My favourite ficathon opened its doors again: sign up for Multiverse 2007! If you enjoy more than one space show and always wondered what Laura Roslin would think of the Doctor, and vice versa... actually, that one got already written (check out last year's archive), but you know what I mean. This ficathon always produces a lot of classy and fun crossovers and is run by the fabulous andrastewhite. Avant!

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Because fandom and its dramas so invite self mockery: calapine has a hilarious post up on how modern shipper and character wars could be retconned into Old Who, here. Favourite excerpt: 1979: Romana I vs. Romana II - It's just like the Doctor vs. Doctor wars, only prettier and with better clothes.

Incidentally, I must have rewatched Gridlock three times now. Not sure whether I'll join andrastewhite into declaring this to be my favourite Tenth Doctor episode yet, but mmmmmmm, Gridlock. What it definitely is: DT's best performance on Who. And Martha putting down the chair shall forever be one of my favourite companion gestures ever.

One of the reasons why I'm glad the Multiverse stories are posted anonymously at first is that I find it intriguing what feedback one does and doesn't get without the name attached. (So far, some nice feedback for my main Multiverse story and the recipient of the pinch-hitting second one liked that one, which is a relief.) Conversely, I read stories without automatically starting with the writers I already know and love. Of course I play the guessing game - that's part of the fun - but I don't know, so the feedback is just for the story.

Some more recommendations:

Dancing in Emptiness (Firefly/Star Wars): River and Yoda. Short and wonderful, this is. Sense of River, Yoda does make. Sense of Yoda, River makes as well, which more difficult is. My admiration the author has.


Home from the Sea (Star Wars/ Star Trek): Oh, Leia. You know, like many a Trekker, I was disappointed with Star Trek: Generations, but here the notion of the nexus is used terrifically, and the enormity of all that Leia lost is brought home in a story where she hasn't lost it at all.

My Crew and Other Animals (Firefly/ Battlestar Galactica): Post-Serenity the Movie: the newest addition to Serenity's crew is one Kara Thrace. Mal point of view (side note: it occurs to me that in those crossovers, River or Mal are by far the most often used pov characters, leaving everyone else in the dust), and everyone is handled very well. The Kara/Inara relationship, and Mal's reaction sound both utterly plausible.

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In my review of Army of the Dead, I mentioned loving the Doctor/Jackie scenes, and I know I was far from the only one. Here's some excellent meta on Jackie and the Doctor, and why Ten's behaviour towards Jackie (and Mickey) is different from Nine's.

In other news, I squeezed in a PotC: The Curse of the Black Pearl rewatching. It did strike me that, as has been argued in a post someone linked me to when I asked for ELizabeth stories and meta, that you can really make an argument for these movies being Elizabeth's story. Not that they aren't also Jack's and Will's and even James Norrington's, but considering both movies together, I wonder whether the boys are not Rhett and Ashley and Melanie to Elizabeth's Scarlett. We start out with Elizabeth as a girl, singing her pirate song, and "a pirate's life for me" with everything that costs (and that eerie first scene, bringing on the wreckage, does make it clear pirates won't be all fun and games) is what she more and more gets. It's one of the things that makes these movies such clever twists on the cliché, because the cliché would have been Elizabeth-as-love-interest, The Girl, inspiring Will to heroic action and not doing much of anything else. We're getting our first suggestion that this won't be the case when she makes her "parlez" play and negotiates with Barbossa. Who tells her the code won't help her because she's not a pirate. Ah, irony. I do wish they would have kept the "no truth, no truth at all" and the "peas in a pod" scenes with Jack and the short conversation with Norrington within the movie, though, because if you haven't watched those deleted scenes on the dvd, you're truly missing some of where Elizabeth in DMC comes from.

Regarding audience expectations and the confounding of same: Scarlett, of course, comes from a very different novelistic tradition. The novelistic ancestress of The Love Interest aka The Girl would be someone like Rowena in Ivanhoe. Scarlett descends from Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair (and one of the reasons why I had problems with the recent film version was that they softened Becky so much in order to make her a more traditional heroine); she's the heroine of her own story but not the nice girl in same. Instead, the narrative makes her flaws very clear. More Scarlett and ELizabeth similarities: they both start out around age 16 as spoiled children of privilege but at the same time already gifted with vitality and will power. Adverse circumstances bring out their capacity for ruthlessness, which is a good survival skill, but also comes at a price (for other people, not just themselves). And now I wonder/hope whether, Disney rules not withstanding, Elizabeth might not end up with neither boy but her equivalent of Tara, which would be (like it is for Jack) freedom.

