Syndrome (The Incredibles)

You, sir, truly are Mr. Incredible! You know, I was right to idolize you. I always knew you were tough, but tricking the probe by hiding under the bones of another super?! Oh, man! I'm still geeking out about it!

Fannish Traits: Fashioning himself as Mr. Incredible's sidekick Incredi-Boy for one, but even the business of making the ultimate superhero-killing machine and luring Mr. Incredible to his island lair to fight it was fannish in its own warped way.
What Drove Him to Evil: A demoralizing rejection at the hands of Mr. Incredible left him with a inferiority complex and bitter grudge against the superpowered community.

Henchman #21 (The Venture Bros.)

Dude I can't believe we didn't get blown up. We're like those guys on TV who never get shot. Yeah we're like main characters.

Fannish Traits: He keeps a closet full of collectible weapons, has a side job with the Atomic Comic Collection Connection, and debates whether the Smurfs are mammals. Fortunately, #21 lives in a comic book world, and his genre savvy is one of the things that keeps him alive.
What Drove Him to Evil: #21 was actually kidnapped and pressed into the Monarch's service at age 15, but he keeps up his henching because he finds it kind of awesome.

The Trio (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Warren: What the hell is that?
Andrew: Death Star, dude! Wicked, huh?
Jonathan: Uh, thermal exhaust port's above the main port, numbnuts.
Andrew: For your information, I'm using the Empire's revised design from Return of the Jedi.
Jonathan: That's a flawed design!

Fannish Traits: In addition the van with the Death Star mural, dialogue amongst the Trio (Andrew and Jonathan in particular) is a constant stream of science fiction and comic book references (notably, Jonathan claims fluency in Klingon). And their attempts at bank robbery and Slayer killing are pretty much straight out of the supervillain handbook.
What Drove Them to Evil: Repeated social, scientific, and mystical missteps, which required the Scooby Gang's constant meddling. That, and they hoped it would get them girls.

Superboy-Prime (DC Comics)

On my Earth, I read all about you, Polar Boy. You were a substitute Legionnaire who was let into the clubhouse because people felt sorry for you. Y'know, I almost feel sorry for you. Almost.

Fannish Traits: Raised in our universe reading comic books (and named after Clark Kent), Superboy-Prime is so distraught with the current direction of the DC Universe, that he tries to retcon the universe so it resembles the DC comics of his childhood.
What Drove Him to Evil: Pretty much the entire DC writing staff.

Control Freak (Teen Titans)

All these would've worked on the real Titans. It's just, your powers are... stupid! I don't wanna fight you anymore.

Fannish Traits: It's no surprise that, with his obsession with science fiction and television, Control Freak becomes an accidental fan of the Titans themselves. He's genuinely miffed when he has to face off against the Titans East instead of the main Teen Titans, and he's pissed when he realizes he's not on the list of their most notorious villains — after all, he's a recurring character.
What Drives Him to Evil: Mostly, because villains look cool.

Joe Jackson Stevens (Powers)

Every time they report about her, they ruin her. Every time they say her name, they chip away at her soul. The Indians say that a photograph steals your soul. Imagine if they are right. The world has no rights to her soul. If only I could get her attention.

Fannish Traits: Despite an avowed hatred of capes, Stevens has a profound obsession with Retro Girl, as evidenced by his diary entries and some rather sticky photos found in his apartment.
What Drove Him to Evil: Stevens is just plain unbalanced. He goes Mark David Chapman on Retro Girl because he wants to preserve her unblemished memory for the masses.

Red Mist (Kick-Ass)

Seriously. This whole superhero thing's been bubbling away for years, but you were the first to get out there and have the balls to do it, man. I'm your biggest fan. This is like meeting Elvis or something.

Fannish Traits: Mist claims to be such a huge fan of Kick-Ass (and superhero comics), that he follows Kick-Ass's lead and dons a ridiculous red suit to fight crime.
What Drove Him to Evil: It's not clear that Red Mist was ever on Kick-Ass's side, but whatever the case, he was probably getting paid good money to turn on his fellow vigilante.

Tim the Fanboy (Fans!)

