...spotted at various places. Bear in mind that just as I don't 'ship that many pairings in the romantic sense (though of course if I'm familiar with the fandom, chances are I like some of the relationships therein, be they friendly or adverserial), I don't have that many DO NOT WANT anti OTPs, either. Some, but not many. So I'll have to default on that option a lot of the time.

Give me a show/movie/fandom and I'll tell you:

my favourite female character
my favourite male character
my favourite book/season/etc
my favourite episode (if it's a tv show)
my favourite cast member
my favourite relationship
a character I'd die defending
a character I just can't sympathize with
a character I grew to love
my anti otp

Meme, copied from various places:

Name a character in any of my fandoms, and I'll answer these questions:

1. Do you love/hate/don’t feel strongly about this character?
2. What’s your favorite trait of this character?
3. What’s your favorite moment/event involving this character?
4. If you could have one power/attribute/etc. of this character, what would it be?
5. Have you ever pictured this character naked?
6. When did you fall in love/hate with this character? I you don’t have any strong feelings toward them, why not?
7. Who’s your OTP for this character, if any?

From various people in my circle/friends list, last spotted at kindkits:

Give me a number and I'll answer the question.

1. Which is your favorite of the fics you’ve written for [name of fandom]?
2. Favorite piece overall?
3. Which was the hardest to write, in terms of plot?
4. Which has the most “you” in it, however you’d define that?
5. What is an image/set of images that you’re particularly proud of?
6. Idea that you always wanted to write but could never make work?
7. Least favorite plot point/chapter/moment?
8. Favorite plot point/chapter/moment?
9. Favorite character to write?
10. Favorite line or lines of dialogue that you’ve written
11. If I’m showing off just one of your pieces to someone, which one should it be?
12. What WIPs do you have going now? Are you excited about them?
13. Are there any things that might have happened in any of your stories, but you changed them at the last minute? (So-and-so dies, they don’t actually kiss, main character has long extended ballet-based dream sequence, etc.)
14. Would you want to write canon for any of your fandoms (like be hired by showrunner to do an episode)? Which one?
15. Does font matter to you when you’re writing a draft? - the answer to that is NO.
16. 3 favorite comments ever received on fanfic. A comment or several on fanfic you remember particularly well?
17. Any mean comments? How’d you deal with it? Who laid the smackdown?
18. If you could go back and revise one of your older stories, which would it be?
19. Do you make up scenes at work/on the bus/at the gym? Who are the characters that pop up the most? Do you write them down?
20. Go nuts, and talk about writing. Or write me a little ficlet-whatsit using a character/image/line I shall now specify—

Day 28 - First TV show obsession

Leaving aside cartoon shows watched as a little kid and described on day thirteen, Star Trek, which entered my life when I was a somewhat older kid. I watched every episode. I bought the tie ins; those that were published in German, anyway; this was of course years before I spoke a single word of English, and btw, yes, like everything else imported, Star Trek was dubbed and known as Raumschiff Enterprise. (Which means I heard the voices of the original actors for the first time when I was in my mid-20s and discovered that the local video store also carried ST tapes in English. To this day, though, the dubbed German voices are those I associate first with the TOS crew, sorry, can't help it. Also Bones is Pille, not Bones.) Now Star Trek was actually shown in the late afternoon as part of the programms for kids, and this meant there was an infamous example of censorship to prevent the young 'uns asking questions about the Vulcan mating cycle. To wit: the dialogue for Amok Time was completely rewritten so that in the German version, Spock gets mysteriously sick, McCoy is racing against the clock to find a cure, Spock in his feverish delirium has a bizarre dream about going home to Vulcan to marry his fiancee which ends up with him killing Kirk, McCoy finds the cure, Spock wakes up, has a bit of trouble sorting out fever dream from reality and overreacts when meeting Kirk again. The end. You can imagine that when some of the media tie ins referred to the whole business with T'Pring, I was confused because hadn't that been a dream? Also, what was this Pon Farr everyone was talking about? Ah, the troubles of being a German first Generation fan.

(The other instance of censorship was that Patterns of Force didn't get dubbed at all until a few decades later. I first saw it, undubbed, at a convention and decided I hadn't missed much. It was exceedingly dumb and one of the worst examples of American tv using the ever popular Nazi trope.)


