On Being a Shipper, 2/?

[teylaminh]

Continuing from where I left off, not that there was any specific order... After the conversation had with thefleshfailure last night, I feel like I should add things to the Buffy/Spike section; I know if I do that, though, I'll inevitably end up adding stuff to the other ones, too, and the whole thing will never end...


Star Trek [since there are only two of the series that I follow, I'll lump them all under the one heading...]

Janeway/Chakotay - this was my very first Star Trek 'ship, and it happened, inevitably, because the first episode of Voyager I ever saw happened to be 'Resolutions'. It then took me about a year and a half to get the episode on tape, but that's another story. There's nothing particularly special about J/C, except for the fact that it's just there. The reason it was there at all was because of Jeri Taylor, one of the original members of the writing team; after she left, the shippiness vanished completely, and the evil horrible wrong and bad Chakotay/Seven storyline emerged. Let's not dwell on that, shall we? J/C had the same sort of unspoken chemistry as Mulder and Scully, only not as good; it would, however, remain unspoken and un-anything-at-all. As far as I could figure it out, Chakotay, being spiritual and generally in touch with human emotions, realised early on that he was in love with her; Janeway stuck fast to protocol and refused to acknowledge her own feelings, let alone his - until at least season 6 or thereabouts. It was never exactly an easy one to ship for, because liaisons between them were so few and far between, and the much-anticipated 'Ready Room Scenes' were more often than not interrupted by a certain Vulcan Lieutenant-Commander...

They've always been the best of friends (well, apart from those few moments when one of them has a strop, but that's half the fun...) and she's always been ready to admit that there's no way she'd have run the ship without him. Just to prove the difference, when he thought she'd died in 'Coda', he flipped out completely, whereas Janeway'd be more likely to, oh, say a eulogy and then mope about it lots in private... and even then she'd probably try not to.

It's actually been so long since I watched any Voyager that I can't really comment further. I just know that I honestly thought we'd prevail with J/C one day and get what we wanted, but no, Berman *spit* and Braga *kaboom!* decided to ruin it. Not only J/C, but Doc/Seven, too. Two 'ships with one horrible decision is certainly impressive. Nice going, morons. Because clearly the fans are all wrong, aren't they... Oy.

The Doctor/Seven of Nine - this was one that I predicted right from the start. Why? Because the first time we saw Seven in a Voyager situation, she was in the Sick Bay, being tended by the Doctor; later, she spent a lot of her time there because he was mentoring her. And we all remember what happened with Kes, don't we, when she was the nurse? Exactly... (That, and I swear he has a weakness for blondes. Obviously another of Doc Zimmerman's personal traits that made it into the programme...) I admit, it was a tough choice for a while; for about three episodes I toyed with Seven/Tuvok and Seven/Harry, but all along, I knew it was going to be the Doc.

7/D would have been a wonderful pairing; it was actually the perfect setup. He knows her better than anybody else on Voyager (excepting, maybe, Janeway) and she trusts him above anyone else. If anyone deserved to set Seven's emotions free, it was the Doc; he earned that much. And, wow, 'Someone To Watch Over Me'? Easily the best episode out of all the 7/D-orientated ones, and one that actually spelt a modicum of hope for us. 7/D was probably more negatively affected by the C/7 plotline than J/C was, though they both did suffer horribly. 'Renaissance Man' had the Doc finally admit how he felt - and Seven bloody knew, if the look on her face was any indication - and what could have been a poignant and moving and wonderfully angsty scene became part of the comedy aspect of the episode. Words cannot express how much I hated them for that. (Actually, they can...) After that, all of the established communication between them was completely lost. Ironically enough, the shippiest D/7 moment of that season came at the start of the C/7 arc, in 'Human Error'; the Doc found her in the holodeck, passed out for some reason I don't remember that was probably something to do with her cortical node (it always is...), and, while she was unconscious, he stroked her hair. The amount of feeling and longing he put into that one, simple gesture was almost enough to make up for the crap we got served up by the writers. Almost.

Paris/Torres - see, here's the thing. I used to be a Paris/Torres shipper, right up until they got married and started a family and became the centre of attention. But after Berman and Braga ripped out our shippy little hearts with C/7, I lost all faith in them, especially when they carried right on with P/T (one of the three established relationships that had held the show together on an emotional level) as if nothing had happened. It was almost as if they were throwing it all back in our faces, or offering us compensation. "Hey, look, we screwed you over; we're sorry. Have some gratuitous Paris/Torres stuff to make up for it!" Well, sorry, it doesn't work like that. Shippers are fickle, it's true, but we're not bloody stupid...

