Not even the fans are watching it now.

TV This is a bit complicated so we'll go one step at a time:

(1) Actress/comedian/pixie polymath Felicia Day tweets that the US Fox network aren't showing the final episode of season one of Joss Whedon's new opus Dollhouse.

(2) The Twitterverse and Whedoneque go into overdrive with the expectation that the show's been cancelled and the sky's falling in. Instacampaigns begin to get the Fox network to recomission the show.

(3) E! Online's Watch With Kristin column attempts to clarify situation. Explanation looks like a textual Escher drawing.

(4) Writer and director of current season ender, Tim Minear has another go and everyone breaths a sigh of relief:

"Because we scrapped the original pilot -- and in fact cannibalized some of its parts for other eps -- we really ended up with 12 episodes. But the studio makes DVD and other deals based on the original 13 number. So we created a standalone kind of coda episode. Which is the mythical new episode 13. The network had already paid for 13 episodes, and this included the one they agreed to let us scrap for parts. It does not include the one we made to bring the number back up to 13 for the studio side and its obligations. We always knew it would be for the DVD for sure, but we also think Fox should air it because it’s awesome.

Total duration of controversy? About two hours. Here's how I think the old media version would have looked:

(1) Nichelle Nichols mentions to Star Trek fan at the dry cleaners that Spock's Brain is going to be the first episode of Season Three and it's rubbish.

(2) Fan goes home and types up special issue of fanzine. Gets boyfriend to produce a line drawing of Uhura. Puts 'exclusive interview' on cover.

(3) Goes to that week's meeting of the Starfleet Watchers hands out copies.

(4) Fans begin letter writing campaign to get network to show non-rubbish episode first to ensure that people will watch the rest of the series.

(5) Network schedules Star Trek at 10pm on Friday.

(6) Network cancels Star Trek. Not even the fans are watching it now.

Total duration of controversy? About four months, probably.