#the daemons is my favourite doctor who story

[adventure-showdown]

What is your favourite Doctor Who story?

ROUND 2 MASTERPOST

synopses and propaganda under the cut

The Faceless Ones

Synopsis

The TARDIS arrives at Gatwick Airport in July 1966. A great many young people have vanished, including Ben and Polly. With the help of Samantha Briggs, the sister of one of the missing youths, the Second Doctor and Jamie must uncover the plot of the Chameleons.

Propaganda no propaganda submitted

The Daemons

Synopsis

The Master, posing as a rural vicar, summons a cloven-hoofed demon-like creature named Azal in a church crypt. Seeking to gain the ancient titan's demonic power, he gathers a cult and then corrupts or controls the residents of Devil's End to bow to his will. Dark elemental forces begin to disturb the village on the eve of May Day: unexplained murders, a stone gargoyle come to life, and a nigh-impenetrable infernal energy dome. With the Master fully prepared to destroy the Earth, the Doctor and UNIT — aided by a benevolent practitioner of witchcraft — battle the wicked rites of a secret science wielded by an alien from another world.

Propaganda

what is the most important quality of a good doctor who story, to have a strong plot, something to say, something new to try. all of these are positives, yes, but sometimes the best doctor who stories are just fun. sometimes they feature the master pretending to be the leader of a satanic cult pretending to be an anglican priest, remote control bessie, an alien who's basically the devil, a living gargoyle, a witch, and the doctor escaping being tied to a maypole by pretending to be a wizard. truly, this is the heights of doctor who, it is beyond fun to watch, i love it so much. If that’s not enough, then surely the fact that this has THE ‘the brigs an alcoholic and mike yates is gay’ moment (anonymous)

[mylifeiscomics]

Hi! I love your comics! I was wondering, what is your favorite episode for each doctor?

Thank you! ❤️

This is such a fun question, I had to take my time with it! Thanks for asking!

First Doctor - The Romans saga.

It was fun to see everyone so chill and in one place for a while. It showed the Doctor did like to hang out for a while in some places/times. Before all this running around lol! This is also peak first Doctor behaviour. He is so fun in this one- he fights a guy off while giggling and is responsible for Nero setting Rome on fire and just laughs about it. Chaotic gremlin energy and I love it.

Second Doctor - War Games saga

The concept was really cool for this adventure. Plus it was the first time we really got the lore behind who the Doctor really is. We meet time lords etc. The finale is obviously super sad but iconic.

Third Doctor - The Daemons saga

This was really hard to choose because 3 is my fave classic doctor and there are so many cool adventures he went on. Being shrunk into the alien tv/zoo thing was such a neat idea but I had to go with this because it had so many crazy things going on. The Master (best version imo) pretends to be a priest. Crazy witchy woman who over acts and blinks too much. That white gargoyle… also the devil costume- peek costuming. And how could I forget that bizarre finale? It was giving wickerman for a second. Very funny… to me, probably wasn’t the initial intention.

Fourth Doctor - The Talons of Weng-Chiang

Possibly a controversial choice but I really loved the Phantom of the Opera vibes I got from this. Also Leela is my favourite companion and she was perfect in this saga.

Fifth Doctor - Black Orchid

Simply because it was fun and it was the last time this little family had any happiness or peace 🥲

Sixth Doctor - the Mysterious Planet

Because it introduced Sabalom Glitz who was a charming character that I’m glad they brought back later on. Also it kicks of the trial saga which was essentially the beginning of the end for Six, sad!

Seventh Doctor - Paradise Towers

Very cool concept. Invented slang we use today. Beware the grannies… I just loved everything about this story. Lots of good spooky fun.

Eight just has his movie but he was so good in Night of the Doctor.

Ninth Doctor (love of my life) - Fathers Day

Such an interesting deep dive into his and Rose’s relationship. I also love the concept of a companion learning what happens if you mess with time. Very langoleers. Huge character growth for Rose (and the Doctor too).

Tenth Doctor - Rise of the Cybermen

I love this little throwback to the second Doctor adventure where the Cybermen had a very similar takeover plan. Only in this one people got changed. The idea of the Cybermen terrify me greatly and having a character as vital as Jackie Tyler being turned was… UGH! I still get chills.

And that’s where I stopped watching honestly. Once Moffatt took over I tapped out of Doctor Who. I decided at that point I liked what I saw and I was happy to leave it there. I did watch the new Anniversary specials in which Wild Blue Yonder was my favourite. Nice spooky story. But otherwise I’m just content to be a freak for Nine and the classic series lol.

Thank you so much for asking this! It was fun to remember those old episodes. Makes me want to watch the classic series again! Haha

[danielfeketewrites]

DOCTOR WHO TOP 10 - 3rd Doctor

The lists continue. Yes, I'm obsessed with making lists.

10. Terror of the Autons

Thoroughly iconic. What else can I say?

9. The Mind of Evil

I dunno why this one in particular. I haven't seen it for quite a few years but for some reason, I just find the concept really interesting and gravite to this serial.

8. The Glen of Sleeping

I should read more of the TV Action/Countdown stuff, because this was genuinely fun. The first comic strip featuring the Master, if I'm not mistaken. And it's really good.

7. The Ambassadors of Death

A really cool take on the first contact story. The best serial of S7. And the last David Whitaker story.

6. The Curse of Peladon

I feel like this is the point where Pertwee's Doctor Who starts actually resembling Doctor Who... But this time cooler! And with political intrigue! Definitely the best serial Brian Hayles wrote.

5. The Time Warrior

Another admission time: I'm a huge fan of Sontarans. I love them to bits. This is their best outing in all of classic Who. It's also really fun and introduces Sarah Jane. Easy top 5.

4. The Daemons

Just a really great finale to the Master season. I love it. The tension between magic and science, the folk horror influences... Yeah, this one is amazing.

3. Planet of the Spiders

The big finale for the 3rd Doctor. The nine-year-old child inside me is jumping up and down even just thinking about this one - paranormal powers, huge spiders, the Doctor as the buddhist hero... I love this shit. And it helps that it's the perfect finale to this era of Who.

2. The Three Doctors

Two is my fave. There is no timeline in which this isn't the top TV story of this era. But my number 1 overall isn't a TV story...

1. The Heralds of Destruction

Yeah. My favourite 3rd Doctor story by far is a comic book.

I genuinely believe that The Heralds of Destruction is increadibly good. But it not just that. It's also the fact that it kinda out-Pertwees the Pertwee era? It takes a look at the most glam bits of Pertwee era and turns them up to 11. And honestly? It's just a blast to read. Cornell is the god of Doctor Who fanfic and this is what all eu stuff should aspire to be - in conversation with the era it slots into, while also just an amazing bit of Who on its own.

[thesunfyre4446]

(1) Before the show aired I used to say I was on TB, now I feel like that's admitting a shameful secret? Because I'd be putting myself in the same bag as A LOT of delusional TB/Rhaenyra stans, most of whom are just bullies. The more I see both teams fighting on reddit or here the more stupid it looks to me; I end up wanting to correct them but then it comes off as me siding with TG. I'm not but it kills me to see how wrong they got the story. Most TB fans read F&B and filled in the blanks with their own delusions and think that's what really happened; what's even worse is they can't separate book from show. They think they have the moral highground but a lot of them are terrible, with their double standards and self righteousness. Like when they accuse TG of mysoginy but then crucify Alicent for everything she did and didn't do. Even young Alicent, who did absolutely nothing wrong, but still gets attacked by Rhaenyra's feminist stans.

