Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Bad episode = good fanfic?

I think we can all come up with episodes that we really don't like (well, except Yvonne ). But there are lots of "bad" episodes that have been rewritten by brilliant FOLCs -- ToGoM, just to pick one at random And I recently noticed that I've rewritten parts of IGaCoY *twice* (I made my own map of the Metro Club's interior ) -- not because I like the episode, but because there's so much wrong with it that I want to fix.

What are some episodes where the original pretty much sucked, but was rewriten in much better form?

Also... do you prefer an episode rewrite of a good episode, or a rotten one?

Discuss amongst yourselves

PJ

Interesting thread!

I'm not sure that I'd call TOGOM a 'bad' episode, per se; who could forget those wonderful scenes just after Clark was 'shot'? Or, indeed, the tearful hug after he 'comes back to life'? Those scenes alone are worth any number of bad A-plot elements.

Another very popular ep for adaptations is All Shook Up, which is also considered generally good. I know that opinions are divided on the BatP/HoL arc, but it's also very popular.

That said, yes, it's certainly true that a poor episode can be very much redeemed through fanfic. Take Target: Jimmy Olsen. (Yes. Take it. Please! ). And the clone/fake wedding arc.

But then, I haven't seen too many adaptations of Ides of Metropolis, or Illusions of Grandeur, or Ghosts, or Toy Story... And I may be the only person to have done an adaptation of Chi of Steel (though I may be wrong).

I'll look forward to seeing other responses here.


Wendy (definitely sitting on the fence )

Interesting question, Pam.

Personally, I tend to rewrite episodes I loved and ignore those I hated. I doubt you'll ever see me writing something about Family Hour or Toy Story or AKA Superman. I only watched these a couple of times, and so no idea springs to mind that involves them. I adore reading and writing adaptations of my favourite episodes, though. Give me BaTP/THoL adaptations any time. I read avidly fanfic set in S1 and 2, a lot more willingly than S3 and 4 adaptations (although some of my very favourite stories are set in these later seasons, but they're in the minority - I can't help it).

So I'm not sure that bad episode = good fanfic. Mind you, I can't claim either that good episode = good fanfic. I think it depends on the subject that the author chooses to treat, and the way they treat it. For example, Tracey is working on a fantastic adaptation of When Irish Eyes Are Killing - hated the episode, but the story she's writing out of it, using the B plot and developing its more interesting aspects, is Best Overall material as far as I'm concerned. Other example: I absolutely adored Masques, yet I had cringed at the Argh.

I think that you use different things when you rewrite a bad episode or a good one. When you're rewriting a bad one, what you have in mind is to fix what didn't work for you. So you might take a few scenes that you thought were good, grab the basis of the plot, and adapt it in your own way so that a good idea that suffered from a bad scenario turns into something that satisfies you. On the other hand, when you're rewriting one of your favourite episodes, your goal isn't to fix things but maybe to develop them with things that could have been pushed further if the episode had been longer, or explore different scenarios that could come of one little change in the premise.

Kaethel

Well, I don't write fanfic. But from the reader's point of view, I love episode re-writes. Whether it is a case of "Bad Episode:Good Fanfic" or "Good Episode:Better Fanfic" (such as the current PML re-write

- Vicki

Great question.

Um...you know something? Now that I think about it, I really can't think of an episode that I truly can say I didn't like because there are just certain scenes in each one that grab me. Even with ridiculous plots like Ghosts or something. There are still certain parts that I really like. But getting back on track, I adore rewrites. It doesn't matter to me how ridiculous the episode was to begin with. All you have to do is change one small thing about an episode, and it can spiral back and forth between the episode itself, and something that's still the author's own creation. BatP/HoL rewrites will always be my favorite.

Jen

Well, my first reaction was that you'd hit the target for why I choose an episode to rewrite. Something upsets or irritates me, and then I feel the need to fix it. But the more I thought about it, the more I realize that it wasn't that I was rewriting episods I hated, I was writing episodes I loved...except for one element. There was one thing I wanted to fix to make it perfect. The first fanfic I ever wrote was Fly Me to the Moon. I wrote it because I *adored* the episode Church of Metropolis. Lois comes home and she's still dancing around with a sappy grin. And I'm thinking, "Yes! She's finally starting to see Clark in a romantic light!" ... and then Superman shows up. And I just wanted to beat him about the head. <G> So I changed it.