Dax/Bashir - this was another of my early ST 'ships. There was just something about them that worked: he was the young, naive doctor, she was the hundred-plus year-old Trill host with too much experience for her own good. Plus, they just worked well together, they got on, they flirted, she knew how he felt and was fine with it, never gave him hope, but never quite took it away either. At least, until Worf. I am not a fan of the Worf/Jadzia plotline in the slightest. Similarly, I am not a fan of the Jadzia-being-killed-off plotline, either. Deep Space Nine, at least, did remain consistent with its character development, right up to the finale, which makes it easily the best of the Treks on that level. Jadzia and Julian would have been adorably fluffy together, had it ever happened - a little of that could be seen with the Ezri/Julian plotline that happened in Season 7. While it's true she's no Jadzia, I'm so, so glad they got together in the end. I'm also eternally grateful for her saying, "If Worf hadn't come along, it would have been you..." - yes, it's unspeakably cruel to poor Julian (yet also not, in the same way), but it was everything we ever wanted to know... Jazdia did love Julian; I think Jadzia loved a lot of people, and had too much love to give, most likely because of her past existences. I'm actually tempted to blame Jadzia/Worf on Kurzon - otherwise, how else do you explain Ezri also sleeping with him that time, even if it was a desperate situation? Worf's a very human Klingon, and Jadzia was a very Klingon Trill; Ezri was bound to feel a little of that.

Actually, the best thing about Ezri/Julian was the fact they were both so utterly useless. :)

Odo/Kira - this one, I missed, but to be honest I'm still not up to date entirely on DS9, having wandered into it in the middle of season 5. As soon as I found out about O/K, though - probably a month or so before the Sky airing of 'His Way' - I wondered how I could have been so blind as not to spot it. It was handled perfectly, despite the reservations that both Nana Visitor and Rene Auberjonois had about actually letting the characters pursue the relationship - they were both worried it wouldn't work out, and apparently everyone was surprised how well it did. O/K was an established pre-Season 1 friendship that dated back to the Occupation of Bajor (I think) when she was a terrorist. There's implicit trust between them, and the way I see it is that Odo, who was an 'unknown sample' on a Cardassian space station before going to DS9, has never really belonged anywhere. Kira was probably the first person who ever gave him somewhere - and someone - to relate to and call 'home' - and when the Founder was trying to turn him against them, it was only natural he'd be curious about his homeworld, the other place he'd be able to belong. It's also only natural that he'd let himself fall in love with her without even realising it, because he's Odo...

O/K had angst by the barrel, which was one of the reasons I liked it so much. It had angst, and it had its moments of pure, unadulterated sap, and, inevitably, it didn't last. The only redeeming factor of Odo going back to the Great Link in the finale was that Kira loved him enough to let him do it, and there was the slightest implication that he would, one day, come back. Besides, it left me blubbing like an idiot, so it's gotta be good...

Minh/Selin - don't. ask. :)

Frasier

Daphne/Niles - one word: 'Moondance'. Okay, more than one word...

But yes, 'Moondance' was a defining episode. For as long as I can remember, I've found Daphne and Niles utterly adorable. I mean, really. Where other 'ships make me squeal (M/S), leap around the room in euphoric joy (J/A), go 'owww' (B/S) or grin (O/K), Daphne/Niles merely make me go 'aww' in a revered voice. We've had two seasons so far of them being together and making it work (just like we always knew they would) and getting married and all the stuff that goes with it, and you know something? It never gets old. They remain as adorable as they have ever been, and I think that's partly because Niles continues to act as though he doesn't quite believe it's happening to him. 'Something Borrowed, Something Blue' was a triumph of a Season finale if ever there was one, and would have been even more effective had Channel four not ruined most of it with their trailers... but that's beside the point. Eight years' worth of emotional torment came out in fifteen minutes, and it was glorious.