Today, a beautiful calendar from Alaska arrived with my mail, courtesy of honorh. Am still admiring the photos. Also, the beta for my Multiverse story came and allowed me to correct it and send it off. Now I'm really looking forward to reading the others.

Now, I can see I have some new people on my flist, and some of the old people have by now watched shows they had not last year and the year before that, and I love those stories anyway, so let me take the opportunity to repeat my recs for the last two years of Multiverse stories. In case you're wondering: Multiverse = Ficathon where shiny space show crossovers take place. The requisite condition being that a) they're sci fi shows and/or movies, and b) at least some episodes/part of same take place in space.

So, my favourite stories in 2004 and 2005 were:

Crosses and Naughts (Farscape/Firefly): written before either Peacekeeper Wars or Serenity made it to the screen(s), set after both shows; a fantastic portrait of both Aeryn Sun and Mal Reynolds, and the future envisioned for both sounds true to character for me.

Displaced Persons (Blake's 7/Farscape): Scorpius, meet Kerr Avon. Lovely and sharp.

Perfect Imperfections (Farscape/Voyager) Scorpius gets around in this particular ficathon. Here he meets Seven of Nine. I've always had a not so hidden soft spot for Seven, and her interaction with Scorpius makes so much sense here...

Playing Poster Child (Farscape/Babylon 5): once upon a time there were two saints who were really bloody minded ruthless terrorists before they found serenity (not that one, the other one). Pre-series Zhaan meets pre-series G'Kar.

There And Back Again (Stargate/ Deep Space Nine): despite having seen only four episodes of Stargate, I adore this. Sam Carter goes through a wormhole and ends up on Deep Space Nine. It's just her luck that she hits it off with Jadzia Dax. (Jadzia does well in this ficathon, too, and her rendition here is just spot-on and perfect in all its vivacity. Extra bonus for fragment of a bad poem by Quark.)

Take Care Of Yourself For Me (Firefly/Babylon 5): River Tam in all her wiste, lunatic, poetic glory. And that doomed, abandoned telepath from B5, Talia Winters.

Catch a Tiger by the Tail (New Battlestar Galactica/ Farscape): everyone who saw both shows thinks it sooner rather than later: Six ought to meet Harvey. And vice versa. Neuralclones with a mission, unite! Or not. Considering one of them is a religious zealot and the other really has just had enough of being someone's instrument...

Resistance (Farscape/ Voyager): Scorpius again. This time, he meets the Borg and their Queen. Who have rather different things in mind than Seven did...

Resting Place (New Battlestar Galactica/ Firefly): it just happens that one of those ships in the human fleet came from another place altogether. Yep, it's Serenity, and when during early s2 of BSG, Laura Roslin and Lee Adama really need a place to hide, she's just the ship...

An Element of Blank (Dr. Who/ Deep Space Nine): my girl Jadzia Dax again, she who knows quite a bit about changing personalities with each new life while still retaing an ongoing core. Here she meets the Ninth Doctor.

Travel Light (Dr. Who/ Farscape): The Seventh Doctor and Ace become entangled in a rebellion against the Peacekeepers. It's just the sort of thing which would happen to them, the Ace point of view is to die for, and my favourite Doctor/Companion team deals beautifully with the moral ambiguities of the Farscape-verse.

Yours truly also wrote some stories, and discovered on the way that crossovers, which I used to shy away from, can get quite addictive to write. So, my contributions to Multiverse 2004 and 2005 were:


Crossroads (Star Wars/ Star Trek: The Next Generation). Which I still like to nickname "the two most unpopular characters in each fandom meet each other", though Anakin Skywalker has had a bit of a boost in popularity since Revenge of the Sith hit the screen (which it hadn't yet back then). Post-show Wesley Crusher ends up in a galaxy far, far away.

