dbskyler | December already?

I am once again doing the WIP challenge at

writethisfanfic this month, and the good news is I forced myself to work on the story last night. The bad news is, I took out more words than I put in, so I am starting off with a negative word count. Hopefully I'll be making up for that by this weekend. Which reminds me, we don't know the December

fic_rush weekend yet, do we? I think I'm going to need it again to pull me out of this hole I keep putting myself into.

Not doing Yuletide, but I did hang up a stocking at

fandom_stocking. It seems like a fun community, although it does feel a little awkward to advertise my stocking -- like I'm shilling for gifts or something. However, since there are umpteen gazillion stockings, I will go ahead and point mine out for any of you who are so inclined as to stop by: my stocking is here.

I've been going through the extras on the S5 boxset, and so far I am disappointed by the commentaries and the video diaries. Although it was slightly amusing to see the in-vision commentary for Time of Angels and notice the amazing amount of awkwardness between Steven Moffat and Karen Gillan. Can we please get David Tennant back in there, just for a commentary or two? Or Colin Baker? I bet he'd have some great things to say. So would Peter Davison. In fact, I think I'm going to have to go re-rent Arc of Infinity to remind myself of what a good commentary sounds like.

Hope everyone's December is going well so far, and to those of you who celebrate, happy Hanukkah!

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No, they weren't a fun combination at all. But I suspect that if you put the two of them together 20 years from now, in a situation where they're just kicking back and relaxing and being nostalgic, it would've gone a lot better.

I agree, Colin, Peter, Janet and David together on a commentary would be amazing! I'd also throw in Phil Collinson and Nick Briggs because I also usually really enjoy listening to them, especially when they're paired with each other or with David.

I found a few Press Gang episodes on YouTube and watched them -- all your fault, by the way *g* -- and I was very impressed! The show is far more adult that I was expecting, even though I had had some sense of that from your wonderful ficlets. Now that I have a way to play region 2 DVDs, I am seriously considering buying Press Gang so I can see the whole thing.

Dream commentary teams. eh? :lol: Actually, you could also have the red dwarf cast on pretty much anything you liked, too. Just to go completely away from any relevant actors or anything...

And the last part of your comment made me smile so widely you wouldn't believe. You'll get what I meant now when I said it's so hard to recommend, because it is old and strange, but not cheesy, and sometimes v funny, and surreal and sometimes also very dark. :-D And, of course, why I wanted to grow up to be Lynda Day, even if that really wouldn't have been a good idea.

ETA: Was going to ask which ones you saw, but think there is only Monday Tuesday, Shouldn't I Be Taller? and Going Back to Jasper Street and Bad News on YouTube. Which is a really bizarre mix, but I'm happy for Jasper Street to be there for the Kenny and Lynda background - even if it's a bit slower in places than some others.

Edited 2010-12-03 20:13 (UTC)

I was surprised by how not cheesy it was. I mean, it was made in the '80s! But it's really good.

Yes, I saw those episodes, and also The Rest of My Life. The very first one I saw happened to be Monday/Tuesday, so you can imagine how completely blown away I was. I was expecting a cute little '80s-era comedy, and instead I got that episode.

I have to go back and re-read your ficlets now that I know more about the characters and what they look like!

Well, I think it was made (or shown) 1989-1992/3 ish, so mainly the 90s! Maybe that's less cheesy? Over here, when it was first shown it became a sensation - because while it was never watched by really big audiences (& it was only ever repeated once as far as I'm aware), it got watched by something crazy like 80% of its target (teen) audience, which I don't think ever happened before or since. And it was all from an idea by Bill Moffat, who let the producer have it, but asked if his son could write the show. So she shrugged, and said he could send a script if he wanted... and Steven Moffat got his big break, and wrote every episode. :-) Don't know what happened to him, mind, but it made Julia Sawalha a star...