I think we'd all want someone who would leave the person they eloped with "in a heartbeat". D/N wasn't just about wanting them to get together; it was about wanting Niles to get the girl. It started out funny, and it just got more and more cruel and angsty as it went on. It was handled, alternately, in a very amusing way, but also a very plausible one - it's far too easy to believe that Daphne, on the verge of getting married, would suddenly realise she was in love with someone else. It's also far too easy to believe that despite that, she'd still marry the other guy, and Niles would let her even if it was killing him inside. Add to that his useless brother, and his father rooting for them along with most of the audience. The fact of the matter is, Niles and Daphne had to get together in the show's timeline, or it would have gotten old. They timed it perfectly, and the introduction of Mel (gah...) was brilliant. All the stuff after that has been pretty much superfluous - and yet, they continue to surprise us. I mean, Vegas, for crying out loud? Everyone expected Niles and Daphne to have a huge church wedding with all the trimmings, and her family from Hell, and a big poufy white dress and twenty layers of veil and fifteen flower girls, and we got... Vegas. Or possibly not Vegas; I think it may have been Rio, but it was one of those 'little white chapel' weddings by a dude in a cowboy hat, the exact antithesis of what was expected of them; even their 'real'/fake wedding was done in a register office. They gave Niles heart trouble and actually had me believing they were going to kill him off - and in the process, got them both to re-evaluate how precious the other is.

The long and short of it is: they're bloody adorable. Long may it last!

Roz/Frasier - a late addition, but inevitable by default. I've long suspected Roz had feelings for Frasier, long before she realised it herself, and finally, the writers caught up with me. :) They've slept together, just the once, but chose to ignore it - probably a mistake, but hey, they're both completely useless. And now we have the current situation: Frasier is going out with a woman he has previously claimed to detest, and whom Roz is not exactly enamoured with either; Roz was offered a better job at another radio company, and turned it down, though her reasons were unclear even to herself; she dislikes Frasier's relationship with the other woman, especially since he thinks it's going well, and she's just been 'misunderstood' by everyone, including himself. So, cue Roz giving him an ultimatum: her, or his girlfriend. Not the best plan when you've just had a blazing row over nothing; Frasier chose his girlfriend, and Roz is gone.

I frelling hate them for that cliffhanger. I am, however, glad that it wasn't the final season, like it was meant to be, because that would have been evil. I await the outcome with bated breath. The only irritating thing about being a R/F shipper is nobody else seems to be one, and finding fic is very, very hard.

Jonathan Creek (this is going to be a long one...)

Jonathan/Maddy - before I start, an interesting fact I just discovered: Alan Davies is now married to Julia Sawalha. Which explains why she ended up in Jonathan Creek, at least... Anyway, back on topic. I am a Jonathan/Maddy shipper. I have been a J/M shipper since 'The Reconstituted Corpse'; in fact, no, I've been one since I saw the advert for 'House of Monkeys', even though I didn't even see that til about a year later... Hence, when Maddy toddled off to America to do her book promo tour, and Carla poked her pretty blonde head into the scene, I was, to put it lightly, just slightly annoyed... The J/M chemistry was what formed the basis of the entire show; it wasn't exactly well-executed, and the show has very little sense of canon at all, and also very little in terms of character development: those escapades into their histories that we are given are thrown in at random, touched upon, glimpsed, but ultimately backed away from again. I've obviously been spoiled with epic American serieses, and expect the same from a British production, except British shows aren't designed like that: they have a concept, and they stick to it; none of this character interaction crap, thank you very much...

Hence, to ship for Jonathan and Maddy, I had to make a lot of suppositions, hence, much re-watching of the episodes. I have to pretend there is a canon when most of the time there blatantly isn't. And hence, I should probably know better than to expect a turning point like them sleeping together to actually mean something in a world populated by normal human beings, and not be shocked when Jonathan conveniently manages to forget about the woman who turned his entire life upside down and sleep with Carla (which, I believe, was suggested in series four... I don't remember, but I'll assume as much...) The only even vaguely redeeming factor is that Carla is, in some ways, a lot like Maddy, whilst being her exact opposite at the same time.

So. Here's J/M, as I see it, given what we know, and a lot that we don't:

We have, for starters, Jonathan. We know very little about him except that the windmill belongs to his parents, who live abroad, and, we assume, aren't particularly pleased with his line of work. With a brain like that, he's bound to have done well at school and had lots of prospects. He works for Adam Klaus - we don't know when he started, we don't know how they met, we actually know remarkably little, even, about their friendship. It's implied they've known each other for several years and are, essentially, as close to 'best friends' as Jonathan ever lets anyone get. He's a very private individual (he lives in a windmill in the middle of nowhere, for goodness' sake!) and could probably, if required, live without any other human contact whatsoever.