These guys are the president and vice-president of a very cool club! They've fought a vampire, a mind-control conspiracy, and an ancient god! Share in the coolness! Join now!

Fannish Traits: Whereas most members of Bilberg University's Science Fiction Club are fans of science fiction, Tim is a devotee of the Club itself, turning down a spot at Harvard so he could worship at their feet. That, and he dresses like Harry Potter.
What Drove Him to Evil: Tim tends to become utterly devoted to a cause, only to turn on it completely when it lets him down in the slightest. When the Science Fiction Club is overwhelmed by the time traveling warlord General Maximillianna, Tim decides that she must be the superior moral force, and quickly joins her forces.

Ray Thompson (Justice League "Legends")

"Holy hijacking, Catman!"

Fannish Traits: Ray is so nostalgic for the superheroes of his childhood, that after they perished in a nuclear holocaust, he psychically resurrects them so they can continue their adventures.
What Drove Him to Evil: The sole survivor of the nuclear holocaust, Ray just wants to recreate the world of his idealized childhood. But when his illusion is shattered, he goes on a rampage that threatens to destroy reality.

The Mad Hatter (Batman)

As the great Lewis Carroll said: "One, two, one, two, and through and through the vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head, he went galumphing back!"

Fannish Traits: Jarvis Tetch is so obsessed with Lewis Carroll's Alice books that he dresses as the Mad Hatter, only eats hat-themed food, and constantly quotes Carroll.
What Drove Him to Evil: Psychosis. The Hatter has trouble distinguishing between Wonderland and reality, and has developed a frightening obsession with girls named Alice.

Mock Turtle (Astro City)

There was Narnia, with Caer Paravel. And Alice's Wonderland. And more. And children could find them, children like me. If I could find the right wardrobe, go through the right looking glass —

Fannish Traits: Like the Batman villain above, Martin Chefwick was obsessed with fantasy realms, including Wonderland, Narnia, and Oz. And, while he didn't mistake the real world for Wonderland, as a child he often went off in search of a gateway to a fantastical realm all his own.
What Drove Him to Evil: He wanted to impress a girl.

Stewie Griffin (Family Guy "Not All Dogs Go to Heaven")

No way, I'm getting Patrick Stewart to sign it. Picard has it all over Kirk. He's poised and measured and doesn't wear a cheap rug. Rather, he accepts even baldness with a quiet cool that says, "I am in command. You are safe with me. I will cradle you in my arms through any crisis in any galaxy."

Fannish Traits: From our list of convention disasters, Stewie built a working transporter for the sole purpose of kidnapping the entire cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
What Drove Him to Evil: Stewie has always been evil, but in this case, he was simply annoyed he didn't get to ask his question at the convention.

Melllvar (Futurama "Where No Fan Has Gone Before")

Fry: Melllvar's got a spaceship.
Melllvar: Yes, in mint condition... and you made me take it out of the package!

Fannish Traits: Another from our convention disasters list, Melllvar creates a paradise for the cast of the original Star Trek so he can hold his own private convention. Then he makes them battle the Planet Express crew to the death for his fanboy affection.
What Drove Him to Evil: Non-corporeal beings only seem evil until you learn that they're harmless 34 year-olds still living in their parents' basements.

Ben Meyers (Smallville "Action")

I'm sorry, Lana. But there's a hero living among us, and there's only one way he'll accept his calling. You need to die.

Fannish Traits: A fan of the Warrior Angel comic books, Meyers is upset when he learns that the hero's love interest won't die in the film adaptation like she does in the book. To maintain the purity of the movie, Meyers decides to simply kill off the actress playing the love interest himself. And, when he discovers Clark's unusual abilities, he believes Lana must endure the same fate.
What Drove Him to Evil: Hollywood's obsession with happy endings.

Mysterious Fan Boy (X-Statix)

If we're really being honest here, and I hope we are, I'd started to love the new X-Force, even though their high mortality rate did unsettle my bowels. And now they go and change the whole thing. If that was all they'd done I might be able to forgive them. But they have done the unforgivable. They've killed the best of them. I mean, how do those people expect us fans to react?