When the movies came, I was just the right age to see them in the cinema. This meant being unspoiled for Wrath of Khan, which no one will ever be again, but I think I already suspected Spock wouldn't remain dead despite sobbing as one does. And overidentified with Saavik who I decided was totally me in space. (Then I read the tie-in novel where Vonda McIntyre hooks her up with Kirk's newly discovered son, David, and went eeeeewwww, because Mr. Curly Blond Hair wasn't my type at all. However, the tie-ins later delivered the romance free Saavik backstory The Pandora Principle, which I read so often that my copy practically falls apart.) But I didn't make the ultimate fannish step of looking for fanfiction, going to conventions, debating with other fans, and being so impatient for new episodes that videos from England were imported until TNG times. Not only did I fall in love all over again (not at fist sight: as was said a lot by me in these reflections, the first TNG season was, err, not the falling in love type, but it had just enough to keep me watching), but this time I had this overwhelming wish to talk about what I'd seen and about the people, and how much for a convention ticket and train fare to Bonn again?

Space, I tell you. The final frontier. These were the voyages...

( The rest of the days )

Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new)

Well, I fulfilled various resolutions I had in this regard over the winter (Borgen, Once Upon A Time, The Wire), and one of the shows I had been casually eying because it's supposedly a modern genderbent version of The Count of Monte Cristo, Revenge, appears to have gone down hill in its second season already if fannish osmosis is to be trusted (which it isn't always, I grant you). So now I'm considering Person of Interest, mostly because it has light side Ben Linus the always amazing Michael Emerson in it.

I'm also still catching up with Old Tricks (the last season I watched on BBCiPlayer was the fifth, so there are several more to go).



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Day 23 - Most annoying character

Disclaimer first: like so many things, annoyance is in the eyes of the beholder. One person's much beloved character is another person's well of irritation, and I know I sometimes feel absurdly hurt reading my favourites torn to shreds by internet friends, so I apologize in advance. Another disclaimer: to me, there is a big difference between characters designed to be annoying and who are recognized by their narrative to be - where it's a deliberate part of their characterisation - and characters whose irritation factor is heightened (imo, as always) by the fact that their annoying qualities while for me glaring are either ignored by their narrative or even declared to be virtues. I may sometimes be irritated indeed by the former, but never so much as by the later. Which is why you won't find, say, Ziggy Sobotka from The Wire as my choice. To quote Jessica Rabbit, he was written that way. :)

The characters whose annoyance factor was out of all proportion to me weren't. They were not supposed to be irritating. But they still managed to push every one of my irritation buttons, and then some. Step forward, Galen from Crusade, Byron from Babylon 5 and Bill Adama from Battlestar Galactica, so that I may choose between you. You are relieved, Michael Vaughn from Alias and Jack Shephard from Lost, by virtue of having reached the peak of your annoyingness several seasons before your show ended and having improved subsequently. You didn't exactly became favourites, but I made my peace with you and occasionally even felt for you, when I had only wanted to strangle you in your respective third seasons. So, you are not my choice.

On the other hand, it's really hard to pick one of these three gentlemen:

1.) Byron from Babylon 5. I feel a bit like beating a deceased equine, because Byron is probably going to be topping a lot of replies to this question. I won't say he's universally loathed, because I actually met a Byron fan in person and another in othe internet, but... he's the closest thing to universally loathed I've known a B5 character to be. The best in show thing about Byron is that he brought Bester back to the show several times, and the best fandom thing is the hilarious filk titled I am the very model of a maudlin telepath, but neither really justifies his existence. It's... well, everything about him. He's supposed to be a charismatic cult leader, and I'm sorry, but the actor doesn't have charisma, at least not in this role. (He's okay as a Minbari in In the Beginning.) Also, he has speeches that are JMS in over the top rethorical mode, and you need to be Andreas Katsulas to make these come across as wise and profound. Alas, the actor is no Andreas Katsulas. Then there's the long golden shampoo commercial hair when he's supposed to live in poverty and on the run, and the awful love speeches ("you are my willow").... he's just the very model, you know?

