An Introduction.

I was doing all of this on another journal service, just to keep some (virtual) distance between my regular blog and my fannish squee-ings.

But then I realized that a) the other journal service kinda stunk (1.5 million members, 1.4 million of which seem to be fictional people) and b) why should I have *that* much distance between my journals? (in other words, logging in to the other server was a pain)

My fannishness is a feast or famine sort of thing. I'll go absolutely mad about something for a few weeks, and then it'll be dormant for a few months or even years, as in the case of my current B7 squeefit. The last time I seriously squee'd about that show, I was still in highschool which, suffice it to say, was not recently.

However, I'm not entirely sold on using this journal. I might just stay with the other one, 'cos it offers a few more usericons for free. What can I say? I'm a cheap date.

If I stick with the notion of moving over here, I'll re-post my entries from the other spot before the backlog gets too significant. All entries will be public and, when I remember, tagged - mostly because I do a lot of memory dumping - of my fic ideas and general fannish speculation - and I want to be able to find them, later. If I add any "friends" (how I hate that term, couldn't LJ have thought of something better?) they will probably be fan-communities and the like, rather than individual people. I'll only add comms/folks that I want to read on a regular basis, so if - for some unfathomable reason - you add me to your F-List, don't be shocked if I don't reciprocate. It won't matter as all entries will be public, anyways.

My primary interests are Doctor Who (old and new), and Blakes 7. I'm a moderate fan of The Prisoner, Babylon 5, and most of Joss Whedon's work. I'm passing familiar with Battlestar Galactica (old and new), SG1 and Farscape. When it comes to Dune, I only like the books (the first three books, at that) and the look of David Lynch's adaptation, if not the screenplay. I have a high tolerance for cheeze (as you might guess) and I'm perfectly capable of laughing at my fandoms and myself.

Further news as events warrant.

Can't Sleep, Characters Will Eat Me - From Elsewhere (1)

Fan fiction's an occasional - very occasional - vice of mine. Actually, I don't think I've written any fanfic in at least five years, unless you count the stuff where I blatantly steal a little bit of someone else's work and then jam it into some totally other setting - in which case, the break has been only a couple of years.

Anyways...( A cut tag. )

Descendant - First Braindump - From Elsewhere (2)

Descendant is just a working title. I vaguely remember having come up with something better over the weekend, but I think the boozing I did on Friday night killed those particular brain cells.

FYI: booze does not make you a more creative person.

( In other news - who's who and other ramblings on the story )

Descendant - Second Braindump - From Elsewhere (3)

Doncha love that icon? Emo-Avon! Yes, sweetie, it's all about you. More on that in a moment.

(Someday soon, I'll share all of the names I've created for various manifestations of Mr. Avon - suffice it to say that some of them aren't terribly kind. I love the show but I frequently laugh at it, too)

For the first few days, I thought I could get out of writing anything, really, because I could not figure out, for the freaking life of me, why on earth would Avon go along with, well, anything suggested by another human being. I mean, really... the lad's already teetering on fucking nuts and has just killed the closest ersatz he ever had to a conscience/moral compass, etc.

( More - lots more - behind the cut )

Descendant - Note In Passing - From Elsewhere (4)

Must keep events leading up to and including Warlord (the penultimate eps of the final season) as WTF is Avon doing rounding up the leaders of the would-be-revolution?

I'm about to sit down and re-watch S4 for the first time in over a decade. I hope it'll help untangle a few things. It'll probably make them worse.

Descendant - Another Note - From Elsewhere (5)

Final decisions must wait until I'm re-acquainted with the show - although I sometimes think that this long gap between my last viewing and the current project might be providing some useful distance - but I had a ding! moment¹ on the train in to work this morning.

Of course someone like Avon could be convinced into organizing/participating in a conference of important rebels (as per the story Warlord). How else can a guy ensure that he has a nice little niche carved out for himself after the revolution comes?

Or, if one wishes to be completely mean about it - and god only knows, Avon's motives are sometimes probably unknowable to everyone, including himself - it's possible that he was gathering information to later peddle to the Feds, should the opportunity arise. But blackmail's a bit, y'know, declassé for a guy like him. Contraiwise, he's always keen on big piles o'filthy lucre. Hm. Hmm...

Believe it or not, I like unclear motives. It gives me lots of wriggle room. I'll just pick whatever suits my needs best, natch.

¹ - or duh!, depending on how charitiable you are.

Timelord Nookie - Yes, Really - From Elsewhere (6)

I'm working on a probably far-too-overthought entry about sexual mores in a society that doesn't reproduce in the usual humanoid manner - yep, I'm thinking about what Time Lords do for fun. It'll be something for my non-extant readers to look forward to. Watch this space!

