KD^3C^3 - 20250713 Get out my lane, get out my way
I’m going to say something nice about what streaming media has done for the TV landscape. Pick your jaws up off the floor. I know I have made my positions clear to any long-time readers of my internet writing: streaming companies have been a net negative for the industry. People are getting paid less, consumers can’t own the shows and movies they love, instead succumbing to the eternal rent-seeking of the netflixes and disneys of the world, streaming shows have fewer episodes per season, whole seasons are spent building up to Dracula buying a surfboard [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/surf-dracula] and alll of the promises of more for less have routinely been broken as monthly prices go up with no end in sight.
But. I said I was going to say something nice. Shows rarely get cancelled four episodes in anymore. The binge release model has made its so that if netflix or seeso or whatever order a show to series, we’re getting the whole season at least. Sure, those seasons tend to be shorter, but at least the creators are given the opportunity to tell a season’s worth of stories. Many of them seem not to use that time well *cough* ten-hour-movies *Cough* but at least they have the chance and audiences can see everything that’s made. Maybe if they let Dracula surf every week, they might have a better chance getting an audience and not feel like everyone has had their time wasted.
“I’ll watch it once the series ends” is a common enough refrain I’ve seen online. People not wanting to get sucked into a show that gets cancelled after only a season or two of a planned 5 season arc. Which, I get, nobody wants to feel unfulfilled by a story, left on an an unintentional cliffhanger with only your brain to make up what happens next. Not every show suffers from this. I would love to see more of the lives of the dancers in the critically loved, but criminally underwetched Bunheads but the single season we do have is still very good ad worth your time. And it got a whole season!
But there’s a somewhat forgotten scourge of the broadcast years and that was shows getting cancelled in the middle of their first seasons. TV production was different back then, where even if a show ha a season ordered, it wasn’t guaranteed to be produced. TV production happened much closer to airdate, and most series were only producing episodes a few weeks before being aired. So they maybe only have a few episodes in the can at any point in time. This was both good and bad. It’s good because shows can adjust quickly. This is sometimes reflected in what I think of as the 4th episode bump. About four episodes in the writers have had the chance to see how the audience is relating to the show, and make course corrections. They can see what stories and characters are working well and what strengths the actors arr bringing to characters that they may not have spotted initially. Some beloved shows had rocky starts and only really became what they are after a few bumpy first episodes, (the Office and Parks & Rec are both good examples).
The flip side of only having a few episodes in the can at once, means that if a show is doing poorly, sometimes creatively but mostly in the ratings, a network can cancel it only a few episodes in. They don’t want to throw money into a show that is not going to become a success, so they cancel the show, cut the funds and move on. The only people who really care are the creators and the (usually small) audience the show managed to pick up first.
Now there are plenty examples of when this is probably a good idea. There was a sitcom called Work It with the absolutely misguided premise that in this modern world (2012), jobs are much easier to get if you’re an attractive woman than if you’re a man, so two unemployed men put on some of the worst drag you have ever seen and get jobs as pharmaceutical reps. Hilarity did not ensue and the show was cancelled two episodes in. Of course not every rocky start can predict future failure. There’s the common refrain that Cheers had terrible ratings in the first year only to become a massive success in it’s second seasons and beyond (eventually 11!).
Most shows that get cancelled early get forgotten by everyone except the absolute nerds (like me). Maybe they become a footnote on a wikipedia page, or if they’re lucky a “what ever happened to…” article. But without a complete first season, they can’t even qualify for the rarefied heights of a One-Season Wonder.
One show that has lived in my brain since I originally watched it, despite getting cancelled only four episodes in was 2007’s Drive. I had a cannonball Run phase in the early 2000s, I watched the original film, the movie Rat Race, the Cannonball Run Reality TV show, anything about a cross country road race was my jam. So I was very excited to learn that Nathan Fillion, star of the cancelled too soon Firefly, was going to star in a new illegal cross country road race show, with the unimaginative name of Drive.