And then kinda sums up my favorite stories - both of my own stories and of the stories I read. I love seeing plotlines I loved made better. If I really hated an episode - actually, I don't think there are any episodes I *hate there are just plenty that I didn't care for - I'm not inspired to write about that time. I'd rather just make up my own story from that time period than try to adapt or extend an episode I didn't care for.

Annie

I should have explained it indeed - it's true that it's a FoLC favourite and so I'm definitely in the minority to put it at the bottom of my episodes list. So where do I start?

Well, first, I couldn't buy it that Penny, who seemed like an intelligent woman, mistook Jimmy for Superman. Not that Jimmy lacks the qualities that could make him a good superhero, but he's physically so different from Superman that it makes no sense for Penny to confuse them. Their hair colour, eyes, complexion, height, body build isn't similar in the least. So I found it was a bit of a convenient plot device to start with.

Second, there were the missed opportunities. When Lois finds lipstick on Superman's costume and has to *ask* him about it for him to tell her that a sex-crazed woman threw herself at him, I expected Lois's insecurities to resurface, but she shrugged it off. Same thing when Clark admired Penny's legs under the table at the restaurant. She whacks him on the head but it stops right there. No insecurities. And so everything I liked about her character seemed to have flown out the window, even more than in the rest of S4. So it made me feel frustrated. I know that at that point she trusted Clark, but since I found less interest in S4 because the conflict between the two main characters seemed to have vanished into thin air, and AKA Superman was the demonstration of that.

Not to mention I didn't like the scene at the restaurant. Lois is a professional reporter, used to subtlty, and yet she acted like a child. Jimmy barely raised an eyebrow and Penny didn't even ask what that was all about.

And finally there was Jimmy's behaviour. I know he's a secondary character, but he based his entire relationship with Penny on a lie; so there was something missing for me: I wanted to know why he didn't stop and think about what Penny saw in him, besides Superman. It would have been highly interesting to see a conversation between him and Clark about that, as Clark went through the same sort of thing with Lois after all. Also, Penny falling for Jimmy just because he saved her life even though he's not Superman striked me again as a convenient plot device. It seemed very much rushed to me; I expected more from Penny, and more from Jimmy. Even though they're young, they're still adults, but their behaviour looked more like that of teenagers to me.

I did enjoy very much the final scene, though. Was frustrated that they were interrupted, but it was fun anyway.

Anyway, I'm perfectly aware that I'm in the minority about this episode. And I do admit that there were nice moments here and there, but overall it drove me nuts as much as Family Hour and Toy Story and a few others.

Kaethel

<g> Yup, that's me. I can even find something to like in Soul Mates.

Um... Okay, maybe I'm being a bit contrary here, but honestly, I *don't* remember those scenes terribly well at all.

Wow, Kaethel, you really don't like AKAS, do you? What puzzles me is that, looking at the things that frustrate you in that episode, I can't imagine there are many episodes that *don't* have equally silly, inconsistent, or superficial aspects to them. I seem to remember having this conversation with you before, mind you, and this isn't really answering Pam's question, so I should probably keep quiet.

I don't mind what sort of episode is rewritten. What I don't like is when the rewrite is so close to the original that you don't feel you're reading anything terribly new. Fortunately, that doesn't seem to happen too often. Episode rewrites which weave some of the original in around a new version are cool - Nan's writing a very good example of that with the perfume thingy. It's fun when you suddenly bump up against a familiar line or two, but in a different context.

Yvonne

Okay,

I know I'm probably in the minority here, but what the heck. I *hate* TOGOM because of the apart angst and Clark's stupidity and you'll probably never see me do a flat-out rewrite of it. (Unless, that is, I move it out of the timeline and into 2004 and thus destroy *all* of the angst and turn it into something much more lighter--it'd fit into the contunity of my F&AE universe that way.) I've only done one re-write, and that's of the NK arc, but it's because I loved the arc and I saw lots of unexplored possibilities in it.

I don't like the Arrggh all that much, but I don't see myself ever rewriting it for that reason. Heck, I like Tempus as a villian *much* more than Lex Luthor. And I may get yelled at for this, but Masques wasn't to my taste because it leaned too heavily on introspection; I like stories that have lots of action, and much of the story was *very* internalized. (Zoomway's Persistance of Memory and Ann McBride's More Than Partners series are more to my taste)

BF

Well, there certainly won't be yelling from me, Laura. I'm only surprised that you continued to read till the very end! I'd have given up long before that amount of pages if it didn't suit my reading preferences.

