TV Show Meme

[thisbluespirit]

This was going around, so I said baa like the good meme sheep I haven't been for ages:

TV questions: pick your five favourite TV shows (in no particular order) and answer the following questions. Don’t cheat!
1. Doctor Who
2. Blake's 7
3. Sapphire & Steel
4. Spooks
5. Once Upon a Time


1) Who’s your favourite character in 2 ()?

Vila! It is a tough contest though, because they're all so great and distinctive and fascinating, and on some days I might say Servalan.


2) Who’s your least favourite character in 1 ()?

lol. IN THE WHOLE OF DOCTOR WHO? All 61 years? Maybe the Two Legs? The Two Legs are very annoying, it's true. idk.


3) What’s your favourite episode of 4 ()?

Since I am on record as saying that 2.5 of Spooks may be my favourite single episode of any TV show anywhere, guess what?

I had a sign hanging over me too: END OF THE WORLD, END OF THE WORLD, END OF THE WORLD.<3<3<3

4) What’s your favourite season of 5 ()?

3! 3b, if you want to get specific.

5) What’s your favourite ship in 3 ()?

The Elemental OT3 of Sapphire/Silver/Steel.

6) Who is your anti-ship in 2 ()?

Um. I mean. It's B7, I think everyone should be shipped with everyone including the computers.

I don't like Scorpio anything like as much as Liberator.

7) How long have you watched 1 ()?

lololol. More years than I want to admit to. Like 2/3s of my life at this point.

8) How did you become interested in 3 ()?

I had heard of it through 1 and 2, and I knew it had David Collings in, so it was always something I planned to get to after B7, and then when I was ill and I found myself in a weird situation where I could only watch things with David Collings in, that was an obvious choice. (And a wonderful one, I'd have loved it at any time!)

9) Who’s your favourite actor in 4 ()?

This ought to be a tough question, look at this show's cast list, if it was in the cast list question here it would win. But it isn't: NICOLA WALKER, next question please.

10) Which show do you prefer? 1 (), 2 (), or 5 ()?

I love them all but Doctor Who is my One True Fandom. It is all the things by turn. How can anything else compete?

11) Which show have you seen more episodes of; 1 () or 3 ()?

Well. Doctor Who has been going for 61 years and has - wikipedia says - aired 883 episodes. I have not seen all of them. Some of them do not exist to be seen. But I have seen most of them and even if you condense the Classic Who ones into serials instead of episodes, that would be a lot. And I've read a lot of the novels and listened to a lot of the audios.

S&S has only 34 episodes, broken down into the equivalent of 6 classic who serials. It's not even one season of 70s Who.

If I had a graph, they wouldn't both fit on the same chart.

I have seen more DW episodes.

12) If you could be anyone from 4 (), who would you be?

Ruth, but I would not be anyone from Spooks. I once dreamt I was in Spooks and even in my dream I protested and moved myself off into Downton Abbey poste haste before things turned into a nightmare. I don't want to die and I would make a rubbish spy!

13) How would you kill off your favourite character in 1 ()?

LOL, do you mean the Doctor? Who has died about thirteen times now? Do you want me to chose my favourite? Come up with a new regeneration scenario?

/is much too lazy. I like Five and THree's a lot.

I would think up one for poor Six, but I haven't heard the BF audio where they gave him one and I might like it. But he deserves better than an accident with an exercise bike.

14) Give a random quote from 1 ().

"Do you mind not standing on my chest? My hat's on fire."

15) Would a 3 ()/4 () crossover work?

Yes. I'm surprised I haven't written one already. Unless I have and it was a meme ficlet and I've forgotten? In fact I should write a Spooks/S&S crossover.

S&S, like DW, is extremely well suited to crossovers. The only downside is that the nature of the show does mean that the other fandom might not still be standing once you've finished. Spooks would be just the same after, though, so that's fine.

16) Pair two characters in 1 () that would make an unlikely, but strangely okay couple.

I went to the DW Random Pairing Generator and got this: First Doctor / Brigadier Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart

More than okay! I mean, not as shippage, but the Brig + any Doctor cannot go wrong.

17) Has 5 () inspired you in any way?

I've written fic for it and made icons? It's certainly cheered me up a lot over the years since it came out.

18) Overall, which show has a better cast? 3 () or 5 ()?

Well. S&S has only 3 recurring leads, and two of them are Joanna Lumley and David McCallum and the other one is one of my absolute fave actors David Collings, but OUaT has had a whole host of v good people over the years. But by percentage of 100% (3 out of 3) for the main recurring cast, I suppose it would have to be S&S. If by number of great people in the cast, OUaT.

19) Which has better theme music, 2 () or 4 ()?

2! Da da da DAH da da!

I mean, I do love Spooks's intro, but I don't immediately start singing along loudly even without words and I think that's kind of obligatory with B7 after you've watched at least one episode.

Comments

[romanajo123]

Good answers!

I definitely agree;!3B is awesome ( 3, 4, and 6 are my favorites)

One & the Brig would be… definitely unlikely. Unless it was The Five Doctors or Three Doctors , perhaps.

[thisbluespirit]

Thanks! And it is DW, anything can happen and usually does! ;-)

[hamsterwoman]

I don't like Scorpio anything like as much as Liberator.

:D (and concur!)

Doctor Who has been going for 61 years and has - wikipedia says - aired 883 episodes.

oh wow! I knew it had been around for decades, but did not realize the number of episodes was quite this high.

[thisbluespirit]

oh wow! I knew it had been around for decades, but did not realize the number of episodes was quite this high.

