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selenak: (BeastBrand by Stacyx)
In which a new story arc starts, called Meanwhile and written by Christos Cage, who has my goodwill because of the Iron Man/Captain America meeting penned by him, Rubicon, in the middle of the Civil War arc. Also, I was promised my beloved Abigail Brand and Hank McCoy would have a prominent role, so you bet I got my grubby hands on this! I'm overwhelmed with work right now and miles behind answering emails and lj comments, but I had to get a quick observations out.

protecting us from extra terrestrials and vice versa )
selenak: (Dork)
Keith Richards' memoirs aren't the only ones published during the last ten days. So, it seems, were Mark Twain's, the first volume of three anyway, after a hundred year wait as decreed by the author. I have just one question: who will read the audio version?

Speaking of recitations, last year I made a post of favourite Edgar Allan Poe readings for Halloween. This year, I'll answer a meme.

Five of your favorite characters are going to a Halloween party. What costumes are they wearing?


1.) Arvin Sloane (Alias). Well, there was a childhood incident; his parents wouldn't let him go trick or treating as Harry Lime from The Third Man, saying that this was not a proper Halloween disguise and he needed to pick an exciting monster instead, thereby utterly missing the point and causing young Arvin to sulk and rewrite the ending of The Third Man yet again in his head so that Harry gets away with it and convinces Holly to get away with him as well, because clearly friendship should trump moral scruples and what kind of an ending was getting shot by your best friend underground anyway? As an adult, he wore of course a number of disguises in the line of duty but left the dressing up for Halloween to Emily, who loved handing out candy to the visiting children. There was one exception, the time after Laura/Irina's supposed death when Jack was held in custody and Sydney was staying with the Sloanes. Emily wanted to take her trick or treating but broke her leg the week before. So Arvin swallowed his dignity, donned a Long John Silver disguise and took Sydney trick-or-treating. Emily didn't ask him why he picked a pirate. Sydney did, and he smiled and told her she'd make an excellent Jim Hawkins.

2.) Abigail Brand (Astonishing X-Men and Marvelverse at large). Hank said it would build team spirit, which made her wonder whether he wasn't aware she'd read the files, and thus knew how Halloween celebrations with the X-Men usually turned out. But after the utter mess Gyrich had made, S.W.O.R.D. definitely needed... something. Maybe something silly. So she agreed to a Halloween party. She didn't intend to wear a costume at all, prepared for the jokes on how her usual appearance was enough to put fear into anyone's heart who worked for her, not least because she regarded that as a tribute to her efficiency, but then Hisako, who seemed to regard the fact they had each other's mobile phone numbers as an excuse to text her constantly, informed her that "Professor McCoy had looked very depressed" the last time he visited. So, purely in the interest of building team spirit, and certainly not because she wanted to cheer her boyfriend up, Abigail Brand exchanged a few more SMS with Hisako. When Hank arrived to pick her up for the Halloween party, she told him he was not under any circumstances to take pictures. And then she stepped outside of her quarters, in the costume based on the photos Hisako had sent. She had asked about the exact length of the scarf and whether or not the hat was optional, but it was that or the costume with all the question marks and the rainbow colours, so really, there was no choice. In any case, the grin on Hank's face was worth it, not least because the prospect of those teeth on her skin always turned her on.
Maybe she would wear the "Doctor" costume more than once, after all.

3.) C.J. Cregg (The West Wing) denies the incident with the Morticia Addams costume ever happened. Even if Toby has photos. And anyway, everyone experiments in college, don't they?

4.) Andrew Wells (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) will never forget that special, special Sunnydale Halloween where he wore a Jedi costume, newly aquired from a British guy named Rayne who blew in and out of town pretty quickly. The Force was with Andrew that night, he'll have you know. Even the fact that his older brother Tucker had picked the Darth Vader costume and nearly strangled him that night couldn't spoil it. Andrew will never wear another costume on Halloween again, just in case the incident ever repeats itself.

