This year's Unsent Letters ficathon has gone live. I couldn't participate, but I've been enjoying reading through the collection. Here are some favourites, and you'll notice it was a year of crossovers:


Buffy/Highlander: Watchers : in ye olde days of my early fandoms, decades ago, I remember there were quite a few crossovers between Highlander: The Series and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and not just because of the fact both shows feature a secret organisation called "The Watchers" monitoring the supernatural folk of which the titular hero(ine) is a part, so finding this made me feel all nostalgic. It's a good take on the trope in its own right, with perfect Giles and Joe Dawson voices. Very enjoyable.


Elementary/Doctor Strange (MCU): A Strange Correspondence . In which it turns out Joan Watson and Stephen Strange spent a few years in med school together, and they're living in the same city, so when he needs a good detective, he knows whom to ask. It wasn't until I actually finished the story that I recalled the "Cumberbatch and Miller both played Sherlock Holmes in a modern adaptation at the same time" factor, and it's because this story isn't about that, there's no winking at the audience because of the casting. Instead, we get what feels to me a very ic series of exchanges in various media between Strange and Joan, and Strange and Sherlock, and I smiled and wonder whether I will ever have the time for an Elementary rewatch because it was a show with such lovely character work, and I'm still deeply fond of it. Darth Real Life being hot on my heels, it might be a good long while, but in the meantime, there's good fanfic like this.

Doctor Who: Until I see you again: in which Jo Grant, living her best life, writes to the Doctor, every now and then, through the decades, and the author captures her voice both from her original appearances and that of older Jo as seen in The Sarah Jane Adventures perfectly. I also loved the choice of Doctor who finally gets the letters and writes back.

Jane Eyre: Letters and Articles: which to me felt like a Wilkie Collins take on a Charlotte Bronte novel - the story does a great job both with the letters Jane writers to her former teacher Miss Temple, and with the various articles and their officious Victorian tone. I felt charmed, and also now curious about Miss Temple's post Lowood life in a way I never was before.

Very busy week, so, in short:

Elementary 6.10. and 6.11.: 6.10 felt blah to me, nothing objectionable, but as with the entire Morland arc in seasons past, I think we've seen this father-son-business so many times before, including now the awkward reconciliation phase. Though it makes sense that it happens after spoilery event. The most interesting thing was the very last scene.

6.11.: case of the week makes me wonder whether unsupervised slush funds are a thing these days, and conclude depressed that they probably are. Also, nice shout-out to ACD Holmes' tobacco monograph! The main interest of the episode, though, lay in the continuation of the previous' episode's punchline. ( And here it gets spoilery. )

I was wrong, it turns out.

( Watson can do anything )

In which bad lighting on my screen foils my recognizing a crucial plot twist.

( Read more... )

Finished both of the Agent Carter stories I wanted to write for ssrconfidential, the assignment and the treat. They're very different from each other but, I fear, rather blatantly by yours truly. More post reveal, as I had great fun writing one and the other distills years of feelings and thoughts on Peggy Carter.

Elementary: ( Hmmmm. )

Last year due to my New Zealand trip I couldn't watch the second half of s5 as it was broadcast, but I recently caught up when Netflix put it on, so I could start the new season all informed.

( Focusing on your work )

In which Elementary continues to educate me on things I didn't know in its case of the week.

( Read more... )

1. Your main fandom of the year?

As in previous years, I remain a multifandom woman. An old fandom I got somewhat back into was Star Wars, but not due to The Force Awakens, due to finally marathoning The Clone Wars. Of shows with an open, not yet concluded canon, I continue to love The Americans, Better Call Saul and Bates Motel, but Black Sails is probably the one I feel most intensely for. However, due to tumblr aversion, I’m not exactly in the fandom, as not many Black Sails fans seem to be on dw or lj.


2. Your favourite film watched this year?

Slash. I watched it at the Munich Film Festival in summer, attended the Q & A with the director, and have not changed my impression, which was: I loved and adored this movie. It filled me with joy the same way Galaxy Quest did for a lot of similar reasons. Currently, there are some people badmouthing it on the internet, usually people who haven’t watched it, and that irks me the way it always does when people shit on something you love, especially at a time when fandom is my escape from the horrors of the real world. But such is life, and thankfully the movie will still be there when the haters have moved on to the next subject.


