by Colin Flanigan
 

         More X-Files stories exist on the internet than will ever be seen in
         syndication. There are also new Star Trek "episodes" being created every day,
         with Spock and
         Kirk still exploring strange new worlds, some of them involving graphic
         depictions of sex. In fact, if you fire up your favorite internet search engine
         with the right
         words, you'll find stories with characters and situations from "Star Wars",
         "Homicide", "Law and Order","The Pretender", some of which "crossover" into
         the universe
         of the other. There are even ribald spoofs of classic TV fare, along with
         satires of "Gilligan's Island". Welcome to the world of fan fiction, or fanfic as
         its readers and
         writers nickname this growing genre of writing.

         Pre-dating the internet, this type of writing involves fans taking their beloved
         characters and either continuing certain story lines that were left unfinished
         or making up
         new ones. First bound in photocopied magazines and circulated at sci-fi movie
         conventions, they were known only to the tightest circle of the most
         committed fans,
         until the Internet came along and opened up this genre to anyone with a
         modem and an imagination. It also expanded the source matter to include TV.

         This expansion of sources engendered a proliferation of subject matter.
         Instead of merely taking characters and giving them new story lines writers
         began to explore
         the characters themselves. The X-Files is a good example of how a successful
         show spawns mountains of fanfic.

         The Fox Network's crown jewel of Sunday evenings, the X-Files concerns the
         case work of two FBI agents, Dana Scully and Fox Mulder, who set out to
         solve
         X-Files, those cases which defy deductive logic and reasonable explanations.
         Each week Dana Scully, the scientific and MD certified redhead-played by
         emmy
         award winning Gillian Anderson, and Fox Mulder, the angst ridden intuitive
         detective who looks for explanations in parapsychology-played by David
         Duchovny, go
         up against mutants, madmen and government conspiracies. Enhancing this
         intriguing concept is the on-screen chemistry between Anderson and
         Duchovny. A
         chemistry that has spiced up recent story-lines but has never been
         consummated in the award winning series.

         This intriguing fictional situation has spawned thousands of fanfic stories,
         many grouped into such subcategories as Angst or MSR (Mulder, Scully
         Relationship).
         Many are self rated by the authors from the relatively tame character pieces
         of G to the erotica of NC-17. Type in http://gossamer.simplenet.com and you
         can see
         the fruits of such labors.

         In fact, most fanfic is written about science fiction or fantasy. The very
         nature of "what if..." is much more fertile ground than some of your reality
         based shows like
         "ER" whose stories are more "if this, then that". Paula Graves, a popular and
         prolific X-Files fanfic writer and archivist, says, "I think the fantastical nature
         of the
         shows lends itself to more creative thought, because in the X-Files, or Beauty
         and the Beast, or Star Trek, the notion of the fantastic, the paranormal, the
         magical are
         more easily accommodated by the milieu. And magic is just more fun to write."
 

         Karen Rasch, another accomplished X-Files fanfic writer whose "Words"
         series literally encompasses hundreds of pages, says that "Television shows
         which are a
         step removed from the "realistic" offer up more possibilities for fiction. You can
         do more with the characters and situations. When I look at "XF" fanfic, I'm
         amazed at
         the range. You can have casefile stories, romances, first person vignettes,
         parodies, crossovers and slash. The "XF" universe adapts well."

         Crossover and slash fanfic are two strange sub-genres of this very specific
         type of fiction. When you are dealing with two characters that are not your
         own, such as
         TV's Scully and Mulder, you are in the domain of Chris Carter, the creator of
         the X-Files. Crossover stories let the characters of one show leave behind
         their familiar
         surroundings and interact with characters from another creator's "universe".
         One fanfic writer, Peggy Li, combined the TV cult hit Twin Peaks with "XF"
         characters in
         a story entitled "Into the Woods". This story worked well because both series
         shared a preoccupation with the supernatural and had FBI agents as the
         principal
         characters.

         Slash fiction takes them shockingly further out of context, by making straight
         characters gay.

         Slash writer Brenda Antrim explains the appeal this way. "I prefer to write
         fanfic instead of original fiction because I like playing in already constructed
         universes," she
         writes. "And I like to stretch characters I already know and love." Stretch
         them she does. In her stories the straight laced Dana Scully does some down
         right twisted
         things, and the byronic Fox Mulder engages in bisexual activity. Not something
         you'll see on national television. While most fanfic is acknowledged to be
         successful
         by staying "true" to the show, slash and crossover fanfic takes liberties with
         the characters.

         Antrim, who ends her e-mails with a quote from Sappho-the ancient greek
         love poet who gave birth to the term lesbian, goes further than most in
         discussing why one
         would write slash.

         "The opportunity to twist a character into a unique and unusual situation and
         see how he reacts. The chance to break him open, put him back together and
         see how
         he deals with the changes in himself. Slash differs because there are more
         barriers to two men or two women admitting they love one another than a
         man and a
         woman...Any slash that leaves the bedroom faces a number of social,
         emotional and physical threats that a gen story doesn't usually have to
         address."