If anyone asked me now I'd say I'm not in any team; my favourite characters are aligned with Rhaenyra, whom I think is the rightful heir based on my understanding of succession. I will defend Alicent cause she's an interesting character that people refuse to try to understand and is treated unfairly. I actually loved watching most of the characters (and relationships) because they are all so complex, even if I don't agree or like them . They are engaging, despite what "team" they're on. It really annoys me that so many fans miss out on this because they're busy with the TB vs TG war.

i think that not being in any team is the best way to watch the show, anon.

i mean i'm TG but watching daemon is def very entertaining. he's a horrible person but matt smith (who's one of my fav actors from the good old doctor who days) is incredible. i can enjoy daemon's character while also acknowledging the fact that he's a horrible person. appreciating characters for their complexly & just how entertaining they are without agreeing with the things they do or even liking them is a skill this fandom desperately needs to learn.

i got a hate anon a few days ago accusing me of "having bad morals" for saying alicent did what she believed was right and honorable, and then just refused to understand that what alicent believes is right is not necessarily what i believe is right (i mean she's a fictional character from a medieval inspired fantasy world, of course we're not going to have the same set of values ? ). i'm not TG because i believe that men should inherit before women, i just like the characters better and find them more interesting.

i also think that this fandom has a HUGE problem separating headcanons from actual canon. with daemyra shippers being the obvious example. daemon and rhaenyra's relationship is very toxic. he's psychically abusive to her, he gr00med her, he abandoned her in a brothel... like this is obviously a very bad relationship. but people still insist on labeling daemon as a MaLeWiFe and a femenist (?) [he smashed his wife's head with a rock because he didn't like her but ok] and get very angry whenever someone tries to suggests that maybe... daemyra isn't that great of a ship.

don't get me wrong it's fine to ship daemyra, we all like to ship fictional toxic relationships, but you have to separate the headcanons you have from the actual show.

yeah the double standard with the so-called feminists attacking alicent is... a lot. an unhinged stan left a comment on one of my posts talking about alicent's "lowly hightower c***". a lot of them are accusing her of "seducing" viserys when she was 14-15, or defending corlys for offering his 12yo daughter as a bride to the middle aged viserys... i'm not very comfortable with these posts so i usually just end up blocking the op. (and don't even get me started on how some of them treat nettles)

thank you for the ask! ;)

[grizzersmamma]

Favourite Fics Tag Game!

Got tagged by the lovely @ghouljams to join in with the current ask game going around where you need to share your two favourite fics that you've written. This was really hard because I didn't know if I should pick my more popular ones or my lesser known ones, because I love all my children equally lmao.

Call of Duty Daemon AU

This is a crossover between Call of Duty and His Dark Materials. The general premise is that each person has a "daemon" a physical manifestation of their soul in the form of an animal. There are other concepts from the HDM AU, but you don't really need much of a background knowledge of the universe to read it.

My favourite of the ones currently uploaded would have to be Bloody Paws and Broken Strings, since that covers a large amount of Simon's backstory and his personal trauma (but with a side of GhostSoap). Working on a Gaz centric part and a request for Ghost meeting Soap's family for the first time!

Masterlist Link

Ghosts & Monsters - Primeval AU

For the Ghost x Reader girlies among us, this one is a crossover with the Primeval universe. It gets basically 0 attention since not many people know of the old BBC show since it was running at the same time as Doctor Who on TV and got rather overlooked. But for those who love dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures, plus a massive heaping of angst, this may be the story for you!

Again, it's not a popular fanfic, but it has a special place in my heart, so I'll be continuing updates on it for my own attention. (For the Nikto girlies I have something in the works for him too set in this universe lmao).

Masterlist Link

-

IDK if I should do this on my alt blog too?? Anyway, I'm not 100% sure who has and hasn't been tagged for this, so if you've already been tagged then feel free to ignore. No pressure to do so as always. @istanmyman @lethalchiralium @cyber-nya @imrowanartist

[thirddoctor]

If you're still wanting opinions on Doctor Who, I personally do not like Doctor/Companion romances (especially in NuWho). Not so much because of the age difference (though I won't lie and say that ISN'T a factor, just not the main issue) but because a) it always seems to come out of nowhere, b) there always seems to be the expectation that ithe Doctor should return their feelings and c) when they DO return the feelings I always wonder why?? I don't see the point of this trope and it doesn't really add anything to the story - even the whole 'Doctor will outlive them so it's bittersweet' doesn't track when that's a constant theme of the show anyway because that applies to almost everyone they come across!

I always have fun hearing people's opinions!

I'm mostly with you. I do enjoy a few of them, but even those I kinda prefer to remain non-canon or as subtext. (One of the reasons The Husbands of River Song is my favourite River ep is that I love how understated and sweet the romance in that is.)

I'm always more interested in the core of a relationship than whether it's specifically romantic, platonic, familial, or whatever. For example I'm not averse to Three/Jo, but I don't think it fundamentally matters whether they're in love, just that they clearly do love each other. Jo offering up her own life to save the Doctor in The Daemons and the Doctor driving away into the night after Jo's engagement are just as compelling either way. I don't think romantic love is especially different from any other type of love once you move beyond the surface.

[morwennastower]

THE BRIGADIER'S DRINKING SONG (FIVE ROUNDS RAPID)

This is a bit bizarre, but the Daemons is one of my favourite Jon Pertwee Doctor Who stories, so....

[selenityshiroi]

Finally got around to watching season three of His Dark Materials.

I wasn't entirely sure how they were going to fit The Amber Spyglass into 8 episodes and there are aspects that I think they adapted well and aspects that I think fell through. Some of my absolute favourite moments don't even exist any more.

I was impressed with how they adapted Will breaking the knife, because in the book we see his thoughts and understand why it happened. I wasn't sure how they were going to do that on film but it was brilliantly done. I also liked that they got rid of some of the...cheesier dialogue at the ending and let the love and pain and heartbreak speak for itself. And although I was disappointed that Mary and the Mulefa didn't really get much time, I liked how they did it. I thought they adapted her learning about them and their language well and showed it off in a short but effective way.

But I think Asriel was shockingly done. Marisa was better but their confrontation with Metatron was pretty poor. I also disliked that the bomb happened the way that it did. I HATE that we didn't get 'because he's Will' during Lyra's dreams. I loathe that we lost SO MUCH development with Mary and the Mulefa. That Will and Lyra didn't get the 'pick up the wrong daemon' scene. That Marisa's daemon wasn't with Marisa, Asriel and Stellmaria. That they completely glossed over the fact that Will and Lyra killed God (okay...it's kind of a minor plot point in the book, too, but they didn't make any attempt to explain who the shrivelled being in the cube was).

I think it's a shame we didn't get the Galespie with them in the world of the dead, a perspective on a different way of life for Will and Lyra. I think it's a shame we didn't get to see the dead fawning over Pan before the boat scene, the discussions of different daemons and how some people see their deaths all their life and confused them with daemons when they heard of them. I really dislike that they had Will and Roger poking at each other over Lyra (because Roger was jealous that they were alive, not because of Lyra and Will). And, although it was well acted and heartbreaking and still made me sob...the entire ending sequence from Xaphania arriving until the end felt disjointed and pasted together.

That being said, overall? I enjoyed it. I thought it was a decent adaptation.

Not perfect, but decent.

Also, I love that, production wise, everything came full circle!

That back in 2006, Doctor Who referenced His Dark Materials by having the separation of The Doctor and Rose Tyler on Bad Wolf Bay mirror that of Will and Lyra. That Julie Gardner, a huge fan of the His Dark Materials trilogy and Exec Producer on Doctor Who at the time, went on to found Bad Wolf studios. Which would then produce the His Dark Materials TV Series.

I'm not yet impressed with The Book of Dust trilogy. In fact, I flicked onto a random page of the second book, saw a potential plot point that instantly turned me off and am refusing to read it until the third book confirms it doesn't go there. So, for now, the story ends with HDM. Even with the unresolved heartbreak that still hasn't healed after two decades.

But I'm glad I got to see these characters again through a slightly different lens. The performances were all phenominal.

[ryttu3k]

Some thoughts on His Dark Materials 3.05 and 3.06 - No Way Out and The Abyss! Spoilers for the rest of the series below.

I absolutely goddamn adore how they did everything with the Mulefa. Mary’s development from “...I’m following a talking elephant” to “these talking elephants are my besties, actually”, to how they handled the wheelpods, to the babies - but my absolute favourite thing was how they did the subtitles! Things like the Mulefa speech melting into English, but into a much more limited English to show Mary’s grasp on it, to how it just becomes more and more fluent, until she and Atal are just... chatting. Talking. It was so cool.

Completely understand why they redesigned them, too. The diamond-shaped thing would have been, hm, complicated, and this way they felt much more real. And the wheelpods really did look fun. Like rollerblading!

