Fanfic recs and movie websites
Sep. 10th, 2010 02:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakStar Trek: Deep Space Nine:
Tashlich: set in season 4, this story explores Worf's heritage from the Roshenko side of the family (and reminds me how I regret that we never saw Helena and Sergei on DS9) as well as his budding relationship with Jadzia Dax. Has a great Jadzia, which is always a special treat for me.
Babylon 5:
Acts of Redemption: in which the end and the immediate aftermath of the Minbari civil war in s4 are explored in far more detail than the tv show had room for. The povs are divided between Shaal Mayan, Delenn's friend from s1 and Lennier, with Shakiri and Delenn herself the other main characters. I really appreciate the fleshing out of Shakiri beyond simple bad guy and the way the author shows us the impact Neroon's sacrifice had on him; same for Mayan whose friendship with Delenn is one of the losses of the war as her view of her old friend darkens. A few weeks back when at b5_revisited we talked about Moments of Transition I mentioned that it hadn't occured to me before rewatching that Delenn actually intended to die in that episode, and the implication of that; this story brings it up. Lennier is a character in transition, far less clear sighted than he thinks he is, which is why my one nitpick isn't really one. (In the passages concerned with Lennier's friendship with Vir, Lennier at one point reflects that Vir isn't really a Centauri and utterly unlike the rest of them, as if a Minbari soul had ended up in a Centauri body. It's ic for Lennier to think that, but it's not true and Vir, who throughout the show considers himself as Centauri as Londo does, would never agree. In the same passage, Lennier recalls how the Centauri regard religion as superstition and don't really have it. This is where we get to the limit of pov suspension of disbelief, because the Centauri do have a religion - why do you think Cartagia is so keen on becoming a god? - ; Parliament of Dreams, the episode in which Lennier is introduced, btw, showcases a Centauri religious feast. The fact it's a party where everyone gets smashed might not make it a Minbari's idea of religion, but there it is. Now Londo, personally, expresses scepticism about the gods more than once, and at his most belligerent in s2 and s3 calls the Narn "superstitious", but we get no reason to assume this is true for all the Centauri. And even Londo takes the trouble to explain why the Centauri goddess Li has both male and female attributes to Lennier in s1 who thus should really recall the Centauri do have a pantheon. Mind you: this is a teensy, minor, minor point in this story and I doubt anyone who's not an obsessed Centauriphile like myself would even notice, but notice I did.)
***
In other news, seems the film Nowhwere Boy which for us Europeans is out on dvd already and which I reviewed two months ago for that reason is now getting released in the US. To that end, it got its own website which is rather charming. At first, I wondered whether all the explanations about the British class system or what Liverpool in the 50s did not have (hint: ipods and cd players are among the listed items) were overdoing it, but then I remembered Harry Potter fanfiction set in the 70s which features all these things and thought, probably not. Also, they're up to speed with their internet linking; for example, when John Lennon's oldest childhood friend, Pete Shotton, quotes Paul McCartney's song Here Today, there is a helpful YouTube link to the song in question. Speaking of Pete et all, seems those nice old men who didn't become musicians, aka the surviving Quarrymen, do a brief US tour as part of the film promotion. (I am a bit doubtful about whether this is a good idea. There's a reason why they dropped out back in the 50s once the band became more serious than "John's social circle banging on instruments". Otoh, it's probably fun for them, so why not?) Oh, and the part of the website that deals with the real life folks is titled Friends and Lovers and divided into two sections: a) The Quarrymen, and b) Paul and Yoko. Honi soit qui mal y pense.
Tashlich: set in season 4, this story explores Worf's heritage from the Roshenko side of the family (and reminds me how I regret that we never saw Helena and Sergei on DS9) as well as his budding relationship with Jadzia Dax. Has a great Jadzia, which is always a special treat for me.
Babylon 5:
Acts of Redemption: in which the end and the immediate aftermath of the Minbari civil war in s4 are explored in far more detail than the tv show had room for. The povs are divided between Shaal Mayan, Delenn's friend from s1 and Lennier, with Shakiri and Delenn herself the other main characters. I really appreciate the fleshing out of Shakiri beyond simple bad guy and the way the author shows us the impact Neroon's sacrifice had on him; same for Mayan whose friendship with Delenn is one of the losses of the war as her view of her old friend darkens. A few weeks back when at b5_revisited we talked about Moments of Transition I mentioned that it hadn't occured to me before rewatching that Delenn actually intended to die in that episode, and the implication of that; this story brings it up. Lennier is a character in transition, far less clear sighted than he thinks he is, which is why my one nitpick isn't really one. (In the passages concerned with Lennier's friendship with Vir, Lennier at one point reflects that Vir isn't really a Centauri and utterly unlike the rest of them, as if a Minbari soul had ended up in a Centauri body. It's ic for Lennier to think that, but it's not true and Vir, who throughout the show considers himself as Centauri as Londo does, would never agree. In the same passage, Lennier recalls how the Centauri regard religion as superstition and don't really have it. This is where we get to the limit of pov suspension of disbelief, because the Centauri do have a religion - why do you think Cartagia is so keen on becoming a god? - ; Parliament of Dreams, the episode in which Lennier is introduced, btw, showcases a Centauri religious feast. The fact it's a party where everyone gets smashed might not make it a Minbari's idea of religion, but there it is. Now Londo, personally, expresses scepticism about the gods more than once, and at his most belligerent in s2 and s3 calls the Narn "superstitious", but we get no reason to assume this is true for all the Centauri. And even Londo takes the trouble to explain why the Centauri goddess Li has both male and female attributes to Lennier in s1 who thus should really recall the Centauri do have a pantheon. Mind you: this is a teensy, minor, minor point in this story and I doubt anyone who's not an obsessed Centauriphile like myself would even notice, but notice I did.)
***
In other news, seems the film Nowhwere Boy which for us Europeans is out on dvd already and which I reviewed two months ago for that reason is now getting released in the US. To that end, it got its own website which is rather charming. At first, I wondered whether all the explanations about the British class system or what Liverpool in the 50s did not have (hint: ipods and cd players are among the listed items) were overdoing it, but then I remembered Harry Potter fanfiction set in the 70s which features all these things and thought, probably not. Also, they're up to speed with their internet linking; for example, when John Lennon's oldest childhood friend, Pete Shotton, quotes Paul McCartney's song Here Today, there is a helpful YouTube link to the song in question. Speaking of Pete et all, seems those nice old men who didn't become musicians, aka the surviving Quarrymen, do a brief US tour as part of the film promotion. (I am a bit doubtful about whether this is a good idea. There's a reason why they dropped out back in the 50s once the band became more serious than "John's social circle banging on instruments". Otoh, it's probably fun for them, so why not?) Oh, and the part of the website that deals with the real life folks is titled Friends and Lovers and divided into two sections: a) The Quarrymen, and b) Paul and Yoko. Honi soit qui mal y pense.
