Space Shows (mostly Firefly and Enterprise thoughts)
One of the great things about fandom is that more often than not, when feeling really enthusiastic about something, one not only feels compelled to share the joy of the shiny but actually manages to do so. Showing Firefly to thalia_seawood and Battlestar Galactica to a non-lj aquaintance of mine in the last ten days and watching them fall for it the way I did was wonderful. (On a sidenote, it occurs to me that I seem to have a parallel thing going on with space shows. I loved Babylon 5 and DS9 pretty much simultanously when they were originally broadcast - still do now, a decade later - and now love Firefly and the new BSG simultanously. What I really don't understand is this ridiculous either/or thing - the idea that if you are a fan of one, you cannot be in love with the other.)
Watching Firefly again reminded me that I still don't have favourites there. Which is a rare thing. Not the falling in love with the entire ensemble part - I mean, if I really fall for a show, I usually like if not all of the characters then most of them - but usually there is also one character, or there are two, whom I love just a little bit more. (I.e. Londo Mollari for Babylon 5, Max Eilerson for Crusade, Laura Roslin for BSG, Arvin Sloane for Alias, Buffy Summes for BTVS, etc.) Not so in the case of Firefly, where it's really all equal opportunity affection. Maybe if the show hadn't been cancelled, that would have changed. Or maybe the Big Damn Movie will change it. Then again, maybe not. Maybe this is really my big equal opportunity fandom. The other pecularity I have about Firefly is that I consciously stay away from 'shipper stories. (Those rare stories about Wash and Zoe excepted, because they are The Cutest Married Couple Ever.) Doesn't matter which 'ship, canon or subtext, het or slash, but I really avoid them. Maybe that has to do with the equal opportunity ensemble love?
Speaking of space shows, I just watched three more season 4 Enterprise stories, and for the first time found myself squeeing in delight. The three episodes in question were written by that, no pun intended, enterprising couple, the Garfield-Stevenses, who wrote one of my favourite ST novels, Federation. (They also ghost wrote William Shatner's return-of-Kirk series, but as I'm not a Kirk fan, I stayed away from it.) In short, they're fans who went from licensed fanfic to actual episodes, and it showed, in the best sense. The Awakening is one big continuity orgy for Trekkers (SEHLATS!), and awoke, again no pun intended, all kinds of fuzzy nostalgic feelings in me. But there are reasons why a complete newbie could love those three episodes as well. My main complaint about the Augment three parter was that the Augments were basically presented as uniform sheep, all doing what their evil leader wanted, and said evil leader was a mini-Khan without Ricardo Montalban's flair or charisma to carry off the arrogant superman role. However, in the Vulcan three-parter, the High Command was not presented in the same way. The people there reacted individually and differently to Laas (spelling? it did sound like the name of the DS9 changeling) giving more and more ruthless orders, raised sensible objections, and finally took action. In short, they were believable. Meanwhile, the opposition, aka the Good Guys, weren't presented as perfect and always doing the right thing, either. I liked that young T'Pau was ruthless enough to be willing to force the mindmeld on Archer, if he hadn't agreed, and that T'Pol pointed out this made her no better than the High Command. (I also liked that T'Pau went through with it regardless, instead of getting convinced by Starfleet officers what she should do.)
Having the Vulcan High Command plan a preemptive strike against the Andorians because their leader told them said Andorians were harboring weapons of mass destruction whom they might use against Vulcan any time had an obvious contemporary relevance, and while I like my dark Sci-Fi as much as the next B7 fan, letting Our Heroes stop this brought, as Yoda would say, warm feelings to my heart. And how much did I love that the recovery of books and knowledge was a crucial part of saving the day? Very much indeed.
These are the first episodes which made me want to read fanfic. Sehlats in same are optional.
****
The beta'd version of my Alias story " Secret Keepers " is up.
Watching Firefly again reminded me that I still don't have favourites there. Which is a rare thing. Not the falling in love with the entire ensemble part - I mean, if I really fall for a show, I usually like if not all of the characters then most of them - but usually there is also one character, or there are two, whom I love just a little bit more. (I.e. Londo Mollari for Babylon 5, Max Eilerson for Crusade, Laura Roslin for BSG, Arvin Sloane for Alias, Buffy Summes for BTVS, etc.) Not so in the case of Firefly, where it's really all equal opportunity affection. Maybe if the show hadn't been cancelled, that would have changed. Or maybe the Big Damn Movie will change it. Then again, maybe not. Maybe this is really my big equal opportunity fandom. The other pecularity I have about Firefly is that I consciously stay away from 'shipper stories. (Those rare stories about Wash and Zoe excepted, because they are The Cutest Married Couple Ever.) Doesn't matter which 'ship, canon or subtext, het or slash, but I really avoid them. Maybe that has to do with the equal opportunity ensemble love?
Speaking of space shows, I just watched three more season 4 Enterprise stories, and for the first time found myself squeeing in delight. The three episodes in question were written by that, no pun intended, enterprising couple, the Garfield-Stevenses, who wrote one of my favourite ST novels, Federation. (They also ghost wrote William Shatner's return-of-Kirk series, but as I'm not a Kirk fan, I stayed away from it.) In short, they're fans who went from licensed fanfic to actual episodes, and it showed, in the best sense. The Awakening is one big continuity orgy for Trekkers (SEHLATS!), and awoke, again no pun intended, all kinds of fuzzy nostalgic feelings in me. But there are reasons why a complete newbie could love those three episodes as well. My main complaint about the Augment three parter was that the Augments were basically presented as uniform sheep, all doing what their evil leader wanted, and said evil leader was a mini-Khan without Ricardo Montalban's flair or charisma to carry off the arrogant superman role. However, in the Vulcan three-parter, the High Command was not presented in the same way. The people there reacted individually and differently to Laas (spelling? it did sound like the name of the DS9 changeling) giving more and more ruthless orders, raised sensible objections, and finally took action. In short, they were believable. Meanwhile, the opposition, aka the Good Guys, weren't presented as perfect and always doing the right thing, either. I liked that young T'Pau was ruthless enough to be willing to force the mindmeld on Archer, if he hadn't agreed, and that T'Pol pointed out this made her no better than the High Command. (I also liked that T'Pau went through with it regardless, instead of getting convinced by Starfleet officers what she should do.)
Having the Vulcan High Command plan a preemptive strike against the Andorians because their leader told them said Andorians were harboring weapons of mass destruction whom they might use against Vulcan any time had an obvious contemporary relevance, and while I like my dark Sci-Fi as much as the next B7 fan, letting Our Heroes stop this brought, as Yoda would say, warm feelings to my heart. And how much did I love that the recovery of books and knowledge was a crucial part of saving the day? Very much indeed.
These are the first episodes which made me want to read fanfic. Sehlats in same are optional.
****
The beta'd version of my Alias story " Secret Keepers " is up.