Do Time Lords Have Orgies? - From Elsewhere (7)

I bet that title got your attention, didn't it? We geeks have filthy minds, you should know that by now. You think all that slash and torridly-shippy fic writes itself? On to the matter at hand...

Way Back When, Omega had a snit fit and cursed the Time Lords with sterility. I forget what he was having a fit about, but Omega didn't do anything by half measures, 'cos he's a vengeful bastard.

(or was it Rassilon who did the cursing? Bloody hell, I can't remember. Well, I'm saying Omega for now and will gleefully accept corrections later)

At the very end of the classic TV continuity, and here and there in the books - about which I know the is it canon or not arguments will never fade, alas - there was much mention of the "Genetic Looms" and a few raised eyebrows because a certain Time Lord of renown has (gasp!) a bellybutton, which apparently isn't the done thing in Time Lord circles¹.

I have a problem with the bellybutton thing, actually. Even if Gallifreyans are grown in vats, surely some sort of placental arrangement is necessary in order to nourish the fetus, in which case, they resulting beings would have bellybuttons, regardless of what sort of "uterus" they grew in, right? So I'm going to ignore that whole "The Doctor has a bellybutton" fuss.

Gotta love fanon - ignore the bits that get in the way. That doesn't mean I don't think about them, however.

Furthermore, it's a bit unclear to me if Omega cursed the entire planet full of Gallifreyans, or only the Time Lords, when it came to smacking them with the Big Stick of Sterility. If one were to make a decision based on pre-Seven continuity, one could make a case for it just being the Time Lords suffering the curse. Don't try to tell me that Leela was going to settle down with some fella who wouldn't provide her with some healthy babies, y'know?

Contraiwise, there's the matter that the entire society seems a bit, er, prudish - and various hints and implications in the post-classic continuity suggests that all Gallifreyans rely on the genetic looms for reproduction. So, it's not terribly clear. Again, my gut instinct suggests that Omega cursed every-bloody-one, not just the Time Lord sect/class of society.

However, despite the temptation to perhaps make everyone into sexless beings whilst at the Loom - because hormones cause half the world's problems, donchaknow? - the naughty bits are still needed, unless one fancies the idea of being pre-adolescent for the entirety of one's existence. Ugh. So, never mind how prudish some Time Lords seem to be, those bits are still vital to physical development and are going to be standard issue for everyone.( Further noodlings behind the cut-tag )

The Legend of Zagreus

( Just a bush, only a bush. Move along. )

Descendant, Yet Another Note - From Elsewhere (9)

As I'm listening to an audio that could charitably be described as "Cheeze in Chee-zee Sauce", I'm starting to wonder if I might not be taking the B7 fic too seriously.

Awk, heck, I wouldn't be the first person to do that.

But really... "The Sevenfold Crown" is shamelessly camp.

I need more icons. Time to troll Livejournal again...

General Thoughts on Overthinking Fluffy Stuff - AKA Blinding Flashes of the Obvious (FE 10)

Yesterday, I speculated that perhaps I was taking my much-hypothesized Blakes 7 ficlet Descendant (note: must think of better title) a little too seriously. Overthinking would have been a better word, although taking it too seriously was also on my mind, as I've been re-acquainting myself with the sheer freakin' campiness that is inextricably tied up with the show. Sure, it had some very serious moments - particularly when contrasted against the other bit Brit sci-fi product of the time, Doctor Who - but there was a lot of tongue-in-cheek stuff sloshing around, too.

This morning, I listened to Travis: The Final Chapter, which is an interesting collection of interviews with cast and crew members from B7 discussing Travis' character - including why he was re-cast halfway through the show's run, and how that re-casting was used as an opportunity to tweak the character a bit. It was interesting to listen to several (apparently) intelligent and eloquent individuals get into the refinements of a character that, honestly, I'd considered a bit of a second banana/comic-strip stereotype. And there's no denying that Travis was, indeed, a second banana and a bit silly - Chris Boucher himself acknowedged that - but even the second bananas got a lot of thought put into them at this level of production, it seems.

I heard the actors and writers describe why the character was so loyal to the queen bitch of the universe - I liked the Ollie North/Ronald Reagan metaphor - and how being a loyal-to-the-chief career military man is going to shape a person's worldview. Why he took commands the way he did, why he'd show a surprising amount of loyalty to some individuals and casually butcher others. One person (I lost track of who was speaking) got into how, no, Travis isn't a thinker because any intelligent government is not going to want a thinking military, because sooner or later, they're going to think I've got the guns and they don't. Why aren't I in charge?