2.) Galen from Crusade. As opposed to Byron, Galen is really popular in fandom. 99% of what exists of Crusade fanfiction is about him. So unless you've been following my ramblings since years, you may be surprised I find him so annoying. Here's why: For starters, he's the third example of JMS' tendency of casting a British actor in the role of black-clad, brooding man with a mysterious past (after Marcus and Byron), and at the time it was getting old. Secondly, he's also an example of JMS' Tolkien fanboying, not just because he's a technomage, but because he does the Gandalf thing of mysteriously coming and going and delaying explanations. But it sometimes irritates me even when Gandalf does it, and Galen is no Gandalf. Thirdly, his narrative does not chastize him for endangering everyone else in a gratitious and reckless way to soothe his mourning soul. I think if I had the impression that Path of Tears meant me to be furious with Galen for the stunt he pulls, I would not mind. After all, my beloved Londo does a great many infuriating things, but in his case, the story means us to see this as wrong. (Or, to remain in the same show, Max Eilerson does a great many selfish things, and I adore him. The difference is of course that the show points out to Max and the viewers alike when he's being a pain in the butt.) But in the case of Galen, I thought the show wanted me to go "awww, poor woobie!", and I most certainly did not. Fourthly, with all my fondness for manipulative characters, female and male alike, I still didn't like what Galen did with Dureena. And I absolutely can't stand his voice, which I have to hear during the credits in every single Crusade episode. And did I mention that 99% of the existing fanfic is about him? In conclusion: bloody Galen!

3.) William Adama from Battlestar Galactica. You know, there was a time when I liked Adama, and I've written the fanfiction to prove it. Also, just recently I rewatched, for the first time since the original broadcast, the first half of season 4 of BSG and went "hm, this is tighter written than I remember... I really like these eps... maybe I was too hard on Adama, these scenes when he reads to Roslin are actually sweet, and Eddie Olmos doesn't overact, he's conveying great warmth here"....and then my rewatch arrived at the episode Sine Qua Non. At which point not only my Adama annoyance but my Adama hatred came back in full force and all my zen disappeared. I wished Adama had been rejected and spat into the eye by every single of the few characters he cared about. I wished he had been retconned out of existence by a time travelling Romulan. I wished... well, you get the picture. Seriously, there is nothing like Sine Qua Non to sum up every bad trait Bill Adama ever had and put it to its worst effect. If you wish to know the gory details, here is the review I wrote at the time, and rewatching gave me only more, not fewer things to complain about. (One annoyance I did not mention in my original review: our hero Adama, informed that his XO got a Cylon prisoner pregnant, not only telling the man that it would have been preferable if Tigh had tortured the woman, but also adding "what would Ellen have said?". I mean, seriously. Adama despised Ellen. (And vice versa.) That the news of Tigh having sex with a Cylon isn't bad to him because it could have been rape (that doesn't even seem to occur to him) and that he declares torture to have been a better alternative is awful enough without adding the hypocrisy of "what would Ellen think of you?" as if Adama had ever had a moment where he didn't wish Ellen to disappear from the universe. And it's very satisfying to me that Ellen, not Bill, gets the ever after with Saul Tigh, oh yes, it is.) To get from Sine Qua Non back to Adama in general, here is why he wins over Byron and Galen in the degree in which he annoys the living hell out of me: his hypocrisy, self-righteousness, self-pity and complete lack of empathy for anyone outside his very limited circle grew and grew and grew over the course of the show, but unlike at the start this was neither balanced by a display of his good qualities, nor by in-show criticism from sympathetic characters; instead, everyone insisted on admiring him despite the show not giving us any longer reasons for this to be the case. And they let Eddie Olmos go completely overboard with chewing the scenery, severely overestimating my patience for scenes where we see Adama cry, rage, or monologue. And, worst of all, one of the best, most interesting female characters in the last decade, Laura Roslin, was reduced to simply being his love interest, having no virtually no scenes which weren't about Adama in the last ten or so episodes she was in. Byron and Galen at least got neither of them even a complete season to bother me. Adama? Is still getting webisodes.

Most annoying (to me) character ever.


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Day 21 - Favorite ship

The TARDIS, of course. Best ship in all of time and space. Not even the Enterprise (any version) or Moya (love you, Moya! Just a little less!) or the Liberator can compete!

