Just call me Short Attention Span Girl

[drakyndra]

Your daily dose of absurdity. So, there were ticket inspectors when I was getting off my tram today. And though I had a ticket, it wasn't as yet validated. I think you can guess where this is going.

Anyhow, when they took my name and address, slight problem: I didn't have anything in my bad that proved my address - only address was the farm (You know, my parents place). So, the ticket inspector dude proceeded to ring my Mum at the tram stop, in order to check the address I had given him was accurate.

Yeah, that was strange. Amusing, though, for all it's WTFery.

Anyhow, onto the actual meat of this post. Which, coincidental timing aside, was not actually inspired by this Fandom_Discuss post. I just tl;dred in the comments there.

It has probably been obvious to the denizens of my flist - it's certainly been obvious to me by the amounts of comments to my posts - that I have been making rather less posts in recent months regarding Doctor Who (and assorted spin-offs).

And I've sort of come to the conclusion that it seems my fannish focus on Doctor Who has been waning.

I don't know where and when it started exactly, but it sort of started to fade about the middle of S4, and has never really recovered. Which isn't so much a criticism of S4 itself (though I have some epic issues with parts of that, heavily focused towards how it ended), but more the fact that Doctor Who fandom... it's no longer my Happy Place.

The way the fandom itself has been is probably the main cause of this, really. Not so much individual people, but the overall tone of things. And worse, I think, is the fact that we're all just having the same debates, over and over again. To be quite honest, I was already sick of talking about Rose at the start of S3 (and the rest of S3 didn't help). So people still going on about this stuff over a year later...

Ship wars, anger at RTD's treatment of Martha, whatever. Once upon a time these things were interesting, whether it was anger or thought provoking or amusingly wanky. But it's all gotten sort of stale now, and I haven't really the motivation to come up with something new.

It's not that I'm blah on all Who - I still occasionally find something interesting or amusing or whatever. But LJ is repetitive and quiet on the Whovian front (or at least the parts I care about), and the DWF seems incapable of having a thread I find interesting without ending up in tedious wank/sniping/ridiculous speculation/Martha or Freema bashing (I'm looking at you, Team Rocket).

I suppose I'm timing this well, given that with only the specials coming up for another year and a half, I have the strong vibe that I'm not going to miss much new. It'll just continue to be blah blah Is X returning blah blah OTP blah blah My companion was done wrong blah blah Moffat is going to be God/Satan.

It's not just that I have gotten kind of fed up with the fandom. It's not just the lack of involvement from the characters I am most invested in (And Martha and Mickey showing up in Torchwood would have done so much to restore my excitement). It's not just I don't really care for how S4 ended, and the spoilers so far haven't enraptured me.

I'm just not as enthused about things, either good or bad, as I once was.

Or to sum up all this tl;dr: Sorry Doctor Who fandom, I'm breaking up with you.

This isn't an "I'm leaving fandom" post. I'm still going to mod at lifeonmartha - though that requires rather less effort these days - and I still read spoilers and follow the news and check out fics and fun stuff recommended to me.

And I'm not telling my list to go or anything - I still do read a lot of your posts on Doctor Who stuff. It's more I'm lurking again than getting involved. This is just to inform you go guys that my posts will no longer be all Doctor Who, all the time. Or even much of the time.

It's no longer Me/Doctor Who OTP. It's back to just friends.

And my new fannish lovelife is complicated enough. I've just started my affair with Comics, and I'm already cheating on him with Anime.

...And now, just to be contrary to the entire point of this post, I wish to drop in a link to a nifty bit of Doctor Who meta, namely about Martha and her character arc. Because it always makes me grumpy when people say Martha had no character development.

...Why doesn't a Martha fanvid to I Will Survive exist already?

Comments

[everlasting-day.livejournal.com]

I also had epic issues with season four. While it produced some of the best stuff New Who has given us so far (I'm thinking mainly of Midnight here, which scared me to death - but the Moff two-parter was fab as well), I also felt it was the most unsatisfying season so far in many respects, mainly down to how it began and how it ended, certain aspects of the characterisation of the Doctor, too much playing safe, and the whole Rose Issue. And what happened to Donna. And Torchwood still failing to really click for me. And... yeah.

