Hello world!

[curuchamion]

I'm bored. I am extremely bored. I want something new to read - and by "new" I mean "not just another riff on the same old characters and situations I've read before".

So, pretty pretty please, can you rec me things, flist? Your writing or somebody else's, I don't care... but rec me a fic from a fandom I don't read! Or a new-to-me book or book series - my local library probably has it if it isn't online. Or, heck - introduce me to a whole new fandom! I don't really feel like watching movies at the moment, but if you convince me something is awesome enough I might.



General likes and dislikes:

I like friendship stories, adventure stories, mystery stories, stories written for children/teens, teamwork, WWII settings, sailing ships, heroic people, smart people, funny people, loyal people, Scottish people, and people who can act. Also anything written by someone geeking out about something they love - that's always fascinating.

I don't like RPF, slash, excessive shippiness, excessive magic, snark about religion, protagonists who are rude, stupid, evil, mean, or otherwise dislikable, or books that purport to feature knitting or home repair (I nitpick them too much).

Bored of:

* Doctor Who - I'm sorry, but I'm just really not interested right now.
* Stargate SG-1 - My mom won't let me watch it (I have this stupid knack of answering honestly and thoroughly the question "Is there anything objectionable in it?"), so I'm not reading any more till I leave home, it just makes me cranky.
* MacGyver - Frankly, the fun is in the visuals. No offence?

Know the canon but don't read the fic:

* Tolkien - I kind of wish I did, because some of the awesomest people I know are LOTR writers, but I just can't do it.
* Bonanza - I simply have no interest in reading Bonanza fic. There's enough show canon to keep me happy for my lifetime.
* Hogan's Heroes - What I've seen of the fic tends to be extremely Srs Bisness, with much whumpage. Besides, I watch HH for the acting.
* Sherlock Holmes - The thought of Holmes/Watson slash makes me unexpectedly grumpy and militant about asexuality!fail. I don't really like myself when I'm militant, so I don't care to poke through Holmes archives reading summaries.
* Discworld - Okay, I've only read the Guards series (Vimes FTW!), but I don't quite see how fanfic could measure up.
* X-Men - I think I've read basically every comic Chris Claremont has ever written with Wolverine in. Several times. And I'm too picky about characterization to wade through the fic.
* NCIS - The proportion of Duckyfic is so small, why bother?
* Agatha Christie - I'm not fond enough of the canon to want to bother with fic, for the most part.

Tried the canon, didn't like it (not sorted by whether there is fic):

* Mission: Impossible - it stresses me out for some reason.
* The Brady Bunch - just can't stand it.
* Lost in Space - same.
* DC superhero comics - tend to be stupid. I'd read the Dave Cockrum run of "Legion of Super-Heroes" if it were available, though.
* Spider-Man comics - he's a jerk. '90s!Venom is my favorite character, for cryin' out loud!
* Wild Wild West - it just didn't click with me.
* Captain America - I love the concept and some things about the character, but the way he's written is all over the map!
* Georgette Heyer - I liked "The Unknown Ajax", but most of the others I've tried bored me.

I've read all the genfic:

* Sapphire and Steel
* Man from UNCLE
* Swallows and Amazons
* Legend (MOAR PLZ!)
* Star Wars - I've read all the official fic related to the Luke trilogy up to the point where Chewbacca gets killed. After that, I don't care anymore. And I'm not really interested in non-official fic.

There isn't any fic:

* Gilligan's Island
* The Three Investigators. Well, there's official books not by the original author, but they're no good.
* Andre Norton's "Solar Queen" series
* Agatha Christie's Tommy and Tuppence stories (the exception to my cordial dislike of Agatha Christie)

Things I keep meaning to watch:

* The Lion King (everyone's always shocked that I haven't seen it)
* Star Trek: The Next Generation (the pilot has DeForest Kelley and John de Lancie in it, so it shouldn't be too hard to persuade me to give it a shot)
* Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (eponymous_rose keeps going on about it)
* Three Bites of the Apple (that's research for a fic)
* the TV episode where DMc is a confused baby Time Lord (I've forgotten the name, and it has also morphed into research for a fic)
* all the Doctor Who I haven't seen (except as previously noted I'm bored of storylines I already know about)
* The Dark Knight (I liked Batman Begins, but people tell me TDK is scarier)

I'm sure there's lots of other stuff I've forgotten or never heard of, too. Surprise me! ;-)



Or alternatively, suggest cures for writer's block. I know there are stories you guys want me to finish - the Who/X-Men piece for clocketpatch, the MFU/MacGyver piece for lolmac Beth, the Cartoon Adventures of togsos and Curuchamion... primsong wants Three!fic and eponymous_rose wants Legend!fic - and I can't seem to write ANYTHING! I have ideas, I have outlines and scene descriptions, I just can't get words!

Comments

[lolmac]

Good LORD, you haven't watched Star Trek TNG yet? That would be my first choice. One caveat: many of the first season episodes are notoriously weak. The show, famously, did not hit its stride until the second season. Lots of fanfic, too, and no need to read the slash.