Land of the Dead was proper eerie. Really glad they kept in Will’s reaction to being separated from his daemon, because like. They have to build up Kirjava somehow, even if he didn’t feel it immediately like Lyra and Pan did. The set felt deeply claustrophobic (even if it did vaguely remind me of a Doctor Who stage set) and oppressive, and seeing poor li’l Roger so... lifeless was genuinely upsetting. Got a bit emotional at them talking about their adventures, Roger remembering more and more, seeing the flashbacks of them as little bitty kids (I guess they filmed those when they were doing season one?), and him just... coming back to life. Storytelling as identity!

I don’t know. “Tell them stories” is one of my favourite fictional aesops.

Adored the reunion with Lee. Look I know Lin Manuel-Miranda has been a... controversial choice, but I think he’s fantastic, and I’m so glad Lyra got to see one of her two dads again (the other is Iorek, obviously. Asriel whomst? He’s lost parental rights forever tyvm). And Will’s reunion with John just felt... so much more loaded. Like Lyra seeing Lee again just felt warm and cozy like a hug, but there was so much weight between Will and John, many more things to say. Apparently it was filmed months after principle filming due to John’s actor’s availability, which was why it felt much more self-contained, but honestly I feel it was pretty important for them to have that time. Also built up the concept that you can’t stay in a world that’s not your own for too long, which gives the viewer the thought, “Oh, okay, so Lyra and Will will have to visit each other via windows, they can’t actually stay together.” When the reveal about closing all but one window comes, it’s gonna hit like a truck.

The Abyss was horrifying. Metaphysical l’appel du vide and all. They played up how it’ll be a major part later on well, I think. Seeing Sergi being pulled in, Ruta’s complete helplessness... yikes, genuinely unsettling. I do like that Serafina explained exactly what was going to happen to Ruta, her soul falling forever. Keep that in mind, viewers! It’ll be important later!

Loved Gracious Wings’ rescue, too - I’m not even sure she knew why she did it. The whole thing plays on this big... trusting your intuition to do the right thing, even if you don’t know why you did. Which works very well with Lyra and the prophecy, actually.

Harpy-related note - it did disappoint me that they cut the Lyra/liar part, especially since it felt foreshadowed with the bureaucrat in the holding area. I just wanted to see Lyra come to that realisation that they wanted the truth. Ah well.

Going through the door... emotions. Bye, Roger ;_; Bye, Lee ;_; (I know he originally joined the fight, but I’m guessing they just wanted to streamline the story?)

My desire to slap Asriel continues to grow. Holy shit, dude. His war is going ‘successfully’ but he’s also kinda. Breaking a hell of a lot of eggs to make that particular omelette. Lowkey wish Mrs Coulter had punched him tbh.

On that note, her character has taken such a fascinating turn! Genuinely much more sympathetic - trying to talk for her life in the chamber, her terror and determination trying to stop the bomb (and her success! She pulled out the targeting mechanism so it could only use Lyra’s last known location, and Lyra kept moving, so it missed!), her despair when she believes Lyra is dead... standout scenes, I think, are after she returns to the camp. There’s the wonderful talk with Serafina, where Serafina talks about how Lyra being Eve is a good thing, a transformative thing, because look at how much she’s transformed, and that beautiful scene talking to her daemon. She’s making peace with her own soul again!

Anyway, Mrs Coulter/Serafina.

The contrast between her and Asriel is really interesting. They start out with like, Asriel is the cool uncle/dad who’s doing cool things, and Mrs Coulter is Evil Incarnate, and they’re both... just changing to be significantly more morally grey (or, well, outright terrible). Mrs Coulter is realising she does care about something/someone, she has a daughter she’s realising she actually does love, someone else to care for other than herself. She’s reconnecting with her soul. Asriel, on the other hand, is going into a downward spiral, becoming obsessive and callous, and any love he actually did have for Lyra is just... not a priority any more. Even Stelmaria is more absent. I really wanted to see her reaction to learning that Lyra was dead :-\

Just two episodes left!

[sci-fiworlds]

A Sci Fi Worlds Interview with Nick Redfern

After my Doctor Who piece came out in issue four of Alien Worlds, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that UFO and Cryptozoology author Nick Redfern thought it was "excellent," which really made my day because I've read and enjoyed so much of his work over the years. So, following the success of my Sci-Fi Worlds interview with Nick Pope (where I got Pope's take on Doctor Who and other cult shows) I thought it might be interesting to do another interview in a similar vein with the "monster hunter," himself.

Richard Thomas: First thanks for agreeing to do this interview so soon, its not that long since our Room 101 interview so its much appreciated.

Nick Redfern: No probs!

Richard Thomas: When I was about five or six my dad bought me a two video pack of the 1975 Tom Baker stories The Sontaran Experiment and Genesis of the Daleks. After that I soon started watching Sunday morning repeats on UK Gold. Can you remember how you first became a Doctor Who fan?

Nick Redfern: I wouldn't say I'm a big fan of Doctor Who; as I don't think I've actually watched it since Tom Baker finished, aside from one or two episodes of the new series in about 2006. I saw the one with Peter Kay and the guy out of Hustle, and I thought that was a very good one. I did enjoy it as a kid, and particularly with Jon Pertwee. I can't really remember much of it now, just a few fragments of certain episodes from the time. Thirty years ago is a long time! I'm sure I got interested, though, like most kids of my age back then, from watching it at teatime on a saturday night.

Richard Thomas: Growing up in the 1990s I'm from the generation of children that was cheated out of having their own Doctor by the BBC. (Unless you count the 1996 Paul McGann TV Movie.) Who was your favourite Doctor growing up and what do think made him unique compared to the others?

Nick Redfern: I'd definitely say Jon Pertwee. He was flamboyant and adventurous, and a bit eccentric, and had an old vintage car he drove around in; and I liked those aspects of it all. He wasn't a typical James Bond-type; and that was good. There's way too much lazy thinking in TV, where people won't take a chance, and many of the characters are very stereotypical, and I think the character of Doctor Who has always been the exact opposite of this. Jon Pertwee's was a very memorable Doctor Who. I don't remember the people who came before him, and never really watched it after Tom Baker. Of the couple of episodes from the latest series I've seen, I thought it was pretty good.

Richard Thomas: The Jon Pertwee/Tom Baker years are often considered the golden age of Doctor Who, what are some of your favourite stories from this era and why?

Nick Redfern: I remember the Sea Devils one, one with Daemons, and one set at Loch Ness. I suppose I remember them mainly because of my interest in Cryptozoology. Plus, I'm not really much of a fan of sci-fi; and have never been interested in things like Star Wars; Battlestar Galactica; etc. If I ever watch sci-fi, it's mainly conspiracy-type sci-fi set on Earth, like The X-Files, The Invaders, Kolchak etc, which is probably why I liked - and remember - these specific episodes and stories of Doctor Who.

Richard Thomas: For me the scariest thing about the Daleks and the Cybermen is the fact that both species were originally humanoid beings much like ourselves. This is a bit of a weird question but with the transhumanist movement and futurists like Ray Kurzweil talking about a nearing "Technological Singularity" do you think we have anything to fear from Davros-like mad scientists on Earth?

Nick Redfern: I actually remember Davros well; because when I was at school we had an old wrinkled teacher who looked just like him! LOL. And that's what we nicknamed him. As for having things to fear from similar, real-life scenarios like this, I'd say that as technology and medicine progresses, it's vital that it's kept in check. Yes, we definitely need to advance as much as possible in a positive way; but we also have to ensure we don't cross the line into darker areas, such as down the road to "designer children" and things like that where so-called modifications might start to be made at the genetic level. Our scummy leaders might like a whole nation of identical, subservient types born out of a test-tube, but we definitely need to stay away from all that.

Richard Thomas: If the Daleks and Cybermen ever wiped each other out for good who do think would emerge as the new Doctor Who king of monsters?

Nick Redfern: How about the Chupacabras?

Richard Thomas: As a monster hunter yourself, if you were ever asked by the Doctor Who production team to suggest or even invent a new adversary for the series what do you think it would be?

