Beyond the Roundels

I've not been posting or even keeping up with people so much because I've largely been wiped out for one reason or another or prioritising something else with the reduced summer PC time - sorry. This will continue for a little while yet, until it is eventually replaced by my usual slightly less flakeyness.


* The other week I managed some flash fic/scribblets for AU_gust (AU August) on tumblr. I've only managed to tidy up and post one of them since, & there are 2 others to follow once I tweak them a bit, as well as 1 more that I don't know if is worth proper posting & a drabble I still need to type up. But this used up my posting energy for now, so they can wait.

Anyway, in a shocking attempt at pandering to what might pass as popular demand among my works, I committed another Miss Marple + supernatural fic(let):

Tea on Sunday (572 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Miss Marple - Agatha Christie
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Jane Marple, Griselda Clement
Additional Tags: Ficlet, Alternate Universe, Witchcraft, AU-gust | August Writing Challenge, Community: allbingo, Community: 100_women, Community: 100fandoms, Miss Marple is a witch
Summary: Miss Marple's secret is out.


* In other writing, before summer got underway, I typed up the bulk of the longest continuous sequence I'm doing for the current arc at rainbowfic, and then ever since have been scraping away at finishing it and editing it, and I am nearly there, although I suspect it'll still take another week or two before I have the first section ready to post. (I knew this would happen, so I also started two shorter pieces, but one of them, which is more or less done, has just been even harder to edit because tiredness etc. and the other one is still stuck at only two paragraphs, so that plan went well. Summer brain is not up to much. That was why I had to silly no-pressure AU ficlets my way back to life and even then summer rudely and immediately interrupted all over again). But there has been writing of sorts even so.

(The long sequence was one of the very first bits of this arc that I drew up, which is very funny because I essentially set up a sort of grand house murder mystery affair except that then everything changed so much that now my main characters aren't bothering taking part in the murder bit so am not sure if it will read ok (hopefully when edited) or if I committed Worst Murder Mystery ever as a result. I think probably I will also write a note on the header when we get there saying that One Day I Will Come Back, yes, one day I will come back, until then all 2 or 3 of you should go forward in all your beliefs about how people shouldn't wave a murder mystery at you and then literally run away from it, and I will eventually demonstrate that what is going on is in fact an Apocalyptic Overarching Plot, so there. And edit, of course.)


* I am currently listening to: a 1989 BBC Radio adaptation of Wilkie Collins's No Name I was delighted to find, starring Sophie Thompson as Magdalen, Jack May (as Captain Wragge), Eleanor Bron (as Mrs Lecount) & Robin Ellis (as Captain Kirke). I'm going slowly, but have just started part 3. It's very good and they're making excellent use of the epistolary bits, which is where radio has an advantage over TV. Mrs Lecount and her sinister toad have just turned up and Eleanor Bron is obviously a v good choice.


* I have watched some things, which, aside from what I've already mentioned, and a ridiculous amount of TV detectives, includes these:

The Tribe (1998), The Halfway House (1944), A Matter of Life and Death (1946), The Admirable Crichton (1957), Creation (2009), Cause Celebre (1988) & Eye in the Sky (2015), all of which were either v good or worth talking about anyway. (Creation and Eye in the Sky have brought me very nearly to the end of my Jeremy Northam's viable CV, so I'm a little bit in mourning now; I suppose a new blorbo will come along in time. Talking of which, I found that the iPlayer had the BBC 1970s All Creatures on it, so finally got around to seeing Suzanne Neve's episode of it, which would be the one thing I would certainly have watched with her when I was a child to see if I had shadowy feelings and indeed, as soon as she appeared, before even I saw her, the set was suddenly Significant in the back of my head, so yeah. I think I can prove childhood imprinting on all my top faves and that's what the thing is about, and why even when I'm so ill they reach me in ways that other people, no matter how much I enjoy them in things, don't unfortunately.)