Life is waaaaaaaaaaaay too short to go around reading stories that don't suit your tastes and any author who expects 100% readership from a fandom with so many varied reading preferences would be exceptionally naive.

So, no yelling. Just a reiteration of my personal philosophy - each to their own. I think we have a fandom rich in fanfic that caters to most tastes. Which is one of the things I love about it.

I hope that your favourite authors write more stories for you to enjoy in the future.

LabRat

Kaethel - Thanks for taking the time to anwswer my question. And you have some very good points.

And yes, Yvonne, just about all the episodes had their silly, inconsistent, or superficial aspects. Which, of course, leads me right back to where I started:

I LOVE RE-WRITES!!!

Fair enough. I can indeed rant in the same sort of way about many episodes, yes, plenty in S1 and 2, too (Smart Kids, Illusions of Grandeur or Chi of Steel, just to name a few). And I think there are very few episodes that don't have a little something that drove me nuts. That's why it's much easier for me to select favourite episodes than most-loathed ones. [g] But just to make it clear in case it's misunderstood, I perfectly understand that people can prefer AKA Superman to some episodes which I would consider top of the top. As Rat said, it's completely a matter of taste, and if we all had the same taste, life would be boring. Not to mention the show wouldn't have lasted so long. As it is, some of us prefer the show pre-revelation, others prefer it post-revelation, some don't like angst and introspection, others thrive on it. The good of that is that it ensures we get a huge variety of fanfic that can satisfy everyone's taste.

Laura, I do have to express my surprise that, since you dislike angst, the one arc you decided to rewrite is the NK arc. I loved the NK arc precisely because it was full of angst. However, I unfortunately haven't had time to fully read your F&AE yet, so maybe you managed to wipe out all the angst to satisfy your taste.

I think what matters above all is that you have fun when you write - I doubt anyone here would write something that includes elements of the show that they disliked, either. If one hates beginning stories, they won't go and write one, unless they know of a specific element in beginning stories that irks them and manage to avoid that element in their own story. Same with any other fanfic genre. With over 2000 stories on the fandom, there's room for every sort of taste, and this is what makes it interesting.

Kaethel

It all depends on the angst, Kaethel. If it's absolutely necessary to the plot and not dragged out, then I don't mind it. I'm just not fond of any torture-Lois or torture-Clark senarios. And it's always better if they face problems together rather than seperately.

BF

Of course, the trouble is that "absolutely necessary to the plot" is somewhat subjective -- an element you or I might consider essential might be seen as totally stupid by someone else, or vice versa. I'm with you on not caring much for "apart angst," as Kathy calls it -- but then, I think an argument could be made that the angst in TOGOM *was* essential in jolting Lois out of complacency and forcing her to face her feelings. That's what Mayson was all about, as well, and there were certainly maddening aspects to that sub-plot, too. Which doesn't mean that anyone *has* to enjoy anything in particular -- I must admit that I haven't read F&AE because I really did *not* care for the NK arc.

I think you've got an interesting point, though -- that people rewrite episodes because they see a potential there that the show didn't explore. Even good episodes might have alternate ways of playing out that would intrigue a writer (ASU) -- and some eps are so bad that they just don't have any potential (IoM). So maybe it's the mediocre ones that really cry out to be rewritten.

Actually, sometimes I think that the entire series was just an exercise in how much potential could be wasted Some episodes did very well, many others leaked profusely But the underlying potential/premise is still fabulous, and flexible enough that we can explore literally thousands of variations.

Another question: Are there any really good episodes that have *not* been rewritten? I think DTOSC was one of the show's best episodes, and I can't think of any rewrites of it -- there are a few short inbetweenies, but has anyone tried to improve on major plot elements? Are there episodes that we love *so* much that no one can think of any possible improvements?

PJ

Hmmmmmmm. Good question. I must admit that when someone sent me a list of episode rewrites a while back to help out with the Archive's keyword project I was quite amazed by which episodes did have rewrites. Episodes I'd never imagined and would have said had none. There was a huge number rewriting Church of Metropolis for instance and if asked prior to seeing the list I'd probably have been hard put to name one.

Pausing here to give a plug to Adam's little DTOSC inbetweenie vignettes, which I adored: Don\'t Tug On Superman\'s Heart and Don\'t Tug On Superman\'s Friends

I think, for me, this is going to be one of the interesting things about the project when it's completed - being given an overview of which episodes attracted the curiosity and attention of authors.

LabRat