Choose ten characters. What fandoms would they participate in, and in what ways?

1.) I already did a post on clearly both movieverse Magneto and Xavier being Doctor Who fans, complete with highly scientific poll as to which Doctors and which Companions they like best. Expanding on that, I'd say Erik Lehnsherr to this day argues Genesis of the Daleks with Charles online and and has dispatched Mystique to Simbabe to investigate those rumours that there are copies of the lost Second Doctor episodes there. He could only sell her on this by telling her she might as well kill Mugabe while she was in the country, but by all means had to retrieve the tapes.

2.) Severus Snape, growing up with a Muggle father as he did, had off course access to 70s and early 80s tv. You know what this means, don't you? Young Severus was a Blake's 7 fan. Only Lily knew, of course, because he'd never have confessed it to his Slytherin friends; he just used Avon's one liners to great effect without them recognizing the origin. He used to write Avon/Cally fanfic under a pseudonym for fanzines and then broke it off. During his time as a Death Eater, he was severely tempted to go after Chris Boucher for Gauda Prime, but the thought of Voldemort figuring out the reason held him back. Later, at Hogwarts, he came around to regarding Blake as a great finale. At least Avon didn't have to teach kids as a punishment.

3.) Arvin Sloane's secret vice, as opposed to the more obvious ones, are Andrew Llyod Webber musicals, especially The Phantom of the Opera. He has all kinds of recordings, went to see it every time he was in London for an Alliance meeting and when really depressed finds reading Erik/Christine OTP fanfic complete with Raoul bashing cheers him up to no end. He'd never write it, though. On the other hand, he nearly got into a flame war on the subject why older manipulative mentor types with a killing record might not be the ideal partner for young talented ingenues. The other person just couldn't see Erik did it all for Christine's own good and that she'd never become such a stellar soprano without him; and why should the occasional posing as her father be a bad thing?

4.) Darla was really into Wilkie Collins novels back in the 19th century and had a bet running with Angelus as to what the nature of Sir Percy's secret was, though her favourite of his novels wasn't The Woman in White, it was Armadale. In the 20th century, she discovered the film Theatre of Blood and thought it was a marvellous idea, very inspirational. Only instead of killing off critics by staging Shakespearean deaths, she celebrated her ongoing Collins fannishness by killing off critics who insisted that he just wrote cheap potboilers by staging Collins murders. Also prevented murders which really should have been allowed to succeed for everyone's good, like the death of blond Alan in Armadale, oh yes. Wilkie Collins' reputation with literature professors improved; his critics literally died away. Clearly, fandom is not powerless.

5.) Alex Drake was a big Professionals fan as a girl, read Bodie/Doyle slashfic though she didn't write it, and made character and relationship soundmixes. She also catches Martin Shaw on stage when she can. Well, she did when she was living in the present, that is. Since her trip to the past, she found she couldn't stand watching The Professionals on screen anymore, for some reason, and instead distracts herself by watching Dallas, annoying her teammates by predicting plot twists and reconciling them by inventing drinking games.

6.) Toshiko Sato was a big Battlestar Galactica (new) fan, creating some of the best vids in fandom and writing lengthy, thoughtful meta. She was secretly a Kara/Leoben shipper (secretely because she knew how screwed up that was, and so used another handle when talking about that ship), but her vids were either Roslin-centric or ensemble. She was tempted to ask Jack about the Final Five and how it all ended but in the end didn't, and died not knowing.

7.) Abigail Brand is familiar enough with Star Wars to get Hank's references and respond accordingly, but she's really a fan of the Alien franchise. Ripley was and is her idol. She has all editions of all four movies on dvd and Sigourney Weaver's autograph, though she claimed her geeky boyfriend wanted it. In her non-existant spare time, she writes furious posts in online forums as to why there shouldn't be a fifth one.

