Tunneltalk/Issue v.1 n.5
Tunneltalk is a Beauty and the Beast (TV) letterzine edited by Barbara Storey, Victoria Clark and Sharon Himmanen.
There were 17 issues.
This zine began after the letterzine Passages ended.
From the August 1991 issue: "This publication is intended as an outlet for fans; it will not be sent to either Witt-Thomas or Republic, or anyone else connected with the show, so don't be afraid to say your piece."
v.1 n.5
Tunneltalk v.1 n.5 was published in July 1990 and contains 45 pages.
- contains the short fiction: Below the New York City Streets by Adele Shapiro (the last line: "Father, friends: I would like you to meet Leonardo, Donatello, Michaelangelo and Raphael — TheTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."
- regarding the cover art: "I hope you've all noticed and admired our new, permanent cover. Nancy had planned this one all along, since before Issue #1, but since she also moved earlier this year, and is just now really unearthing her art supplies, we've been using another of her fine drawings in the meantime. We had decided on using the colored ink as a way of adding variety, and have saved the green ink for the debut of our "real" cover, since green is supposed to signify true and abiding love, which is what we wish, always, for Vincent and Catherine, who are finally now together on our cover."
The TOTM: There was a panel at MediaWest*Con last year that I found particularly intriguing, and I thought we might look at it here. The title was "Vincent as martyr — Does he really want to be happy?" You could argue that there is a "Hamlet/melancholy prince" side to his nature.
v.1 n.5: Excerpts from the Letters
[Barbara S]:I guess the news that CBS has decided after all to run the three "lost episodes," on July 21, 28, and Aug.4, according to USA Today. I have to admit that I'm very apprehensive about watching these episodes now. If they had been run with the other nine hours, I probably would have gritted my teeth and gone on, but now that there's been a break, I don't know if I can do it — certainly not without a great deal of pain. Every time I've even attempted to watch third season again (except for "Beggar's Comer"), it's only made me angrier and angrier. Even watching first and second season can be difficult; how can we now, after Catherine's death, listen with any kind of love and hope to lines like "I was never giving up!" ("No Way Down") and "... this is a special night... we can't waste it..." ("Masques"). Some friends who have seen them have told me not to worry, that they were so bad as to be laughable — but I don't want to laugh at B&TB.
Even worse news, in our opinion here at TT, is that Republic is planning to release "Though Lovers Be Lost..." as their next videotape. Are they crazy? Even among those who liked the third season, it is generally agreed that TLBL was badly done and unsatisfying. Why would they be doing this, when they could be making all kinds of money releasing first and second season season episodes, which everyone is eager to have. Vicky wonders if they are not doing it deliberately, to "prove" that B&TB is not viable (Reportedly, the second graphic novel, which I refuse to buy, is not doing well at all, and First Publishing has announced a return to a "Vincent & Catherine" format.) Or maybe they really don't understand. Why would I want to pay to see a woman humiliated, degraded, tortured, separated from the man she loves and from her child, and then murdered? Having it on tape once is bad enough, and I intend to tell them that. We urge all of you who feel the same way to express your opinions — calmly, but firmly — to them as well.
[Barbara S]: STAR TREK fandom — no, it is, for the most part, just as female as B&TB fandom, if not moreso. Why? Because the bulk of ST zines have to do, not with action/adventure, but with character study and relationships. Even some of the "paramilitary" ST clubs (organized as if they were actual starships, with group members assuming crew identities) are run by women, and the ships have female names (U.S.S. Sally Ride.) In ST, as in any lasting work of art that touches us in more than a superficial way. Characters and their personalities hold more fascination in the long run than action/adventure, although they may both be factors in its success. I'm curious though — why do you assume that more females than males are attracted to Spock? I'm not saying you're wrong, I just wondered what made you say that. One of my favorite quotes — written by a woman in the letters section of the TV GUIDE, and I can't remember her name—was: "Women are attracted to Vincent for the same reason they were attracted to Spock — they are both aliens in the white male world, as women are." How about that as a topic for discussion?
