schism between the public interest in expanding opportunities for grassroots creativity and the corporate interest in protecting its intellectual property" ("Star Wars?" 226). This convergence culture is not a threat to the official canon. If anything, I hope that my contribution to the Star Trek universe, as well as others', will convince the corporate powers that more official Star Trek would be profitable to parties on both sides of the table, especially on the digital end (where most fans exist these days).
Since Jenkins, once again, describes my opinion so well, I'll have him conclude in the following manner: "It is too soon to tell whether these experiments in consumer-generated content will have an influence on the mass media companies. In the end, it all depends on how seriously, if any all, we should take their rhetoric about enfranchising and empowering consumers as a means of building strong brand loyalties" ("Star Wars?" 232). While it remains to be seen if digital short form fan fiction is lighting a fire under the creative teams behind what could become Star Trek: Captain Worf, we may have a better idea about the reception of fan fiction and the fan community on the cinema front by the time the next Star Trek film comes out. If they have listened to the pleas of the fans, it may be a return to form (and less a Bourne trilogy clone with phasers). If not, they'd better be ready for a digital fan fiction flame war.
If Michael Dorn was able to milk the Star Trek fanbase for money to fund his new project online, then why not Star Wars? In this digital age, many shows are turning to digital means in order to continue their longevity (Futurama, Arrested Development, The Killing, to name a few), so what's stopping the additional step of a partially fan-funded online show for Star Trek? While the future seems uncertain for Swallow Your Bliss, the future for Star Trek (especially in the lens flare populated digital medium) will always be bright, so long as Star Trek fandom, specifically digital Star Trek fan fiction, continues to exist which, if convention attendance is any indication (spoiler: it is), is strong in today's digital world.
Works Cited
Jenkins, Henry. "Interactive Audiences?" The New Media Book. Ed. Dan Harries. Suffolk, England: St Edmundsburry Press, 2002. 157-170.
Jenkins, Henry. "Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars?: Grassroots Creativity Meets the Media Industry."The Social Media Reader. Ed. Michael Mandiberg. New York: New York University Press, 2012. 203-235.
Jenkins, Henry. "Star Trek Rerun, Reread, Rewritten: Fan Writing as Textual Poaching." Television: The Critical View. 6th ed. Ed. Horace Newcomb. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. 470-494.
Murray, Janet H. Inventing the Medium: Principles of Interaction Design as a Cultural Practice. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2011.
Motivation
How exactly does one become motivated to write short form fan fiction in a digital environment? For Henry Jenkins, the motivation is apparent for Star Trek fan fiction authors who "claim to be keeping Star Trek alive," who attempt to "preserve a certain degree of fidelity to program materials, even as they seek to rework them toward their own ends" ("Star Trek" 487). Granted, Jenkins is in this case speaking, in 1988, about primarily text based Star Trek fan fiction, but the basics still apply. Fan fiction, even in the digital realm, is still a process motivated by the desire to express one's internal desires to see the subject of one's fandom expand beyond its previous dogmatic borders and to spread the fandom to others. What's more, the state of Star Trek itself is similar to what it was in 1988. At the time, as Jenkins suggests, fan fiction writers, as well as other die hard fans, were motivated to combat "network indifference and studio incompetence" with regard to the Star Trek franchise ("Star Trek" 487). Today appears to be a literal repetition of these circumstances. Although it fared well at the box office, hardcore Trekkies (at a Las Vegas convention) voted Star Trek: Into Darkness, the most recent Trek feature film, the worst Trek film of all time. This suggests that the fan community believes the studios are certifiably incompetent. In the meantime, several projects for a new Star Trek television show have been brought forth, including a series captained by Michael Dorn's Worf character from TNG and DS9, though the powers that be (television networks and various rights holders) have mothballed them. They seem to think that a new television series would be a detriment to the reboot films, among which is, again, "the worst Trek film of all time." For fans, this attitude is quite apathetic indeed, and more than the necessary motivation to write fan fiction to fill the current creative void. I, too, am particularly motivated by the lack of new, official Star Trek content on the small screen. Having grown up watching TNG and VOY, I feel as if I have at least a budding interest in prolonging the tales of Trekdom. Inspired by various Twitter accounts, I set off on my journey, motivated by my insatiable desire for more Trek.
