And so the years passed. Some things
changed on the satellite, somet things stayed the same. Of course Joel would escape
a in 1993, apparently Dr. Forrester only went three years into the future, instead
of five. But, day to day life on the satellite was as strange and as normal as
ever, and it would continue that way for the indefinite future. Thanks, Joel.
When I sat down to write the story that became 'Space Camp,' I intended to write
a fanfic comparable to Lisa Jenkins' unfinished epic, or something like the Mystery
Science Adventures. The goal was never to write a MSTing, I'll leave that to the
professionals.
It took me nearly four years to write this, including edits, rewrites, and forgotten
subplots. I hope that I've captured the essence of our favorite characters correctly.
Of course, if you aren't a big fan of the KTMA's, some of the early character
nuances may not be entirely apparent.
Why KTMA and Season One? Well, a couple of reasons. The first, I love the KTMAs.
I'm one of those people that Sampo says waxes rhapsodic about the early episodes.
I know a lot of people think they are weak, but they really are far more impressive
than some give them credit for, especially considering the budgets and time spent
on each episode. I really like Josh's Servo, as well as his Dr. Erhardt character.
The Dr. Forrester of KTMA is also far stranger than Bealieu's character later
became.
I will not, however, attempt to defend Josh's puppetry. Kevin was hundreds of
times more animated with the rigid crimson plastic robot than Josh ever was.
I know I left some plot holes in the story, and I'm sure I created some additional
ones too. The Gizmonic Institute of Seasons 2-5.5, which is the design and concept
I used for the story setting, was not the Gizmonic of Season One. I have no excuses;
it was deliberate.
After finalizing the story, I realized that there was a massive, inexcusable plot
hole: why would Joel need to build a new Cambot? The Cambot of KTMA was a fully
autonomous robot, that actually stood behind a regular camera. Why wouldn't this
robot be able to walk over to the new SOL with Joel, Servo, and Crow. So, Cambot
had to be destroyed. That entire section of the story on the bots destroying Cambot
and then the camera also being demolished was added at absolutely the last minute.
(Although, being that any deadlines on this story were entirely self-imposed...)
I tried to write the story in my own writing style, however, I did throw in a
few fanfic standards. Creating a Kurt Vonnegut, post-modern 'active' narractor
is basically required for this type of story, and I could not disappoint.
One of the reasons this story took so long to write (although this only accounts
for a few months out of a several years), is that I could not come up with an
idea for how Forrester and Erhardt would finance their mad scientristry. Joey
Riley, a good friend of mine, provided the idea by saying, 'inventions,' effectively
saving the entire story from gathering dust indefinitely. Thank you again, Joey.
As for the future of Classic Arrow, well, our full fan production is actually
looking more likely to be produced, or at least shot, in the Spring of 2006. Though,
I still need to build Crow.
I hope that I've done Mystery Science Theater 3000 right. Thank you for reading,
and keep circulating the tapes.
-Jeff Zehnder
4/12/2005
www.astroreverb.com