Virtual Season
Synonyms: | fanfiction season, alternate season, unaired season |
See also: | Denialfic, Futurefic, fix-it |
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Virtual seasons are a form of fan activity where fic writers create an unofficial continuation of a show that has been cancelled, is on hiatus, or to replace a season which is considered to have jumped the shark, or needs denying.
They are often done as collaborations with different writers contributing individual stories as episodes, often with the new episodes "airing" at the same time the show would've aired. Sometimes they are multimedia projects with accompanying fanart or trailers. Some fans go as far as to make fan films such as Star Trek, The New Voyages.
Sometimes virtual seasons can be the project of a single author. One famous example is the Buffy Season Noir by Anna S.
Many virtual seasons are presented with elaborate ancillary apparatus. These vary widely, but frequently include character descriptions, title pages, brief synopses of episodes (similar to those in television program guides), and background on the world of the series. In some instances, the episodes of a virtual season are published weekly or biweekly in a semblance of the schedule of an actual television series. In such a case, promotional "ads" may be created for upcoming episodes.
Origins
The very first virtual season was in 1979 in the print zine Moonbeam #5/6. It was a zine that took Space: 1999 into its third season. From the flyer for that issue: "We're aiming for 24 different episodes, at about 20 pages each (typed and double-spaced). Stories exceeding that length may be considered as 2-part episodes."
Another early virtual season was for Forever Knight. The show was canceled in 1996, but followed shortly by a virtual fourth season (known as V4S).
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman was cancelled in 1997 and spawned several virtual seasons, which continued the trend.
Some Fan Comments
Some White Collar fans in 2014 discussed creating a virtual season for their fandom. Some excerpts are below:
Since our beloved show will unfortunately be over soon, I was wondering if there is any interest in continuing the adventures of Neal and Peter by doing a virtual season (or two...or three...). I just cannot accept the fact that there are only six new episodes left for us to enjoy. :-( So, if there are enough writers interested and willing to participate in a virtual season, I'd be more than happy to organize one.For anyone who's not familiar with the concept of virtual seasons - this is basically a fan-based continuation of a TV show. There's no limit to the possibilities, which is the beauty of a virtual season. It can be a continuation of canon (in this case, we would have to wait until season 6 has aired and follow these events), it can be an alternative to an already aired season, it can focus on a specific character (e.g., a Mozzie spin-off) or it could be completely pre-series. Authors can decide to collaborate on a story arc that spans the entire virtual season or just write stand alones. The sky's the limit! But the first step is to find enough writers (and, ideally, artists!), so... What say you all?
... interest-wise, it'd also depend a little on what the plan is. The "continuation of canon" option would interest me most, so I would probably be more on board with that than a spin-off for a secondary character. I've heard of virtual seasons before, but I gotta admit that I never read one -- would the episodes be written in script form or how does that work?
...the episodes of virtual seasons, they are written in regular story form, not script form. They should follow (but don't have to follow) the episode format of teaser - act 1 through 3 or 4 - epilogue. Normally, stories should be about 10K to 15K long. Depending on what the focus is on, each author might have to incorporate a small portion of a pre-planned story arc into their episode (e.g. if we had the music box as our season's story arc, you could write a stand alone story but would be asked to incorporate a short scene in which Mozzie tells Neal that he's been trying to find out information but has been unsuccessful so far). This sort of thing takes a bit of planning, obviously, but this fandom has made any kind of challenges (from Big Bangs to fic exchanges) so easy until now, I have no worries that getting a virtual season organized won't be a problem. :)
Between 2014 and 2015, the Almost Human fandom decided to create a virtual season due to the cancellation of the show by Fox.
Further Reading and Meta
Sites Listing Virtual Seasons
- MZP - one of the largest virtual season sites currently running, MZP is a "virtual network" comprising original series and continuations, as well as 'Buffyverse' fiction.
- Complete Zines Online, E-zines & Virtual Seasons, by jjjean65 in own geocities
List of Shows with Virtual Seasons
The Adventures of Sinbad
- The Adventures of Sinbad Fan Fiction Seasons
- The New Fanfic Adventures of Sinbad
Alias Smith and Jones
Almost Human
American Gothic
Angel
- Angel: No Limits
- Mutant Existential Scoobies Presents: Angel Season Six
- MZP Angel Virtual Continuation
- Three Deep
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
Beast Wars
Beauty and the Beast
- In Another Life (alternate third season)
Blake's 7
Blood Ties
Brimstone
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Three Deep
- Buffy Season Noir
- The Buffybot Adventures
- MZP's Buffy: The Virtual Continuation - the Scoobies relocate to Cleveland
- Slayer Academy - follows young Slayers at the newly-formed Rupert Giles Academy
- Buffy: The Chosen
- Cordelia the Vampire Slayer
- Faith: The Series
- B3 Buffy Fanfic Series
- Undaunted
- Watchers Central
- Buffy Season 8
- Virtual Lunatics' Virtual Season Eight
- WaTchers: The Virtual Series
Cold Case
Dark Angel
Dark Matter
Dark Shadows
Doctor Who
Due South
Farscape
Firefly
Forever Knight
- V4S (index page)
- FK4 (intro page)
Gargoyles
Guiding Light
Harsh Realm
Hercules
Highlander
Invisible Man
JAG
- JAG Virtual Seasons[dead link] (link not archived) by JAGNikJen's JAG Archive[1]
Kung Fu: The Legend Continues
Legend of the Seeker
Lois & Clark
The Lone Gunmen
MacGyver
Magnificent 7
Millennium
Once Upon a Time
Quantum Leap
- Quantum Leap: The Virtual Seasons (seasons 6-14)
The Pretender
Prey
The Sentinel
- Cascade Virtual Tales by Black Panther Productions
- Faux Paws Productions Virtual Seasons
- Novation Productions Virtual Seasons
- Sentinel Slash Virtual Season
- The Sentinel Slash Movies Project
- The Sentinel Slash Stories of the Month
Sliders
- Sliders Season 6
- Sliders The Lost Sixth Season
- Sliders Earth 214
- Sliders Earth 317
- Slide Override
- Infinite Slides
Space: Above and Beyond
Sports Night
Spy Game
Star Trek: Voyager
Stargate Atlantis
Stargate SG-1
Starsky & Hutch
- Starsky and Hutch Virtual Season (online)
- Starsky and Hutch Virtual Season (zine) (slash)
- Starsky and Hutch Gen Virtual Season (5th and 6th on the Hutchfans Yahoo Group)
Strange Luck
Supernatural
- Supernatural Virtual Season
- Redemption Road
- Thin Blue Line Virtual Seasons (Season One & Season Two)
Supergirl
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Transformers
Women's Murder Club
X-Files
- Fox & Rat Virtual Series (1999 - 2017) (Season 11 premiere! 2 September 2017!)
- The X-Files Virtual Season 1-3
- X-Files Virtual Seasons 8-16
- X Files: VCU ("Violent Crimes Unit"), by Deslea (2003)
- X-Files: Fight the Truth
Xena: Warrior Princess
- Shipper Seasons (Xena/Ares, season 7-10, ongoing)
- XWP Subtext Virtual Seasons (Xena/Gabrielle, season 7-10 – also available in French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish)
Young Americans
- New Beginnings (Has Virtual Seasons up through Senior Year)
References
- ^ wcwu (2014-08-08). "Virtual Seasons? - White Collar Writers' Union". Tumblr. Archived from the original on 2018-07-28.
- ^ ahfancon (2015-01-04). "Almost Human Fan Con — Almost Human FanCon 2015! Feb 27 to Mar 1". Tumblr. Archived from the original on 2024-08-08.