30 days of favorite combos: Devon & Danziger of Earth 2
I've seen a bunch of those thirty-day memes going around, like the TV meme and your writing meme. And I've thought about doing some of them, because they're pretty cool, but every time I get a list of questions I'm like...'these don't really work for me'. So I finally decided that I'm going to make up my own meme.
This is the 30 days of favorite pairings (or moresomes) meme. :D
I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to include in each day--some of my pairings are hugely popular, and some are non-existent. I figure I'll give a little background or why I like each one, then maybe a picspam or pointers to vids or fic recs. Possibly I'll even throw in a drabble or two.
There's not going to be an order to these, but I figured why not start at the beginning? That would be the first pairing I really ever engaged with fannishly (as in with other people, rather than by myself).
So let me tell you about Devon/Danziger of Earth 2.
Earth 2 was a scifi television series that premiered on NBC in the fall of 1994. It got a huge push at the time, lots and lots of advertising on the network before the pilot episode. I wasn't sure if I actually wanted to watch it, because those ads kind of made it look rather scary. But my former roommate and my (brand new) husband were really interested in it, so I did. And immediately fell in love. Unfortunately, it was an expensive series that only got so-so ratings, and NBC cancelled it after one season. I was heartbroken.
So what was the show about? Basically, it's set a few hundred years in the future, when the Earth itself has been ecologically devastated and most humans now live on orbiting space stations. Unfortunately, being out of touch with a natural environment is starting to take its toll on the population, showing up as an auto-immune syndrome in an increasing number of children. The government and doctors won't recognize that as a cause, though. But one mother, Devon Adair (played by Deborah Farentino), happens to be the heir to the corporate empire who built the stations. When she wont get any support for her cause from anyone else, she takes her money and launches an effort to colonize a new world for a group of these suffering families. That planet (G889) would be the Earth 2 of the series name.
(Back row: John Danziger, Devon Adair, Alonzo Solace, Julia Heller, Yale.
Front row: True Danziger, Uly Adair, Bess Martin, Morgan Martin.)
The night before the scheduled launch of the ships from the space station, they discover a plot to blow up the ships and make it look like an accident. They manage to get rid of the bomb and launch early, and then go into cryo-sleep for the years it takes them to get to the new planet. Unfortunately, that bomb wasn't the only sabotage in place, and something goes wrong when the advance ship reaches the planet. They have to quickly abandon ship in their escape pods, leaving the ship to burn up in the atmosphere and their supplies scattered far and wide across the planet. They themselves end up on the other side of the main continent from the rendezvous site, the viable spot they planned to prepare for the rest of the families arriving in the later ship.
The bulk of the season, then, is them trying to survive this new world, its aliens, the government plots that followed them, while trying to travel across the continent in time to meet the main ship that's carrying all of the families. Plus, when your main villains are played by Jeff Kober, Tim Curry, and Terry O'Quinn, you know you're in some deep shit.
Besides Deborah Farentino, it also starred Clancy Brown as John Danziger, a crewman who becomes her co-leader, Jessica Steen as Julia Heller, the doctor with a shady past, and Antonio Sabato Jr. as Alonzo Solace, the ship's pilot who can communicate with the aliens in his dreams.
Devon Adair is a fabulously strong character, a single mother who also happens to be a top dog at what seems to be the biggest/most powerful corporation of humankind at the time. She's completely devoted to her son, Uly, who is reaching the age of the longest expected lifespan of those children suffering from the syndrome. Knowing that there's no other option gives her the gumption to throw all of her otherwise good life away and take this incredible risk of finding a new home.
Still, despite all of her strength, she does suffer from a bit of privilege at the beginning of the show. This frequently puts her in direct conflict with John Danziger. Danziger is head of the ship's non-flight crew, the guy who makes sure shit gets done. He and the other crew members aren't even supposed to go planetside, instead making a return trip to the stations, but of course that all changes with the crash. That would be tough enough for anybody, but Danziger brought his young daughter (about 9, I think?) True along with him, because he couldn't stand the thought of missing her entire childhood while he was away. Her mother died in childbirth, and Danziger signs onto the mission in the belief that the money he makes will finally buy him out of his inherited debt and set them up for the life that True deserves.
So you have these two characters, both incredibly devoted parents, both strong-willed, both leaders, who come from very opposite backgrounds. The chemistry between them is immediate and electric. Throughout the series they both butt heads and grow to depend on each other's strength and advice, and they co-parent a lot. They were obviously set up to be romantic interests in a will-they won't-they situation farther down the road, but unfortunately the show didn't last long enough to get them very far. Still, there were a lot of nice moments between them.