(Hopefully I will get to talk about some of them properly, but I am happy to attempt such talk in comments if wanted, although sense is not guaranteed, and it is true that at least one or two I watched in a fugue state that all I can say is, well, it was good and I watched it very slowly in bits and there we are, but, yes it was good /o\)


* Also random funny thing. My old housemate N lent me a DVD (!!) of The Residence (was not joking about the sheer amount of detectives watched this summer), which I enjoyed so much I recced it to my Dad. A couple of weeks later we had this conversation:

Dad: I've been watching that medical drama you recommended, but it's not that great, really, so I've stopped.

Me: ... Medical drama??

(It turned out he'd found The Resident on one of the back Freeview channels, so I emailed him a trailer of the 2025 Netflix detective show that I magically got lent on DVD as if it was 2015 or something. He found a pirate source and then lost it again, but he definitely liked what he watched so far a lot better than the Resident).

I started this on 27th Feb 2021 for 100fandomicons and have finally completed it, after taking longer than anybody else ever has, which I suppose is one claim to fame. (You can see the fandoms if you hover over the icons.)

( 100fandoms table under here )

I actually managed to do this meme this year! I haven't got more than partway through it since about 2021, which I do regret, but here we are, I've been chipping away at this for a week or so:

Your main fandom of the year?:

Doctor Who, as ever. Not that I don't run off to flail at least briefly about many other deeply obscure things every other day, communicating my enthusiasms to the distant and patient sympathy of the flist by means of semaphore or something, but that only feels fannish if someone responds, and that can't be expected very often.


( Cut for length of me wittering about TV, film, audio & books under here )

Another little batch of icons, with more Bleak Expectations text icons, a handful for retro_icontest (including one I forgot to post), and a few for 100fandomicons, plus some more Doctor Who.

Teaser:



( I shall give up evil science and take up evil gardening instead )

I picked this up from scifirenegade, and apparently it's taken me a month to answer the last couple of questions and tidy it up, so most of this I wrote in July. Also, I was all: yay! A film meme, and I've actually watched good films recently, so I shall not have to resort to all the very weird things I watched as a teenager... and then every other answer was still one of those things. (I'm so sorry. My A-Level tutors have a lot to answer for.)


( Cut for a very long set of questions )

Sorry I have been even more erratic than usual (summer edition, at least briefly). It is how things are. At the moment, though, my parents are visiting.

In the meantime, three things:

1. I started listening to another Saturday Night Theatre installment I snagged ages ago, Antigua Penny Puce (1995), to see if it was any good and/or if it had sufficient Mr Collings to make it worth while.

Reader, he turned up as a sea captain who drowned within five minutes and instigated the whole story by sticking a mysterious stamp on his DIY last will and testament in a bottle. Some things never change. XD Anyway, I'm not sure how the rest of it will turn out or if we will ever discover the significance of David Collings's will, but it has Aden Gillett as one of the main characters! So, yeah, that was not much David Collings but it was nevertheless about as David Collings-ish as you get without also involving aliens and/or complete breakdown.

(All two of my fellow House of Eliott flisters will understand that I went: "Jaaack!!" immediately, as is obv obligatory. Amusingly, it's about him and his sister being difficult and bohemian and warring over a stamp collection, although not with as positive a relationship as Jack and Pen. I had not thought about him on the radio and he does have a good, distinctive voice for it. Hmm...)


2. Very old news, but it made me laugh: I randomly stumbled over the rude edition of Rainbow. (It was made for one the end of year Christmas parties that the ITV companies and the BBC used to do; rather like the DW one where Four swears at K9, so it is not, obv, a real episode.)


3. idk what third thing. I lied/forgot while typing/can't count/delete as applicable. sorry. probably a link??

Oh, wait, while I think people around here are aware of this and how it works anyway, I made a tumblr guide to Finding Your British Actor Blorbo On The Radio a few weeks ago. Or, in less tumblr speak, how to use the BBC's Genome and then places like BBC Sounds, Radio Echoes & the Internet Archive to obtain radio drama.

I continue to be tired/ill from Friday, but usually three days is the charm, so here's hoping for tomorrow! In the meantime, some things:

1. Someone has put together a complete timeline overview of OUaT here. (Well, I say here; it appears to be in four very long parts plus a Wishrealm edition, because OUaT. I've been looking at some bits of it when I can manage it & it's quite interesting to see, especially the chronology of the in-show mythology bits.)


