In my observation, a lot of the armchair critics out there are very good at pointing out and articulating what doesn’t work about a show or film, but then their own suggestions for improvement are just as bad, if not worse. For example, many of the suggested fixes for the STAR WARS prequels thrown out over the years are pure, fannish cringe, and yet the fanboys are high-fiving each other because they could obviously do it SO much better than Lucas.
I speak the following criticism after I first acknowledge my respect for the man. Chris Gore was talking the other day about how to resolve the KENOBI problem of how Obi-Wan knows that Vader is alive and in the suit by the time of the original STAR WARS. Gore threw out a number of really dumb suggestions, like Vader and Kenobi meeting during the show, yet with Vader declining to kill him, and instead telling him that if he ever left Tatooine, then he’d kill him. Which is both ridiculous and out of character. The correct answer is that Lucas intended for them to not meet between films, with the old EU explanation (that Kenobi saw holonet news footage of the suited Vader acting as the Emperor’s enforcer, and put two and two together) working perfectly fine. But, then, that doesn’t allow nostalgia to be ruthlessly and desperately exploited via the “rematch of the century”, now, does it?
In the case of STAR TREK, you tend to get a lot of unfocused fanfilms which dwell on characters’ personal lives, etc. An excellent point which GOING BOLDLY makes is that there was a marked shift in the fandom as more and more casual/non-sci-fi fans came in, during the mid-to-late-1970s. That’s when you started to see fanfic and articles about how STAR TREK was really about the relationships between the characters, rather than the voyages of the Enterprise. Shippers instead of fans of science-fiction and storytelling. Much like how nerd culture has now been taken over by cosplayers and, for lack of a better term, “fake” fans, who have seen all of the Marvel movies, wear the licensed t-shirts, and think that means they know everything about the characters and the lore.
What we’re seeing now is sort of the corporate version of all that, with non-fans who are coming in to actually produce the shows and movies, and focusing on all the wrong elements.
And, of course, the difference between a fan and a professional writer is that a fan will indulge their “what I want to see” fantasies, whereas a professional writer considers the internal logic of the stories and characters. The first story you would write as a fan should be the very last one you’d write as a professional.
All too many fanfilms are packed with wink-wink references to previous stories and characters (or, in the case of prequels, clumsily and heavy-handedly foreshadow future events), among other tropes. They can get costumes, cinematography, and music spot-on, but then employ abysmal writing and/or acting.
In terms of STAR TREK fanfilms, I personally prefer the ones like STARSHIP EXETER, which take the template set by TOS, but use a new ship and crew, thus avoiding stepping on the original characters and stories. Just create new characters and tell new stories on a new ship using the same format as the actual show. That’s how you keep it both familiar and fresh and the same time.
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