If you're going to be a spoilsport and insist that "ship" is only allowed to stand short for "relationship", I'm still going with Doctor/TARDIS as the epic relationship of epic that within the story now has lasted more than a millennium and without for over four decades without ever becoming less than compelling for its participants and watchers. Companions come and go, the TARDIS (and her Thief) remain. Also they had Neil Gaiman write a shippy episode just about them, and that never happened to any of the others now, did it.

(Mind you: the Doctor did cheat on the TARDIS once with Bessie, and a very serious affair it was, too, but he gave several years of his life to revive her when she was down, so they're good. You probably know it already, but have another look at my favourite vid celebrating the TARDIS and her relationship with the Doctor, and tell me this whimsical, mad, sexy blue phone box which is bigger inside isn't the best ship of them all.


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It's been a while since I've done this one, and I "met" many new characters since then. From astrogirl, the 15 characters meme:

1) Make a list of fifteen characters first, and keep it to yourself for the moment.

2) Ask your f-list to post questions in the comments. For example: "One, nine, and fifteen are chosen by a prophecy to save the world from four. Do they succeed?", "Under what circumstances might five and fourteen fall in love?", "Which character on the list would you most want on your side in a zombie invasion?"

3) After your f-list has stopped asking questions, round them up and answer them using the fifteen characters you selected beforehand, then post them.

Day 19 - Best TV show cast

I take this to mean "best cast of actors", not "best cast of characters", which would be a very different thing. Even so, it's not easy to answer, not least because an actor just marking time or having cameos in one show might reveal he or she has actually amazing range in another. For example, I would never have guessed how good an actor Walter Koenig is before seeing him as Alfred Bester in Babylon 5, because Chekov in Star Trek wasn't a role in which he could do more than be cheerfully optimistic and talk in a fake Russian accent. And the two or so episodes of the original Battlestar Galactica I watched certainly didn't prepare me for Richard Hatch, who was the original Galactica's straight man Apollo, being great and utterly convincing as devious politician and ex terrorist Tom Zarek in the new BSG. Then there are cases where an actor might be good in one particular role but once you see him or her in another show/film/play, you realise it was the writing, not the acting, which made this character so memorable. Or at best a union between the two. *eyes James Marsters*

Conversely, there are cases where a show actually isn't that good but the cast is amazing. I would say Dollhouse is an interesting failure at best, but the ensemble of actors, both regular and recurring, with the notable exception of the leading lady (and oh, the irony that a show designed to show off Eliza Dushku's versatility instead pointed out she's something of a one trick pony as an actress), might actually be stronger than in any other Whedon show (and all the others were far better written). With Dinchen Lachman and Enver Gjokaj the standouts as Victor and Sierra, but Olivia Williams, Fran Kranz and Harry Lennix also did superb jobs, as did Amy Acker (and Alexis Denisof in his s2 appearance reminded me all over again of the mystery that post Angel, this best of all male Jossverse actors pre- Gjokaj didn't seem to get any roles).

Then there are shows where there are stronger and weaker actors but the parts for the weaker ones are either so small or play to these particular actors' strengths, and the overall writing is strong enough that the general impression is of a strong cast. (Case in point: Star Trek: The Next Generation. I don't think anyone else in the cast is as good as Patrick Stewart, but no one is bad, Brent Spiner really is excellent, and after the shaky first season the writing gets to a point where actor strengths and character happily meld for the entire ensemble, and most importantly, no one, be it a good episode or a bad episode, ever gives you the impression of just marking time and waiting for their pay check. And the general chemistry is really good.)

...and then there are the cases where the writing is not just good but great, and the actors are amazing in these and other roles. Which means I have to choose between:

1.) I, Claudius: as I said elsewhere, the cream of 70s British acting shows up there - Derek Jacobi, John Hurt, Sian Phillips, Patrick Stewart, John Rhys-Davies; and, again as mentioned on another day, Brian Blessed delivers one of the most amazing death scenes ever as Augustus in complete silence, acting only with his eyes and the most subtle of expressions and proves once and for all that if given the opportunity he can do more than shout.

2.) Six Feet Under: the wonderful Frances Conroy as Ruth Fisher, Michael C. Hall as my favourite gay character of all time, David Fisher, Peter Krause as Nate, Lauren Ambrose being awesome as Claire (and in many ways Claire is the pov character throughout the show), Rachel Griffiths as Brenda, and those are just the regulars through all seasons. Terrific cast, great writing, and that goes for the recurring characters and one shot guest stars as well.

