From honorh

1. Reply to this post with 'Icons!', and I will pick five of your icons.
2. Make a post (including the meme info) and talk about the icons I chose.
3. Other people can then comment to you and make their own posts.
4. This will create a never-ending cycle of icon glee.

My second oldest online friend picked these for me (with the result that this post could be called "in praise of kathyh, who is my oldest online friend":

1.


The library of St. Gallen, in a photo taken by my Aged Parent when we were there, and made into a pretty icon complete with Sandman quote by kathyh. Lucien's library of written and unwritten books can take all sorts of shapes, I'm sure, but when I saw this particular library, it became my default imagining for it. It has also been my default icon for a good while now.

2.



I am that oddity, someone who did see Star Wars at the right age, and in the cinema (being born in 1969, I could manage that) but still didn't become a real fan, though I was entertained enough and thought Darth Vader was the most interesting character, whose backstory I wanted to know about. Fast-forward, and it gets even freakier, because lo and behold, I liked the prequels, so much so that I went repeatedly (which I didn't do for the original movies), and not only did I like the prequels but I liked Anakin. This icon (by tiedyedress) was one I found after Attack of the Clones was released, when liking Anakin was about as rare as, well, liking Wesley Crusher was in TNG's hayday. (It still tickles me that my first prompt for the Multiverse challenges was to write a crossover featuring them both.)

3.



Some years back, shezan linked a couple of drop dead gorgeous Russian pre WWI photographs. That's Samarkand, with appropriate James Elroy Fletcher quote, icon courtesy of kathyh. It became my default icon for a while and still is one of my travel report icons.

4.



More kathyh! One of my all time favourite m/f relationships, Duncan and Amanda from Highlander, in one of my all time favourite scenes from the show, their tango on top of the Eiffel Tower in the s3 episode Finale. I've already rambled at length and repeatedly why I dig Duncan/Amanda so much (in short: Batman and Catwoman if Batman had a sense of humour; also, it was never sold as the show's big romance, or Amanda as the One True Love, which benefited the relationship to no end). The quote, however, is from another show; kathyh took it from Buffy and Spike in BTVS's season 5 Fool for Love.

5.



Aaaaace. Supposedly one imprints on one's first Doctor and first Companion, but that never happened to me. I first saw two Fourth Doctor serials, one Sixth Doctor serial and the tv movie of doom with pretty Paul McGann and, err, not a lot of other things to recommend it, and was still at a "well, that's nice, but I'm not going to be a fan, I think" stage with DW, when I saw a Seventh Doctor era story, Curse of Fenric, featuring the Seventh Doctor (whom I had already seen die unceremoniously in the tv movie of doom) and Ace. And I definitely fell in love with a) the two of them and their relationship, and b) the originality of a show that would do a WWII story NOT featuring blitz or war time heroics but a vicar plagued with doubt about the bombings of Dresden, sympathetic Russians, and cold war preparations seen as a bad thing. The icon (by cheesygirl) shows Ace in that serial (one of the few times when you see her in historical outfits).

Fanfic recs (BSG, DW, SCC)

Battlestar Galactica:

Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies: a terrific story set during the occupation arc in early s3. The Doral and Simon models were the ones we found out least about during the show; here, a Doral is the point of view character, and it works amazingly well, as he talks to Gaius Baltar (and btw, this is one of the best takes on Baltar I've ever read). No spoilers beyond the New Caprica arc, the atmosphere of which this story captures wonderfully well.


Doctor Who:

You can't teach an old time lord new tricks: after Journey's End, the Tenth Doctor visits UNIT just after the point where Four and Sarah Jane had left it. Stories which use both Old and New Who characters with equal affection invariably make me happy, and this one so does: the Brig, Yates, Benton, Jo, Liz Shaw, and finally Harry Sullivan all are at their best, and there are two neat Torchwood tie-ins as well.

The Sarah Connor Chronicles:

A Tatto On Her Wrist: a Riley portrait in a very original format, a fanmix where with each of the songs comes a drabble, portraying Riley, her relationship with Jesse and her lostness in present and future. Very well done.