trekanon, and I am so glad I was. I'm just over two-thirds of the way through now and it's just tipped over into complete schmoop. It's a bit lovely, really. They're both undercover in Romulan territory but separated -- Picard has gone to rescue her after she got captured, even if he is being all Good and Starfleety and solving the crisis first -- and spending their whole time having flashbacks (and even a dream sequence -- oh guys, a dream sequence) to every single slightly shippy thing that ever happened on the telly. I have just discovered that thinking of Beverly helped Jean-Luc keep his self-identity while he was being assimilated, that sort of thing. Also there are Romulans in it, and I've always liked the Romulans. Best of all on that front is the little throwaway that all that cloning Picard nonsense was only part of a general programme to clone Starfleet captains, which feels much better somehow.Buffy S1 I am rewatching this, and it still holds up very well indeed. I was moderately surprised to discover that Joss only actually gets the full-on writing credit for the opener and closer, since he is identified with the show to the same sort of level as Sorkin is with early West Wing and JMS with B5. But really he did have a proper writer's room and it is a Good Thing (I do suspect he did a lot of polishing).
Two things that have changed since I last watched this several years ago. Firstly, I can see where the Buffy/Giles shippers are coming from, which I never could before (though I only got into ficcy shippy fandom around S4 after their relationship had settled into a rather different dynamic). And more importantly I am a lot more annoyed by Xander's jealous Nice Guy act than I used to be. Maybe I have got older and less tolerant of teenagers being teenagers? Though it is all a bit confusing since the relationship dynamics in S1 really used to appeal to my one-sided crush fetish, since you had Willow pining after Xander who was himself pining after Buffy. Maybe knowing how Willow's storyline turns out changes the dynamic because I don't see Willow/Xander as The Obvious Solution any more? I dunno.
I really hope I don't end up going completely nuts at Xander when I get to That Bit in Becoming. I can't wait for Xander/Cordy to get started, though; that was always such fun. Argue-argue-snog FTW.
Buffy S8 As
londonkds pointed out a while back, this Harmony/public opinion turning against them stuff all makes much more sense if we assume that LA's come back from hell as shown in Angel and so the general public is much more aware. I do think it's going in interesting directions (and at least they are doing something different with the new season rather than just giving fandom more of what it wants) but it's hard to judge how well it's going to work in the middle of it. The most recent issue has some lovely stuff with Andrew, but I can't help thinking Buffy's tolerance of his screwing up gives him more credit than he's really earned given his track record in S6/early S7/his never-seen flying monkeys backstory. Maybe I'm just evil and unforgiving, I dunno.Er, anyway, I am probably going to go a bit quiet for a bit (ETA: I am going to finish that DW S1 rewatch eventually, though; I have just checked and the last one was in January, which is a bit awful) as new job is starting next week, and then house moving is happening (to Very Exciting Dream House, though I am a bit concerned that I have turned into the sort of evil capitalist that does well out of the downturn), and I will need all my spare time for all this fic I have signally failed to write during my time off. I may even give up on keeping on my flist at some point, so if there's something you desperately want me to see, you could link it in the comments of this post maybe (as I will still be checking email).
I have decided to try rereading The Forgotten all in one go in case it is better that way. I am not hopeful, though. If you hear breaking sounds it is probably me throwing things around at the point where Five talks about the "sixteenth innings" or whatever it was. (Britpicking: not optional, even for pros.)