Then, we have Maddy. All we know of her past is that her mother killed herself when Maddy was sixteen - what happened between then and now, we have not been told. When we first meet her, she's going out with a cameraman (played, amusingly enough, by one Alan-Davies-impersonating Alistair McGowan...) who I believe was called Geoff... but that relationship doesn't seem to be going anywhere, and appears to be one in a long line of failed not-quite relationships - there is certainly evidence of her tendencies to go out with random people throughout the show, but Jonathan is just as bad. It's probably the only thing they have in common. Despite her tough exterior and apparently un-damageable personality, she's just as fragile as anyone with her past would be - and I get the distinct impression there's a lot we don't know. She's not as private as Jonathan, but isn't quick to divulge anything that might let the barriers down.

They're so wrong for each other, it works. They have a relationship built on hormones, not quite unresolved sexual tension, secrecy, stubbornness, and an ever-shifting balance of power - it's not quite as unhealthy as Buffy/Spike, but it's getting there. They're probably best friends, but would never admit it; unlike Jonathan, though, Maddy has her own circle of acquaintances. Probably the most obscure of these is her publisher, Barry Opper, who knows a lot more than he lets on about her past - he revealed what we know to Jonathan in 'The Scented Room' [R.I.P Bob Monkhouse...] because he had very little choice in the matter. Only one thing is definite in Jonathan and Maddy's relationship - they fancy the arses off each other, but neither of them would ever admit that.

The thing with them is, though, it's not that simple. Maddy crashed into Jonathan's life and sent it spinning into the surreal, and he wasn't strong enough to stop it - or he was just too curious to let it lie; one or the other. Undoubtedly, despite his protestations, he does enjoy their escapades into bizarre crime, just as she probably enjoys Adam's company when she has to endure it for any length of time. Their lives have become irreversibly intertwined.

Of the two, it's Maddy who has always seemed more willing to 'give it a go', and it's not like she hasn't tried. She just has terrible timing, and tries whenever Jonathan's brain is somewhere else. If she ever managed to discuss it with him at the right time, he'd probably agree. I'll assume that at some point in series three, they did manage to actually sit down and have a conversation about whatever state they'd gotten to, since it culminated in them finally getting their act together in the penultimate episode, and giving in to their hormones at last. There was no instantly noticeable change after this, except, perhaps, getting more argumentative, and the incident of Jonathan saving her life for the second time. Undoubtedly, there's trust between them, despite their inherent uselessness, but they keep on making mistakes: Jonathan refers to her as "a comfy old sweatshirt" - which does, luckily, result in a cathartic slanging match that somewhat clears the air ('The Black Canary') - and she continually puts herself into a cycle of letting him in and pushing him away again. It's no wonder he doesn't know where he stands with her half the time... Going back to the trust issue: that's been deepened by Jonathan finding out about her past - he knows about one of her demons, and hasn't used it against her, and isn't that everyone's biggest fear?

Neither of them have ever had a lasting relationship. Jonathan admitted to Adam that there's only been one girl he was ever in love with, but wasn't brave enough to tell her (bless...) As for Maddy - God knows. I doubt she'd ever let herself get close enough to someone for it to go that far. It's very difficult to ship for them, because they're both so stubborn. However, I'm semi-convinced - as my fic will explain, if I ever finish it - that Jonathan might very well be in love with her (or at the very least, would entertain the notion of it), if he'd ever admit that to himself, or think about it long enough to realise. All it would take was one of them to admit it, and it would be a starting point. But, alas, it's never going to happen. Off Maddy went, on Carla came, away, away went the shippiness. The bastards ruined it.

Only two more fandoms to go, both sort of wordy. I didn't realise how much I had to say about the last one. :) Well, I say two. Knowing me I'll probably come up with a few more along the way...

Comments

[thefleshfailure.livejournal.com]

Bwaha!! Now that you've actually named me, I should probably stop with the random commenting or go into hiding or something, before the rest of your friends list disembowels me!!