[Barbara S]: [Regarding] an appearance by George R.R. Martin at a con in New Orleans recently. I have heard from several fans that George has expressed a desire to distance himself from B&TB, but he did talk about it that weekend. Apparently, his "Orpheus descending/Vincent brings Catherine back" idea was kicked around more than once. George described another scenario, presumably planned before Linda's departure was a fact, where the third season would have opened with Vincent dying in that cave (!), the tunnel world mourning him, but preparing to bury him in the catacombs, and Catherine deciding that, no, she was not going to accept this! She then went down into the underworld to bring him back, meeting her father and various other tunnel inhabitants who had died in the first two seasons on the way. This definitely doesn't sound anything like the action/adventure retooling CBS had in mind, which is another reason it probably didn't see the light of day. But it sounds good to me! (Assuming she was successful, of course.) He also reportedly said something else, about TLBL, that I find disturbing, if true. Supposedly, they intended to give Vincent and Catherine some "warm, snuggly" scenes, talking about the baby, happy for a little while, but that Linda came on the set and said she would only stay for ten days, so they had to abandon these scenes. My question is: Why? They had the scenes already in mind, they would not have required any new sets, ten days was more than they normally used to film an hour-long episode,and I'm sure in my heart that Linda did not say, "No, I'd rather do the torture and labor scenes than love scenes." What was the impediment? Sounds very strange to me...
[Diana D]:Is Diana "stronger" than Catherine? Thank you for asking. I had high hopes for the character as an interesting foil for Vincent, someone who was touted as a tough, smart woman, unhampered by the reverence for his sensibilities that often caused Catherine to hold back. I assumed she'd have many facets to her personality, so that all of us could find something to admire or identify with. Instead of a believably strong, three-dimensional female, we got a very linear character with all the worst qualities so often attributed to males — driven, a single-minded focus on work at the expense of outside interests and relationships, pushy, emotionally repressed, showing little respect for anything that didn't satisfy her own desires.
One critic said, in response to the two-hour movie, that the producers were apparently hoping to grab a different kind of viewer and trusting that the media was right in portraying the already devoted fans as "lonely, disenfranchised women, obsessed with Vincent who need to "get a life" — and who would accept the retooling at any cost. While it's true that a lot of people in the press found it easier to label the show's supporters a "cult," and to snicker at the picture they painted of a typical fan, than to examine the phenomenon seriously, this broad-brush depiction was unfair. Most of the fans I've come in contact with are juggling many lives, but cared enough to add another with their devotion to B&TB. Still, that derogatory description sounds suspiciously like Diana. Was she tailor-made to fit that image of a fan, in hopes we'd automatically identify with her? (Eds. note: We find Diane's observation, and the analysis that follows, amazingly perceptive, both fascinating and disturbing in content. Thanks, Diane, for bringing this up!)
[Sue K]:I took a careful look at the most recent Wendy Pini novelization, and I would never even consider purchasing it. The reason is obvious when you consider how I feel about Catherine and Season #3, and what the primary emphasis of this graphic novel is. I was deeply, deeply disappointed in the theme of this graphic novel, all the more so as I have been a follower of Wendy Pini from long before her work for B&TB. I understand the third graphic novel will be a "flashback" to a pre-Season #3 story of Vincent and Catherine, but I'm afraid I will not be able to justify purchasing that either. Instead, I will look forward to the novelizations due out this year from Avon, which are taken from First and Second Season Episodes.
I have enjoyed reading several "resolution" novellas and stories by fan authors recently, including Barbara Coulter's Though Lovers Be Found and M. Sue Waugh's When She Comes Home. These have been heartening for me, and I hope to purchase more such novellas and stories at TunnelCon. I am focusing entirely on those zines which aim to happily resolve Third Season by allowing Catherine to live, and am most appreciative where feel that the author has a real understanding of the characters, and shares my love of the character of Catherine as well as Vincent.