Project Process
My overall goal as I completed this project was to play into what Janet Murray calls the encyclopedic affordance of digital media. I used Twitter to organize my thoughts into discrete, segmented, 140-character units to present wide ideas in as little space as possible while still allowing for large audiences to access the project on a number of levels (personally, socially, digitally, etc). Because of Twitter's informational structure, "minimizing ambiguity and maximizing accessibility" with regard to my fan fiction became effortless, which allowed me to focus on the creative aspects instead of worrying about the project's reception (Murray 70). Speaking of which, the creative portion of this project took place during an approximately 6 hour long pressure-cooker-like writing session. During this time, I dredged up leftover ideas from the first iteration of this project as well as invented many new 140 character plot scenarios. Essentially, the plot points were fairly easy to generate. I simply wrote what I knew. I placed the various Star Trek crews into situations that either followed naturally from their previous exploits or had very little to do with anything they had previously encountered. Every single tweet is original, and the result of my own work, though some of them were more creative than others (in that they drew less on overplayed and expected Star Trek tropes than others). Chief among the more unique tweets were those of the DS9M and WRF portions of the project. In any case, for writing all of these creative tweets, I relied on humor, rather than pure regurgitation of Star Trek series norms, which, as a fan ficiton writier, was my choice. I just as easily could have written hundreds of slash fiction tweets, but I did not. I took the humor route because it, despite how fantastically serious Star Trek can be at times, can be lovingly described as, let's be honest, a campy space opera drama. What follows, in several sections, is my attempt at decoding this humor: why I used particular variations of humor in given spots, and why the humor itself is relevant (specifically with regard to the fact that it occurs in a digital medium).
Humor Analysis: Series Stereotypes
The adage "It's funny because it's true" addresses much of what my tweets tap into. Here, in what I have labeled the "series stereotypes" section (as well as in the next section), my humor draws on widespread nuances picked up after watching the various incarnations of Star Trek throughout my life. In "stereotypes," these nuances are mostly fond memories of the unique quirks and patterns of each particular series, rather than "shortcomings." For example, Troi is obsessed with chocolate on TNG, VOY verges on pseudo-science far too often, DS9 focuses heavily on interpersonal relationships, ENT has it's Temporal Cold War (which verges on a shortcoming), and TOS tends to make up very far fetched alien races for plot reasons. In terms of humor, these sorts of references amount to what Trekkies would consider inside jokes. Those that have watched the series will have at least a basic concept of their inherent stereotypes. My humor plays on this nostalgia. More than just an attempt at humor, this comedic appeal resides at the very heart of fandom and fan fiction as we know it. The reason why humor works for fan created fiction is something that Jenkins, in my opinion, alludes to in his essay entitled "Star Trek Rerun, Reread, Rewritten: Fan Writing as Textual Poaching." Fandom's integral ability to "transform personal reaction to social interaction, spectator culture into participatory culture" is crucial to its ability to bring fans together under an umbrella of understood facts and facets within the fandom's universe ("Star Trek" 473). Humor, then, is the main means of facilitating this interaction and participation.
The sense of community that fandom creates is unmistakable, but when digital media is introduced as a platform for this sort of interactivity, both the number of members as well as the level of communication among fans increases. Jenkins, in a later essay, describes digitized fanbases in the following manner: "They are expansive, self-organizing groups focused around the collective production, debate and circulation of meanings, interpretations, and fantasies in response to various artifacts of contemporary popular culture," namely Star Trek ("Interactive Audiences?" 158). What better medium is there to do this through other than digitally mediated humor? One can hardly ignore the call to join in laughing when others are already laughing (just as it is hard not to yawn when you see someone else yawning), thus the natural desire to expand this act to the digital realm. The laughter is even harder to ignore when you're in on the inside joke, as well, which is why Star Trek is so prolific (because most people, at least, know of Kirk and Spock's alleged "bromance" through our cultural zeitgeist). Humor and the digital media, with regard to their wide reaching effect, go hand in hand, especially in this project. Together, they afford fan fiction a wide, highly receptive audience that can interpret and reissue the fandom exponentially. Hence, I too have relied upon referencing broad, occasionally oversimplified stereotypes, for the sake of humor, to bolster the reception of my own 140-character fan fiction. [Extra Credit, beyond the scope of this essay, but worth a glance: a fan edited youtube video featuring every time Worf is shamed, disagreed with in TNG, a series stereotype.]