*runs away, changes name, and hides in a ditch now*

[teylaminh.livejournal.com]

LOL! apologies, i'm sure. :)

i'm sure you won't be disembowelled; i mean, at least the comments that make up the Lengthy Conversation of Doom aren't actually visible on the friends list. and i did cut the shippy posts, too. :)

[thefleshfailure.livejournal.com]

Lengthy Conversation of Doom! Hee!! I'm totally stealing that title and using it on my DJ for my long-conversation Memory posts!!

Incidentally... I'm not usually that talkativ-- okay, complete lie. I am. Sorry.

[teylaminh.livejournal.com]

...and don't you just know this is going to end up being another one? ;)

actually, i'm not usually that talkative, either. i'd suggest IM or something, but that's worse because i usually end up having 3 conversations at once with the same person. nah, 'smore fun this way. better constructed arguments. :)

gah. i have about 15 pages of stuff to turn into 3500 words of an essay, and so far i have literally 10% of that. gah. gah.

[thefleshfailure.livejournal.com]

Hee. I'm like that with IM!! And then Messenger gives you word limits so you end up typing out four or five thingies, while the person you're talking to just gets more and more confused!

Aww, poor you!! I was supposed to be doing exam revision today, but I got talked into taking a six-mile walk, so I bagged it in favour of complete exhaustion. Well, who wouldn't?

[teylaminh.livejournal.com]

oh, messenger's word limit annoys the crap out of me. especially since i'm convinced the one on AIM decreases by about 50 characters every time i use it... i remember the good old days when i could at least paste an entire paragraph or two of a fic for someone without having to break it down into consumable chunks...

i'd definitely be in favour of a six-mile walk, if not for the fact that my new (mad and gold) trainers gave me blisters. bah. that and i have to give this bloody thing in on monday...

(432!)

[thefleshfailure.livejournal.com]

Can't say I've ever posted bits of fic over AIM, but my friend Nick and I were getting VERY frustrated with it the other night when I was trying to Beta a letter for him...

Oooh... gold trainers. Mine are black and three years old, so pretty well-worn by now. Only shoes I've ever gotten blisters from were the ones I wore for my brother's Bar Mitzvah and to this day, I don't see why I couldn't've worn my trainers.

[teylaminh.livejournal.com]

oh, AIM used to be the fanfic-writing tool in the days of the Sisters of the Fic (myself and doec, when we first met...) although i admit my paragraphs were probably shorter then...

my old trainers were black, too. black with a three-inch wedge heel... i wanted more like them, but shelleys were having a boot fetish instead. :) i'll have to make do with the gold ones, and the ones with the amusing spikes on the soles...

(546... let me know if this gets boring. :) )

[thefleshfailure.livejournal.com]

I've never tried fic-collaboration via AIM, only email... where, obviously, word limits weren't much of an issue.

Bah! I can't wear heels!! Well, I mean, I can, but it usually results in me falling over a few times and then getting a concussion.

I assume that's your word count? Hee, and here was me thinking I was the only obssessive-compulsive word-count checker...

[teylaminh.livejournal.com]

we emailed it, too. it was just more fun getting 'live' comments... i'm putting all of our old AIM conversations (of which there are more than 200 in 2000-2001 alone) onto a CD, so that when she eventually gets a computer again, she can read them all. it makes me very nostalgic; i really miss the days of endless voyager-fic. (my voyager-Muse did a runner when i found 'scape...)

i can wear heels, i just don't that often. surprisingly, the wedge trainers were quite comfortable - i did manage to walk around paris in them for at least 7 hours... since i broke my foot in the summer i have to be careful on heels, though flat shoes seem to actually be worse...

i'm only obsessive-compulsive when i know it's not getting anywhere. which is actually kinda stupid, because it only makes me more depressed when i still haven't hit the 1000 mark.

(still 546... i'm losing the will to live.)

[thefleshfailure.livejournal.com]

Oooh, fun! I have all my old Yahoo Messenger conversations saved on my computer, but I've never gotten around to saving MSN or AIM conversations, hence my incessantly posting random IM nonsense in my LJ all the time!

I'm like that! The obssessive compulsive, that is. With my Beowulf essay earlier this (academic) year, I'd literally be checking my word count after every half-sentence. And then I'd get really annoyed when it didn't go up, and start yelling at it...