I'm happy for those viewers who can continue to see wonderful new possibilities in the B&TB presented by the Third Season, without Catherine, but believe me — it's totally impossible for me to appreciate it. I made those reasons clear in my other LOC. I loved the fairy tale, and the fairy tales I love have happy endings. They are not based on reality. Or, if they are, they take the most wonderful, fascinating, and glorious things from reality and make them real for us.
[snipped]
Feeling strongly about Season #3 and sticking to that opinion does not contradict an "open mind." There are some things we form strong opinions about, after much thought and reflection, and, at least in my case, I will keep that opinion until something happens to change it.
I never had any particular problem with the violence in Third Season — at least not Vincent's violence. My problem with violence was that perpetrated against Catherine, which I found and still find totally gratuitous, even if it was not grossly and obviously physical. I felt and will continue to feel there was no saving grace in the manner of Catherine's death — and there so easily COULD have been.
So many of my friends have said to me that they will be unable to "heal" unless the story of Catherine and Vincent can somehow And a happy resolution. The ghost of Catherine haunts many of them. I think fandom can be healed, but many of us will need more than that to be able to view B&TB as we once did. I would be happy if there were only one more movie, and it reunited Vincent and Catherine. I would ask for no more. But only time will tell exactly what is in the future for B&TB. I've already written two letters to Republic and intend to write more.
[snipped]
Regarding the Diana vs. Catherine issue — well, I've always been up-front that I was never able to like Diana because she was so obviously intended as a replacement for Catherine (at least in the earlier versions of the scripts, and in the plot outlines for a continued third season storyline). But, had Diana appeared as a secondary character, a friend to Catherine and Vincent, I would have liked her. She would have added another strong female character to the show, and I could never have too much of that! Diana is actually far more like me, personally, than Catherine is. She's from a middle' class background, she lounges about in jeans and sweats, she's very unpolished and forthright and not traditionally "feminine" — all traits I feel are true of myself. The main difference between me and Diana is that I'm far more openly emotional than she is, which would be a major sumbling block for me to relate to her. In that respect, Catherine and I share a similar personality trait. But back to the "strength" issue — no, I don't believe for a minute that Diana was stronger. Superficially, she came off as tougher — she dressed tougher, talked tougher, etc., etc.
[Adele S]: Yes, to have season 3 written off as a dream is trite; it's been done before, and it has worked. Dallas did it, and survived; the critics raved about the cleverness of having the Newhart show a dream. The challenge will be to decide whose nightmare season3 was: perhaps that can be done well, and we can see the story of Vincent and Catherine continue.
[John William L]:Thank you for printing my letter in Issue 3. It didn't look half as bad as I thought it might, and perhaps it will encourage other male fans of the show to write.
I'd like to put my two cents in regarding the two latest topics put forth for discussion in the last issue, but first I'd like to talk a little about the very interesting and challenging idea of bringing Catherine back to Beauty and the Beast. Being an amateur screenwriter and film/video professional, I find myself endlessly fascinated by the myriad techniques a writer has at his or her creative disposal when faced with weaving and directing a story, particularly where a seemingly insurmountable problem (such as the resurrecting of a supposedly "dead" character) is faced. Star Trek: The Search for Spock is certainly one good example of how a storyteller can write himself out of a corner. That infamous Dallas dream solution is another, if it can be called that, but should be held up as the lowest form of example, not to be resorted to if at all possible.
At first I thought that physically bringing Catherine back would be stretching the suspension of disbelief too far. Too much had already happened, the arc had gone too far to leave any room for any sort of story loophole or backtracking. Catherine's autopsy, for one thing (remember, Diana saw the body, even if we didn't, even though that actual scene was cut from the episode) seemed to cut the thread for any possible future scenario that might bring her back intact. The only possible way out of this would be that it had indeed all been a nightmare dreamed by Vincent during his seizure, and — upon awakening — here'd be no Gabriel, Diana, or baby Jacob. A neat solution, but highly unsatisfying to me as a writer or a viewer. It's gotten far too easy for Hollywood to simply "write off," so to speak, or invalidate groundwork they've laid before which we've accepted as the truth (however we may dislike it) and then simply be asked to ignore it as if it had never happened simply because they find themselves in a spot and think the audience won't notice or care about the daring plot inconsistencies they've left dangling. (Not to mention casually casting into limbo entire sets of characters, situations, and events—in effect, a whole "reality" they've created).