5.) Amanda (Highlander: The Series) sometimes sees Halloween as a very lucrative opportunity (almost too easy for some b&e) and sometimes gets hit by melancholy and unwanted flashbacks to her time with Kenneth when watching the children. Either way, dressing up and partying is a good idea for a distraction, no matter whom she wants to distract. Her favourite Halloween came in the year after The Rocky Horror Show took the stage. Fitz, who had a good voice and fancied himself a rock star at times, got a part in it and promptly got into trouble with one of the leads, from which Duncan had to bail him out. To cut a long story short, it ended with Amanda wanting to raid the costumes because one of them had a real jewel on its shapely leather, but she didn't want to tell Duncan that, so instead she suggested that he, Fitz and herself should just wear them for one Halloween night, for the hell of it. (Three guesses whom she cast as Rocky. She herself wasn't Janet, of course. She was Frank'n Furter. It was a fun, fun night, and she did end up with the jewel.
selenak: (Illyria by Kathyh)
We're currently debating the Babylon 5 episode Face of the Enemy over at [community profile] b5_revisited, which together with the recent Cordelia meta I linked made think about a trope several shows do, with varying degrees of success: one of the regulars goes dark side, via demonic possession, or brainwashing, or via being replaced by a literal doppelganger, depending on the degree of fantasy the show in question employs. In most cases, this only lasts an episode or two, but in some, it's kept up for longer and makes for an arc.

Spoilers for Babylon 5, Astonishing X-Men, Buffy and Angel ensue )
selenak: (Abigail Brand by Handyhunter)
There is something about you and my journal, Astonishing X-Men, there is definitely something about you.

Other good things that happened to me yesterday were watching the recent tv adaption of Going Postal. Which was great fun, the actors were excellent (Charles Dance as Vetinari took a moment of getting used to because of the hair colour and his recent stint as Aredian in Merlin, but no longer than a moment; he was good in the part), and combined with [personal profile] honorh's reading of the Watch novels gave me a powerful case of nostalgia for Discworld. It also reminded me of a silly idea the Ashes to Ashes finale inspired: which is spoilery for the AtA finale ) Angua would not have time for Gene's bullshit, though with her family she's got plenty of baggage to deal with. Vimes and Gene would loathe each other on sight precisely because what they share is what they dislike in each other, mostly, aside from good detective instincts. Also, mighty battle of the alpha coppers would ensue. Carrot would drive Gene crazy by sheer unrelentingly cheerful righteousness. And moving on from Discworld, Michael Garibaldi and Gene would be a recipe for disaster not only for the same reasons Vimes & Gene would be but also because Garibaldi is an alcoholic and more prone than Vimes to falling off the wagon. But the absolute best recipe for "entertaining disaster I will not write, do you hear me, plot bunny, I will not!!!!!!" would be a crossover with American Gothic. No matter what you think Lucas Buck is (err, other than sheriff of Trinity), you have to admit that the idea he spent his brief American Gothic finale coma anywhere near Gene Hunt, well, it has something. Which I will not write.
selenak: (Ben by Idrilelendil)
Randomly, and amusing if you're a comics fan and have read more than one story by a certain British writer: Paul Cornell coins the best unexpected!description ever of Warren Ellis in his report on the London Expo last weekend: On the Saturday night, I met Warren Ellis, and found him to be very sweet, like Santa with an edge.

This reminds me: haven't written a review on the most recent AXM. In short, I do like that Storm finally gets something to do instead of just hanging around, the scenes between her and Scott were great, either Emma or Warren Ellis haven't done their research on hotels in the Serengeti, and the team interaction is fine, but the art, it burns, it burns, precious. Did I complain about the SWORD art? It's a marvel by comparison, no pun intended. Never have I beheld such ugliness in an X-Men title, and that's saying something. Plus: it feels bizarre that Ellis didn't use the start of a new arc to finally bring AXM in tune with the rest of the Marvelverse, timeline wise, because the action still takes place pre-Dark Reign. Maybe he just doesn't want to lose Hank as a team member?

Apropos: did I read that right in the recent Avengers issue or was too something spoilery taking place? ) BTW, re: Avengers, Brian Bendis, roughly speaking, comes in two editions, initimate character stuff and overblown crossovers; he seems to be going for happy medium here, with an ensemble but room to breathe for character interaction as well, whether these are the awkward-yet-touching Tony-Steve scenes, Maria Hill's appearance after a certain line of Steve's (which caused a huge grin on my face, as did Tony's reaction) or Thor's honestly baffled "who are you again?" to Bucky (since he missed the entire Winter Soldier saga). The basic Back to the Future ploy isn't original, but who cares as long as it's pulled off in style? Also, loved Tony's first thought when asked about time travel is DOOM.