Fannish Traits: Arnie Lundberg wears his fandom proudly. He is such a huge fan of X-Force in general and U-Go Girl in particular that when his favorite team member gets killed off, he takes an entire town hostage, controlling and disfiguring its citizens, a la the Twilight Zone episode "It's a Good Life."
What Drove Him to Evil: A combination of childhood taunting, relative omnipotence, and U-Go Girl's death. But it all works out for him since he joins the newly renamed X-Statix team so they can keep an eye on him.

Comic Book Guy (The Simpsons)

Lucite...hardening. Must end life...in classic...Lorne Greene pose...from...Battlestar Galactica. Best...death...ever!

Fannish Traits: There's very little in the Comic Book Guy's life that doesn't center around fandom. And, in the Treehouse of Horror episode "Desperately Xeeking Xena," he becomes a villain known as "The Collector," who steals his favorite celebrities and places them in PET bags for safe keeping.
What Drove Him to Evil: The desire to preserve his favorite actors in mint condition.

The Catgirl Menace (Something Positive)

I'm tired of you comic creators thinking just because you make something you own it! You don't! It's ours the minute we read it! And the fans know better than you do what's right, otherwise we'd be making comics, not reading them!

Fannish Traits: Not precisely scifi, but too powerful to be ignored, the Catgirls walk around in adorable cat ears and will read anything with the word "Neko" in the title.
What Drove Them to Evil: Someone dissed their obsession du jour, Neko Neko Holy-Chan. Fortunately, they lost interest when they realized the comic creators were changing the comic in a way that disagreed with their fan fiction and shattered their little yaoi fantasies. Some creators just like their straw fans to smack you in the face.

Twilighters, Tim Burton fans, and people looking to get a glimpse of James Cameron's latest film crowded outside the San Diego Convention Center hoping to score one of the coveted seats in Hall H. Although you could still find a prime spot in line if you showed up first thing this morning, we talked to some movie buffs who take their line waiting very seriously.

Aura from San Diego, CA
In Line Since: Her family started waiting at 9:30 P.M. Tuesday, earning them the first spot in line.
Eager to See: New Moon, with Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland and Avatar as a bonus.
Secret to Being First in Line: Working in shifts. Aura's niece was the first to show, with other family members taking over early Wednesday morning.

Joey, Tiffany, and Nancy from Ohio and Georgia
In Line Since: 2 A.M. Wednesday, giving them the #2 spot.
Were They Shocked They Weren't the First Ones There? You bet, especially since last year, Tiffany held that distinction.
Waiting Builds Bonds: These three actually met at last year's Con while waiting in line for Twilight. They had so much fun, they decided to make it a tradition.
Eager to See: While last year was all about Twilight, they're actually more interested in Alice and Avatar than New Moon.
Secret to Waiting in Line: Making good friends, of course, but also coming prepared. Their list of waiting necessities includes deodorant, dry shampoo, and disposable toothbrushes. Oh, and watch out for the roaches that inhabit the planters outside the Convention Center.

Kristina and Niki from Daytona Beach
In Line Since: 2 A.M. Wednesday.
Eager to See: New Moon Says Niki: "I think that's what every female is here to see."
The Ethics of Line-Jumping: Unlike some of their fellow waiters, they don't believe in holding places for friends. They note a group ahead of them started with five people, but quickly swelled to 20 and kept growing, "Soon we had a whole Partridge Family." Aside from coffee runs and bathroom breaks, they did the full wait.
Secret to Waiting in Line: Coffee, mixed liberally with good company.

Chris and Gia of Twilight Fansite Twilighters.org
In Line Since: 2 A.M. Wednesday.
Eager to See: New Moon
Anything Besides New Moon? Um...No.
Secret to Waiting in Line: Taking shifts so you can leave and not go stir crazy.

Shawn and Leslie of Oceanside, CA
In Line Since: The wee hours of Wednesday morning.
Eager to See: New Moon. Apparently, Avatar fans don't camp.
Secret to Waiting in Line: Says Leslie, "You have to be really passionate about something to do this."

Thanks to Anthony Mount for additional images.

