Myspace
I hate Myspace - and all social networking sites come to mention it. But a while back I discovered that each main Skins CHARACTER has a profile there.
I’m ambivalent as to whether I think it a good thing - it certainly extends the realism. But come on, they don’t actually exist. Hats off to Channel 4 for an innovative marketing tactic but people are buying into it, seemingly believing the events of the characters seen on screen happened in reality to the people (characters) of the profiles.
It’s no different to kiddie-fiddlers setting up fake accounts and posing as characters they’ve invented of themselves. Apart from the interfering with children bit. Look but don’t touch anyway. (I’m joking!)
The BBC have now made a profile for Martha Jones - going as far as writing a couple of blog entries on her life before meeting the Doctor. It really is quite… interesting, I suppose - being able to extend the universe of fiction in such a way. But it seems a bit pointless to me - on a social networking site anyway; Gareth’s page on the original The Office site worked well but because it didn’t take itself too seriously.