Fanfic recs, Lost edition:

All spoilery for the finale, and thus under a cut )
selenak: (Gwen by Cheesygirl)
List the five scariest scenes ever.

With the usual caveat of "scary to me, imo, fear is subjective, etc., might change my mind later when not so exhausted by a day at the book fair". But. Here are my current choices, in no particular order of scariness, hidden behind lj cuts so that you, gentle viewer, can be scared as well if you managed to miss the sources in question so far.

1) Hush (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) : the scene where spoilery events happen. ) BTVS is rarely scary in the traditional sense, that's not the point, but that was a moment of pure horror which will stay with me.

2) Blink (from Doctor Who): Moffat always brings it, and several times throughout this episode, but never more so than in the grand climax when spoilery stuff ensues. ) Well done, Mr. New Showrunner. The final gag/punchline with the montage and the voice-over isn't half-bad, either. :)

3) Torchwood: Children of Earth: that COBRA meeting. (If you've watched CoE, you know what I mean, if you've yet to watch it, you'll figure out immediately which one as well.) Never mind the 456, good macguffins though they were, but the true monsters of CoE weren't the aliens. What made this particular scene so intense, so unforgettable and so incredibly scary is that this particular viewer along with apparantly a lot of others thought: Yes. That's how it would go. That's exactly how they would talk, and what they would do. Well done, Mr. Old Showrunner.

4) The Haunting (the original black and white version, of course!): one film where nothing violent on screen happens and which still reliably scares the crap out of me. The scariest scene for me always was when spoilery events happen ). Brrrrr.

5) Astonishing X-Men, Torn arc: in another Whedonian entry, we have that panel where Kitty Pryde proves scarier than all the Hellfire Club ever could. How so, you ask? Here's a spoilery explanation ). I'd call AXM a lot of things, but not scary: this particular moment during Torn, however, is pure horror.

*****

On another note, two more recs:


Torchwood/Lost:

Four Days in the Desert. Post-Children of Earth, Gwen encounters the Smoke Monster. Spoilers for s6 of Lost and CoE, top Gwen characterisation, and, due to Smokey's, err, versatility, attempted mind-messing on a grand scale.

The Sarah Connor Chronicles:

Two vid portraits, one of Derek (something for you, [personal profile] queenofthorns !), and one of John, superbly crafted by [profile] chaila43, are here.
selenak: (Guinevere by Reroutedreams)
If you're written fanfiction for some time, you're bound to encounter, sooner or later, feedback along the lines of "usually I don't care about character X, but you've made me think about him/her" or "your story really made X work for me". Actually, that's the best version. Sometimes the feedback sounds more like "X is scum/ I've always hated that whiny X/ X totally ruined the show/film/book for me but..."

Now, I've experienced several emotional reactions. It's easiest when the feedback is for a story about a character whom I've have mixed feelings about myself - Gaius from Merlin, for example, or Simone on Heroes -, and I have written those. (I've also written stories where the pov character was one I disliked intensely. It blackly amuses me that my very first Heroes story back when I was in fervent love with the show was a Sylar pov, and trust me, even before loathing him as one embodiment of much of what went wrong I never cared much for Sylar.) Sometimes I even write to figure out a character I'm not sure about better. Then feedback based on the "look what you've done, you've made me suddenly understand X!" principle is immensely satisfying, flattering even.

However, when the feedback is for characters I'm absolutely passionate about, whom I feel ridiculously defensive for, then the instinctive reaction is another matter. Cases in point: Connor back in my Angel days, or Abigail Brand ever since Astonishing X-Men. Then even cautiously phrased character dislike in the feedback, phrased, for example, like "if Connor was like that on the show, I might have liked him" or "you've almost made Brand bearable to me" raised my hackles. I felt like replying "well, obviously this IS how I've seen him/her on the show/in the book, that's why I fell in love with him/her". (This wasn't what I replied, btw; I usually told myself to see the reaction as a compliment and simply reply with "thank you" or "I'm glad you enjoyed the story".)

