Table Of ContentFantastic Transmedia
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Fantastic Transmedia
Narrative, Play and Memory Across
Science Fiction and Fantasy Storyworlds
Colin B. Harvey
King’sCollegeLondon,UK
©ColinB.Harvey2015
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-1-137-30603-6
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Firstpublished2015by
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Harvey,ColinB.,1971–
Fantastictransmedia:narrative,playandmemoryacrosssciencefiction
andfantasystoryworlds/ColinB.Harvey;King’sCollegeLondon,UK.
pages cm
Summary:“InFantasticTransmedia,writerandacademicColinBHarvey
exploresthemanifoldwaysinwhichsciencefictionandfantasyfranchises
usetransmedialtechniquestocreatecomplexandinvolvingimaginary
worlds.FromhighprofilefranchiseslikeStarWars,HaloandtheMarvel
CinematicUniversetofarsmaller,micro-budgetedindieprojects,Harvey
exploresthewaysinwhichfantasticstoryworldsusenovels,television
shows,films,comicbooks,videogames,toysandUser-GeneratedContent
toextendanddeepenaudiences’experiences.Throughnumerouscase
studiesHarveyidentifiesstory,playandmemoryasthekeymechanisms
throughwhichsuchcreatorsdevelop,spread,andemotionally
engage”—Providedbypublisher.
1. Narration(Rhetoric) 2. Storytellinginmassmedia. 3. Motion
picturesandvideogames. 4. Filmadaptations—Historyandcriticism.
5. Convergence(Telecommunication) I. Title.
P96.N35H372015
302.23—dc23 2015001295
Contents
Preface vi
Acknowledgements x
Introduction:FramesofReference 1
1 FantasticTransmedia 12
2 StoriesandWorlds 40
3 OfHobbitsandHulks:AdaptationVersusNarrative
Expansion 63
4 Canon-Fodder:HaloandHorizontalRemembering 93
5 ConfiguringMemoryintheBuffyverse 116
6 MaterialMythsandNostalgia-PlayinStarWars 137
7 FantasticallyIndependent 163
8 TransmediaMemory 182
Notes 203
Bibliography 208
Index 232
v
Preface
Someofmyearliestmemoriesaretransmedial.IgrewupreadingDoctor
Who Weekly, a magazine devoted to the long-running British science
fantasytelevisionshow,andpublished,atleastinthosedays,byMarvel.
Itoriginallycost12penceandfeaturedaregularcomicstriptellingnew
storiessetintheDoctorWhouniverse,writtenbycomicluminarieslike
Pat Mills and Alan Moore, and boasting extraordinary illustrations by
thelikesofDaveGibbonsandSteveMoore.
As well as the primary comic strip featuring the Doctor himself,
there were various articles detailing the history of the programme, a
‘Photo-File’offeringfactsaboutspecificcharactersintheseries,a‘Crazy
Caption’ competition, ‘A Letter from the Doctor’, a second comic strip
featuring classic adaptations (beginning with HG Wells’ War of the
Worlds) and a third comic strip featuring one of the Doctor’s adver-
saries, starting with the Daleks (Doctor Who Weekly 1979). This third
comicstripoccasionallyevenbroughttogethertheDoctor’sfoestobat-
tle one another, long before the television show itself, such as when
the Cybermen and Ice Warriors faced off against each other in Issues
15 and 16 (Doctor Who Weekly 1980). Doctor Who Weekly also con-
tainednumeroustoyadvertisementsforthelikesofPalitoyandforother
Marvel publications such as Star Wars Weekly, Spiderman, The Hulk and
Starburst.
EachThursday,IwouldmakethepilgrimagetoMartinsthenewsagent
topurchasemycopy,carryingithomereverentlysoasnottodamageit
inanyway.IcarryanenduringheartacheassociatedwithmissingIssue
8andtheconclusiontothethrillingIronLegioncomicstrip,writtenby
Pat Mills and John Wagner, and illustrated by Dave Gibbons. In those
days there was no Internet or eBay to assist in finding a copy of the
magazine. Issue 8 had come and gone, and I had missed it, seemingly
forever.
Though Doctor Who remained a significant facet of my childhood, it
didn’t preclude me from other science fiction or fantasy-inflected pur-
suits, many of which were similarly transmedial. My youth took place
against a backdrop of escapist stories, brightly coloured fantasies that
could distract me from the real world of maths tests and PE, from the
travails associated with growing up with a perennially ill father and
from the grainy news footage showing the political and social turmoil
vi
Preface vii
of a country encountering Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s shock
therapy.
I consumed these stories voraciously, not caring in what form I
imbibed them or where they came from. As well as Doctor Who, there
was other British televisual science fiction, like the grimly fascinating
Blake’s7andITV’speculiarSapphireandSteel,eachheraldedbystriking,
eerie theme tunes. There was children’s television, too, like ITV’s The
TomorrowPeopleandtheiradaptationofJohnWyndham’snovelChocky,
plusitstwofollow-upseries.Mytastesweren’texclusivelyBritisheither:
theoriginalStarTrek,BattlestarGalactica,BuckRogersintheTwenty-Fifth
Century and Logan’s Run were as much a part of the tapestry of my
childhoodastheirBritishcounterparts.
