FF Reviews

Fan Fiction reviews by Benjamin Silverwood.  I have chosen TV comedy shows with a dynamic character chemistry, as my FF will be from the genre.

Seinfeld “A Show About Nonsense”

This short scene features the four original characters and is set in Jerry’s apartment; the dialogue starts out with fairly standard Seinfeld-style witticisms, a minor insecurity of George’s being the centre of their universe for the time being.  The story then appears to digress and the normal rules of physics and possibility are taken back and a new reality is presented in comedic form.   

At first it might appear that the surprise scenario is a little deranged and far removed from Seinfeld, which may be true to a certain extent, but despite the rather weak ending, it is well written and underneath what seems to shine is a rather clever depiction of Jewish humour and science fiction.

Red Dwarf “Smegging Pregnant”

This fan fiction bridges the plot gap between seasons 2 and 3 of the popular BBC comedy show. 

If one manages to get through all seven of the long chapters a fairly decent story develops, and is an interesting take on what happened to the characters.  The author has definitely opted for raw dialogue over descriptive narrative, which at times is a little frustrating, as part of what made the books so good was the genius comedy bouncing off atmospheric writing style.   

A decent read all in all, but would likely only recommend to the most die-hard Dwarfies.

 

Blackadder “All because of a letter”

The characters and period is borrowed from the Blackadder the 3^rd, with Blackadder, Baldrick and the Prince Regent.  The scene is focused around events on Valentine’s Day in early 19^th Century London.

The point of the story was a little hard to swallow.  A romantic theme however was perhaps an angle previously unexplored in the series, and despite the slightly off-key plot the author has captured the essence of the characters perfectly.  The dialogue seems almost to have been written for the actors themselves, as a TV episode might play out, so in this sense thoroughly enjoyable and will be loved by fans.   

The Young Ones “Hospital”

This seven-chapter fan fiction is set after the events of the final episode, assuming they did not perish in the flames of the double-decker bus crash.  The story focuses around their recovery from the crash in a hospital.

Seven chapters is a lot to get through and hold the reader's attention, but there are some nice touches, and the author has drawn upon the repressed nature of the characters with accuracy and reasonable dignity.  Additionally, the author has skilfully exported the visual anarchy of the TV series into written narrative, and while there may not be any groundbreaking comedic writing here, the dialogue rings true and will be first rate entertainment for the show’s fans.

Futurama “Bender’s Match”

A short story in which everyone’s favourite sociopathic robot, Bender, has a chance meeting in a liquor store with the owner of a universal brewery, who also happens to be cute and female, and to his surprise, turns out to have been raised by robots. 

This worked to a certain extent but in a lot of ways it didn’t.  The narrative was good enough as to give the atmosphere of a true Futurama scene, however the plot seemed to lack substance and this makes it difficult to see where the author was heading with this story.  I can’t help but feel that it stopped abruptly and the author should have developed some kind of a story arc, but it appears the intention was to leave it at a rather ambiguous and clichéd walking-off-into-the-sunset ending.  Ultimately, while the character depiction was on-key, the plot contained very little impromptu comedy and in that sense had a very watered-down “Futurama” feel to it,  mostly relying on Bender’s derogatory one-liners for effect.