Here's a clip from the episode 'Brave New Pacifica'. It's kind of a ridiculous episode, but definitely a favorite of shippers. Basically the group discovers a cave covered in spider webs that somehow manage to transport people to a similar cave hundreds of miles away. (It's not that far out there for the show, since the entire idea is that the planet and its flora and fauna are an almost sentient ecosystem.) The problem starts when its discovered that the spider's bite causes weird emotional reactions. In this clip, Alonzo (who is now dating Julia) has been bitten, and since he saw Devon right after, he decides he's completely in love with her. (Yes. It is your classic sex pollen in PG form.)
Danziger, however, isn't too happy about Alonzo's lovestruck rambling about Devon.
A short pictorial walk through some of their moments:
A bit adversarial at the beginning.
Already starting the co-parenting with Uly.
They gravitate to each other's space.
Drawn together even when disagreeing.
These two caps are from the episode 'Water', which sent the Devon/Danizger shippers into tailspins of delight:
Why, yes, the aliens did tie them up together. And then Devon was forced to use her mouth to try to get the water off of John's belt. (There is a reason we have these tropes in fanfic. *g*)
I was lucky enough to go to the first Earth 2 convention, in Albuquerque back in '96. Clancy Brown was one of the actor guests, and he told us about filming this scene. Of course all the shippers were aquiver in hopes of hearing dirty tidbits about what the characters were experiencing. But he basically said it was hell to film, because Deborah kept smacking the back of her head into his face. Heh. I am completely amused at my fannish naiveté back then.
John asking Devon to dance in the camp VR world.
More shared parenting duties.
Getting more affectionate and supportive.
<3
I see you, John.
With True, this time.
Exchanging goodbyes and requests right before us fans are left hanging on the cliff forever.
Here's a decent music vid I found that has a lot of their moments together: With You
I've been away from the fandom (what there is of it) for so long that I can't make any recommendations for fic or anything else. But a little googling turned up eden_advance, a fanfic comm that has a bit of content, though it hasn't been updated in a while, as well as this post by mercscilla. It has quite a few links to various fanfic and other resources, as well as a zip of the caps I used in this post. Also, it looks like there are several places you can watch the show for free online, but I didn't recognize any of them so I can't vouch for the safety of those sites. (In other words, hulu isn't one of them.) The series is on DVD and it looks like Amazon still has it, so if you're looking for something to drop $25 on, there you go. :)
This is the 30 days of favorite pairings (or moresomes) meme. :D
I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to include in each day--some of my pairings are hugely popular, and some are non-existent. I figure I'll give a little background or why I like each one, then maybe a picspam or pointers to vids or fic recs. Possibly I'll even throw in a drabble or two.
There's not going to be an order to these, but I figured why not start at the beginning? That would be the first pairing I really ever engaged with fannishly (as in with other people, rather than by myself).
So let me tell you about Devon/Danziger of Earth 2.
Earth 2 was a scifi television series that premiered on NBC in the fall of 1994. It got a huge push at the time, lots and lots of advertising on the network before the pilot episode. I wasn't sure if I actually wanted to watch it, because those ads kind of made it look rather scary. But my former roommate and my (brand new) husband were really interested in it, so I did. And immediately fell in love. Unfortunately, it was an expensive series that only got so-so ratings, and NBC cancelled it after one season. I was heartbroken.
So what was the show about? Basically, it's set a few hundred years in the future, when the Earth itself has been ecologically devastated and most humans now live on orbiting space stations. Unfortunately, being out of touch with a natural environment is starting to take its toll on the population, showing up as an auto-immune syndrome in an increasing number of children. The government and doctors won't recognize that as a cause, though. But one mother, Devon Adair (played by Deborah Farentino), happens to be the heir to the corporate empire who built the stations. When she wont get any support for her cause from anyone else, she takes her money and launches an effort to colonize a new world for a group of these suffering families. That planet (G889) would be the Earth 2 of the series name.
(Back row: John Danziger, Devon Adair, Alonzo Solace, Julia Heller, Yale.
Front row: True Danziger, Uly Adair, Bess Martin, Morgan Martin.)
The night before the scheduled launch of the ships from the space station, they discover a plot to blow up the ships and make it look like an accident. They manage to get rid of the bomb and launch early, and then go into cryo-sleep for the years it takes them to get to the new planet. Unfortunately, that bomb wasn't the only sabotage in place, and something goes wrong when the advance ship reaches the planet. They have to quickly abandon ship in their escape pods, leaving the ship to burn up in the atmosphere and their supplies scattered far and wide across the planet. They themselves end up on the other side of the main continent from the rendezvous site, the viable spot they planned to prepare for the rest of the families arriving in the later ship.
