Knight Rider recs, part one.

[squonkfan]

MUAhahahaha! Knight Rider slash! Told you I wasn't kidding. (Warning: Recs contain excerpts and some plot details.)

Comments

Cont'd

[squonkfan]

I didn't find your chats about Michael and the ladies, but I also haven't read all of Sara's ep recaps because I don't remember a lot of the canon and don't want to be spoiled for my intended re-watch. :) I tried to look for posts with a lot of replies, but the only one I found was the gender/sexuality discussion. Kitt really is very queeny, moreso in the first season IIRC--his voice gets a little crisper or snappier as the series goes on, doesn't it? He stays full of serious camp, though, and yeah, Michael doesn't really blink at it except in a more general, banter-y kind of way. Android-wse, though, I don't think Michael could deal with Kitt in an anatomically female body. To him that's not Kitt. That said, I think a clearly effeminate male android would freak him out just as much. Probably Kitt's mucho macho car form is part of what allows Michael to accept the rather incongrous prissy voice. Or, perhaps, is it that very combination that actually attracts Michael? His attraction to boringly wholesome women is so dull. I'd kind of like to see something that dealt with his attraction to Kitt less in a BFF/partner/I'm-in-love-with-your-soul type way and more in a "No, seriously, I'm into the sleek black hardware and the queer Bostonian software like whoa" type way, a more raw expression of the non-mainstream aspects of his sexuality. This is touched on in some fics, but not enough to my liking. There's that part in Dividing Line, though that could have been done better. Sara's series has some of it. I also like roadstergal's fic in which drunken!Michael is making out with the seats and talking about Kitt's voice. Wish she'd taken that further, although Kitt's bewilderment was pretty fucking funny.

I think Doc's being physically demonstrative is at least partly meant to be indicative of the general exuberance of his character. It had never really struck me as odd in the past, but that's probably just because he and Marty seemed so happy and symbiotic in that way. You're right, the 1955 Doc does that, too, which is interesting. You could argue that he feels "cosmically" connected with Marty. But then, '55 Doc is just as exuberant as '85 Doc in his mannerisms, even though personality-wise, he strikes me as far more jaded than his older counterpart. Again, you could definitely argue that the hands-on stuff is just part of Doc's personality, but that a hug is a step up from that in intimacy. I would buy that someone who relfexively casually touches people could stil be taken aback by an embrace, especially one which is pretty desperate and intense. I do think Marty would definitely bask in and react to the physical attention he received from Doc, regardless of whether it was truly personal or just something Doc does. But as far as it would be viewed by the public, Doc's damned either way: It would be seen as bizarre and inappropriate both as a general personality trait and as a dynamic specific to his relationship with a seventeen-year-old boy.

Did you ever read the novelization of the first BTTF? It's pretty bad and not in the spirit of the movie at all, but it was obviously based on an earlier draft of the screenplay. There is a lot of crap in there about Doc's getting pranks pulled on him and shit (but Doc is a far less likeable character in the novelization, so you're kind of on the side of the pranksters!). I don't consider that canon, but I did have it in mind when I wrote Do Something, and I think other fans do extrapolate from both it and Strickland's canonical comment a general sense of Doc's reputation in Hill Valley.

I don't know to what extent Jennifer knows Doc exactly, but in speaking to him directly at the end of Part III, she calls him "Dr. Brown." I think she does call him "Doc" when speaking to him in Part II, but IIRC that was when she was looking for a way to escape the McFlys' future house and it seemed more like a panicky, thoughtless exclamation. So I would bet there's a fair amount of distance there.

Re: Cont'd

[illeryana]

If you want, I can email you the entries I'm talking about, but they are all episode recaps, so you might just want to wait. I haven't watched any of the episodes in several years, so if you get around to the rewatch and want to discuss any let me know. I could always try a rewatch too. I don't remember Kitt getting any more or less queeny - maybe I just never noticed. I do remember (and I mentioned this in some of my discussions with Sara) that after the 1st season Kitt stopped ragging on Michael about all his girlfriends. He seemed much more jealous and bitchy in the 1st season. I don't think I even found that fic about Michael trying to make out with the car. Is it supposed to be funny? I think it would take a seriously skillful writer to get me into a fic where Michael is actually turned on by the car - I know he thinks the car is great, but sexually attracted to it? That might be going a little to far for me. But I'd give it a shot. Again - try reading Animism if you haven't already. I can send it if you can't find it.

I never read the BttF novel. I know I could probably get it used cheap on Amazon, but I like the idea of running across it in a second hand store. Also, even though I thoroughly expect that it's dreadful, I'm sure I'll still manage to be very disappointed by it. Are there any good bits at all in it? Why is Doc less likable? Either way, I can see him getting pranked by kids no matter what the adults think of him. Which makes me think that maybe Marty keeps their friendship a secret. I agree with you about Jennifer - she seems familiar with him, but doesn't seem like she spends a lot of time around him.

I wonder how much of Hill Valley really knows about Doc's and Marty's friendship. Do they go out in public together? Doc probably doesn't talk about it to anyone because he probably doesn't talk to anyone, but does Marty? Does he tell his family? Does Doc call the house much looking for him? Jennifer knows, but do his other friends? Strickland knows, but is that because everyone knows, or because Marty inadvertently said something to him about it, maybe when Strickland had Marty in his office disciplining him for something. If it's a secret and no one really knows of its existence or at least extent, then it wouldn't be a problem for either of their reputations.