New Year's Speech

For most of us, the old year 2006 is about to end in a few hours, and for some of us, it is already over. So I'd like to take some time and look back on the past 365 days.

I remember having read something from not so long ago, saying that the Rescue Ranger fandom was decreasing. If it was, well, this phase is most certainly over. The fandom has probably never seen as much growth as in 2006. This was shown clearly at the Acorn Café which has almost made it through its first complete year as a BB message board. Lots of new patrons have joined it, and I was one of them almost ten months ago. And many of those who have been newbies this year have contributed to the fandom in a significant way, be it fan fiction, be it fan art, or be it influence on the House of Mouse, something I'll pick up again later.

But not only plenty of newbies could be spotted at the Café and at the three message boards that have opened their gates this year, one of them, Chip 'n Dale Online, being remarkably successful. No, many of those whom we refer to as Learned Elders have returned, too, and many of them have been away for so long that they weren't even registered. Candy "Kandei-chan" Goldstein, for example, has increased her activity dramatically again, probably so much that even her husband Paltiel was dragged back into the Café. Kat, famous for creations like the Tales from the Message Boards, is back, and so is the RRtist Rebekah Henderson who unfortunately isn't that active now. And there are many more who have been quiet for a while but returned to a certain activity, or who simply show up every once in a while. Rangerphiles like Blackadder, Dave Junker, Rachel Gloess, "The Enduring Man-Child" Roy Neal Grissom or Chris "Dale" Birkett have stayed faithful to the fandom.

Both newbies and elders have brought creations to the fandom this year that are more than just worth mentioning. Here, I think of contributions of outstanding RRt from elders like Winston and the ever-improving Toni; from newbies like Master Munkart, the King of RRt himself who not only delivers an outstanding quality but, given the possibility to bring it on, a breath-taking quantity, or Rye, our first Chinese Rangerphile who never ceases to amaze us with her paintings (a rare technique, no less); and of course from the many talented artists from the former Soviet Union such as DeLTa or Integrator, just to mention a few from each group. The amount of fan art even encouraged the Acorn Café management to open up a separate RRt board. Writers have been busy this year, too. Brand-new talents have demonstrated that there will always be new writers in the fandom, and they have given us incredibly good pieces of fan fiction as proof. And more experienced members of the fandom from last year's Best Writer Stainless Steel Rat to the fandom legend Dr. Indy have contributed to the ever growing library of fan fiction in amazing ways. But one of the most amazing written works news in this year, something that was almost too hard to believe, was that Loneheart has finally completed his epic Gadget in Chains, with 400,000 words the longest Ranger fanfic ever.

Many older websites have been worked on within the past twelve months, and some new ones have been launched. One of them is a project which not only proved successful but even spawned at least one similar site in another fandom, and that is the Ranger Wiki. This Wikipedia-like website is meant to contain as much information about the Rangers and their fandom as can and will be entered, from episodes to canonical characters to aspects of the fandom to even fan-made stories and their characters. Working on the Wiki shows how vast the fandom of an 18-year-old Disney cartoon show has grown.

Increased activity has been demonstrated by Disney, too. What Julie Bihn always dreamed of and founded R.O.A.R. for has come true: The Rescue Rangers are being released on DVD. The first two sets are already available in Region 1, the third is certainly being worked on, and the first set has been announced for Region 2 to be released in one month and a half. Many Rangerphiles, especially in the USA, have been given the opportunity to see CDRR episodes for the first time since the early 90s, or for the first time ever. Beside this, a petition has been started to release new merchandise.

Looking back at 2006, I can say that there's a lot to anticipate in the new year. The old one was great, but I'm sure it was no climax.

Midnight Man, RangerBlog columnist