Weirdly enough, the meme of the fans hating the movie for being too accessible to the mainstream started with this funny Onion clip last week:

As a joke, it was pretty great — especially the idea that real Trek-lovers prefer stiff acting and preachy storylines. Then a few days later, NPR picked up the meme, but with total seriousness. (Listen to the stodgy NPR piece about how "older fans" may skip the new movie here, or read a brief summary here.)

And with that, the meme took off, gaining a new life of its own. There was this particularly lovely cartoon in the New York Daily News, for example (at left). And now it's gotten to the point where TrekMovie.com claims that it's turning away media requests from mainstream media outlets looking to present this stereotype of Trekkers bashing the new movie for making sense:

However just this morning alone I have been contacted by ABC Good Morning America and NBC News, and both of them wanted to me to help provide a fan to put on camera to talk about how Trek fans as a whole are against this film. When I talked to producers for both, neither wanted to hear that those fans were only a small part, and in fact one producer (from NBC) hung up on me when I told him I thought it would be disingenuous for them to report that Trek fans as a whole were against this movie. I suggested to both that they could have two fans on with opposing views or at least represent the ‘negative' fan as being part of just a segment of Trek fandom, but those suggestions fell on deaf ears. Our friend and star/producer of Star Trek Phase II James Cawley tells me that he has also turned down multiple mainstream media requests to attack the new movie.

What's going on here? We talked to a spokesperson for ABC news, and he said that Good Morning America had indeed reached out to TrekMovie for a piece they're planning on running for their weekend edition. GMA is doing a story about how old and new Star Trek fans feel about the new movie, and they're not just looking for fans who hate it.

According to the spokesperson, the GMA producers want to find a range of viewpoints — including people who love the original show and have different feelings about the new movie, but also people who feel the opposite. The point, says the spokesperson, is definitely not to present just one viewpoint. And the GMA producers haven't even decided what the story will be about until they talk to people. However, they're starting out with the idea that there's a divide between old and new fans, and they want to explore that. But he stressed that the GMA producers aren't drawing any conclusions yet.

And I'm sure the GMA producers will be able to find some old-school Trek fans who are uncomfortable with some of the changes the movie makes. But at the same time, I feel as though I know where this meme originates: with the studio. J.J. Abrams has been quoted in articles in recent days, telling old-school Trek fans to "stay away" from his film if they can't handle the fact that it's not the Shatner model. When you actually watch the film, you see that it's actually a love letter to original Trek fans, with literally tons of references to the original show and the movies. Abrams and Paramount know that the die-hard Trek fans will see it five times — so they're probably happy to see mainstream media outlets spreading the meme that this film actually alienates nerds because of its extreme newbie-friendliness.

In other words, the "straw nerd" this meme sets up is not aimed at bashing fans, but at luring in Trek-phobes.

Comic-Con Can Bestow Cult Status
It's hard to manufacture cult status — no matter how much a company puts into its advertising budget, there's no way to be sure it will result in the cult reputation of a movie like Donnie Darko or a series like Firefly. Still, there are good reasons to strive for cult status. Cult flicks stay in theaters for years, and spawn legions of tie-in items like books, special edition DVDs, games, and more. If any group is likely to form a cult around a media property, however, it's going to be the people attending Comic-Con. So if a studio thinks it has a potential cult hit on its hands like Watchmen, it had better be courting the Comic-Con crowds with special teasers just for the Con and lots of love from creators and actors involved with the production. Cultists like special treats, and Comic-Con is designed to give them what they want.

Comic-Con Attendees Are Pop Culture Connoisseurs
Just as the technology world has its "early adopters" and "alpha geeks," so too does the pop culture world have its connoisseurs. And most of those connoisseurs go to Comic-Con. What makes a connoisseur, instead of just a regular movie-goer or comic book reader? Connoisseurs spread the word in LiveJournals, blogs, and fan clubs. They are the taste-makers among their groups of friends and in their communities, organizing trips to the theater and making "word of mouth" a reality. Pop culture connoisseurs are almost entirely responsible for the popularity of movies like Blair Witch Project, and for the failure of Ang Lee's Hulk movie.