2. I made more gifs and then I had to stop because it was too many gifs for my current state. They were all ( Colin and Matty gifs from Wish Me Luck )


3. If you can do reaction vids and like being cheered up, during the Writer's Strike, the channel Gallifrey Girls stopped doing all their usual shows and did Red Dwarf instead, and went from not having a clue what it was to it being their new favourite show, which was fun to see: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcEstOLrIdVVGpfu7hHebva1Osjzbim2K

/end random.

One day I will make a proper post again. Probably. I hear those may be a myth...

1. Big Finish have finally resolved the rights problem with the their Sapphire & Steel audios and are re-releasing them in download format. They're boxsets only, it looks like, which is a nuisance if you were wanting to fill some gaps or pick up a specific one, but they are available again!

They remain some of BF's best audios, whatever else they are, so that's really cool.

One other good thing is that they have helpful content warnings, which is thoughtful, especially as several of them are very dark indeed. (In a perfectly S&S sort of way, but definitely worthy of warnings for people who'd want them.)


2. I've already forgotten what my other things to say were just in the process of typing that up.

Probably only gifs. Have some more wee Jeremy Northam gifs, why not:

( Cut for gifs )

Anyway, these may not look like much, but you should see my source material.

(Somebody reblogged one of these last night! I cunningly put Julian Glover in it, and that did the trick. A Julian Glover person reblogged it and a Jeremy Northam person then saw it. tumblr is very hard work if you're creating posts for obscure things people aren't thinking of looking for but might like if they stumbled over; you don't have comms for that like we did on LJ.)

(I'm overtired, I'm babbling as per.)

I am currently just a deep well of sadness, so it seems appropriate enough to post this, which of course I meant to post two days ago when I reblogged it again on tumblr. I am being bad at getting round to crossposting and thus having these safely stored up here, but here's no. 2.

(I was not normally doing episodes for Old TV that actually has a fandom, but I made this two years ago when we hit the 40th anniversary of Gauda Prime. And it genuinely is one of my fave episodes of anything, because sometimes I like to eat tragedy up with a spoon and this is the awesome kind.)

( Spoilers for Blake's 7 under here, obviously. do not click if you do not want spoilers for B7! )

(Some of these episodes aren't "here's my cathartic episodes of sadness I rewatch a lot" I swear.)

Anyway, belated Happy Gauda Prime Day to those of us who celebrate commiserate! ♥

I managed to import and tweak the second of my 1980s UNIT stories over the past week:

UNIT: Lonely House (25873 words) by vvj5
Chapters: 10/10
Fandom: Doctor Who (1963)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Original Female Character(s)/Original Male Character(s)
Characters: Liz Shaw (Doctor Who), Charles Crichton, Original Characters
Additional Tags: United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (Doctor Who), Torchwood One, 1980s UNIT, 1980s Torchwood, Plot, Case Fic, Slime, Aliens, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Angst, Loss, Grief/Mourning, Peril, Abduction, Military, Flashbacks, Injury, Cross-Posted on A Teaspoon and an Open Mind
Series: Part 2 of 1980s UNIT
Summary: November 1985: There's alien slime and tea and explosions, but thats just UNIT. Now Colonel Crichton's trying to wage a war with words instead of guns, Torchwood want their ghost back - and sometimes it takes more than winning to save a life.

This one is rather less plotty and rather more character-centric, but Torchwood still manage to provide some peril.

The question now is whether or not I go ahead to UNIT: Stardust or stop to have a go at typing up the 'missing' UNIT fic while I'm at it. There's one called UNIT: Poltergeist that I still have pretty much in full in longhand plus a couple of pages in a file on the PC. I did always regret not getting to it, and I think typing it up might be manageable, but then I haven't finished going through it. (And, of course, do I type it up first or repost them in original posting order initially?)

(I know how to be popular: just type up random decade old fic about my 1980s UNIT OCs and minor characters.)

