I do wonder if this might just be fandom's best year yet (well, subjectively speaking)

[such_heights]

I love my pretty new layout from noveltybox; in particular, the way it looks as if the latest news from my friendslist is spread out on my desk to be perused. I also love my pretty new Merlin icons, including the demonstrated delightful offering from miinty_sticks provided by joymaro - adorable!

***

The fannish end-of-year meme that's been flying around:

Your main fandom of the year? Doctor Who&Torchwood

Your favourite film watched this year? The Dark Knight, followed by Iron Man and Juno.

Your favourite book read this year? I picked up Neil Gaiman's American Gods for the first time, then couldn't put it down. My favourite of his now, definitely. ♥

Your favourite album or song to listen to this year? Sigur Rós's Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust was this year, right? I love that album to pieces. I also listened to a lot of Bloc Party, Tegan and Sara, and Jump, Little Children, amongst others.

Your favourite TV show of the year? Doctor Who&Torchwood (no, I'm not choosing, you can't make me, though Torchwood might win just because its levels of awesome were so unexpected), with honorary mentions to Supernatural and Pushing Daisies, and it was last year I mainlined and fell in love with Stargate: Atlantis.

Your favourite LJ community of the year? The stories at dw_cross were glorious, and rs_small_gifts was fantastic last month.

Your best new fandom discovery of the year? SGA. In retrospect I'm really surprised it took me this long to catch on, because a) dorks in space who live in a flying city, and b) I think it might have the single most talented and imaginative fandom I've ever seen, good grief. Merlin's definitely the best discovery of the last month, though. :D

Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year? Falling out of love with Heroes. Certain parts of 'Journey's End'. SGA getting cancelled right at the peak of my love, Pushing Daisies getting cancelled way before its time. :(

Your TV boyfriend of the year? John Sheppard (my love, it is pure and queer and true)

Your TV girlfriend of the year? Martha Jones (♥ ♥ ♥, basically)

Your biggest squee moment of the year? Torchwood's 2x01, no question. LO IT WAS SUDDENLY BRILLIANT. Gwen was made of win! James Masters! Tosh and Owen were made of adorable! Oh JACK! Ianto Jones's awesome defied all known measures! THAT OFFICE SCENE omg. *shipper arms of joy*

The most missed of your old fandoms? Oh, Harry Potter. I never truly left you, but most of us are going our separate ways now, myself included. But we had the best of times, truly.

The fandom you haven't tried yet, but want to? I'm going to be caught up on the Sarah Jane Adventures one of these days, I swear. I'm also planning on mainlining BSG at some point and getting into the Sarah Conner Chronicles.

Your biggest fan anticipations for the New Year All the stuff this new Merlin fandom's going to produce. Torchwood coming back! I really, really miss my Team Cardiff. A year of pretty much all my fandoms being relatively closed canon, hopefully leading to lots of fan activity. Oh, and I'm looking forward to Dollhouse as well.

***

Torchwood fen! Speaking of fan activity, I am thinking of running a spring/summer genfic exchange, depending on if I can work out a schedule that will not clash horribly with offline things, motivated mostly because I want more Torchwood gen in my life. Thus, a quick poll!

[Poll #1327135]

Comments

[glass-icarus.livejournal.com]

hee, so i'm not the only one... new layouts ftw! :D

[such_heights]

Haha, yes, I completely ganked the community from your post. Yay layouts!

[glinda-penguin.livejournal.com]

I love regular prompt/theme things, but they do tend to die a death after a while *looks mournfully at tw_wotd_fic* unless they have a few really prolific writers involved to carry through dry patches. Though that might work better if you're only planning on doing it for a closed period a la nest_of_spiders, focuses the mind.

[such_heights]

Oh yes, it would definitely be a limited period type thing if I was running a prompt-ish affair, that's a good point.

[iambickilometer.livejournal.com]

I am crazy indecisive. XD; But that actually sounds like a lot of fun. And Torchwood fandom needs more gen! All fandom needs more gen!

[such_heights]

I quite agree - good to have you on board! :D

[sunnyrea.livejournal.com]

1) 2x01 was seriously the best season opener of well ANYTHING. *gush*

2) ooooooooooooo Gen fic, I love me some gen fic!

[such_heights]

:D Yay gen, and oh man, yay KKBB, I have serious urges to watch it again now.

[demotu.livejournal.com]

I like optional daily/weekly prompts the best, or choosing one. I don't think I'd participate in an exchange where I was assigned a prompt (you know, WiaD aside but that was a competition) simply because I can't just write anything. Which is why I like the optional daily prompts version best, like horizonssing, where you can pick and choose based on inspiration, or challenge yourself and go the whole hog.

I'm rubbish at genfic but I think I'd try anyway. I guess canon pairings would be fine, as long as they weren't central to the fic?

[such_heights]

I really like both formats myself, so ugh, indecisive. And oh yeah, background canon pairings would probably be there in any story for certain eras, but I think it would be nice to force ourselves to break away from all the shipfic we keep writing!

