Beyond the Roundels

[I wrote this with about 0 brain something like 2 months ago. But I was feeling like posting one of my drafts and I just realised belatedly that Chris Bidmead had died in August. Or possibly just found out and was shocked for a second time, who knows, it's terrible how much I forget. But I do love his DW era very much and while he lived to a good age, I am still sorry to hear it - he brought so much to the show & was a rare DW script editor who was genuinely interested in SFF* as a genre, which showed in a whole bunch of scripts commissioned by him, which are unlike any of the other eras - even if a whole set of them then had the misfortunate to be made by the next script editor who Did Not Get Them at all. This serial is actually one he wrote later for his successor's rather more action/dark orientated era (and said successor, Eric Saward, Did Not Get this one either), but - I had prepared it earlier! And also: I love Frontios!]


I haven't much brain so I thought for this edition of the Unofficial Fandom 50 I would once again burble about a favourite classic Who serial, this time...

Frontios

tumblr gifset for pictures

What is it?

It is a four part Fifth Doctor serial (4x 25 mins; c. 1hr 25 minutes in total) from Season 21 (1984). Yes, it has Giant Woodlice.

The Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison), Tegan (Janet Fielding) and Turlough (Mark Strickson) accidentally stray into the far future - so far that the Time Lords are forbidden to go there. They arrive at a tiny, struggling colony of survivors from Earth, who are under bombardment from an unknown enemy from space - except there's also something beneath them: the earth on Frontios is hungry...


Sometimes, as a DW fan, you love the unloved serial; sometimes you adore the fan favourite - and sometimes you just love a decent one more than you can properly justify or exactly explain, but we've all been there. I have a few of these, and Frontios is one, although honestly I think it belongs in the circle just outside of the all time greats personally, which is why I'm going to babble about it. (I mean, I realise, like everything, it does depend on a) taste and b) how people feel about lumbering giant woodlice).

(It's also the only DW serial where a member of the main guest cast had to be replaced at the last minute because the original actor, Peter Arne, had been murdered. This has no bearing on anything, other than the replacement being the excellent William Lucas, but I felt the need to mention it anyway). (All my DW classic faves do not involve someone dying or nearly dying irl, I promise).




What do I love about it?

It's about confronting buried/unspoken terrors & what you can do with gravity in SFF if you have some giant woodlice to hand, plus it's one of those forsaken, almost Shakespearean colonies classic Who loves to do (the youthful leader with his fragile hold on it is even called Plantagenet) and I am a sucker for such things. The guest cast is great - William Lucas, Lesley Dunlop, Peter Gilmore & Jeff Rawle, pre-Drop the Dead Donkey.

Penned by Five's original script editor, Chris Bidmead, Peter Davison shines here, and gets to pull out his brainy specs for the first time since Bidmead left; Tegan and Turlough are both really well used, with Turlough's buried race trauma demonstrating that having alien companions as well as earthlings on the TARDIS can lead to interesting options for storytelling.

It's dark and weird, fascinating and quotable, with excellent team!TARDIS banter. The hatstand gets a moment of glory. The TARDIS is disintegrated. The Doctor saves Tegan's life by being really insulting to her. "Frontios buries its own dead."

Basically, I love weird colonies, I love strange ideas, I love this TARDIS team, I love the hatstand, I'm not at all put off by giant woodlice and: "Just tell them I came and went like a summer cloud." (Oh, Five. <3)


* Classic Who script editors (and producers) were assigned to the show by the BBC and did not always have a huge amount of choice about being offered the post and then being removed from it - it was just how the BBC worked at the time.

I fell out of posting and managing to keep up for a bit, for various reasons, but anyway, here are some things:

1. halfamoon is running again, with prompts every day - it's an annual two-week fannish celebration of female characters etc (1-14th Feb.)


2. fic_promptly has started up again, if people want regular commentfest type posts!


3. In Brit Cosy Crimes fandoms, what they give you with one hand, they take away with the other, which is to say that the BBC has brought Shakespeare & Hathaway back from the dead and Sebastian will get to wear more ridiculous costumes, but ITV countered by cancelling McDonald & Dodds, so there will alas be no more improbable crimes in Bath.


4. I don't want to keep linking to Sesskasays's reactions, but she made it unspoiled to Caves of Androzani, really appreciated it and was not ready for the ending, and it was probably the best first time reaction to that one I've seen. (Of course, this now means that she has to contend with The Twin Dilemma, but we all have to go through that sooner or later... ;-p)


5. In things I have been watching and listening to and should write about properly, because they were all good and interesting: - I listened to another J B Priestley Time Play adaptation, I Have Been Here Before.

In a charity shop (one of my reasons for not keeping up was my friend took me to town for the first time since November) I found one of those inexplicable 3 films in 1 DVDs that are usually random things you have never heard of, only this one was Tom Jones (1963), A Passage to India, and An Ideal Husband; and I'd wanted to see Tom Jones - I think I must have found it via Julian Glover being in it, but parts of it were filmed in my home town! But it was quite expensive online secondhand so I'm still impressed with this piece of serendipity. I enjoyed it and I recognised said home town quite clearly. XD (The street they used, Castle Street, is not only where I was born, but, if you have been around long enough to remember me talking about my family history, it was where one of my direct ancestors came to a tragic end in a cesspool. Yes, I am working class, lol.)

