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I too thought all the petty fan in-fighting had stopped in the early 1990s with the collapse of the old DWB regime and the loss of the TV show.

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nah -- it's just moved. hell, it even plagues fan production forums. basically, if anyone has an opinion which is contrary to someone else's and they lack whatever social skills in the eyes of someone else, there will always be a political conflict.

happens with world politics, too -- this is why we still have wars and why america is invading middle eastern countries and so forth.

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Too true. And I know for a fact that you and I have personally borne the brunt of quite a few selfish attacks on our very character, simply for daring to voice an opinion that was informed, against that which was ignorant.

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i didn't want to be specific, as i've seen cases where some of said parties harp on about us allegedly harping on about it. and also because you've asked that if anyone wants to have a go at anyone in particular, they should confine it to email. which is a pretty good idea, and you'll find i've tried to avoid speaking ill of anyone specifically.

mind you, this political fan stuff really is rampant everywhere, even beyond dw fandom. it's present in a lot of clubs (thank goodness the bdwsg avoids money matters: there's one less hassle to politicise over!), and seems to be seeping online rather rapidly, where people do have the advantage of getting up on their soapboxes either with anonymity or the protection of being united only in virtual space. (one of my faves is the old "i've got 50 people here who support me, but i won't name them for fear that they'll be attacked" chestnut.)

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Watch what you say mate - you might give Runcie a chance to get on his soapbox about Dubya!

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ya huh...

mind you, it doesn't fuss me. i was essentially getting on my soapbox about america, so who am i to complain?

well, they're dictating what they hate. certainly there are always areas of fandom that'll hate any new attempt at dw. that they dictate their hatred is of course what makes it worse, but there are sadly those who are content to hate and follow -- sadly because they only strengthen the dictatorships with numbers.

oh well -- here's hoping we're all sufficiently sensible and enlightened around these parts to take the new series as it comes, instead of making any fast judgement calls before even a shred of evidence (like, say, an episode) materialises. which i think is a safe bet, if the bulk of past discussion on the topic is anything to go by.

and if the inevitable political struggles arise, there's always the option to avoid them.

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Which is why in January 2005 I'll be establishing a section on the BTR forum specifically designed to chat about the new series. That way, at least we can all sit around and chat about it sensibly, without having to be apart of arguments with people with no brains.

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that's an awfully sound idea. i look forward to balanced, detailed critiques of the episodes emerging, as well as lighter discussion, and i hope what we end up getting from the various contributors is a collection of discussion so impressive that it could well stand as a definitive group critical reading of the new series as text.

which is bloody ambitious of me, i know, but to have a vast array of well-expressed opinions would certainly yield one hell of a critical resource. i know i'll be trying to contribute where possible, and i hope to have enough time at the time to offer episodic reviews as well as a whole season review for contextual purposes. because of course the critical perception of a series (especially a series of serials) can be dramatically different when taken one episode at a time, as we well know from some of the season one reviews we've received. for example, as much as the criticisms of a lack of plot in df:2 were entirely legitimate, reviews which encompass the serial as a whole acknowledge that the episode was a legitimate, useful diversion into characterisation. that few people have spotted the insufficiency of plot in episodes 3 and 4 is another matter, and one not relevant to this discussion.

point being, it'll be a nicely unique experience for those of us too young to have been expert critics when the original series premiered to finally be able to attempt criticial assessment on an episodic basis (thus preserving the unique initial effectiveness of cliffhangers and the sense of mystery which i hope will exist), as well as on a serial-by-serial basis and a study of the overall development of the whole season, which doubtless will be infected with some sort of story or character arc, no matter how minor.