The One Who Got Away (Deep Space Nine/ Farscape): While doing their mountain climbing act in the episode Ascent, Quark and Odo trade stories. Or rather, Quark talks and Odo snarks. What Quark talks about is this really intriguing girl named Chiana. 'Twas a fun request to write.

Ghost in the Machine (Star Wars/ Farscape). Set between trilogies. During his hermit years on Tattoine, Obi-Wan Kenobi meets a young man with a dark past and a darker future. Yes, you guessed it, it's Scorpius.

Coming in from the Cold (Deep Space Nine/ Babylon 5): Garak reveals a hidden episode from the Dominion War, co-starring one Alfred Bester. This one was probably the easiest prompt for me, because a) both have a gift for one-liners, and b) neither would reveal any information he doesn't absolutely have to reveal to anyone, which makes for minimal exposition. Oh, and c) they're also utterly ruthless, with a gift to seize opportunities when they get them. Like I said, easy.

Pretty in Pink (Firefly/ Babylon 5): this, on the other hand, was the story which caused me the most headaches in advance. Because it stars two very nice, polite, sensitive people, one of them the sweetest guy in the universe. You see my problem? But I figured I could take two points in their respective canons where they could really need some comfort after the hurt. So, post-show and pre-movie Inara meets middle-of-season 4 Vir Cotto.

Firstly, I saw New Earth and shall review anon. Secondly, also in Dr. Who news, I bought a set called "Beginnings" and shall now be able to watch the very first Doctor in his early adventures. (Said set contains "An Unearthly Child", "Daleks", and "The Edge of Destruction".) Am greatly looking forward to this.

Thirdly, the results from yesterday's poll (so far):

1) Sisko and Lee Adama went mano a mano as men of principle caught up in a hostage situation; so far, it looks like the Sisko wins, but Lee is in really close pursuit. It occurs to me that what both eps (i.e. "Past Tense", a DS9 two parter, so really, three eps, and "Bastille Day" (BSG)) have in common, besides the Ron Moore connection, is that they combine the hostage drama with social issues. One of the many reasons why I love "Past Tense" is that this is one of the few Star Trek time travel episodes where Our Heroes go back in the past without allowing the show's audience to feel smug about themselves. (A la "no, we don't have that 30s depression and/or nazis/50s racism and cold war paranoia anymore".) The past Bashir and Sisko end up in is our future, but barely, and the mess the people are in in this future is the one we're currently producing. Bashir's "but how could people allow this to happen?" is an unconcealed "J'accuse" in this regard. Meanwhile, "Bastille Day" doesn't take the easy way out by letting Lee overpower Zarek and restore the status quo, i.e. the Astral Queen as a prison ship. Or let Zarek die, whether killed by Kara or someone else. No, it allows for the fact that Zarek, flawed and with mixed motives as he is, actually has a point with his demands, and Lee solves the situation by addressing the originally raised issue. It's still one of my favourite BSG episodes.

2) Buffy and Faith went up against the crew of Moya when it came to favourite body swaps, and for a time, the advantage switched back and forth, but then the Slayers left Crichton & Co. behind. I had a tough time making up my mind about this one myself, but ultimately I went with Who Are You because it uses the body swap concept to examine Faith's character in a way that the show hadn't done before and results in lasting changes, whereas Out of Their Minds is glorious fun but doesn't really change anything for any of the Moyans. Also? It made me look up the word "stevedore" in the dictionary.

3) The battle for best "Am I Crazy, Am I Dreamin'" is still raging, between John Crichton and Buffy Summers. Honestly, I love "Normal Again" (and think it's underestimated), but I thought John was a sure winner there because they don't come more crazy and more painful (right mixed up with the funny) than "Won't Get Fooled Again", plus, well, big arc revelation. The other big surprise is "Frame of Mind" being such a respectable third. Not that it doesn't deserve all the applause it gets, but I wasn't aware TNG episodes were still popular among yourselves, respected readers.