Nick Redfern: As above, I'd say the Chupacabras. Having been on several expeditions to Puerto Rico looking for it, I don't think for one minute that the Chupacabras is really some sort of pet or secret experiment of aliens. I think those theories are all laughable bollocks. But that scenario, of a vicious alien Chupacabras coming to Earth, and maybe finding its way to Britain, would be a very good one for a fictional TV show. If the production team want help, I'm here!

Richard Thomas: From the Yeti and the Loch Ness Monster to Erich Von Daniken's Chariots of the Gods, Doctor Who seems to have borrowed a lot from Cryptozoology and Ufology. As a successful author in both these fields what are your thoughts on this?

Nick Redfern: I think it's actually very cool. There are a lot of people in the fields of Ufology and Cryptozoology who whinge and moan when the subject is portrayed on TV, because they get very self-righteous and pompous about how they think it should be shown on-screen. I've even seen people complain when a fictional TV show changes - for example - some aspects of a famous case, such as Roswell. But these people need to get lives; they need to lighten up, and realise that TV-fiction is simply that: an entertaining story and nothing else. People should be able to watch a show that totally fictionalises a real event - if it's presented as fiction, and everyone realises that's what it is. As far as specifically crypto on TV is concerned, I love Primeval. I always watch that show. In fact, I'd say - for me, at least - it's the best paranormal type fiction show since when The X-Files was at its height. I particularly liked the last season finale with the Mammoth on the M25; that was a good one.

Richard Thomas: As well as the paranormal Doctor Who has also taken a lot of inspiration from cult sci-fi and horror films. I understand your a big zombie film fan, what do you think it is about them you like so much and what is your favourite zombie film?

Nick Redfern: I'm not sure I could say this or that is my definite favourite; it would depend on the mood I was in at the time. But, yeah, I love zombie films. I have a huge collection of them. I think, for me, and like a lot of people, part of the appeal is the whole apocalyptic nature of the stories. It's interesting that since the late 60s, zombies have been tied with end of the world type themes. But before that, you never really saw that. Rather, before then, it was just zombies here or there, and in a relatively normal setting. But, today, you rarely - if ever - see a zombie film that isn't connected to the end of the world, or some huge disaster. The two have become interconnected. But I like that. 28 Days Later was a very good one (although technically they aren't zombies, but are still alive and just infected with the "Rage Virus"); but I hated the ending of 28 Days Later. It was far too upbeat. They should have all got infected too. I don't wanna watch a zombie film where the hero and his girlfriend ride off into the sunset and everyone's happy. I want to see them get bitten, change, and then go on a zombie attack themselves. Or just get eaten and die in pain as the zombies tear them apart. A good night's entertainment! And I thought that Shaun of the Dead was excellent! It's difficult to do really good zombie-comedy, and Shaun is definitely the best example of how to nail it.

Richard Thomas: George Romero's Night of the Living Dead is one of my favourite films. Why do you think Romero's Dead films are so popular compared to other zombie films including remakes of Romero's original trilogy by other directors?

Nick Redfern: Well, I think he really cornered the market, and defined that whole aspect of the zombie outbreak leading to the collapse of civilisation, and he did it very well and in a unique way. I was a bit disappointed with Land of the Dead. But I liked his latest Diary of the Dead. He made a name as the definitive zombie filmmaker; and that will always be the case too, and that's great. He deserves it and earned it. But, in saying that, there have been some other very good ones. I love Italian horror films, and there's been a lot of good stuff come out of that whole genre too. It's not really zombies, but one of my all-time favourite horror films is Carnival of Souls (the 60s original.) That's a great film. As is Night of the Demon and Dead of Night.

Richard Thomas: The last few years have seen something of a revival in the zombie genre with films like 28 Days Later and its sequel, I Am Legend and Romero's fourth and fifth Dead films. Why do you think we've had this sudden rash of apocalyptic zombie films?

Nick Redfern: Well, I think it's pretty simple: part of it is that filmmakers and studios see a successful film or theme, and they follow a similar path, whatever the subject matter. If someone makes an apocalyptic zombie film and it's a big hit; then others follow suit. Same with werewolf films; or war films, or gangster films, etc. I did not like I Am Legend at all though. It wasn't terrible; it was just okay. But I was hoping for more than okay. Will Smith played the survivor role well. But I think we should have seen much more about the build-up to the disaster, how the virus spread, etc. The ending was wrong; and should have been very bleak; and not one that gives hope to people. Zombie films should never give any hope of any kind. Zombie films should be relentless right up to the last shot.

Richard Thomas: Your also a big fan of The Invaders, a 1960s X-Files-esq series starring Roy Thinnes as man desperately trying to warn the world about a covert alien invasion already underway. Why do you think your such a big fan of The Invaders as opposed to more well known series from the 60s like Star Trek or The Avengers?

Nick Redfern: Well, I'm more into conspiracy type TV things than sci-fi; and even though The Invaders was technically sci-fi, it was more about paranoia, conspiracies, cover-ups and dark secrets here on Earth. Frankly, TV shows with futuristic spaceships, with laser guns, and with people running around in silver suits on far-off worlds bore me shitless.

Richard Thomas: The Invaders seems to have been influenced somewhat by paranoid 50s films like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Quatermass 2. Are you a fan of these or other paranoid sci-fi at all? And what do you think of the parallels with David Jacobs' theories presented in The Threat?

Nick Redfern: The Quatermass films were pretty good; and particularly Quatermass and the Pit. Yeah, I like to watch paranoia-type sci-fi. They Live was one I would put into that category which I enjoyed a lot. I also liked Lifeforce, from 1985, which blended sci-fi and a zombie outbreak in London. That was a very weird one, but an intriguing story, too. That's an interesting question re Jacobs. I actually see nothing positive about abductions; and see it all in a very negative light - as far as our role in abductions is concerned. Cattle being used is the term that comes to mind for me. All this stuff about how it's for our own good, and will help us, is crap. Whoever or whatever the kidnappers are, they have done nothing at all to help us - ever. If I ever see one of those little black-eyed bastards and I have a gun, I will blow it's head off. That's the way to welcome these creatures that do nothing but use us, exploit us, penetrate our airspace and suspiciously lurk around military bases for whatever reason. To me, they aren't a direct threat in the sense they are going to wipe us out. I think it's worse: we might be like cattle: reared and used.

Richard Thomas: As someone who writes about UFOs and related subjects have you ever felt a little like the character played by Roy Thinnes in The Invaders yourself?

Nick Redfern: LOL. A bit! I do get around a lot doing investigations and travelling about; and on-the-road investigations have a lot of intrigue and adventure attached to them. So, yeah, in that respect. But, unlike the David Vincent character in the show, I've never been shot at by aliens or been on a UFO! Maybe one day though!

Richard Thomas: I understand you had the chance to meet Roy Thinnes once. How did you meet? And did you manage to get his take on UFOs or anything like that?

Nick Redfern: Yeah, I did; and he's a really cool guy. We met at a TV shoot about 3 years ago. He was very down to earth, no ego, and was happy to chat and hang out. Yes, he's very interested in UFOs, and knowledgeable too. There's a few other people from TV sci-fi I've met too, and who were cool to chat with, and who were refreshingly completely lacking in all that Hollywood "don't talk to me" bullshit. One was Dean Haglund, who played Langly - one of the Lone Gunmen - on The X-Files. Like me, he's a big Ramones fan, and we had a good chat about music and stuff. The other was Chase Masterson, from Star Trek, and a lot of sci-fi films, who I hung out with for a couple of days last year.

Richard Thomas: What are your plans for the future? Are you working on any new books or has anything grabbed your attention recently?

Nick Redfern: I'm working on a couple of books: one on a US Government think-tank that investigated alien abductions back in the 80s. Also, a book on mystery animals of Staffordshire, such as sightings of big-cats, phantom black-dogs, etc. And I have a book coming out later this year that I think you will find interesting titled Sci-Fi Secrets, which is a study of how the worlds of official secrecy and sci-fi have crossed paths.

Richard Thomas: Sci-Fi Secrets sounds excellent, hopefully we'll be able to do another interview on that sometime. Thanks again.

Nick Redfern: Cheers Richard; you're welcome.