At first, I took it all in quite passively and with a bit of "No, duh! Of course the character's like that..." and then I got brought up short with the belated realization that a lot of thought - by many people - had gone into creating the character. It didn't matter that he was a second banana, or a bit campy with the whole eyepatch and cybernetic arm thing. He had been developed and thought about. It wasn't just a case of "We need some scary bad ass to follow Servalan around. You call central casting, I'll dash off some dialogue." Well, it might have started like that...( cue: blinding flash of the obvious )

Blinding Flashes Of The Obvious - 2 (From Elsewhere - 11)

I won't ever complain about the outlining process again. Well, I might, but I'll acknowledge that I'm just whining.

Outlining isn't terribly easy for me. I keep wanting to lapse into full-out drafting of the story, so I have to grit my teeth and remind myself what the point of the exercise is - and that it's okay if my outline turns out three times as long as the finished product. That's what editing is for - but I've got to keep the purpose of the outline in mind and not go wandering off into, say, character-exposition-land.

I've reached the point where I'm ready to outline Descendant and so, yesterday afternoon during a quiet few minutes at work, I got to it. About four pages in, the following note (to myself) manifested with startling ease: If I was half as good at this plotting thing as I should be, something needs to come out from left field and t-bone the scene RIGHT NOW. And, by gum, I was right. It's like that moment in a screenplay - the first Inciting Incident, I think McKimson calls it in his excellent book Story. It's no later than the end of the first act - usually halfway through - and shoves the newly-established (but established enough) characters into a new situation that challenges them/changes their situation, whilst simultaneously maintaining the viewers' interest. And, oh yeah, it's the first introduction of your overall plot for the story - at least, I think that's what it's supposed to be. It's been a while since I've read the book. I try to get to it once a year, or so, but the three weeks of Oh, god, I suck that I put myself through each time I read it is such a bother...

I'd gotten as far as establishing the initial setting and the gang warily eyeballing each other with varying degrees of trust. Some concessions had been made, some hadn't. As I crept up towards the giant void known as The Middle, the second BFOtO of the day struck me. I was hoping for inspiration - as I'm still quite fuzzy on what The Middle will be - but I'll settle for this, as it's just as good, really. Knowing I need something out of left field (but still plausible, of course) gives me something to focus on as I try to think about what that thing may be. In all probability, it'll be my As Yet Unnamed Antagonist to Sleer/Servalan (I really need to get caught up on my naming) or an Unpleasant, Alien, Totally-Outside-Of-All-Our-Characters'-Purview thing. That latter is a bit challenging to come up with, because over the course of 52 eps, the B7 crew ran into a lot of Weird Shit^TM. But I'll give it a think as I'm re-watching the show and ruling stuff out. At least I don't have to worrier about being cheezier than my source material - I don't think it's possible.

Unexpected bonus #2 - this work has me thinking about tackling The Zombie Plot Bunny Screenplay of Doom's outline again. I reached the end of the first act and froze up completely. Maaaaaybe, I can break through that block, this time - I try about once a year or so, as I can't seem to accept the idea that maybe the story just stinks.

Descendant - Outline Progress (From Elsewhere, 11)

I figured out the "t-boning" of the plot, although it's not as whompy as I might like, but it's a solid setup for whatever follows - whatever that is - and it saved me from two pages of characters pontificating at each other.

I haven't quite gotten Avon to the point where he won't kill everyone else, just because he can, but he's more stable than he was five pages ago and, frankly, all I need to write in is the fact that Avon's convinced that he can use everyone else to his own ends and, hey, he's fine. No killing today, maybe tomorrow. Always a killing tomorrow.

And now I must sleep, for my tummy is full and it's been a long day.

Someday soon, I'll have to do a comprehensive review of Servalan's costumes. Just as soon as I can get the screen-grab problem resolved on my computer...

Descendant - Thoughts on Badfic and Self-Amusement (FE, 12)

I know that I'm skirting the edge of badfic with Descendant. By some people's definition, the presence of original characters, alone, makes it a badfic by default.

I agonized about this a bit, particularly as my ongoing plotting suggests that my darlings might be getting Tarrant's nuts out of the fire at some future point¹ and that got me thinking that maybe I shouldn't dismiss Dayna and Soolin so easily and, whoa nelly, how many characters do I have on board now?

'Scuse me. I get distracted easily.

Anyways. I agonized for a bit about committing the minor sin of putting original characters into a fanfic and then I realized that, dammit, I'm writing this for fun. It's for my amusement, and I don't seriously expect anyone else to read it - assuming I even put it online to share. So I shouldn't worry about other people's standards for good fanfic and just have fun. I know, such thoughts can be the beginning of a slippery slope into badfic, no matter how well-intentioned one might be but it's not a case of "that's a risk I'm willing to take", but rather "I don't give a damn about an outsiders' opinion"

There's a chance that Kara's Mary-Sue roots are showing through, and that's annoying me. But, darnit, if I scoured all the interesting bits off her, she'd be completely useless to the story, y'know? Granted, she's got some psi going on that's a bit funky, but I really do think that it's all a) plausible within the setting and b) somewhat redeemed by the fact that said psi-kewlness carries really bad (potentially fatal) side-effects. A Betazoid, she ain't.

