Broadband internet has always been a good home to science-fiction fans. From websites celebrating long-dead series like Buffy the Vampire Slayer to message boards and broadband forum communities speculating on the latest gossip and rumours, fans of science-fiction have carved out a little piece of broadband internet all for themselves.The power of science-fiction was cast into the public eye recently with the unveiling of the 11th Doctor Who. As 6.9 million Dr Who fans tuned into their televisions to see the BBC announce Matt Smith as the latest Doctor, fans of the Timelord’s adventures flocked onto their broadband connections eager to air their opinions on message boards and broadband internet forums.
Such was the level of broadband traffic to the Dr Who fan site, Dr Who Online, the site crashed within minutes of the announcement. Sadly, this prevented thousands of Sci-Fi fans from venting their opinions down their broadband line.
While the choice of the new Doctor was always going to cause controversy, the level of interest from broadband surfers surely should raise awareness of science-fiction’s popularity over broadband internet. Indeed, while other websites have crashed in the past because of an overload of broadband connections – the 1901 census website crashed in its first hour of release because of excessive broadband use – the failure of such a niche website due to multiple broadband connections should raise eyebrows.
As a genre, science-fiction is considered to be on the fringes of popular culture; to see a website crash because of a broadband overload shows that this couldn’t be more wrong. As more science-fiction fans gain access to super-fast broadband internet, we can all expect to see more websites undergoing server difficulties on the day of big sci-fi news. Maybe this is a job for the new Doctor after all.
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