I tuned in to watch the 2 hour premier and each subsequent episode. Which turned out to only be 2 more. Because, as I mentioned before, the show got cancelled after the fourth episode aired. The cast was surprisingly deep with actors that would go onto more well known properties, or are at least recognizable. Nathan Fillion was the star, but it was clearly an ensemble show, following the different teams racing in this particular illegal underground road race. And the cast is pretty stacked, with names and faces you probably recognize nowadays. In addition to Fillion who you might know from Castle or The Rookie, or Firefly, if you’re a nerd. there was also:
Emma Stone (Zombieland, Easy A, The AMazing Spider Man)
Dylan Baker (Spider-man 2 & 3, The Good Wife guest star)
Melanie Lynskey (Rose from Two and a Hal Men, Yellowjackets)
Taryn Manning (Pensatucky from Orange is the New Black)
Rochelle Aytes (SWAT, Watson, the later. seasons of Criminal Minds, Work It the crossdressing sitcom I mentioned earlier)
Michael Hyatt (The Pitt, Crazy Ex Girlfriend, The Wire)
Kevin Alegandro (True Blood, Arrow, Lucifer, Fire Country)
J.D. Pardo (Mayans MC, Revolution)
Kristin Lehman (ALtered Carbon, Midnight Mass)
Riley Smith (Nancy Drew’s 2nd dad in Nancy Drew Freaks and Geeks)
Because this was in 2007, and Lost was still the biggest thing on the TV lanes, the show also features a prominent conspiracy. Not everybody in the race is there by choice, some of them are being blackmailed into racing, including Fillion’s character Alex Tully, whose wife (played by Amy Acker) has been kidnapped and will only be released if Tully wins the race.
But after that 2 hour premier, only 2 more episodes were ever broadcast over the airwaves. After a couple months of some minor outcry Fox decided to release the last 2 episodes online for fans to watch, although this was 2007 so watching video on the internet was still kind of a new thing. After tha, it pretty much disappeared. Except in the hearts and minds of the select few who watched and enjoyed it.
This last month, I decided It was time I watch it again so I tracked it down on the internet (It’s actually available to ‘buy’ on amazon prime of all placed) and gave it a watch. I don’t have a lot to say about the show as a whole. I enjoyed re-watching the show, and it turns out I was one of the even smaller number of people who watched the 2 streaming only episodes, because I remembered what happened in those too. BUt the show is a pretty unsatisfying watch these days. Not because the story isn’t compelling or the cast interesting to watch, but because it all ends up going nowhere. We’ll never have a conclusion to what happened. So we do what we must when we are left unsatisfied by an artistic work: We turn to fan fiction.
But. I said I was going to say something nice. Shows rarely get cancelled four episodes in anymore. The binge release model has made its so that if netflix or seeso or whatever order a show to series, we’re getting the whole season at least. Sure, those seasons tend to be shorter, but at least the creators are given the opportunity to tell a season’s worth of stories. Many of them seem not to use that time well *cough* ten-hour-movies *Cough* but at least they have the chance and audiences can see everything that’s made. Maybe if they let Dracula surf every week, they might have a better chance getting an audience and not feel like everyone has had their time wasted.
“I’ll watch it once the series ends” is a common enough refrain I’ve seen online. People not wanting to get sucked into a show that gets cancelled after only a season or two of a planned 5 season arc. Which, I get, nobody wants to feel unfulfilled by a story, left on an an unintentional cliffhanger with only your brain to make up what happens next. Not every show suffers from this. I would love to see more of the lives of the dancers in the critically loved, but criminally underwetched Bunheads but the single season we do have is still very good ad worth your time. And it got a whole season!
But there’s a somewhat forgotten scourge of the broadcast years and that was shows getting cancelled in the middle of their first seasons. TV production was different back then, where even if a show ha a season ordered, it wasn’t guaranteed to be produced. TV production happened much closer to airdate, and most series were only producing episodes a few weeks before being aired. So they maybe only have a few episodes in the can at any point in time. This was both good and bad. It’s good because shows can adjust quickly. This is sometimes reflected in what I think of as the 4th episode bump. About four episodes in the writers have had the chance to see how the audience is relating to the show, and make course corrections. They can see what stories and characters are working well and what strengths the actors arr bringing to characters that they may not have spotted initially. Some beloved shows had rocky starts and only really became what they are after a few bumpy first episodes, (the Office and Parks & Rec are both good examples).