Humor Analysis: Series Shortcomings
I find that next to humor being used to point out stereotypes of a positive nature within Star Trek, the next most potent power of short-form fan fiction involves pointing out the numerous failures or low points of Star Trek in an act of humor-mediated commiseration. Fans do not need to enjoy everything their particular subject presents them. In fact, it is often in pointing out the failures of Star Trek that I realized where the real strengths of each series were, mostly outside the shortcomings. Call what follows a litany of ways to beat a "dead" horse (Star Trek) back to life. By complaining about the show, fans hope future generations can avoid similar mistakes and guide the franchise correctly.
ENT is the main recipient of such playful ribbing, though no series is safe. When did the executive producers of ENT realize that "Faith of the Heart" (oh no... there's more than one verse...) was the worst thing that ever happened to Star Trek? Immediately? I bet it was immediately. Regardless, most of the ENT tweets, I hope/feel, represent my belief, and possibly many others' belief, that literally every character on the series (yes, even T'Pol) acts like an inexperienced, spoiled teenager trying to forcibly prefigure the other series while attempting to keep their libido in control (to little avail; see any episode). VOY, in my opinion, has a very large number of two-part episodes in which fewer events occur than in a typical stand alone episode. For this reason, I tweeted a number of my own two-part VOY episodes in which very little actually happens, some of which fall under the next category of humor (those featuring non sequitur). Another tweet, in particular, voices my own complaint that far too many aliens in each of the series inexplicably have names that begin with the letter J which in my opinion, shows a lack of originality (here is a list of what I refuse to believe is every J named Star Trek character). I decided to set it in DS9 so that I could also poke fun at Jake Sisko, who does not draw much admiration from Star Trek fan communities (though, he is less hated than Wesley Crusher). What each of these tweets has in common is that the jokes were made with kind intent. Sure, Jake is constantly working towards becoming an author, but perhaps we fan fiction writers can appreciate that. And, sure, VOY is boring as all get out sometimes, but that's what made the more serious, dramatic episodes in the series work by comparison.
Following the logic of all of these tweets, one may plainly see that fan fiction acts as a platform for critique, quite often. Rather than openly complain among fans on fan pages, the overt jibe in a short form fan fiction outlet becomes more readily spreadable due to the digital nature and nature of re-posting. These one sided, digital fan fiction flame wars against the original material should, hopefully, strengthen the fandom against a common enemy: bad writing and poor quality Star Trek.
Humor Analysis: Non sequitur, Breaking the 4th Wall
Lastly, I shall address my usage of completely off the wall scenarios, primarily those that incorporate non sequitur events and characters breaking out of the limits of their diegesis. I believe that this sort of humor, while paying homage to various successes and failures within the Star Trek canon, parodies the fan fiction community itself. For no reason should Neelix get sick, nor should the Enterprise be renamed Exitprise, nor should the Enterpise stumble into the Star Wars universe, nor should there be a Temporal Cold War (oh, wait, there actually was one...), except within the expanded universe. Anything is possible in fan fiction, and these tweets make fun of that fact. Of course, as with much humor, there is sometimes a bit of truth to every joke. Many of these nonsensical plots could have made fantastic episodes, as strange as it seems, considering some of the plots that ACTUALLY got made (TNG's Sub Rosa, TNG's Masks, VOY's Threshold, much of season one of ENT, much of season two of ENT, much of season 3 of ENT, etc).
Beyond commenting on the ability of fan fiction to create bizarre scenarios apropos of nothing, my usage of humor overall, though mainly humor featuring non sequitur action, speaks in a more general way about the power of the digital medium my fan fiction finds itself in. Although fan fiction was present well before the advent of the web, as has been stated before, the digital nature of Twitter fan fiction allows it to spread rapidly, like a comic brush fire. The design behind this is something that Murray calls the participatory affordance of digital media which assures that media "appears to us as something to be cut, pasted, reassembled, and distributed with ease" (Murray 57-58). This affordance granted me the chance to compile the wacky thoughts in my mind into concise, discrete packets for others to intake and re-purpose. If I did not take advantage of this particular affordance, my tweets may very well have remained in print form, waiting for someone to ask me about them, rather than becoming searchable, accessible results of code. My humor adds another layer to this affordance in that it makes these accessible tweets relatable, granting my fan fiction greater understanding and potential for participation.