I try not to get too involved with the New Who side of fandom when the series isn't airing, mainly for burn-out reasons and as you say, the same old arguments and debates going back and forth without much (if any) progress being made. Instead I get excited for the new DVD releases of Classic Who stories and I'm very much enjoying the new season of The Sarah Jane Adventures. So I'd say that having breaks from getting involved in fandom too heavily is definitely A Good Thing and something everyone should do now and again. A little goes a long way.

Hopefully your enthusiasm will be restored when season five rolls around in 2010!

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

You know, for all the bitching about Martha's character arc, Donna's the one who really screwed over, there. Because her entire arc got undone, and I can't think of a single reason for RTD to do that beyond NEEDS MOAR ANGST!

But I think you're right about S4 - unsatisfying is the right word. Not because it was bad, but because the pay-off wasn't nearly as good as the set-up would imply. Someone needs to tell RTD that bigger isn't always better.

See, I'm sort of doing the same thing. Except my other interests are a bit further out, and it's sort of taking more and more to drag me back into the Doctor Who stuff. Once upon a time I checked DWF daily. Now it's about once a fortnight.

Here's hoping Moffat brings back my Who love.

[longtimegone]

Stargate Atlantis really came along at the right time, as I was experiencing the post S3 fatigue around Christmas/New Years last year and... yeah. I'm not Done With Doctor Who by any means, because I can still get excited about it, but my focus has definitely shifted.

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

I think I'm sort of there with you. It's just that Doctor Who was more notably my main fandom to start with, so moving a way was more obvious.

And I think I caught the start of the Dark Knight hype-storm at about that time. And that went and swept me into comicsdom (Though I'm still more a lurker than anything else). Ah, bless you Dark Knight. Not only were you my epic movie of the year, but you also got me into a whole new shiny fandom. That is especially shiny, since it is both ongoing and freaking huge, being an entire form of media. Bless.

[shadowkitty.livejournal.com]

Comics fandom got me through a very boring summer.

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

That's the magic of comics! There's a never-ending supply of the damn things.

[gryffinclaw.livejournal.com]

I broke up with DW a while ago. I still enjoy it but not like I once did and it saddens me that my squee has lessened.

Freema squee is still going strong though!

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

I agree with this entire comment.

Especially the Freema bit (Seen the most recent post at freema_love?)

[chocolatepot.livejournal.com]

I still read spoilers and follow the news and check out fics and fun stuff recommended to me.

This is exactly how I interact with all of my fandoms. It's often much less stressful!

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

I know, but it's just sort of ...sad, to see something like that fade away.

It also means I have rather less conversations with my flist. Which is not so fun.

[fa11ing-away.livejournal.com]

Never thought I'd hear that.
But then again, your usual RL squeeing hasn't been at all about DW for a while now, so I suppose I should have seen it coming.
Do you need a post break up movie fest or something? Chocolate? Need me to call a dial-a-Davros stripper?

On the plus side however, you can now move on to other things. Not necessarily better, as I do have to question alot of anime, but certainly with less tentacles and bubblewrap...actually, don't tell me if this doesn't actually end up being the case. Please, oh gods, please*.

*Ok, maybe just a little bit.

[fa11ing-away.livejournal.com]

And this is why I shouldn't still be on the internet at 2am.
Rina out.

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

Well, it's not like there's going to be much Who coming up in the future - Christmas special, couple of specials, and then that's all for next year.

Which, incidentally, means by the time the Moffat series comes around, the speculation will have reached a critical mass of stupid.

I need new things to watch, that's what I need. (Okay, after I finish reading the Haruhi books). I don't want to know what goes on in your brain any more.

And anime's like saying TV. There's the good, and the bad, and the cracktastic. Hopefully, I shall continue to get pointed towards the good (and some of the cracktastic).

...And yeah, I should be heading to bed.