There's an undeniable chance that Kara might be dead by the end of the story. Whether by Paranoid Avon, Manchurian Candidate Andriss, PO'd Sleer/Servalan (or even Captain Relt), or just by the aforementioned side-effects (oops, was that major blood vessel in your brain NOT supposed to pop?) I don't know, yet. Well, probably not by a Federation person, as they've got their reasons for wanting Kara alive, at least for a while. I'm tempted to have her brain blow out at a key moment but that, in itself, is a bit Mary-Sue-ish. Then again, if her cerebellum blows a gasket in a futile effort... then I've just descended into pathos. Never mind!

On a related note, I will be cheerfully ignoring the events of the post-TV audio play The Syndeton Experiment as it makes a whole bunch of my ideas redundant. Blech.

¹ - Not a favorite character of mine, but he's such a fab foil for Avon².

² - No, not like that. Get your mind out of the gutter.

Of course it's about Descendant (From Elsewhere, 13)

Y'know, I think the working title has stuck, despite the fact that it makes almost no sense whatsoever. Oh well, c'est la vie.

Avon's not killing off the non-canon characters in Descendant is a matter of mathematics, as far he's concerned. Yes, dear ol' nothing-left-to-lose Avon could murder everyone on board, confident that he can get past Andriss' security arrangements on the Tenebras. He'd have a shiny new ship, and no-one to bother him except the occasional ghost. But he has no backup, no-one to lord his ego over (his favorite hobby) and, frankly, why do all the work alone, if you can manipulate people into doing it for you? What was that quote from Orac in Traitor? "The art of leadership is delegation". This fits in rather nicely with Darrow's own observation that Avon saw his crewmates as useful tools that he would kill/get rid of as soon as they lost their use¹.

Mind you, exactly how a person in Avon's current state manipulates (bullies) people to come around to his way of thinking is probably a bit unpleasant and/or ham-handed. Love him as I do, subtlety was never that lad's strong point. He figures out what he wants, and sets out to get it by the most direct means possible.

With a pocket full of Pylene 50 (and the antidote), Avon might be able to convince himself that he's somewhat safe or, at least, able to render everyone in the vicinity harmless and tractable if he has to. However, he would consider such an approach to be the last resort - or close to it - because of the notes below. Granted, he's as capable of being a hypocrite as anyone else, particularly if it benefits him, but he has got a shred of conscience - and a big dollop of pragmatism. Zombies do not a good support team make.

Hmm... ( Other points to ponder/remember/kick around - a bit long )

Sillyfic time! (From Elsewhere, 14)

It was inevitable, you know...

So, what if - in whatever post-TV continuity you care to imagine, dear reader - Servalan's identity as Sleer is thoroughly rumbled, as she's rushed to the number one spot on the Federation's most-wanted list. Desperate to distance themselves from the most recent bout of fascism, S's former supporters wash their hands of her to a man, and she's well and truly out in the cold - unlike the sort-of exile she underwent in season four. Cue sillyfic speculations!

(Tangent: I never really bought into the idea of "Sleer". When you've been galactic-bloody-empress, one must assume that your visage has been pasted pretty much everywhere, so wouldn't that make it a little bit difficult to retreat into hiding? Damned well impossible, imho.)

Pick who you like to have survived Blake - well, except the title character, unless you're of the Avon-killed-a-clone school - and hole 'em up together with the divine Ms. S for a few thousand words. ( Speculations follow )

Zagreus - Or How To Confuse A Fangirl In Six Easy Steps. (FE, 15)

OMG, an entry that's not about B7! I told you they'd happen, eventually.

I've been chewing through a lot of Big Finish audios, recently, focusing on the 8th Doctor stories. In general, I've enjoyed them a lot. I've run into a couple of obvious clangers - I couldn't get past the first fifteen minutes of Minuet in Hell or Creed of the Kromon - but there's been some brilliant ones, too - such as The Natural History of Fear¹, Scherzo and Caerdroia.

And then there's the ones that I think of as "bearable, but could have been so much better". Case in point: Zagreus, and the whole concept of "anti-time". ( Thoughts, comment, ill-disguised ranting all follow )

Descendant - BFotO #3

Theme, goddamit, theme!

Christ, I'm such a fucking moron.

(current guesstimates: hitting bottom isn't always as bad as you anticipate/when you've hit bottom, the only way is up. Trust. And, of course, control, because I'm physically incapable of writing a story that isn't, in some way, about control/power.)