Beyond the Roundels

On with the awesome (I could use some of that). I'll be neither obscure, nor the least bit surprising with my next choice. It's Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager, (who, oddly, seems to sit quite nicely next to Bea. I feel they'd get along).

( Is this a ship of the Valkyries? )

I began a little scattily on the 30 Days of Awesome Females meme, and despite the subject of this entry, will tidy myself up now. This list excludes DW (for the sake of not taking up all 30 places) and will include more than one character I wanted to grow up to be (of whom this character is one. Erm. Yes.), at least two I never even thought I'd like when they first appeared and a few so obvious they could almost go without saying (but where would be the fun in that?)

( It is Michelle of the Resistance. She will say this only once... )

This meme will resume with somebody more sensible shortly.
( So Far... )

Firstly, I finally managed to finish that First Doctor, Polly & Ben fic, The Rime On the Spray. (Which is something. I almost finished it May Day, but my housemate walked in when I was about to write the Exciting Ending (well, whatever) and I went and talked to her, and never quite got back into the moment.)

And, I think I'm so far behind on the TV Meme that I may as well answer the final days here and now, but I was not in the mood for waffling about TV much this week, so I left it.

( TV 30 Days Meme )

Day 21 - Favorite ship

I've tried being a bit unpredictable - now let's be 100% predictable here: Spooks - Ruth/Harry. So much flustering, subtext, confusion, amusement and genuine emotion at various points through the seasons. And the thing is, it was all Peter Firth's fault. Everyone laughed at him, and now it's an epic ship on the show and over the intrawebs with fic and postcards and comms and who knows what. A tribute to the achievement of one (or two?) actors getting carried away with their roles...

Have a Harry/Ruth fanvid and join the voyage...

I'm about to finally be caught up.

Day 18 - Favorite title sequence:

Now, while Doctor Who obviously has the best theme music of anything anywhere, and probably should win this, I decided to go for:

The X Files intro (and, sorry, this was the best version I could find!)

It sets out to be as scary, weird and indefinable as an opening set of titles can be and pretty much succeeds on both the visual and audio. And, like DW, it's not your run of the mill theme.

Day 19 - Best TV show cast:

Probably any BBC Classic drama ever done should win this, because their line ups are always incredible. However, I vote for Spooks. Many shows by S8 & 9 would be flagging, but Spooks has always excelled in finding up and coming actors and attracting household names in regular, semi-regular and guest roles. A quick roll-call off the top of my head: Peter Firth, Matthew Mcfadyen, Jenny Agutter, Hugh Laurie, Keeley Hawes, David Oyelowo, Tim McInnerny, Anna Chancellor, Rupert Penry-Jones, Miranda Raison, Raza Jaffrey, Hermione Norris, Richard Armitage, Robert Glenister, Gemma Jones, Hugh Simon - oh, and Nicola Walker... Do I need to go on?


( Full list of days )

Only 1 day behind now! Yay.

Day 15 - Favorite female character:

So many to choose from, but there's only one who's definitely in the top spot here: Ruth Evershed, Spooks's Senior Analyst, as played by Nicola Walker.



( More, and other candidates under the cut )

And I'm still catching up.

Day 12 - An episode you've watched more than 5 times:

Well, if I like things, I do tend to rewatch them a scary amount. However, if I think about one episode of something in proportion to how much I've watched the rest of the series, then Buffy's musical episode 'Once More With Feeling' probably wins. I don't think that needs any explaining, does it?

Day 13 - Favorite childhood show:

Oh, my, this is going to be a long post. Both for honorable mentions and for the extent of the love I still have for the show in question and the rambling reminiscences it brings in its wake. (No, it’s not Doctor Who. When I was small I was too busy sticking my head under a cushion and begging my parents to turn it off because of the scary music, so I missed that.) I have pics and vids, though.

( Childhood TV and misspent cartoon-watching youth )

( Full list of days )

Still catching up:

Day 08 - A show everyone should watch:

Given how different everyone is, can there be such a thing? However, a show I think everyone should at least try Episode 1 of is Life on Mars. I'd call it the show of the decade without question save that it probably needed Spooks and Doctor Who paving the way for it, but still... for the UK, anyway.

It's different, strange as any TV show has ever been, scary, killingly funny and the cast are great, especially Philip Glenister. (The US remake has already proved the impossibility of recasting Gene Hunt.) (And it has this Camberwick Green moment, which is possibly one of my favourite things I've ever seen on TV ever.) I perfectly understand people finding it too peculiar, too British, too regional, but worth a shot. Yes.


