Whedonist aka 1shinyboat discusses the Nikki & Nora unaired pilot, writing femslash and the forthcoming The Nikki & Nora Files, and Browncoats.
I have this love/hate relationship with only two things in my life: Glee—for obvious reasons and the internet—it’s great because you can access great quantities of information quickly and barring an apocalyptic event, it’s forever. Of course, that’s also why I hate it—it’s FOREVER. The sooner young people realize this the better off we’ll be. Though before I digress on social responsibility and the adage of “if you’ve nothing nice to say…” passed down by relatives of yore, my love of the internet’s forever can be summed up in three words, “Nikki and Nora”.
I was out sick, at home, and browsing the fan fiction (thank you gain, Ralst). If any of you have been over to Passion & Perfection, the interface is simple, click a fandom, and see a list of fic broken down by author.
And there Nikki & Nora were…hanging out like they were just waiting for me to find them and read them so they could slip into the space my head and heart had evidently been saving for them (without my consent mind you).
I’m a sucker for most crime/mystery/detective stories, as anyone that’s known me longer than ten minutes can attest. The love I have for them, I blame on too much Nancy Drew and Scooby Doo growing up. Now when you combine that genre with strong female characters…? What’s there not too love?
No, really. What is there not to love?
See, my point exactly.
Nikki & Nora—the fan fic I’d read about them did this, but more importantly, the pilot (Thank you to whoever leaked that. Contact me, seriously, cookies and milk are way past due) did this. The pilot also did something else that I’d only ever seen once before. The thing that did it before got 14 episodes and then a prompt cancellation by the network-that-shall-not-be-named less a rant of far greater proportions start (Don’t think Warner Bros. isn’t on my list too).
That ‘other thing’ also had enough fans to rally around it to convince Universal to give Mr. Whedon enough money to make a movie (bless every single Browncoat from now until forever).
In my humble opinion, the chemistry of Nikki & Nora’s cast was just as compelling and electric as that of our ragtag crew on Serenity. Which is pretty special—Christina Cox’s Deluxe Combo Platter may have a better explanation of what I mean. It also doesn’t go unnoticed that both have strong leaders with a clear vision commanding their respective ships.
So I read, I think, every piece of fic I could find about them, watched and saved the pilot, and to both my great annoyance and pleasure a ‘what if’ rooted at the base of my brain, grew and produced a little under half a million words of fic over four and a half years. It seems like I’ve been ‘living’ with these characters for forever. Kind of like when you find a new band; you wonder how you were living life before you knew about them and remembering life before their discovery is, at best, a laughable exercise in futility.
Nikki & Nora and Co. are like that to me. If not for email, trying to remember when I fell for them would be impossible, ‘cause I swear they’ve been with me for longer than that. Of course, I’m sure their creator will say that they’ve been with her longer, and I will not argue. I’ll just thank her for their creation.
Now, imagine my delight/shock/unfettered joy at finding out that Nancylee and Christina and Liz are all not only wanting to bring Nikki & Nora back, but are actively trying to make that happen? For perspective, think about a band that is no longer together, but you wish, with all your wishes and all your heart that they would announce a reunion tour…and did.
Done hopping up and down and acting like a 12 year old who just realized Justin Bieber was standing next to her?
Good, but you get the idea. With that type of perspective, let’s put away our inner fangirls for a minute and focus now on how amazing it is that such a brilliant cast and creator are trying to come back to us to give us more. So I thank them, for wanting to do it, the fans, for helping to make it happen, the writers that wrote the fic based on that lone, amazing, special, all to short pilot, and then the internet, ‘cause whether I love it or I hate, it gave me the vehicle to discover Nikki & Nora.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to squeal a thousand squeals of fangirly joy over The N&N Files and continue to obsessively check the campaign’s website.