         Taken another way one could say that crossover and slash fiction are a way
         of talking back to the TV in a very subversive way. To invert the stories to a
         way that
         isn't usually seen. With the failing show "Ellen" being the only "gay" show on
         TV, slash is an outlet for a community that has little say in the mainstream. It
         must be
         mentioned that Antrim's Sappho quote reads, "Live your own life...As for the
         Critic -- let brainstorms and maledictions sweep him away!"

         Interestingly even the mainstream "XF" fanfic inverts an unspoken rule of
         television. Fanfic is written mainly by women, while the majority of TV writers
         are male.

         Kelli Rochelle, another "XF" fanfic writer stated why she believed this was in
         an e-mail. "The relationship between Mulder and Scully is very intriguing to
         women.
         They are equals, they are attracted to each other, yet they don't act on it. I
         think women like to explore this relationship and/or get some resolution
         through fanfic.
         Generally speaking, men are more interested in the stories, and those needs
         are met every week. Quid pro quo: fanfic is, in my opinion, about exploring
         things we
         won't see on the show."

         The aforementioned fanfic writer Paula Graves, whose archive
         http://geocities.com/Area51/4261, collects all stories that deal with the
         Mulder/Scully relationship
         echoes these observations. "I believe that women tend to think more about
         emotional motivations for the actions of the characters. Women seem to be
         more
         interested in WHY Scully makes a certain decision. And women are more
         interested in the internal thoughts of the characters than the men are."

         Graves fellow writer Rasch has a good observation about fanfic that bears
         repeating.

         "I think (fanfic) allows readers to explore the characters more fully. Television
         is, by and large, a visual medium. It deals with action as opposed to
         introspection. The
         written word is more conducive to that kind of thing. Fanfic encourages its
         participants to fill in the blanks. I think that's why you get so many
         post-episode stories.
         Writers feel the urge to flesh out what was given to them by the shows
         writers."

         This dynamic of internet writers taking their cues from the TV show is well
         established, but what about the reverse. Do TV writers and producers garner
         ideas from
         all this fanfic? Long before the show ever started pushing for a more personal
         relationship between the two characters the fanfic writers had broken that
         ground. A
         favorite pairing for slash writers were Mulder and the Russian-American double
         agent Krycheck. Then, in a recent episode Krycheck, with his gun drawn,
         kisses
         Mulder.

         Most deny the connections. Antrim comes right out and says, "There have
         been a few times when I've seen actions in episodes that make me applaud,
         because
         they're very close to something that I've used. Do I think they're stealing my
         idea? Of course not. There are no such things as original stories, only original
         ways to
         present story ideas."

         Yet, so dangerous is this idea that most television producers and writers
         deliberately stay away from reading such fanfic so they won't be held liable
         for stealing
         someone's idea. This concern is problematical at best. How could fanfic
         writers protect stories they've written? After all, they're using characters that
         aren't theirs, for
         a show they don't produce, and publishing in a place where copyright laws are
         ambiguous at best?

         Star Wars creator George Lucas once threatened to sue any and all fanfic
         writers when he came across a bit of extravagant Star Wars erotica. He's
         since relented
         but there is many a fanfic site, especially those with doctored pictures
         showing well known copyrighted characters, which are told to cease and
         desist.

         Peter X Feng, Assistant Professor of Film Studies at the University of
         California, explained to Pitch how academia is split on the subject of pop
         cultures most
         postmodern creation , fanfic.

         "Some scholars view fan fiction as an assertion of moral ownership' of TV
         characters. Henry Jenkins makes this point in his book Textual Poachers -- he
         cites fan
         fiction as proof that fans aren't passive consumers. Of course, other scholars
         see the exact opposite -- fans who write fiction are even worse than
         Barnum's suckers
         born every minute: such fans are the ideal consumers of what tv is selling."

         Perhaps the most interesting part of this phenomenon is the on-line
         community which has grown up around fanfic. Anyone who writes and posts
         an X-Files fanfic on
         one of the many group archives instantly receives mail. It's a guaranteed
         audience. Many of these groups now give out their own awards and even
         meet...off-line as
         well as on. Sheryl Martin, who was quoted in an article the New York Times
         ran on fanfic, met her fiance through her on-line life. She tells the appeal of
         this community this way. "I just like to make people happy- yeah, I know it
         sounds simplistic; but when I get a fan letter back...it just makes my day."
         One Star Wars fanfic writer made the observation that with audio and visual
         sampling technology becoming more and more sophisticated a new form of
         fanfic could arise. One where you took the images and sounds from a show
         with enough background material, say the long running series Seinfeld, and
         constructed a whole new episode. It must be said that with fanfic, the show
         never ends.
 

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