Beyond the Roundels

21. Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves. (Characters you’re neutral about are fair game, as are characters you dislike or even loathe.)

Ah, I stopped here because I was trying to think of characters I didn't like in my fandoms, although if I disliked them enough to think of them, I'm not sure I wanted to say nice things about them when I generally just don't talk about them and leave the people who like them in peace.

But if I like a fandom, then I will usually come to be okay with the characters I don't like - they'll grow on me on rewatches, they'll be interesting when I come to write them, and I'll feel bad if I'm mean about them, and get defensive if other people are. The ones I really resent are usually because other fans have gone on about them in objectionable ways, dialling up my annoyance, which doesn't make me feel like being nice about them for this meme.


22. Name a character that you’d like to have for a friend

Most fictional characters wouldn't make for good friends. Even if they're fine in themselves, they get into danger and excitement all the time! It'd never work out. If I must, though, Bill Potts seems like a lovely potential friend, if she'd be willing - post-TARDIS and puddle travels, of course.


23. Your rarest fandoms.

LOL. *waves hand vaguely at whole journal and AO3 account* Where would we start?


24. A fandom you’ve abandoned and why.

I mostly just rest fandoms rather than abandon them, if they're something I'm really into. Other things are barely around long enough to be a fandom, so can that count as abandoning them?


25. Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending?

Do you want my Reasons Why Silver/Sapphire/Steel Is Totally Canon Already (in whatever sense "elements" can be said to have or be ships, which maybe they can't, but clearly they are anyway) again?

Though, really, I don't think I'd die defending any personal fictional theories. That does seem like a particularly stupid way to die.

14. A pairing – platonic, romantic or sexual – that you initially didn’t consider, but someone changed your mind.

I think, as the other question established, I'm pretty open to trying out random ships or combinations to see if they work. (I mean, is that not a good part of the fun of fic? What if, what if, what if...?)

So, I'm not sure I can think of anything in the normal way, but memes, random generators and prompts have thrown up things that have wound up being accidentally great suggestions. Also sometimes some excellently appalling ones while they were at it.

I still have a bunch of suggestions from the 15 Characters Meme I treasure gleefully, and love playing with several generators. There was also an icon meme once, where you sorted your icons alphabetically and then paired them up, which was how Liz Shaw/Silver came to be a thing and sort of took on a life of its own. So, Silver/Liz, now the surprisingly large-for-S&S crossover ship is one that sails on a regular basis, at least in my vicinity. And it's a good ship! I totally recommend exploring the tag (& the platonic edition, too.)

3. You've got your OTP, you have to throw a third into the mix (from the same fandom), creating an OT3. Who is the OTP, and in your opinion, why would they make a perfect third for them?

I don't really have an OTP as such, just a range of pairings, some of which are more OTP-ish than others, and some OT3s. Given that I have a lot of fandoms, I'm not sure where I'd start or stop with the list.

My OT3s probably already fit this in some ways, because clearly Sapphire/Steel is a perfect pairing, a true OTP. Whoever else could come into the mix? I thought, watching the start of Assignment Three. And then Silver appeared and I OT3-ed them forever in less than 2 more episodes, but obv Sapphire and Steel are the two who are the two. They would ditch Silver like a shot if they had to, although they would miss him badly if it came to it. The OT3 is shiny and perfect though, and that is always what I prefer to play with. Mind you, I do think - given how strange they are, and how they interact - that there is a degree to which I kind of ship Elements/Elements generally, and that that might in some ways be nearer to the truth than any human arrangement.

And in Department S, Annabelle/Stewart are obviously or have been some kind of item, because they reference this a few times, but equally the OT3 is just so much better, although it is a V-shaped OT3 with Annabelle/Stewart and Jason/Stewart but Jason & Annabelle in the other corner. Their love is true also, but probably not sexual. (Jason's sexuality is everybody-but-Annabelle pretty much, although also this is Jason. They probably would some time, because Jason, and Annabelle does own to some curiosity over what all the fuss is about re. Jason.)

(I feel bad about excluding Sir Curtis, but I don't think he could maintain the kind of diplomatic dignity, authority and denial about caring for his operatives (he DOES NOT, it is all PROFESSIONAL, thank you) if he was in an OT4 with them. He just has an occasional affair with Stewart in far-flung railway carriages and boat cabins instead, obviously. If not, I don't know why he keeps wasting the department's budget by summoning him to all these inconvenient locations just to hand over a file.)

My other real OT3 is the Dracula (1868) lot, which is more of a pick and mix affair, because honestly everyone is a potential ship in that anyway and I love that about it so much, but basically, the true OTP here is Mina/Lucy, my personal OTP is more Mina/John, (for actual reasons, but also they're Suzanne Neve and James Maxwell so I can't not), and John/Lucy are engaged anyway, so why not have an OT3 of hapless Victorian vampire fodder? I love them a lot, anyway.

