I Thought O.T. Stood for 'Over Time'
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| Title: | "I Thought O.T. Stood for 'Over Time'" (at the top of the essay itself), "I Thought OT Stood for Over Time?" (in the table of contents) |
| Creator: | Mary Jo Fox |
| Date(s): | summer 2000 |
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| Fandom: | Star Wars |
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| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
I Thought O.T. Stood for 'Over Time' is an essay by Mary Jo Fox that was published in Blue Harvest #20 in summer 2000.
Some Topics Discussed
- use of abbreviations to describe fandoms
- TPTB and fans' insistence on separating Star Wars and TPM fandoms as if they were different universes
The Essay
I don't know about you, but it seems to me that at times there are so many abbreviations I can't keep track anymore. We abbreviate the movies, the books, the comics, etc.. We even abbreviate the action figure lines!So now that Episode I is behind us, I see that the Star Wars saga is divided between the OT (which once stood for "overtime", but now stands for "original trilogy") and TPM (which I hope you know stands for "The Phantom Menace"). PT, which once stood for "part time", now in our vernacular means "prequel trilogy." If you read the books and comics EU means "Expanded Universe," not European Union. The EU can take place at any time, whether if s during the PT, the OT, or post-ROTJ. Not only do fans make these distinctions, but I see it in the Star Wars Insider as well. There it is, the OT and TPM, as if the two are fatally separate entities that have almost nothing to do with each other. This is what happened with ST, or "Star Trek." There is the 1966-69 series, often referred to as OS, the "original series." There's ST: TNG, or The Next Generation," DS9 for "Deep Space 9" and the obvious ST: Voyager. All of those programs took place in the Trek universe, but each had its own set of characters and storylines. Only in the '90s did the producers make an attempt to connect the different Trek shows, but those connections have been small and limited to guest or cameo appearances. Even in the movie Generations, the only original crew member of the Enterprise to have a substantial role was Kirk and he died. Another point of annoyance-referring to ANH-ROTJ as "classic" SW and TPM as well...what, "new" SW? Didn't that happen with Trek also? But Star Wars is different. TPM and its successors aren't "spinoffs" from a popular t.v. show. They're part of a saga, a single epic story. Why do you think all of the movies are numbered? ANH is #4, not #l of 3. What happens in the upcoming films directly affects the galaxy we saw in ANH-ROTJ. In short, without the PT, there's no OT, though the OT came out in theaters first. I think the official guys ought to take the lead here and remind fans that this Is all one cohesive story. Avoid making these unnecessary distinctions. I promise I'll avoid it too. Really!
Perhaps I'm jumping the gun here. With a 16-year gap in between ROTJ and TPM, and with an almost completely different cast, it's easy for us to start pigeonholing the movies. I have read old zines where fans were distinguishing between "SW fandom" and "TESB fandom" even though I still find if bewildering anyone would try to divide the two. One day, when the saga is complete, and most of those who have seen all of the SW movies would have watched them in numerical order, OT and PT will have reverted back to their original meanings. I should hope!