The cesspits of Doctor Who fandom.

Sometimes in our cosy and nice little corner of the Internet, it's easy to forget that there are Doctor Who fans out there that give us all a bad name. The fans who are never satisfied with any of the stuff that's created in the name of Doctor Who, fans who are unwilling to see any other point of view but their own, fans who cry out vendetta when other people argue with them... fans who think it's 1989 all over again, when fandom fought among itself. It didn't do any good then and sometimes it feels as if some fans haven't learnt a thing in all those years where everyone generally got along, united in the fact that the show was dead on TV.

Well we got reminded of that this week. Oh yes. A poster cried out that there'd been a "two year vendetta" aimed at him by Si, after Si laughed (quite naturally) at the suggestion they should make the BF mini-series Dalek Empire for TV. Funny how through the proceeding two years he'd never thought to mention this vendetta to anyone at all. He used to easy length reviews of stories and then get cross if no-one bothered to read them, but if they actually did, but disagreed with him, he wouldn't actually argue his point- he was more likely to slink off quietly or tell people they were wrong... anyway, he had his strop and was ever so nasty about Si. I stepped in and moderated it and probably didn't help a great deal, as I didn't really help Si out very much and we all read his frankly bizarre list of complaints. We'd heard it all before... cliques, nastiness... nothing new there. He came on ranted, ranted in a private message to me and then pissed off elsewhere to rant and rave some more.
Reading the ranting on The Anorak Zone was an eye opener. That forum seems to exist to complain about RTD's Doctor Who for all the things (in the eyes of its posters) isn't: adult drama, gritty, serious... oh you know, all the usual things people think Doctor Who should be, but isn't. It's a grim and nasty place, more so because that's where they go to complain about us! Well a couple of us anyway. Poor old Si seems to attract personal attacks, with several posters over there bearing a grudge against him... more perplexing was the mention of a certain member of our mod team and his wife, who'd been singled out for similar treatment. Quite honestly, he's one of the nicest people you could ever meet (not that I actually have, but I have a good idea he's as lovely in real life as he is online) (and actually, so is Si, one of my favourite people in the whole world) so the attack was jaw droppingly shocking! I was flabbergasted!
Steve would like to take the fight to them, but I'm not sure it's a good idea. Let them fester in the cesspool of a forum together and grow old and (even more) bitter. They deserve Tom, he'll fit in perfectly.

In much nicer stuff, I survived last weekend's fest mostly by reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and playing with Charlie and doing the barbeque. Charlie is lovely, despite weeing on the living room carpet the other night. It's good to be able to give him some attention, as I think he's been rather neglected the last few years. After a tentative start last week, he's now happy to run around the garden and be picked up (except when he's running around the garden!) and he's just ever so adorable!