Why I am I reminded of this again? Because I suddenly find myself on the other side of the fence, so to speak. Not about a character I dislike, though. No, it's more complicated. Now, as a reader, I've experienced cases where someone else's stories made me reexamine canon and become more interested in characters I had overlooked. For example, Lennier on Babylon 5, whom I had liked fine during the original broadcast but had never paid much attention to and hadn't found that interesting. Later on, when after acquiring the B5 dvds I read fanfic by [personal profile] deborah_judge and [personal profile] eye_of_a_cat during my rewatch, and this definitely made me far more interested in the Lennier scenes than I had previously been. So that's familiar to me, but what I'm experiencing right now is something else. A sense of disconnection, is perhaps the best way to phrase it, about much of Morgana-centric fanfiction in Merlin. It's not a case of "oh, this makes me see Morgana in a new light"; more a case of "I'm sorry, but I can't see how this Morgana is the show's Morgana; maybe she's more inspired by Katie McGrath in her interviews and audio commentary?" Don't get me wrong: vaguely spoilery remarks for both seasons of Merlin ensue. )

In conclusion: I'm not sure I have one, except that I'm frustrated, and wonder whether this is what readers felt when writing to me about other characters "I like your version of X, but..."
selenak: (Guinevere by Reroutedreams)
Hm, I originally didn't intend to watch a fourth Pirates of the Caribean movie because to me, the driving force of those films was Elizabeth Swann's story, and Elizabeth has never been mentioned as being in it. (I'm seriously not that interested in Jack Sparrow. He's a good supporting character - with someone else as the lead.) Which actually works for me - I'm content with where the third film ended re: Elizabeth. Otoh, now I hear Ian MacShane is in negotiations for playing Blackbeard, which admittedly is an incentive. Still. I liked a lot of elements in the Pirates movies, but what made me love them was Elizabeth, and I'm not sure the forces behind a fourth movie are interested in coming up with another layered female character...


A busy real life makes for limited internet reading. However:

Somehow I missed that John Cassady, aka the artist responsible for the drop-dead gorgeous art of Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men run, also directed the Dollhouse episode The Attic. (No wonder that episode, one of the most memorable of s2, was full of great imagery.) Here's an interview where he talks about this.


Merlin fanfiction:

Rooted fast to the earth is a great post- s3 Gwen pov. Am I mistaken or does more and more Gwen fanfiction get written in the last weeks? *is very happy about this*
selenak: (BeastBrand by Stacyx)
Title: Five times Hank McCoy tried to propose to Abigail Brand

Disclaimer: Characters and situations owned by Marvel.

Characters: Hank McCoy, Abigail Brand, Norman Osborn, Emma Frost, Scott Summers.

Summary: See title.

Pairing: Beast/Brand

Rating: PG 13

Spoilers: For Astonishing X-Men up to and including Ghost Box by Warren Ellis, Uncanny X-Men including Dark Reign: Utopia by Matt Fraction, and S.W.O.R.D. by Kieron Gillen. Dialogue in the fifth scene from S.W.O.R.D. #3.

Author’s Note: For [profile] harmonyangel, who gave me the prompt.
Consider this my Valentine story, starring one of my favourite couples )
selenak: (Abigail Brand by Handyhunter)
1.) Trailer for the Tennant/Stewart Hamlet , which both brings back the joy of having watched this live and the anticipation of seeing it again. I just hope the RSC delivered that dvd I ordered eons ago as promised. Also, once the dvd is available and the film has been broadcast, I hope for lots of screencaps and plenty of icons, hopefully some of which will show both actors I tend to fangirl in the same shot. (The publicity photos by the RSC last year just weren't what I wanted in this department.)

2.) Yuletide Uploading is open. Uploading my story reminded me again what fun it was to write. I've always looked forward to the 25th because Yuletide is such a great ficathon, but this year there is that additional slight nervousness which comes with having made a contribution as well. Let's see how rare that rare fandom is...

