Chistine> Hello, Vagrants, and welcome to another mini Dispatch from Xija Station…let’s call this an emergency transmission! I’m Christine…
Barbie> And I’m Barbie.
Christine> We were going to be back with you with a recap of episode 4, and we’re still planning on bringing you that discussion as soon as we can, but priorities have changed a lot around here, for reasons I’m sure you’re aware of if you’ve been paying attention to the news about the show, because last week we got word that SyFy officially cancelled Vagrant Queen.
Barbie> Yeah, that’s a real bummer, but fear not, we are not ready to give up that easily, and so our #RenewVagrantQueen has now become #SaveVagrantQueen. Thankfully, we have the support of our showrunner Jem Garrard, comic book author Magdalene Vissagio, and the Vagrant Queen production company Blue Ice Pictures. Without that crucial support, we would likely not have a chance to save this show, but knowing they are ready to fight with us is encouraging. So we are again left with the question: What can we do?
Christine> And as it happens there are a lot of good answers to that question. First of all, as we’ve been saying, be loud! Keep talking about why you love the show so much, and what the show means to you! Send e-mails to Blue Ice Pictures and streaming services, tweet, get your friends to watch. Watch and rewatch on Syfy. We here at the podcast have been hosting a zoom call during the weekly power hours and watching an episode of the show together so we can have a springboard to tweet during that time.
Barbie> Yeah and that’s actually been really fun, it really connects us with the Vagrant fandom. But yeah, during these power hours, and even outside of the power hours, we are tagging any and all streaming services or networks that could potentially pick up the show in our tweets. That includes Tello, who has actually already expressed interest, Amazon, Hulu, Netflix, AppleTV, PopTV, FreeForm, etc. Multiple sources from the top have really emphasized the importance of fan involvement and talking about the show so we cannot stress that enough. So talk it up on social media and let’s make sure we keep it up! A great way to tag everyone is to create a keyboard shortcut on your mobile device, that way you can be sure to get in all your tags and your hashtags.
Christine> Yep! Join our power hours, tweet any time you can, but above all make sure you include those hashtags and tags that we mentioned! The hashtags we are using right now are of course #SaveVagrantQueen. But we’ve also adopted #VagrantArmy, that’s the sort of name we’ve taken up for the fandom right now because we are ready to fight for this show. We are also using the hashtag #WowSyfy because they canceled the show during Pride, on the 5th anniversary of the SCOTUS ruling that made marriage equality legal. It’s bad timing on so many levels.
Barbie> Agreed, and not only that, but we are in a time where Black voices are more important than ever. In fact, Syfy had a mini marathon one week before it was canceled to celebrate Juneteenth, which is the day the slaves in Texas were told they were free. So use as many hashtags as you’d like, but if you are joining us during the power hours, limit them to two hashtags and one of them, as we mentioned, has to be #SaveVagrantQueen so we can try to get that to trend.
Christine> Yep, those Twitter algorithms are fickle. But that’s not all! You can also help by raising the show’s scores on IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes. Just log in with your account on those websites and give Vagrant Queen the highest score you can, and on IMDB especially, make sure you rate some other shows too, because the way their system works the more you rate on IMDB, the more your rating will impact Vagrant Queen’s score.
Barbie> Yeah, and I will mention that we are kind of fighting against the, I don’t want to be discriminatory, but cishet white dudes are generally giving the ratings a run for their money and rating it really poorly, so the more that we can up those ratings, the better. But also, make sure you are telling people you know on and off social media to watch the show on SyFy’s website! It is now available to stream for everyone, regardless of cable subscription. Syfy.com is limited to the US, but you may be able to find the show in a handful of other countries using the syfy web address associated.
Christine> And VPNs are a thing, too, lest we forget.
Barbie> We will be including those countries and the links in the show notes. Ratings are done at this point, of course, but Syfy can see how many views the show is still getting. It’s not incredibly likely that they will uncancel the show, which is why it’s important to let other networks know we want a season two (and beyond!)
Christine> As we’ve mentioned here, networks also pay attention to their shows doing well on iTunes, Google Play, and so on, so if you can afford it, buy some episodes, and even the whole season! We’ll have those links for you in the show notes. If you’re in the UK, there’s also a DVD and Blu-Ray of the season coming out, so you can support the show that way, too.
Barbie> Super jealous! We are encouraging you to send letters to the various networks and tell them how you feel about the show! Most streaming services have a “content request” form you can fill out. Fill these out and let them know we want more Vagrant Queen. We will have some links in the show notes for those.
Christine> And our petition is still up to sign. The more signatures we have and the louder we are as a fandom, the better it looks to the networks that might take an interest in the show. It only takes a few seconds to sign, and you can comment on why the show is important to you. And after you sign just be sure to share it with everyone you know. That’s on change.org and we will have a link in the show notes.
Barbie> Yeah and I mean you can share that on your Facebook and get your friends to sign. The more numbers we have on that petition the better it looks. Wow, our show notes are going to be a novel this week!
Christine> Ain’t that the truth!
Barbie> We’ll have links and information on everything we’ve just talked about in that novel of show notes, so take a look there and help the #SaveVagrantQueen movement however you can.
Christine> That’s right, every voice counts in this, so let’s pull together and help make this happen!!
Barbie> And if you have questions or want any information on how you can help, we do have a discord where we are organizing our efforts to save the show. Join us to help save the show, or even just to chat with other fans! That link will be in… you guessed it... the show notes. For more ways to contact us, we’ll give you all the details on that in just a minute here.
Christine> We’ll be back with another dispatch soon, as we mentioned. For now, thank you as always for joining us, and know that our fight for this show is only just beginning.
Until next time, this has been a transmission from another galaxy…
Both> ...not yours.
[End Theme]
Barbie> We are a fan-driven podcast, which means you help us do what we do, so we appreciate any way you can show your support for our work.
You can find us on Twitter at @XijaDispatchPod -- there, you can find current news about Vagrant Queen, our podcast, and many other things happening in the fandom.
You can also support us on a long term or short term basis through Patreon! Your subscription there helps us cover expenses for the podcast, whether it's hosting costs or giveaways or anything else that makes us the best fan space it can be. To find us on patreon and to get more information, just go to patreon.com and search Xija.
And of course, as a fan podcast, we want to hear from you the fans! Our email is vagrantqueenpod@gmail.com - you can send us text or a voice recording, whether it's about what's happening on the episode, your thoughts on the show as a whole, or what we're doing here on the podcast. This is an inclusive space, so send us some comments or feedback and make yourself heard!
Finally, Podbean hosts new episodes of our podcasts - that's where you can go to find the latest episodes of our programs and keep up to date on what's happening in our galaxy. We also have transcripts available if you need them - that's at xijastation.podbean.com.
Til next time, Xija Station, over and out.