New Frontiers: DS9M and WRF
Though this portion of the project still retained some of the humor from previous sections, I had a more serious intent when I began writing these tweets (as evident in my tweeted frustration with scripting WRF). Strictly speaking, I was writing fan fiction. Realistically speaking, I was tweeting made up plots of Star Trek episodes from two series that never aired. However, academically speaking, I hope that, in some small way, I've participated in a larger trend, a digital one that "pushed that hidden layer of cultural activity [fan fiction] into the foreground, forcing the media industries to confront its implications for their commercial interest" (Jenkins "Star Wars?" 205). While adding my own twist to these tweets, I made sure to make them plausible stories, relatively speaking with regard to the rest of my tweets, stories that could very well be polished, honed, and expanded into actual episodes of gritty Star Trek.
In choosing DS9 as a base for my first mini-series, so to speak, I left the door for extrapolation, from my perspective, in the mirror universe (a parallel universe in which Earth (Terran) is populated by cruel versions of your favorite Star Trek regulars; think Star Trek Bizarro World). Open exploration, after all, is highly encouraged in the digital medium. Unfortunately, it remains to be seen if my more realistic plots have gained any notice whatsoever. Instead, they will have to represent what I hope is happening in more official fan fiction domains, specifically with regard to Star Trek: Captain Worf. Only through action in the front end of Web 2.0 will the powers at the back end (wealthy companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, etc) see the support of the expanded universe, support that will hopefully translate into new, officially created scenarios.
The Bigger Picture
Jenkins notes that, with regard to fan fiction in this digital age, "None of this is new. What has shifted is the visibility of fan culture. The web provides a powerful new distribution channel for amateur cultural production" ("Star Wars?" 203). My desire to undertake this project is a symptom of a much wider phenomenon than fandom. Instead, it is indicative of my membership in the mixed folk influenced/trumping, mass media convergence culture that Jenkins discusses at length in his essay entitled "Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars?: Grassroots Creativity Meets the Media Industry" (206-210). Though he discusses primarily fan fiction filmmakers, the same creative drive is present on the side of fan fiction writers. Perhaps there wasn't a Star Trek folk culture to leave behind, but certainly, the convergence of official canon and fan created mass culture is evident in the Star Trek universe. While there seems to be little done by the Star Trek rights holders to halt the expanding fan fiction universes so far, I volunteer Jenkin's argument that "there is no schism between the public interest in expanding opportunities for grassroots creativity and the corporate interest in protecting its intellectual property" ("Star Wars?" 226). This convergence culture is not a threat to the official canon. If anything, I hope that my contribution to the Star Trek universe, as well as others', will convince the corporate powers that more official Star Trek would be profitable to parties on both sides of the table, especially on the digital end (where most fans exist these days).
Since Jenkins, once again, describes my opinion so well, I'll have him conclude in the following manner: "It is too soon to tell whether these experiments in consumer-generated content will have an influence on the mass media companies. In the end, it all depends on how seriously, if any all, we should take their rhetoric about enfranchising and empowering consumers as a means of building strong brand loyalties" ("Star Wars?" 232). While it remains to be seen if digital short form fan fiction is lighting a fire under the creative teams behind what could become Star Trek: Captain Worf, we may have a better idea about the reception of fan fiction and the fan community on the cinema front by the time the next Star Trek film comes out. If they have listened to the pleas of the fans, it may be a return to form (and less a Bourne trilogy clone with phasers). If not, they'd better be ready for a digital fan fiction flame war.
If Michael Dorn was able to milk the Star Trek fanbase for money to fund his new project online, then why not Star Wars? In this digital age, many shows are turning to digital means in order to continue their longevity (Futurama, Arrested Development, The Killing, to name a few), so what's stopping the additional step of a partially fan-funded online show for Star Trek? While the future seems uncertain for Swallow Your Bliss, the future for Star Trek (especially in the lens flare populated digital medium) will always be bright, so long as Star Trek fandom, specifically digital Star Trek fan fiction, continues to exist which, if convention attendance is any indication (spoiler: it is), is strong in today's digital world.
Works Cited
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Jenkins, Henry. "Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars?: Grassroots Creativity Meets the Media Industry."The Social Media Reader. Ed. Michael Mandiberg. New York: New York University Press, 2012. 203-235.
Jenkins, Henry. "Star Trek Rerun, Reread, Rewritten: Fan Writing as Textual Poaching." Television: The Critical View. 6th ed. Ed. Horace Newcomb. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. 470-494.
Murray, Janet H. Inventing the Medium: Principles of Interaction Design as a Cultural Practice. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2011.