READ RICHARD THOMAS'S SCI-FI WORLDS COLUMN FOR BINNALL OF AMERICA

[walkofpenance]

for the doctor who asks!:

3, 6, 13, 14 :-)

3) What's your least favourite moment with your favourite Doctor?

My favourite is Tenth Doctor, sooo I would say his overall treatment with Martha, to be honest! Just in Shakespeare Code especially, "Rose" "Rose" "Rose" "Rose" - like yeah, I love the continuity, but it overshadowed Martha's overall development as a character, which is a huge shame!

6) Favourite Motif or Recurring Theme in the Show?

This will sound out of it, but I watched 'Into the Dalek' recently and Rusty saying to the Doctor, "You would make a good Dalek" gave me chills because of the episode 'Dalek' when the Dalek said to Ninth Doctor, "you would make a good Dalek." It's almost as if 'Don't become the Monster' sort of theme for me which is great, because a lot of the time the Doctor can be the villain of the story.

13) What's a piece of canon that you complete disregard whenever you come across it?

Honestly I don't know if this is me disregarding it, but I've always HATED the idea of the Season 3 Finale being unwritten from time. I HATE it!!!! Like, truly hate it and I don't know why. Also, Amy trying to kiss Eleven. What the hell even was that?

14) What's a song or piece of writing that you associate with a character/ story arc/ relationship on the show?

Recently, Daemon & Viserys Targaryen's rivalry on HotD reminded me of the Doctor & The Master a LOT!! I can't even describe it!

[penny-anna]

Hi, you said that you have daemon AUs for other fandoms, and I am intensely interested in that, if you are willing to share!

YES i got loads of those to rec!

like a tiger (defying the laws of gravity) by Fiachra

"Billy hated how he picked her up so gingerly, when in any other case he’d just pull her against his chest. He hated how holding his daemon, the most natural thing in the world, felt so clumsy and awkward with his new hands. He hated how he could feel Cassi’s heart racing through his fingers, how fragile she felt in his grip."

Shazam! But they have daemons

requisite shazam daemon au

Two Halves of a Whole by penguistifical

Geralt doesn’t take much notice at first when the small brown bird alights on his table.

tehehe i've recced this one before, delightful little geraskier daemon au

Honest Souls by trinityofone

There was something wrong with Spike’s dæmon.

might have recced this one before also? i think it was the only buffy daemon au i could find! got some great worldbuilding going on i love it

The Swan Princess by Mad_Maudlin

She just rolled her eyes at him. "He hasn't got a daemon, stupid. That's how you know he's an alien."

11th doctor daemon au!! personal fav of mine & inspiration for my dr who daemon fic :3

Eidari by Joysweeper

A series of short stories set in a version of the Galaxy Far, Far Away in which the Force is entangled with Dust, and humans and some near-humans have dæmons, animal-shaped manifestations of their consciousness or souls. Luke and his dæmon, Peregrine, are weird and always have been, but they do have one friend who doesn't seem to care. However, there are limits to that acceptance.

ahhh i love this whole series. wish there was more of it.

Without Any External or Physical Form by Elizabeth Culmer (edenfalling)

Lucy and Mr. Tumnus discuss history and hypotheticals over tea, in the second summer after the end of the Witch's reign. Daemon AU.

cute little narnia fic!!

Feel Me Up, Babe by willowbilly

The first time that Jake and Amy touch each others' dæmons, it begins with Jake asking Amy if she wants to feel his booby.

The booby in question is a blue-footed one, and his name is Yaakov. The name Yaakov is basically the same name as Jacob. But like. Older and traditional-y. Basically, Jake's mother and Jake's mother's dæmon had consigned them to being “Jake Jake” the way in which that poor meme wolf was “Moon Moon,” and Gina was never going to let it be forgotten.

heheh brooklyn 99 w daemons, love that

Radium Dial by authorperson

“Radar,” they say, all of them, and he can always hear it coming before they even open their mouths. There’s always a smile there, like they’ve figured him out, and every time they’re wrong. “Because of her, right? The antennae?”

Radar and Eleanor keep em guessing.

ohhh if you only read one fic on this list please have it be this one, my no 1 favourite daemon au, i love it so much <3 read the whole series. absolutely outstanding.

[bedeliainwonderland]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you’ve written, then pass on to at least five other writers (◠‿◠✿) (if you feel like it!!)

🥰❤️❤️❤️ thank you so much for sending me this!!! I had to think about it and as always, I can’t choose because I do love all my stories. Everyone is special to me. I usually selected the few same ones when pressed so I’m going to give a few other ones a loving shoutout, it’s 7, because why not ☺️:

“Matrimonium” - Bedelia and Hannibal get legally married; it always springs to mind when I think of my favourites, it just makes me so very emotional still.

“you leave me swimming in mystery” - the masquerade ball one where Bedelia pretends she does not know Hannibal, sexy game ensues. Happy playful marrieds being their best decadent and sexy selves (in amazing costumes).

“Accidentally Uncovered” - Hannibal’s secretary sees something she should not have, combining my favourite Baltimore affair and my take on solving the mystery of why Hannibal’s secretary disappeared. Fun and sexy, plus I love writing others’ perception of them.

“once the soul awakens” - holiday feels in daemon AU setting. Bedannibal and daemons are just so perfect together. It brings a new layer to their bond. I love their big cat daemons and how they complement each other.

“Beguiling Glamour” - count and countess’ first official night out, my fabulous, decadent, sexy marrieds once again, it really is my favourite thing ever. I do have the softest spot for them just charming everyone while no one knows who they really are.

“the golden hour” - bedannibal as medical residents, 5+1 things fic, which I love. Baby doctors Bedelia and Hannibal need no recommendation. I really love writing young bedannibal and playing with glimpses into what they will become.

“capelvenere” - bedannibal in Italy under an influence of aphrodisiac, I mean this one speaks for itself. So much fun to write, playful and very sexy, which seems to be a theme here 😏. Bedannibal and Italy go so well together too and it is always a treat for me when I get to set the scenery for them there.

EDIT: I have included links in case you want to read it :)

[thebluemeany]

Writer Tag Game

Thanks for @conceptadecency for tagging me. I’m going tag @damnhardwork @syaunei, @alphacygni-8 and @agrippaspoleto plus anyone else who’d like to do this.

How many works do you have on AO3?

Eight.

What's your total AO3 word count?

88878

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1.      In Times Of War

2.      The Chameleon & The Magpie

3.      Bad Dreams (still a WIP though, sequel to In Times Of War)

4.      Garak’s Letter Back

5.      My Friend

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Yes. I tend to write back unless life and work has gotten super busy. It’s always nice to chat to people and talk about ideas.

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

Garak’s Letter Back. More bittersweet than angsty though.

What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

Chameleon & The Magpie. DS9 but with His Dark Materials style animal daemons.  

Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve ever written?

A Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead/ DS9 crossover called Incredible Tales. Basic plot: Bashir and O’Brien realise they’re actually characters in one of Benny’s stories and try and fail to change the course of events from In The Pale Moonlight. It’s definitely a crazy trip…

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Depends on the definition of hate. 99% of people in the fandom are lovely, generous, and kind.  I’ve received a couple of comments from people who one aspect of my writing was problematic ( basically I described Bashir as ‘the Englishman’ and that was taken to somehow to be whitewashing? Apparently you can’t be English and not white or something… I dunno, it was baffling.)

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

No.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes. Someone asked ages ago if they could translated into Russian for a Russian fic website. I said yes, it’s all cool and stuff.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No. I’ve had a lot of help from other people though in terms of ideas and plot points for my fics, but nothing where we wrote it together.

What’s your all-time favourite ship?

Depends on what I’m writing to be honest. I don’t really focus on the ships.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I have one WIP in progress at the moment which is Bad Dreams. It’s been a while but I’m sure I’ll finish it. I write slowly and usually only one fic at a time, but I do always eventually finish stuff I’ve started. 

What are your writing strengths?