I keep forgetting to carry on re-uploading my icons that were originally hosted on tinypic and PhotoBucket, but sovay has been watching Mr Palfrey of Westminster lately (!) and that reminded me that I was thinking I should re-upload those next. When I went to find them, the set I did turned out to be part of my icons200 project, so I found the template (because some of them definitely make more sense with the categories).



( Our country right or wrong... )

This is a bit random, but I made this post in response to a tumblr query and it is so long and I don't want to risk losing it in case it should ever come in handy again. But don't worry, I haven't finally completely lost it and assumed that everyone wants to stalk James Maxwell round strange old telly and film. However, if you do, here is your guide to what's good (for Mr Maxwell anyway) complete with warnings for particularly terrible facial hair. I might come back and edit in YT links later (maybe even gifs), but I'll leave it here as it is for now, just so that tumblr doesn't eat my ridiculous work (because tumblr).

*waves*


***

More of a guide than a recs list, because old tv/film depends so much on availability. It’s also hard as there’s nothing surviving that’s really like SotT for him (his voice is always slightly different, too & rarely the grand one from SotT) - I found it hard to find where to start back in the day, so I hope this makes it easier. However, I have starred my favourites (rated for JM content only).

I’ve divided things into categories and jurijurijurious​ (or anyone) can make up their own mind as to what to go for.

Where to find things: Luckily in the UK, it’s not too bad! Network Distributing are the DVD supplier to keep an eye on (they do great online sales), you can find secondhand things cheap on Amazon Marketplace & eBay, and several Freeview channels show old TV & film, especially Talking Pictures. I’ll note if things are on YT or Daily Motion, but they come and go all the time, so it’s always worth searching.

( Cut for very long post of me rating episodes on a JM scale )

(Not an obvious combination of TV series, lol, but linked by a common factor & what that is you can probably guess.)

Anyway, I have been watching the BBC's 1980s biopic Oppenheimer lately, starring Sam Waterston. It also features in the 7th and final episode some guy called James Maxwell as Lloyd Garrison.

I did enjoy it, but it was also slightly distressing as this is my last bit of James Maxwell available on DVD that is new to me. (There are, though, two things available by online methods that I need to get to, I just keep hoping that either they'll release a DVD or Talking Pictures will oblige me by showing them, as I'm not great at watching stuff online.) But still. I get through the bad stuff by reminding myself that if things get to their worst, I might be able to purchase some James Maxwell! What's a person to do when there is NO MORE?*

Anyway, it was very good, although in that taking-it-very-seriously-practically-a-docudrama way that I thought even the BBC had done with by 1980. It even still had a narrator (John Carson, liadt). I think it could easily have lost an episode, too (half of episode 1 could have gone, for a start). As I knew only the vaguest things about the Manhattan Project prior to this, I can't comment on accuracy, although old time BBC usually at least try quite hard.

It was, though, aside from the two or three Genuine Americans who had been enticed over by the prospect, a field day for people who can do dodgy foreign accents, plus all the regular Americans and Canadians based in the UK. I ticked them off as they popped up, and my only question was, when would Ed Bishop arrive?

The answer was, as it turned out, episode 4. *g*

But Sam Waterston was very good, and it also had David Suchet as Edward Teller, coming into his own with his first major TV role, and, the dodgy-accent brigade included Milton Johns! In an actual proper serious role! Amazing. Bless him.**


I have also, hence the unlikely title, finally got round to screencapping the Bognor installment in which James Maxwell and Patrick Troughton are both monks in a honey-making religious community that is rocked by MURDER and espionage. I have brought pics. You can thank me later. :-D

( I don't even know what to label half of this )



* Rewatch previous purchases, obviously. *happily disappears into Girl on Approval for a bit*

** He had to try and sell the scene in The Android Invasion in classic Who where he discovered that he was not missing an eye, he just hadn't ever thought to look under his eyepatch! So obv. he deserves all the good things, even if he hadn't already earned a lot of audience fondness for somehow being ridiculously likeable while playing all the slimy creeps in 70s & 80s children's TV. His accent was the dodgiest, but he was otherwise very good indeed in it.