The flip side of only having a few episodes in the can at once, means that if a show is doing poorly, sometimes creatively but mostly in the ratings, a network can cancel it only a few episodes in. They don’t want to throw money into a show that is not going to become a success, so they cancel the show, cut the funds and move on. The only people who really care are the creators and the (usually small) audience the show managed to pick up first.
Now there are plenty examples of when this is probably a good idea. There was a sitcom called Work It with the absolutely misguided premise that in this modern world (2012), jobs are much easier to get if you’re an attractive woman than if you’re a man, so two unemployed men put on some of the worst drag you have ever seen and get jobs as pharmaceutical reps. Hilarity did not ensue and the show was cancelled two episodes in. Of course not every rocky start can predict future failure. There’s the common refrain that Cheers had terrible ratings in the first year only to become a massive success in it’s second seasons and beyond (eventually 11!).
Most shows that get cancelled early get forgotten by everyone except the absolute nerds (like me). Maybe they become a footnote on a wikipedia page, or if they’re lucky a “what ever happened to…” article. But without a complete first season, they can’t even qualify for the rarefied heights of a One-Season Wonder.
One show that has lived in my brain since I originally watched it, despite getting cancelled only four episodes in was 2007’s Drive. I had a cannonball Run phase in the early 2000s, I watched the original film, the movie Rat Race, the Cannonball Run Reality TV show, anything about a cross country road race was my jam. So I was very excited to learn that Nathan Fillion, star of the cancelled too soon Firefly, was going to star in a new illegal cross country road race show, with the unimaginative name of Drive.
I tuned in to watch the 2 hour premier and each subsequent episode. Which turned out to only be 2 more. Because, as I mentioned before, the show got cancelled after the fourth episode aired. The cast was surprisingly deep with actors that would go onto more well known properties, or are at least recognizable. Nathan Fillion was the star, but it was clearly an ensemble show, following the different teams racing in this particular illegal underground road race. And the cast is pretty stacked, with names and faces you probably recognize nowadays. In addition to Fillion who you might know from Castle or The Rookie, or Firefly, if you’re a nerd. there was also:
Emma Stone (Zombieland, Easy A, The AMazing Spider Man)
Dylan Baker (Spider-man 2 & 3, The Good Wife guest star)
Melanie Lynskey (Rose from Two and a Hal Men, Yellowjackets)
Taryn Manning (Pensatucky from Orange is the New Black)
Rochelle Aytes (SWAT, Watson, the later. seasons of Criminal Minds, Work It the crossdressing sitcom I mentioned earlier)
Michael Hyatt (The Pitt, Crazy Ex Girlfriend, The Wire)
Kevin Alegandro (True Blood, Arrow, Lucifer, Fire Country)
J.D. Pardo (Mayans MC, Revolution)
Kristin Lehman (ALtered Carbon, Midnight Mass)
Riley Smith (Nancy Drew’s 2nd dad in Nancy Drew Freaks and Geeks)
Because this was in 2007, and Lost was still the biggest thing on the TV lanes, the show also features a prominent conspiracy. Not everybody in the race is there by choice, some of them are being blackmailed into racing, including Fillion’s character Alex Tully, whose wife (played by Amy Acker) has been kidnapped and will only be released if Tully wins the race.
But after that 2 hour premier, only 2 more episodes were ever broadcast over the airwaves. After a couple months of some minor outcry Fox decided to release the last 2 episodes online for fans to watch, although this was 2007 so watching video on the internet was still kind of a new thing. After tha, it pretty much disappeared. Except in the hearts and minds of the select few who watched and enjoyed it.
This last month, I decided It was time I watch it again so I tracked it down on the internet (It’s actually available to ‘buy’ on amazon prime of all placed) and gave it a watch. I don’t have a lot to say about the show as a whole. I enjoyed re-watching the show, and it turns out I was one of the even smaller number of people who watched the 2 streaming only episodes, because I remembered what happened in those too. BUt the show is a pretty unsatisfying watch these days. Not because the story isn’t compelling or the cast interesting to watch, but because it all ends up going nowhere. We’ll never have a conclusion to what happened. So we do what we must when we are left unsatisfied by an artistic work: We turn to fan fiction.
