Fandom Snowflake Day 5

[thisbluespirit]

Day 4 was to set goals and since I have decided that it is very important for me to have a goal of not having goals for the moment, that's a wash. I suppose I could vow to re-upload some more icons that PhotoBucket ate in one of its tantrums. That would be good.





In your own space, promote a canon/talk about a part of canon that you love. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I was determined this time to do something less obscure but canons I have been thinking about and having feelings for especially at the moment are The Power Game, The Shadow of the Tower and Department S, so no hope of that.

Anyway, I love The Shadow of the Tower and am halfway through my annual rewatch, but I stopped to watch new and shinier things and also because I don't want it to be over and there will be no more, and while I am grateful with all my heart for the fic that kind people have written for me, I pine for more. But I am working on tumblr on that, although mostly their enthusiasm for SotT is that the BBC should remake it now so it would be pretty and have prettier people and, as you can imagine, that is NOT what I am here for.

Anyway, if random Snowflakes like old time BBC theatrical period dramas ASK ME MORE here. Otherwise, I will leave everybody in peace with my weird liking of a thing made of cardboard on 1972 about Henry VII. (I do love it so very much though. It's like being cursed. By an secret awesome thing.)


I won't even talk about The Power Game any more because it has been about six years and I can't even sell it to liadt who loves one of the main writers and likes this kind of stuff, so what hope is there in the world? None. And this is fair. They are terrible charming snarky people who make concrete in fuzzy b&w film copies of the originals, and people do not believe me (or Mariocki on tumblr) when we talk of its awesome.

But I have Barbara Murray gifs and this is something that anyone can appreciate, I feel sure. She is not the only great thing in it - everyone is great! But she does just about win best person in it and she has the silliest hats and I love her (even though Pamela is also a terrible person really):



John (Patrick Wymark) and Pamela Wilder (Barbara Murray) in their first on-screen appearance in The Plane Makers in 1963.





Some Pamela gifs for the world. (Only one hat; not especially silly on the S2 Pamela hat scale.)

The shipping possibilities are way off the scale and all in totally uncharted waters. I'd say the first fic writer to do something about this will have mighty rewards, but all they will actually get is bafflement and silence. However, one such ship is Pamela/Don, which I casually mention as I have gifs:



(He does not even mind her silliest hat.)

This totally happened in the past between them:



(OK, not really, but this is Jack Watling and Barbara Murray in Meet Mr Lucifer in 1953. Can you believe that Wilder asks Don to take Pamela out every time he's not available? He does.)

Anyway, this isn't a proper write up, because if it were, I would insert a gif of a young Michael Jayston at the very least and talk about how epic the snark is and all the possible ships that lie unwritten and also probably add more James Maxwell eating peanut gifs, but I'm just sharing Pamela today, much to the relief of everyone, I'm sure.


Department S, in comparison, is practically not obscure, is in colour, on film, has exciting adventures, is the 1960s finally making something that was not racist, and has an adorable OT3 and also the same wallpaper in every other episode. (The wallpaper also turns up in other British films and ITC serials, so I have fun looking out for it now. I spotted it in Hammer the other day. It was very exciting obv.)

Here are Jason and Annabelle not caring about each other a lot:







Jason and Stewart also don't care about each other and Sir Curtis's concern for his trio is always PURELY PROFESSIONAL even when he calls in the army the second Jason gets taken hostage and can talk Stewart down off the ledge in about five seconds flat or if he worries that Annabelle is working too many hours.

I wrote this about it for a Yuletide promo post once:

It's one of those UK 60s action-adventure serials (made on film! with US money! Not 100% composed of cardboard!), about an Interpol Department that investigate inexplicable and surreal incidents that nobody else can explain. (Why did someone suffocate in a space suit in central London? A plane goes missing for six days, but everyone on board is sure they've landed 20 minutes early... Why is there a body in a fake, beautifully furnished room in a warehouse?)

The Department consists of the diplomat in charge, Sir Curtis Seretse (Dennis Alaba Peters), and his three operatives, Stewart Sullivan (Joel Fabiani) who heads up the team and tends to do the legwork and the action scenes (although he has an impressive tendency to get drugged/knocked out/tortured in the process, especially in the first half of the series), computer expert Annabelle Hurst (Rosemary Nicols) who's brainy, competent, and is let in on the action far more than most ITC female leads, and flamboyant thriller author Jason King (Peter Wyngarde), who's there to flirt with the enemy and provide outside-the-box answers using his imagination. You can ship them in pretty much any direction you like, and they a pretty great OT3 of whatever kind you prefer and there is lots of potential for casefic, shipping and hurt/comfort in canon.

It's a lot of fun and the "Mary Celeste" type openers are v cool, its moments of seriousness are actually pretty great, and the guest cast even includes a young Anthony Hopkins, while Jason and his fictional hero Mark Caine mean it comes with a post-modern tongue-in-cheek/meta element. I picked it up this summer and loved it far more than I'd expected, going by the idea I had of Jason King.