8.) John Connor actually tries to stay away from sci fi, but one day caught a BSG episode, and, well, it all ended with him arguing in Television Without Pity why Cylons were completely implausible but Boomer was screwed over as a character anyway and should have gotten a redemption arc. He'd never tell his mother but has a feeling Cameron knows.

9.) Martha Jones stays away from medical shows except House; she and Tom regularly mock the medicine during episodes, but they never miss one, and though Hugh Laurie's American accent still occasionally weirds her out - after all, she watched Blackadder as a girl - she has a huge crush on him. Sometimes she checks the internet for Shakespeare fanfic and never knows whether she's dissapointed or relieved that there don't appear any Shakespeare/Dark Lady stories available.

10.) Vince Matsuka is a big Star Trek fan, which isn't a secret, and mods a Kira/Odo shipping community, which is, since he always tells everyone he's just in it for the chance to get naked photos of the female actors. He also gets into regular flame wars with Kira/Dukat shippers and with someone with a goverment computer IP who wants the discussion to get back to whether the Enterprise could beat the Death Star, with the online handle of LemonLymon.

Name five series that should have had a musical episode (and how it could have been explained).

1.) Alias. Especially given they had a genuine star of the genre among the cast (Victor Garber), they so should have gone there. Yes, there was one episode where Sydney's alias was a singer, but that just sufficed for measly one and a half songs and is not the same thing. How it could have been explained: if in doubt, via a Rambaldi invention - only by singing will Our Heroes And Villians discover the key to his most mysterious masterpiece/prophecy yet! Or, more mundanely, they simply have to go undercover. Not on Broadway, no; the villain of the hour conducts his operation hidden in Rio during the carnival, and for the grand climax, Sydney & Co. have to dance and sing through the Sambadrome. (Originally only Sydney was sent on the mission, with Dixon as her back-up, but Jack, being the concerned SpyDad he is, went as well to keep an eye on her and ended up having to perform a solo so we can finally hear Victor Garber. Also, Sloane perfectly embodies an agent and gets roped into singing "I am a sentimental man" from Wicked because he gets confused with Ned Bolger. *Joel Grey joke*)

2.) Babylon 5. Instead of showcasing both writerly exhaustion and pettiness in the last season 4 episode, The Deconstruction of Falling Stars, JMS uses the same basic idea but in a different and more original format. So we don't get debating historians bashed or holo reconstructions, oh no. Instead, we see the story of B5 as narrated a century later in a glorious Centauri opera, with the regular cast playing their roles, but with a musical twist. Christoph Franke rises to the challenge, and we get an episode nearly threatening to outshine the s5 finale.

3.) Ashes to Ashes or Life on Mars, I'd be happy with either. Justifying it would not be a problem, given the nature of both shows (i.e. the ambiguity as to whether any of this happens anywhere outside of Our Timetravelling Cops Heads). That convenient sudden attack of illness which has been known to hit both Sam and Alex mid-seasons to heighten suspense and make everything even more surreal strikes again, and suddenly Gene sings, Chris and Ray duet, and Ray, depending on whether this takes place in the 70s or 80s, has a particular moment of musical revelation. Also, if it's the 80s, there's a tango number of Alex, and if it's the 70s, Sam gets to to stepdance (we know John Simm can do it).

4.) Star Trek: The Next Generation. It's Q's fault, obviously. Our Heroes have to solve the mystery of the hour before they're allowed to speak instead of sing again. Surprisingly, Worf - who loves Klingon opera, after all, and has been known to belt out tunes of same when alone - adopts quite quickly, though not as quickly as Data who sounds mysteriously like John Adams in 1776. Beverly Crusher stuns everyone with a dance number, and Deanna duets not with Will but with Reg Barclay, who has practice for these kind of scenarios thanks to the holodeck and thinks his hour has finally come. But because it is a Q story, the final challenge has to involve a solo from Picard. (Sidenote: the reason why I picked TNG instead of the others is that DS9 basically went there already with the various Vic Fontaine episodes, and Voyager with the Doctor and Seven, more than once.)

