Long DW Meme
Ganked from scifirenegade and then lurking_latinist on Dreamwidth, because I've got a gob.
Show bits
1. When did you start watching?
August, maybe September 2013
1a. Why?
So... My husband was a longtime fan, back in the 70s/80s/90s, even going so far as to join a local fan club and help organize a convention, back when neither were common in the U.S. When the new series came out, he saw the leather jacket and buzz cut in the promotional materials and noped out - that was so not the Doctor to him. Eight years later, he was so bored one day that he finally popped in the series 1 DVD someone had given him. He asked if I wanted to watch as well, and I said no, I was playing my video game. Five minutes of "Rose" later, I was right beside him, hooked from the word "Run!" (By the way, that Doctor is his Doctor now.)
2. What was your first episode?
"Rose", though as I was growing up, I caught occasional episodes (maybe 10 at most?) on PBS - enough to understand that the tall guy with the scarf and the blond guy with the celery were the same person, but not enough to have ever seen more than one episode in a story.
3. Which episodes have you seen?
All of modern, probably about 80% of classic. I am woefully uneducated about the First and Second Doctors, though "The Web of Fear" and "The War Games" are two of my favorites.
3a. Favorite?
"The Caves of Androzani", followed very closely by "Human Nature" / "Family of Blood" and "Battlefield".
4. Are your friends/family interested in the show?
My husband is as much a fan as he had been previously.
5. Which Doctor is your favorite?
Tenth Doctor, definitely, but closely followed by the Ninth Doctor and the JNT Doctors, in no particular order.
6. Which Doctor is your least favorite?
I don't really have a least favorite, but I'm going to go with and say the War Doctor. I don't like the concept and characterization, that Eight finally conceded to the Time War and chose to sacrifice all his ideals as the Doctor to become the Warrior, and then that Warrior turned out to be a gentleman pacifist who doesn't carry a weapon... basically, just the Doctor with additional self-inflicted angst about "I don't deserve the name Doctor" for no actual reason. What was the point?
7. Which TV companion is your favorite?
Donna Noble, followed by Ace McShane. Also, Jamie McCrimmon, Vislor Turlough, Martha Jones, Graham O'Brien.
8. Which TV companion is your least favorite?
Clara Oswald
9. Do you listen to the Big Finish audios?
Yes. Not as much as I'd like to.
9a. If so, which is your favorite?
"Peri and the Piscon Paradox", "The Kingmaker", "Death and the Queen", "The Light at the End", "The Chimes of Midnight".
9b. Also: which Big Finish companion is your favorite?
I haven't listened enough to any one companion to really form a favorite. My listening is very ad hoc.
10. Have you listened to any non-Big Finish audios?
Some, not much. I listened to "The Destiny of the Doctor" a decade ago but barely remember it.
Edit: Omg, I forgot Dead Air!! That was fantastic! Listen to it with the lights off. (Thanks, romanajo123 for the reminder!)
10a. If so, which is your favorite?
N/A
11. Have you read any of the novels or short stories?
Yes. I'm not a big reader, so some but nowhere near a good chunk.
11a. Have you written any of the novels or short stories?
What? What kind of question is this? Of course not.
11b. Which is your favorite?
Beautiful Chaos by Gary Russell. My copy is signed. I got to talk to Mr Russell at some length about it, and he considers it his best solo writing ever.
12. Have you read any of the comics?
Yes. Again, not many, and none recently.
12a. You guessed it - which is your favorite?
The Forgotten by Tony Lee. Interestingly, my copy is signed, and I got to talk to Mr Lee about it as well. It is sadly out of print - I don't remember why, but they lost the rights to print it.
13. Do you watch any of the spin-offs (e.g. Torchwood, Sarah Jane Adventures)?
I've seen both SJA and Torchwood (though did not watch Miracle Day). I did not watch Class
13a. Which is your favorite?
I enjoyed SJA more - I think they had a firm idea of what they wanted to do and told some very good stories. Torchwood didn't find its stride through the first two seasons and burdened itself with trying to be more mature than Doctor Who. It did have good individual episodes, but it never felt cohesive. However, "Children of Earth" was excellent
14. Is there any particular episode/book/audio/comic you desperately want to watch/listen to/read?
"The Highlanders". I have always wished I could see Jamie's first story.
