Lifetime Fic Bingo: 1993

[tinturtle]

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It's 1993. Mariah Carey is on the radio. Here in the USA, the year's top film is Jurassic Park. New terms coined include: alt-country, blue screen of death, commentariat, cosplay, dead-tree, e-commerce, gender-fluid, jukebox musical, robocall, and website.

(I find Mariah Carey's song Dreamlover instantly forgettable, but it was a big hit on its release, and I'm not going to be able to sustain only using songs in these posts that I personally appreciate.)

For the year 1993, I read four Professionals fics and one Sherlock Holmes x Blake's 7 crossover. Sorry, cousins, but there are no Man from U.N.C.L.E. fics this time.

The first Professionals fic was Nothing Left to Lose by Jane (of Australia) and Madelaine Ingram, in which an alternate Bodie and Doyle meet in a world struggling in the aftermath of a comet impact. I liked this fic a lot. It has a pleasing balance of worldbuilding and plot, and did a good job nurturing suspense leading up to its climax. The Bodie and Doyle characters didn't quite feel to me like our Bodie and Doyle, even to the extent that they do in some total-conversion AUs, but they had a family resemblance. (A little more on that below.) Overall, this was a good spec-fic AU, and I look forward to reading the sequel released in 1994. 33,529 words. Bodie/Doyle slash. Particularly recommended.
Comments with (minor) spoilers:
[Spoiler (click to open)]As it turns out, the Bodie and Doyle of this fic are not meant to be our Bodie and Doyle. It's revealed during the story that they are, in fact, the descendants of the Bodie and Doyle of canon. Thus, when I said they have a family resemblance, I meant it literally.

This element is a little odd in what is ostensibly a B/D slash story, I think. While the Bodie and Doyle of the fic get together, the fact that they exist at all means that our Bodie and Doyle did not, instead marrying and having the children who were the parents of the characters in the fic.

Also, this element means that Nothing Left to Lose is only an AU in a loose sense, since it actually does take place in the same universe as canon, only in the future. It's like Lainie Stone's post-apocalyptic story Heat in that way.

The Blue Figurine by Courtney Grey is a supernatural Professionals story in which Doyle finds himself living a life without Bodie in it. I really enjoyed this story, as well. Many things about the way it developed its premise were unexpected. 29,960 words. Bodie/Doyle slash. Particularly recommended.
Comments with spoilers:
[Spoiler (click to open)]I really wish this fic had either continued past the place it ended or come with a sequel. At the end of the fic's main narrative, Doyle resigns himself to a life without Bodie, who due to an ill considered wish, never left his life as a mercenary. Yet in the epilogue, Bodie wishes that they were indeed partners. That promises to put everything superficially back to normal, but given the way the wishes have been shown to work, it means that the version of Bodie who spent more years fighting in Africa will suddenly be Doyle's partner in CI5, with Doyle none the wiser. I'd really like to know the author's ideas about how that would work out, given that she has shown that version of Bodie to be colder and harder than the Bodie of canon. I think it would make for an interesting story in itself.

I also read the Professionals fic Step We Gaily by M. Fae Glasgow, which is that author's take on the Bodie/Cowley pairing. I really liked the beginning of this fic, in which we meet a homosexual Cowley and are privy to his memories of his life and his thoughts on the ways that life for homosexual men has changed. All that was turtlenip. The portion where Cowley was dealing with the conflicts presented by his attraction to Bodie was also good, but the fic palled a bit for me near the end when the two of them began a liaison. Somehow I just wasn't quite convinced by the relationship. It's not that I can never believe in this ship. I do find it hard to believe that Cowley would enter into a relationship with a subordinate, but I can suspend my disbelief if the author sells the pairing well enough. (Lest These Dark Days by Jane Carnall and Ann Johnson is a B/C story I found compelling.) M. Fae Glasgow didn't sell it for me, though. I think it might have helped if some of the story had been told from Bodie's point of view, as in Lest These Dark Days, but all of it was from Cowley's perspective. ~13,500 words (27 pages). Bodie/Cowley slash.

Guardian Angels by Baravan, is a Professionals fic focused on Cowley's past. It relates the story of his first experiences as a young soldier in World War II. This fic had some things to recommend it. I thought the characterization of a younger, less confident Cowley was effective. Overall, though, the plot felt a bit rushed and wasn't enough to support the emotional arc it was trying for. 13,408 words. Background Bodie/Doyle slash with other relationships.

In the Sherlock Holmes x Blake's 7 crossover The Adventure of the Strange Visitor by Quordle, some of the crew of the Liberator, temporarily displaced in time, receive help from Holmes and Watson. I'm only passingly familiar with Blake's 7, and I think I missed some of the meat of this fic as a result, but overall I found it an enjoyable story. It was fun to see Holmes interacting with people from the future. 7,903 words. Holmes/Watson and Avon/Vila slash (per the label).



Check out the Professionals vids Ordinary World by Morgan Dawn and 500 Miles by Media Cannibals, which use hit songs from 1993.

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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)

1991
*The Seventeen Days in October Affair by Terry L Neill and J. M. D’Agostino-Toney (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.; 14,854 words; gen)
*The Devil's Attic Affair by C. W. Walker (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.; 28,968 words; gen)
The Lion of Ngambo Affair by C. W. Walker (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.; 23,087 words; het)
Free Trader by Debra Hicks (The Professionals x Star Trek TNG; 26,454 words; slash)
Legacy of Temptation by Ellis Ward (The Professionals; 100,794 words; slash)

1992
What Price Honor? by Debra Hicks (The A-Team; 4,105 words; gen)
*The Surfin' and Spyin' Affair by Jennifer Adams Kelley (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.; 11,650 words; gen)
Bonding by Stew (The Professionals; 22,241 words; slash)
Some Say the World Will End in Fire by Jane Mailander (from Proslib) (The Professionals; 5,410 words; slash)
*Floral Arrangement by M. Fae Glasgow (The Professionals; ~13,000 words; slash)

1993
*Nothing Left to Lose by Jane (of Australia) and Madelaine Ingram (The Professionals; 33,529 words; slash)
*The Blue Figurine by Courtney Grey (The Professionals; 29,960 words; slash)
Step We Gaily by M. Fae Glasgow (The Professionals; ~13,500 words; slash)
Guardian Angels by Baravan (The Professionals; 13,408 words; slash)
The Adventure of the Strange Visitor by Quordle (Sherlock Holmes x Blake's 7; 7,903 words; slash)

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