Comic-Con Builds Mystique
Because you've got 100 thousand pop culture connoisseurs in one place at the same time, Comic-Con is the ideal place to build a brand and fast. No need to buy a zillion TV commercials — just create some mystique around your property. Hand out mysterious posters with glowing hands on them; design strange postcards that make oblique reference to your movie (like the creators of Wall-E did last year), or launch an alternate reality game (ARG) where Comic-Con attendees have to figure out clues in a website and meet somewhere in San Diego to get special swag. The point is, if you're going to do something that makes people obsess over your soon-to-launch movie/TV show/book, Comic-Con will provide the obsessives you need.

Comic-Con Can Make a Story Last for Decades
People who obsess over stories can also make one simple premise (a bunch of people flying around in a spaceship, say) last for decades. The people at Comic-Con are the children of the people who made Star Trek and Doctor Who into franchises that keep paying off nearly a century after they first aired on TV. They're the people who turned Star Wars into a religion. When a regular audience gets excited about a movie, they can make it last all summer. But only a Comic-Con audience can make it last for generations.

Comic-Con Generates Fan Bases, Not Just Audiences
What all these characteristics of Comic-Con add up to is the fact that the Con isn't just about showing off wares to a bunch of people who want to be entertained. A lot of people at Comic-Con want more than diversion and fun — they want to find stories that will turn them into fans. And to studios and publishers, fans equal cash. They're the built-in group of consumers that you never want to lose — the people who will stick by your show even when you swap in a lame new character or give Spider-Man radioactive sperm. Every major studio wants its properties to have fans, and that's why Comic-Con will be packed with producers, directors, creators, writers, and actors who are courting fan-bases. Especially for new properties that are coming out next year, like Fringe and Dollhouse. Other franchises, like Terminator and Lost, need less help. But they still need to maintain their fan bases, grooming them to consume yet another season or installment in the stories that obsess them. Top image via FigureThisRadio.

Overall Mindsets
The spread of occupations and aspirations for both Doctor Who and Star Trek fans is near-identical; what differs, in fact, is the occupations and the aspirations themselves.

The number one dream of approximately 29% of the 1,648 survey respondents is to work in science. Visual and Performing Arts takes a close second, with 14% of respondents wishing to work in that area. After that, 11% of respondents declared "Other," and while most of those were either unsure of their careers or unwilling to place their jobs in one of the broader categories, the most outspoken contingent in the "Other" group announced their childhood wishes to be astronauts. Both Star Trek and Doctor Who, then, breed aspiring stargazers, intellectuals, artists, actors, and people with careers too varied to define.

Where the lives of fans actually end up is a slightly different matter. 23% of respondents work in Computers & Mathematics, even though less than 7% aspired to that career. Students are next — perhaps those 17% of respondents are all budding scientists and thespians, though the majority suggests otherwise. 9% of respondents qualified their careers as Education, Museum Work, and Library Science; only 5% wanted to work in that area as children. Just under half of the aspiring visual and performing artists achieved their dream, and only 2% work in the nerd-kid-favorite career of Science.

While this is as much influenced by teachers, parents, mentors, locations, and salaries as it is any television show, the crevasse between childhood aspirations and eventual careers is a telling look at how the needs of the world transform the dreams of individuals.

"They are both studies of humanity: Star Trek is more about putting people into abstract situations and seeing what humanity emerges, while Doctor Who tends toward deciding what humanity should be inserted into an abstract situation."

"I'm a fan of Star Trek for its optimism. I like the idea that science and engineering can be applied to solve our problems. I like Doctor Who for its sense of wonder at the universe's complexity."

"Star Trek represents a structured authority in exploration, while Doctor Who favors the "mad genius inventor," an individual exploring on their own. ... Doctor Who does a better job of depicting what it is to be truly alien. Star Trek does a good job of examining what it means to be truly human."

New fans are arriving by the moment, however, to change those numbers. 28% of Doctor Who fans discovered the show less than 5 years ago; these fresh recruits no doubt owe their fandom to the revived New Who. Star Trek's fan base, according to these survey respondents, has grown only 2% in the last 5 years, so it looks like Enterprise didn't help much.