Fandom bits
1. Do you write fanfic for Doctor Who?
A little. :)
1a. If so, post a snippet of a work-in-progress (or several)!
“DOCTOR!” she bellowed back up the ramp.
“I said two ticks.”
“Where in the bloody hell are we?”
“Chiswick,” he replied, his eyes still glued to the indicator.
“This is not Chiswick.”
He glanced at the positions of the toggle and a bank of multicoloured switches then tapped the gauge to make the liquid jump, murmuring absently, “It’s not? Are you sure?”
“No. I mean, I’ve only lived in the place for thirty-five years. You don’t really know a place before a hundred and seventy.” She glared at him, but he still wasn’t looking. She sighed. “Yes, I’m sure!”
Snagging the rubber mallet hanging under the console, he thumped the gauge hard, peered at it again, and nodded. “We could be in a part you don’t know well,” he suggested as he tossed the mallet on the panel and typed a last bit on the keyboard.
“I really don’t think there’s a single part of Chiswick with open fields as far as the eye can see. Or that many cows.”
2. Do you create Doctor Who icons?
I know how to crop an image. I even know how to work with layers. But nothing I do can honestly be called "creating icons".
2a. Let’s see a sample!
Look at the icon with this post. At least my crop didn't cut through their faces.
3. Recommend a fanfic/icon/fanvid/fancomic/fancreation!
JohannesVIII is one of my favorite DW fan artists, and this series is one of my favorites of theirs.
"Susan and DDR"
"One and DDR"
"The Twelve Doctors Play DDR"
4. Have you been to any Doctor Who conventions?
My husband and I have attended Gallifrey One regularly since, uh, 2017, I think.
5. Have you ever dressed up as a Doctor Who character?
I've cosplayed the Fifth Doctor and Donna Noble (not at the same time). I've also made a Four cosplay for my husband.
6. Do you own any Doctor Who merchandise?
Far too much.
7. Are you a fan of Russell T Davies?
I guess? I think he does the most amazing character work, and that's part of what snared me in the first place, but I can't say that I seek out his work or go "Omg RTD!!" when I see his name on something I'm watching, which is what I'd think a fan of a writer would do. I'm more a fan of James Goss and Nev Fountain. I don't seek them out generally, but I definitely seek out their DW work.
7a. Steven Moffat?
Hahaha, yeah, no.
7b. Paul Cornell?
Not by the previous definition, no, but I loved Human Nature and his two modern eps are two of the best ever. He's also awesome in person - really nice as well as hilarious. (Also, he did an excellent Third Doctor comic with Christopher Jones.)
8. What say you to Season 6b?
I went and looked this up for this question, and it's a neat premise, and I'm glad people have taken advantage of it, in both almost-canon and in fanfic.
9. The UNIT dating controversy?
This is exactly what the show is all about. I love it. And I love that the show itself makes occasional oblique references to it. "What, you used to work for them?" "Yeah, long time ago. Back in the '70s. Or was it the '80s?"
10. The Blinovitch Limitation effect?
I wish the show would make up its mind about it. Either honor it, or explain why it doesn't exist anymore and move on.
11. Multi-Doctor episodes?
I love multi-Doctor episodes, but they're no longer special if they become too common. I'm kind of down on them at the moment, because the vast majority of audios I've been listening to in the past few months have been either multi-Doctor or cross-companions, and frankly, it's gotten irritating. Everyone doesn't have to meet everyone else!
12. What’s your favorite Doctor Who technobabble?
I really loved the classic episodes that were inspired by real science, like how "The Invisible Enemy" was inspired by an article on nanotechnology. It's sad to me that the modern show doesn't have any of that (and when it does try, it results in "Kill the Moon". o.O )
13. Have you watched other TV shows exclusively because of the presence of Doctor Who actors?
Yeah, well, I'm a Tennant fan, so yes. Nothing else could have convinced me to watch The Decoy Bride, and boy did I regret that!
