No, not THAT historical event from November 1963! This week, V and Emily take a trip back in time to a notorious week to explore how a real-life major event in history-history almost caused a major event in fandom history to die at the starting line! We're talking about how Doctor Who, the juggernaut fandom that's been on the air for over 50 years, almost never became a thing just because someone (not named Bucky Barnes...) assassinated JFK a mere 12 hours before the first episode debuted. Rude. It was hard for the little scifi show that could to pick up steam after being overshadowed in such a major way, but look at them go! They're still around and we love 'em!

Sources

Wikipedia
TARDIS Wiki

We'll be attending TGIF/F aka TGI Femslash, which is a small femslash fan con in southern California over Valentine's Day weekend in February. It'll be the con's ten-year anniversary, and they've asked us to do a special, live podcast episode about the history of the con as their special highlighted programming. If you love femslash and want to come meet us and be a part of this wonderful, small event, you should register! A 3-day pass starts at $120. You can register for the con and find lots more details at tgifemslash.com!

Promo Codes

Aim High Brooch Designs - For 25% off any order on Aim High Brooch Designs on Etsy, including a custom brooch, bag charm, keychain, or magnet design, use the promo code TWIFH.

• Follow This Week in Fandom History on Tumblr at @thisweekinfandomhistory
• You can support the show via our Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/thisweekinfandomhistory.
• If you have a fannish company, event, or service and would like to sponsor or partner with TWIFH, please contact us via our website.
• Please remember to rate the show 5 stars on your listening platform of choice!

And he was like, BLEGHGH! IT'S ME! Or rather, it's us! We're back. This week, Emily and V take a look at the ways that Thor: Ragnarok divided the MCU fandom as a controversial entry into the Thor trilogy and, therefore, the MCU Infinity Saga as a whole. Emily was a long-time Thor fangirl when it came out; it was V's second or third MCU movie, ever. How did these different perspectives inform the ways that they enjoyed -- or didn't enjoy -- the movie?

Also, a bit of The Business up-front: we're back, and we're going to quickly burn off the remainder of the 2025 episodes before getting back on track with being "this week" in fandom history later this month. Thank you all so much for your patience in 2025 as we both had a totally horrible year that affected our schedule so much. We love you!

LIVE SHOW ANNOUNCEMENT!

We'll be attending TGIF/F aka TGI Femslash, which is a small femslash fan con in southern California over Valentine's Day weekend in February. It'll be the con's ten-year anniversary, and they've asked us to do a special, live podcast episode about the history of the con as their special highlighted programming. If you love femslash and want to come meet us and be a part of this wonderful, small event, you should register! A 3-day pass starts at $120. You can register for the con and find lots more details at tgifemslash.com!

Promo Codes

Aim High Brooch Designs - For 25% off any order on Aim High Brooch Designs on Etsy, including a custom brooch, bag charm, keychain, or magnet design, use the promo code TWIFH.

• Follow This Week in Fandom History on Tumblr at @thisweekinfandomhistory
• You can support the show via our Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/thisweekinfandomhistory.
• If you have a fannish company, event, or service and would like to sponsor or partner with TWIFH, please contact us via our website.
• Please remember to rate the show 5 stars on your listening platform of choice!

We don't know enough about this fandom to have a silly exclamation at the start of this summary, tbh! This week, V and Emily stumble along in the dark as they try desperately to fulfill a request from @thesilverstarling: the posting of the massive, massive MCYT Dream SMP RPF, "Heat Waves." We do our best. Truly. But we're so very old and uncool. That said, there are some genuinely fascinating aspects of RPF culture at play here, and we're happy to wade through these waters even if they are much too deep for us!

Sources

Fanlore
ABC Triple J

Promo Codes

Aim High Brooch Designs - For 25% off any order on Aim High Brooch Designs on Etsy, including a custom brooch, bag charm, keychain, or magnet design, use the promo code TWIFH.

• Follow This Week in Fandom History on Tumblr at @thisweekinfandomhistory
• You can support the show via our Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/thisweekinfandomhistory.
• If you have a fannish company, event, or service and would like to sponsor or partner with TWIFH, please contact us via our website.
• Please remember to rate the show 5 stars on your listening platform of choice!

They're on a boat! This week, Emily and V finally tackle a topic requested by one of our wonderful Patreon supporters, @elismor, who also wrote up an AMAZING primer about the fandom and the event. We're venturing back to the wonderful, weird world wide web of the late '90s to see a mailing list [WAR!] -- a round-robin, not-technically-roleplaying-but-it-kinda-is, fanfiction extravaganza. But delightfully, more than being about producing more #content, it was about... making friends. And fandoming together. And we think that's beautiful.

