Frankenstein's Meme, Day 3 (and others)
Last day of holiday. You know, we actually did some housecleaning yesterday. We accomplished something! Woo!
Day 3: You've got your OTP, you have to throw a third into the mix (from the same fandom), creating an OT3. Who is the OTP, and in your opinion, why would they make a perfect third for them?
Only the third day in and the ship questions start. To be fair, this meme has few ship questions, which is one of the reasons I chose to do it. You already know that I don't ship and I don't have an OTP. One of the later questions in this list mentions that platonic pairings are okay, so I've been thinking about that, and no, I really can't say that I have platonic pairings either. Sure, Ten and Donna are my favorite Doctor and companion, but I'm not watching DW for the interaction between the Doctor and the companion. (Which is one reason why series 7b through 9 fell so flat for me. I don't like the stalling the story to show how the Doctor's obsessing about Clara or how Clara's obsessing about the Doctor.) I guess the thing is, I don't consider an IP and think about the pairings. I am more interested in either a specific character or in the themes of the IP as a whole.
So, I thought I'd take all the ship questions and do them all at once.
3. You've got your OTP, you have to throw a third into the mix (from the same fandom), creating an OT3. Who is the OTP, and in your opinion, why would they make a perfect third for them?
"You've got your OTP..." BZZT! False. Funnily enough, the next question down says "not everyone has OTPs" - a consequence of putting this meme together from various sources.
11. Ships that you currently like a lot. (They don’t have to be OTPs because not everyone has OTPs.) Friendships, pairings, threesomes, etc. are allowed.
For Public Call one year (the only year I tried it - never again, as the story that came out of it was a mess of blather), I wrote about Meta meeting Pete's World Jack Harkness. As I said, the story was awful, but I really liked the Jack I built for the story and have thought about writing one of their adventures. Does that count? Again, the story wouldn't be about them - it would be about fighting aliens, how Meta compensates for not being fully Time Lord, and what Jack brings to the table (because PW Jack isn't a 51st century ex-Time Agent).
12. A ship you have never liked and probably never will.
This question really has no end. I think the thing that really bugs me the most when considering ships are pairings that have firm canon reasons for not existing. I don't mind if the characters have never met - after all, the whole point of AUs is to allow that to happen. Not to mention, in DW, who knows what might have happened across all of space and time or in alternative timelines or in stupid Time Lord manipulations? Maybe Sarah Jane did meet one of the many Peri fragments running around. (And maybe they're both gay - the classic show never really defined companion sexuality, so I'm okay with this.)
Let's consider the Stargate universe, where you don't have that kind of thing, though. I can see pairing Sam with Jack (and there was an attempt at that in the show) or with post-Sha're Daniel, or with Jonas, but not with Daniel while Sha're was still alive, because doing so demonstrates a complete misunderstanding of Daniel. Another one I really don't like is pairing Sheppard and McKay, because both characters are demonstrated time and again as being happily, devotedly straight. Being best friends doesn't necessarily turn two people (of any orientation) into lovers.
13. A pairing - platonic, romantic or sexual - that you initially didn’t consider, but someone changed your mind.
I don't really have an answer (or long-winded discussion) for this one.
16. Do you remember your first OTP? Who was in it?
I tried to think back to my fandoms back when I was a kid or a teenager or in college, thinking that maybe I've changed over the years, but I couldn't think of a single time when I watched a show or otherwise engaged in content for the pairing rather than the story. My first real fandom was Battlestar Galactica, back in the late 70s, and my big thing then was Starbuck and trying to be a Viper pilot. In high school, it was Greatest American Hero, but Pam was really a very secondary part of the experience. In college, it was Forever Knight, but that fascinated me because of the way it worked Nick's history into the modern-day detective story. I suppose there was Star Trek: the Next Generation, but there's another show where the stories were the driving force.
Day 3: You've got your OTP, you have to throw a third into the mix (from the same fandom), creating an OT3. Who is the OTP, and in your opinion, why would they make a perfect third for them?
Only the third day in and the ship questions start. To be fair, this meme has few ship questions, which is one of the reasons I chose to do it. You already know that I don't ship and I don't have an OTP. One of the later questions in this list mentions that platonic pairings are okay, so I've been thinking about that, and no, I really can't say that I have platonic pairings either. Sure, Ten and Donna are my favorite Doctor and companion, but I'm not watching DW for the interaction between the Doctor and the companion. (Which is one reason why series 7b through 9 fell so flat for me. I don't like the stalling the story to show how the Doctor's obsessing about Clara or how Clara's obsessing about the Doctor.) I guess the thing is, I don't consider an IP and think about the pairings. I am more interested in either a specific character or in the themes of the IP as a whole.
So, I thought I'd take all the ship questions and do them all at once.
3. You've got your OTP, you have to throw a third into the mix (from the same fandom), creating an OT3. Who is the OTP, and in your opinion, why would they make a perfect third for them?
"You've got your OTP..." BZZT! False. Funnily enough, the next question down says "not everyone has OTPs" - a consequence of putting this meme together from various sources.
11. Ships that you currently like a lot. (They don’t have to be OTPs because not everyone has OTPs.) Friendships, pairings, threesomes, etc. are allowed.
For Public Call one year (the only year I tried it - never again, as the story that came out of it was a mess of blather), I wrote about Meta meeting Pete's World Jack Harkness. As I said, the story was awful, but I really liked the Jack I built for the story and have thought about writing one of their adventures. Does that count? Again, the story wouldn't be about them - it would be about fighting aliens, how Meta compensates for not being fully Time Lord, and what Jack brings to the table (because PW Jack isn't a 51st century ex-Time Agent).
12. A ship you have never liked and probably never will.
This question really has no end. I think the thing that really bugs me the most when considering ships are pairings that have firm canon reasons for not existing. I don't mind if the characters have never met - after all, the whole point of AUs is to allow that to happen. Not to mention, in DW, who knows what might have happened across all of space and time or in alternative timelines or in stupid Time Lord manipulations? Maybe Sarah Jane did meet one of the many Peri fragments running around. (And maybe they're both gay - the classic show never really defined companion sexuality, so I'm okay with this.)
Let's consider the Stargate universe, where you don't have that kind of thing, though. I can see pairing Sam with Jack (and there was an attempt at that in the show) or with post-Sha're Daniel, or with Jonas, but not with Daniel while Sha're was still alive, because doing so demonstrates a complete misunderstanding of Daniel. Another one I really don't like is pairing Sheppard and McKay, because both characters are demonstrated time and again as being happily, devotedly straight. Being best friends doesn't necessarily turn two people (of any orientation) into lovers.
13. A pairing - platonic, romantic or sexual - that you initially didn’t consider, but someone changed your mind.
I don't really have an answer (or long-winded discussion) for this one.
16. Do you remember your first OTP? Who was in it?
I tried to think back to my fandoms back when I was a kid or a teenager or in college, thinking that maybe I've changed over the years, but I couldn't think of a single time when I watched a show or otherwise engaged in content for the pairing rather than the story. My first real fandom was Battlestar Galactica, back in the late 70s, and my big thing then was Starbuck and trying to be a Viper pilot. In high school, it was Greatest American Hero, but Pam was really a very secondary part of the experience. In college, it was Forever Knight, but that fascinated me because of the way it worked Nick's history into the modern-day detective story. I suppose there was Star Trek: the Next Generation, but there's another show where the stories were the driving force.