14. Have you met any of the actors?
I've been to cons, so sure. I caught Colin Baker's cold one year. And I've been hugged by Katy Manning, but then everyone's been hugged by Katy Manning. And David Tennant deigned to accept my self-made DI Hardy Funko Pop (and appeared properly excited to do so, talented actor that he is), though I'm sure he threw it right out.
14a. Traveled to any filming locations?
Yes, but not by design. I chose to visit Cardiff on one of my trips because I knew DW was filmed there (though I didn't know at the time that it was only filmed there from 2012 on), and I did walk past Roath Lock, but I didn't intend to look for filming locations. However, as a tourist, you can't not chance upon Roald Dahl Plass, which is the big open space above Torchwood Hub - I made sure to find the exact spot the Doctor and Martha were standing when Jack told them he was the Face of Boe. Other than that, I did happen across, while visiting St Fagan's, the place where John Smith threw the cricket ball.
15. What do you think of The Curse of Fatal Death?
Loved it. Excellent parody of the classic show.
Where's the question about The Five(-ish) Doctors Reboot? grumpy jnt-doctors fan face
16. Do you have any fannish opinions that you think are fairly unpopular?
I like the Timeless Child thing. Ducks the tomatoes...
17. What’s your favorite pairing?
So this question is one of the reasons why I did this meme. For once, a fandom meme that wasn't 90% "who do you ship?" "what's your OTP?" "what's your O3P?" blah blah blah! Thirty-two questions and only two about pairings! No, I don't ship, I don't care about romance in canon or fandom, and I don't have any pairings. "But your AU series is Ten/Donna!" you cry. Sure, I enjoy reading some shippy fics and I love bas_math_girl and thus wrote an AU Ten/Donna fic for her and continued on with it, but not for the pairing. I'm in it for the reluctant superhero (now there's a trope I love, which started with The Greatest American Hero).
18. What pairing(s) won’t you touch with a really long pole?
I'm a canon writer, so I wouldn't write non-canon pairings. As far as canon pairings go, I'd have a difficult time writing Ten/Rose and Doctor/River, because I like to be faithful to the show and how it depicted the characters but both relationships were unhealthy and dysfunctional. It wouldn't be a fun experience for either me or the reader. I've written a little Amy/Rory (and actually have a WIP of them), and they're great.
Show bits
1. When did you start watching?
August, maybe September 2013
1a. Why?
So... My husband was a longtime fan, back in the 70s/80s/90s, even going so far as to join a local fan club and help organize a convention, back when neither were common in the U.S. When the new series came out, he saw the leather jacket and buzz cut in the promotional materials and noped out - that was so not the Doctor to him. Eight years later, he was so bored one day that he finally popped in the series 1 DVD someone had given him. He asked if I wanted to watch as well, and I said no, I was playing my video game. Five minutes of "Rose" later, I was right beside him, hooked from the word "Run!" (By the way, that Doctor is his Doctor now.)
2. What was your first episode?
"Rose", though as I was growing up, I caught occasional episodes (maybe 10 at most?) on PBS - enough to understand that the tall guy with the scarf and the blond guy with the celery were the same person, but not enough to have ever seen more than one episode in a story.
3. Which episodes have you seen?
All of modern, probably about 80% of classic. I am woefully uneducated about the First and Second Doctors, though "The Web of Fear" and "The War Games" are two of my favorites.
3a. Favorite?
"The Caves of Androzani", followed very closely by "Human Nature" / "Family of Blood" and "Battlefield".
4. Are your friends/family interested in the show?
My husband is as much a fan as he had been previously.
5. Which Doctor is your favorite?
Tenth Doctor, definitely, but closely followed by the Ninth Doctor and the JNT Doctors, in no particular order.
6. Which Doctor is your least favorite?
I don't really have a least favorite, but I'm going to go with and say the War Doctor. I don't like the concept and characterization, that Eight finally conceded to the Time War and chose to sacrifice all his ideals as the Doctor to become the Warrior, and then that Warrior turned out to be a gentleman pacifist who doesn't carry a weapon... basically, just the Doctor with additional self-inflicted angst about "I don't deserve the name Doctor" for no actual reason. What was the point?
7. Which TV companion is your favorite?
Donna Noble, followed by Ace McShane. Also, Jamie McCrimmon, Vislor Turlough, Martha Jones, Graham O'Brien.
