Beyond the Roundels

A little fic written for the 500 Prompts Meme - #86 Ring of sunlight - Four & Leela, from misbegotten.

Also for genprompt_bingo square "Weather."

Breathing Space (1023 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Doctor Who (1963)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Fourth Doctor & Leela (Doctor Who)
Characters: Fourth Doctor (Doctor Who), Leela (Doctor Who)
Additional Tags: 500 prompts, Alien Planet, Peace, Community: genprompt_bingo
Summary: Four and Leela take a chance to walk in the woods and rest from danger - at least for a short while.

(I do love Leela.)

Now I've finally finished my Thriller (Part 1) review/picspam post, I am behind again. Let me talk about what I have been watching over the last couple of months (or more), other than the first 5 discs of Thriler.

1. I finished Secret Army. I did mostly enjoy it, although I got impatient with it again at the end. Terence Hardiman as Reinhardt (who doesn't give a damn about anything since they've lost the war and most of his friends have just been executed in the wake of the assassination attempt on Hitler) did liven things up, though. He was great, and not even actually evil, either. (Particularly his exit when ( Spoiler ) Kessler is rightly both awful and complex, of course, and Clifford Rose was very good in the role.) Bernard Hepton spent most of the last series in prison, on film, but he did eventually escape and return to the studio, and I gave it a lot of plus points for what eventually happened with Monique, too. Anyway, I watched it! I now know where 'Allo 'Allo is coming from.


2. I skipped ahead briefly to watch Suzanne Neve's second Thriller, and while I'll cover it in its turn, I can report that she is better at terrorising innocent Americans than James Maxwell: she sticks them in her underground pottery kiln and bakes them, no angsting required. 1970s Suzanne Neve is so far a lot more evil than 1960s Suzanne Neve. (I would side-eye the ending of the 1968 Dracula here, but personally, I blame Ed Bishop for throwing her down the stairs in UFO.)


3. I finally got to the E-Space trilogy (DW), watching Full Circle and State of Decay (before an appropriate break for the BBC 1977 Dracula). Full Circle has a good SF idea at the heart, but nothing else much with which to pad it out. Except Adric, but, er, well...

I enjoyed State of Decay a lot, though, especially in comparison to Full Circle (it's good to see that future spaceships will go on with BBC Acorn computers on board!). Plus, the whole Time Lords and Vampires mythology backstory is potentially fun to play with and Romana gets two great costumes, while Adric spends at least an episode unconscious, and it has a great look, particularly for that era, especially the location scenes. What more could I ask for? (I'm sorry: Adric wasn't bad in this one! I'm mean, I know.)


4. And so, then, what more appropriate than that I pause to watch the TV show that caused State of Decay to be postponed for 3 years and gave us Horror of Fang Rock instead? (Accidentally; my viewing is not really that well planed!)

I'm not really sure why the BBC were so nervy about this version of Dracula that they thought DW doing vampires at the same time might make them look silly, but apparently they were. They had no need: this is lovely. It's unlike most of the old TV I've been watching - it was 1977 doing glossy event TV with a 2 1/2 hr feature-length version of the novel that's probably the most faithful adaptation still. (Although there are some changes, of course.) It was very good! I recommend it even if you're not usually into old TV, but are into Dracula. (I believe it is up on YouTube, and I got the DVD pretty cheap anyway.)

( Cut for further Dracula rambling )


6. I then decided that I should stop being wimpish and watch the rest of Mystery and Imagination. I'd already seen "Dracula", the Ian Holm "Frankenstein" and "The Suicide Club" (the one with David Collings and the cream tarts and the invisible hyenas and Major Geraldyne, because obv. that is the one that David Collings would be in). The Freddie Jones "Sweeney Todd" was out because I Do Not Do Sweeney Todd, which left me with "Uncle Silas" and "The Curse of the Mummy" out of the Thames adaptations, so I watched "The Curse of the Mummy." ( More about 1960s TV Victorian horror ) After that, I thought I'd had more than enough horror for a bit and left "Uncle Silas "unwatched and returned to Doctor Who and E-Space.