4) Canon AU: here BTVS and Marti Noxon score with "The Wish". No serious rivals (and I didn't even mention in my description it introduces Anya...). However, again TNG is doing respectably well with "Tapestry"; I strongly suspect the Jean-Luc Picard/Q interaction as the cause. *g* Also, I feel bad because londonkds reminded me that TNG has a canon AU episode which I really should have included in the poll, P/Q be dammed: Yesterday's Enterprise. Too right. Written a pre-DS9 era, it offered a dark "What If?" version of the Star Trek universe without any Mirror Universe campness (nothing against the Mirror Universe, I love it, but that's not a "what if?" where just one different twist of history makes all the difference for Our Heroes) and used the late Tasha Yar far better than the show had done when she was a regular.

5) "Take a look at yourself during a useful coma": Londo wins at self-examination in a comatose/delirious state, which doesn't surprise me, though I admit I'm biased. (What with "The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari" being one of my all time favourite Babylon 5 episodes.) What did surprise me was that Bashir and John Crichton are still duking it out for second place and no one loves The Professionals. (Me, I'd have given Life on Mars second place, but given how very new the show is, I'm not surprised it didn't get more.)

6) "Hero of the Hour": shame on me. karabair pointed out I forgot one of my all time favourite Alias episodes, "Tuesday" from season 4, wherein Marshall saves the day (but as opposed to all the other guys doesn't get laid, because he's a married man and his beloved is elsewhere, you know; but he does do a great Jack Bristow impersonation!). Anyway, here The Zeppo is the clear winner. I have issues with The Zeppo myself, but this ranking doesn't surprise me, as I knew it's a popular episode. Meanwhile, Vir comes in as a good second, leaving Vila and pre-Action!Wesley behind.

7) "My heart belongs to Daddy": the tearjerker about love for one's father and attempts to change timelines for him which wins is "The Visitor"; mind you, for a while it was back and forth between Rose Tyler and Jake Sisko. I wonder whether I should have asked after Sci Fi has broadcast "Father's Day"? Anyway, I loved that Dr. Who episode, but I voted for The Visitor myself. One of DS9's best. And now I'm annoyed with myself that I didn't request DS9/Dr. Who in the Multiverse ficathon, I tell you.

8) "Torture the Hero": wow. Another case where I thought Farscape would easily win, but no. As of now, Jean-Luc Picard has snatched the tortured hero award from John Crichton. Personally, I blame Patrick Stewart. (Again.) A word of explanations why I didn't nominate any of the numerous Jossverse occasions where heroes get tortured, including the leads: imo, episodes like In The Dark (Spike uses Angel as a pin cushion) or "War Stories" (Niska has a go at Mal and Wash) aren't really about torture. "War Stories" is primarily about the relationships between Wash, Zoe and Mal, focus on Wash and Zoe. "In the Dark" (aka the last time either show uses Spike in his original function as villain, and I think the writers knew it would be, because the episode has a "last hurrah for Evil!Spike" aura about itself) uses the backstory between Spike and Angel and is primarily about confronting Angel with a temptation for the easy way out. One of the reasons why my B5 example for a torture episode was "Intersections in Real Time" and not "Comes the Inquisitor" is that "Comes the Inquisitor" offers this brand of tv torture as well.

Now, new new Dr. Who (thank you, Davies, for that meta quote...).

( He's foxy! )

Innsbruck on a sunny afternoon was lovely indeed, and the old city centre is just Renaissance and baroque splendour made stone. Also, there is a great exhibition about Maximilian I. which I visited. On the not so great side, later I had an encounter with an extremely annoying woman who insisted on me telling her what my philosophy was and quoted Peter Handke as an example to follow. Whereupon I snapped and said my philosphy definitely tells me not to praise dead dictators at their funerals.

Back to the sanity of fanfic: some of the short ficlets I wrote in recent months and the longer one about Spike's victims are beta'd and up now:

Condolences (aka the one where Angel visits the Master after staking Darla), which is also here;

Unforgivable (aka the one about Holtz in "Benediction") which is also here;


Five Ways To Celebrate Christmas (aka Ashy's Christmas present, the one which looks at assorted AtS characters with Connor as a link) which is also here; and

Five in One (aka five stories cut short by Spike), also to be found here.

In other news, today is the last day for the Multiverse 2006 sign-up. This is the best ficathon ever, and I'm not saying that lightly, so anyone in love with a space show or two really reallly should participate. The quality of the results has been fantastic, each year, and you'll bask in fannish joy once it's all over, I promise!