Either way, don't let these results depress you. I doubt the devoted fanbase — the 64% of 15-plus-year Doctor Who fans and 81% of those near-lifetime Star Trek fans — is going anywhere anytime soon.

"I was drawn to the Doctor because he always resolved conflicts using is head and relied little on brute force and violence. I love the cerebral nature of it!"

"What draws me to Star Trek is Roddenberry's vision of a universe where the definition of what it means to be human is constantly changing so that it's more inclusive. ... I have major problems with the Doctor as a character, because he's fundamentally undemocratic — this guy just goes around killing aliens on my behalf, but I have no say in it."

"Star Trek ... imagines a scientific, scholarly existence in a future where (generally) people are nice to each other; it scratches (sorta) my hard sci-fi itch. [Doctor Who is] lots of fun following the adventures of a charismatic, brilliant eccentric in a crazy world; it scratches my Douglas Adams-ish fantastic sci-fi itch."

"Trek tells the story of events that happen to people, but not so much what happens between people."

Star Trek, however, does have more appeal across the globe, suggesting either greater exposure for American television or greater appeal to people in varied societies. Star Trek's fans hail from 33 countries, while Doctor Who's live in 22. There are fans of both shows in 12 apparently sci-fi-friendly countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Austrlia, New Zealand, China, Brazil, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Trinidad & Tobago.

By the way, judging from plentiful reader comments, Star Trek takes the cake for special effects, while Doctor Who garnered the most praise for its acting. Food for thought — and evidence, perhaps, that David Tennant's Doctor ought to face down Patrick Stewart's Captain in a special crossover episode of doom. (Or perhaps they should just have a torrid affair: More than one reader expressed disappointment in Star Trek's record on homosexuality.)

"I was attracted to the misanthropic anti-establishment character of the Doctor, and the unique odds of his adventures — a single person pitting wits against brawn, whereas Trek was always about the establishment, not the underdog."

"The beauty of Star Trek is the betterment of humans through the unquenchable need to know more. [The Doctor] is a renegade, cruising around, finding problems and making them right with his vast knowledge and skills."

In conclusion, I have to leave you with these two stories. Someone out there has the most awesome husband ever, and someone else should feel free to claim the most awesome parents.

"When I first met my husband and asked for his number, he said he'd give it to me if I knew who Davros was. I explained all about the Daleks to him, he gave me his number, and, well, now we are married. I guess I owe finding true love to Doctor Who."

"My parents met because of Original Star Trek. I was saturated with it since before I was born. I grew up being dragged to conventions and fan club meetings, and learned an awful lot about life through my mom's secret stash of fanfiction. Although it's not my favorite show, I have a tremendous respect for it, because it really did made me into someone confident in her 'geekiness.'"

If you want to see all our data, you can download this PDF.

Sci Fi message board poster "Rolling Paper" writes:

Soooo. Ron D Moore, Executive Producer of the series (as he constantly reminds us) said that Galactica would end when he lost his passion for the series. So the series has ended by his dictate as we all know. Ergo he has lost his passion for the series, ergo it will probably suck.

At least the other fans who think that it'll suck have a slightly better reason. Namely, the quality of the previous season:

Given Season 3, (and I can't think of one series that has managed to recover from such a mess), I give it a 98% chance it will suck big time.

Due to the suck called S3 my standard for S4 is so low that there's only a .00005% I will think it sucks because my expectations were lowered so much by S3 it's difficult to overstate. If continuity between lines is maintained I'll be happy, forget continuity between episodes... At this point that's a pipe dream.

Will Season 4 suck? [Scifi.com]

Other than those restrictions, the sky's the limit. Well, there is one other thing. According to the rules:

Use of a time machine or other similar instrument to stop the normal passage of time, giving you say 3 weeks to make a film in what seems like just a weekend to the rest of us - well, that is cheating and we won't stand for it - unless of course you use some kind of mind control and erase any knowledge of this rule or your cheating or the fact that the time machine was invented...

Winners get a video camera. What? No Dalek-shaped chocolate cake?