Structure, ideas, jokes.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Writing speed. I write very, very slow. It takes me literal years to finish a multi-chapter fic. Also description of movements, people getting from one place to another in a scene, Really struggle with that. I have discovered from beta editors that I don’t know how to correctly use semi-colons (does anyone?) Also sometimes because I’m more used to writing or editing scripts for work, I forget to put in a character’s internal dialogue, emotions and thoughts when writing prose. Sort of figure ‘well it’s the actors job’ and then am like ‘oh no, wait – this is a story, there’s no actor’.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

I was going to say DS9, but I *did* write a story for a Big Finish Doctor Who submission when I was about eighteen that got rejected, so I turned it into a fic and put it on fanfiction.net. Then there was a 10 year gap before I got into fanfic proper with DS9.  

What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

I’m pretty happy with In Times of War and it’s sequel Bad Dreams. There’s stuff I’d do differently now in terms of writing In Times of War if I did it again ( it’s all written in the present tense and I would change that now, but hey-ho) but I think the ideas, characters and plots of both those stories are really strong.

[armageddon-generation]

Articulating Why His Dark Materials is Badly Written

A long essay-thing with lots of specific examples and explanations of why I feel this way. Hopefully I’ve kept fanboy bitching to a minimum.

This isn’t an attack on fans of the show, nor a personal attack on Jack Thorne. I’m not looking to ruin anyone’s enjoyment of the show, I just needed to properly articulate, with examples, why I struggle with it. I read and love the books and that colours my view, but I believe that HDM isn’t just a clumsy, at-best-functional, sometimes incompetent adaptation, it’s a bad TV show separate from its source material. The show is the blandest, least interesting and least engaging version of itself it could be.

His Dark Materials has gorgeous production design and phenomenal visual effects. It's well-acted. The score is great. But my god is it badly written. Jack Thorne writing the entire first season damned the show. There was no-one to balance out his flaws and biases. Thorne is checking off a list of plot-points, so concerned with manoeuvring the audience through the story he forgets to invest us in it. The scripts are mechanical, empty, flat.

Watching HDM feels like an impassioned fan earnestly lecturing you on why the books are so good- (Look! It's got other worlds and religious allegory and this character Lyra is really, really important I swear. Isn't Mrs Coulter crazy? The Gyptians are my favourites.) rather than someone telling the story naturally.

My problems fall into 5 main categories:

Exposition- An unwillingness to meaningfully expand the source material for a visual medium means Thorne tells and doesn't show crucial plot-points. He then repeats the same thing multiple times because he doesn't trust his audience

Pacing- By stretching out the books and not trusting his audience Thorne dedicates entire scenes to one piece of information and repeats himself constantly (see: the Witches' repetition of the prophecy in S2).

Narrative priorities- Thorne prioritises human drama over fantasy. This makes sense budgetarily, but leads to barely-present Daemons, the Gyptians taking up too much screentime, rushed/badly written Witches (superpowers, exposition) and Bears (armourless bear fight), and a Lyra more focused on familial angst than the joy of discovery

Tension and Mystery- because HDM is in such a hurry to set up its endgame it gives you the answers to S1's biggest mysteries immediately- other worlds, Lyra's parents, what happens to the kids etc. This makes the show less engaging and feel like it's playing catch-up to the audience, not the other way around.

Tonal Inconsistency- HDM tries to be a slow-paced, grounded, adult drama, but its blunt, simplistic dialogue and storytelling methods treat the audience like children that need to be lectured.

MYSTERY, SUSPENSE AND INTRIGUE

The show undercuts all the books’ biggest mysteries. Mrs Coulter is set up as a villain before we meet her, other worlds are revealed in 1x2, Lyra's parents by 1x3, what the Magesterium do to kids is spelled out long before Lyra finds Billy (1x2). I understand not wanting to lose new viewers, but neutering every mystery kills momentum and makes the show much less engaging.

This extends to worldbuilding. The text before 1x1 explains both Daemons and Lyra's destiny before we meet her. Instead of encouraging us to engage with the world and ask questions, we're given all the answers up front and told to sit back and let ourselves be spoon-fed. The viewer is never an active participant, never encouraged to theorise or wonder

 Intrigue motivated you to engage with Pullman's philosophical themes and concepts. Without it, HDM feels like a lecture, a theme park ride and not a journey.

The only one of S1's mysteries left undiminished is 'what is Dust?', which won't be properly answered until S3, and that answer is super conceptual and therefore hard to make dramatically satisfying

TONAL INCONSISTENCY

HDM billed itself as a HBO-level drama, and was advertised as a GoT inheritor. It takes itself very seriously- the few attempts at humour are stilted and out of place

The production design is deliberately subdued, most notably choosing a mid-twentieth century aesthetic for Lyra’s world over the late-Victorian of the books or steampunk of the movie. The colour grading would be appropriate for a serious adult drama. 

Reviewers have said this stops the show feeling as fantastical as it should. It also makes Lyra’s world less distinct from our own. 

Most importantly, minimising the wondrous fantasy of S1 neuters its contrast with the escalating thematic darkness of the finale (from 1x5 onwards), and the impact of Roger’s death. Pullman's books are an adult story told through the eyes of a child. Lyra’s innocence and naivety in the first book is the most important journey of the trilogy. Instead, the show starts serious and thematically heavy (we’re told Lyra has world-saving importance before we even meet her) and stays that way.

Contrasting the serious tone, grounded design and poe-faced characters, the dialogue is written to cater to children. It’s horrendously blunt and pulls you out of scenes. Subtext is obliterated at every opportunity. Even in the most recent episode, 2x7, Pan asks Lyra ‘do you think you’re changing because of Will?’

I cannot understate how on the nose this line is, and how much it undercuts the themes of the final book. Instead of even a meaningful shot of Lyra looking at Will, the show treats the audience like complete idiots. 

So, HDM looks and advertises itself like an adult drama and is desperate to be taken seriously by wearing its big themes on its sleeve from the start instead of letting them evolve naturally out of subtext like the books, and dedicating lots of scenes to Mrs Coulter's self-abuse 

At the same time its dialogue and character writing is comparable to the Star Wars prequels, more childish than media aimed at a similar audience - Harry Potter, Doctor Who, Avatar the Last Airbender etc

DAEMONS

The show gives itself a safety net by explaining Daemons in an opening text-crawl, and so spends less time showing the mechanics of the Daemon-human bond. On the HDM subreddit, I’ve seen multiple people get to 1x5 or 6, and then come to reddit asking basic questions like ‘why do only some people have Daemons?’ or ‘Why are Daemons so important?’.

It’s not that the show didn’t answer these questions; it was in the opening text-crawl. It’s just the show thinks telling you is enough and never shows evidence to back that up. Watching a TV show you remember what you’re shown much easier than what you’re told 

The emotional core of Northern Lights is the relationship between Lyra and Pan. The emotional core of HDM S1 is the relationship between Lyra and Mrs Coulter. This wouldn't be bad- it's a fascinating dynamic Ruth plays wonderfully- if it didn't override the Daemons

Daemons are only onscreen when they serve a narrative purpose. Thorne justifies this because the books only describe Daemons when they tell us about their human. On the page your brain fills the Daemons in. This doesn't work on-screen; you cannot suspend your disbelief when their absence is staring you in the face

Thorne clarified the number of Daemons as not just budgetary, but a conscious creative choice to avoid onscreen clutter. This improved in S2 after vocal criticism.

Mrs Coulter/the Golden Monkey and Lee/Hester have well-drawn relationships in S1, but Pan and Lyra hug more in the 2-hour Golden Compass movie than they do in the 8-hour S1 of HDM. There's barely any physical contact with Daemons at all.

They even cut Pan and Lyra's hug after escaping the Cut in Bolvangar. In the book they can't let go of each other. The show skips it completely because Thorne wants to focus on Mrs Coulter and Lyra.

They cut Pan and Lyra testing how far apart they can be. They cut Lyra freeing the Cut Daemons in Bolvangar with the help of Kaisa. We spent extra time with both Roger and Billy Costa, but didn't develop their bonds with their Daemons- the perfect way to make the Cut more impactful

I don't need every single book scene in the show, but notice that all these cut scenes reinforced how important Daemons are. For how plodding the show is. you'd think they could spare time for these moments instead of inventing new conversations that tell us the information they show

Daemons are treated as separate beings and thus come across more like talking pets than part of a character

The show sets the rules of Daemons up poorly. In 1x2, Lyra is terrified by the Monkey being so far from Coulter, but the viewer has nothing to compare it to. We’re retroactively told in that this is unnatural when the show has yet to establish what ‘natural’ is.

