Lifetime Fic Bingo: 1990

[tinturtle]

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It's 1990 (finally). Sinéad O'Connor is on the radio. Here in the USA, the year's top film is Home Alone. New terms coined include: big-box, black hat, geek out, gift card, hoodie, intelligent design, malware, spam, twentysomething, and World Wide Web.

For the year 1990, I read one Man from U.N.C.L.E. fic, one A-Team fic, one Professionals x EastEnders crossover, and two plain Professionals fics.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. fic was The Long St. Crispin's Day by C. W. Walker (st_crispins), the first installment in her Origins Trilogy. This fic tells two parallel stories: one involving Napoleon and Illya and the other the founding of U.N.C.L.E. itself. I enjoyed the fic, and it was my favorite for the year, but I don't really have much intelligent to say about it. I thought the characterizations of our heroes were well realized and the account of the Command's origins was intriguing. The author chose to have U.N.C.L.E. founded in the wake of the Second World War, which has always been my headcanon. 19,765 words. Gen. Particularly recommended.

One Small Step by Lori Beatty, is an A-Team fic set before the formation of the team, in which we learn each future member's thoughts on the first moon landing. It's a clever character study that sees each one of them react in a unique way. 5,713 words. Gen. Particularly recommended.

In M. Fae Glasgow's Nor the Leopard His Spots, Doyle encounters two pioneering gay characters who appeared on the soap opera EastEnders in the 1980s. I have never seen that show, but I researched it in preparation for reading the fic, which seemed to be enough to understand this story. The story shows Ray nearing the end of his time in the field and questioning the choices he has made in life. It's rather grim, on the whole, but well written and interesting. About 15,000 words (30 pages). Bodie/Doyle slash with other relationships.

The first plain Professionals fic I read for 1990 was ...And Memories Die, Part II by Ellis Ward, the sequel to ...And Memories Die, Part I from 1989. In this fic, Bodie from the looking-glass world travels to our own, sucking our Bodie and Doyle into a whirlwind of events. I liked this fic more than its relationship-focused prequel, although there were a few bits I found hard to follow. I was still left wanting more information about the looking-glass world, but the comparison drawn between our Lads and their counterparts was interesting and well developed. 46,161 words. Bodie/Doyle slash. Particularly recommended.
Comments with spoilers:
[Spoiler (click to open)]One minor point that I found interesting in both this story and ...And Memories Die, Part I, was that nobody seemed to think that Bodie's stepmother seducing him when he was 15 was sexual abuse. I think this is an example of the well known double standard applied to sex between minors and adults, where contact between boys and women is not considered abusive at ages when contact between girls and men would be. That double standard may have been even more prevalent in the past, making its presence in this fic a sign of its times.

I also read Absent Friends by Jane Carnall and Ann Johnson. I came to a point where the only two fics I had remaining in my queue for the year were a novel-length original series Battlestar Galactica story and M. Fae Glasgow's Pros fic Sunday Bloody Sunday. It turns out that my interest in Battlestar Galactica does not extend to novel-length fics, and I was just not feeling up to the other one. Therefore, I went hunting around and found this very short fic from the target year. It's a light-hearted story in which Bodie and Doyle visit a recently retired Cowley in his new home in the country. 692 words. Bodie/Doyle slash. Particularly recommended.




Fics so far:

1986
Double Vision by Pamela Rose (The Professionals x Who Dares Wins; 47,962 words; slash)
Begin Again by Lois Welling (Ann Barrister) (The Professionals; 1,318 words; gen)
*Night Before the World Ends by Lezlie Conch (Lezlie Shell) (The Professionals; 4,355 words; slash)
The Crab Apple Cove Affair by Charlie Kirby (The Man from U.N.C.L.E. x M*A*S*H; 2,301 words; gen)
*In the Belly of Leviathan by Pythia (original series Battlestar Galactica; 13,062 words; gen)

1987
The Never Too Late Affair by Debra Hicks (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.; 1,441 words; slash)
*The Traitor Within the Gates Affair by D. H. Bryn (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.; ~34,000 words; het)
Whisper of a Kill by Lois Welling (Ann Barrister) (The Professionals; 53,978 words; slash)
The Adventure of the Traitorous Lieutenant by Eileen Roy (Sherlock Holmes; 1,827 words; gen)
*Brothers in Arms by Anais (original series Battlestar Galactica; 4,099 words; gen)

1988
Night Moves by Courtney Gray (The Professionals; 35,344 words; slash)
Rainbow Chasers by HG (The Professionals; 134,373 words; slash)
Patterns in Walls by Debra Hicks (The Professionals x Sable; 6,003 words; gen)
Family Traits by Jatona Walker (The Professionals; 1,443 words; slash)
Slippery Situation by Debra Hicks (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.; 1,634 words; slash)

1989
In From the Cold by cybel (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.; 9,454 words; slash)
Nothing in Common by cybel (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.; 3,033 words; slash)
The Zippity Do-Dah Affair by Alys (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.; 934 words; slash)
*[From 1982: Looking Glass World by Felicity M. Parkinson (The Professionals; 22,758 words; slash)]
...And Memories Die, Part I by Ellis Ward (The Professionals; 26,340 words; slash)
*[Hell Hath No Fury by Jane Carnall and Ann Johnson (The Professionals; 2,958 words; gen)]
The Price of a Soul a Professionals fic by Jane Carnall and Ann Johnson (The Professionals; 2,194 words; slash)
[From 1986: Two Up by Jane of Australia (The Professionals; 8,013 words; slash)]
[Two Up Truly Queered by Jane Carnall (The Professionals; 2,360 words; slash)]

1990
*The Long St. Crispin's Day by C. W. Walker (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.; 19,765 words; gen)
*One Small Step by Lori Beatty (The A-Team; 5,713 words; gen)
Nor the Leopard His Spots by M. Fae Glasgow (The Professionals x EastEnders; ~15,000 words; slash)
*...And Memories Die, Part II by Ellis Ward (The Professionals; 46,161 words; slash)
*Absent Friends by Jane Carnall and Ann Johnson (The Professionals; 692 words; slash)

* = Particularly recommended
[ ] = read but not counted toward the year's story total