Sources

elismor's Primer

Promo Codes

Aim High Brooch Designs - For 25% off any order on Aim High Brooch Designs on Etsy, including a custom brooch, bag charm, keychain, or magnet design, use the promo code TWIFH.

• Follow This Week in Fandom History on Tumblr at @thisweekinfandomhistory
• You can support the show via our Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/thisweekinfandomhistory.
• If you have a fannish company, event, or service and would like to sponsor or partner with TWIFH, please contact us via our website.
• Please remember to rate the show 5 stars on your listening platform of choice!

Happy November 5! This week, V and Emily are joined by special guest, Supernatural writer Meghan Fitzmartin, who gives us the skinny on what it was like from the other side of the curtain on November 5, 2020, and who tells us all about her new fandom-centric comic book, Mary Sue (available now from BOOM! Box). Misha Collins' silly vocal choices, Russian autocrats shipping Destiel, and the omegaverse galore. Plus, lots of discussion of needing characters to just KISS already!

Promo Codes

Aim High Brooch Designs - For 25% off any order on Aim High Brooch Designs on Etsy, including a custom brooch, bag charm, keychain, or magnet design, use the promo code TWIFH.

• Follow This Week in Fandom History on Tumblr at @thisweekinfandomhistory
• You can support the show via our Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/thisweekinfandomhistory.
• If you have a fannish company, event, or service and would like to sponsor or partner with TWIFH, please contact us via our website.
• Please remember to rate the show 5 stars on your listening platform of choice!

KABOOM! This week, V and Emily discuss a fandom that V was very much in, and is very much no longer in. Because no one is. Because the showrunner used the Hulu reboot to give a gigantic middle-finger to 15 years of passionate fandom. Why?! Why must showrunners Punish?!? Featuring also: Sex and the City and, of course, Marvel (but we promise it's not all Endgame salt for once). We also get pretty deep into a discussion of whether artists "owe" their audience anything and, for more of the episode, the issue of fictional people not being allowed to grow and change -- and how fanfiction is the one place where that's encouraged.

Promo Codes

Aim High Brooch Designs - For 25% off any order on Aim High Brooch Designs on Etsy, including a custom brooch, bag charm, keychain, or magnet design, use the promo code TWIFH.

Sources

IndieWire

• Follow This Week in Fandom History on Tumblr at @thisweekinfandomhistory
• You can support the show via our Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/thisweekinfandomhistory.
• If you have a fannish company, event, or service and would like to sponsor or partner with TWIFH, please contact us via our website.
• Please remember to rate the show 5 stars on your listening platform of choice!

Not again... This week, Emily and V look at yet another time that a fandom cannibalized one of its own because of popularity. This time, it's Voltron: Legendary Defender fandom in the summer of 2016 and the massive fic (an all-time all-AO3 kudo-haver!) "Dirty Laundry" by gibslythe. While we didn't read the fic, and thus our opinions are colored by those of the people who wrote up the drama minute-by-minute and day-by-day as it happened, we predictably have a lot of feelings about how fandom always... effing... does this. Featuring: The Bee Movie, Babe 2: Pig in the City, and Spaaace Chiiiimps.

Promo Codes

Aim High Brooch Designs - For 25% off any order on Aim High Brooch Designs on Etsy, including a custom brooch, bag charm, keychain, or magnet design, use the promo code TWIFH.

Sources

Fanlore

• Follow This Week in Fandom History on Tumblr at @thisweekinfandomhistory
• You can support the show via our Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/thisweekinfandomhistory.
• If you have a fannish company, event, or service and would like to sponsor or partner with TWIFH, please contact us via our website.
• Please remember to rate the show 5 stars on your listening platform of choice!

Into the drift! This week, V and Emily talk, once again, about a movie that V has never seen but that fandom loves: Pacific Rim. Topics include the Mako Mori Test, why and how this fandom is the victim of Any Two White Guys syndrome, and... Jupiter Ascending? Also, why Pacific Rim: Uprising failed as a sequel and why sometimes filmmakers just getting to play with toys for millions and millions of dollars can be a lot of fun.

Promo Codes

Aim High Brooch Designs - For 25% off any order on Aim High Brooch Designs on Etsy, including a custom brooch, bag charm, keychain, or magnet design, use the promo code TWIFH.

Sources

Sources

Fanlore

• Follow This Week in Fandom History on Tumblr at @thisweekinfandomhistory
• You can support the show via our Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/thisweekinfandomhistory.
• If you have a fannish company, event, or service and would like to sponsor or partner with TWIFH, please contact us via our website.
• Please remember to rate the show 5 stars on your listening platform of choice!