Day 09 - Best scene ever:

What, just the one? I could do top twenty DW scenes and still kick myself for missing things, but off the top of my head, here are some, from different shows (& I couldn't find YouTube clips of any of them, and darn it, there used to be for The gateau from the Chateau!)

( Great scenes under the cut )


( Full list of days )

Day 05 - A show you hate:

I have to waste a post on something I don't like? A meme is a harsh master. I suppose the top candidate would be Big Brother for starting off all the reality TV shows and not even being an actual talent context or something where there's a point to anything# other than, well, voyeurism that sends me back to watch Vengeance on Varos and feeling smug about the foresight of my favourite TV show.

Mind you, there are two shows I can't bear to stay in the room with, but for reasons of inexplicable fear picked up at some point rather than actual hate: Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (I can't stand being in the room with it. I want to run away very fast. I blame my Dad for making me play the computer game of it years ago. It panicked me. ("Is that your final answer...?" *shudder*) But then I never like quiz shows anyway. So, yes, it's a perfectly good quiz show, if they don't bore you solid in two minutes as they do me, but I am traumatised by the computer game version).

And the other thing, which is silly, because I even quite like it in it's own way, but Columbo. It's the way he hunts down his victim so remorselessly in that old mac solves the crimes. I reason my aversion to it has to do with the way we so often see things from the murderer's point of view, but I think it was something to do with the episode in which Johnny Cash was the murderer. I have no idea what happened in the episode now, or why it bothered me but after that I was scared of Columbo. Before that I liked the show and thought it was funny. (Mostly). And I still have to slide out of the room with a muttered excuse when it's on even though it's about 20+ years later. I can watch about 3 minutes and then I have to go.

I'm weird, yes. I was also scared of Miss Marple, but I got over that.


(#confesses accidental addiction to the Maria/Joseph/Nancy/Dorothy things. I know. I knew one day one of those things would get me when I wasn't taking proper precaution not to watch them. This is the real reason I refuse to watch, ditto soaps (and football). I already have enough trouble fitting things in my life, without getting addicted to something else time-consuming. I have once or twice pretended it's to do with being intellectual and superior, but this is an utter lie, so I've stopped. Things that other people genuinely love aren't really to be sneered at without good reason, I decided.)

( Full list of days )

Day 04 - Your favorite show ever

(Because I'm slightly bored with the show that will be my answer to Q3 right now. I won't be tomorrow).

Hmm, my favourite TV show ever? What could that possibly be?

I think it might be this old thing. It's quite well-known and it's one of the longest running shows in the world. Its lead character has been played by 11 different actors (and I love all of them, really and truly). It can be anything it wants, and pretty much has been at some time or another. I know everyone will have their own favourite show, but this is absolutely the most unique TV series there is: love it, hate it, never even seen it, but you've surely got to admit there's nothing else that's anything remotely like it. (Not all of it at once, I mean.)

And I think people might possibly have guessed what my answer would be there. I have other TV obsessions, but they come and go. This one is forever, I think.

And, yes, I like it all. I don't believe in Classic Who and New Who, though I use the terms sometime. I like the 1980s, even Timelash. I love the b&w stuff and can even amuse myself while watching The Sensorites. I have no problems with dodgy 70s CSO. I am a totally hopeless case. I don't even hate any producers. I can grumble about Chris Chibnall, but that's about as far as my disgruntlement goes.

( Full list of days )

Day 17 - Favourite mini-series. (I'm rebellious, I'm doing the days out of order. This post has to be done on a Sunday - classic period drama day. ;-D Besides, as pedanther pointed out, otherwise this meme ends on a really depressing note!)

This had to be a BBC period drama as I don’t watch many other self-contained serials (that, I take it is a mini-series, yes?), although Lost in Austen gets a definite honorable mention here. I also love very much the 1995 Persuasion, The Way We Live Now, Wives and Daughters, Bleak House and Our Mutual Friend and Little Dorrit, among, well, just about all of them, but I choose North & South.

I hesitated over this, as I know the only two people I persuaded to watch in the virtual world didn’t like it and fair enough (that’s what makes life interesting!). However, this is why I do (or merely scratching the iceberg of that, possibly), and if my flist are kind and read the entry, I’ll explain something about what I really like in TV in relation to this. And I have some pretty and non-spoilerish pictures, too and links to the beautiful score by Martin Phipps. So, humour me here. You can ignore the other answers for all the other 29 days, but I want to share my love for the BBC's North & South.

( And this is why I still like it, okay )

( Full list of days )