solitary_summer | (no subject)

Meme, stolen from

eumelia.

List five of your favourite TV shows:

A) Babylon 5
B) Torchwood
C) Angel
D) Doctor Who (that is, New Who; and at least for the moment not counting S5.)
E) Buffy

And then answer the following questions:

1. Who's your favourite character in B (Torchwood)?
Favourite is maybe the wrong word, because there are episodes where I don't even like him, 'identify with' is even more wrong, because it's kind of ridiculous, considering that I'm as unlike him as possible, but the character that intrigues me the most is certainly Jack. If I had to meet any character in real life, it'd probably be Tosh.

2. Who's your least favourite character in A (Babylon5)?
Difficult. I don't really like Byron, but then again, who does. I guess my guilty secret is that I don't like Ivanova as much as most people do.

3. What's your favourite episode of D (Doctor Who)?
Utopia/The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords. The whole arc, Jack and the Doctor being so pleased about humanity surviving so far in Utopia, and then turning that completely upside down until the revelation in LotTL is simply fantastic. So dark and ambiguous. It has Big Damn Hero!Martha, Jack, the complicated relationship between Jack and the Doctor, the utterly fucked-up relationship between the Doctor and the Master, and the Face of Boe relevation. What's not to love? (All right, the religious imagery I could do without. But otherwise it's really quite perfect.)

4. What's your favourite season of E (Buffy)?
I know that's an unpopular opinion, but 4. It's more grown up than the early seasons, but still fun. It would be 6 for Once More With Feelings and Buffy/Spike, but I just can't stand the never-ever-ending moralising. Repent, repent, repent, ad nauseam.

5. Who is your favourite ship in C (Angel)?
Wesley/Angel, Wesely/Lilah.

6. Who is your anti-ship in B (Torchwood)?
Not anti-ship as such, but while I like Gwen, I simply can't see Jack/Gwen work in the long run. Gwen is still much too undamanged, and Jack needs someone who is a bit broken and can understand all his broken, complicated parts.

7. How long have you watched A (Babylon5)?
Back when the dubbed version first aired on Austrian TV, which imdb tells me was sometime in 1996. He.

8. How did you become interested in C (Angel)?
Started watching it on TV, I think. Memories are fuzzy.

9. Who's your favourite actor/actress in D (Doctor Who)?
Couldn't decide. I love both Christopher Ecclestone and David Tennant's Doctors, and all the companions, although actress-wise Donna is maybe my favourite.

10. Which do you prefer: Show A (Babylon 5) or B (Torchwood) or E (Buffy)?
I'll have to go with A, because B5 has epic epicness, gritty politic realism, fantastic female characters, an awesome female lead, the best TV romance ever, with the added bonus that it isn't either vapid or angsty OMG!doomedness, but an actual grown-up complex relationship, and a series finale that makes me cry every time, but in a good way.

11. Which show have you seen more episodes of, A (Babylon 5) or C (Angel)?
Exactly the same number, since I never watched the B5 pilot.

12. If you could be anyone from D (Doctor Who), who would you be?
God, I don't know. I'm not a very adventurous (or heroic) person, so I'm not so sure I'd actually even want to travel with the Doctor. Be the Doctor? I'm bad with decisions. Really bad. Some oblivious random extra without any lines, probably.

13. How would you kill off your favourite character in A?
How about I wouldn't?

14. Give a random quote from A (Babylon 5)?
The past tempts us, the present confuses us, the future frightens us and our lives slip away moment by moment, lost in that vast terrible in-between.

15. Would a C/D (Angel/Doctor Who) crossover work?
Possibly, but probably not very well. Angel/Torchwood would work, though.

16. Pair 2 characters in A (Babylon 5) that would make an unlikely but strangely okay couple.
I've really never given it any thought.

17. Has E (Buffy) inspired you in any way?
Not inspired as such, but it definitely made me think about misogyny in slash fandom and my own internalised misogyny.

18. Overall, which show has a better cast, B (Torchwood) or D (Doctor Who)?
Doctor Who. I think.

20. Which has better theme music, C (Angel) or E (Buffy)?
Can't remember Angel's and don't like Buffy's. Babylon 5 always had the best credits.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Interesting meme. Although I'm confused by:

but I just can't stand the never-ever-ending moralising. Repent, repent, repent, ad nauseam.
One of the themes of S7 is repentance (for all the badness people did in S6), but I can't see what you mean here.

(Btw you spelled 'ad nauseam' correctly and made me almost faint with happiness. WHY does everyone get it wrong?)

I had six years of Latin at school. *g*

'Repent, repent, repent' is maybe a bit of a hyperbole, but it's the way all the characters fuck up in this season, and there's always this earnest we-must-talk-about-this-do-you-SEE-how-wrong-you-were?-Do-you?-DO-YOU? Dawn's stealing. Willow's magic addiction, which was really painful to watch. Xander and Anya. Buffy being too distant and not connected enough. Buffy's relationship with Spike. I wouldn't mind so much if it were just one character at a time, but it's all of them, and for me that's just a bit too much. I'm not actually in favour of hand-waving away consequences, but rewatching S6 made me nostalgic for TW, where there are episodes like Cyberwoman, but at least no one's talking about it afterwards.

there are episodes like Cyberwoman, but at least no one's talking about it afterwards.
Some people see that as a failing! *g*

I'd never thought about it in that way, but I think it's an American thing - they do tend to over-analyse things much more than we do over here.

