Get your own Free HomepageEerie is the most normal town in small town America. Kids play on the streets, old folks sit in rocking chairs, watching the world go by, the captain of the high school cheerleading team is also prom queen, and dates the school’s head jock and football star. You know the score; it’s the kind of town which could be described as sleepy, if it ever woke up. It’s also the centre of weirdness for the entire world.
This paradox is the essential background for the short lived show described as ‘a nineties Twilight Zone for kids’. Our guide to the town is Marshall Teller, a nice guy on the verge of becoming a rebellious teen, who watches horror movies, rides his BMX and trades cards and comics, and has recently been uprooted from the noisy city and dumped into a place that has built it’s economy on corn. Marshall is alone in more ways than one now; forget leaving his friends behind, he is the only one in his family who sees that Eerie is definitely more than meets the eye.
Marshall’s sidekick is Simon Holmes, a neighbour who shares Marshall’s unique vision of town. He is a few years younger than Marshall, and fears growing up and having to deal with acne and girls.
Together they combat weirdness, accumulating evidence which is locked away in Marshall’s attic and will someday be presented to the President.
The first half season of Eerie, Indiana featured a whole host of bizarre characters and situations. From Marshall’s family to the paranoid shopkeeper, Radford; from talking dogs to age defying kitchenware, EI was a show unlike any other. On the creative team were Karl Shaffer and Jose Rivera (later responsible for the excellent Strange Luck), and director supremo Joe Dante (of Gremlins fame), and between them they managed to cram a sense of otherness that relied as much upon a child’s literal view of the world around them as it did on alien probes and Bigfoots. The show surpassed it’s children’s programme roots to become something more, with ‘Heart On A Chain’ and ‘The Lost Hour’, in which we learn of Marshall’s ultimate fate, being particular stand out episodes.
But it wasn’t until the second half of the first season that things really started heating up. This was due to the introduction of two new characters, erstwhile Gomez Addams, John Astin, as the ‘new’ Radford and Dash-X, the Gray-Haired Kid, played by Jason Marsden in excellent form. Now we had a core great characters, and a marvellous antithesis to Marshall. The show climaxed with ‘Reality Takes A Holiday’ an episode so great it has to be seen to be believed.
Obviously, a show that I loved so much was high on my list of sources to plunder for fan fiction, and obviously, I would never do anything so mundane as write just another episode. So, what have I done this time?
‘Return To Eerie, Indiana’ seemed to me to be the obvious choice for a title. In it, Simon finds Marshall, unaged, five years after the show finished, and they try to find out exactly what happened in the intervening time. Shortly after this I discovered the brand new EI show, ‘The Other Dimension’, which I have still not seen (apparently it is about to be screened on UK Fox Kids), but which I have been informed is not very good. I gave up the idea for a while, but not so long ago I imagined a scene which brought EI fanfic back to the fore of my mind. That scene was straight from Stephen King’s ‘Salem’s Lot’ - an almost word for word retelling of the import of the Master in Salem’s Lot, but with a quite different atmosphere. Immediately I had the basic plot of RTEI.
Now, you all know that I *really* dislike copycats in fan fiction, yet here I am, copying from King himself. What gives? Well, RTEI only uses King’s work in a loose sense - vampires are rampant in all kinds of films, shows and novels - and RTEI borrows a little from each and every type of vampirism. The vampire plot is also secondary, the first part of an ongoing series that will cover plenty more subjects in its run. I’ve also given the familiar events a little twist of my own, and I hope that once you read my portrayal of Dan August’s oddessey will be distinct enough for the majority of you.
The second thing you should notice about RTEI is that it has a tone all of it’s own. I tried to capture EI’s atmosphere and failed, so, since my story dealt with teenagers, I tried to inject a little darkness into it. The end result lies somewhere between EI and ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’, and is something I’m rather proud of.
But my favourite part of RTEI is without doubt the characters. Simon, Dash and Radford are all here, recognisable yet more mature (with the possible exception of Radford). And there are also brand new characters. Simon’s little brother Harley, is now an obnoxious bully, the logical procession from the irritating trouble maker we saw in ‘America’s Scariest Home Videos’ I haven’t written much for him yet, but he’s foul, malicious, and is going to be a great villain. The other new character is Melanie Munroe, whom we last saw in ‘Heart On A Chain’. Returning to the place that cured her of her ailing heart, we see a strong young woman who has been through the mill and back. She is feminine, the result of a pair of doting, protective parents, but also wild at heart (pun intended) due to the soul of the thirteen year old boy who helped save her life being ever present in her mind. Mel is the first decent female character I’ve ever written, and I hope that her verbal sparring with Dash will help convince you of that. This is her story.
There will also be some other familiar faces in RTEI; crossovers from other shows and films in attempt to cram in some of my favourite characters from pop culture. The first of these are a pair of vampire hunters from a very popular film, but they will not be the last. The crossovers are a lot more subtle than most, and I hope that they don’t annoy anyone.
Story wise, the first plotline concerns vampires over running the town. There will be others, and there will be some kind of arc plot line. There is a count down at the top of each day. Even I don’t know what will happen when the counter hits zero.
This story is dedicated to the readers and writers of fan fiction, and especially all those who take the time to write to the authors of stories they have read and enjoyed.
DISCLAIMER: The following fan fiction features characters and situations owned by Unreality Inc and other film companies, as well as a couple of original characters that I own. No copyright infringement is meant by this. No money will be made from this. Ask me for permission before reposting anywhere.
© Dan Ness, 1998. So you want to redistribute this, huh? Well tough! This is my work, and it stays here. Link to the title page.
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