Transmedia Universe

It seems that in today’s entertainment society, many shows are spawning lives of their own outside of the traditional single platform. In other words: Harry Potter is a franchise filled with books, movies, merchandise, and fantastical lands. Star Trek has its comic books, television shows, movies, and rides (the one at the Las Vegas Hilton for anyone who was fortunate enough to experience!). The Matrix saw the story spawn across movies and videogames, and Dawson’s Creek even witnessed blog entries from the “characters” themselves. The list can go on and on for current programming: any Disney movie, Parks and Recreation and so on and so forth.

 

It’s fascinating the amount of detail, continuity, and fidelity all these storyworlds maintain to their original story universes. To break that last sentence down a little better, take the Marvel Universe. Within the Marvel Universe there’s marvel worlds, so Thor, Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America and Black Widow (to name a few). And then within these characters, there are stories that follow each character’s narrative. Then, within each character, there’s a story, movie, book, comic and the like. Though each story is told on a different medium, there is a sense of continuity that maintains the general story. But adding each of these media stories together, you can get a fuller picture of the story, a deeper richer understanding of the characters.

 

Ok, so this is my nerd/geeking out moment I get from graduate school, but it’s something that is easy to see in many stories that you may watch on TV today. The most recent one I’ve noticed is Sherlock Holmes. For most Americans, the current story is embodied through the program Elementary, where Lucy Liu plays a female Dr. Watson. I will admit, I do not watch this version, but it shows how deep the story is that despite the female lead, the back story of Sherlock sustains. What I do watch, however, is the BBC version, Sherlock. For any of you don’t watch this show…stop reading now and go watch it!

 

Through transmedia platforms, this show itself as taken a world of its own – twitter feeds with hash tags such as “#sherlockholmesisdead and #sherlockhomeslives, online fan blogs where people created their own versions of how the last season’s cliff-hanger really panned out, and through word of mouth. As this is the BBC Sherlock storyworld, there are parallels to the traditional Sherlock holms of Baker Street – the character lives at 221b Baker Street, his partner is still Dr. Watson, it takes place in London and… it’s too good to dish any more. I don’t want to make this a spoiler – but you need to go watch it now!

 

Nonetheless, my studies in transmedia have opened my eyes to many different ways of telling a particular story. While this may seem over the head for some of you, it’s something worth looking up on Google if you get the chance. Just search “transmedia” and you’ll find an interestingly large amount of stuff. For now, I’ll leave it at that. Who knows what I’ll learn this week!