Reviewing all 9 Drive (2007) fanfics on Archive of Our Own
Highway to Hell by limmenel (elevenoclock)
https://archiveofourown.org/works/20630801
Published 2007-04-20 (3 days before the final episode aired)
The first ever Drive Fanfic is a crossover fic with Supernatural. I. This is a supernatural fic first and foremost. The premise is that Sam and Dean are in the race, but still dealing with supernatural problems. They take detour to kill a monster, but are followed by Sean and Winston. Mostly this works. I like the idea of the two sets of mismatched brothers in the same situation. Sam & Dean feel more fleshed out as characters whereas Sean and Winston from Drive mostly stand around confused by the weird things. No real effort to tie in the race other than the different characters mentioning it a couple times.
Published 2007-04-20 (3 days before the final episode aired)
The first ever Drive Fanfic is a crossover fic with Supernatural. I. This is a supernatural fic first and foremost. The premise is that Sam and Dean are in the race, but still dealing with supernatural problems. They take detour to kill a monster, but are followed by Sean and Winston. Mostly this works. I like the idea of the two sets of mismatched brothers in the same situation. Sam & Dean feel more fleshed out as characters whereas Sean and Winston from Drive mostly stand around confused by the weird things. No real effort to tie in the race other than the different characters mentioning it a couple times.
saith the lord by Jedi Buttercup
https://archiveofourown.org/works/40058
published 2007-04-24 (1 day after the final episode aired)
The second ever Drive fanfic on Ao3 is a crossover fic with Angel. The premise is that Amy Acker’s character from the final season of Angel has used her godlike powers to travel back in time and rewrite what happened in that show. But then she goes into hiding and evenrtually marries Alex Tully (Nathan Fillion’s character in Drive) before getting kidknapped for the race. The story implies that Wolfram & Hart, the big baddies in Angel are also responsible for the race, which is a fun idea.
It’s a short story (only 500 words) but I think it was very moody, and did a good job at evoking the central character. I got a chuckle at the idea of Illyria wreaking supernatural havoc in the middle of a cross country race.
published 2007-04-24 (1 day after the final episode aired)
The second ever Drive fanfic on Ao3 is a crossover fic with Angel. The premise is that Amy Acker’s character from the final season of Angel has used her godlike powers to travel back in time and rewrite what happened in that show. But then she goes into hiding and evenrtually marries Alex Tully (Nathan Fillion’s character in Drive) before getting kidknapped for the race. The story implies that Wolfram & Hart, the big baddies in Angel are also responsible for the race, which is a fun idea.
It’s a short story (only 500 words) but I think it was very moody, and did a good job at evoking the central character. I got a chuckle at the idea of Illyria wreaking supernatural havoc in the middle of a cross country race.
Ten Racers that Never Competed For the Prize by Jedi Buttercup
https://archiveofourown.org/works/40078
Published 2007-05-03 (ten days after the final episode aired)
With the same author as saith the lord, it’s not too much of a surprise that we have another Angel/Drive crossover fic, with some additional Buffy The Vampire Slayer as well. This is a collection of 10 “drabbles” as they’re known in the fanfic world. short snippets or moments that could become something longer, but probably won’t. In this case each 100-word long drabble is about a different minor or secondary character from Buffy The Vampire Slayer or Angel as if they were participating in the race. Each one was surprisingly evocative, really giving me a sense of the character and their motivations for the race. There was a particular focus on the fact that some actors appeared in both Drive and the Buffyverse (particularly Nathan Fillion and Amy Acker) and but it's established that it’s mostly coincidence that the different characters they play look identical.
Published 2007-05-03 (ten days after the final episode aired)
With the same author as saith the lord, it’s not too much of a surprise that we have another Angel/Drive crossover fic, with some additional Buffy The Vampire Slayer as well. This is a collection of 10 “drabbles” as they’re known in the fanfic world. short snippets or moments that could become something longer, but probably won’t. In this case each 100-word long drabble is about a different minor or secondary character from Buffy The Vampire Slayer or Angel as if they were participating in the race. Each one was surprisingly evocative, really giving me a sense of the character and their motivations for the race. There was a particular focus on the fact that some actors appeared in both Drive and the Buffyverse (particularly Nathan Fillion and Amy Acker) and but it's established that it’s mostly coincidence that the different characters they play look identical.