[teylaminh.livejournal.com]

i would compulsively save AIM conversations because they were inevitably hysterical (oh, sodding hell. brain, just because you're doing an essay on hysteria doesn't mean you have to use the word all over the place...) - i have a few early YIMs and MSNs saved but they were never as interesting. and since MSN Plus auto-saves conversations anyway, i don't need to bother...

i'm very close to yelling at this one. it's not so much difficult to write as difficult to put into a coherent order - i have rather too much information to shove into it, and i'm trying to get it back to the literature side of things (our lecturer got ill and we were taken over by a sociology lecturer for the final six weeks of the semester) by hurling in references to harry potter...

(578... but i'm juggling a book and three pieces of A4 paper...)

[thefleshfailure.livejournal.com]

Bah, I don't use any of the hi-tech messenger services. When I'm on the Network, I have to use the webversions or the really really old and almost completely obselete (sp?) versions, so as to not be detected by the Uni firewalls, which have very strong protestations against using messenger services on University-run computers bought with tax-payers money so YOU PEOPLE can get a decent education!!!! And I had to delete all my messenger programs on my home laptop because they were eating up too many resources, so I use Trillian instead (which is an all-in-one thing, so less strain on my system, but I've yet to figure out how to save trannies on it).

Harry Potter is very literary!! I got into many a fight with my A Level english teacher about this before I was converted to the fandom, where he (the big academic) was all with the Harry Potter references, and I (arrogant student) was all "We're doing A Level Literature! We are reading Shakespeare and Bronte! WE ARE NOT CHILDREN!" ...then I went away and read the books over the summer and had to come back and apologise. Which was embarrassing.

Also... coherent order? Highly overrated.

[teylaminh.livejournal.com]

i am rather fearful of trillian, yet also very curious. one day i may have to investigate... but that would take all the fun out of messenger-swapping. :)

(obsolete. you were close. :D)

well, my essay is called "contemporary conjurors: magic and mass hysteria" (which i thought was rather clever :P) and i'm looking at how/why people react the way they do to people like david blaine, david copperfield, houdini, and, um, jesus. from my athiest viewpoint, in reference to the miracles... (i'm gonna get raised eyebrows for that one...)

but none of that is very literary, so i'm hurling in HP (magic, large appeal, mass hysteria when a new one is released...) and 'jonathan creek' (it has a magician in it; the specific episode i'm referencing had his career in jeopardy because of a scandallous court case, which in turn led to international stardom... people are so fickle.)

so, yeah. all good fun... *eyebrow*

my coherent order runs something like: intro, theory, jesus, houdini, copperfield&blaine, JC, HP, how they all relate. and that's pretty much literally what my plan says, too. :)

(713. about 40 of what i just did was quotes...)

[thefleshfailure.livejournal.com]

Trillian is great. The only single argument I have with it, is that it doesn't let you copy-and-paste conversation... so if I want to post random bits of amusing conversation in my LJ, I have to type it all up. Which is annoying. But that's just me, and other than that, I find it great. And simple.

Ah, the 'using literature on an english course' problem. I had a conversation about this with Malcolm (AD tutor, one of the departmental bigwigs) a few weeks ago. I was debating the idea of using a film for next semester's long essay on journeys... and I was worried it wouldn't be literary enough, and his response was to burst out laughing. "You think you have to mention LITERATURE in an ENGLISH essay? Are you mad!?" I don't think they care very much, as long as it's well argued. Or possibly that's just here.

And I think I've lapsed into babble-mode again, so I'll shut up and post this now.

[teylaminh.livejournal.com]

ah, well, i'm a copy-pasting demon, so trillian is probably not for me. i had ICQ, too, ages ago, but kept getting spammed all the time and stopped using it...

and yeah, i don't think they care very much here, either. though i'm having awful trouble with my dissertation. i'm doing it on fanfiction (you're officially added to my list of questionnaire recipients :P) and was originally just going to do the history/theory aspect of it; unfortunately, this being english studies, i have to actually do analysis, too, so i have to compare two buffy fics to each other (when i've found them) and then to a 'scapefic (style comparison) and also bring in aspects of post-modernism...

joy.

(still on 713. went to make tea.)

[thefleshfailure.livejournal.com]

You can copy and paste from other sources. I mean, like, if you were writing a fic and you wanted to post a bit of it, you could do that. You just can't do the reverse, take bits of stuff that your chatbuddy's said and put it elsewhere. Which drives me nuts, but what can ya do?

Yay for being a questionnaire receipant! Extra yay because I'm an obssessive questionnaire-filler-in (is that even a legitimate word?). Your Dissertation sounds brilliant! And, almost as quirky as mine... is going to be... if they let me do it.

