Did anyone recently write some meta they intended as a gift for someone in the B5 fandom? Because I've received some here, but I'm fairly sure it was mis-linked and it was intended for someone else. I don't recognize the creator, either. (It's meta about the Earth-Minbari war with some elements from the script books I think?)
Edit: mystery solved!
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Job-hunting continues, my levels of stress are somewhere in the stratosphere, please send more spoons.

A couple more fics to round these off:

Lost Lilies Out of Mind - Gone with the Wind, Ella Lorena Kennedy for tabaqui

totus mundus agit histrionem (but at least there's an interval) - Good Omens, Aziraphale/Crowley for teigh_corvus

Part 1 of these is here.


Unrelated, the new Nancy Drew trailer is out, and I'm actually pretty excited about it! Yes, it's cheesy and very tongue in cheek, but it looks like fun.



The other thing I want to share is a rec for a Babylon 5 music video. It's incredibly spoilery (covering S2-4) so I've stuck it behind the cut:

( Read more... )

Continuing on from Part 1 -

Season 2
( Read more... )

I introduced a couple of friends to Babylon 5 recently, and I have been watching the show alongside them. I didn't realise that this was fairly wide-spread; evidently, the 20th anniversary has brought about a resurgence of interest!

We've covered Season 2, and are in the middle of S3 thus far. Some thoughts, with the benefit of hindsight:

1) I used to draw hearts around Delenn and Sheridan, then went through a phase of having absolutely no interest in them. I've come back around to being very interested in them again, primarily because of the utter respect on both their parts for the other. They are very different, and yet they respect those differences and try to accommodate them. I don't know whether it is a case of television moving towards bombastic, dramatic relationships and away from quiet build-ups, or whether this was always somewhat rare to see, but it strikes me as something I no longer see on screen. Even on shows where there is ostensibly a slow-build, it feels more like a will-they/won't-they dynamic, rather than a gradual growing together. Maybe I'm just getting old, but I do like it.

2) I'm more and more convinced that there was an intention to do something with Talia's arc rather than just leave it hanging. Did we ever see this resolved in a novel? I know that Bester references her later on in Dust to Dust but I feel that his comment is more designed to provoke.

3) I really, really appreciate the creation of the different races. Yes, we have the main players, but we also get to see the other races fleshed out until you can spot them. OK, maybe I never learned the name of the fishpeople, but I remember Ambassador FishPerson being concerned with Homeguard terrorism. I can spot the unfortunate Markab, the garrulous Drazi, the curiously identical-looking Brakiri. (I think it's established that the Drazi don't have any females - or that they reproduce in a non-binary way, anyway - but is it ever explained about the Brakiri? Or have I selectively not noticed any female Brakiri?) And the Hyach (Hyatt? No, that's a hotel chain) and the Pak'Ma'Ra and so forth. Even if they are not one of the main races, from very early on they have a coherent look which helps the station to feel real.

4) I've discovered the Babylon 5 audio guide podcasts and they are excellent! Great discussion for each episode, and suitable for both new viewers and those doing a re-watch. (They have a loud noise to indicate the start of spoilers.)

5) You can now find a whole bunch of convention videos online! The 20th anniversary con panels are mostly on YouTube (here, here, here and here... and here, here) but here are also some 1990s clips. I haven't watched them so I can't swear as to the quality, but it's nice to see them!

6) I feel like more than a couple of governments have watched this show and thought, "yes, the Earth Alliance approach to things is actually pretty great, we should totally implement that at home." Some of it is even worse. I'm fairly certain that Donald Trump's speeches map word for word against Londo's most bombastic, aggressive declarations. He is, after all, going to make the Centauri Republic great again.

7) Julie Musante would have been hired by David Cameron's team in seconds.

8) I really like how we see representatives of the Earth Alliance and they're not all American? There are people from all across the Alliance.

9) ... I miss Andreas.

Ooops, too much sociliaising in the evening has resulted in no posts for the last two days. Mea culpa. Here they are, alongside today's post as well.

( Day 06 - Favorite episode of your favorite TV show )

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( Day 07 - Least favorite episode of your favorite TV show )

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( Day 08 - A show everyone should watch )

Day 04 - Your favorite show ever

Oh, this is the hardest thing EVER. And yet it totally isn't, not really. There is my first show - the show that taught me English when I didn't speak it, and imprinted on my young brain: Star Trek: The Original Series. There is the instant connection with Buffy and The West Wing and Alias... All of that pales in comparison to the deep, unconditional love I have for Babylon 5. I started watching it in season 3, and bought the videos to catch up. They were my first big purchase, and they used up all my pocket money for months. I remember staying up to watch Endgame, way past when I should have been in bed for school the next day, upset and shaking and waiting to find out which of my favourites was next. B5 was the first fandom that welcomed me with open arms, sometimes literally, and it was the first fandom I wrote anything for that I was proud of. And it doesn't matter how many years pass, or how many other space operas come along, if I'm having an awful day I will still curl up with Soul Mates or Parliament of Dreams and it will make things better. I feel privileged to have seen B5 when it first aired. I was in the convention hall when we heard that s5 had been given the green light, but that Claudia wouldn't be returning. To me, it wasn't just a show but my first sense of fannish community.

darlas_mom is about to start watching B5...

Which is a wonderful excuse for me to do a rewatch. Anyone want to join me?

As requested -

For selenak, who wanted to know how I'd write the psi corps trilogy, if I'd been given the timeline for it:

( bear in mind I didn't like them at all... )

For yahtzee63, who wanted to know my top 3 bad-ass women of Alias:

( cut for S5 spoilers )

Taken from penknife. My first fandom was Babylon 5, as it was the first fandom i wrote stuff for, and thought up stories for. Technically, ST:TOS was the first show I ever devoted myself to watching, but as I was about ten years old, I didn't register it as anything more than entertainment. Babylon 5 made me sit up and take notice, and it formed my perceptions of what being a fan actually entailed. Later on, I would apply those lessons back to the ST:TOS as a reader - never a writer - and to the Buffyverse as both.

( Five things Babylon 5 taught me about fandom )

Today, I found out that Claudia Christian is

1) living in the UK

2) maybe possibly perhaps about to be in a UK theatre play, and touring to boot.

This is because I happened to sit next to a casting director during my lunch hour at Starbucks, and we got chatting.

That is all.

p.s. want a pony.