Anyway, I adore S6, but I know others do not. (Relentless misery can get a bit much.) I just love the fact that the writers were not afraid to break their heroes, to take everyone and make them screw up - not in big life-or-death situations, but in the mundane and everyday. And then of course trying to put everyone back together again in S7. It had flaws, certainly, but I think it was worth it. :)

Some people see that as a failing! *g*

I don't think it's ideal either, but especially post-Cyberwoman it's a bit like Angel and Wesley from S4 onwards - the situation is so complicated and fucked up on any normal scale of things that it's almost impossible to talk it through, except in a roundabout mostly non-verbal way, like Wesley rescuing Angel, or Angel acknowledging Wesely's relationship with Lilah and his grief over her death. (You were mortal enemies. Why should you care what happened to her? — Because you did. Best line ever.)

I don't dislike S6; in fact it used to be my favourite season, but in some ways Joss pulling the strings and pushing his characters over the edge one after another is a bit too obvious for me. It's never out of character as such, but for my taste you feel the writer's hand too strongly sometimes. But it definitely had very good moments, no doubt about that.

the situation is so complicated and fucked up on any normal scale of things that it's almost impossible to talk it through, except in a roundabout mostly non-verbal way
Oh I'm right there with you! (Stopwatch conversation ftw!) And oh, that Wesley/Angel exchange...

It's never out of character as such, but for my taste you feel the writer's hand too strongly sometimes.
Ah, but I see it almost the opposite way - well at least when it comes to Spike/Buffy. To quote my friend Anna (this [LONG] post):

I love the way one story, in particular, seemed to break out of whatever theme it was supposed to be getting across, and gave us television as riveting and as gut-wrenching as television dares to be, and acting – and, especially, interacting – that was occasionally sublime.

Yes in the end the writers tried to wrestle the narrative back into the shape they'd aimed for (and not entirely successfully it could be argued), but I adore the fact that Spike and Buffy became their own story, not fitting into any moulds or ordinary relationship structure. It's the same reason I love Jack/Ianto. :)

I adore the fact that Spike and Buffy became their own story, not fitting into any moulds or ordinary relationship structure.

I completely agree. This is my problem with so many m/f relationships in TV shows, and there are so few that really break that mould. For me Buffy and Spike are one example, and the other is Sheridan and Delenn in B5, who also have a relationship dynamic that for the most part completely defies cliches; maybe quieter and certainly less dysfunctionally than Spike and Buffy, but in really interesting ways, because their relationship is part of this whole epic war plot that simply would never have happened like this without the two of them falling in love.

Coolness. I'm totally doing this. We even have a show in common (not two, because I'm not doing Torchwood, because I've grown tired of talking about Torchwood).

Last two seasons of Buffy were my favourites, actually. Bleak is my thing. Same with the last season of Angel, man I loved that ending. Which reminds me, I need to catch up on the comics one of these days.

I need to catch up on the comics one of these days.
Don't. Trust me, don't bother. (Unless you enjoy seeing everything you loved about the shows destroyed.) Seriously - think of the most ridiculous, crack-tastic thing you can imagine, and I can guarantee that 'season 8' has topped it!

Um, yeah, I actually really like the comics. It's just the last 4 or 5 issues I haven't read.

Sorry - didn't mean to offend you, I've got friends who are very fond of them. Generally I enjoy them in the same way I enjoy the other Twilight with the sparkles.

But the latest arc I have serious problems with, on a lot of different levels. I think Joss drank the cool aid. :(

It's practically impossible to offend me and I'm used to having unpopular tastes, so no worries. :D

I feel so conflicted about the Angel finale. OTOH, I really love that show, more so than Buffy, and I love the last two seasons. OTOH the sheer hopelessness of it depresses me worse than CoE. Cordy. Fred. Wesely, who survived so much, and managed to get up again and again, who worried about Angel not wanting anything from, or in, life in S1, finding himself in the exact same position in the end. Lindsey, who was probably the only one going into the final battle without at least half of a death wish, shot. Lorne, forced to kill him and hating it so much. I love it, I love even the bleakness, it's good, I'm not arguing that, but at the same time part of me just wants to force JW to give his characters a happier ending...

Going down fighting is a happy ending for me. Which is why Joss never disappoints me, I guess.

Going down fighting, yes, but if they're mostly doing it because they simply have nothing left to live for, this isn't much of a happy ending for me. It isn't even much of a sacrifice, it's just depressing. For me the Buffy finale was heroic, because none of them wanted to die. The Angel finale was more or less a sort of collective suicide because they'd maneuvered themselves into a situation they saw no other way out of.

I want to do this, but I'm afraid it would be pretty much like yours :-) Except I'd probably insert Galactica for Dr. Who. Hmm.

You could always put the shows in a different order, though. ;)