[eido.livejournal.com]

I'm still watching SJA, but I'm kind of in the same place you are with Who and I think it's been happening for some time. Way back in TW S2 when I didn't watch the last two eps Martha was in all the way through until they aired on BBC America, weeks later. Since most of my posts on my LJ tended to be Who spec/squee/bitching, thus the neglect of my LJ. *sighs*

Also, "The Middleman" (with, along with SJA, really does feel more like Classic Who than Nu Who does), "Supernatural" and gaming has (re)invaded my fanon experience and really hasn't made room for much else. I might feel some inspiration again when Moff takes over, but despite thinking the guy's stories are brilliant, I haven't even watched pt 2 of his S4 2-parter yet. My reinvestment in Who, even in era of Moff, is looking kind of grim.

And I could put this in the apropos post, but as I'm a lazy bastard, you're like the fourth person I know in two months that's loved the hell out of "Princess Tutu". It's almost Sanrio-levels of cutesy looking hence why I haven't quite been able to get myself to watch it, but the curiosity is getting to me.

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

I'm... kind of surprised how many people in the comments seem to feel the same way. Huh. I suppose I have enough people and comms on my flist that I don't really notice if one particular person hasn't posted in a while.

At this point, I think it'll have to take a pretty good hook to get me back into fandom heavily. I mean, I'll still watch the episodes, but it'll be less setting my alarm to grab them when they first show up as it will be at some point after they air.

I will admit that for the first couple of episodes, the cutesiness was so much that the only thing that kept me in was my ballet love and a few moments of great creepiness. And then the plot arc kicked in, and it got good. And then the second season came along, and it was much darker and I was so there. And the last half of the second season was like someone reached into my brain and made an anime just for me.

...Yeah, it's awesome. Watch it. (I need better Tutu icons)

[ionlylurkhere.livejournal.com]

I can definitely see where you're coming from; my Doctor Who squee these days tends to come about by deliberately choosing to ignore large chunks of fandom -- it's a very long time since I've gone to DWF, f'rinstance (thanks for the rec, btw) -- and writing lots of fic for the eras I like.

Also, yay comics! Are you reading Final Crisis?

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

I'm only really hanging around there for the news and spoilers, really. Though the Torchwood novels thread got funny when the authors started chiming in.

I'm flicking through it on my weekly jaunt to the comic store. And on scans_daily. Not really into all the spin-offs so much, and as for the main plot - it's not so much I dislike it, as I'm kind of waiting to see what the universe shattering pay-off will be. And who's going to die. It's all build up so far.

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

I would break up with it, but we've been married for too long.

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

Oh sweetie, they have shelters for women like you.

[shannonsequitur.livejournal.com]

I know exactly how you feel. I think by the end of S4, the entire fandom was burned out (whether they'll admit it or not). I'm still enjoying the hell out of SJA and Classic Who at the moment, but I'm completely apathetic to New Who stuff.

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

It would explain why doctorwho and certain other comms have gotten so inane as of late.

[xwingace]

Your fannish situation sounds very similar to mine, although I've never really gotten around to announcing that. (I don't have as many people who care, either...)

I've been 'meh' about who pretty much since the end of S3. I liked Donna, but I could never care as much about the stories anymore. I don't know what it was either.

XWA

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

I think it's more I felt like talking it out for myself. Maybe I am in a meta mood.

Word. Decent stories (mostly), I liked Donna, thought Tate was doing a mostly very good job with her. But the big love wasn't there.

[hacked2death.livejournal.com]

I dont know if i want to rant about who at the moment, I feel the same. There's nothing I really hate, there's just so much other good stuff out at the moment. This is the best time of year for TV. Eureka, Heroes, Pushing Daisies, even new stuff like Fringe is really getting me interested at the moment. And then you have Sarah Jane's show. It's sweet and all but mainly it's running up and down lots of corridors. Maybe I'll squee a little when The Brig is back on telly, but that's about it.

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

You know, I had completely forgotten about the Brig's appearance. Which is probably kind of telling in itself.

[magic-lilybean.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I realized kind of similar feelings - although I was never much involved in fandom other than reading what other people wrote - during this past season. I no longer ran right over to watch the latest episode, and in fact my husband and I would both forget to download them (we're in the States) for several days after they aired. It was particularly noticeable at the end of the season, when my highest hopes were merely that I wouldn't hate the finale quite as much as last year.

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

It's a bit sad how it ended up like that, isn't it?