7. Warrior's Gate was very weird and also had Clifford Rose being excellent again. It was definitely the good weird, though, in that way only Classic Who is every once in a while. I mean, it looks like the stranger kind of 80s pop video (one that would definitely get nominated for Yuletide), so it wouldn't be for everyone, but still: the good weird/meta, I think, with bonus believably mundane, petty villains and random lion people. (It must be Doctor Who. <3)


8. I recorded Mrs Miniver off the telly, and the main thing I have taken from this is that Julian Fellowes stole the flower show plot for Downton Abbey. And given that I already know that he stole two plotlines/backstories and a minor incident from Duchess of Duke Street (as well as acting in it), I am now wondering with some interest and amusement, where exactly he swiped everything else from. (Anything from Upstairs Downstairs, maybe?) It's kind of engagingly blatant swiping, though. And gives us May Whitty vs Maggie Smith! Oh my. (I did like it, but it was made mid-WWII and so is very patriotic etc. But well done! There were some really good scenes, and Dame May Whitty as well as Greer Garson, and it was very watchable still.)


9. I also recorded the next old series Drama was offering as well, which is When the Boat Comes In. It stars Jack and Esther from New Tricks (James Bolam and Susan Jameson, who are married in rl, and going out in this). It is early 20th C Tyneside and the first episode was grim about shellshocked returning soldiers, the second had a poor orphan shipped off to Australia alone, and then the continuity announcer went, "And next, things get even harder..." It is, as they say, grim oop north. It seems good so far, though. And maybe one day the boat will come in; there are at least 40 eps on my DVR already and they may not all be equally depressing...


* I don't know if this is really a downside, though. It is very funny.

I actually wrote this at the same time as Meet Me At Midnight, but it's a little odd, and I forgot about it. However, it finishes off my last prompt for my Fourth Doctor table at dw_allsorts, so yay.

Author: thisbluespirit
Title: Treasure Hunt
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1842 words
Notes/Warnings: For the prompt "steal the gold." Fourth Doctor, Leela, Original Characters, K9. Outsider POV, implied death.
Summary It’s been a frightening day, and now there are some very odd burglars in Miya’s house...

Treasure Hunt on AO3 | also at the Teaspoon.

My now-regular Thursday feature! (We'll see how long this lasts. ;-p)

1. For some reason I'd been feeling a bit down the last couple of days, but you know what is always at least a little bit cheering at such moments? Multi-era Doctor Who fanvids. I was cheering myself with Marching On by xxdrosexx and then wondering why I didn't have any yet that went up to Twelve, so I went looking, and found this, which is also great:

( Cut for embed )

Because Doctor Who is, after all, that great big improbable and ridiculous thing of joy and monsters. :-)


And I'm continuing to enjoy watching (or reading) from the sidelines as the Public Call fics get revealed, so here's two more good ones:

2. A Taste of Home by dbskyler (G, 1784 words. Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith, Harry Sullivan.) Sarah, the Doctor, and home. Lovely glimpse of some 'missing scenes' from Terror of the Zygons.


3. Side Quest by annariel (G, 6388 words. Harry Sullivan, Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith.) Harry is collecting equipment for the Doctor when he runs into an adventure of his own. Can he foil the evil Dr. Richards, while at the same time helping the Doctor and Sarah fend off an alien invasion they somehow never quite have the time to explain properly to him? Excellent missing adventure, with Harry getting to prove his worth.


4. The Terrible Doom That Came To Honeysuckle Cottage by Psychomachia (Teen, 2592 words.) There's a saying old says that love is blind
Still we're often told, seek and ye shall find
So I'm going to seek a certain lad I've had in mind. One of the best and funniest fics to come out of last year's Yuletide: the Cthulhu Mythos meets P.G. Wodehouse's Honeysuckle cottage. (Definitely a don't-need-to-know-canon fic.)


5. By Wise Council You Shall Make Your War by beer_good_foamy (Teen, 722 words. Edmund Blackadder, George Colthurst St. Barleigh, Baldrick, Bob. Crossover with Buffy the Vampire Slayer.) In each generation, a Slayer is born. She alone will stand against the etc etc. In 1917, that was a young woman named... um... Bob? Good thing the Watcher's Council have an auxiliary member already in place in the trenches. What it says, oh yes, oh yes. :-D

I have been a bit AWOL, but for reasons and also now I have a vid! And, all right, so it is a vid of James Maxwell, BUT it is totally a vid containing cute children and animals, paper aeroplanes, stuffed toys, random barometers, wilful destruction of property, Emma Peel kicking ass, vampires, tea and coffee drinking, two Henry VIIs, rocks, Nazis, space ships, and an actual kitchen sink. Also epic hand-holding (but not anything like as much as there could have been).