8. Which TV companion is your least favorite?
Clara Oswald
9. Do you listen to the Big Finish audios?
Yes. Not as much as I'd like to.
9a. If so, which is your favorite?
"Peri and the Piscon Paradox", "The Kingmaker", "Death and the Queen", "The Light at the End", "The Chimes of Midnight".
9b. Also: which Big Finish companion is your favorite?
I haven't listened enough to any one companion to really form a favorite. My listening is very ad hoc.
10. Have you listened to any non-Big Finish audios?
Some, not much. I listened to "The Destiny of the Doctor" a decade ago but barely remember it.
Edit: Omg, I forgot Dead Air!! That was fantastic! Listen to it with the lights off. (Thanks, romanajo123 for the reminder!)
10a. If so, which is your favorite?
N/A
11. Have you read any of the novels or short stories?
Yes. I'm not a big reader, so some but nowhere near a good chunk.
11a. Have you written any of the novels or short stories?
What? What kind of question is this? Of course not.
11b. Which is your favorite?
Beautiful Chaos by Gary Russell. My copy is signed. I got to talk to Mr Russell at some length about it, and he considers it his best solo writing ever.
12. Have you read any of the comics?
Yes. Again, not many, and none recently.
12a. You guessed it - which is your favorite?
The Forgotten by Tony Lee. Interestingly, my copy is signed, and I got to talk to Mr Lee about it as well. It is sadly out of print - I don't remember why, but they lost the rights to print it.
13. Do you watch any of the spin-offs (e.g. Torchwood, Sarah Jane Adventures)?
I've seen both SJA and Torchwood (though did not watch Miracle Day). I did not watch Class
13a. Which is your favorite?
I enjoyed SJA more - I think they had a firm idea of what they wanted to do and told some very good stories. Torchwood didn't find its stride through the first two seasons and burdened itself with trying to be more mature than Doctor Who. It did have good individual episodes, but it never felt cohesive. However, "Children of Earth" was excellent
14. Is there any particular episode/book/audio/comic you desperately want to watch/listen to/read?
"The Highlanders". I have always wished I could see Jamie's first story.
Fandom bits
1. Do you write fanfic for Doctor Who?
A little. :)
1a. If so, post a snippet of a work-in-progress (or several)!
“DOCTOR!” she bellowed back up the ramp.
“I said two ticks.”
“Where in the bloody hell are we?”
“Chiswick,” he replied, his eyes still glued to the indicator.
“This is not Chiswick.”
He glanced at the positions of the toggle and a bank of multicoloured switches then tapped the gauge to make the liquid jump, murmuring absently, “It’s not? Are you sure?”
“No. I mean, I’ve only lived in the place for thirty-five years. You don’t really know a place before a hundred and seventy.” She glared at him, but he still wasn’t looking. She sighed. “Yes, I’m sure!”
Snagging the rubber mallet hanging under the console, he thumped the gauge hard, peered at it again, and nodded. “We could be in a part you don’t know well,” he suggested as he tossed the mallet on the panel and typed a last bit on the keyboard.
“I really don’t think there’s a single part of Chiswick with open fields as far as the eye can see. Or that many cows.”
2. Do you create Doctor Who icons?
I know how to crop an image. I even know how to work with layers. But nothing I do can honestly be called "creating icons".
2a. Let’s see a sample!
Look at the icon with this post. At least my crop didn't cut through their faces.
3. Recommend a fanfic/icon/fanvid/fancomic/fancreation!
JohannesVIII is one of my favorite DW fan artists, and this series is one of my favorites of theirs.
"Susan and DDR"
"One and DDR"
"The Twelve Doctors Play DDR"
4. Have you been to any Doctor Who conventions?
My husband and I have attended Gallifrey One regularly since, uh, 2017, I think.
5. Have you ever dressed up as a Doctor Who character?
I've cosplayed the Fifth Doctor and Donna Noble (not at the same time). I've also made a Four cosplay for my husband.
6. Do you own any Doctor Who merchandise?
Far too much.