( Stories I wrote this year )


( Theatrical_Muse writings )


My favorite story this year
I'm torn between two, actually, both dealing with gentlemen sharing the same initials:

Facets (aka my Arvin Sloane portrait via his five main relationships, minus the one with Nadia, because at the time I wrote this we hadn't seen enough of that one yet), because that was the first time I thought I did him justice, both the dastardly and the compelling aspects, and Five Senses, which was my fanfic reaction to watching Revenge of the Sith. My Anakin muse had come back with a vengeance, no pun intended.

My best story this year
Coming in from the Cold, a DS9/B5 crossover I wrote for Multiverse2005. Or rather, since it starred Garak and Alfred Bester, it basically wrote itself. Doing justice to two ruthless bastards with a gift for one-liners was a joy anyway, but the challenge, as with all crossovers, was not to bore readers who were familiar with both universes with too much exposition but otoh provide enough explanations for readers who only knew one of the two.

Story most underappreciated by the universe, in my opinion: I got nice feedback for most of them. Hm. Maybe Secret Keepers, which got some at alias_fiction but not elsewhere, as it dealt with Dr. Barnett and Arvin Sloane.

Most fun story: definitely Story of a Lifetime. I love writing tabloid reporters. And if there is anything that didn't please me about Lucy Lawless' character D'Anna, it was that I wanted Playa to be that reporter giving us the inside scoop on Galactica.*g*

Most sexy story: Err, none? I mean, sex is eventually had in one of them, Pretty in Pink, but that's not what the story is about.

Story with single sexiest moment: Hm, maybe Sloane's eyes meeting Irina's when she puts back the chess game in Jack's favour in Facets, because that is the moment when he realizes she's not nice, kind Laura and he'll have sex with her. But I really think my sexiest writing this year was done over at theatrical_muse, and if I had to pick one point, then it would be the climax of the poker game, specifically "So if you really want to know what I'm able to do, anywhere at all... you're going to have to ask. With a "please" at the end. Loudly, clearly, and without any coy metaphors or excuses involving magic or drugs. Until then? Enjoy the flannel."

Err, I guess you had to be there.

Hardest story to write: Pretty in Pink. For the general challenge in writing a crossover (i.e. which amount of exposition to give), see above. This one involved two nice characters, Inara from Firefly and Vir Cotto from Babylon 5. And it was a request fic, which meant I had to get them into bed with each other at the end. Two bastards like Garak and Bester playing verbal chess? No problem. Two very nice people meeting each other? Far more difficult. Plus over at t_m Vir already had had sex with Inara due to Londo hiring her for him, and as the request for the fanfic came from hobsonphile who wrote Vir, I knew I couldn't repeat that scenario. I wanted both characters to get something other than sex out of it, too. Finally I decided that Inara post-show and Vir post-Cartagia are definitely in need to figure out where their life is going and in need for some h/c, and that worked, but then several other characters, like Zack Allen and Lyta Alexander, insisted on show up as well...

"Holy crap, that's *wrong*, even for you" story: *looks innocent* I don't know what you mean. Err, all the more outrageous parts of the t_m stuff?

Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: Sole Occidente got written mainly because I wanted to explore the relationship between Padmé and Palpatine, but as it turned out it also gave me an explanation for Padmé's passivity in Revenge of the Sith.

Biggest disappointment: perhaps frustration is the better word, but: Pretty in Pink. I keep thinking I could have done it better.

Biggest surprise: Coming Through. Because that was my response the aftermath of Katrina in New Orleans, and to the sheer coincidence of Brock Peters, the actor who played Joseph Sisko on DS9, dying at the same time.

Most unintentionally telling story: Well, if I knew that, it wouldn't be unintentional, would it? Hm. Perhaps Word Made Flesh, because anything dealing with Jasmine is bound to bring up some personal theological ponderings.

Waking up to find that the crossover ficathon of all crossover ficathons, the Multiverse 2005, is up and running. Friends of shiny space shows and -movies, hurry there. I'll be in my bunk, reading.

