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brightknightie) wrote2025-01-11 08:10 am
brightknightie) wrote2025-01-11 08:10 am
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Snowflake Challenge 2025 #2
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snowflake_challenge '25 #2: Share your fannish origin story.I'm interpreting this prompt as my connecting with others in fandom. (I've behaved fannishly on my own as long as I can remember: fanfic before I knew what fanfic was, making media-inspired toys out of clay, etc.)
Even so, as a prelude, a montage of selected mini-flashbacks:
- Without ever being part of fandom himself, my father has loved Star Trek since he watched the original on the communal dorm TV in college, and I grew up watching it with him, first TOS reruns, later TNG. That's one.
- Another milestone, in late junior high or early high school, was an event at a mini-mall in a neighboring town; it was more a sidewalk-sale by the local comic shop and a collectibles-and-games store I didn't previously know existed than the "convention" they advertised, but I remember it. Late in high school, in a different state, was my first "real" convention, a Trek con; Marina Sirtis was the top featured guest.
- Also late in high school, I discovered that a certain local bookstore held monthly Saturday viewings of vintage recorded-from-PBS Doctor Who in a back corner, and folks were free to come and go and watch and chat all day on folding chairs.
- In college, I found folks to share the communal dorm TV with for DS9, and then HL, and then got my own TV-and-VCR combo unit, and a particular friend would come over to share new Trek between the two of us, no more struggles for the common TV. Once, when it was my turn as a member of dorm government to sponsor a social, I hosted a Highlander marathon with my recorded-from-TV VHS tapes; the event was surprisingly successful far beyond what I presumed was the target audience.
This brings us to Forever Knight. I discovered the show in December of season three, on the USA cable channel, was reeled in ("brought across," folks used to say) by "Night in Question," and began gobbling up the reruns (of season three only; which is now by far my least favorite season) that USA was rerunning in blocks during the holidays, and found the "real" syndicated airings on a local station. I looked up FK at the public library to read about it in Starlog back issues and newspaper articles... and very soon discovered -- from a newspaper article written by a local TV critic in the local paper! oh, I miss well-funded local papers -- that FK was facing cancellation and fans were trying to save it. From there, I learned to use the infant World Wide Web specifically to learn more about SOS-FK, which led to the FK email lists, which were, of course, my entry point to actually being part of the fandom community we all share now.
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Funny enough, it was my dad who first introduced me to the internet in the 90s, which led me to discover the world of connecting with other fans across the world online, which is how I found FK fandom. He went with me to my first con (for FK!) when we took a road trip to northern California on year. He knew nothing about FK, but he *loved* taking road trips. So off we went lol.
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Ironically, perhaps, I learned of local conventions in the old days because they always advertised in the local/regional newspapers, and often on broadcast television locally during the right shows, but, today, I have no idea how to learn of any if you don't already know they exist and go to their specific websites.
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I remember that my grandma recorded some TNG episodes for me, when we came back to Germany in '94. "I recorded this for you, it's said to be popular." I was hooked. :D So thanks gradma for starting my love for Star Trek.
I share your love for DS9, although it took me a few years to warm up to it, because it was so unlike the series before - and after. Not it's my favourite. So far, I haven't been to any con, even though a Star Trek con is almost literally "round the corner". Maybe naxt year. :)
I remember seeing some episodes of FK in the mid/late 90's, but I can't recall which ones. Loved it, but forgot about it for a long time. I wish I'd been involved in fandom earlier, but my English skills in the mid/end 90's were very limited. :D Then in '22 I commented on one of PJ's fics and she told me about FKFicFest. I've met so many awesome people through it, I'm really happy and I hope the fandom will stay active for a long time.
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