AUs in the Pros community--discussion

[faramir-boromir.livejournal.com]

Hi, all. You may have been reading the panel reports that I've been posting about CQ in my LJ and over on the CQ yahoo group as well. If not, go read 'em, and enjoy!

It occurred to me that I didn't have notes on a panel that I very much enjoyed---why do you think the Professionals has so many good AU stories---I think I was blasted on Sunday morning and had lost the will to write, hence no notes. Then I realized, there's no reason that discussion couldn't go on here, at ci5hq. gblvr got the ball rolling in the panel discussion, and I'll borrow the three things that I do remember from the panel to get things started.

1) If you look at the total number of stories archived at the Circuit and click the "only AU" stories option, you get about 7% of all the stories. So on the whole, there don't seem to be many AUs in the fandom.

2) Yet, if you ask somebody to rec in the Pros fandom, within the first few recs, they'll be saying, 'oh, but you need to read this AU.'

3) One comment that was offered by flamingoslim at the con was that, back in the day, Pros picked up AUs that were scorned by the Starsky/Hutch fandom early on. As one of the oldest fandoms, she suggested, authors who felt closed out of one fandom moved over to another and went wild.

So, why the contradiction? Compared to other fandoms, Pros has very few AUs, but some are notably (and worthily) famous. And which AUs would you automatically rec to others? And what elements make for a successful AU, using Pros characters?

Comments

Re: Pros AUs - Novels

[faramir-boromir.livejournal.com]

One point that got raised during the discussion at CQ was about the reaction of readers to stories back in the early days of fandom. If someone wanted to write an AU in the Starsky/Hutch fandom, and the response from readers was likely going to be holding their nose and walking away, they might be less likely to try it there. With Pros, the existence of a press that supported and published AUs, and fans who were willing, perhaps, to take more chances with Bodie and Doyle, certainly played a strong role in why so many AUs were turned out in the first 15 years of the fandom.

I'm wondering now about dates, that is, the publication dates for prominent AUs. Can we think of many that have appeared in the last 10 years? Is there a reason for that (the decline of zine publication as a distribution method)?

Re: Pros AU

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes! I could so buy into that. I'd love to see Bodie slowly seduced by Sheik Doyle.

Re: Pros AU

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Well it wasn't so much that I was misunderstanding you as potentially disagreeing with you - or perhaps coming at the issue from a slightly different angle! What I was saying was that something like Arabian Nights could perfectly well be done with Doyle as the sheik and Bodie as the prisoner (because you seemed to say that it couldn't!). Just because writers have been less likely to write the pair that way around (as regards - what? Sub/dom, basically?) doesn't really mean that there's any canon basis for it - in fact I'd almost say the other way around - and so the roles could just as believably be reversed in an AU.

In canon, in fact, Doyle is generally portrayed as the one who understands the bigger picture before Bodie does, Bodie as the one who's less bothered or worried about the bigger picture anyway - and therefore less aware. He's not portrayed as stupid - in fact he himself plays on the idea that he comes across as a "neanderthal" - but Doyle is portrayed as overtly sharp and enquiring. So kind of the opposite to the way he's portrayed in the AUs you've mentioned. But then I'd also argue that just because Bodie looks "brooding" and "austere" doesn't necessarily make him the only "dom" choice either - to take the term I've borrowed to its extreme, there's always MFae's "Grievous Bodily Harm" series, where Bodie is perfectly believable as an actual sub.

What I was trying to say in my comment above, is that just because something isn't commonly done, doesn't mean it couldn't - or perhaps shouldn't - be done. *g*

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

That's a v-e-r-y interesting question which I can't answer! At first I thought, well, perhaps some AUs touch on *something* in canon, but even if that was true - and I don't think it is - it wouldn't explain *why* we find Bodie and Doyle in certain situations e.g. a circus context, in outer space, birdwatchers in Cornwall, i.e. contexts which have nothing to do with the world of Ci5 and yet we don't find the QAF characters in similar circumstances. An off-the-cuff suggestion, but maybe it's to do with their personalities and characteristics in canon? Tough, physical men like B & D might inspire tough, challenging situations, unlike the world inhabited by the QAF characters.

