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First, have an excellent new Sanctuary fanfic:

Thylacine (21169 words) by st_aurafina
Chapters: 4/4
Fandom: Sanctuary (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Helen Magnus, James Watson, Nikola Tesla, Imogen Worth, Declan MacRae, Henry Foss
Additional Tags: The Five, Victorian, Australia, Cryptozoology
Summary:

Helen Magnus was resigned to taking the slow road back to the twenty-first century alone without changing history. Then Imogen Worth was found alive under the rubble. Now, with an unexpected ward and paradox at her side, the road to the future has taken a startling turn.

In other news, vaguely connected to Sanctuary and the Five by thoughts of Victorian team-ups of horror archetypes, I'm tentatively watching Penny Deadful. Now, some shows and some books have the type of twist that suddenly gives everything you've watched so far re: a character or storyline a completely new context - and not just "ah, so this also happened" but "hang on, that means something completely different!" - , but they usually take a tad longer to get there. Penny Deadful did it in the second episode, and I'm really glad I wasn't in any way spoiled, so I shan't spoil anyone, either. But it makes for a really clever play on two characters' original story.

Current Mood: bouncy
Current Location: Munich

I was in two minds about whether or not to watch this last season, because I had heard ominous rumblings about it. As it turns out, I was for the most part pleasantly surprised. Which isn't to say I didn't have serious criticisms, or that this is my favourite season ever - I'm tentatively eying season 2 for that - but there was also a lot I could enjoy, and generally I think it made for a better conclusion for the show than the s3 finale would have done.

( More below the cut )

In conclusion: Sanctuary won't make it to my list of must-see tv, but I liked the show a lot, and its characters (some less than others, sorry, John Druitt and Adam Worth), and in Helen Magnus, it provided the genre with one of the sadly still rare female leads who are most definitely adults and look like in their 40s (because Helen is immortal, I have to phrase it like that), get to do action, manipulation, double and triple crossing, are interesting and flawed and have both a fascinating backstory and a fascinating present. And are infinitely crossover-friendly. Hail and auf Wiedersehen, not farewell, show!

Current Mood: pleased
Current Location: Munich

Because it's been too long since I posted some Avengers links:

Give a girl a moment and she'll take you for all you've got: fantastic Maria Hill pov, which fleshes her out as a character and teams her up with Natasha, Pepper, Jane Foster and Darcy for a suspenseful, Bechdel-Test-passing story post movie. Extra bonus for working in the problem of neither falling into the "only superheroes do something, population is passive" trap nor go to the other extreme of declaring said heroes superfluos psychos.

Avengers meta , on basically everyone's relationships with everyone else. Oh well handled ensemble, how I love thee, let me count the ways.

Avengers fandom meta: or, some plausible assumptions why The Avengers became this summer's juggernaut fandom. To the irritation of some. I feel for you, people, because I remember how I felt last summer when everyone was crazy about Inception and I just couldn't follow suit, least of all in the shipper department ("which one is Arthur and which one is Eames again?" being a typical question from yours truly). Whereas this year I'm lucky to be in love with something a lot of other people are also in love with and hence creative in. Just the luck of the draw, I guess.

And finally, something Neil Gaiman posted the other day, of interest to both fans of Sanctuary and people interested in the historic Nikola Tesla: a song about Nikola Tesla he wrote the lyrics to, performed to the spectacle of Tesla coils. As I was curious about said lyrics, I looked them up, and they work amazingly well for both history!Tesla and Sanctuary!Tesla, so I hope someone will vid them for both and add Bowie!Tesla from Prestige for good measure.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: Munich

A whole bunch of them, courtesy of your train travelling blogger who despite loving to travel at this point just wants to rest for the weekend with some nice things to read and watch.

The Avengers:

Joss Whedon interview about directing The Avengers. Some key aspects that stood out for me: 1.) talking about working with established characters (and actors). See, one of the reasons why I'm optimistic about The Avengers is that the last time Joss worked with established characters (plus a few self created ocs who then went on to become established Marvel characters other writers used as well), in a universe he didn't create and where he was limited in the storytelling choices, it resulted in the fabulous Astonishing X-Men. Basically, having editors is good for him.:)

2.) I wasn't surprised most of the questions were about Tony Stark and Steve Rogers. My favourite Joss reply relates to the oeuvre mentioned above, for when asked how he wrote a straightforward, non-edgy hero like Cap, and wasn't that untypical for him, he said:

I love a straightforward character. I am the guy who loves Cyclops on the 'X-Men', because he is square. [Captain America] is a little square, and he is aware that he is a little square, and he is aware that the world is a beat ahead of him, or in his case, 70 beats. I think that's very disarming and very charming. I relate to that guy.

(Reminds me that the last time I really really liked Scott was when Joss wrote him, btw; the successors went too far in the dark!Cyclops direction though I haven't read X-Men comics for a while, and maybe that has changed again.)

3.) Now, if you've watched more than one Whedon oeuvre, you might be famliar with something of a recurring Joss motif, and no, not the daddy issues, though it's a bit related. It's his distrust of organizations and "the man", and yet awareness that if you're long enough successful as a rebel, you become the man, you do have that responsibility. Guess what he brings up about Nick Fury?