3. Your favourite book read this year?

I read a lot of non fiction this year, the most impressive of which was probably The Pigeon Tunnel by John Le Carré. But the one I loved best was probably fiction, to wit, Oath Bound by Jo Graham and Melissa Scott. Oh, and I did a reread of the Angelique series I’d loved as a child and teen, and enjoyed those novels as much as ever.


4. Your favourite TV show of the year?

See above: Black Sails, which had a fantastic third season and keeps getting better and better. I’m ready to get my heart broken by the fourth and final season, and am confident it will be done in a narratively satisfying way. Incidentally, all my shows except for Elementary had great seasons in 2016, and I didn’t give up any the way I did in 2015.


5. Your favourite online fandom community of the year?

Still the_americans.

6. Your best new fandom discovery of the year?

Very unexpectedly, this was Class, the Doctor Who spin-off which premiered this fall. As far as DW spin-offs are concerned, Torchwood had had a very rocky first season, and while I adored The Sarah Jane Adventures, I went into it because of Sarah Jane, and all the Class characters were new, so I had no idea what to expect. Certainly not the strong first season and ensemble-tastic tale I got. Go show! May you get many seasons more.


7. Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year?

None so great that it drove me to abandon the show, but Elementary’s fourth season, with the exception of the Paul Cornell episode, had been a let down, and season 5 alas hasn’t pulled off the season 3 trick yet of coming back strong. It’s still enjoyable, though.


8. Your TV boyfriend of the year?

In terms of “who would I actually date”, still pre-Saul Jimmy McGill. In terms of “whose ongoing adventures was I most emotionally invested in” , John Silver. In terms of “who would I definitely not date, not even for a one night stand, but good lord, am I emotionally invested, as evidenced by the fact I’ve been writing him again: Anakin Skywalker, human disaster extraordinaire. I had never lost my fondness for Anakin, of course, but The Clone Wars brought back the urge to write him in a big fashion.

9. Your TV girlfriend of the year?

Kim Wexler from Better Call Saul was the core of the second season and a Queen among women, and I adore her, I completely fell for Ahsoka from The Clone Wars, but this year, there can only be one choice (not least due to what happened): Norma Bates, the most doomed mother ever, antiheroine of my heart, so flawed, so passionate, so human, so capable of utter joy and utter rage.

10. Your biggest squee moment of the year?

It’s a tie between John Silver deciding the way to win James Flint’s respect is to tell him Silver has managed to screw him over re: the Urca gold while they’re en route to some shark fighting, and that this tactic works, in Black Sails 3.03., and Norma Bates in Bates Motel 4.06. responding to perceived blackmail with one of her extraordinary raw emotional outbursts, laying her past wide open, and the thought to be blackmailer instead actually repairing her window while the guy she was sure she’d lose by this honesty instead responds with “Where are we going?” Which is the most romantic line you’ll ever hear on this show, in context.


11. The most missed of your old fandoms?

Class made me nostalgic for Buffy. But not for the ship wars. Good lord, not for the ship wars. Also, Highlander.

12. The fandom you haven’t tried yet, but want to?

Mr. Robot, with the eternal “if I find the time” disclaimer.

13. Your biggest fan anticipations for the New Year?

Black Sails season 4, American Gods the tv series, and Arrival, of which I have heard very good things but which I haven’t managed to watch yet. I hope it’ll stick around in the cinemas until I can.

5.07: Meh. Which is why I didn't review it last week. The case of the week was an illustration of "if you really want to tackle this topic in this day and age, don't do it in the space of eight minutes while devoting the rest of the episode to red herrings". And the ongoing arc story was well played, actor-wise, but I'm withholding judgment until I see what comes out of it because if nothing more happens, it sucks.

5.08. Now we're talking. Enjoyed the case of the week, enjoyed the character interaction. ( It gets spoilery from there. )

I spent the last few days distracting myself from the ticking clock of potential US voterdoom by writing the ambitious Yuletide story I've been planning on writing ever since Certain Events in one particular canon happened. It worked; I was so focused on my tale that I had all my emotional energy there. But now the first draft is done and off to the beta reader, and I'm sitting in a train en route to a v.v troublesome region in Germany where the Orange Menace would feel right at home, so the fretting is back.

Therefore, as further distraction: uneasy complaining about the latest Elementary episode.

( Did no one ever watch TOUCH OF EVIL on this show? )