Fannishly speaking
21 November 2020 20:28![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nym_wibbly
My fannish interests haven't shifted in the last few years. Once Upon a Time and my lifelong love of Doctor Who. I look back fondly on the days when I could view a new episode of something and immediately be inspired to write a response. These days it takes me much longer to percolate new information into my fanbrain. I'm still working on that final season of Once Upon a Time, which I loved to pieces but had trouble taking in. From the perspective of my fanfic, Rumple-focused, it's a crucial season; it's Rumple finally stepping up and changing his life, and ultimately confronting everything he's feared and utterly defeating it. A beautiful ending, a heartbreaking one, but reasonably inevitable once he was forced to linger in immortality while Belle moved on without him. I wasn't surprised by where the storyline went. I was surprised by how Rumple dealt with it and by the nature of his specific struggles. I still am, and I'm still trying to assimilate it.
I've just about caught up with the latest series of Doctor Who and begun to integrate it into the terrifyingly large section of my mental storage tank that remembers the DW canon along with much of its expanded universe from novels and audio. Although I adored the Thirteenth Doctor from the moment her identity was revealed on Wimbledon finals day, and fell in love when she smiled after the regeneration scene, I've been lukewarm about the reboot of DW itself. Nothing to strongly dislike; I adore the cast and characters as much as I usually do, and I can live with the preaching because that's in the Doctor's nature and tied to the show's educational early history, but I've had real difficulty changing gears to adapt to Chris Chibnall's overall vision. And I speak as one who actively disliked much of what Moffat did with the show during Matt Smith's tenure. It took me a long time to 'get' what big picture he was going for, too.
I'm increasingly finding that I respond much, much better to the "boxset" experience of episodic TV - that tuning in week by week causes me to nitpick and get frustrated instead of to immerse myself and just go with it. On the other hand, with my health issues, boxsetting even a 10 episode season takes some planning and some major cutbacks in other brain-using areas. I finally managed to re-watch the Thirteenth Doctor's 20 eps over the past few weeks, and it's finally started to settle in comfortably with the rest of the 50+ year lore in my head. Series 11 was fun, but I wanted more of the central characters even if it came at the expense of the always-terrific guest characters each week. By the end of it I didn't feel I knew the Doctor any better than at the start. Series 12 found more of a balance and gave me a chance to get to know the new Doctor a bit; showed rather than told a bit more with her companions and their struggles, and had them challenge the Doctor for sharing so little of herself.
Other than when New Who took one of it's "what was the showrunner smoking?" leaps of illogic, I've usually been able to guess where a storyline was going. I try to stay 100% unspoilered for DW because I work things out too easily and it does spoil my enjoyment. I knew nothing going in to series 12 (though my mum, of all people, spoilered me about Captain Jack in the days before that ep aired!!). I didn't realise it much at the time, but I had no idea where the season arc - such as it was - was headed. I didn't figure out "O" until way too late, which is pretty embarrassing for a lifelong fan of the Master. I know what space the Master fills in the story, even when they're not present - and especially when they're hiding in plain sight. I figured it out before the reveal, sure, but not confidently, and not very long before the Doctor found out! I guess I wasn't expecting the Doctor to see the Master again so soon after Missy's apparent demise - the possibility wasn't even on my radar, so I got owned by Chibnall. In a good way. I didn't stop grinning for days after ep 1 of Spyfall. As for where it ended up by episode 10; as for the new Master and his effect on the Doctor, that's another post. One I'll try not to drool on.
Probably unwisely, given that I was pretty depressed at the time, I took the plunge a few months ago and watched the TV adaption of The Handmaid's Tale in one intense, darkened-bedroom binge. It's not something I could ever be fannish about, but the novel has always stayed with me, and so will this TV series. The performances are beyond flawless and, because of that, I experienced more terror while watching those three seasons than I ever have plonked in front of a horror movie or a thriller. True terror on behalf of June and her associates as they were terrorised. I can't say I enjoyed it, but I did love it, passionately, and I'll force myself to keep watching wherever it goes next. The novel ends when Gilead falls under its own corrupt and perverse weight - when the momentum of rebellion overwhelms its shallow roots. The Gilead of the TV show is far more deeply embedded, and far less likely to be toppled by the worthy actions of an underground few. Can it even get a "happy ending"? The novel has no ending. The novel ends, a powerful lesson in how people - individuals - simply slip through the cracks in times of geopolitical upheaval. The protagonist is unidentified, out there somewhere, or killed in the crossfire, or....? Her testament survives to be studied by scholars, but the woman herself, the Handmaid? It's the not-knowing, I think, that really makes the novel stick. I'm not sure a neat, TV-style wrap-up can leave the show with that same, lasting impact, but I await developments with interest.
