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crack_van2007-02-06 02:37 am
nell65.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2007-02-06 02:37 am
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La Femme Nikita the Television Series Overview for February 2007
Hi, I'm the driver for La Femme Nikita the Television Series this month.
LFN, as it's fans know it, debuted in 1997 and ran for four and a bit (8 episodes) seasons. During the original airing it inspired a rush of fanfiction, and while the flood has long since tapered off, there is still a small active corps of fanfiction fen, and now that all the seasons are available on DVD the ranks seem to be growing again.
I initially offered to drive the LFN small fandom van in October of 2004(!) (I know - where does the time go?) and in the several computer moves since then lost whatever sad fandom summary I started writing. Realizing that if I waited to get the perfect overview written, February would be over before I recommended a single story, I'm beginning with a small overview which I plan to keep working on until it is complete, and then get on with the recs!
LFN the Series was loosely based on the 1990 Luc Besson film of the same name, which inspired at least two other film versions before it arrived in serialized form on USA network. LFN the series ultimately retained only the setting and the name of the original film.
The setting is Section One, and is so important as to be practically a character itself. Section One is the world's most clandestine agency, that sets out to catch the criminals and terrorists that no one else can, and as Peta Wilson's Nikita intones over the opening credits, "the ends justify the means."
One of the means justified by the ends of Section One is the kidnapping and enslavement of most of its operatives, including the title character Nikita. Unlike the original Besson film, in the series Nikita is innocent of the alley knifing that lands her in Section One for two years of training (entirely covered in the first episode) before her first missions. This sets up the central plot dynamic of the television series, which is Nikita's slow adaptation to Section's manichean world view.
The main six characters are:
Nikita
her trainer and future lover Michael
Operations, the man who runs Section
Madeline, Section's chief profiler
Walter, the weapons expert and resident hippie
Birkoff, the young computer genuis who runs Section's core systems
The shipping is almost completely dominated by the juggernaut of the tortured relationship between Michael and Nikita - and fans of the ship are known collectively as the HR's - (hopeless/hopeful romantics). The second most popular ship was the TR (or twisted romantics) ship of Madeline/Operations.
Everything after that is minor indeed. As a result of the HR/TR dominance - slash, either m/m or f/f , is almost entirely absent in the LFN fandom - though there was always a little bit and there is more now than there once was. In some ways this is intensely ironic, as the character Michael is designated in canon as sexually appealing to both men and women early in the first season, and later on Nikita has at least two seductions aimed at women villains of the week. In other ways it is pretty easy to see why there wasn't more - in particular the age ranges of the four main male characters - Operations and Walter in their late 50s/early 60s, Michael in his 30s, and Birkoff in his late teens/early 20s, and the everyone has a secret dynamic of Section One, make almost any buddy or friendship driven m/m close to impossible (other than possibly 'old guy sex' - which has it's own challenges in finding writers and audiences). While there are plenty of villains or minor operatives who might have stepped in to the breach for enemy sex, very few lasted for more than a single episode and most did not find a permanent home in the hearts of the fic writing fen.
Most of the fic I will be reccing is held at the main archive for the fandom, The LFN Storyboard Archives, which has been a labor of fan love from the beginning - including a desperate rescue effort a few years back to pull as much of the original, older archive of LFN fic from the wayback machine as could be saved once that archive disappeared into the mists of "404 file not found."
I'll be adding to this summary as the month goes on, so that by the time I'm done Crack Van has a decent summary for the memories.
LFN, as it's fans know it, debuted in 1997 and ran for four and a bit (8 episodes) seasons. During the original airing it inspired a rush of fanfiction, and while the flood has long since tapered off, there is still a small active corps of fanfiction fen, and now that all the seasons are available on DVD the ranks seem to be growing again.
I initially offered to drive the LFN small fandom van in October of 2004(!) (I know - where does the time go?) and in the several computer moves since then lost whatever sad fandom summary I started writing. Realizing that if I waited to get the perfect overview written, February would be over before I recommended a single story, I'm beginning with a small overview which I plan to keep working on until it is complete, and then get on with the recs!
LFN the Series was loosely based on the 1990 Luc Besson film of the same name, which inspired at least two other film versions before it arrived in serialized form on USA network. LFN the series ultimately retained only the setting and the name of the original film.
The setting is Section One, and is so important as to be practically a character itself. Section One is the world's most clandestine agency, that sets out to catch the criminals and terrorists that no one else can, and as Peta Wilson's Nikita intones over the opening credits, "the ends justify the means."
One of the means justified by the ends of Section One is the kidnapping and enslavement of most of its operatives, including the title character Nikita. Unlike the original Besson film, in the series Nikita is innocent of the alley knifing that lands her in Section One for two years of training (entirely covered in the first episode) before her first missions. This sets up the central plot dynamic of the television series, which is Nikita's slow adaptation to Section's manichean world view.
The main six characters are:
Nikita
her trainer and future lover Michael
Operations, the man who runs Section
Madeline, Section's chief profiler
Walter, the weapons expert and resident hippie
Birkoff, the young computer genuis who runs Section's core systems
The shipping is almost completely dominated by the juggernaut of the tortured relationship between Michael and Nikita - and fans of the ship are known collectively as the HR's - (hopeless/hopeful romantics). The second most popular ship was the TR (or twisted romantics) ship of Madeline/Operations.
Everything after that is minor indeed. As a result of the HR/TR dominance - slash, either m/m or f/f , is almost entirely absent in the LFN fandom - though there was always a little bit and there is more now than there once was. In some ways this is intensely ironic, as the character Michael is designated in canon as sexually appealing to both men and women early in the first season, and later on Nikita has at least two seductions aimed at women villains of the week. In other ways it is pretty easy to see why there wasn't more - in particular the age ranges of the four main male characters - Operations and Walter in their late 50s/early 60s, Michael in his 30s, and Birkoff in his late teens/early 20s, and the everyone has a secret dynamic of Section One, make almost any buddy or friendship driven m/m close to impossible (other than possibly 'old guy sex' - which has it's own challenges in finding writers and audiences). While there are plenty of villains or minor operatives who might have stepped in to the breach for enemy sex, very few lasted for more than a single episode and most did not find a permanent home in the hearts of the fic writing fen.
Most of the fic I will be reccing is held at the main archive for the fandom, The LFN Storyboard Archives, which has been a labor of fan love from the beginning - including a desperate rescue effort a few years back to pull as much of the original, older archive of LFN fic from the wayback machine as could be saved once that archive disappeared into the mists of "404 file not found."
I'll be adding to this summary as the month goes on, so that by the time I'm done Crack Van has a decent summary for the memories.
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But - I do have a question oh maker of beautiful icons. I want to put up some pretty pictures on this very much WIP summary of LFN; I even have a brand new photobucket account to hold them - and then, despite my looking in the limited spots I knew about, I couldn't find anything I liked from the few options available.
Where do you go image hunting?
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If you'd be willing to share - having seen and loved all your icons! - I would completely trust your judgement. And, like I said, I'd pop them into my photobucket account (which exists only for this function right now.)
Nell
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The archivist is a lovely woman named Ranma and she is still active in maintaining and updating the archives, though wrist problems have slowed her down some in the last six months, so you should have no problem working your way through all the stories she has saved for us. (Which is a lot! I'm very impressed that you're reading them all!).
Nell