I have grown into also shipping Mina/John/Jonathan as a post-canon solution, because otherwise I don't know what to do with Jonathan. (This is the fault of random generators and calliopes_pen, mainly, though. But it is a fun option!)

But as someone who likes new options and tends to write invisible shippiness, I'm happy to consider it unless the third is part of a NOTP with one of the original pairing.

I was thinking some pairings don't lend themselves to this so much, like Ruth/Harry, but then of course, I thought, well, Tom? And I could definitely go with that. And then there's the dark side with Juliet, or the deeply disturbed Mace/Harry/Ruth kind of options. So, then, I was, yes, but Zaf/Jo, and then thought: wait, no, Zaf/Jo/Ros, and basically I am a what if kind of person when it comes to fanfic, because isn't that the point, really? At least every once in a while, if not as a true OT-anything. Isn't never say never the motto of fandom once you've been in it more than a month or two? ;-p

(But also Zaf/Jo/Ros should be a thing now, okay.)

Let's finish this meme, since I've said all I need to in the vid...

26. Favourite quotes

I included a bunch in my big Public Eye post, so I'll just find some different ones I also like, except for this, which is my favourite:

Helen: "A man seems to think all he has to say to a woman is 'I need you' - she'll pack a nightie and a toothbrush and run!"


( And the final questions... )


(Now, what show next for this meme? ;-p)

6. Best title sequence

Public Eye had a different title sequence each series (except for S3), and I quite like most of them. However, while the usual theme is my favourite, you've got to give them points for S4: they not only made a new credit sequence, they recorded a different, slower and more downbeat version of the theme, and then "Welcome to Brighton?" had a separate, shorter credits sequence used only on that episode, in which we flick through Frank's prison file, which doubles up as a way of reminding viewers where they left him at the end of S3. If anybody could have forgotten...

The main/original theme and the rearranged S4 theme. (Written by Robert Sharples under the pseudonym Robert Earley).


8. Missing episode you would like to see found.

All thirty-six of them, of course! Narrowing it down, I'm more keen to see anything from S2 or 3 than S1, but anything would be wonderful. Everything that survives suggests it was always of a pretty high quality, and any tiny piece of Frank Marker than could be restored to the world would be amazing. (Sadly, they were wiped rather than lost, so... it's not likely, to say the least). Especially, I'd like the 8 lost Roger Marshall episodes, the 6 lost Robert Holmes stories, the David Whittaker, and the one that had Jacqueline Pearce in it, and also Pauline Delany's first guest appearance, but if you pin me down and make me choose one, then there's only really one answer...

"Cross That Palm When We Come To It" (S3) by Roger Marshall, the episode in which Frank gets set up and arrested, and there is no escape or proving his innocence for him. Viewers at the time wrote in demanding Frank's release, so maybe it was too heart-breaking to survive, but still, it's a crime that it doesn't.


9. Favourite photo/screencap

I thought about this, and flicked through my epic collection, but honestly:

( The obvious one and some other contenders )

( The questions! )

lost_spook hunts in the back of the LJ cupboard and fishes out another awesome female for the meme at last.

( Did she just threaten to shoot me? )

( So Far... )

Okay, stay with me while I take this meme to places it oughtn't to go... like some old 1980s cartoon... (we'll return to relative normality afterwards).

( Diana, do you hear? Do you hear what you have done? Listen, Diana, listen to the people you have set free... )

( So Far )

Onwards with the meme, but still in sober mode...

( There's a lunatic woman threatening to destroy the city! )

( So Far )

Another female for the meme; I don't think this will surprise anyone who's been hanging around here much lately:

( You have enormous value to me, you have no value to Eastern Europe. )

( So Far )

As I said yesterday, another day, another awesome TV female character:

( She's a match for the old lady - she wasn't going to give in... )

( So Far )

I am quite glad I outlawed Doctor Who from this meme, because it has had me looking at some more unexpected people (well, some of them), and then again, maybe I'm driven to people I shouldn't pick - like this character...

( It's called a double-take: the first look is disbelief, the second is sheer horror... )

( So Far )

Since this is my meme, and I can post as many or as few entries for it in a day as I wish, here is the other character that I didn't like to begin with. In fact, I might go so far as to say that I hated her. Maybe even now like is not the word, but 'awesome' certainly is. It's Spooks's Ros Myers and she really doesn't care what you think of her...

( What part of Harry did they use to clone you? )

( So Far... )

This wasn't going to be the character for today, but I got carried away earlier when my collecting of bits and pieces and so on led to unexpected Colin Baker and Anthony Stewart Head (see below) among other things. (Besides, does Jonathan Creek count as obscure? Doesn't feel like it can be, really...)

( How come when I stay at your place you get the bed and I get the sofa, but when you stay at my place you still get the bed and I get the sofa? )

( So Far )

ETA: Oh, yes, forgot to say that Colin Baker's character has a wardrobe that is painted a suspiciously familiar colour of blue.