Star Trek: Reboot - The Parody

[jane_elliot]

Here's the thing: I wish I were reccing more Star Trek: Reboot fic.  There's so much long, quite well-written fic in the fandom that normally I *would* be reccing more.  Unfortunately, most of the stories I've read so far are so ridiculously over the top and OOC that I'd assume they were parodies, if they weren't so obviously meant to be taken

Comments

[amothea]

It's not just you! I've ran into way too many longish fics with out of character characters that sounded more like parody than anything else.

[jane_elliot]

What's so weird (and frustrating) is how many normally solid writers are producing these OCC fics. I'm starting to think it's like the Merlin fandom: if you're in the mood to write borderline-OCC AU, you write Merlin. And now, if you're in the mood to write borderline-OCC dramedy, you write Star Trek. *sigh*

[lothy]

Yeah, I agree: for the amount of fic being produced, including often quite long fic and with a fairly high overall standard of writing compared to some fandoms, it's quite rare that I actually find a story I really love. Most of those I've bookmarked are of the "enjoyable but forgettable" variety and even those I don't find all that often.

The lack of professionalism irritates me the most, I think. These are supposed to be people who run the Federation's flagship, who have saved the Earth and routinely take on important and/or dangerous missions.

I admit though that I'm more likely to read (canon-based) AUs and slight OOCness in this fandom than most. As long as there is still some connection to the canon setting, it's not just names and faces, I'll often give it a try. Possibly just because there's so much more potential in the worldbuilding than, say, an AU of NCIS has.

[jane_elliot]

Amen re: lack of professionalism! Especially since (aside from Jim, at times), the crew is canonically quite professional anytime they're on duty (something I almost never see in fic).

[terrie01]

It should be full of some much goodness. I mean, crack is fun on occasion, but when it's the thing, rather than the exception, it loses so much. Where is the goodness?

[jane_elliot]

crack is fun on occasion, but when it's the thing, rather than the exception, it loses so much.

Exactly! If the fandom was dark and serious, then I'd be delighted to stumble across some light-hearted dramedies, even if they were a bit OOC. However, when nearly all that is written is OOC dramedies, then all I want is a good, serious, realistic fic.

[sheila_snow]

I wholeheartedly agree with you, especially on the lack of any semblance of professionalism on that ship. For someone who was actually in a military organization, it's downright insulting at times. The fact that Kirk went straight from cadet to captain as canon is bad enough, but at least that can be partially explained by the loss of most of the fleet and Starfleet's need to have a figurehead as a morale booster.

The actions of the crew in some of the fanfic stories, however, make me actually cringe at times. I guess the rationale is that as long as they get the job done, they're entitled to act like a fusion of Gilligan's Island and the Love Boat. Very sad!

[jane_elliot]

In the last Star Trek fic I read, a character (who wasn't even Kirk!) slept with every named character on Enterprise (including some extra characters who aren't even on the canon Enterprise) except for Scotty. Can you imagine if that happened in real life? Gah. Honestly, I don't know why the fanon Klingons don't just sit back with a box of popcorn and wait for Enterprise to implode; it has to happen eventually.

[terrio]

I don't know if you've read this one already -- I didn't see it either in epic_recs or epic_rants -- but I really enjoyed Atlas, by Angel Baby1. It's over 150,000 words long, had no character-bashing or hopeless OOC-ness that I recall, and was really well-written from a technical standpoint. (Ignore the part of the prologue to part 1 that says the story is incomplete; it's up there in all its glory.)

[jane_elliot]

Ooo, a rec:) Thanks! (I'm really hoping to get into this fandom, because the Harry Potter fandom is eventually going to die down and this franchise is the best possible prospect for a regular source of long fic. Now if we could just get a few more authors writing that fic IC:)

[gwendolynflight]

If you need a new fix, Hawaii Five-O is starting to produce some good stuff.

[jane_elliot]

I haven't had much luck with Hawaii Five-0 thus far (they all sound the same). If you have any recs, though, I'd be delighted to hear them!