Fannish5 and DW recs
Jan. 8th, 2010 04:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakFannish5: Name five characters who should have their own spinoffs.
The interesting thing about this question is that it's not the same as asking for favourite supporting or recurring characters in already existing shows. For example, back in ye olde Highlander days I was among the few who loved Methos as a character but did not root for a Methos spin-off. Why not? Because Methos thrives on being a trickster character, whose loyalties can't be a 100% guaranteed even if he's a friend, and whose background is party a mystery to the other characters and the viewer, revealed only in parts. He also thrives on being played off against a straight lead. If there had been a Methos spin-off, Methos would inevitably have been written more like a conventional hero, would have lost his unpredictability, and thus some of his allure. Which is why I never thought he was suitable for one. He was a born guest character. So, let's see, characters who would and could carry spin-offs of their own without losing the elements that made them attractive in the first place:
1.) Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, in short: the Brig(adier), from Doctor Who. It's impossible now, of course, and I know there were some UNIT audios, but what I'm talking about is a UNIT spin-off from Doctor Who during the later 70s, after Four gallivanted off to tour the cosmos again, with the Brig as the lead. He could have tried to get Liz Shaw back as scientific advisor, and there could have been UST; lingering betrayal issues with Mike Yates; the ever reliable Benton; and some new characters the audience wasn't familiar with. (As much as I've become fond of Torchwood in its second season and love, love, love Children of Earth, I still think it's somehow unfair Jack Harkness got a spin-off and the Brig did not.
2.) Lady Johanna Constantine, originally of Sandman. She actually did get a one-shot spin-off, and I loved it, but I'm talking about a full-fledged comic series here. She's a female adventurer living in the late 18th and through to the mid 19th century - that has so much potential, for so many stories.
3.) Chiana, from Farscape. The Nebari and their completely screwed up political system pretty much were ignored post s2, and the show never could make up its mind on what exactly Chiana's post-s3-accident powers were. And she's a vivid, entertaining character who has grown up through Farscape. In short, there is much story telling potential for a spin-off in which she's the lead and forced to deal with the home she's been running from, and her lost brother.
4.) Alias Linus and Farrad is my Lost spin-off of choice, by which I mean: those near three years when Sayid was Ben's sidekick and tool. What we did get on screen was by far the most interesting and twisted of the Oceanic 6 stories. (And it still fills me with unholy glee that contrary to all fanfiction written before that Sayid didn't quit in moral indignation, he got sacked and was much offended when his personal Mephistopheles didn't need him anymore.). It's worth at least a miniseries of its own, surely!
5.) Number One and Christopher Pike from Star Trek. This is probably my geekiest choice. They would have been the leads of Star Trek if the original pilot had been accepted. Which it was not, and thus Kirk became Captain of the Enterprise. Now we've got a reboot which is simultanously a legitimate AU, and we've got a new Pike who completely hit my soft spot for smart middle-aged men and must not be allowed to sink into obscurity again. Why not also give us a reboot!Number One, the female first officer audiences weren't ready to accept in the 1960s, and give her and Pike a spin-off of their own while the kids are having the big screen adventures? (Someone suggested Jennifer Garner for Number One - and also for Christine Chapel, should she be used in rebooted Trek, as both roles were originally played by Majel Barret - and I'm so enamored with that idea, I can't tell you.)
Fanfiction and vid recs, all Doctor Who:
Two lovely and amusing snapshots of my favourite New Who TARDIS team, Donna and the Tenth Doctor, set during s4:
Fair Trade: in which Donna breaks him out of prison.
Glossolia: in which they end up somewhere where the TARDIS can't translate.
Vid:
Run : "There is an awful lot of running involved" in the Doctor's existence, as Donna put it. Indeed. Fast-paced, simultanously a character portrait of the Doctor and a homage to the era with a Masterly bias, just wonderful to watch.
The interesting thing about this question is that it's not the same as asking for favourite supporting or recurring characters in already existing shows. For example, back in ye olde Highlander days I was among the few who loved Methos as a character but did not root for a Methos spin-off. Why not? Because Methos thrives on being a trickster character, whose loyalties can't be a 100% guaranteed even if he's a friend, and whose background is party a mystery to the other characters and the viewer, revealed only in parts. He also thrives on being played off against a straight lead. If there had been a Methos spin-off, Methos would inevitably have been written more like a conventional hero, would have lost his unpredictability, and thus some of his allure. Which is why I never thought he was suitable for one. He was a born guest character. So, let's see, characters who would and could carry spin-offs of their own without losing the elements that made them attractive in the first place:
1.) Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, in short: the Brig(adier), from Doctor Who. It's impossible now, of course, and I know there were some UNIT audios, but what I'm talking about is a UNIT spin-off from Doctor Who during the later 70s, after Four gallivanted off to tour the cosmos again, with the Brig as the lead. He could have tried to get Liz Shaw back as scientific advisor, and there could have been UST; lingering betrayal issues with Mike Yates; the ever reliable Benton; and some new characters the audience wasn't familiar with. (As much as I've become fond of Torchwood in its second season and love, love, love Children of Earth, I still think it's somehow unfair Jack Harkness got a spin-off and the Brig did not.
2.) Lady Johanna Constantine, originally of Sandman. She actually did get a one-shot spin-off, and I loved it, but I'm talking about a full-fledged comic series here. She's a female adventurer living in the late 18th and through to the mid 19th century - that has so much potential, for so many stories.
3.) Chiana, from Farscape. The Nebari and their completely screwed up political system pretty much were ignored post s2, and the show never could make up its mind on what exactly Chiana's post-s3-accident powers were. And she's a vivid, entertaining character who has grown up through Farscape. In short, there is much story telling potential for a spin-off in which she's the lead and forced to deal with the home she's been running from, and her lost brother.
4.) Alias Linus and Farrad is my Lost spin-off of choice, by which I mean: those near three years when Sayid was Ben's sidekick and tool. What we did get on screen was by far the most interesting and twisted of the Oceanic 6 stories. (And it still fills me with unholy glee that contrary to all fanfiction written before that Sayid didn't quit in moral indignation, he got sacked and was much offended when his personal Mephistopheles didn't need him anymore.). It's worth at least a miniseries of its own, surely!
5.) Number One and Christopher Pike from Star Trek. This is probably my geekiest choice. They would have been the leads of Star Trek if the original pilot had been accepted. Which it was not, and thus Kirk became Captain of the Enterprise. Now we've got a reboot which is simultanously a legitimate AU, and we've got a new Pike who completely hit my soft spot for smart middle-aged men and must not be allowed to sink into obscurity again. Why not also give us a reboot!Number One, the female first officer audiences weren't ready to accept in the 1960s, and give her and Pike a spin-off of their own while the kids are having the big screen adventures? (Someone suggested Jennifer Garner for Number One - and also for Christine Chapel, should she be used in rebooted Trek, as both roles were originally played by Majel Barret - and I'm so enamored with that idea, I can't tell you.)
Fanfiction and vid recs, all Doctor Who:
Two lovely and amusing snapshots of my favourite New Who TARDIS team, Donna and the Tenth Doctor, set during s4:
Fair Trade: in which Donna breaks him out of prison.
Glossolia: in which they end up somewhere where the TARDIS can't translate.
Vid:
Run : "There is an awful lot of running involved" in the Doctor's existence, as Donna put it. Indeed. Fast-paced, simultanously a character portrait of the Doctor and a homage to the era with a Masterly bias, just wonderful to watch.