I've just about caught up with the latest series of Doctor Who and begun to integrate it into the terrifyingly large section of my mental storage tank that remembers the DW canon along with much of its expanded universe from novels and audio. Although I adored the Thirteenth Doctor from the moment her identity was revealed on Wimbledon finals day, and fell in love when she smiled after the regeneration scene, I've been lukewarm about the reboot of DW itself. Nothing to strongly dislike; I adore the cast and characters as much as I usually do, and I can live with the preaching because that's in the Doctor's nature and tied to the show's educational early history, but I've had real difficulty changing gears to adapt to Chris Chibnall's overall vision. And I speak as one who actively disliked much of what Moffat did with the show during Matt Smith's tenure. It took me a long time to 'get' what big picture he was going for, too.
I'm increasingly finding that I respond much, much better to the "boxset" experience of episodic TV - that tuning in week by week causes me to nitpick and get frustrated instead of to immerse myself and just go with it. On the other hand, with my health issues, boxsetting even a 10 episode season takes some planning and some major cutbacks in other brain-using areas. I finally managed to re-watch the Thirteenth Doctor's 20 eps over the past few weeks, and it's finally started to settle in comfortably with the rest of the 50+ year lore in my head. Series 11 was fun, but I wanted more of the central characters even if it came at the expense of the always-terrific guest characters each week. By the end of it I didn't feel I knew the Doctor any better than at the start. Series 12 found more of a balance and gave me a chance to get to know the new Doctor a bit; showed rather than told a bit more with her companions and their struggles, and had them challenge the Doctor for sharing so little of herself.
Other than when New Who took one of it's "what was the showrunner smoking?" leaps of illogic, I've usually been able to guess where a storyline was going. I try to stay 100% unspoilered for DW because I work things out too easily and it does spoil my enjoyment. I knew nothing going in to series 12 (though my mum, of all people, spoilered me about Captain Jack in the days before that ep aired!!). I didn't realise it much at the time, but I had no idea where the season arc - such as it was - was headed. I didn't figure out "O" until way too late, which is pretty embarrassing for a lifelong fan of the Master. I know what space the Master fills in the story, even when they're not present - and especially when they're hiding in plain sight. I figured it out before the reveal, sure, but not confidently, and not very long before the Doctor found out! I guess I wasn't expecting the Doctor to see the Master again so soon after Missy's apparent demise - the possibility wasn't even on my radar, so I got owned by Chibnall. In a good way. I didn't stop grinning for days after ep 1 of Spyfall. As for where it ended up by episode 10; as for the new Master and his effect on the Doctor, that's another post. One I'll try not to drool on.
Probably unwisely, given that I was pretty depressed at the time, I took the plunge a few months ago and watched the TV adaption of The Handmaid's Tale in one intense, darkened-bedroom binge. It's not something I could ever be fannish about, but the novel has always stayed with me, and so will this TV series. The performances are beyond flawless and, because of that, I experienced more terror while watching those three seasons than I ever have plonked in front of a horror movie or a thriller. True terror on behalf of June and her associates as they were terrorised. I can't say I enjoyed it, but I did love it, passionately, and I'll force myself to keep watching wherever it goes next. The novel ends when Gilead falls under its own corrupt and perverse weight - when the momentum of rebellion overwhelms its shallow roots. The Gilead of the TV show is far more deeply embedded, and far less likely to be toppled by the worthy actions of an underground few. Can it even get a "happy ending"? The novel has no ending. The novel ends, a powerful lesson in how people - individuals - simply slip through the cracks in times of geopolitical upheaval. The protagonist is unidentified, out there somewhere, or killed in the crossfire, or....? Her testament survives to be studied by scholars, but the woman herself, the Handmaid? It's the not-knowing, I think, that really makes the novel stick. I'm not sure a neat, TV-style wrap-up can leave the show with that same, lasting impact, but I await developments with interest.