Waiting by Heather
https://archiveofourown.org/works/72434
Published 2007-07-29 (two weeks after the last 2 episodes were streamed online, 3 months and 6 days after the last episode was broadcast)
Another Supernatural crossover fic. This one doesn’t have Sam and Dean in the race. IN a hospital waiting room Sam is waiting for Dean to get a broken hand fixed, and there he meets Winston who is waiting on his brother’s surgery after getting shot. It’s not clear if this is the same shooting that happens in the show or not. There’s actually no direct reference to the race either. It’s mostly a dour meet cute between the two brothers. If you didn’t know who Winston was from watching Drive, this could be literally anyone.
Published 2007-07-29 (two weeks after the last 2 episodes were streamed online, 3 months and 6 days after the last episode was broadcast)
Another Supernatural crossover fic. This one doesn’t have Sam and Dean in the race. IN a hospital waiting room Sam is waiting for Dean to get a broken hand fixed, and there he meets Winston who is waiting on his brother’s surgery after getting shot. It’s not clear if this is the same shooting that happens in the show or not. There’s actually no direct reference to the race either. It’s mostly a dour meet cute between the two brothers. If you didn’t know who Winston was from watching Drive, this could be literally anyone.
One Foot On the Brake by apckrfan
https://archiveofourown.org/works/750532
Published 2007-10-26 (3 months, 12 days after last episode was released online)
Yet another crossover, this time with Heroes, a show I wish had ended after one season, but went on for… five I think? This is mostly a two hander between Alex Tully (Fillion’s character) and Claire (the cheerleader in Heroes played by Hayden Panettiere). It takes place after Alex is no longer involved with the race, and after he has learned that his marriage was a sham solely to get him to join the race (a plot point that was not in the show officially, but confirmed by the creator). Tully is driving anywhere he wants and almost hits Claire with his car. She’s been injured, but heals because of her powers as Tully drives her to a hospital. Instead of the hospital they spend the night at a bed and breakfast. There Tully learns of her superpowers and sleeps next to her in bed. The next day Tully takes her home and picks her up from school the next day to go for a drive
In the best of times, I’m not a big fan of romance, in fanfic or elsewhere, and the age gap between Tully and Claire squeaked me out a bit, even though nothing physical really happens between them. Claire is absolutely still in high school, which makes the whole thing feel gross. Also I don’t think the author really nailed Tully’s voice, he sounded a lot more like Malcolm Reynolds (from Firefly) in my head than he did Tully. And it’s been a lot longer since I last watched Firefly. As with most of the other crossover fics so far, more time is spent on the reality of the other universe than the race itself. Lots of mentions of The Company and supporting characters from Heroes, but almost nothing about Tully’s time in the race or the mysterious organization running it. This is the longest of all the fanfics in the Drive category, so I was particularly disappointed by the lack of Drive content.
Published 2007-10-26 (3 months, 12 days after last episode was released online)
Yet another crossover, this time with Heroes, a show I wish had ended after one season, but went on for… five I think? This is mostly a two hander between Alex Tully (Fillion’s character) and Claire (the cheerleader in Heroes played by Hayden Panettiere). It takes place after Alex is no longer involved with the race, and after he has learned that his marriage was a sham solely to get him to join the race (a plot point that was not in the show officially, but confirmed by the creator). Tully is driving anywhere he wants and almost hits Claire with his car. She’s been injured, but heals because of her powers as Tully drives her to a hospital. Instead of the hospital they spend the night at a bed and breakfast. There Tully learns of her superpowers and sleeps next to her in bed. The next day Tully takes her home and picks her up from school the next day to go for a drive
In the best of times, I’m not a big fan of romance, in fanfic or elsewhere, and the age gap between Tully and Claire squeaked me out a bit, even though nothing physical really happens between them. Claire is absolutely still in high school, which makes the whole thing feel gross. Also I don’t think the author really nailed Tully’s voice, he sounded a lot more like Malcolm Reynolds (from Firefly) in my head than he did Tully. And it’s been a lot longer since I last watched Firefly. As with most of the other crossover fics so far, more time is spent on the reality of the other universe than the race itself. Lots of mentions of The Company and supporting characters from Heroes, but almost nothing about Tully’s time in the race or the mysterious organization running it. This is the longest of all the fanfics in the Drive category, so I was particularly disappointed by the lack of Drive content.