Sci-Fi London [official site]

Annalee: "If you guys had to get out of those costumes really, really fast, how would you do it?"
Spidey: "You mean like, if the building was on fire? I always build secret escape hatches in here, so you can just pull and they're gone."
Spider-Woman: "Yeah, they come off in about five seconds." (We think she winked after that, but it's hard to tell behind those huge white eyecovers)
Spidey: "I mean, when you gotta to to the bathroom, you gotta go."

Essentially, what Shadow Unit is, is a virtual serial drama—sort of a TV show without the actors or directors or Hollywood, for that matter. If you're familiar with the fanfiction concept of a virtual season, it won't seem that unfamiliar.

In addition to the site content (we plan to do eight novella-or-novel-length episodes a season, and Season 1 just started), there are also "DVD extras" (vignettes, goodies, artwork, cut scenes, clever bits of meta (a few pages from a crumpled shooting script that might have been used by one of the actors for this show that doesn't exist, for example)—and several of the characters have a web presence. Which is to say, in-character blogs that don't break the fourth wall.

It's all quite experimental.

Shadow Unit [official site]

• The first official (American, anyhow) "World Science Fiction Convention" (now known as Worldcon) was held in 1939, and followed by conventions in Chicago and Denver in the following years. check out the photo above of some fans posing at Coney Island during that first convention, on the top row on the far left is Ray Bradbury.
• The first British convention in 1937 attracted 20 fans, including Eric Frank Russell and Arthur C. Clarke.
• The WorldCon conventions were suspended after 1941 due to World War II, but resumed in 1946.
• WonderCon was started by John Barrett in the San Francisco Bay area in 1987, but has since been adopted and is now part of the Comic-Con International family of Cons. Sort of like the Shazam family.
• Comic-Con itself began in San Diego as the Golden State Comic Book Convention in 1970, and attracted around 500 fans. Last year the Con (now the San Diego Comic-Con or just Comic-Con) had over 125,000 visitors.
• There are now regional cons including everything from Eurocon to DeepSouthCon to Westercon.
• There are even specific cons that cover one range of subjects, like BotCon (Transformers), Costume-Con (costumes, duh), and FilkOntario (filk music, folks music with a scifi/fantasy twist).
• That's not even mentioning all of the cons for specific shows and movies that have sprung up, like Star Trek, Farscape, Star Wars, and plenty of others. In fact, the movie GalaxyQuest is completely con-centric.
• Our favorite title? The Wrath of Con in North Florida. Either that or the Comic Book Guy's Bi-Mon-Sci-Fi-Con. It's a toss up.

My favorite SF car, besides Corey's, is Katie Horn's Red Five X-wing car. It started out as an early 90s Toyota Tercel, then she gave it a new base coat of paint and then spray-painted on X-wing markings. But what puts her car over the top is the blast marks she spray-painted on.

There's also Shawn Crosby's A-wing car, which has been featured in Wired. Another fan turned his pick-up truck into an X-wing fighter, complete with R2DT in back. And then there was the Fiat that someone tricked out as a Hoth ice cruiser and tried to sell on eBay for $40,000.

Unfortunately, Star Trek fans have fallen short in the pimped-out cars category. The main Trek car seems to be the Seven Of Nine Car, which has a model of the Starship Voyager on its hood and pics of Jeri Ryan all over the body. Must try harder, Trek fans. Where are the cars with warp nacelles?

• The Starship Exeter: This Star Trek fan-made series comes from the heart of Austin, Texas, and looks like it was filmed alongside the original series. From the sets all the way down to the smallest props, its got the looks. The acting can be slightly hammy at times, but whoever said Shatner wasn't pure pork?
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• Time Distortion: If you can manage to build a replica of the TARDIS, then you've done 95% of the work required to make a Doctor Who fanfilm, mostly because the special effects budget for the BBC back in the day was probably about ten bucks. For the whole season. Kevin Hiley and buddy Jonathan Miles made an audio version of this story when they were both 13 years old, and 13 years later, they made a live-action version that captures the cheese, camp, and charm of the original Doctor Who.
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• Troops: 1977's Hardware Wars was the first-ever fan film that poked fun at the Star Wars universe but this one takes the cake as far as making something new out of something old. It's Cops with Stormtroopers, what more do you need to know? Oh, and it's hilarious. It helped spawn other Star Wars-themed comedy fanfilms like Trooper Clerks and Pink Five.
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• Batman: Dead End: While the Star Wars and Star Trek universes normally receive the most attention from aspiring fanfilmers, Batman has had some pretty decent entries as well. The best of the bunch is this 2003 short film that wowed director Kevin Smith and artist Alex Ross. It inspired other Batman fanfilms like Grayson, about an adult Robin trying to find out who killed Batman (excellent) and World's Finest, where Batman teams up with Superman.
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• Indiana Jones: The Adaptation: This is probably one of the most inspiring stories of labor, love, and fandom. Three twelve-year-old buddies saw Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981, and starting making a shot-for-shot remake with a camcorder. It took them seven years to finish it, and it premiered in Texas on the big screen in 2003. Producer Scott Rudin bought the rights to their story, and art house comic book favorite Dan Clowes is writing it.