7. Are you a fan of Russell T Davies?
I guess? I think he does the most amazing character work, and that's part of what snared me in the first place, but I can't say that I seek out his work or go "Omg RTD!!" when I see his name on something I'm watching, which is what I'd think a fan of a writer would do. I'm more a fan of James Goss and Nev Fountain. I don't seek them out generally, but I definitely seek out their DW work.
7a. Steven Moffat?
Hahaha, yeah, no.
7b. Paul Cornell?
Not by the previous definition, no, but I loved Human Nature and his two modern eps are two of the best ever. He's also awesome in person - really nice as well as hilarious. (Also, he did an excellent Third Doctor comic with Christopher Jones.)
8. What say you to Season 6b?
I went and looked this up for this question, and it's a neat premise, and I'm glad people have taken advantage of it, in both almost-canon and in fanfic.
9. The UNIT dating controversy?
This is exactly what the show is all about. I love it. And I love that the show itself makes occasional oblique references to it. "What, you used to work for them?" "Yeah, long time ago. Back in the '70s. Or was it the '80s?"
10. The Blinovitch Limitation effect?
I wish the show would make up its mind about it. Either honor it, or explain why it doesn't exist anymore and move on.
11. Multi-Doctor episodes?
I love multi-Doctor episodes, but they're no longer special if they become too common. I'm kind of down on them at the moment, because the vast majority of audios I've been listening to in the past few months have been either multi-Doctor or cross-companions, and frankly, it's gotten irritating. Everyone doesn't have to meet everyone else!
12. What’s your favorite Doctor Who technobabble?
I really loved the classic episodes that were inspired by real science, like how "The Invisible Enemy" was inspired by an article on nanotechnology. It's sad to me that the modern show doesn't have any of that (and when it does try, it results in "Kill the Moon". o.O )
13. Have you watched other TV shows exclusively because of the presence of Doctor Who actors?
Yeah, well, I'm a Tennant fan, so yes. Nothing else could have convinced me to watch The Decoy Bride, and boy did I regret that!
14. Have you met any of the actors?
I've been to cons, so sure. I caught Colin Baker's cold one year. And I've been hugged by Katy Manning, but then everyone's been hugged by Katy Manning. And David Tennant deigned to accept my self-made DI Hardy Funko Pop (and appeared properly excited to do so, talented actor that he is), though I'm sure he threw it right out.
14a. Traveled to any filming locations?
Yes, but not by design. I chose to visit Cardiff on one of my trips because I knew DW was filmed there (though I didn't know at the time that it was only filmed there from 2012 on), and I did walk past Roath Lock, but I didn't intend to look for filming locations. However, as a tourist, you can't not chance upon Roald Dahl Plass, which is the big open space above Torchwood Hub - I made sure to find the exact spot the Doctor and Martha were standing when Jack told them he was the Face of Boe. Other than that, I did happen across, while visiting St Fagan's, the place where John Smith threw the cricket ball.
15. What do you think of The Curse of Fatal Death?
Loved it. Excellent parody of the classic show.
Where's the question about The Five(-ish) Doctors Reboot? grumpy jnt-doctors fan face
16. Do you have any fannish opinions that you think are fairly unpopular?
I like the Timeless Child thing. Ducks the tomatoes...
17. What’s your favorite pairing?
So this question is one of the reasons why I did this meme. For once, a fandom meme that wasn't 90% "who do you ship?" "what's your OTP?" "what's your O3P?" blah blah blah! Thirty-two questions and only two about pairings! No, I don't ship, I don't care about romance in canon or fandom, and I don't have any pairings. "But your AU series is Ten/Donna!" you cry. Sure, I enjoy reading some shippy fics and I love bas_math_girl and thus wrote an AU Ten/Donna fic for her and continued on with it, but not for the pairing. I'm in it for the reluctant superhero (now there's a trope I love, which started with The Greatest American Hero).
18. What pairing(s) won’t you touch with a really long pole?
I'm a canon writer, so I wouldn't write non-canon pairings. As far as canon pairings go, I'd have a difficult time writing Ten/Rose and Doctor/River, because I like to be faithful to the show and how it depicted the characters but both relationships were unhealthy and dysfunctional. It wouldn't be a fun experience for either me or the reader. I've written a little Amy/Rory (and actually have a WIP of them), and they're great.