Faux Paws Productions Virtual Seasons

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Website
Name: Faux Paws Productions Virtual Seasons
Owner/Maintainer:
Dates: 1999-2000
Type: Virtual Season
Fandom: The Sentinel
URL: https://www.skeeter63.org/~fpp/
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The Faux Paws Productions Virtual Seasons is a gen fan fiction virtual season that picks up after the ending of the 3rd season where the aired version of the Sentinel ended.

Each season was divided into 'aired episodes' with authors posting their fan fiction and art according to a fictional broadcast schedule. There were two seasons.

Other Sentinel Virtual Seasons

The show has six, the most of any other fandom.

Gen

Slash

About

The idea of a virtual season -- a series of loosely connected stories by various writers continuing beyond the aired episodes -- is nothing new. Several sites already exist in other fandoms. It was proposed to The Sentinel fandom before this, but perhaps the timing wasn't quite right to undertake such an endeavor.

A small listgroup consisting of writers and other creative people exists to define an overview of the goals for each of our virtual seasons. List membership is kept small but diverse so we can discuss a multitude of ideas without becoming bogged down by too much debate. While not meaning to slight lurkers in any way, our list has been limited to active participants. This should help lessen the chance of "episode spoilers." Although some spoilers are inevitable because our Writer's Guide has to supply certain current season fancan (or 'virtual canon') to aid the writers, we don't want to give away all the surprises we have in store!

Last, but certainly not least, we want to encourage participation from everyone in the fandom -- your ideas, gripes, and hopes about what you'd like to see in each of our Virtual Seasons. We crave freelance writers to submit their story ideas and secure a production slot, and would love to have artists offer to showcase one of their works on our page for 'Tonight's Episode.' [1]

Guidelines

Writing a virtual season is different from writing an ordinary fan story, or even an ordinary series of fan stories. Why? Because, in a fan story, your reign is supreme. You say how The Sentinel's canon is to be interpreted, you say what new aspects can be added, and nothing you do affects anything anyone else writes, because this is your little corner of the universe.

A virtual season is a shared universe. It's a communal sandbox where all of us have a chance to build our own little sculptures. Think of the first four seasons as the walls of our sandbox: you can build what you want, but you can't go outside the walls (or break the walls down). You also can't knock over anyone else's sandcastle, and you can't build something that takes over the whole sandbox and leaves no room for anyone else to play. It is, however, a big sandbox. There's plenty of room for us all to build something good. It's just that, because we've all been used to being alone, each in our own little sandbox (and thus being free to take over the entire space, or ignore the walls if we felt like it from time to time), it might feel a little confining at first to share one, no matter how big it is. (There's nothing like being demoted from Master of the Universe to Senator of the Galaxy to make a galaxy seem like a small place. (g))

There's a certain kind of fan story called the 'almost-an-episode' story -- it revolves around a plot (in TS's case, usually a crime), and it doesn't depart too drastically from canon. Because we're not filming for UPN, however (g!) or any other network, we can go outside the conventions of episodes a little more -- we don't have to have a major action scene every ten minutes, for example, or a BOTW every week, and we can show more loft-domesticity than usual... but still, each virtual season story should have a plot dealing with some kind of crime.

Also, stories should not change anything drastic about the characters. With "canonical" characterization, Jim, Blair, et al., are more or less what they've been shown to be in the past. This doesn't mean that it can't reveal something deep about the characters, only that you shouldn't spring any dramatic surprises: you don't say that Simon is really a deep-cover CIA agent, that Blair is really an Extraterrestrial Ambassador, or that Jim is really the reincarnation of Alexander the Great. No, Jim is a tough ex-Covert Ops detective with hyperactive senses, Blair is an intellectually curious ex-anthro major with an obsession about Burton's Sentinel theory (g), and Simon is a gruff but good-hearted police captain, divorced with a troubled son.[2]

The Episodes

Season Five

Season Five is here.