Where to find: It's out on DVD and even Blu-Ray; I can't find it on YT, though, but I did find some trailers/fanvids that give a pretty good idea of its virtues and flaws:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu-UUbdLDrU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n06YHH9eEjU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4V2nZBYvnM

You can find the first episode online here at DailyMotion.

Comments

[gillo]

Wot no Maxwell gifs?

Love all the detail. I remember watching these when I was frankly too young for them.

Thanks for doing the Snowflake thing!

[thisbluespirit]

Heh, thank you!

And, I mean, I can always provide more James Maxwell quite easily:

[gillo]

I can't say I'm astonished. ;-)

I remember loving SotT when I was at school. I've always been a Tudor fangirl, despite their extremely dark side. Though Josephine Tey turned me into something of a Yorkist too.

[thisbluespirit]

Well, few absolute monarchs seem to have been cosy sorts, and I mean, RIII is dodgy, whatever Josephine Tey may think about his brown-eyed portrait!! But they make good telly and reading. XD

[corvidology]

I saw Department S on DVD and love it but then 60s campy spy stuff is catnip for me. :D

[thisbluespirit]

I have a bit of an ITC allergy that gets in the way of some of them, but even I was charmed by Department S. But 60s campy spy/cult adventurey stuff is fun.

[sallymn]

Oh I remember my eldest sister loved Department S, wasn't there a spinoff with the Jason character?

Those curls! That mo!!!

[thisbluespirit]

There was, but I can't watch that because it would contradict my headcanon that Jason, Annabelle and Stewart obv all lived in each other's hotel rooms and flats forever more while clearly NOT CARING about each other, it's all totally professional that they need to make sure each other is okay.

And, lol, yeah. Peter Wyngarde can somehow just about get away with it, though!

[kateoftheangels]

Ah, Barbara Murray is gorgeous, and I loved the pictures of her during her younger Plane Makers days! She is intensely shippable, and I would certainly read anything you wrote for Pamela and Don. I think I vaguely pitched Pamela/James' civil servant character last year when you were talking about TPG? I would totally be there, even though it would make very little narrative sense and I would only be interested because the characters were pretty and snarky.

Department S, now, that is a thing that's lined up behind Sandbaggers in the queue. But first, back to a certain explicit radio play ...!

[thisbluespirit]

The trouble is, I'm not very good at writing shipfic, so I need to lure someone else in! Clearly all of the below need to exist:

Don/Pamela
John/Don/Pamela
Pamela/Lincoln
Lincoln/Pamela/John
John/Caswell
John/Don
Don/Kenneth
some sort of messed up Kenneth/Justine/Caswell
Colin/Susan
Susan/Pamela

It really is great, though, not just Barbara Murray. It's so amazingly snarky and some of the series/character arcs left me gasping for breath at the end.

Colin/Pamela is a bit hard to imagine; he's not the kind she goes for (her liking for John is not an atypical thing, although she might well have made an exception for Don, if he weren't John's loyalest man), so she would just eat him for breakfast. He has an interesting relationship with Susan and John, though, and Caswell. Tbf, though, the only person who wouldn't eat him for breakfast is Susan, and even she would mercilessly use him by S2.

Department S, now, that is a thing that's lined up behind Sandbaggers in the queue. But first, back to a certain explicit radio play ...!

Aw, cool. Dept S is good fun and the central trio are lovely together, even with Jason King in the mix!!

[kateoftheangels]

so she would just eat him for breakfast

I think this is what you said to me the last time I pitched it to you, and my response, if I recall it, is that this is a dynamic I rather enjoy, especially if the young man in question is as pretty and well-spoken as young Colin...

I'm not very good at writing shipfic, so I need to lure someone else in

Aw, your Public Eye shipfic is lovely! Albeit that there isn't a lot of goings-on in it. In fact, when I'm done with this interminable Alfie RPF, I might give it a go...

[thisbluespirit]

I think this is what you said to me the last time I pitched it to you, and my response, if I recall it, is that this is a dynamic I rather enjoy, especially if the young man in question is as pretty and well-spoken as young Colin...

Ha, yes. I mean, I do, too, and it's not like I wouldn't ship my faves at the drop of a hat in most circumstances, but Pamela would know how to deal with Colin without resorting to any sexual shenanigans. Plus she's related to dozens of people like him and clearly is still rebelling against that & sees them as tedious - and her type is absolutely ambitious slightly lower class man on the make. I would be here for it, because obviously I would. But it's not something I can see a plausible way to, really, without messing with characterisation. And Colin's still married and has a thing of some kind going on with Susan, whether professional or personal, and I'm already intrigued by that.

Aw, your Public Eye shipfic is lovely!

Aw, thank you! And, yes, I do write it, but not the sort and the variety TPG clearly calls for, for great justice. And also not to an audience of, well, me. I have to feel like I did over Frank and Mrs Mortimer to be driven to that kind of thing. (I wrote a PG fic one time, but it's spoilery for the one thing I wouldn't spoiler anyone for just in very case they ever did decide to give it a whirl.)