[demotu.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's just tricky to define gen, I suppose. As long as it's just a canon fact and not dwelled on, because a genfic that refers to Jack/Ianto or Gwen/Rhys (or Owen/Tosh UST, for that matter) would still be gen, IMO. Though certainly, forcing people to write non-relationship based fics could be fun - I just tend to see fics through the eyes of relationships and character interactions, so it would be near impossible for me to do.

[such_heights]

I think it especially is tricky to define in the Torchwood canon, actually, because pretty much everyone is in a well-established canon entanglement. Personally, I like writing about friendships and teamwork about as much as I do romantic relationships, and it's something Torchwood-the-show provides in spades but Torchwood-the-fandom not so much. So, I'd love to read more stories about the team while Jack was away, and Gwen-Ianto friendship, and things about the different dynamics in the team that aren't necessarily shippy.

[demotu.livejournal.com]

Yeah, true. I'd totally write platonic Jack/Gwen or Ianto/Gwen or Ianto/Tosh or Ianto/Owen. Yeah. That's a good way of looking at it, friendship relationships instead of romantic ones.

[nohwrah.livejournal.com]

Firstly, if there was one thing in my entire life that I would be allowed to agree with, then it would have to be this:
Your TV girlfriend of the year? Martha Jones (♥ ♥ ♥, basically)

Secondly, I don't care, I'll agree with more. Almost everything you wrote down here, basically: missing HP-fandom (I will finish that fic! I will! I will!), being disappointed in Journey's End, not understanding how Heroes went from pretty darn intriguing to a bit of rubbish- but most of all:

TORCHWOOD FTW! I mean, I still love my other fandoms and ships, but Torchwood seriously is made awesome. The fanservice alone should be enough to win anyone over (Those photos of the Hub-convention still make me swoon!). And Jack! And Ianto! And Jack with Ianto! They're made of pure gold. I'm so bummed they're only doing the five episodes this year. Did you hear it might get cancelled after season four? Supposedly to give Stephen Moffat a clean break for DW season six (which makes no sense to me, but hey). I would die.

(I'll stop being a silly fangirl now.)

As for your ficathon- I don't know if I would participate -both on account of thestopwatch probably running another Summer Round and of me not really being a gen-writer. But I might give it a try- and I will definitely read.

[such_heights]

Hee! ♥ So glad you agree.

Did you hear it might get cancelled after season four?

*sticks fingers in ears* Um, I mean. No I haven't heard that, and it seems a bit unlikely? Also, I don't think I can quite bear to entertain the possibility. D:

Ooh, there's a Stopwatch summer round? Yay! I'm all for the exchanges this year.

[avendya.livejournal.com]

You tend to get a lot of interest in prompts-based ficathons, but not nearly as high a rate of completion. I run my ficathons matched so I know that not everyone will default (because if there's a person on the other end, you feel guiltier).

Um. You might even be able to convince me into participating, because I am easy for genficathons.

(Or I could run an affiliated Doctor Who one?)

[avendya.livejournal.com]

Actually - would totally be up to being co-mod, if you need one.

[such_heights]

You tend to get a lot of interest in prompts-based ficathons, but not nearly as high a rate of completion.

That was exactly my thinking. Hmm, and now I'm thinking I really need to wait to find out which week S3 is airing in and then plan around accordingly. An affiliated-type thing sounds really cool, also.

[munditia.livejournal.com]

Heroes was one of my biggest fannish disappointments of 2008 as well. The only characters for whom I have still got a modicum of affection and respect are probably Ma Petrelli and Mat's pet turtle.

[such_heights]

Matt has a pet turtle?! Haha, I missed that! I got behind after about episode three, and then internet rumblings persuaded me it wasn't worth the effort catching up. Such a shame, because I adore Series 1 beyond all telling!

[munditia.livejournal.com]

It's his spirit guide which the show's next Magical Negro African dude mentioned to him, or some such. I got stuck after episode six or seven and simply cannot be bothered to watch more. While the first season did have its flaws as well (pacing issues, Mohinder's voiceovers of DOOOOM, its treatment of Nikki/Jessica etc.), it is really sad to see to what extent the show has jumped the shark since then.

[stellastars]

I'm going to be caught up on the Sarah Jane Adventures one of these days, I swear.
You should, you should! While I love my Doctor Who and Torchwood, one of the serials for this season of SJA might just be one of my favorite episodes of all time. (Mark of the Berserker -- I recommend it!)


Also, I completely agree on the biggest squee moment of the year... I was giddy over that Torchwood season premiere for days! I can't wait to see how this season turns out (even if it is a shortened one!).

[such_heights]

I have heard so many good things about it! I got halfway through Series 1, I think, and loved it to pieces, so quite what I'm waiting for I do not know.

I know! It's probably still just about my favourite Torchwood episode to date (well, apart from Fragments). I'm pretty excited about Week of Torchwood, yes. :D

[kel-reiley.livejournal.com]

Sigur Rós's Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust was this year, right? I love that album to pieces.

o me too!