TherewasmytattyanthologyofHansChristianAndersenfairytalesI
inheritedfrommysister,andmyTV21andCountdownannualsfrommy
brothers,depictingnewstoriesforthelikesofCaptainScarlet,Interna-
tionalRescueandthecrewofStingray.Therewerefilms,likeGhostbusters
andtheIndianaJonesmovies,andradioplayslikeTheHitch-Hiker’sGuide
totheGalaxywhichinitiatedmyenduringfascinationwithradiofantasy
and science fiction, not to mention radio comedy. There were Mar-
vel’s Tomb of Dracula comics, Planet of the Apes comics and, of course,
Spiderman and The Incredible Hulk, on TV and on the page. And there
wastheamazingandfaintlyterrifying2000AD,aBritishcomicemerg-
ing from the punk tradition and playing fast and loose with science
fictionandfantasyconventions.
Mostofall,therewasStarWars.Likemanyofmygeneration–bornin
1971–IwasaStarWarskid,andmypassionextendedwellbeyondthe
confinesofthecinemascreen.Incommonwithallmypeers,Icollected
Kenner’sfigures(packagedanddistributedbyPalitoyintheUK),begin-
ning with R5-D4, one of the more minor characters from the original
1977 film to say the least. As my collection of figures grew to incorpo-
ratespacevehiclesliketheAT-ATWalker,HothplaysetandBespinCloud
Car,IinventednewscenariosmoreorlessconsistentwithwhatI’dseen
atthelocalcinema.
I read Alan Dean Foster’s 1978 novel Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, the
sequel to Star Wars, until it was displaced by the follow-up movie The
EmpireStrikesBack.Iplayedvideogamesbasedonhigh-profilefranchises,
including Ghostbusters and the adaptation of The Hobbit on my friend
Michael Eley’s Commodore 64. In fact, my childhoodwas stuffed with
spinoffs and tie-ins, ranging across films, television programmes, toy
ranges, videogames and comics. When links between different media
weren’tevident,I’dinventthem:forinstance,Iwouldpretendthatthe
viii Preface
unfoldingstarscapeinthevideogameStarRaiderswasactuallythelong-
rangescanneraboardtheEnterprise,andI’dplaywithmyStarTrek:The
MotionPicturefiguresinfrontofit.
These experiences aren’t unique to me or even unusual, if various
online forums are anything to go by. There’s certainly a nostalgia
involved, but in terms of those franchises which are still prospering –
DoctorWho,StarWars,StarTrek,tonamejustthreeofthemorepromi-
nent examples – there’s also a kind of mythical ‘handing down’ of
knowledgetoyoungerfans.Infact,asI’llarguethroughoutthisvolume,
memory always was central to these crossmedial experiences, provid-
ingthemeansbywhichstoriesreferencedoneanotheracrossdifferent
media,aswellasacknowledgingthepastofthefictionalmilieuinques-
tion.Thesememoriesmightbearticulatedthroughwords,stillimages,
audiovisualmaterial,performanceorinteractivity,orindeedacombina-
tionofthesedifferentmodes.Theywerethemechanismsbywhichthe
‘storyworld’1 was effectively sewn together, helping create a common
diegeticspaceforme–andcountlessothers–toexplore.Icontendthat
thisisastruefornewtransmediafranchisesandtechniquesasitwasfor
theonesIgrewupwith.
In some ways my emphasis on relating contemporary transmedia
storytelling to what went before might seem surprising. When I was a
kid,digitalitywasunknownorlittleknown,barelyemergentinthecon-
text of calculators, digital watches and the first commercially available
videogames.Thesedaysit’sverydifferent.TheonlineforumsIreferred
to are just one way in which transmedia experiences might be artic-
ulated. In the digital age, those of us with access to the appropriate
resources can find out about and talk about television shows, feature
films,websites,videogamesandcomicseasilyandrapidly.Opportunities
for myriad kinds of interaction that didn’t formerly exist have become
commonplace, from interacting with fellow fans around the globe to
contributing our own stories to the Buffyverse, Whoniverse or Star Wars
universe.
Nevertheless,Ithinkolder,analogueexamplesofcrossmediaarticula-
tion have more in common with contemporary examples than might
first meet the eye. What we today call ‘transmedia’ or ‘crossmedia’
storytelling is a diverse sphere, but then it always was. Some of the
mediainvolvedisthesame:films,novels,comicbooks,pen-and-paper
games,evenvideogamesfromthe1970sonwards.Certainly,thesedays
digitalitymeansthereareabunchofnewthingsinvolvedincrossmedia
storytelling,fromwebisodes,tosocialmediaandalternaterealitygames,
to wide varieties of user-generated content,2 yet the impetus in each
Preface ix
instance seems very familiar: to tell multiple stories set in a consis-
tent diegetic world or worlds, to communicate ideas, perhaps to make
money,tochangemindsaboutasocialissue,orindeedtoentertainan
audience.
Which isn’t to say there aren’t major differences between what hap-
pens now, in terms of the conception, development and distribution
of storyworlds, and what happened in previous decades. Indeed, there
are mammoth differences between the various kinds of transmedia
storytelling that currently appear, let alone differences with what pre-
cededthem.Fromthemulti-million-dollarHollywoodfranchisesspan-
ningfilms,comics,videogamesandtelevisionshowstothesmall-scale,
micro-budgeted projects that utilise the web, social media and mobile
technologies,candidatesforthedescriptor‘transmediastorytelling’are
legion. Nevertheless, I argue that there is a legacy to be acknowl-
edged,onewhichcanproveinstructiveinhelpingusmapthedynamic,
compellingsphereofcontemporarytransmediastorytelling.
