Okay. Now I'm pissed.
Jan. 9th, 2010 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogThey deleted our Wikipedia article.
Who are "we,"? I hear you cry.
Thirteeen years, four months, one day ago. It was the 30th anniversary of the premiere of Star Trek, so some ::koff:: enterprising writers, ranging from high school age to teacher age, chose that night to debut the first webisode of an online-only "revival" of an early 90s sci-fi show called seaQuest DSV.
The original show began with much promise- Rockne S. O'Bannon created it, Spielberg's money was behind it, and it got its premiere on the day of, and with much publicity during, one of the Super Bowls lost by the Bills.
Hmmm. No wonder it never worked out.
Two years in, they totally rebooted the series, 15 years into the future- renaming it seaQuest 2032, replacing much of the cast, and sending much of the story line out into the universe, where it finally arrived in standard orbit around the Planet Implausible. It got the ax, but a few loyal fans stayed on to write about the characters and settings from the show, this group of them doing yet another reboot on that September Sunday night when the boat went 15 more years into the future and became seaQuest 2047. A few characters were retained from the original canon- mainly, the one-time Kid Crusher, a/k/a the brilliant but annoying Lucas Wolenczak, who was given the conn of the boat; and Katie Hitchcock, a favorite (apparently, still to some;) from the old show who we anointed with the presidency of the UEO. Mostly, though, the writers created a "bible" of new characters, all as well developed out of the gate as about 80 percent of what you see nightly on network television. Sadly, that isn't saying all that much, but for a bunch of unpaid fanatics, I'm still pretty proud of it.
They even invented a far more worthy adversary for the good guys than the real writers ever did. In a far better prediction of 21st century politics than, say, Arthur C. Clarke could envision, 2047 cracked the remnants of our country along the Mason-Dixon line, turning the south into something called the Carolinan Confederation ("Carrots" was their derisive nickname among UEO loyalists), who decided that the South was gonna rise again and become the weapon-toting, government-disrupting nemesis of Truth, Justice and What Was Left of the American Way that the teabaggers seem to be preparing us for.
As this stuff goes, it was remarkably well done. I wasn't onboard for a while- lurking at first, then editing others' scripts, finally co-writing a spoof episode (which may be one of the most hated pieces of fanfic ever done, at least as expressed by the show's core fans) and ultimately co-writing one or two real ones, before college bells and real life broke up that old gang of ours.
The staff consisted of a bunch of show fans who'd met in some forum someplace, and their friends and friends-of-friends. As with most groups of writers, tendencies formed pretty quickly. One writer never got into a situation that a new and improved pile of explosives couldn't blast his way out of. (To this day, the words "subduction weapon" strike terror in the ears of a certain former series advisor.) Another thought that Getting Lucas Laid would be an interesting way to capture the imagination of the "viewer"ship.
For most of its time online (and virtually all of mine at the end), the series stuck to its 8:00 p.m. Eastern Sunday deadline for debuting the scripts, although there were usually major disagreements and many final edits going on as late as 7:59. The final episode only got its first two acts posted on the scheduled night, and things then broke up to a point where I didn't know or care if the remainder ever got posted- leaving me with the joke on my writing resume that I edited for the only series in the history of mass communications to get canceled during an episode.
----
A few years ago, I saw we'd been Wiki'd, which was amusing and somewhat probative of the point about not believing shit you read on the internet. I mentioned Katie Hitchcock the other night, got a nice comment back about her, and went to post something much like this entry, only to find that we were rendered Not Notable Enough just this past September. A week before what would've been the 13th anniversary of the debut.
Bastards.
Some pieces live on, though:
An original slice of the series website is still online, only through the events, staff and episodes of the first few months (and blessedly not including any of my immortal contributions).
Wikipedia still credits us with one of the first uses of the term "webisode." The first, a year earlier, was something called The Spot, apparently a Melrose Place knockoff which was also one of the first site to make money by using banner ads. THEY are still notable enough to have an article.
I'm sure some of the former staffers may have memories, or even better links to things, so I'll hand the conn over to them at this point.
Who are "we,"? I hear you cry.
Thirteeen years, four months, one day ago. It was the 30th anniversary of the premiere of Star Trek, so some ::koff:: enterprising writers, ranging from high school age to teacher age, chose that night to debut the first webisode of an online-only "revival" of an early 90s sci-fi show called seaQuest DSV.
The original show began with much promise- Rockne S. O'Bannon created it, Spielberg's money was behind it, and it got its premiere on the day of, and with much publicity during, one of the Super Bowls lost by the Bills.
Hmmm. No wonder it never worked out.
Two years in, they totally rebooted the series, 15 years into the future- renaming it seaQuest 2032, replacing much of the cast, and sending much of the story line out into the universe, where it finally arrived in standard orbit around the Planet Implausible. It got the ax, but a few loyal fans stayed on to write about the characters and settings from the show, this group of them doing yet another reboot on that September Sunday night when the boat went 15 more years into the future and became seaQuest 2047. A few characters were retained from the original canon- mainly, the one-time Kid Crusher, a/k/a the brilliant but annoying Lucas Wolenczak, who was given the conn of the boat; and Katie Hitchcock, a favorite (apparently, still to some;) from the old show who we anointed with the presidency of the UEO. Mostly, though, the writers created a "bible" of new characters, all as well developed out of the gate as about 80 percent of what you see nightly on network television. Sadly, that isn't saying all that much, but for a bunch of unpaid fanatics, I'm still pretty proud of it.
