Dear Yuletide Letter

Nothing to see here, except my annual ridiculously epic Yuletide Letter:

Dear Yuletide Writer,

Firstly, thank you! You are ready to attempt to write something for me - and you share a tiny fandom with me. ♥

I am a great believer in the story that you want to tell being the one that's going to be the most compelling to read, so please, write that. In fact, for several of these requests, what I want most of all is just to see what you would write in these worlds. So, if you are the sort of person who likes a concise letter and a free hand, please, just go for what you have in mind. All the extra details are for souls like me who want them. Do not attempt to give me everything below in one fic; you'd do yourself an injury. If anything seems contradictory, it's mostly because I like all sorts of different things at different times in different fandoms. So, if you've got that burning idea, go write it. I'm sure I will love it.

( More details here )

( Fandoms - Ten Stupidest Things I've Heard Since Richard III's Remains Were Identified, Enemy at the Door, Miss Marple, Indigo Series, Jago & Litefoot and Chalet School )

And in other news...

... either a miracle happened, or we're in an alternate universe, for, as of yesterday, there are now 97 missing Doctor Who episodes instead of 106!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24467337

I know, I'm a bit belated, but that's because the BBC are mean about midnight embargoes and therefore making everything happen on a day when I can't make sensible posts because I had to go out for a bit (and so was too exhausted).

And it is a miracle: I don't know when I first found out so many episodes were missing - I'd imagine sometime after I started getting DWM in 1991, or possibly only when Tomb of the Cybermen was recovered in 1992. And that was the last time they found a whole story. In the twenty years that have followed, they've made odd discoveries of an episode at a time (four in all) and nobody thought another whole serial would ever be uncovered anywhere, ever, though there were always hoaxes now and then. So they've found more in one swoop here than has been found in the past 22 years. That is amazing.

Anyway, nearly two whole six-parters with Patrick Troughton! Isn't that fantastic? And The Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear, which were both such promising-looking ones. Patrick Troughton with an evil Bond villain twin! The Brigadier's first story, before he was even the Brigadier! People on my flist have watched them. It's real. I can put Enemy of the World on my Christmas list! Excuse me if I carry on belatedly flailing, because this is just unreal - the sort of find we could never let ourselves dare to believe in!

And I have very strong feelings - not unrelated to being a librarian - about people destroying created works, like published books and national television anyway. I would be happy to hear about anything getting returned to the archives, but... NINE EPISODES of Patrick Troughton? How can this be? Isn't it marvellous? I could go to iTunes and download it right now. *gives up and pinches self again*

Also it must have been especially moving for Deborah Watling - not only has so much of her own work (as Victoria) suddenly been returned, but it included one of the two stories (both lost barring one episode) that also featured her father, Jack Watling, as Professor Travers.

And if look at this (linked from various places). Imagine how uninteresting this was on audio, and look at it now we have the pictures back. (Or, Patrick Troughton = ♥ forever.)
( Brief Enemy clip from the BBC )

With an end note that I am so amused by my local newspaper accidentally breaking the embargo six hours before midnight and suddenly getting the DW world's attention (and also their cute apology). That not only meant I could go to bed and sleep when I needed to (thanks, Northern Echo!!) but it was hilarious.