( Cut for Embed )

And, at some point, I will catch up with other stuff a bit. (♥)

Icons I've made but somehow never posted over this past year. Maybe some were even longer ago? Anyway, FINALLY...

Teaser:


Credsit: Textures by tiger_tyger and twinstrikeish & probably some others. The usual rules apply: want, take, have, credit. No hotlinking, comments are ♥

Slowly, slowly, I'm typing these up!

So: two Star Wars crossovers. That's a first for me - SW fic.

Confusion in the Force
Written for pitry who asked for Chris Skelton meeting Luke Skywalker. (I actually wrote this well before the A2A finale, in rough, so it might have been different otherwise)
(All ages, 427 words).

( Confusion in the Force )


Flight of Fancy

Written for curuchamion, who requested a TARDIS/Millennium Falcon fic.
(All ages, 303 words. Han Solo, Leia Organa, Romana I, Fourth Doctor, K9, and two ships.)

( Flight of Fancy )

Courtesy of my new ability to get screenshots. (You're all going to get fed up with me very quickly now, I tell you... I started out just wanting Leela pics and a Colby icon, but it was much too easy to press the button when people were looking pretty). So: pictures of skulls, sceptical scientists, superstitious old ladies, dodgy men in white coats and Leela preening in the TARDIS:

(Spoilers for Image of the Fendahl beneath cut, obviously).
( Image picspam )

Story: Five Times Sarah Lied to the Doctor About Harry
Author: lost_spook
Rating: All ages / PG
Word Count: 1250
Characters/Pairings: Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith, Harry Sullivan (Harry/Sarah>
Warnings: None

Summary: The Doctor has his suspicions, oh yes...

For akashasheiress who said I would never write a fic about Sarah and Harry trying to hide their relationship from the Doctor for that Fic I Would Never Write meme. Naturally, owning a twisted mind, I wondered what sort of relationship… And then stopped and made it at least a little bit shippy.

I don’t know why it took so long to type up, though. I wrote it ages ago now. However, with a bit of effort, I made it in the same year! Happy New Year to all!

( Story under here )

For jjpor in the crossover meme, although I did try not to write it: Four, Sarah and Harry meet Lieutenant Gruber in a distressing incident involving his little tank.

Gruber, for those who don't know Allo Allo was played by Guy Siner, also General Ravon in Genesis of the Daleks. (Fellow Allo Allo star Hilary Minster is also in it as a Thal. It really does distract from that serial when you know the sitcom). Allo Allo is a 1980s/90s British sitcom set in occupied France.

( Under Arrest )

Story: This Time Round: Let's Play... Blind Date (with Leela)
Author: lost_spook
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 2,616
Characters The Celestial Toymaker, Movie Master, Leela, Fourth Doctor, Poul, Professor Litefoot, Professor Colby, Cordo and Andred.
Summary: Leela goes on Nameless TV and finally has to choose between her queue of useless admirers. (Well, that's the idea...)

( What was I thinking? )

Edit: It's already up here on the archive, if that's easier. (With amazing speed!!)

I just finished rewatching The Sun Makers. It occurs to me that last time I watched through this era must have been that time I was ill, so I found this a lot less dull than last time.

And the Doctor's inability to tell the difference between sweets is clearly deliberate and not due to lack of jelly babies. (He just gave a jelly baby to someone and said it was a humbug...)

( Some more waffle here )

Title: Happy Endings: Tea and Etiquette (and Other Niceties)
Author: thisbluespirit
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 1,574
Characters: Leela, Fourth Doctor, Professor George Litefoot and Henry Gordon Jago
Summary: In which our heroes both propose to the fair Amazon Leela over tea and muffins and she must choose between them. (The jade.)

clocketpatch, I'm sorry I've neglected your drabble for the meme below (I've only got 4 requests filled - people can still make one if they want! Go on!), but this was why and given that you suggested it (even if, evil mind that I am, I was already trying to write it), you may forgive me.

Dependent on when it appears on Teaspoon, of course.

And I've spent most of today writing out one (longhand, so you're all safe for a bit) for Image of the Fendahl. (It nearly turned into an epic).

Edit: 'Tis up on Teaspoon already, so it is.