Episode Tag
| Synonyms: | Coda, Episode addition, Post-ep, timestamp |
| See also: | Missing Scene |
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In many episodic television fandoms, an episode tag is a fic that is written in response to a particular episode of a source text. While a missing scene fills a gap within an episode, an episode tag is set after its end.
In the Janeway/Chakotay part of Star Trek: Voyager fandom, episode tags and missing scenes alike were called "episode addition".[1] In the X-Files fandom, it was known as "post-ep" fic.[2]
Some fans bemoan the lack of episode tags for older tv shows and attribute it to the fact that these shows mostly had zine or offline fandoms. On the other hand, there are zines that focus entirely on episode tags, so this varies a lot by fandom.
Some fandoms have more episode tags than others. For example, NCIS has a well-documented[3] episode tagging faction of fandom.
Episode tag stories
Technically, every story that starts directly after an episode ends is a tag story. In common fannish usage, however, tags are short stories that just 'finish' an episode that might seem open ended. Most fans would restrict the label of "episode tag" for stories of no more than 5-10,000 words.
Example community: http://community.livejournal.com/sga_tag_fics
Episode tag story series
In earlier fan days, when canon was more important, fans often argued about what exact episode was the one where Starsky and Hutch or Kirk and Spock fell in love (or Avon and Blake started sleeping together). An episode tag series would follow along with each episode, pulling out the slashier bits, and eventually picking *the* episode where love or sex started.
- Party Spirit Series—a 26-story episode tag series showing Bodie and Doyle moving from partners to fuck buddies to true lovers.
References
- ^ See the J/C Episode Addition Story Index.
- ^ Lisa's Post-ep Palace, for example.
- ^ ncis_themes. (2008-now). NCIS Themes: Episode Related. Retrieved 30 November 2010. Webcite.