The guillotine blueprint in 1x2 (‘Is that a human and his Daemon, Pan? It looks like it.’ / ‘A blade. To cut what?’) is idiotic. It deflates S1’s main mystery and makes the characters look stupid for not figuring out what they aren’t allowed to until they did in the source material, it also interferes with how the audience sees Daemons. In the book, Cutting isn’t revealed until two-thirds of the way in (1x5). By then we’ve spent a lot of time with Daemons, they’ve become a background part of the world, their ‘rules’ have been established, and we’re endeared to them.

By showing the Guillotine and putting Daemons under threat in the second episode, the show never lets us grow attached. This, combined with their selective presence in scenes, draws attention to Daemons as a plot gimmick and not a natural extension of characters. Like Lyra, the show tells us why Daemons are important before we understand them.

Billy Costa's fate falls flat. It's missing the dried fish/ fake Daemon Tony Markos clings to in the book. Thorne said this 'didn't work' on the day, but it worked in the film. Everyone yelling about Billy not having a Daemon is laughable when most of the background extras in the same scene don't have Daemons themselves

WITCHES

The Witches are the most common complaint about the show. Thorne changed Serafina Pekkala in clever, logical ways (her short hair, wrist-knives and cloud pine in the skin)

The problem is how Serafina is written. The Witches are purely exposition machines. We get no impression of their culture, their deep connection to nature, their understanding of the world. We are told it. It is never shown, never incorporated into the dramatic action of the show.

Thorne emphasises Serafina's warrior side, most obviously changing Kaisa from a goose into a gyrfalcon (apparently a goose didn't work on-screen)

Serafina single-handedly slaughtering the Tartars is bad in a few ways. It paints her as bloodthirsty and ruthless. Overpowering the Witches weakens the logic of the world (If they can do that, why do they let the Magesterium bomb them unchallenged in 2x2?). It strips the Witches of their subtlety and ambiguity for the sake of cinematic action.

A side-effect of Serafina not being with her clan at Bolvangar is limiting our exposure to the Witches. Serafina is the only one invested in the main plot, we only hear about them from what she tells us. This poor set-up weakens the Witch subplot in S2

Lyra doesn’t speak to Serafina until 2x6. She laid eyes on her once in S1.

The dialogue in the S2’s Witch subplot is comparable to the Courasant section of The Phantom Menace. 

Two named characters, neither with any depth (Serafina and Coram's dead son developed him far more than her). The costumes look ostentatious and hokey- the opposite of what the Witches should be. They do nothing but repeat the same exposition at each other, even in 2x7.

We feel nothing when the Witches are bombed because the show never invests us in what is being destroyed- with the amount of time wasted on long establishing shots, there’s not one when Lee Scoresby is talking to the Council.

BEARS

Like the Witches; Thorne misunderstands and rushes the fantasy elements of the story. The 2007 movie executed both Iofur's character and the Bear Fight much better than the show- bloodless jaw-swipe and all

Iofur's court was not the parody of human court in the books. He didn't have his fake-Daemon (hi, Billy)

An armourless bear fight is like not including Pan in the cutting scene. After equating Iorek's armour to a Daemon (Lee does this- we don’t even learn how important it is from Iorek himself, and the comparison meant less because of how badly the show set up Daemons) the show then cuts the plotpoint that makes the armour plot-relevant. This diminishes all of Bear society. Like Daemons, we're told Iorek's armour is important but it's never shown to be more than a cool accessory

GYPTIANS

Gyptians suffer from Hermoine syndrome. Harry Potter screenwriter Steve Kloves' favourite character was Hermione, and so Film!Hermoine lost most of Book!Hermoine's flaws and gained several of Book!Ron's best moments. The Gyptians are Jack Thorne's favourite group in HDM and so they got the extra screentime and development that the more complicated groups/concepts like Witches, Bears, and Daemons (which, unlike the Gyptians, carry over to other seasons amd are more important to the overall story) needed

At the same time, he changes them from a private people into an Isle of Misfit Toys. TV!Ma Costa promises they'll ‘make a Gyptian woman out of Lyra yet’, but in the book Ma specifically calls Lyra out for pretending to be Gyptian, and reminds her she never can be.

This small moment indicates how, while trying to make the show more grounded and 'adult', Thorne simultaneously made it more saccharine and sentimental. He neuters the tragedy of the Cut kids when Ma Costa says they’ll become Gyptians. Pullman's books feel like an adult story told through the eyes of a child. The TV show feels like a child's story masquerading as a serious drama.

LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA

Let me preface this by saying I genuinely really enjoy the performances in the show. It was shot in the foot by The Golden Compass' perfect casting.

The most contentious/'miscast' actor among readers is LMM. Thorne ditched the books' wise Texan for a budget Han Solo. LMM isn't a great dramatic actor (even in Hamilton he was the weak link performance-wise) but he makes up for it in marketability- lots of people tried the show because of him

Readers dislike that LMM's Lee is a thief and a scoundrel, when book-Lee is so moral he and Hester argue about stealing. Personally, I like the change in concept. Book!Lee's parental love for Lyra just appears. It's sweet, but not tied to a character arc. Done right, Lyra out-hustling Lee at his own game and giving him a noble cause to fight for (thus inspiring the moral compass of the books) is a more compelling arc.

DAFNE KEENE AND LYRA

I thought Dafne would be perfect casting. Her feral energy in Logan seemed a match made in heaven. Then Jack Thorne gave her little to do with it.

Compare how The Golden Compass introduced Lyra, playing Kids and Gobblers with a group of Gyptian kids, including Billy Costa. Lyra and Roger are chased to Jordan by the Gyptians and she makes up a lie about a curse to scare the Gyptians away.

In one scene the movie set up: 1) the Gobblers (the first we hear of them in the show is in retrospect, Roger worrying AFTER Billy is taken) 2) Lyra’s pre-existing relationship with the Gyptians (not in the show), 3) Friendship with Billy Costa (not in the book or show) 4) Lyra’s ability to befriend and lead groups of people, especially kids, and 5) Lyra’s ability to lie impressively

By comparison, it takes until midway through 1x2 for TV!Lyra to tell her first lie, and even then it’s a paper-thin attempt. 

The show made Roger Lyra’s only friend. This artificially heightens the impact of Roger's death, but strips Lyra of her leadership qualities and ability to befriend anyone. 

Harry Potter fans talk about how Book!Harry is funnier and smarter than Film!Harry. They cut his best lines ('There's no need to call me sir, Professor') and made him blander and more passive. The same happened to Lyra.

Most importantly, Lyra is not allowed to lie for fun. She can't do anything 'naughty' without being scolded. This colours the few times Lyra does lie (e.g. to Mrs Coulter in 1x2) negatively and thus makes Lyra out to be more of a brat than a hero.

This is a problem with telling Northern Lights from an outside, 'adult' perspective- to most adults Lyra is a brat. Because we’re introduced to her from inside her head, we think she's great. It's only when we meet her through Will's eyes in The Subtle Knife and she's filthy, rude and half-starved that we realise Lyra bluffs her way through life and is actually pretty non-functional

Thorne prioritises grounded human drama over fantasy, and so his Lyra has her love of bears and witches swapped for familial angst. (and, in S2. angst over Roger). By exposing Mrs Coulter as her mother early, Thorne distracts TV!Lyra from Book!Lyra’s love of the North. The contrast between wonder and reality made NL's ending a definitive threshold between innocence and knowledge. Thorne showed his hand too early.

Similarly, TV!Lyra doesn’t have anywhere near as strong an admiration for Lord Asriel. She calls him out in 1x8 (‘call yourself a Father’), which Book!Lyra never would because she’s proud to be his child. From her perspective, at this point Asriel is the good parent.

TV!Lyra’s critique of Asriel feels like Thorne using her as a mouthpiece to voice his own, adult perspective on the situation. Because Lyra is already disappointed in Asriel, his betrayal in the finale isn’t as effective. Pullman saves the ‘you’re a terrible Father’ call-out for the 3rd book for a reason; Lyra’s naive hero-worship of Asriel in Northern Lights makes the fall from Innocence into Knowledge that Roger’s death represents more effective.  