[Vera W]:I am tired of some fans "bashing" Catherine. She could have been very strong if it had been allowed.
OK, back to Diana. Why is she so strong? One fan said it wouldn't take her two years to consummate her and V's relationship.
I am astonished!
Does that mean that V&D could have a relationship and V&C could not.
If so, why? And where?
Try as I might, I cannot imagine V&D together, or reading love sonnets, or listening to concerts in the park. What would they do anyway? Read detective stories?
The whole thing is too impossible. Also, I don't like the way Diana looks. She looks like a rat. Maybe she and Mouse could get together.
I think they tried too hard to make her the opposite of Catherine.
As you can tell I am one fan who loves Catherine and want her back. But, I only want her back to be with Vincent. They belong together. Period!
I don't want her back as a spirit, or another movie about death. A movie based on "Night of Beauty." I hate that story. It is just as horrible as TLBL. TLBL was a nightmare, and now I am beginning to think it really was Vincent's nightmare, brought on by his severe traumatic illness.
[Elizabeth H]: In her LOC, Barbara mentioned the Spock controversy from Star Trek, and how fandom was faced with a similar crisis with the death of Spock. Interestingly enough, that fandom didn't divide itself into armed camps when some fans decided that a Star Trek without Spock wasn't Star Trek. I'm definitely one of those fans that just can't conceive of a Beauty and the Beast without the presence of Catherine, and can't help but believe that one day we will see them reunited. I see nothing wrong with expressing my preference to Republic Pictures, etc. After all, if no one wrote the powers-that-be, would they even know that some fans wanted to see the return of Linda Hamilton? Just as Leonard Nimoy saw the story in a newspaper, I can pray that Linda and others involved with the show's future saw the ad in Daily Variety placed by devoted fans. How will Koslow "see" the story in the future? Will Linda even want to return? I don't know, but I'm entitled to do as much as I can to make my particular dream come true. I have noted that it hasn't been Witt-Thomas, Republic, etc., telling us NOT TO WRITE, but other fans and leaders of fandom, and I distinctly remember George Martin telling us at the Los Angeles Creation convention in November to write Witt-Thomas and tell them if we loved it or hated it.
[Caro H]:I mink I am suffering from a double disillusionment. The third season broke a covenant, the unspoken but powerful contract between producer and consumer, the premise upon which the show was built. They even bragged about this betrayal. It isn't a fairy tale anymore, they told us, assuring us that we would like this descent into horror and this betrayal of woman/fan. Well, I guess there are some who liked it, but I was, as you know, left feeling violated. I resent being told that I would like it, that I would find any type of satisfaction in this media-rape. Like any victim, I felt as if my show had been dirtied, as if my dreams had been trampled in the mud. How could they mink that we would like this?
The second half of my disillusionment came when fandom, that underground safe place where we gathered together in what was supposed to be common support, was also sundered by the horrible thing that they did to third season. Civil war broke out among the fans who accepted the death of Catherine and those who could not, those who accepted the third season and those who felt it betrayed the original premise In a way, this division of the fans was as upsetting as the change in the show. I am convinced that the changes they made in the show were at least partly responsible for its non-renewal. I am hoping that the changes in fandom aren't responsible for the death of fandom. Most fandoms don't last forever. They have a peak and then fall away to a level of constant interest by those who are most interested, a core of true-fans. I have wondered if that will happen here, or if this fandom will die in broken shards, a victim of bickering and intolerance. Ihopenot. Fans who think as I do will produce zines along that line and will keep the dream alive for me. Since I don't have the show anymore; I'd like to have fandom. The question is, is the split of the sort which can be mended? Will there be, in essence, two fandoms, each following the version of the show they feel is the proper one? Will the two fandoms always be at odds? One fandom with the Beauty, the other with the Beast. That is almost as sad as the death of the show.