713 is a nice round number. Keep it. I'm sure they won't mind.

[teylaminh.livejournal.com]

well, you shall receive one when i have the questions, um, written. it's really part of my research basis: general opinion on fanfiction from readers, writers, and lovers and haters of it. great fun...

i'm struck by the word 'questionnaire-fill-in-er-er', for some reason... :) but don't ask me where the extra 'er' comes from...

795, and i just mentioned the anti-war marches. off-topic? naturally...

[thefleshfailure.livejournal.com]

Sounds really fascinating! I may have to pester you for a copy of your finished project, just for curiosity's sake.

Answerer. I'm an answerer. One who answers.

[teylaminh.livejournal.com]

hehe, feel free. there's someone else on the course who wants one, too, and the more people i have to show it to, the better it will inevitably be...

i'm sure 'answerer' is already a word. and if not, it's a perfectly logical one, and has no hyphens. it's not worth it if it doesn't have hyphens. :)

(same word count, trying to reference/bibliograph a gideons bible that has no publication details. what fun we have...)

[thefleshfailure.livejournal.com]

Heh. See, I don't work that way. If I think more than one person is gonna read something of mine, it automatically becomes ten times more crappy.

Bleh. Answerererer. There.

It's a stupid word count. It can't count correctly. It's faulty. It's a deceased word count.

[frightened.livejournal.com]

how else do you explain Ezri also sleeping with him that time, even if it was a desperate situation?

Me, I call that reassociation. Exile the bitch. If Jadzia Dax can't have the hot Trill chick from season 4, Ezri Dax can't have Worf. Except, you know, this is Star Trek, where even the gay vibes must bite the dust as soon as they're noticed (Garak/Bashir, I'm looking at you) while heterosexual relationships exist on the flimsiest grounds and get to break all the rules because they're speshul. Ahem. Not bitter.

Deep Space Nine, at least, did remain consistent with its character development, right up to the finale, which makes it easily the best of the Treks on that level.

Yes. This is why I will defend DS9 to the death. And why I finally gave up in disgust on Voyager - the characterisation was all over the place and people did things for no damn reason whatsoever. She's season 6 Torres! She's season 2 Torres! She's disregarding years of character development to repeat a strop she had quite some time ago! We think the fans are stupid! DS9, however, was excellent for characterisation.

Ah, His Way... *sighs happily*

[teylaminh.livejournal.com]

there was actually an interesting story in the ds9 companion what-i-got for christmas (it was reduced, apparently... :D) about the whole dax-gay-vibes thing... after that episode aired, they got this massive influx of telephone calls from people complaining about it, saying things like "ugh, i had to let my children watch that. it's disgusting."

to which the producers and writers calmly said, "so, if, say, a woman shot another woman down in cold blood, you'd be okay with that?"

"yes, of course..."

their 'ugh, people' reaction was pretty much the same as mine...

i stuck with voyager on a matter of principle, and because i honestly thought it would get better and the character development might start developing again. alas, it wandered off along with jeri taylor. C/7 was the most heinous crime against humanity ever witnessed...

*repeats 'his way'-type sighage*

[rachel2205.livejournal.com]

I loved Janeway and Chakotay! How dumb was Seven and him?! What was that about? They only introduced it at the end, too. Argh!! Dumb!

I was never a Bashir fan - too sappy for me. I loved Jadzia. Her replacement was drippy, so it was fine for her to end up with Bashir. My fave Jadzia ep was when she met that woman she used to be in love with - a bit risky for DS9, so therefore more interesting.

Odo and Kira, yes, lovely, he deserved to get her... But I always got a Kira/Gul Dukat vibe. I'm sure I'm not the only one! That would have been bad, bad, bad... but they had sexual tension.

[teylaminh.livejournal.com]

7/c was a crime against humanity. i'm so glad i already knew about that or i probably might have died from shock...

hee! well, i've met alex siddig, so... a tad biased. :) dude, he's frelling gorgeous in real life... and people tell me i look like kira, but i don't believe them. clearly he didn't think so, more's the pity for me. :P (he's married to n. visitor in real life, if you didn't know...)

actually, i think you're right about kira/dukat. 'twould have been wrong, wrong, wrong, but definitely vibes there. ditto bashir/garak, which, incidentally, they totally play up to at conventions. :D