Without a Trace
| Fandom | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Without a Trace |
| Abbreviation(s): | WaT, WAT |
| Creator: | Hank Steinberg |
| Date(s): | September 26, 2002 – 2009 |
| Medium: | Televison series |
| Country of Origin: | United States |
| External Links: | IMDB |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Without a Trace is a television series that ran on CBS for 7 seasons. It was an FBI procedural ensemble drama focusing on the Missing Persons unit of the New York City FBI.
Canon
The show featured an ensemble cast that included Magnificent 7 fan favourite Eric Close as Martin Fitzgerald. Martin is the son of FBI director Victor Fitzgerald, who had an antagonistic relationship with Martin's boss, Jack Malone.
The early seasons of the show focused on Jack Malone as a maverick agent with his close-knit team who have to get used to Martin as their newest member. Martin, Danny Taylor (played by Enrique Marciano) and Samantha Spade (played by Poppy Montgomery) made up the three younger members of the team, with Jack and Vivian Johnson (played by Marianne Jean-Baptiste) as the older, and sometimes wiser, senior members.
The show featured canon relationships between Martin and Sam, Sam and Jack and Danny and Elena Delgado (played by Roselyn Sanchez, who joined the show in the fourth season).
The show crossed over in an episode of CSI, making the two canons officially linked.
Fandom
The stereotypical canon characterization of Martin and Danny as a WASP with a distant father and Latino with a troubled past along with their on-screen chemistry and friendship led Danny/Martin to become the dominant pairing in the mostly slash fandom. There are het and gen stories as well, with quite a few featuring Sam/Jack and Sam/Martin.
The character of Elena is less popular, sometimes reviled by fans. She was a latter addition to the show and was seen by some fans as coming between their ship. Roselyn Sanchez was also frequently criticized by some fans for her Puerto Rican Spanish accent.[1]
There are a number of stories delving into the backstory of both Danny and Martin and the angst and the H/C flows pretty freely. Highschool AUs and College AUs are also popular, but the majority of stories in the fandom are canon-based. Casefics are common, as are crossovers with CSI. There are also some Same Actor Crossovers with the Magnificent Seven ATF AU.[2]
Even though the show structure lends itself to it, threesomes or polyfic are rare.
Fanfiction
The main Livejournal community, wat_slash is still active and accepts slash FPF. Their affiliated archive Pretty FBI Boys ceased operations in December, 2009, and all content not archived elsewhere was lost.[3]
- WaT on the AO3
- WaT on fanfiction.net
Fanzines
- Come and Gone (slash)
- Come and Gone Again (slash)
- Crescent of Steel and Darkness (gen, xover CSI: New York/Without a Trace/Hellboy)
- Debatable Answers (slash, xover with Cherry Falls)
- Missing Pieces (slash, xover with Swift Justice)
- Nothing Gold Can Stay
- The Price of Love (slash, Law & Order: SVU xover)
- Questionable Truth (slash, xover with Cherry Falls)
- Vanished
Mailing Lists
- Without A Trace Slash archive link "Welcome to Without A Trace Slash. All Pairings and Crossovers are welcome here; The only limit is your imagination. This is a *Slash* list meaning only M/M are accepted. And we do allow anything from G to NC17 to be posted here, with the *exception* of Real Person slash and slash involving minors. You have been warned. If this isn't something that suits you please try another list. NO FLAMING will be tolerated! To subscribe to this list, you must be of legal age in your part of the world. By subscribing, you are stating that you are of this legal age. For those of you who might be interested in WAT gen fic, we have a sister list. The Without A Trace Gen List."
- Without A Trace Gen Fic archive link "Welcome to Without A Trace Gen Fic. Crossovers are welcome here; The only limit is your imagination. This is a *Gen* list meaning only gen stories are accepted; No Adult Het or Slash is allowed. You have been warned. NO FLAMING will be tolerated!"
References
- ^ I don't want us to glow, I just wanted to point that out, accessed May 5, 2010
- ^ Based on my personal recollections, having read almost everything at the Pretty FBI Boys Archive. facetofcathy
- ^ rilestar posting in wat_slash Pretty FBI Boys is gone, accessed May 5, 2010