Other TV show choices:
Babylon 5 -- 5 seasons, one continuous story arc. The show that proved audiences would buy into a multiyear story. Possibly the best SF TV series ever, IMHO. And far less "objectionable" than Stargate. (BTW, don't bother with the fanfic until you've finished canon.)

Blake's 7 -- classic Brit sci-fi; incredible acting, terrible dated special effects, writing that ranges from rubbish to brilliance.

Reading -- try Tamora Pierce if you haven't already. Or Jasper Fforde if you feel like British whimsicality.

ETA: Also, for books, Dorothy Sayers.

[curuchamion.livejournal.com]

*headslap* I knew I was forgetting things! Dorothy Sayers falls into the category of "I've read all the canon several times, can't really imagine the fanfic measuring up".

I've heard people mention Tamora Pierce and Jasper Fforde, but never gotten around to finding out what sort of stuff they write. British whimsicality sounds good... that reminds me, a friend IRL recced me PG Wodehouse recently and I haven't tried it yet.

I hadn't tried Babylon 5 because I don't think much of J. Michael Straczynski's writing in the Marvel comics I've read - he's a bit too flip and cynical for me, usually - but you sound awfully enthusiastic. However... season arcs are awkward things to watch from a library. The very first disc has been apparently been stolen; does that make the rest incomprehensible?

I keep running across people who like Blake's 7. From the scraps of fic I've read, the characters don't sound like anybody I'd like, but I know perfectly well how distorted fic can get; is there a particular starter ep you'd recommend?

As to TNG - the library only has the first six seasons. Aren't there seven? Are there end-of-season cliffies or seasonal story arcs to be aware of? And can you rec me a few episodes to start with?

[lolmac]

I'm going to answer the questions separately.

TNG - yes, there are seven seasons. Watch the pilot. I'd like to say "skip the rest of S1", but there are a few episodes that will feed into story arcs, or that I seem to remember being worth watching: "Hide and Q" (any episode with 'Q' means John de Lancie), "DataLore", "11001001", "Too Short a Season", "When the Bough Breaks", "Home Soil", "Coming of Age", "The Arsenal of Freedom", "Conspiracy", and "The Neutral Zone".

But the good stuff really doesn't start till S2. So I would actually say: Watch the pilot, then get S2 and watch, let's see, "The CHild", "A Matter of Honor", "The Measure of a Man", "The Emissary", and "Peak Performance". Absolutely do NOT watch "Up the Long Ladder".

Beyond that -- if you like it, you'll eventually want to get hold of the seventh season, but that's quite a long ways into the future.

[curuchamion.livejournal.com]

Well, libraries being what they are, the pilot wasn't on shelf, so I just checked out what I could find of your S2 recs. (Luckily, I already knew most of the main cast through geekish osmosis, or I would have been thoroughly mixed up!)

I've seen six episodes now: The Child, Q Who (Hide and Q wasn't on shelf either), Datalore, A Matter of Honor, Peak Performance, and 11001001. Not really a lot of material there to base a decision on, as slow-paced as they are compared to TOS... but, okay, I'll stop yanking your chain. ;-) I like it.

(I don't say I love it yet, but that'll come in time. Once a character on a show "clicks" with me, I keep watching. In this case, Riker's my boy - I noticed halfway through my first ep that he's got De Kelley's eyes, and I was sunk. *grin*)

And I really love the theme music. It is awesomeness. :D

[lolmac]

Yeah -- once he'd grown the beard (physically and trope-ically), Riker became my 'hook' character too.

[lolmac]

Babylon 5: you'll have to watch the whole thing. It won't be incomprehensible, but when something is that well put together, you'll want to give yourself the entire experience.

B5 was Straczynski's complete baby, and he didn't have to write for anyone else's characters in it. I haven't read his Marvel writing, but I can imagine that there would be some key differences. B5 has plenty of dark themes, but the overriding message and the consistent subtext is that heroes are heroes and Good Guys win. There is cynicism, there are bad people, but there's also idealism and heroics. Some characters are flippant, some are not.

[lolmac]

Dorothy Sayers: not much fanfic, and it doesn't measure up. How could it?

Blake's 7: as far as I'm concerned, it's all but impossible for any fanfic to even begin to get it right. The characters were so finely wrought that even the professional writers wrote some real clunkers of scripts. The show is very uneven; but at its best, it's brilliant.

For starter episodes, let's see. S2: "Horizon", "Killer", "Gambit", "Star One". S3: "City At the Edge of the World", "Rumours of Death". S4: "Headhunter", "Sand", "Orbit".

[thisbluespirit]

*butts in rudely* Seconding both B7 (and PG Wodehouse for that matter - PG Wodehouse!)

