sundries, evening edition

[rm]

Patty and I have booked our cruise-related flights. Sadly, we are flying out of Newark, but the times are tolerable and it's Continental (and not Spirit) and not the $600 PER FLIGHT that Delta wanted.

My father had another MRI for his kidney thing, so on Wednesday we find out if it's a cyst or something bad (by which we mean cancer).

I'm currently reading the Torchwood book Consequences. It's the one with the short stories. I like seeing this stuff from multiple Torchwood eras: I love having more Gaskell and I love seeing Owen and Tosh again. I'm not up to the James Moran story (that I suspect I have craft commentary on; craft commentary, of course, has been largely lost in some of the "this is Ianto!" "No it's not!" fannish wank I've seen about the story in question), I'm mostly just mentioning it now so I can state once again that I think Sarah Pinborough is doing the best work in the world of the TW tie-in novels.



Tosh get's zapped with this alien gadget that makes her more how other people want to see her -- in this case, Owen and Gwen, which gives her a bit of sexy attitude and leadership skills, but it's not really pleasant.

This results in a moment wherein the following happens:

'I told you we'd find it again soon enough. Sometimes you're so anal.' She laughed a little at her own joke and then lef the way to the lift.

Gwen watched her go, her mouth not dropped open like the two boys' hand, but still more than a little shocked. What had they done to shy, sweet Toshiko?

In truth, I can't quite put my finger on why I'm unsettled. Of course, part of it is that I'm supposed to be, and part of me is absolutely laughing and admiring Pinborough's audacity -- it's stuff like this (and real plotting and structuring that makes me compelled beyond seeing the Torchwood team) that makes me praise her work doing the tie-in stuff. But part of me is definitely off-put by what's really a cheap anal-sex joke at the expense of the bisexual character in the room (this is set when Jack is off with the Doctor between S1 and S2). Of course, Tosh striking the wrong note here is the point, but I felt... I read it and I felt like I needed to defend someone's honor, and that just surprised me a little, as did two very sexual characters like Owen and Ianto gaping over a little quip -- sure, it's Tosh being super weird, but it reads like boys being squicked by TEH GAY, a subject on which neither Owen nor Ianto have a leg to stand on.

I've been, for reasons unknown, watching crappy video of Otherworld thanks to the wonder of the Internet. I loved this briefly-lived show as a kid, and it's interesting trying to figure out why the hell this was the case now (random cracky mythology referencing ancient Egypt + uniform fetish?). Also? This wasn't on the air _that_ long ago, but it's really an insight into another world in terms of its value as a pop-culture artifact. We were so innocent and narratively weak!

New Yorkers, let's not forget The Players Club on Friday.

Comments

[iterum.livejournal.com]

I was just thinking about Otherworld a few days ago. I can't think why, now.

I vaguely recall from my youth that, like the Gil Gerard Buck Rogers, it was inconsistent on the existence of rock music. For some reason that bothered me.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Okay, Buck Rogers was _totally_ one of my other childhood fixations. My poor parents.

[malle-babbe.livejournal.com]

If loving the cheesetasticness of Buck Rogers is wrong, I don't want to be right.

[sethg]

Obviously what the world needs is a remake of Buck Rogers with Katee Sackhoff as Lt. Deering.

[sethg]

s/Lt./Col./, duh.

[lawsontl.livejournal.com]

Pinborough's not my cup of tea. She writes some interesting prose, but the character relationships in her first TW novel read like a S1 fic, not like the post-S2 fic it was supposed to be. And this short is supposed to be set between S1 and S2, but she refers to Rhys as Gwen's husband (not a tiny detail, seeing as the marriage was an entire episode in S2). Also, she uses some of the same epithets that drive me nutty in fanfic (the only one missing was "the Welshman/woman"). I had high hopes for her, that a feminine perspective might offer something new, especially for the female characters who are often quite clearly written by men and for men. She's offered some interesting OCs, but I find myself wondering if she doesn't care more about them than the TW characters and background.

I'm glad you're enjoying her, though. The great thing about these books is the variety of styles we get. And "Consequences" is particularly interesting as a writer in how all the stories relate back to each other, and the last one loops back to the first one. I enjoyed the cursory read I gave it, and I look forward to having enough time to really dig into it later on.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I noticed the marriage thing and was like "have I gone mad?" So I'm glad to hear you say that. Of course, I make errors like that as a fanfic writer, so to me, it's like where was an editor on clean-up in aisle five?

[timelady.livejournal.com]

I've said somewhat the same thing on other DW novels. Problem is, of course, that it's differences in opinions on directions characters can go in. The one I had the largest problem with was "Shadow of Weng-Chiang" by David A McIntee which had 4th Doctor, Romana I, and K9. I just got the feeling that he really didn't understand the characters or know what to do with the characters other than the Doctor. As in he had K9 walking up an enormous flight of stairs for most of the novel. And Romana I who is my absolute favorite companion for how smart she is and utterly elegent and gorgeous, but wasn't vain in any way other than being smarter than the Doctor. I loved that she could actually challenge him in technical skill. Whereas in David's novel, he basically put her in a tight fitting dress and had her sing in a nightclub. (It just made me feel like he had cheapened my favorite character and turned her into a sexual object).

[bizetsy.livejournal.com]

I wish you the best with your father. Sending good thoughts.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

We definitely had similar tastes growing up. Near the same point in my own adolescence, I loved the shockingly similar sounding (I've never seen Otherworld) show: The Fantastic Journey.

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

Fantastic Journey was awesome. And, on later viewings, incredibly gay ("I was trapped in this mad, shrinking closet!").

I mainly remember Otherworld for the villains driving SUVs.

[sethg]

The cultures-hermetically-sealed-from-each-other gimmick gave Otherworld the potential to be an interesting SF show. Unfortunately, based on my recollections from my own childhood, the writing sucked rocks, even by 1980s network-TV standards.

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

Oh, Torchwood books. *adds to booklist for next Wednesday*

[rm.livejournal.com]

Right?!?!?! It's rather "wait, WHUT?" isn't it?

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

See, I'd have to see it all in context, but the snippet made me go a little "bwuh?"

OTOH, so much of Torchwood for me is about foibles, and people being biased and imperfect that it's hard for me to separate bad!author!fail from good!character!fail sometimes.

[rm.livejournal.com]

It didn't feel like author!fail so much as it felt like author!reach that went wrong, but that may also have been Tosh!reach that went wrong, and I just couldn't decide.

[marchek.livejournal.com]

New Yorkers, let's not forget The Players Club on Friday.

I'm in and so is James.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Excellent. We bought our tickets last night.