Queer as Folk, and multifandom links

[selenak]

Having watched Queer As Folk (the original UK version, that is, not the US remake), these days also known as The Other Famous Cult Show Russel T. Davies Wrote, I was entertained and couldn't help but conclude the following:

- RTD really likes the name "Tyler" as a surname
- but not as much as he likes the constellation of "dependable kind person in unrequited love with charismatic guy also fancied by the rest of the
universe, whose sidekick dependable kind person is, charismatic guy is seemingly oblivious to when he hurts dependable kind person's feelings"
- and he loves Doctor Who even better than that.

Seriously. When Vince watched a Fourth Doctor episode in the pilot, I was just amused; when it got really hardcore later, complete with Genesis of the Daleks instead of sex, a K-9 model as the birthday present to top all other birthday presents and the ability to name all actors who ever played the Doctor as the ultimate test of true love, I wondered whether this was an early sneaky attempt to get the BBC to revive the show and make Rusty the headwriter, but then I checked the date, and Queer as Folk is from 1999 (New Who started in 2005), so no, it must have been pure fanboy devotion. Then I listened to the audio commentary for the final episode (which was recorded in 2003), in which Aidan Gillen and Craig Kelly (who play Stuart and Vince) say they wouldn't be able to name the Doctors anymore and RTD says that of course he can. Bless.

Of course, if you have a show in which all three main characters are white gay men, then you don't have to worry about the fact Charismatic Guy might love Dependable Kind Person but doesn't LOVE DKP in the same way DKP loves him, or does things like looking at someone else longingly right in front of DKP, could be read as either having a subtext that favours heterosexual romance over gay romance, or a subtext that discriminates against women, or a subtext that discriminates racially.

ETA for clarification due to a question: In other words: Vince loving his best friend Stuart unrequitedly (as far as a sexual relationship is concerned) while Stuart has sex with everyone BUT Vince and isn't above exploiting him occasionally is perceived differently than either Jack-Ianto-Gwen or Doctor-Martha. Presumably this has something to do with all participants (including potential rival Nathan) being of the same race and gender, because the emotional structure is remarkably similar, if not the same.

Also of possible interest in the eternal debate on how oblivious or not Our Russel is to minorities other than the one he belongs to: when recently outed Nathan gets into a teenage rant at his (black and female) best friend about her belonging to the "heterosexual fascist majority", she pwns him by saying "I'm black, and I'm a girl; try that for a day". Exit Nathan, silent and stunned.

***

Of interest for fanfiction writes in all fandoms: penknife wrote great meta: On letting the characters you love be wrong. Because that's one of the hardest things to achieve, and few fanfic writers manage it.

Speaking of fanfiction, two links:

Heroes:

Ordinary Boy: futurefic, in which Lyle along with Claire (and Mr. Muggles!) ends up living with the Petrellis. Lyle's pov on the craziness that is Petrelli family interaction is simultanously wry, funny and touching, and the relationship between him and Claire (the only non-dysfunctional siblings in the Heroesverse, they!) is wonderfully drawn.

Blake's 7:

Things That Happen In The Dark: Blake and Avon in the first season. Gen, with slashy subtext. You know, just like the show. *g*

Doctor Who:

Pockets: a great Donna pov, and through her an indirect portrait of the Doctor. Short but perfect.

Torchwood:

Waiting For A Dream: Martha and Owen during A Day in the Death. As the episode itself, dark and intense.

Comments

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Let me clarify: what Rusty favours is the triangle structure. Doesn't matter which participants and the gender of same. If he does this with three men, nobody minds. If one of the participants is a woman, as in TW, suddenly the implication for fandom is different.

(There is no heterosexual romance in Queer as Folk. The supporting female characters are: Nathan's platonic best friend Donna, Vince's mother, and the lesbian couple Stuart has donated his sperm to so they can have a child.)

[ionlylurkhere.livejournal.com]

(also here via who_daily, and very much going off on an inconsequential tangent ...)

Nathan's platonic best friend Donna

Someone needs to buy RTD a baby names book. Stat.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

LOL. As kalypso_v notes above, in addition to the main characters being called Stuart JONES and Vince TYLER, and the platonic best friend Donna, you have Jones' and Tylers all over the place in his other works as well. And also two Harknesses.

[stoplookingup.livejournal.com]

Ah -- I see your point. Clearly you're right about that structure he uses over and over. I guess when using it with non-homogeneous threesomes, there are certain patterns Rusty falls into regarding who plays which roles, but those don't come into play when it's three white men.

But regardless, when the guy whom everybody loves and who is a user toward the one who loves him is also set up as the moral authority with power over life and death, it's not quite the same as three guys who have no inherent inequalities. So maybe that's another problem with using that pattern in Doctor Who.