WaTchers: The Virtual Series

Fanfiction
Title:	WaTchers the Virtual Series
Author(s):	numerous
Date(s):	September 2003 - October 2008
Length:	123 episodes
Genre:	gen (with both het and slash pairings present)
Fandom:	Buffy the Vampire Slayer
External Links:	official site
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WaTchers the Virtual Series is a virtual continuation of Buffy the Vampire Slayer taking place in Cleveland, where a new Watchers' Council was formed by Willow Rosenberg and Rupert Giles. It held a format similar to regular TV shows, with each "season" having on average 24 episodes.

Overview

Each Watchers season contained a minimum of 24 episodes that began in September 2003 with the final episode airing in October 2008. A lot of work went into "producing" each instalment. The episodes were structured in Acts, and each Act was accompanied with manips (acting as screencaps for the episode) and sound bites. Each episode was formatted to allow viewing it on mobile devices. Each episode was also translated into a number of different languages.

Watchers began as a spin-off to Buffy: TVS before Buffy ever ended, making it one of the longest running virtual series in the fandom. We had our premise of Giles and Willow rebuilding the Watchers Council in Cleveland, minus Buff since it was a 'spin-off'. But we had to find out who lived, who died and then started writing our episodes that summer. Lucky for us, everyone we planned to include did survived and we premiered in Sept. 2003. In subsequent seasons Buffy does arrive, but be warned. She was never meant to play an overshadowing role in the series, making this Buffy Season Eight.

Due to fan demand after airing an episode called Restoration in season one, we began a spin-off of our spin-off (yes, our love of Buffy began it's own mini-fandom). Restoration aired as TV movies and it takes place 130 years in the future with various descendents and reincarnations of the Watchers staff, including a reincarnated Willow Rosenberg and Tara Maclay.

By the final episode we had 123 'in the can', the majority of which appeared on time like a regular Tuesday broadcast. Our final episode aired Oct. 2008. Even though we aren't airing new episodes we hope you'll stop out at our forum. We've all made a lot of good friends over the years and Watchers lives on with fan fic of it's very own. And for those of you who read the series over that time, and especially those of you who donated funds to keep us going, we're forever grateful. --CN Winters, Watchers' Executive Producer

Creators

• CN Winters - Executive Producer/Director/Head Writer (S 1-5)
• Susan Carr - Writer, Producer (S 1-5)
• Zahir al Daoud - Writer/Graphic Artist (S 1-5)
• Robert Kidman - Art Director/Graphic Artist (S 2-5)
• Dragonwriter17 - BetaReader/Writer/Producer (S 2-5)
• Gelfling21- Writer (S 1-5)
• Kye - Writer (S 2-5)
• Faith730 - Writer (S 2-5)
• Dan Joslyn - Writer (S 3-5)
• Drew - Writer (S 3-5)
• CSR - Sound/Picture Collection (S 2-5)
• Track6 - Theme/Opening Credits/Video mixing (S 1-5)
• Humaira - Graphic Artist (S 2-5)
• Angie Wilson - BetaReader/eReader files/Games (S 2-5)
• Mattxxx - graphic artist (S 4-5)
• Isis - graphic artist (S 4-5)

Season One

Season One ran with a tagline A New Home...New Allies...New Big Bad...

It was posted between September 2003 and May 2004 and consisted of 24 episodes.

Willow, Giles, Faith, Kennedy, Robin and Andrew set up shop in Cleveland along with fellow watcher Rowena Allister. Later they are joined by Xander and take on the Big Bad known as the Presidium and a creature named the Engineer.

Season One introduced a number of Original Characters, the most prominent of them was Rowena Allister (portrayed in associated art by Michelle Williams). Even though Rowena developed feelings for and was involved in a relationship with Willow, the majority of readers didn't consider her a Mary Sue (though some, especially at the beginning, expressed fear she might turn into one).

(list of episodes?)