I can see why you're suggesting S2 as a starter for Blake's 7, cos S1 moves at a snail's pace, but I do think the very first couple of episodes are worth watching, if not first, at least pretty early on, for set-up explanation, and some rather brilliant 1984 ripping-off. But otherwise *nods a lot* Episodes written by Chris Boucher are usually best, and the Tanith Lee ones are so very weird, but in a good way. (So I'm adding sarcophagus, from S3. ;-D)

I haven't read a lot of fic - although once you've watched some episodes b7friday puts out weekly ficlet challenges and the results are usually pretty good, and well in keeping with the show.

*butts out again*

Edit: Blake's 7: as far as I'm concerned, it's all but impossible for any fanfic to even begin to get it right. The characters were so finely wrought that even the professional writers wrote some real clunkers of scripts. I am amused at myself now - I agree with you, but this makes me want to write fic just to prove I can do it well!!! :lol:

[lolmac]

Okay, I confess, I was in a cranky mood when I wrote that. I have read some truly outstanding B7 fic, but I no longer have the energy to dig through the mountains of dreck in which the gems are buried. It's very difficult for American writers to catch the extraordinary spark of the British wit, and I've run out of room for the Fail -- especially when professional writers in the US get it wrong also. (The Avengers movie, the US pilot for Red Dwarf, the Doctor WHo movie . . . )

Also, I'm usually tolerant of slash and in some cases enjoy it as AU, but B7 slash makes me froth at the mouth. *climbs off soapbox*

And hooray!! Someone else which likes Boucher!

Re S1: when I was introduced to the series, I watched a few 'sample' episodes, then settled in to watch the first four in sequence and get the background. It's amazing just how plodding Terry Nation could be, isn't it?

[thisbluespirit]

:lol: No, don't worry. I was amused at myself, because it instantly made me want to write fic, just to be, um, awkward, or something... I haven't found an awful lot of fic yet, but I do like the b7friday because it's all fun. And for a show that never stopped being fun while yet fundamentally bleak, that's very appropriate. :-)

And, I LOVE Chris Boucher's writing! I was interested in B7 a bit, because, well, Who-fan, but after watching CB's 3 DW episodes, I decided I had to get my hands on B7, just so I could have some more Chris Boucher! :-)

I think ep 4 especially... *nods* I recommended it to someone else who gave up at that point, which is a shame, because it picks up after that! But I do like the first couple of eps, with everyone's intro and the weirdness of episode 1, and finding the Liberator, and Avon and Jenna contemplating running away together... :-D

I just like to count the Terry Nation cliches I knew so well from DW: mutations, raditaion, the pretty girl who's the traitor, the mutant who's good, the squidgy things in underground tunnels... And trying to spot the bits where Chris Boucher had to fill in the gaps a lot. :lol:

[lolmac]

Someone else which WHO likes Boucher! ack

I may have to check out the B7Friday comm. I was briefly part of a B7 Rewatch comm, but dropped out when the discussions proved to revolve around reinterpreting every single screen moment through slash goggles, or lauding Nation and dissing Boucher. I learned a lot about good and bad writing, and good and bad acting, from B7 and classic Who, and it just wasn't working for me to interact with folks who apparently couldn't tell the difference. *headwall*

By heaven, you're absolutely right about the Nation clichés . . .

Here's a fun exercise, if you haven't tried it: watch "Genesis of the Daleks", then watch the first B7 episodes. For me, there are scenes in "Genesis" that echo the kind of ideas Nation must have been working with when B7 was in development. (Not the giant killer clams, though.)

[thisbluespirit]

There's occasional slash on the comm - I don't think it's possible to find anywhere Blake/Avon free in this fandom, but it tends mainly to fun Vila-Avon fics, and Avon/Cally, and just generally ficlet-challenge nonsense, so I feel fairly at home there.

I had watched nearly all his DW eps before I ever got near B7, so it amused me to count the cliches as they went - Orac got the highest number in one episode, I seem to recall. (And the clams: squidgy things in tunnels.) Yes, people claim a lot of Genesis was down to Robert Holmes (oh, and David Maloney... B7/DW is so incestuous!), but the Terry Nation cliches are much too evident for it too have been more than tweaking. And the clams - squidgy mutated things in tunnels. See Orac. :-D Actually, to be fair, Terry Nation, can be very, very good - he just seems to stop trying at some points. And he's not Chris Boucher. (I want to find out about Star Cops one day, too. It's a crying shame that he doesn't seem to have written anything for TV since.) Also, the thing is, as editor, there's quite a lot of his snarkage and stuff in some of the Nation episodes, particularly towards the end of S1. (There's definitely one where TN's script must have fallen short, because there's suddenly a random sub-plot that is very reminiscent of one element of Image of the Fendahl. It's the one with Julian Glover, and Gan's chip going mad...)

Um... Let's hope curuchamion doesn't mind us hi-jacking the thread. :-)

[curuchamion.livejournal.com]

'Let's hope curuchamion doesn't mind us hi-jacking the thread.'

See what I said in the original post about listening to people geek out on subjects they love. It's way better than fine. ;-)

[thisbluespirit]

:loL: Oh, good, 'cos I can do that!