They even invented a far more worthy adversary for the good guys than the real writers ever did. In a far better prediction of 21st century politics than, say, Arthur C. Clarke could envision, 2047 cracked the remnants of our country along the Mason-Dixon line, turning the south into something called the Carolinan Confederation ("Carrots" was their derisive nickname among UEO loyalists), who decided that the South was gonna rise again and become the weapon-toting, government-disrupting nemesis of Truth, Justice and What Was Left of the American Way that the teabaggers seem to be preparing us for.
As this stuff goes, it was remarkably well done. I wasn't onboard for a while- lurking at first, then editing others' scripts, finally co-writing a spoof episode (which may be one of the most hated pieces of fanfic ever done, at least as expressed by the show's core fans) and ultimately co-writing one or two real ones, before college bells and real life broke up that old gang of ours.
The staff consisted of a bunch of show fans who'd met in some forum someplace, and their friends and friends-of-friends. As with most groups of writers, tendencies formed pretty quickly. One writer never got into a situation that a new and improved pile of explosives couldn't blast his way out of. (To this day, the words "subduction weapon" strike terror in the ears of a certain former series advisor.) Another thought that Getting Lucas Laid would be an interesting way to capture the imagination of the "viewer"ship.
For most of its time online (and virtually all of mine at the end), the series stuck to its 8:00 p.m. Eastern Sunday deadline for debuting the scripts, although there were usually major disagreements and many final edits going on as late as 7:59. The final episode only got its first two acts posted on the scheduled night, and things then broke up to a point where I didn't know or care if the remainder ever got posted- leaving me with the joke on my writing resume that I edited for the only series in the history of mass communications to get canceled during an episode.
----
A few years ago, I saw we'd been Wiki'd, which was amusing and somewhat probative of the point about not believing shit you read on the internet. I mentioned Katie Hitchcock the other night, got a nice comment back about her, and went to post something much like this entry, only to find that we were rendered Not Notable Enough just this past September. A week before what would've been the 13th anniversary of the debut.
Bastards.
Some pieces live on, though:
An original slice of the series website is still online, only through the events, staff and episodes of the first few months (and blessedly not including any of my immortal contributions).
Wikipedia still credits us with one of the first uses of the term "webisode." The first, a year earlier, was something called The Spot, apparently a Melrose Place knockoff which was also one of the first site to make money by using banner ads. THEY are still notable enough to have an article.
I'm sure some of the former staffers may have memories, or even better links to things, so I'll hand the conn over to them at this point.
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no subject
Date: 2010-01-09 05:52 pm (UTC)What strikes me is how similar the process was to what I now hear about with pro writers (though obviously we didn't have any visual aspects to deal with, or financial). Very collaborative, with favourite lines actually tossed in by others (or our favs being deleted: 'She has the personality of a tick' still sounds better to my ear) and plans for story arcs and so on conceived, prepped and tossed... *sigh* I miss it, on a lot of levels. I don't have time for it, just at the minute, but I do feel rather nostalgic.
Maybe I should write a paper on the early, text-based webseries, eh? 'Experiences of the Discipline (aka "You want to do what to Lucas' brain?!"): The Early Webseries'.
I should pick up the sQ DVDs. when I have a few quid to spare...
no subject
Date: 2010-01-09 06:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-09 08:34 pm (UTC)I liken it to the occasional brouhaha that's raged about
no subject
Date: 2010-01-09 09:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-09 09:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-09 06:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-09 08:54 pm (UTC)I've long since written off Wikipedia.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-11 12:57 am (UTC)*brain explodes*
*waves away smoke*
I had no idea you were involved in such a thing! I had no idea that such a thing existed! OH MY GOD!
You see, rationally, if you had asked me if such a thing were likely to have existed, I would have said yes, because oh hell yeah, that kind of show had the kind of fandom who would do something like this.
And yet, nobody had ever asked me that, and I was assuming that my crazy friends from camp, in high school, were the only people who ever wrote SeaQuest DSV fan works. Ours were deeply, DEEPLY warped works of parody.
And goddammit, I would vote for any character played by Stacy Haiduk, for President of whatever!
Anyway, I still feel this sense of amazement whenever I run into people who are fellow nerds enough to be able to spell Wolenczak. I mean, seriously. I took freaking NOTES when I watched that show, because I wanted to know more about the random things they would mention on the program. There was enough creatively imagined TV science in the first season of that program to convince me that I should take a college oceanography course the summer before my senior year of high school-- nobody could understand why some kid from farm country was so interested in seismology and sonar seafloor mapping.
I just now could not remember what year the Marlins were supposed to have won the World Series in, that Lucas had a jersey from. Wikipedia informs me that it was 2010.
C'mon, guys, do it for Brandis!
no subject
Date: 2010-01-11 03:07 am (UTC)If it would appeal, apparently one of my co-authors still has some scripts not on that site- as I might, somewhere on a long-retired hard drive someplace.
Thanks for re-activating those brain cells. We always suspected we had Good People either reading or, if they didn't know about the series, who would've been.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-11 03:51 pm (UTC)