Well, he is not going to be talking about his childhood, and you do want to keep a certain mystery. Also -- and this is something that I was very pleased that Marvel actually mandated -- they were very interested in keeping him, not just in the sort of a mystery of how the organization operates, but a real moral gray area where you really have to decide, "Is Nick Fury the most manipulative guy in the world? Is he a good guy? Is he completely Machiavellian or is it a bit of both?" And that was really fun to tweak. I felt that in the other movies, they had been cameos and he had been called upon to come in and be Sam Jackson and bluster a little bit. And I told Sam upfront that my big agenda was to see the weight on someone who is supposed to be in control of the most powerful beings on the planet. The weight on somebody who has to run the organization and the gravity of it.

Sanctuary:

Now that I've clocked three seasons, I feel reasonably safe to watch vids without getting spoiled, so imagine my delight when penknife recently posted this one:

My Freeze Ray, which is Nikola Tesla and Helen Magnus to the tune of Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible. (Here's your elegant connection of subjects.) The lyrics fit scarily well. :)

Doctor Who:

The Christmas Special Trailer. It's titled The Doctor, The Widow And the Wardrobe, and apparantly after having a go at Dickens last year, Moffat now takes on C.S. Lewis and Narnia. (Incidentally, I think the TARDIS-as-Wardrobe comparison must show up in a thousand metas through the decades.) I am simultanously intrigued and slightly scared, because on the one hand, the Moff is good with children, on the other, there is much potential for fail given the meeting of the questionable subtexts that could occur, and I'd rather have a special to enjoy and not a mighty internet flame war to follow around Christmas.

David Tennant wrote the introduction for Elisabeth Sladen's postumously published memoirs, and here he reads it, with that continuing unabashed endearing fanboy adoration you can see in all their scenes together in School Reunion. Oh, Ms. Sladen, I miss you, too.

Current Mood: geeky
Current Location: Munich

Overall verdict: maybe it's the dvd watching effect, i.e. no week or months between weaker and better episodes, but given that everyone told me ahead of time it was supposedly a very uneven season with some of the best and some of the worst episodes, I was surprised how good it was overall, not just in individual eps. It may be my overall favourite so far. Also, it feels weird to have watched all the dvds there are and now be only half a season behind everyone else.

( The season which goes Jule Verne )

Current Mood: impressed
Current Location: Aalen

As promised, and as is the case with many a show, the second season improved on the first - one can tell the writers are now sure who the characters are - and was a very enjoyable, and occasionally angsty experience.

( You taught us to question everything, Helen )

Current Mood: impressed
Current Location: Munich

Driven by ~~the wish to read stories by two friends of mine~~ curiosity, as I found the premise intriguing, I just finished the first season of this show. Overall: likeable. Far more so than the first season of Supernatural (aka the only SPN one I watched), with which it shares some X-Files similarities as well as the use of urban myths. One key difference, of course, is that instead of two boys driving around in a car in an ultra masculine cosmos, you have a team led by a woman (I had seen Amanda Tapping before, in the all of three SG-1 episodes I watched, and I must say I prefer her as a brunette which she is in Sanctuary) and the idea of coexistence between various species writ large.

Mind you: ( spoiler for the bit of Helen's background which is revealed in the pilot ) I do appreciate he asks her whether she watched the sun rise with the Beatles, though. (Will's idea of ancient history, clearly. *g*)

The show spends a few episodes so so (not bad, just nothing outstanding) and then kicks into gear with a vengeance when the show mythology of the Five is revealed, and we meet ( a spoilery person ) By the time I reached the finale, I was determined I would keep watching.

Mixed feelings about: John Druitt, aka ( spoiler from pilot onwards ). And even for a fantasy show, the plot device that makes Ashley ( something spoilery ) is incredibly lame. Methinks they should have decided between the obviously competing wishes to on the one hand let Ashley be a present-day modern girl (i.e. someone born in the late 20th century, the better to contrast her with Helen) and on the other hand ( something spoilery ). Have it one way or the other, but not both.

Highlander reunion times: Jim Byrnes is always a welcome sight, but alas the episode he was in was exceedingly stupid (well, I was warned to leave it out, but it wanted to see Jim Byrnes again). Also the premise that brought his character into play. Otoh, Peter Wingfield had a good part and good episodes (he was far better used here than in Caprica), and turns out to have aged really well. (Speaking of the BSGverse, I was glad to see Dee again, but alas her actress was only in the pilot.)

Borrowed plot is borrowed: either Will Zimmerman, Ashley or Henry should be familiar with Tribbles, Gremlins or both. I don't buy the obvious point about the Nubbins didn't occur to any of them.

Acting showcase is nifty: the submarine episode, obviously. You know you trust your (fellow) actors when you dare to include a two persons episode in the first season. I like how they handle the whole Helen and Will relationship in general. She's not solely his mentor nor exactly his mother replacement but something in between, plus he's not unaware she's an attractive woman but that's not what the relationship is about.

Seriously?: Claire - played by a young attractive white actress - feeling like an unaccepted outcast because of her ability to ( spoiler ) Otherwise I appreciate the addition of another female cast member.

And lastly: making the Cabale's spokesperson an evil overlady instead of an overlord was well done as well. Go, show!

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Location: Bamberg