30 Days, Day 2: What you wish happened

[clocketpatch]

I've got a whole list of things I wish had happened in B7, but I'm also not certain that if they actually had happened they wouldn't be things that I would wish hadn't happened. If that makes sense. Because I like the show as is, warts and all. It's a fun thing to discuss, mock, enjoy, wibble over, and write loads of fix-it fic for. I forget where I read it, but the opinion has been raised in a scholarly journal (this was in a scholarly journal, because I found it while writing a paper on derivative works) that the stories which inspire the most fic are not the most perfect ones.

It is the stories with loose edges, inconsistencies, and might-have-beens which inspire fandom. And Blake's 7 is definitely all of that (and then some).

That said... I wish Power hadn't happened. Or that it had at least been edited like mad, because holy crap. WHY AND WHO THOUGHT THAT WAS OKAY? I do like the bit with Orac snarking off though, and Dayna and Tarrant being adorable. All the rest of it can go die in a fire. (Now, don't all stone me in the comments for my controversial opinion, lol). As time's gone on... I'm actually okay-ish with the other two Steeds. Kairos is hilarious when it's not being boring and Moloch is... not the worst episode in series three (and it's got that bit with Servalan and Vila). And their awfulness provides a shared bonding experience for fans.

Power, though, I can't forgive. (And where the heck is Soolin for the entire episode?!?!).

Which leads to my next bit of wishful thinking: I wish Soolin had been more utilized. I wish Jenna had been given a chance to show her character more often. I wish that Dayna's episode hadn't been salvaged from Cally's episode (and hadn't been so. incredibly. skeevy. as a result). I wish that Cally had got more chances to use her kick-ass guerrilla warfare skillz and that the history of Auron could have had a bit more continuity.

I wish that Avon and Vila could have had more ridiculous hi-jinks on screen. Preferably with Orac involved.

I wish there had been more Space Monopoly.

I wish that jaguars had actually happened.

I wish that Vila and Servalan could have been hilarious together more often. With all of the tropes, them being forced to pretend to be in a relationship would have been the best thing ever.

I wish that some explanation could have been given for Dayna knowing how to play a lyre.

I wish that Dayna's father hadn't died and could've come on as a Blake-replacement (I cribbed this from Sue at the Wife and Blake. I didn't think about it at the time, but the more I do... yes.)

I also wish that Travis had been brought on board the Liberator at some point re. that meme prompt, and he could've spent an episode trying to convince everyone he was trustworthy, before trying to kill everyone.

I wish that Rescue had been edited... and also stretched out a bit. Or just done completely different. IDEK. the beginning of series 4 was kind of an impossible task for any writer and I think Chris did fairly okay with it, but it might've been cool to watch Avon rebuilding a new space ship out of the wreckage from the Liberator that rained down on Terminal, using Orac for help, and taking the first several episodes of the series to get everything up to not-quite-as-good-as-it-was-before standards.

I wish that we could have learned more about how the Federation came to be/ how ordinary people lived under it/ how its economy worked etc.

I also wish that neekid Sea Devil could've shown up more, because it was lolarious every. single. time.

Apparently, I wish a lot of things. This is what fic is for. It's glorious.


1. Favourite episode
2. What you wish happened
3. An unpopular/cracky opinion you hold
4. Your song/fan mix for the show
5. Most Romantic moment?
6. Favourite photo/screenshot
7. Favourite non-romantic OTP
8. Crackiest moment?
9. How would you convert someone to your show?
10. What show related fan works you would like to see?
11. Worst decision
12. Scene that made your heartbreak?
13. Best use of a hoary old trope
14. Most woeful use of SFX
15. Best scene involving eating/drinking
16. Something that made you Think
17. Something that made you Laugh
18. Best series opener
19. Best season finale
20. Which character would you like to go to lunch with?
21. Crime against fashion
22. Favourite quote(s)
23. Favourite costume/clothing/accessory
24. Favourite character moment
25. Biggest BAMF
26. Something from your head fanon
27. Least Favourite episode
28. Which character would you be?
29. All the pairings you ship
30. The coolest thing

Comments

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

I love you...

And I love this: the stories which inspire the most fic are not the most perfect ones.

Which is the truest thing ever truthed (that is SO a word!) Because they perfect ones...well...they're perfect. I can say the only exception would be things like: The Doctor's Wife - so perfect, reams of Squee was needed to expound upon the perfection. But usually, the stories that make us question, head-tilt or just leave us wanting more in some fundamental way...those are inspiring.

*HUGS*

[clocketpatch]

But the Doctor's Wife is part of an imperfect fandom and raises as many questions as it answers. The story isn't complete when the episode ends. Especially because we all know that's not the only time the Doctor and the TARDIS speak (maybe it's the only time they speak face-to-face as two-legged humanoids) but there are other conversations they're having/had/will have, and the episode just encourages the writing of those while confirming all the writings that have gone before.