The revelation that bad-assed Admiral Cain was not only a lesbian but a lesbian into sexy blonde Cylon Gina, was apparently underscored in the next commercial break by a sting courtesy of snack food supplier Quizno's. And it's that hot-girl-on-girl-action/sandwich combo that's upset fans on Sci-Fi's website:

I could care less who does what with whom, as that is not why I watch this show. My complaint is that the existence of a GAY relationship became so forced, after obvious—and I mean OBVIOUS—funding by Quizno's and glaad, that anything else in the show, including the modicum of an attempt at a storyline, were blasted into oblivion. Is this what we're all going to be subjected to now? Sexual preference is now pandered in BSG, paid for by third parties. Reminds me of a tobacco company strategy. I say 'now' not referring to the more common hetero content one sees on regular tv, but to the amount of paid advertisements during a show to express that the hetero relationships were specifically paid to be placed there. Basically, I'm offended that one of my favorite shows could not just include a relationship in the show like any other show we see, but had to take the time to show us it was bought and paid for.

Who made this episode? This was the worst BSG I've ever experienced.

it was...hmm...how do I put this politely....a good "solid" episode. But a jaw dropper? - what...that there are lesbian lovers on another planet? Anyone watching a promo commercial for Teens Gone Wild can see girls kissing, so Six and the Admiral's shoulder squeeze is a yawner...

The gay thing .. eh.. I don't see a point for it ... so yeah i agree it was a stereotype thing.. don't really see the point.... maybe just that tough bull dykes who "sorta" still look/act like a traditional stereotypical straight woman (sorta) .. the only thing missing from Cain's personality was a guy'ish short spikey military haircut and maybe an earring and a rainbow tattoo somewhere.

Too bad they had to shove the radical liberal gay agenda down our thoats.

We just finished watching Razor. And all we have to say to the producers is 'how dare you!"... seriously, how dare you leave us like this until March. And to show us previews to boot. It's rude, evil and now we know who the cylons really are.. YOU. You are ******* cylons and we do not appeciate it. As Melissa Linden, head of the Ghandi Group says, "Dont be the evilness in the world." No really... think about it...you entice us into your web, drain us of our vital life-blood and then spit out the remenents... we are those remenents.

Battlestar Galactica: Razor [Sci-Fi Forums]

As a whole these stories are far more inventive than most science fiction you see on TV or at the movies nowadays. I'm not here to bash all SF film and TV... but it seems there's an inventiveness, a vitality, in written SF that you don't see as much in TV and movies.

Unfortunately, that wild creation is long gone from written science fiction as well, says classic SF author Norman Spinrad:

Norman Spinrad in the SFWA Forum sees SF writers as becoming more conservative as their audience decreases. They are writing tired space operas and tedious technophilic "hard SF," retro science fiction for the graying, fannish core readership, rather than trying to reach out to the rest of the world.

In other words, the same thing ails science fiction in both books and movies/TV: an obsessive audience of aging fans, who prefer lovingly described toys and rehashed science fantasy plots to anything new. The solution isn't a different medium, but a bigger and/or smarter audience. Image by Annahiltunen.

Written Science Fiction [Balancing Frogs]
Reflections on science fiction, writing and the publishing business [Twin Cities Daily Planet]