The LA Times ran a nice meaty and unspoilery piece this weekend, getting some great quotes from Edward James Olmos, Jamie Bamber, and Tricia Helfer, and also speaking to Tahmoh Penikett and Grace Park.
Material for this article seems to have been gathered from the set during shooting of 4.0. The interviews are terrific, but this article is also notable for the relish it takes with using actors' quotes to insult the show's fans. Fanbashing is certainly something any of us long-term trufans in any niche or genre have to get used to. Yet this journalist seems to savor bashing in a discomforting way. People love their cliches, clinging to them beyond statistical evidence. For every one inappropriate/overburdening fan, there are 10,000 who are good folks just looking to celebrate their favorite entertainments. For every one basement-dwelling virginal geek there are 100,000 fully-functional genre nerds working, partying, walking in the sunshine and loving their favorite shows.
Whatever.
To cheer myself up after reading the bashing, one need only dive back into fandom.
Demonqueen666's Battlestar Galactica and Mystery Science Theater 3000 mashup icon art, parts one and two.
Crazyvictoria's banner and wallpaper art from recent photo shoots.
Meshel73, who took the time to point out what's new and exciting in the extras on the S3 DVD set.
And ack_attack's list of her top 43 favorite BSG moments of all time (many of which I heartily and fangirlishly agree on).
5 MORE DAYS PEOPLE.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
The Los Angeles Times
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4 comments:
Do you mind if I link to this entry in my comments area of my LJ? We've got a discussion going on about the fanbashing in this article (and sci fi fanbashing in general - I admit - I ranted).
In response to my disappoinment at some of the actors' comments, ebeneter made a great point regarding what journalists choose to ask the actors and how the comments can be misconstrued. Your thoughts are very relavent to what we're discussing and I would be honored if I could link to here so those of us discussing it can read your thoughts on this matter.
Sure, go ahead and link...and can you put the link to your LJ post here, I'd like to read the conversation there too.
Crap, I'm sorry! Bad form on my part. I thought I had placed a link to my LJ in there, but it must have been in my first draft of the comment. Which I accidently deleted while previewing (I hit close window and that's exactly what it did, taking my comment with it ;-)
I see that you found me, I was just getting ready to respond to you at my LJ. But for the sake of continuity: http://beetlemier.livejournal.com
I didn't think the article was too fan-bashy. It did have slants that way in quotes from Grace Park and Tahmoh, but there was also the quote from Tricia saying that "this isn't a show for couch potatoes flipping channels" in that it has an actual continuous plot.
It's hard to know the context of the quotes, so while the Tahmoh quote bothered me a bit, I didn't really think much of it.
In terms of the large box of scrapbooks - all I can say, is that frequently fans are a little bit deranged ;). I count myself among them, but I bet it can be frightening to be the focus of that sort of attention. The article scrapbook, while I'm sure it was beautiful and something that Grace might like in the future, is also a bit stalkerish.
Similarly, if some day I'm a professor and someone wrote a story in which I had sex with another professor - well, that's just plain creepy. And that's what fans do, all the time. Mary McDonnell had a problem fan that she acquired through BSG, and I've never heard of her mentioning it, even though it must be quite frightening to have your daughter trailed around university.
I don't read many articles about the negative side of BSG fans, but sometimes maybe an interview goes in that direction. I don't think it's fair to blame the journalists for planting the info, necessarily.
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