Also I have now finished The Jewel in the Crown! It was indeed very good and the last episode suddenly produced unexpected Peter Jeffrey, who wasn't even actually evil as such, for a wonder.

1. The classic Who reactor I'm following at the moment managed to reach Earthshock somehow totally unspoiled, which produced a great reaction, both last week in Pts 1&2 at the Cyberman reveal (she loves Cybermen), and then at the final two parts here, pretty much as JNT intended, I'd say. /slightly sadistic, I suppose, sorry, but as someone who read so many of them in Target novelisation form first and got spoiled further by years of DWM first, it's completely fascinating to me.

(I do like this reactor - if you're looking for someone currently going through Classic Who, I'd recommend them - they're thoughtful, enjoying the ride and certain SFX and costumes & guest stars, adored the original Team TARDIS (important), but also willing to be critical sometimes too.)


2. Rarest of Rare Pairs Ficathon, which is actually a commentfest (for all types of fanworks) for rare pairs, so that's fun.


3. small_fandoms has a fest going on for posting works in small fandoms there in August, based on a set of Rolling Stones lyrics prompts, which you can check out here.


Otherwise: ♥ all. (it was summer for at least a whole day here, and I'm still not any better at that yet.)

So, in other writing news, both my treat recip and the rainbowfic mod turned up to comment and make my day at exactly the same time a couple of days ago. (Why do things all come together when they weren't at all connected?) So then I was happy.

But justmarriedexchange has now had author reveals and so here is what I wrote - a gift and a treat, both in Doctor Who.

I got senmut as my recip, which was good fun - a whole bunch of relationship tags that I liked to choose from and also they were dizzyingly rash enough to request Any Tag. (You will not be surprised to learn that given the choice of any tag in the tagset, they therefore immediately got a variant of Accidental Marriage off me, ahem, ahem.)

Anyway, I had a nice, manageable idea for Three/Brig/Liz and I do love s7 so much... and then it just grew! How did it grow? But it was also a really lovely fic to have living in my head and I'm still really pleased with how it came out and I liked the idea of the alien world involved as well.

Farewell Tour (11974 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Doctor Who (1963)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Third Doctor/Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart/Liz Shaw
Characters: Third Doctor (Doctor Who), Liz Shaw (Doctor Who), Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, John Benton
Additional Tags: Accidental Marriage, Post-Serial: s054 Inferno, Blood and Injury, Aliens - Think They're Married, Aliens - Artifact Creates Marriage, Marriage of Convenience
Summary: “Doctor,” said the Brigadier, “you’re not saying you’ve stranded all three of us on an alien planet, with no way back home – and we’re married?”

I was also determined to write a Five/Tegan treat for ceruleantactician who had requested it as well, and one of their tags gave me a fun idea, so I did this. (I could have done Five/Tegan for the gift, but this way in theory I could have both worlds. And also my idea for my gift was really not that long or anything... lol) Which means I would have liked to maybe have added a little more to this one, but hopefully it's fine and fun(ny) and sweet as it is, and omg, people not me requested Five/Tegan. More than one even! 0_o

Legal Requirement (2627 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Doctor Who (1963)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Fifth Doctor/Tegan Jovanka
Characters: Fifth Doctor (Doctor Who), Tegan Jovanka, Original Alien Character(s)
Additional Tags: Betrothal - Marriage Contract Between Ancestor And Long-Lived/Immortal Being Enforced On Descendant, Treat, Fake Marriage, (but with a lot of feelings)
Summary: The Doctor and Tegan need vital information to save a planetary system, but there’s one small legal requirement they must fulfil first...

Anyway, that was fun, and I seem to have read most of my flist's stories while we were all undercover! (I guessed lurking_latinist - thank you for the treat!! - and astrogirl, and at least suspected senmut, but I'm now laughing that I completely failed to recognise paranoidangel. Because I should always suspect paranoidangel by this time...)

But it was fun, even with that long wait in the middle! (Let's not do that part again.) And thanks as ever to persiflage_1 who beta-ed them both for me. <3

... to the very excellent astrogirl! May you have a lovely day! ♥


I suddenly recalled that I had written a 500 prompts drabble for you that I wasn't sure when and where to post because it was far too silly to be a thing. Clearly, a perfect birthday gift, right? (I'm sorry! The damn thing had to be done at some point.)

