I've heard the word used and am not sure exactly what it refers to...
Whats a fanwank?
- Thread starter PhoenixIreland
- Start date
Nardpuncher
Rear Admiral
I'm pretty sure it means something that a sci-fi show ( or even book) may do to please or excite fanboys.
The Enterprise from the future with 3 nacelles and a super-phaser in All Good Things would be an exapmle I'd give. Also most of the Shatnerverse books have crossovers and super starships that seem very fanwanky.
The Enterprise from the future with 3 nacelles and a super-phaser in All Good Things would be an exapmle I'd give. Also most of the Shatnerverse books have crossovers and super starships that seem very fanwanky.
MeanJoePhaser
Admiral
Don't you know?! Aren't you "god"?!
Fanwank is like whorish, silly or trite elements that seems as if they were written for or by stereotypical fans. "Time's Arrow"...Data meeting Mark Twain, maybe. TNG's "Relics" with Scotty. DS9's "Trials and Tribble-ations". Some would argue Enterprise's fourth season and its TOS references.
Not sure if it refers to just official material or fanfic as well.
as stated by both above. also, i think it's a short version of fanboy wank material.
Wikipedia claims The use of fan fiction to fill gaps or continuity errors in a canon is derisively called "fanwanking," or "fanwank." That's sort of true, but explaining continuity errors is just a subset of fanwank, I would say, which is gratuitous use of continuity, most often in tie-in fiction like novels and stuff. The term was invented by Craig Hinton for Doctor Who fandom, but over the past few years it's kinda exploded across the Internet.
Craig was actually the king of fanwank stories, but I guess he knew what did it for himself...
Craig was actually the king of fanwank stories, but I guess he knew what did it for himself...
I've always understood it to mean: to say or come up with solutions to a gap in the story.
For Star Trek, this was popularized by a female fan called Leslie Thompson in a series of "Star Trek Mysteries... Solved!" articles in Signet's "Best of Trek" paperbacks, mass market reprint collections of the irwin & Love semi-pro ST fanzine.
food cubes in IaMD
Daleks VS Cybermen in 'Doomsday' from Dr Who S2
Quinlan Vos' namecheck in ROTS
Daleks VS Cybermen in 'Doomsday' from Dr Who S2
Quinlan Vos' namecheck in ROTS
Random, unnecessary, "continuity porn" (you can start another thread about that one 
) designed to appeal to the nerdier end of fandom who will think it's really cool. The sort of plot that is concocted after reading a forum thread called WHO WOULD WIN: BOBA FETT OR HARRY MUDD???!?!
) designed to appeal to the nerdier end of fandom who will think it's really cool. The sort of plot that is concocted after reading a forum thread called WHO WOULD WIN: BOBA FETT OR HARRY MUDD???!?!
I believe the sense in which most people use it these days is in reference to implausible coincidences in long running series.
Relics, Time's Arrow, Trials and Tribulations aren't so much fanwank as they presented their scenarios as credible and integral to the plot. Whereas, if Captain Archer had discovered the Guardian of Forever, used it to travel into the future and hang out with Kirk and Picard, while they attempted to stop a joint Borg-Dominion invasion force - well, that would be fanwank.
Basically it's combining too many story ideas into one.
And while I will admit portions of Enteprise's fourth season had fanwank moments - I don't think anyone has tried to defend Affliction/Divergence as anything other than completely over the top madness - a considerable amount of it was well structured, with the continuity references being credible and not detracting from the plot.
Relics, Time's Arrow, Trials and Tribulations aren't so much fanwank as they presented their scenarios as credible and integral to the plot. Whereas, if Captain Archer had discovered the Guardian of Forever, used it to travel into the future and hang out with Kirk and Picard, while they attempted to stop a joint Borg-Dominion invasion force - well, that would be fanwank.
Basically it's combining too many story ideas into one.
And while I will admit portions of Enteprise's fourth season had fanwank moments - I don't think anyone has tried to defend Affliction/Divergence as anything other than completely over the top madness - a considerable amount of it was well structured, with the continuity references being credible and not detracting from the plot.
It is an overused term frequently thrown out by a few vocal fans that don't like various stories. These stories that are the target of their wrath can be either official sanctioned releases or fan fiction. Sometimes they use the term to indicate low quality but more often their wrath is aimed at stories that don't fit "their" view of what should be happening in the Star Trek universe. Season 7 of voyager has been described as fanwank because of low quality. Season 4 of Enterprise has been described as fanwank by people who don't like the Mirror Universe or Vulcan arcs. Even episodes of TNG have been described as fanwank.
Too often the term is used by people who are unhappy with a work but can not articulate their reason as to why they think it is bad.
Too often the term is used by people who are unhappy with a work but can not articulate their reason as to why they think it is bad.
The Eugenics Wars novels...
As a prior poster mentioned, "fanwank" is a term used by overly critical fans who have a stunted sense of fun to disparage elements of Trek that incorporate other elements from the Trekverse in their stories. The only point they have is when such elements are used to augment or cover lousy stories and bad ideas. As for me, I get a blast out of seeing the Enterprise on DS9, or the Defiant in the TNG films, or hear Janeway or Picard mention something that Kirk did. Its what makes Trek fun to be involved in, this rich fictional universe that we can all play in.
I've taken it to mean an element of a story that is gratuitous or implausible with the sole purpose of "pleasing fans," often in inane or mistaken ways. It is clumsy and blatant.
While I agree with all of the above definitions, in practice "fanwank" has become a meaningless term which is simply used to label something someone doesn't like.
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