Paved With Good Intentions by Jedi Buttercup
https://archiveofourown.org/works/40593
Published 2007-12-25 (5 months, 11 days after the final episode is released online)
Our third fanfic by JedI Buttercup! They have written fully 1/3 of all the Drive fanfic, seeing the spirit going. This is also the first fic to not be a crossover with anything else, so that’s cool. This one is set directly between episodes 4 and 5 of the show. It’s a short scene where Alex is driving Sean to someone who can take care of the bullet lodged in him. Despite the christmas day publication date, this is not a thematic story. Instead it’s just an evocative few minutes inside the mind of the main character. We get hints of who he is, and some additional backstory. I really enjoyed this one because it feels like it came right out of the show.
Published 2007-12-25 (5 months, 11 days after the final episode is released online)
Our third fanfic by JedI Buttercup! They have written fully 1/3 of all the Drive fanfic, seeing the spirit going. This is also the first fic to not be a crossover with anything else, so that’s cool. This one is set directly between episodes 4 and 5 of the show. It’s a short scene where Alex is driving Sean to someone who can take care of the bullet lodged in him. Despite the christmas day publication date, this is not a thematic story. Instead it’s just an evocative few minutes inside the mind of the main character. We get hints of who he is, and some additional backstory. I really enjoyed this one because it feels like it came right out of the show.
Driving Me Crazy by apckrfan
https://archiveofourown.org/works/750553
Published 2008-03-14 (8 months after the last episode was released online)
This one is a sequel to One Foot on the Brake, so imagine all the things I didn’t really like about that one, but more so. Alex calls Claire to pick him up at the bar after he’s gotten too drunk to drive. It’s his former anniversary and he decided to drown his sorrows. They go back to alex’s place and have sex. It isn’t particularly explicit, but it’s not my kind of fic. The characterization is about as curate as it was in the first one, which is to say adequate but not great. I flipped through the author’s profile and it seems they prefer the older man/younger woman pairing so this is just another variation on that. Almost nothing else about either the world of Heroes or Drive in this, so it really feels like it could be anybody rather than these specific characters.
Published 2008-03-14 (8 months after the last episode was released online)
This one is a sequel to One Foot on the Brake, so imagine all the things I didn’t really like about that one, but more so. Alex calls Claire to pick him up at the bar after he’s gotten too drunk to drive. It’s his former anniversary and he decided to drown his sorrows. They go back to alex’s place and have sex. It isn’t particularly explicit, but it’s not my kind of fic. The characterization is about as curate as it was in the first one, which is to say adequate but not great. I flipped through the author’s profile and it seems they prefer the older man/younger woman pairing so this is just another variation on that. Almost nothing else about either the world of Heroes or Drive in this, so it really feels like it could be anybody rather than these specific characters.
First Gear by emungere
https://archiveofourown.org/works/2311598
Published 2014-09-15 (Seven years, two months after the last episode was released online)
So the publish date on this one is a bit of a lie. That’s the listed date on Ao3, but in the comments the author mentions that the story is about 7 years old (at the time of posting). That would put it much closer to when the show originally aired, but Im sorting these chronologically, so I’m using the dates that the website does.
The story itself is another crossover fic. It takes place in the Drive universe, but the characters are from Firefly. We have Simon Tam, who’s sister River has just been kidknapped. He gets a phonetical that tells him he needs to drive to Orlando and a bank robber will be driving by his house in a fast car in a few minutes. The driver is Malcolm Reynolds (played by Nathan Fillion, natch) who agrees to drive Simon to Florida for ten thousand dollars. It’s a propulsive into to a longer work, but the longer work doesn’t exist. So instead we’re left with a premise and not much else. It’s mostly a rehash of Alex Tully’s intro in Drive with some slight variations, but it’s clear that Tully and Malcolm Reynolds would have a lot in common if the story ever continued. I’m mostly just disappointed that someone didn’t write a fanfic for this show seven years after it stopped airing.