5.) Farscape. If in doubt, blame John Crichton's mind. He came up with cartoon scenarios to indulge in while in a coma, so why not with a musical? Most likely setting would be s3, which means Moya-John, but because we're in his mind, he gets a terzett with Talyn-John and Aeryn. More importantly, he also gets a shared step dance number with Harvey and a duet with Scorpius, while his imagination resurrects Zhaan for a Zhaan/Chiana/Aeryn number. The breakaway hit is a song from Pilot to Moya, though. When John finally visits Earth again in s4 and collects the Buffy tapes his sister recorded for him while he was gone (remember, he was a BTVS fan and explicitly lamented the missing of episodes as one of the drawbacks of his existence in the UTs), he thinks Joss must be in a conspiracy with the Ancients because clearly Once More, With Feeling is directly ripped off his mind.

Two okay episodes, not spectacular but with good character moments.

( What did you do, steam the letter open? )

Any episode which has Chris and Ray quoting Brideshead Revisited to each other can't be bad anyways, but with the exception of one thing that annoyed me a bit, this one was great. Also, I caved and got myself an Alex icon. The beauty of Keeley Hawes could no longer be resisted.

( The little pitter patter of tiny crocodile boots )

Now I'm off to Görlitz and another conference.

( Maybe there is more than one real world )

In other news, have some fanfic from other fandoms:

Battlestar Galactica:

So you'll aim towards the sky: Caprica Six during the occupation arc of s3, finding Gaius Baltar not as she left him. Captures Six and Baltar during that stage beautifully, and the atmosphere of the New Caprica episodes.

Torchwood:

Out of Time: Tosh and Owen, from Tosh's pov. A story which doesn't idealize the relationship, let alone Owen, and because of that manages to touch me deeply. Oh, Tosh.

That pesky real life again, but I have some links:

Ashes to Ashes:

Major Tom is a Junkie: Alex and her Electra issues, with Evan and Gene both. By paperclipbitch, who wrote some of my favourite Torchwood fanfic, which reminds me there ought to be a crossover.

Torchwood:

The Dead Hour: Jack, Owen and the little Tarot reading girl. I stand by my claim the relationship between Jack and Owen was the most interesting one on the show, and here we get one of the most intriguing cameos thrown in for good measure.

Shakespeare:

Now, while I still bask in my memories of the Stratford Hamlet, I do regret not being able to go a month later, because then I would have been able to attend the "Shakespeare and Me" session where Patrick Stewart, David Tennant and the director talked about all things bard. At least there are photos. (Haven't found a good report yet, though, just someone declaring Patrick Stewart has the sexiest voice known to men and women, which is not news (but still true, of course). If someone finds a report on what was actually said by whom about Shakespeare, I'd be profoundly grateful!)

Something that has undoubtedly occured to dozens of watchers before me, but bear with me:

( Spoilers for AtA, including the season finale )

While we're talking about literary references and fantasy realms on both shows, there is a great Ashes to Ashes vid using Elphaba's song from Wicked: The Wizard and I.

I also was motivated to look for fanfic, and found, courtesy of an author I knew from her fabulous Torchwood fanfic: One flash of light but no smoking pistol.

***

I hadn't read Fray when it first came out, but when I came across a trade collection in England, I bought it and read it on the flight back. Fray, for those who don't know, was Joss Whedon's first excursion in the realm of comics, and is the story of a Slayer two centuries into the future, Melaka Fray. He wrote it while BtVS was still being broadcast, and there is a tiny link of sorts in Chosen, but basically you can read it on its own, without any background knowledge. I had stumbled across an individual issue eons ago which I remembered as only so-so, which was why I hadn't read it before, but when I now read the complete story, it bowled me over, and I loved it. Doesn't dethrone Astonishing X-Men as my favourite Whedonian oeuvre post-BTVS/AtS/Firefly, but only barely.

( In spoilery detail: )