I would certainly be keen to see some PE fic from you!

[seal_girl]

"I do love it so very much though. It's like being cursed. By an secret awesome thing."

Isn't that just small-fandom-love all over!

That is a great post - those gifs are cool :)

[thisbluespirit]

It is, it is! *sighs*

And thank you.

[lirazel]

Poking my head to say: that icon is GORGEOUS.

[thisbluespirit]

Thank you! And that is the thing: if I could go back in time, steal the budget (and film) from an ITC serial I didn't like (most of them), and gave it to The Power Game, everyone would watch it just for the glory of Barbara Murray at her most gorgeous on film, but alas. It's all blurry b&w and all we have are these glorious publicity shots from an alternate reality.

Anyway, I mean, thanks. She's very icon-able!!

[lirazel]

Ah, the perpetual angst of those of us who just want to make icons of low-quality things! I relate!

[liadt]

You make me feel bad now! Still, I'd only write the wacko ships nobody wants and I did try to find Douglas Wilmer detecting on youtube the other day.

I have seen 'Mr Lucifer'; I'm still watching TV;p

[thisbluespirit]

Mr Lucifer is terrible! But I am proud to say that even when I watched it for Media Studies years ago I thought the best bits were Barbara Murray and Gordon Brown. Even my teenaged self could see that!

And, aw, I didn't really mean to land on you (although you would like it, I'm sure! It's snarky and the picture quality is b&w and terrible; just your thing. :lol:) But I think if I can't sell it to you, I must resign myself to it being Mariocki and me forever. Which is at least better than just me, but I would like to live in a world where I could seduce someone else into it somehow. ♥

And you should know by now that threatening to write crackships only makes me want to lasso you into it to see what happens and if John will start selling evil Henry Hoovers as a scheme. XD

[liadt]

Mr Lucifer is rotten, my sympathies for having to study it! About a month after seeing it I saw another film where a husband and a wife have an argument over hiring a TV then she walks out sees a murder and gets run over: the evils of TV strike again! which amused me (it was another rubbish film as well).

Ha, ha are you sure? I'd def put evil Henry hoovers in!

[thisbluespirit]

Well, I didn't have to exactly study it, but I watched and used it as a part of a project, which meant I watched it more times than any reasonable human being would want to.

TV is so evil, but it is still with us, ruining everything regardless!

Ha, ha are you sure? I'd def put evil Henry hoovers in!

Do you honestly need to ask at this point? XD

[eve11]

oh, Department S sounds interesting. I've literally never heard of it until right now!

[thisbluespirit]

It's a fun one. I usually bounce off ITC serials, but this one worked for me - I loved the central trio and Sir Curtis (when he's there).

[swordznsorcery]

Oh, cool. I'm glad "Department S" is still making you happy! It is a fun show. I still maintain that the best ITC serial is "The Champions", but I know you'll never agree! :) "Department S" definitely has the better theme tune, anyway.

[thisbluespirit]

Well, The Champions is now forever the one where the scary plastic Ken and Barbie and their real person friend killed James Maxwell, so I'm sorry. I would love to love another telepathic OT3! But I do love Department S, so I'm very grateful for the intro! That is the only ITC serial to have fully overcome my allergy, even more than The Strange Report or Randall & Hopkirk. I actually did like The Persuaders! a surprising amount as well. But generally if you love an ITC serial, you don't want me near it!!

[swordznsorcery]

Oh, pfft. James Maxwell likes being killed. You can't hold that against them. ;)

(I do understand!)

[thisbluespirit]

Look, The Champions came off better than UFO, which I felt (after four episodes too many) was an ITC serial all about an evil xenophobic military outfit who want to kill innocent aliens (who understandably get pissed off enough to want to kill SHADO right back) and for some reason ruin Straker's marriage while they're at it.

[swordznsorcery]

I don't like UFO either! I have a Corgi model of one of their spaceships, which fires a little plastic missile, which I adored as a child, and only quite recently discovered the origin of, which made we want to like the show. But I don't.

(It's a great toy spaceship though. Even though it has to fire pens nowadays, as I lost the missile aeons ago!)

[thisbluespirit]

*fistbumps across the internet*

Mind you, a thing that still fires pens even now does sound very cool and perhaps justifies UFO's existence.

[swordznsorcery]

It's solid metal. The only weak point is the spring. And I just found a replacement missile on eBay! Ha! Take that, alien invaders! :)

[thisbluespirit]

Don't aim it at those poor aliens! Shoot it at SHADO!! (I am firmly of the opinion that when someone tells people they have to fight the aliens because otherwise they will rape all the French woman, you should be very sceptical indeed. Even the alien that advertised in Bikini Girl and was holed up in Soho only wanted to kill people and do science!)

But yay! Missiles! The way this decade is going, you might need them. Although the pen may in fact be mightier?