The bulk of the season, then, is them trying to survive this new world, its aliens, the government plots that followed them, while trying to travel across the continent in time to meet the main ship that's carrying all of the families. Plus, when your main villains are played by Jeff Kober, Tim Curry, and Terry O'Quinn, you know you're in some deep shit.
Besides Deborah Farentino, it also starred Clancy Brown as John Danziger, a crewman who becomes her co-leader, Jessica Steen as Julia Heller, the doctor with a shady past, and Antonio Sabato Jr. as Alonzo Solace, the ship's pilot who can communicate with the aliens in his dreams.
Devon Adair is a fabulously strong character, a single mother who also happens to be a top dog at what seems to be the biggest/most powerful corporation of humankind at the time. She's completely devoted to her son, Uly, who is reaching the age of the longest expected lifespan of those children suffering from the syndrome. Knowing that there's no other option gives her the gumption to throw all of her otherwise good life away and take this incredible risk of finding a new home.
Still, despite all of her strength, she does suffer from a bit of privilege at the beginning of the show. This frequently puts her in direct conflict with John Danziger. Danziger is head of the ship's non-flight crew, the guy who makes sure shit gets done. He and the other crew members aren't even supposed to go planetside, instead making a return trip to the stations, but of course that all changes with the crash. That would be tough enough for anybody, but Danziger brought his young daughter (about 9, I think?) True along with him, because he couldn't stand the thought of missing her entire childhood while he was away. Her mother died in childbirth, and Danziger signs onto the mission in the belief that the money he makes will finally buy him out of his inherited debt and set them up for the life that True deserves.
So you have these two characters, both incredibly devoted parents, both strong-willed, both leaders, who come from very opposite backgrounds. The chemistry between them is immediate and electric. Throughout the series they both butt heads and grow to depend on each other's strength and advice, and they co-parent a lot. They were obviously set up to be romantic interests in a will-they won't-they situation farther down the road, but unfortunately the show didn't last long enough to get them very far. Still, there were a lot of nice moments between them.
Here's a clip from the episode 'Brave New Pacifica'. It's kind of a ridiculous episode, but definitely a favorite of shippers. Basically the group discovers a cave covered in spider webs that somehow manage to transport people to a similar cave hundreds of miles away. (It's not that far out there for the show, since the entire idea is that the planet and its flora and fauna are an almost sentient ecosystem.) The problem starts when its discovered that the spider's bite causes weird emotional reactions. In this clip, Alonzo (who is now dating Julia) has been bitten, and since he saw Devon right after, he decides he's completely in love with her. (Yes. It is your classic sex pollen in PG form.)
Danziger, however, isn't too happy about Alonzo's lovestruck rambling about Devon.
Click to viewA short pictorial walk through some of their moments:
A bit adversarial at the beginning.
Already starting the co-parenting with Uly.
They gravitate to each other's space.
Drawn together even when disagreeing.
These two caps are from the episode 'Water', which sent the Devon/Danizger shippers into tailspins of delight:
Why, yes, the aliens did tie them up together. And then Devon was forced to use her mouth to try to get the water off of John's belt. (There is a reason we have these tropes in fanfic. *g*)
I was lucky enough to go to the first Earth 2 convention, in Albuquerque back in '96. Clancy Brown was one of the actor guests, and he told us about filming this scene. Of course all the shippers were aquiver in hopes of hearing dirty tidbits about what the characters were experiencing. But he basically said it was hell to film, because Deborah kept smacking the back of her head into his face. Heh. I am completely amused at my fannish naiveté back then.
John asking Devon to dance in the camp VR world.
More shared parenting duties.
Getting more affectionate and supportive.
<3
I see you, John.
With True, this time.
Exchanging goodbyes and requests right before us fans are left hanging on the cliff forever.
Here's a decent music vid I found that has a lot of their moments together: With You
I've been away from the fandom (what there is of it) for so long that I can't make any recommendations for fic or anything else. But a little googling turned up eden_advance, a fanfic comm that has a bit of content, though it hasn't been updated in a while, as well as this post by mercscilla. It has quite a few links to various fanfic and other resources, as well as a zip of the caps I used in this post. Also, it looks like there are several places you can watch the show for free online, but I didn't recognize any of them so I can't vouch for the safety of those sites. (In other words, hulu isn't one of them.) The series is on DVD and it looks like Amazon still has it, so if you're looking for something to drop $25 on, there you go. :)