  • FPP-501 (9/29/99) Following the Wolf by Susan L. Williams
  • FPP-502 (10/6/99) Hallowed Halls by DawnC and Kim Heggen
  • FPP-503 (10/13/99) Back to School by Brenda Bailey -- An illo for this episode was called "Field Work," which was by Lupe Backe who said: "I was looking forward to working with pastels again and this was my first try in a long time. The drawing was for episode FPP-503 (Back To School) of Faux Paws Productions."
  • FPP-523 (10/20/99) The Hazy Blue Line by DawnC
  • FPP-505 (11/3/99) Rock and a Hard Place by Eddie (Wnnepooh) (Story Concept by Eddie and Renae)
  • FPP-524 (11/10/99) Donut Run by Captain Outrageous and Wildeskind
  • FPP-507 (11/17/99) Sentinel Cordon Bleu by Kim Heggen
  • FPP-509 (11/24/99) 5 Point Shot by Sue Pokorny ("There were some points I thought it was laying the angst on a bit thick (considering it wasn't actually the first time Blair had gone back to Ranier in the course of his duties) and there was one glaring error (a Pulitzer prize is one for journalism, a Nobel prize is the one refered to in TSbyBS). On the other hand, there were some lovely bits of verbal fencing - particularly at the end!" [3]
  • FPP-525 (12/1/99) Pacific Spirit (Screenplay) by Ryf Van Rij and Lois Balzer
  • FPP-511 (12/8/99) Crossed Out by CarolROI
  • FPP-512 (12/15/99) Smokescreen by Shy
  • FPP-513 (12/22/99) Amateur Night by Nickerbits and Chaz
  • FPP-514 (1/9/00) The Baboon's Foot by Hephaistos
  • FPP-515 (1/12/00) Partners by Wildeskind
  • FPP-516 (1/19/00) Vegas in Cascade by Brenda Bailey
  • FPP-517 (1/26/00) Seems Like Old Times by D.L. Witherspoon
  • FPP-518 (2/2/00) Deal's Way by Linda S. Maclaren (Mackie) and Gina Martin
  • FPP-519 (2/9/00) Speak No Evil by Eddie (Wnnepooh)
  • FPP-520 (2/16/00) The Kindness of Strangers by Hephaistos and Linda S. Maclaren (Mackie)
  • FPP-506 (2/23/00) Wind Shift by Sue Wells
  • FPP-526 (3/1/00) Bad Desire by Kim Heggen
  • FPP-522 (3/15/00) Trust, Part One (Cliffhanger!)

Season Six

Season Six is here.

  • FPP-601 (9/27/00) Trust, Part Two by Sue Pokorny
  • FPP-602 (10/11/00) Lullaby by Iris Wilde
  • FPP-603 (10/25/00) Acceptable Men by Jael Lyn
  • FPP-604 (10/31/00) Howling Moon by Wildeskind
  • FPP-605 (11/8/00) Murder in General by Sue Pokorny
  • FPP-606 (11/22/00) Timor Vita, Part One by Kim Heggen
  • FPP-607 (12/6/00) Timor Vita, Part Two by Kim Heggen
  • FPP-608 (12/20/00) Heart and Soul by Susan L. Williams
  • FPP-610 (1/17/01) Scents and Sensibility by Wildeskind
  • FPP-611 (1/31/01) Road Racer by Brenda Bailey
  • FPP-612 (2/14/01) Fire and Ice by Sue Wells
  • FPP-623 (2/28/01) Blank Page by Linda S. Maclaren (Mackie)
  • FPP-624 (3/28/01) Full Disclosure by Eddie (Wnnepooh)
  • FPP-625 (10/24/01) The Black Widow of Cascade by LRH Balzer
  • FPP-615 (11/7/01) Blues for Henri Brown by Susan L. Williams
  • FPP-626 (11/28/01) Skinwalker by Linda S. Maclaren (Mackie)

References

  1. ^ Overview
  2. ^ Guidelines, see that page for more
  3. ^ comments by Kathryn Andersen at Katspace