I know not everybody likes to read AU fic, and some people even believe that it may be disrespectful to the creators of the fandom you're into. I can sort of understand where they might be coming from, even if I don't completely agree. Then these following things have started coming to mind.

1. I can't see myself ever writing for a still-running fandom, because of the danger of being "jossed" by future episodes - which would automatically makes your fics become AU, even if it wasn't intended to be that way. As I mentioned some time back, that's actually one of my objectiuon to the idea of a BTTF future.

Come to think of it, I do wonder if some people wrote fanfic for Back to the Future - before there was even any talk about a sequel. No doubt, they probably had their own theories about what was seen in the future.

2. Also, because of the whole time travel nature of the trilogy - which ties in with the concept of alternate realities - wrting AU fic for BTTF seems to be more natural. I mean, you tend to think of how things might be different - if different events happened in the trilogy. Then, of course, I'm sure a lot of us have been curious about the lives of Marty and Doc in 1985A.

3. Also, the concept of AU doesn't always seem to be that cut and dried. Like, if you were to place Family Ties and Back to the Future in the same universe, you'd be contradicting the scene in Part Two that establishes Family Ties as a TV show in the BTTF Universe. However, it's such a small scene, you could easily replace that with another '80s sitcom without changing the trilogy's plot. So, if you stay true to everything else in the trilogy, would it really be AU.

Then, when you consider the Family Ties series, there are a lot of continuity inconsistencies in the sitcom. So, if you decided to remain consistent in your Family Ties Ficverse, would be considered AU to have Andy only be one and a half (instead of four) by the fall on 1986 - even though it would series compliant in the stories that took place during the first four seasons?

Just some things to think about.

I wonder if my ASOUE fics might be slightly AU. The books never mentions anything about Mr. and Mrs. Quagmire - other than that both were VFD members, so I went with my BTTF related spin of his ancestry. Also, because the series take place in an underminate time period, I have to decide how the 1980s in their universe would differ from ours. As I probably will be including Doc Brown in many of my ASOUE fics, it will give some of the stories a bit of a BTTF feel. I've decided that Doc Brown was on the firefighting side of the VFD - and probably the only Hill Valley resident to be in the VFD.

Doc actually kind of looks like Count Olaf.

I had actually kind of noticed that myself! :)