3.) Discovered via [personal profile] vilakins: Pride & Prejudice via Emoticons. Who cares about adaptions with zombies if you can have adaptions via emoticons! :)

4.) Methinks Warren Ellis really hit his stride with his second arc in Astonishing X-Men. #33 is out, that's the third issue in a row which is fun to read, doesn't have wth? character moments and came without any long interruptions in between. If you really want to nitpick, you can argue Storm's role in the Ellis line-up is, the one discussion she had with Cyclops in the last arc aside, somewhat bland, especially compared with Kitty in the Whedon line-up, but that's really not much of an issue. I'm so happy Hisako continues to play a major role in AXM, and Ellis writes her absolutely delightful. He also seems to want Scott/Logan 'shippers really happy with this second arc, seeing as he continues to write their interaction. Also, the art for the second arc is way better than for the first, especially for my beloved Abigail Brand and for Hank McCoy. Speaking of my favourite morally ambigous agent, I continue to harbor a spoilery suspicion. )

5.) Five Minutes, Mr. Welles. I had heard about this short film (31 minutes) which premiered at the Venice Film Festival 2004, starring and directed by Vincent D'Onofrio, but I had no idea it was available on YouTube until yesterday. D'Onofrio had played Orson Welles before, as a cameo in Tim Burton's Ed Wood, but this time he gets to use his own voice. Which doesn't sound at all like Welles', but that's beside the point here. (Especially since he's great with the body language and the script.) This particular short film is set during the shooting of The Third Man, at a time when Orson Welles had long since stopped being a beloved prodigy and was now in quasi-exile from Hollywood, mostly living in Europe and hiring himself out as an actor to finance his own movies. Quite often, this meant a lot of mediocre films to play in, but occasionally, he lucked out in his quest for movie-financing cash and got a role in a great picture. But you don't even have to know that in order to enjoy this half an hour which among other things showcases some magic of acting, as D'Onofrio-as-Welles goes from memorizing the Ferris Wheel scene in a listless, lifeless manner to injecting a flicker of personality in the lines to finally, at the end, coming up with a complete performance of Harry Lime, complete with the ad-lib Welles contributed to Graham Greene's script. The second character is an invented one, but in complete contradiction to my nagging about the book Me and Orson Welles I shall praise her existence. Katherine, scriptgirl-plus-personal-assistant, played by the classy Janine Theriault whom I've never seen before but now shall look out for, goes from seemingly powerless to actually powerful, and goes the through the full O.W. experience of alternatingly being frustrated, angry, challenged and charmed. There are some lovely visual homages to Welles as a director (the camera angles are obvious, but I clued in the Othello bit one only after I'd seen it; well-done, especially since Othello was the film Welles was needing the cash for). And in case you've never ever seen The Third Man - and what stopped you so far? - this is the scene Welles is rehearsing in Five Minutes, Mr. Welles. One of the all time classics and endlessly quotable. (And imitated and quoted from about a million times.)

selenak: (BeastBrand by Stacyx)
Before I get to the review part of this entry, some other things:

1.) I listened to the audio commentary for ST XI by J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Damon Lindelof. Highlights:

Spoilers are still giggling )

2.) Apparantly John Simm went all fanboy about David Tennant in DWM 416, swearing, among other things, eternal masterly fidelity ("David is my Doctor"). Quite right, too; I think if and when they bring the Master back for future incarnations, whether for Eleven or subsequent Doctors, he should mirror/contrast that particular Doctor and be played by a different actor. IMO John Nathan-Turner did Anthony Ainley no favours by giving his Master Roger Delgado's look. Different incarnations of the Master should be as different as different incarnations of the Doctor are. One of the reasons why Simm!Master works so well for me is how he specifically mirrors the Tenth Doctor.

3.) Fanfic recs:

Being Human: Everything arrives at the light is a lovely, lovely OT3 friendship story about George, Annie and Mitchell. No spoilers.

Astonishing X-Men: Gravity. Covering the transition period between Joss Whedon's run and Warren Ellis' for my favourite couple, Hank McCoy and Abigail Brand, from Hank's pov. I love this story quite a lot.

Which brings me to:

4.) Review!

S.W.O.R.D. #2 )
selenak: (Henry Hellrung by Imaginary Alice)
Name 10 characters without looking at the questions, then answer for them.