( The Vacuum of Time )

Sorry, I seem to be spamming a bit this weekend. However, I probably won't be much around for a couple of days or so again and I have things to post while I can. I wrote fic, and have completed my border bingo for genprompt_bingo! Thanks to everyone who gave me Deus Ex Machina suggestions, or I'd probably still be stuck. ♥

For genprompt_bingo, crossoverbingo and 100_women

God in the Box (1291 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Librarians (TV 2014), Doctor Who (1963)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Cassandra Cillian, Fifth Doctor
Additional Tags: Community: 100_women, Community: crossoverbingo, Community: genprompt_bingo, Deus Ex Machina, No Ezekiels were harmed in the making of this fic, Constructed Reality, Humor
Summary: Cassandra is nearing the end of a retrieval mission and in trouble...

I am doing the AU Meme, honest! Here are the first three results, by way of proof:

( Discworld: Sam Vimes )

( B7: Deva )


( DW: Five, Tegan & Nyssa )

In which I actually achieve a bingo! Hurrah! \o/ (Just have to work out to post to the comm now; I've never done a bingo before.)

Title: Subdivide and Multiply
Author: lost_spook
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1778
Characters/Pairings: Slight Five/Tegan, implied Nyssa/Tegan, Turlough/Nyssa and possibly Five/Turlough. (Vague Five/Tegan/Nyssa/Turlough).
Notes/Warnings: AU from Terminus (in that Nyssa stays). It's a lot less shippy then it sounds.
Summary: Among the many things Tegan never planned, getting married to three aliens at once was definitely one of them, but that’s life on the TARDIS for you, or in this case, life off the TARDIS.

For trope_bingo square “sharing a bed”, and directly from the discussion about Sedoretus I had a while back and john_amend_all’s comment that Doctor Who had the perfect Sedoretu in the shape of these four. (Allowing for Tegan/Nyssa, Five/Tegan, Turlough/Five and Turlough/Nyssa, with Turlough & Tegan and Nyssa & Five.) Somehow, the idea just wouldn’t go away, although I’m sure it could have been better done than this. It could certainly been far shippier, but that’s the trouble with me writing things. Also for livii in the 500 Prompts Meme - 44: This division must end – Five/Tegan (DW).

( Subdivide and Multiply )

The full set of icons made for naarmamo (minus only the icons that were made as specific requests, and the Big Finish ones, which will follow shortly). It does include some extras and alternates not posted elsewhere. (Gosh. I know. Heh.) A fairly random mix of sources, as follows:

1-5 The Way We Live Now
6-9 Northanger Abbey (BBC 1986)
10-12 Seaside penguins
13-16 North & South) (BBC)
17-26 Text icons from Framed by Frank Cottrell Boyce
28-30 Dungeons & Dragons (Cartoon)
31-33 Elizabeth R
34-37 Life
38 Inkheart
39-40 I Capture the Castle
41-46 Doctor Who (Classic)
47-48 Buffy the Vampire Slayer
49-53 Spooks/MI-5
54-57 Sapphire & Steel
58-59 Red Dwarf
60-66 Blake's 7
67-72 The West Wing
73-74 Press Gang
75-76 Jenna Russell
77-86 The House of Eliott
87-88 The Four Musketeers
89-91 Midnight Is A Place (1977/78 ITV)

Teasers:



( Icons here )

... so a sort of meme?

I've seen people messing with the drabble-matic thing (except it doesn't actually do drabbles - minus points for misuse of the term!). It asked for so much info, I didn't bother, but then thought if I put Five and Tegan in and just used words that went with them (beige, purple, cricket ball etc). It, um, well... It makes no sense whatsoever, but is bizarrely not unDW-like because it does include an attempt by one of the two to rule the world.

( Disturbing Five/Tegan generated ficlet )

And I can't offer any explanation for what it gave me when i tried with Tarrant and Dayna. I mean, I know there's a lot of B7 slash, but it was a randomly generated ficlet. (I think it must be based on a certain type of fanfic cliche. Darn. Even when I put random words in a random generator, B7 won't do romance.)

( More disturbing Tarrant/Dayna ficlet )

Okay, and then I did Blake and Jenna, and it came so near pr0n that I think I should stop now. But this generator definitely knows how B7 works as compared to DW. I am beginning to wonder if Orac is about on the nets...

( Even more disturbing Blake/Jenna ficlet )

Hey, I spent some of my birthday money on this... and have made some icons. I couldn't help it (plus, yet again, Friday insomnia strikes, so I have little brain for writing). You will be relieved to hear there are none of Turlough in speedos.

There are also some extra I did last week for Vengeance on Varos. (Now that my skills have improved a bit.)

Teasers:

Total Icon Count: 68

( Icons Here! )

As ever: want, take, have, credit. No hotlinking.

I wrote a Christmas story!  From a randomiser prompt, which gave me First Doctor/Tegan + Shopping.  What else could I do?

A Spot of Festive Shopping
Tegan, First Doctor, Ffth Doctor (All Ages)


( The story )

 The only other narrator I've had so far is Gwen Cooper, who decided that it couldn't be worse than the day job.

( Blurb )
Storytime! Gereint and Enid
http://www.ttrarchive.com/gae-1.html

( Intro to story )

Oh, and, this is what Peri and Six are arguing about throughout:


( gereint and enid (Peri and Six) )