Classic Who had individual stories (or serials) that were made up of 3-12 episodes (usually 4-6 eps) of 25mins each, and from 1963-69, they were making something wild like 42 episodes a year, which is why it's so many. (You can tell when 1960s DW actors go on holiday because their characters get kidnapped or knocked unconscious for an episode or two. They filmed each ep weekly on Friday evenings from 5pm-10pm, and barring film sequences (location, action), it was all shot as-live, so there was no other way to do it.) They cut the no of serials & episodes down from 1970 (and further again in the late 80s) so I was probably wrong about S&S being less than a 70s season, it would probably be 1 & 1/2 70s season, but 8 short of a full 60s season.

So, yeah, there were 155* classic Who stories/serials made up of 694 episodes (25 mins, except for one season in 1985 & 1 90 min special), so that presumably makes 189 more episodes since 2005 (45-50 mins barring a few 1hr specials.) 97 Classic Who episodes are, however, still missing (destroyed in the 70s by the BBC), although many of them have been animated or reconstructed in some way, and most Doctor who serials and New Who episodes are effectively standalone, as every one is set in a new location in space and time with new characters. Each new Doctor's era is also a soft reboot in itself. (It has had arcs and continuity from the start, but it still shows its origins from an era where anthology shows were the norm and more highly regarded than most serials.) Basically, DW has everything. Possibly only the thing any given person wants in one serial/episode/era, but it's got it. XD

(This is why the fandom argues a lot. We all came in at different points when the Doctor was somebody else, the tone was different, the TARDIS looked different, and you either embrace that, stick to your one story/Doctor/season, or sit there proclaiming that DOctor Who has died of [insert new development here] yet again, as has been traditional from the 60s) and be obnoxious to everyone else on the internet.

It was a funny pair to pick, though because that format is pretty rare outside of children's TV (DW always did occupy uneasy ground between the two) - but S&S also used it! Probably because it was originally intended to be a children's series, but then they cast Lumley and McCallum and got upgraded, heh.


* depending on what you count and don't lol

[ragnarok_08]

Neat answers!

[thisbluespirit]

Thanks!

[liadt]

B7 has a winning theme! If the generator put DW or S&S against B7 it would be harder.

[thisbluespirit]

Much as I enjoy S&S's intro, I think B7 would still win, but it would be a tough call between it and DW! It would have to be DW, really.

[liadt]

Delia Derbyshire rules!

[doreyg]

Vila! It is a tough contest though, because they're all so great and distinctive and fascinating, and on some days I might say Servalan.

I have such a fond spot for Vila! I think Servalan is probably my favourite these days, but Vila is absolutely up there for me.

I love them all but Doctor Who is my One True Fandom. It is all the things by turn. How can anything else compete?

Big mood, nothing else really competes!

I went to the DW Random Pairing Generator and got this: First Doctor / Brigadier Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart

I'd love to see their dynamic with each other! I do also not ship them, but I think they'd get along fairly well. He might end up one of The Brig's favourite doctors, tbh.

[thisbluespirit]

I think Servalan is probably my favourite these days, but Vila is absolutely up there for me.

I can rarely decide between them, but Vila was my first favourite B7 person. Jacqueline Pearce is just so amazing though!

I'd love to see their dynamic with each other! I do also not ship them, but I think they'd get along fairly well. He might end up one of The Brig's favourite doctors, tbh.

Yes, I think they'd be a fun combo. Of course, technically we sort of had it anyway, what with Bret Vyon. It's not quite the same but it is funny.

And, yeah, DW is all the things, there's nothing else like it.

[doreyg]

I can rarely decide between them, but Vila was my first favourite B7 person. Jacqueline Pearce is just so amazing though!

Oh yeah, my first watch I was all about Vila. Nobody else really got a look in. But Jacqueline Pearce just is so incredible, and I'm so glad she seemed to be having the time of her life.

[paranoidangel]

I am on record as saying that 2.5 of Spooks may be my favourite single episode of any TV show anywhere

I love that episode so much. Although nothing can quite beat the first time seeing it and wondering if it was real.

I once dreamt I was in Spooks and even in my dream I protested and moved myself off into Downton Abbey poste haste before things turned into a nightmare.

That's a surprisingly sensible direction for your dream to take!

[thisbluespirit]

I love that episode so much. Although nothing can quite beat the first time seeing it and wondering if it was real.

Oh, yes - on first broadcast I really went along with the characters of that journey of "this can't be real... but what if it IS?" But it stands up as such a great bottle episode aside from that, too.

That's a surprisingly sensible direction for your dream to take!

My dreaming mind does this a lot for some reason. Years ago, I used to have anxiety dreams every time I travelled anywhere (by any method) where I would miss the train. Somewhere along the line, I wound up learning I could catch the train in the dream if I wanted to. BUt ever since that happened, I also edit potential nightmares into safer scenarios and if I dream something very nice, my brain acts just like Rimmer in Better Than Life and goes, "Well, this isn't very likely is it?" and ruins everything.

[executrix]

If you were a rubbish spy, you could be in Slow Horses!

[thisbluespirit]

In general, I feel it's just better for me not to be a spy!

[executrix]

It IS the rare show where the cast turns over faster than B7.

[astrogirl]

It's B7, I think everyone should be shipped with everyone including the computers.

As someone who has written fic shipping Orac with at least two different people, I can't really argue with this. :)

I don't like Scorpio anything like as much as Liberator.

LOL!

[thisbluespirit]

As someone who has written fic shipping Orac with at least two different people, I can't really argue with this.

<3 I mean, Avon/Orac and Jenna/Zen are just canon, right? And Servalan desires Orac mightily, and the Liberator! XD