Published 2014-09-15 (Seven years, two months after the last episode was released online)
So the publish date on this one is a bit of a lie. That’s the listed date on Ao3, but in the comments the author mentions that the story is about 7 years old (at the time of posting). That would put it much closer to when the show originally aired, but Im sorting these chronologically, so I’m using the dates that the website does.
The story itself is another crossover fic. It takes place in the Drive universe, but the characters are from Firefly. We have Simon Tam, who’s sister River has just been kidknapped. He gets a phonetical that tells him he needs to drive to Orlando and a bank robber will be driving by his house in a fast car in a few minutes. The driver is Malcolm Reynolds (played by Nathan Fillion, natch) who agrees to drive Simon to Florida for ten thousand dollars. It’s a propulsive into to a longer work, but the longer work doesn’t exist. So instead we’re left with a premise and not much else. It’s mostly a rehash of Alex Tully’s intro in Drive with some slight variations, but it’s clear that Tully and Malcolm Reynolds would have a lot in common if the story ever continued. I’m mostly just disappointed that someone didn’t write a fanfic for this show seven years after it stopped airing.
Synchronicity by CatLadyFirebird
https://archiveofourown.org/works/66776848
Published 2025-06-22 (seventeen years, eleven months and 8 days after the last episode was released online)
What? Someone wrote a fanfic for this show this year? Last Month even? I started rewatching the show on June 12, so this fanfic was posted after that. Absolutely wild.
The fic itself is our second non-crossover story, Like the firs standalone fic, we have a moment between episodes. This one takes place after episode 5, when they have prevented Sean’s death by gunshot and are heading back out. They stop for rest in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere where Alex Tully and Corinna Wiles (Alex’s actual partner from the series and the first canonical woman to appear in any of these fics) share a moment of comfort (meaning: sex) before getting back on the road. Sure it’s a romance fic, but at least it’s building on the characters in the show. The characters feel like themselves and the moment feels like it could actually happen in the show (well not on broadcast TV, even Fox, but still).
I went so far as to comment on this one, because I wanted to say how cool it was someone posted a new fanfic for this show in 2025, and the author responded that they had it on their hard drive for a very long time before publishing. So it's not exactly a new fic, and was probably written much closer to the show's premier, but it was still a neat coincidence.
____
So what have we learned reading the 9 extant fanfics? Not much. If you hadn’t watched the show you would have no idea that it stars an ensemble cast. The show follows roughly a dozen characters in six teams and in these stories we only ever see 4 of them across 2 teams. The crossovers mainly focus on the characters and their similarities to the main characters in other shows (played by the same actor, or of a similar vibe) or they’re just an excuse to write about people in different universe getting down (which is fine, but boring).
Go watch some obscure TV.
Published 2025-06-22 (seventeen years, eleven months and 8 days after the last episode was released online)
What? Someone wrote a fanfic for this show this year? Last Month even? I started rewatching the show on June 12, so this fanfic was posted after that. Absolutely wild.
The fic itself is our second non-crossover story, Like the firs standalone fic, we have a moment between episodes. This one takes place after episode 5, when they have prevented Sean’s death by gunshot and are heading back out. They stop for rest in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere where Alex Tully and Corinna Wiles (Alex’s actual partner from the series and the first canonical woman to appear in any of these fics) share a moment of comfort (meaning: sex) before getting back on the road. Sure it’s a romance fic, but at least it’s building on the characters in the show. The characters feel like themselves and the moment feels like it could actually happen in the show (well not on broadcast TV, even Fox, but still).
I went so far as to comment on this one, because I wanted to say how cool it was someone posted a new fanfic for this show in 2025, and the author responded that they had it on their hard drive for a very long time before publishing. So it's not exactly a new fic, and was probably written much closer to the show's premier, but it was still a neat coincidence.
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So what have we learned reading the 9 extant fanfics? Not much. If you hadn’t watched the show you would have no idea that it stars an ensemble cast. The show follows roughly a dozen characters in six teams and in these stories we only ever see 4 of them across 2 teams. The crossovers mainly focus on the characters and their similarities to the main characters in other shows (played by the same actor, or of a similar vibe) or they’re just an excuse to write about people in different universe getting down (which is fine, but boring).
Go watch some obscure TV.