I kind of watched the show all out of order, and never actually saw S1 and 2 till I bought the DVDs a couple years ago, so that was interesting. (There were some novelisations, which I read to pieces!) I don't think Monday-Tuesday pulls off the shift in tone as well as some later episodes but it does hit quite hard (and I love the device of repeating 'Tuesday's cancelled') - what an ep to start with! You will find if you do watch more that there are some S1 eps that do have an edge of kid reporters investigate, but only here and there, and only in S1.

Shouldn't I Be Taller I liked much better the second time I saw it. I was bothered by some things, including Kenny's lack of reaction to what happens to Lynda the first time - but I now know the reason, which is they filmed the S1 midseason two-parter last; it under-ran so Steven Moffat took Julia Sawalha and Lee Ross's rl friendship and used it, and until that point, Kenny and Lynda weren't long-time best friends, which explains a few odd things in S1.

And I really like The Rest of My Life. (I have become a much bigger fan of S2 since rewatching - my first sight of it on DVD was a bit of a shock, because S3-5 obviously had a bit more spent on production values! :Lol: But the writing across that season as a whole is gorgeous, especially the two part finale.)

And going back to the commentaries, since I mentioned them, you should know if you were thinking of obtaining those DVds that for some reason there are only about 4 episodes with commentaries, on the S2 DVD.

And that was a scary long post, sorry; but I fully hope you get to see more somehow, if only because everyone should get to see Colin as a pink rabbit. :-D

It was mostly made in the '90s? Then why does Lynda's hair look like that? And why is everyone dressed like it's the mid-'80s?

Oh well, maybe I just fail at decade identification. Anyway, it was still far more serious and adult than I was expecting. It reminds me of SJA, actually -- it's obviously targeted to a young audience, but like that show it doesn't talk down to its audience, and it's genuinely good.

My one big complaint with the show is Spike's accent. Yes, I'm being boring again and complaining about a fake American accent, but it's kind of up there with Peri's accent in how grating it is. I keep wanting to say "No, no, don't do that. Don't."

I was wondering which series I should buy, if I decide to take the plunge. (Or which one I should start off with, anyway.) I don't think I can afford to buy more than one DVD for now. Would you recommend S2? Or one of the others?

We looked like that in the 90s! :-) I had scrunchies and baggy t-shirts and culottes something like some of Lynda's. And that's Julia Sawalha's hair - it curls like that naturally.

:lol: Oh, dear - poor Dexter Fletcher! They were all cast and everything, and the producer (who was American), decided it would be great if Spike was also American... so he had to attempt the accent at the last minute. He gets marginally better as he goes along, but it was a bit random to say the least. (There are some sly jokes about it along the way, to help you!) He went off to America in rl after this, and learned to do the accent properly, but too late for Press Gang.

Hmm. I don't know - It does help to watch them in order, especially with S1 and 2. I would kind of suggest 1 and 2, but that's not helpful, I realise. I like S3 a lot, and the show does change a bit at that point, so you could go for that. On the other hand, there are only 6 episodes per season in the last three series, so if you want quantity, you need S1 or 2 (they have 12 eps each). ETA: Actually, go for S1 - you get all the setting up at the start, David Collings as the head (and he doesn't appear again till S5), Adrian Edmonson doing a guest spot, and Colin as a pink rabbit.

Edited 2010-12-04 19:58 (UTC)

Maybe I'm misremembering, but those look a lot more like clothes we used to wear in the '80s than the '90s. Of course, it could also be geographic differences? Anyway, from the opening scene I was immediately thinking we were in the mid to late '80s. I guess if it started in '89, though, I was only a few years off!

Poor Dexter indeed. His American accent is better than David Tennant's, if that's any consolation. ; )

Yeah, I was thinking that after I posted. I can think of US shows I'd seen years ago that I'd assumed were really old, and it turned out, they were pretty much contemporary with when I was watching them. I think things cross the Atlantic much sooner these days than they used to. An dthe first bits were 1989, so it was still the 1980s!

It is, I think! :lol: (And Colin never believes Spike's from America anyway... He thinks he's from Birmingham.)

December already?

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