Characters:

1. Abigail Brand (first Astonishing X-Men, currently Marvelverse at large)
2. Jo Grant (Doctor Who)
3. Benjamin Linus (Lost)
4. David Fisher (Six Feet Under)
5. Kai Winn (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
6. Londo Mollari (Babylon 5)
7. Henry Hellrung (The Order, Iron Man)
8. Alex Drake (Ashes to Ashes)
9. Maria LaGuerta (Dexter)
10. Owen Harper (Torchwood)


Questions! )
selenak: (Tony Stark by Runenklinge)
A friend of mine wanted the complete Whedon run of Astonishing X-Men for his birthday in two weeks, which gave me an excuse to acquire the omnibus before wrapping it up as a present. Additional material that comes with it are basically an introduction containing the X-Men backstory parts important to AXM, an interview with John Cassady, emails from Joss Whedon to Joe Quesada and Michael Marts and some sketches; nice to see/read but not a must, so if you like myself already have the individual trades, you don't have to by the omnibus for these alone. Anyway, it left me all mellow and wistful. Not only was Cassady's art the prettiest, but I really loved those arcs and the way Joss wrote every single character, both the stalwarts he inherited and the new ones he created. To this day I'm frustrated AXM didn't get more fannish attention because it was fantastic and really the best thing he did post-Chosen (and I include Firefly here).

I also got Invincible Iron Man #20 (start of a new arc, Stark Disassambled) by Matt Fraction. Brief spoilery thoughts. )

In other news, my Whedon/Cassady AXM love made me go back to the AXM mood theme for a while.
selenak: (Abigail Brand by Handyhunter)
Curse you, Warren Ellis, for making me break my resolution of not reading your work until it's gathered in trade volumes because it's more enjoyable this way by catering to my fannish whims.

My darling, I'm trying to reach the joystick - wait, that doesn't sound good, either )
selenak: (Alex Drake by Renestarko)
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.
selenak: (Agent Brand by Likeadeuce)
In the ongoing process of catching up with what I missed during the book fair, I bring you recs from the fabulous [community profile] heroines_fest, aka the one about comic book women:

Solutions for better living: in which [personal profile] likeadeuce writes curtainfic for Jessica Jones, Carol Danvers and friends, and it is fantastic. Complete with robots attacking Ikea. And too many one liners to quote. I love it to bits.

Reason to believe: in which two of my favourite characters Joss Whedon contributed to the Marvelverse, Hisako Ichiki and Abigail Brand, have a chat post-Breakworld and pre-Secret Invasion. Hisako's doubts and questions as well as Brand's no-nonsense manner are rendered perfectly.

If the world stops spinning: one of the many great things about X-Men: First Class was the retcon of teenage Jean Grey and Wanda Maximoff, the doomed ladies of the Marvelverse, having a passionate friendship. It's simultanously delightful, a breath of fresh air and touching if you remember what life has in store for them. This story captures them at their transition to adulthood and does both of them justice.
selenak: (Tourists by Kathyh)
I'm turning 40 in September, and judging by what [personal profile] likeadeuce told me yesterday, Marvel has decided to give my a birthday present a month early (or later, depending on how you view it): Abigail Brand gets her own series. Mind you, before reading the first issue one can't say how good or bad it will be, but the sound of it is incredibly promising: Agent Brand is our lead and abstractly mostly in charge. Beast is her boyfriend and top-science bod. Together, they save the world or die trying (whilst engaging in fine banter). In addition to which, there'll be Lockheed (picking up on a plot point Joss established in AXM). And like I speculated in Face of the Enemy, Brand being half-alien will be a plot point for suspicion an distrust of her in the post-Secret Invasion world. I am a happy, happy camper, people.

One Torchwood fanfic rec:

Lines of Command: Tommy, from season 2's To the Last Man. A sensitive character vignette.


And now, on to the last meme replies:

Top five ways Mitchell Hundred makes a good politician:

Ways have spoilers for Ex Machina up to Volume VI )

Top five personal pieces of fanon.

I wasn't sure whether this meant "fanon that I made up" or "fanon I adopted from elsewhere to believe in", but decided to go with both.

Five spoilers for Doctor Who, Babylon 5, Angel and Alias )


Top five one-off villains/monsters, across all series.

This is harder to answer then you'd think, not least because many villains frustrated me by appearing only twice in their respective shows, which on the one hand disqualifies them from being a one shot villain, but on the other didn't really make them a recurring villain (a category which would have been far easier to answer). For example, that's why I can't name either the Rani for Doctor Who or Kenny from Highlander. Still, here are some villains and/or monsters I thought were awesome and who really appeared only one single time.

To be found in BTVS' Hush and Conversations with Dead People, DW's Blink and Midnight, and TNG's Chain of Command )

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