Caitlin Moran and the Sherlock Fiasco

Okay, so I have a bit of a rant to post. I apologize for the length, but I feel incredibly strongly about this!   

I am a Sherlockian. A fangirl. I am completely and utterly obsessed with the BBC's Sherlock and honestly, I don't care who knows it. Sherlock made me fall in love with film all over again. The writing, the acting, and the technical side, I find, are absolutely superior. The calibre of the show is way above anything I've ever seen, and I just really, truly, love it.

And the fandom. Oh, the fandom. So full of dedication and creativity and just absolute love for the show, the actors, the writers, and anyone who has anything to do with it, is just above and beyond.
Sometimes, there are people who ruin it, as with anything. And that sucks. But there are always those that rise far above it, and who give so much to the fandom, and they are the reason I stick around.

Yes, part of the fandom is the fanfiction. Fanfiction is nothing new. Gay fanfiction is nothing new. People were writing Kirk/Spock fanfiction for Star Trek decades ago, and yet I've never seen actors have fanfiction as forced upon them as the cast of Sherlock. Now, I've read my fair share of Sherlock fanfiction, and yes, some of it is incredibly weird, smutty, or as far removed from the show as you can get. But who cares? It's fanfiction. The point is that you can write whatever you want! If we're going to be totally pedantic, we can say that Sherlock itself is fanfiction. Seriously, it's a modern-day Holmes AU (alternate universe) complete with new characters and altered cases and everything! The only difference is that it has been made into a TV show. Yet journalists and interviewers alike think that the most amusing thing ever is to show the cast (namely Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman) fanfiction and fanart to make them squirm and laugh awkwardly (Graham Norton I'm looking at you).

Today it really all came to a head.

Today was a big day for the Sherlock fandom. Not all of us directly, but it was the premiere of Season 3 Episode 1: The Empty Hearse at the BFI, which is pretty exciting, since it's been almost two years since Season 2! The episode is set to air on BBCOne on the 1st of January 2014 at 9pm in the UK, and the 19th of January on PBS Masterpiece in the US. So it's coming up pretty soon after a very long wait, and as you can imagine, those who follow the show are rather excited. The premiere today, though only open to a select few, is sort of the sign that it is all finally happening. After the showing, there was a Q&A session with Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss, Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, Sue Vertue, and Jeremy Lovering, the new director. Caitlin Moran was the one doing the interviewing. This is where problems arise.

Up until now, I've never had a problem with Caitlin Moran. I've read some of her work before, and she did write a wonderful interview with Benedict for The Times, but what she did today was unacceptable. But what did she do?! You're probably screaming at me at this point. What she did, was get Benedict and Martin to read John/Sherlock fanfiction out loud- which she assured them was clean but of course, wasn't -making them, and everyone else on the panel incredibly uncomfortable, humiliating the lovely writer of said fanfiction, especially when she calls it 'clumsily written', and just generally putting a dampener on the whole occasion!

For those of you who are curious, here's the link to the video of the whole debacle. There are no spoilers for the actual episode, I wouldn't be that cruel! You can see Benedict's and Martin's very polite but disgruntled reactions to what they are reading- rightly so too. I can't imagine it is particularly comfortable reading a steamy love scene between you and a close friend out loud to press, friends and fans alike!

Moran tries to cover it by saying, "It was so much better in my head!", but the damage is already done. Benedict does give her a very polite but clear telling off, firstly asking, "Is there a punchline? Is there something you wanted to say after we read this? Are we ruining the joke?", to which she replies, "No, this was the great bit!". It seems pretty clear that he did not find it particularly funny. He then continues on to say, "It's just the point- fans can do what they like, but there's a point, we do what we do with it and that's the fun we have with our fiction of it- is to point out that that is ludicrous in our universe of its storytelling. So, sorry to be all 'nyeghhh' about it but..."
Moran does graciously apologize, "It was an inappropriate thing to do, I abused my power and I'm very sorry," before quickly moving on.

And yeah, I get it. She made a mistake. We all make mistakes. But why she thought it was a good idea in the first place is beyond me. Benedict had a very valid point in what he said. It is ludicrous in their universe. Fanfiction has absolutely no bearing on the show, and there was no need to bring it up, let alone have them read some out. The point of the premiere was to celebrate Season 3 and the fact that it is finally airing; to celebrate all the hard work that they had put in! It did not have to be another opportunity to make the fandom look creepy, or obsessed with John and Sherlock as a couple.

Quite frankly, the fandom often gets portrayed as deranged (for want of a better word) or laughed at, which is rather unfair. Yes, we are very enthusiastic about Sherlock, but why would you want to discourage that? Without fans, the show wouldn't be successful, harsh but true. Also, often overlooked is all the good that the fandom does! Things like raising thousands of dollars for charity, or uniting people all across the world because they share a common interest. The disdain they receive is becoming very old, very quickly.

This leads me to a point about the author of the fanfiction. Caitlin Moran did not ask her permission to use it, and frankly, just humiliated her in front of the entire fandom and anyone else who watches the video. Because as well as saying it is 'clumsily written', she also says that the piece itself was 'the great bit', that it's the punchline, particularly poking fun at the last line. What right does she have to pick a random piece of fanfiction off the internet, and use it for the pure purpose of mocking it? She's a writer, surely she would know what it's like to have people critiquing your work, and what is constructive and what isn't? Just because it's fanfiction does not make it lesser. Here's the response the author of the fanfiction. Short and sweet, it's appropriately indignant without being rude.

Unfortunately from what I've heard, on top of all this, Caitlin Moran made some other mistakes in that interview, including repeatedly pointing out a mistake the director made (I don't know what this is as I am avoiding spoilers), asking about Martin casting his wife (which is totally not true, we know the part of Mary Morstan was written for Amanda Abbington, and she has received enough hate about her part without Moran making jibes) and generally being rude and not asking questions relevant to the premiere. Ultimately, it sounds like Moran had little clue of what she was doing, had poorly prepared, and for some reason thought that mocking the show and the fans would pass as humor among those who are heavily invested in the show.

Humiliation is not okay. Mocking a fandom and disparaging the works that come out of their enthusiasm for the show is not okay. I hope Caitlin Moran has learnt a valuable lesson today- people will fiercely protect that which they love. Don't you dare think that what you did was acceptable. It was unnecessary, hurtful, and incredibly rude. I hope that you never have anything to do with Sherlock again and that you get a thorough reprimand from the BBC. We are Sherlockians. Don't mess with us.