[magenta-blue.livejournal.com]

*Flies in late as usual, trips over shoe-lace*

Great discussion topic FJ (faramir_boromir!). It seems that the question 'why does Pros have so many good AU's' is ably answered above, perhaps after the bar was set with Sebastian, O Yardley etc, then the idea was planted that AUs were welcome in Pros, perhaps?

I, like many others it seems, completely blanked AUs out of my reading, when I first came to Pros. I just wasn't interested at all, I was here purely to see the screen guys in fiction, with umm a bit more besides. *g* I wanted to picture CI5 all the more clearly, almost as it is, to make everything else more believable. That was in the first year of reading, but then...

...But then, of course, you hear recs. You read recs. At this stage I had read an awful lot, and was, I guess, so bought into that world, that by now I could take it elsewhere and as long as it retained certain characteristics, I could still see it, even if the story was set in the desert. Now, as long as they are done well, I can allow my mind to bend a little. *g*

[jagr1968.livejournal.com]

It seems to be a common progression that the longer you've been in the fandom and the more stories you've read and/or written, the more likely you are to turn to AU's or be more tolerant of them. I know that's true for myself. In the beginning, I was only interested in CI5 based fics but after you've read all the available ones, you branch out. Of course, I may have been more receptive because I started out in Trek and knew the enormous pleasure that could be derived from reading a good AU. It also helps if you can view the source material that inspired an AU. I'm lucky enough to have tapes of such fare as: Facelift, Cassidy, Ladder of Swords, Cream In My Coffee, The Chief, etc. and may perhaps better appreciate why a writer might find it interesting to set a story in that universe. For example, I've always thought that the Zax character had a lot in common with Doyle. Plus, the actor that portrayed Bob in Facelift also played Ojuka; in both roles he had very good chemistry with Martin Shaw.

I forgot to mention two other American writers that started out in Trek: DVS and FJ. FJ was inspired by the classic Trek episode: Mirror, Mirror to write The Looking Glass World, which in turn inspired Ellis Ward to write her sequels to the story's open ending. DVS's experience with futuristic settings was put to good use in Suitable Gravity.

[jagr1968.livejournal.com]

Oops. Made a boo-boo. My memory is playing tricks on me. Felicity Parkinson wrote Looking Glass World, not FJ. Frankie's AU's included the First Step series, Brother's Keeper (semi-AU), and Starlight, Starbright (semi-AU), which had nothing to do with Trek.

[magenta-blue.livejournal.com]

Yes I agree, you do get to the stage when you branch out, I guess it depends what you first branch out into whether you can stomach it or not. So if you start with an AU that still has a bit of CI5 in it, it is like a gradual progression to the circus, if you see what I mean. Stories like Nightmoves, Catch a Fallen Star, Whisper of a Kill, Waiting to Fall… as someone said above, more AR than AU! I think I read these all before I went to Arabian Nights, Harlequin Airs, Larkin etc.

I haven’t seen Facelift and the others, yet I did read Sebastian’s Who Gave Us Delight and Zax (back when I was at the stage of reading everything I could get my hands on!) and was a bit boggled about what was happening, yet it was still intriguing enough to make me read on. I guess it depends how the author presents it. And thanks for commenting, I am fascinated with the history behind Pros writing, so it has been good to read all of your comments!

[smirra.livejournal.com]

I always get a strange feeling with this setting Bodie in CI5 and Doyle a Police officer, like: this setting is right and the series with Doyle in CI5 is wrong! It's that believable to me, especially when it's so competently done as in "Heat Trace", that I hardly consider it as an AU. With their characters Bodie is more the CI5 man to me as Doyle is. Probably just me feeling this way, but as there are a number of stories with this setting it seems to be believable enough for some. I also like the distance the lads get this way.

[metabolick.livejournal.com]

Very interesting observation! I don't know if I'd go so far as to think that Doyle in CI5 is wrong, but certainly Bodie in CI5 and Doyle a policeman seems very plausible. It does take away from the partnership aspect of the pair, though, and removes a huge chunk of what makes them so them.

[metabolick.livejournal.com]

P.S. I owe you an email regarding the limerick booklet and want you to know that I haven't overlooked it!