Because it's a fic, essentially. I think that all Who is by this point. The canon universe is so disperse and everything that is added to it is added, not by the original team of writers, but by fans who have grown up watching and loving the show.

And then those of us on the net make more fic of the fic.

All of the happy fic!

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

Truth, m'dear...you speak it! And food for thought - you haz given it!

*SQUISHES*

[lycoris.livejournal.com]

What? You don't like Power? CLEARLY OUR FRIENDSHIP IS OVER, HOW CAN YOU NOT APPRICIATE THE OBVIOUS GENIUS OF no wait, sorry I've just remembered that Power is probably one of the worst TV episodes of anything that I've ever watched, our friendship is on track again. ;) (I agree about Kairos and Moloch. They're not great or anything but Kairos made me laugh a great deal and Moloch had some interesting moments. And Servalan and Vila. Oh, that bit where she's making lovely "Shoot the guy!" gestures, it makes me laugh just thinking about it)

I agree with everything about Jenna and Dayna and Cally and Soolin. Especially Soolin. She did get to display some stuff by the end of the season but it's all mixed up in the OMG FINALE tenseness so I feel it's not quite as noticeable as I'd like it to be (of course, that might just be me, I was very caught up at that point. I really must get round to doing a proper, every-episode rewatch ...)

I actually really like Rescue, I am beginning to wonder if this ought to replace my "unpopular episode" in the meme I'm doing. I love your idea too (I was sort of dreaming of them all living together really, really crossly on Terminal for a bit while ship-fixing, it's an AU I still hope to write) but Rescue worked for me. Mind you, I am willing to fess up that Dorian Gray is something that I adore so a space retelling of it was always likely to work for me. And the guy who played Dorian was kind of hot and I still wish a bit that he and Soolin had both stayed on. He probably had no PLACE or anything but he really did amuse me.

[aralias.livejournal.com]

i am assured that many people do actually like rescue, or at least don't dislike it. lost_spook likes it, and i think at least some other people do to. i am just very loud and consistent in my dislike of it, and now clocketpatch is too ;)

He probably had no PLACE or anything

i think there are several fics where avon says something along these lines - this show only has room for one smarmy, morally bankrupt criminal in studs who flirts with everyone and i got here first.

;)

[clocketpatch]

I liked Rescue more on re-watch, but it's still not my favourite by a long shot.

It got me to read The Portrait of Dorian Grey though, and I quite enjoyed that (and enjoyed the episode more in hindsight of it), so it get bonus points for introducing me to awesome Classic Literature. It also gets points for the Dayna/Tarrant moments, Vila having a moral realization, the Needid Sea Devil, and its creative use of that spiral staircase which shows up in everything the BBC has ever made (I don't know why I'm so amused by that staircase, but I really am. Every. Single. Time.)

It loses points for being incomprehensible and far too convenient.

[liadt]

Much as I, like everyone else on the planet(?), hate 'Power', it's hard to imagine B7 without it. What would we hate? Would we be happier(!)?

[clocketpatch]

I don't know. I suspect that we might all join lost_spook in her hatred of The Children of Auron. But I'm really not certain. I feel like it would have to be a good thing though. A universe without Power must be a better universe. Right?

[thisbluespirit]

:lol: I love most of these, I have to see. And agree with you about the imperfection.

Also I've been waiting years to find anybody else who thought the Vila and Servalan double act was great, so &hbearts; (Also, yes, more of that, and Vila-and-Servalan in a fake relationship would be priceless.)

ETA: Also SPACE MONOPOLY. I was very scared and tentative about writing B7 fic and didn't properly for ages. But halfway through S3, I had to write Space Monopoly fic. Or, actually, a ficlet where they played Space Cluedo instead. Because obviously, people who have Space Monopoly have Space Cluedo.

[clocketpatch]

I love how taken aback Servalan is by Vila's cowardice. The look on her face is really, "And I've been defeated this many times by you?" I'm sure that, as she's playing him around her little finger, she's also secretly trying to figure out what trick he'd pulling on her and becoming increasingly nervous when she can't figure it out.

Space Monopoly is the BEST. I may have said this multiple times before, but I adore that they all apparently just hang around playing board games with each other whenever they have down time.

[thisbluespirit]

The look on her face is really, "And I've been defeated this many times by you?

:lol: Yes! I was so hoping they'd meet up again before the end, and they didn't. That would probably be my one thing I'd change - more Vila and Servalan. Not too much, but at least once more to expand on that moment.

S3 has the Space Monopoly. Therefore it wins at life, even if it has Ben Steed.

[aralias.livejournal.com]

i think your things that you want are actully quite reasonable and if you got them (more screentime for women! more vila and servalan! more hal melanby) it could only be a good thing.

plus - more space monopoly? excellent idea! (i lke that it is in two episodes and they talk around it for some time :D )

[clocketpatch]

I also kind of want more back story for everyone...

But I feel like that would really have ruined things. It was done okay for Avon in Countdown and Rumours. But when they expanded on Cally and Dayna's back stories it was terrible. So.