Open question: with cast changes in Stargate Atlantis, what are you going to write/read?

[wraithfodder]

With the SciFi interview snippets with various cast members (Joe Flanigan, David Hewlett, Amanda Tapping and Rachel Luttrell) as well as Multichannel's article on Weir's (Torri Higginson) departure and heck, who doesn't know that Paul McGillion's Dr. Beckett got toasted in season 3? it got me thinking...

How does this affect you fannishly?

There are many of us who have stories just perculating away, half-written (heck, I've even got one or two season 1 stories with Ford in 'em that remain undone). Season 4 has stripped away two key characters - Beckett and Weir. Will you continue to write in season 3 if you adored Beckett and/or Weir? Or will you 'go with the flow' and write season 4 fiction and just live with the loss?  Will Sheppard/Weir fanfic will continue despite her loss (from the show) or will it wither? While stories which feature Ford are few and far between, Weir was an integral part of the show - heck, she was on SG1 before SGA even came about. It stands to reason that the feel of the show will change as well as Atlantis will now be under a military commander (Carter) instead of civilian (Weir). Or will it just be easier to have the team spend as much time off Atlantis as possible to avoid that?

And Beckett features so prominently in many stories (particularly those of a hurt/comfort (aka whump) persuasion) that how will fans add in Keller, who is the new kid on the block with basically no backstory with Sheppard's team??

Feel free to comment away. Myself, I haven't decided what to do, but have too many pre-season 4 stories to finish that I'm not altering them to fit season 4.

Comments

[the-scary-kitty.livejournal.com]

I haven't really been in the fic side of the fandom long enough to develop any pre-S4 story ideas, so I'm not affected by that. I've had some vague ideas for possible S4 episode tags; mainly character introspection beyond the bare-bones fleeting glimpses that are all we're likely to get out of TPTB. A lot of it focuses on the loss of Weir and Carson and how that's affecting the others. There's also a little potential AU idea I've got for how Shep and the team could get Weir back... how that goes forward will probably depend on how Weir's storyline unfolds, but based on the spoilers I've seen thus far, I think it'll proceed as planned.

Will Shep/Weir fic survive? Hell yes. There's been too much canon development of their friendship and UST already, and the hints of Shep-angst in S4 will only add more fuel to the fire. That's all fanon will need to keep it alive and well.

Should be interesting to see how Beckett vs. Keller will go, especially seeing as how Beckett will be back as well.

And there are plenty of ongoing AU fics that I'm sure a lot of people will continue to follow regardless of what happens on the show.