Alternate Universe - Fanlore

You may be looking for Star Trek zine Alternate Universe 4.

General

An Alternate Universe story (AU) is a type of fanfic which takes place in a universe other than the canonical original. Some AUs may use part of the canon as a base but diverge from it, such as an AU of Star Wars where the first Death Star isn't destroyed. Other AUs recast the characters of the original story in a new universe, either figuratively or literally. Such AUs may be set in a different historical period or a different genre of fiction than the original, or place the canonical characters in new roles, such as stories in which space explorers become polar explorers, or cowboys become elves, or characters from the twentieth century inhabit an earlier or later century.

In general, a good AU is one in which the characters remain recognizable as themselves despite their changed circumstances. However, there is much controversy in fandom over what exactly makes an AU work or characters recognizable, and at which point it is not "proper" fanfic anymore but original fiction disguised as fanfic, presumably to find a wider audience. ^{[1] [2] [3]}

There was some effort in the 1990s to use "Extended Universe" for stories that diverged from canon but were still set in the recognized world, and use AU with stories that put the characters in an entirely different universe; but it didn't take.

AUs offer an opportunity for creativity and flights of fancy. Often they also offer social commentary, either on the original universe from which the characters came, or on the new universe into which the characters have been transplanted.

Some AU stories spark interest in other fans to the point that they want to extend them, just as fans do to the canonical universe. These can found Shared Universes, which sometimes will be hundreds of stories long.

AUs in different fandoms

Naming conventions to distinguish the different types of AUs vary in different fan communities, sometimes even within one fandom. For example, there is no consensus whether Alternate Reality refers to a story that diverges at a certain point from canon, inside the canon's timeline or before, or to a story that transplants the characters into an entirely different reality. Some fandoms have developed special terms, e.g. in Xena fandom, AUs putting characters in another time or place are called Uber.

The fusion genre sits between AUs and crossovers, putting the characters of one fandom into the universe of another.

Some fandoms feature canonical alternative universes, sometimes called parallel universes, or alternate timelines in canons with time travel. Since the late 1950s, the DC published superhero comics with "imaginary stories", precursor to the later term Elseworlds, mostly featuring Superman. The scifi show Sliders was about a group of people who jumped to a different universe in every episode, sometimes meeting alternate versions of themselves.

In fandoms with canon AUs, the official names (like the Elseworld label used by DC or the What if...? series by Marvel) may be used by some for fanworks as well, though other fans prefer to restrict their use to the canonical AUs. In fandoms with canonical AUs based on diverging realities seen in single episodes, often the episode titles are used to refer to the genre of fanfic set in those, e.g. Wishverse in Buffy; other times fans invent new terms, e.g. Mensa AU or Mensaverse in Stargate Atlantis fandom for stories set in the parallel universe from the episode "McKay and Mrs. Miller," or Conqueror fic in Xena fandom for stories set in the parallel universe from the Hercules episode "Armageddon Now." Perhaps the first canonical AU on TV was the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Mirror, Mirror." Stories using that episode as a departure point often identify themselves as "mirror-verse."

AUs in Japanese fandoms

AU-type stories are common in Japanese doujinshi as well, often featuring characters recast as high school students or animals. Some animanga canons include AUs as well. The One Piece anime has several specials which portray the cast as superheroes and supervillains, or denizens of a Tokugawa-era Japanese town. Kazuya Minekura wrote Executive Committee, a silly high school AU of her manga Wild Adapter.

Types of AUs

There are many different variations of alternate universes; these are some that recur across fandoms:

• Animal AU (or Anthropomorfic)
• Elf AU
• Genderswap AU
• Harlequin AU
• Highschool AU
• Hookerfic
• Modern AU
• Noir Detective AU
• Pirate AU
• Pornstar AU
• Regency AU
• Vampire AU
• Western AU

References

1. ↑ Lena W. Jones. Alternative Ain't Necessarily Good. Posted 9 July 2000. (Accessed 2 October 2008)
2. ↑ RatCreature. How to construct Alternate Universes that work as fanfic. Posted January 2001. (Accessed 2 October 2008)
3. ↑ James Walkswithwind. The AUness of it All. Posted 4 February 2003. (Accessed 2 October 2008)