3.) The Wire: I marathoned it so recently that I'm hesitant to include it because usually I need some temporal distance to be sure about my jugment, but it really is everything that was claimed about it in fandom and in professional criticism, both writing and acting wise. And even though the earlier two examples make it hard, I think I'll still name The Wire as my end choice, because the format - five seasons, with each seasons introducing new characters in addition to the established ones and putting the emphasis elsewhere, which means, for example, a minor character in s1 can be a main character in s4, and the reverse, a main character from s1 can get only cameos in s4 - means that of all the shows I named, this one has the largest ensemble of actors, and the best opportunity to give each othem the chance to shine. This includes some teenagers played by actual teenagers, not adults playing teenagers as is the custom on tv, which, considering said teenagers have to do some heavy dramatic lifting, was a risky move that pays of amazingly.

...in conclusion: the cast from The Wire, who were, in the order that Wikipedia gives them and not limited to, Dominic West, John Doman, Idris Elba, Frankie Faison, Larry Gilliard, Jr., Wood Harris, Deirdre Lovejoy, Wendell Pierce, Lance Reddick, Andre Royo, Sonja Sohn, Chris Bauer, Paul Ben-Victor, Clarke Peters, Amy Ryan, Aidan Gillen, Jim True-Frost, Robert Wisdom, Seth Gilliam, Domenick Lombardozzi, J. D. Williams, Michael K. Williams, Corey Parker Robinson, Reg E. Cathey, Chad L. Coleman, Jamie Hector, Glynn Turman, Clark Johnson, Tom McCarthy, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Neal Huff, Jermaine Crawford, Tristan Wilds, Michael Kostroff, Michelle Paress, Isiah Whitlock, Jr.

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Day 17 - Favorite mini series

That depends on several factors. Do we count miniseries which are part of a greater whole, like the one that kicked Battlestar Galactica off, or Torchwood: Children of Earth? Or do only miniseries count which have no before or after on tv? If so, does a two parter count as a miniseries or does a miniseries have to have at least three parts?

If we count a miniseries which does have a before and after on tv, but also has a self-contained story (in five episodes, in the case I'm thinking of): then it's Torchwood: Children of Earth. For reasons explained in post on the overall miniseries and this post about the female characters. If you want, you can also argue that Children of Earth illustrates that RTD works best if you give him a limited format as opposed to longer seasons, but seriously: I think it's one of the best things he did, and not just in the Whoverse. It's not something I can rewatch endlessly, but every time I do, and I think I did four or five times so far, I'm impressed, shattered and awed all over again.

If we only count a miniseries which is not part of a greater whole: Das Todesspiel, a docudrama by Heinrich Breloer, mixing interviews of the real people with acted scenes, about what our media refers to as "the German autumn", the autumn of 1977. Focused on the kidnapping of politician Hans-Martin Schleyer by the R.A.F. (which in German stands for Rote Armee Fraktion, not Royal Airforce - the terrorists referred to as "the Baader-Meinhof-Gang" in English) and the abduction of the air plane Landshut. Despite the fact the outcome is well known - Schleyer dies, the passengers of the Landshut are saved, all of them - Das Todespiel is incredibly suspenseful to watch. The interviews (of politicians, kidnapping victims, terrorists, practically anyone still alive) are great and revealing, and despite the fact some of the actors in the acted scenes don't much look like the interviewed real people, their performance is so good you believe it utterly. (Trivia note: one of the lawyers representing the terrorists, Otto Schily, decades later became our secretary of the interior and one very much on the law and order side.) Breloer later tried to repeat the success of Das Todesspiel, using the same docudrama format for a miniseries about Thomas Mann and his family, and then one about Albert Speer, but these series never reached quite the same heights.

If we only count a miniseries consisting of more than two episodes: John Adams, which I watched last year (five episodes, I think), was really well made, superbly acted, and with layered storytelling. One of the reasons why I thought Daniel Day Lewis deserved to win for his performance but not Lincoln the movie for best film (and it didn't) was that I had seen John Adams, which manages to tell a political historical story (about a US President the scriptwriters clearly think highly of) without making you feel, as Ponygirl put it, like you're attending a service of a religion you're not a part of.



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