And then I'll have to write someting appropriate to show andrastewhite who managed this my gratitude. *ponders First Generation Spies*

Trying to suss out whether I have recognizable types whom I burden with my fannish affection, I came up with the following. "Types" meaning here those guys and gals whom I love foremost, not the only ones I love. For example, I do adore the Vilas (B7), Virs(B5) and Kaylees (Firefly) of the multiverse, but for some reason, they never are my primary favourites. Often they come close, and I do like writing about them; they just never make it to the top spot with me. Don't know why.

So, let's see who does. In no particular order:

1) Broken Heroes. Those types who start out innocent and cheerful, get messed up by life, often emotionally shut down and/or become obsessive but still continue. Examples would be John Crichton, Frodo Baggins and Buffy Summers. (This is why it took the later seasons for me to have Buffy as my favourite BTVS character; in the early ones, it was someone else.)

2) Talkative Rogues. NOT Han Solo (not a Han fangirl); I mean folk like Quark (DS9) or Rygel (Farscape). They're genuinenly selfish and quite capable of selling you out at times, but they're also clever and have their own kind of bravery. And as opposed to the afore mentioned gentleman of Star Wars, they're not good looking, athletic and guaranteed to get the girl. (Though actually Quark got the girl more often than the other regulars did, but that's neither here nor there.)

3) Underdogs. By which I don't mean characters who are underdogs within the story but the heroes from the audience's pov, I mean underdogs in terms of fannish affection. Those guys a majority of the audience dislikes. Say, Wesley in season 3 of BtVS and in his early Angel episodes before he became fashionable, or Andrew, or hey, in a way Buffy herself. Also Connor and Darla of AtS, but they fit even more in other categories.

4) Smart Manipulators. Mostly to be found in the "villains" or at the very least "ambiguous character" category. Hence my fascination with Servalan (B7), Kai Winn (DS9), Scorpius (Farscape), Garak (also DS9) and Arvin Sloane (Alias). Also Darla. (Oh yeah, and an oldie but goodie, Methos in Highlander.) Right now, the only non-villain in this category which I love best in her show is Laura Roslin.

5) Messed-Up Boys. I'm being gender and age specific here because of the three examples that came to mind; if I find a messed-up girl later, all the better. Also, this category is not to be confused with "broken heroes", though a transition from one category to the other may be possible at a later stage. This would be the tag for Connor (AtS - rewatching the fourth season was followed by the hunt for Connor fanfic and the sad realization there isn't much new out here since last year), Anakin Skywalker (Star Wars - is it May 19th already?) and, as of OotP, Harry Potter. (I liked Harry well enough in the earlier novels, but lo and behold, in book 5 he pushed Snape aside as the character I was most interested in. Yep, angry, lashing out Harry did it for me.)

6) Fallen Angels. I'd blame Milton except for not having read him until long after this fixation came to be. Villains who used to be good guys are often so intriguing, and have the advantage of carrying intriguing history with them to boot. Examples would be Anakin as Darth Vader, Magneto, or Derek Sagan (of Margeret Weis' SW-derivative Star of the Guardians series). I suppose you could file Boromir in this category, too, except that the fall-and-redemption happens so quickly, and err, final.


I'm somewhat at a loss as to where to put Londo Mollari, because he is so many things in the course of his story. Except a Messed-Up Boy. (Though undoubtedly Timov would disagree.)


Now, due to overwhelming pressure from Certain Invidiuals I started watching Lost which German tv has now gotten around to broadcast. So far so entertaining. After three episodes, I haven't a favourite character yet (that often takes more time - characters I fall for almost on sight, like Laura Roslin or Londo Mollari, are rare), but after last night, I'm eyeing Locke with a certain glint. We'll see.

Anyway, it occured to me that there are also types which in theory I should fall for but don't. Or rather, types I like, just not as a primary favourite. Such as:

1) Women Warriors. I like Kira, I like Ivanova, I like Starbuck and Aeryn and Eowyn and enjoy watching them and reading about them. But I never obsess about them. (Buffy is an exception here, see above.)

2) Cuddly Geeks With Golden Hearts. Marshall, early Willow, Kaylee, Billy (in BSG) - like them all in varying degrees, some I even love, but again, not best of all.

3) Most Loyal Friends. Vir, Sam (of LotR, not Stargate), Will (of Alias) - you evoke an immediate urge to hug and admire. If I loved you best, I would probably be better of, as you tend to get well-deserved happy endings. But no. Alas.