So, on TV Lyra is tamer, angstier, more introverted, less intelligent, less fun and more serious. We're just constantly told she's important, even before we meet her.

MRS COULTER (AND LORD ASRIEL)

Mrs Coulter is the main character of the show. Not Lyra. Mrs Coulter was cast first, and Lyra was cast based on a chemistry test with Ruth Wilson. Coulter’s character is given lots of extra development, where the show actively strips Lyra of her layers.

To be clear, I have no problem with developing Mrs Coulter. She is a great character Ruth Wilson plays phenomenally. I do have a problem with the show fixating on her at the expense of other characters.

Lyra's feral-ness is given to her parents. Wilson and McAvoy are more passionate than in the books. This is fun to watch, but strips them of subtlety- you never get Book!Coulter's hypnotic allure from Wilson, she's openly nasty, even to random strangers (in 2x3 her dismissal of the woman at the hotel desk felt like a Disney villain). 

Compare how The Golden Compass (2007) introduced Mrs Coulter through Lyra’s eyes, with light, twinkling music and a sparkling dress. By contrast, before the show introduces Coulter it tells us she’s associated with the evil Magisterium plotting Asriel’s death- “Not a word to any of our mutual friends. Including her.” Then she’s introduced striding down a corridor to imposing ‘Bad Guy’ strings.

Making Mrs Coulter’s villainy so obvious so early makes Lyra look dumber for falling for it. It also wastes an interesting phase of her character arc. Coulter is rushed into being a ’conflicted evil mother’ in 2 episodes, and stays in that phase for the rest of the show so far. Character progression is minimised because she circles the same place.

It makes her one-note. It's a good note (so much of the positive online chatter is saphiccs worshiping Ruth Wilson) but the show also worships her to the point of hindrance- e.g. take a shot every time Coulter walks slow-motion down a corridor in 2x2

The problem isn’t the performances, but how prematurely they give the game away. Just like the mysteries around Bolvangar and Lyra’s parentage. Neither Coulter or Asriel have much chance to use their 'public' faces. 

This is part of a bigger pacing problem- instead of rolling plot points out gradually, Thorne will stick the solution in front of you early and then stall for time until it becomes relevant. Instead of building tension this builds frustration and makes the show feel like it's catching up to the audience. This also makes the characters less engaging. You've already shown Mrs Coulter is evil/Boreal is in our world/Asriel wants Roger. Why are you taking so long getting to the point?

PACING AND EDITING

This show takes forever to make its point badly.

Scenes in HDM tend to operate on one level- either 'Character Building,' 'Exposition,' or 'Plot Progression'.

E.g. Mary's introduction in 2x2. Book!Mary only listens to Lyra because she’s sleep and caffeine-deprived and desperate because her funding is being cut. But the show stripped that subtext out and created an extra scene of a colleague talking to Mary about funding. They removed emotional subtext to focus on exposition, and so the scene felt empty and flat.

In later episodes characters Mary’s sister and colleagues do treat her like a sleep-deprived wreck. But, just like Lyra’s lying, the show doesn’t establish these characteristics in her debut episode. It waits until later to retroactively tell us they were there. Mary’s colleague saying ‘What we’re dealing with here is the fact that you haven’t slept in weeks’ is as flimsy as Pan joking not lying to Mary will be hard for Lyra.

Rarely does a scene work on multiple levels, and if it does it's clunky- see the exposition dump about Daemon Separation in the middle of 2x2's Witch Trial.

He also splits plot progression into tiny doses, which destroys pacing. It's more satisfying to focus on one subplot advancing multiple stages than all of them shuffling forward half a step each episode.

Subplots would be more effective if all the scenes played in sequence. As it is, plotlines can’t build momentum and literal minutes are wasted using the same establishing shots every time we switch location.

The best-structured episodes of S1 are 1x4, 1x6, and 1x8. This is because they have the fewest subplots (incidentally these episodes have least Boreal in them) and so the main plot isn’t diluted by constantly cutting away to Mrs Coulter sniffing Lyra’s coat or Will watching a man in a car through his window, before cutting back again. 

The best-written episode so far is 2x5. The Scholar. Tellingly, it’s the only episode Thorne doesn’t have even a co-writing credit on. 2x5 is well-paced, its dialogue is more naturalistic, it’s more focused, it even has time for moments of whimsy (Monkey with a seatbelt, Mrs Coulter with jeans, Lyra and Will whispering) that don’t detract from the story.

Structurally, 2x5  works because A) it benches Lee’s plotline. B) The Witches and Magisterium are relegated to a scene each. And C) the Coulter/Boreal and Lyra/Will subplots move towards the same goal. Not only that, but when we check in on Mary’s subplot it’s through Mrs Coulter’s eyes and directly dovetails into the  main action of the episode.

2x5 has a lovely sense of narrative cohesion because it has the confidence to sit with one set of characters for longer than two scenes at a time.

HDM also does this thing where it will have a scene with plot A where characters do or talk about something, cut away to plot B for a scene, then cut back to plot A where the characters talk about what happened in their last scene and painstakingly explain how they feel about it and why

Example: Pan talking to Will in 2x7 while Lyra pretends to be asleep. This scene is from the 3rd book, and is left to breathe for many chapters before Lyra brings it up. In the show after the Will/Pan scene they cut away to another scene, then cut back and Lyra instantly talks about it.

There’s the same problem in 2x5: After escaping Mrs Coulter, Lyra spells out how she feels about acting like her

The show never leaves room for implication, never lets us draw our own conclusions before explaining what it meant and how the characters feel about it immediately afterwards. The audience are made passive in their engagement with the characters as well as the world    

LORD BOREAL, JOHN PARRY AND DIMINISHING RETURNS

At first, Boreal’s subplot in S1 felt bold and inspired. The twist of his identity in The Subtle Knife would've been hard to pull off onscreen anyway. As a kid I struggled to get past Will's opening chapter of TSK and I have friends who were the same. Introducing Will in S1 and developing him alongside Lyra was a great idea.

I loved developing Elaine Parry and Boreal into present, active characters. But the subplot was introduced too early and moved too slowly, bogging down the season.

In 1x2 Boreal crosses. In 1x3 we learn who he's looking for. In 1x5 we meet Will. In 1x7 the burglary. 1 episode worth of plot is chopped up and fed to us piecemeal across many. Boreal literally stalls for two episodes before the burglary- there are random 30 second shots of him sitting in a car watching John Parry on YouTube (videos we’d already seen) completely isolated from any other scenes in the episode

By the time we get to S2 we've had 2 seasons of extended material building up Boreal, so when he just dies like in the books it's anticlimactic. The show frontloads his subplot with meaning without expanding on its payoff, so the whole thing fizzles out. 

Giving Boreal, the secondary villain in literally every episode, the same death as a background character in about 5 scenes in the novels feels cheap. It doesn’t help that, after 2x5 built the tension between Coulter and Boreal so well, as soon as Thorne is passed the baton in 2x6 he does little to maintain that momentum. Again, because the subplot is crosscut with everything else the characters hang in limbo until Coulter decides to kill him.

I’ve been watching non-book readers react to the show, and several were underwhelmed by Boreal’s quick, unceremonious end. 

Similarly, the show builds up John Parry from 1x3 instead of just the second book. Book!John’s death is an anticlimax but feels narratively justified. In the show, we’ve spent so much extra time talking about him and then being with him (without developing his character beyond what’s in the novels- Pullman even outlined John’s backstory in The Subtle Knife’s appendix. How hard would it be to add a flashback or two?) that when John does nothing in the show and then dies (he doesn’t even heal Will’s fingers like in the book- only tell him to find Asriel, which the angels Baruch and Balthamos do anyway) it doesn’t feel like a clever, tragic subversion of our expectations, it feels like a waste that actively cheapens the audience’s investment.

TL;DR giving supporting characters way more screentime than they need only, to give their deaths the same weight the books did after far less build up makes huge chunks of the show feel less important than they were presented to be. 

FRUSTRATINGLY LIMITED EXPANSION AND NOVELLISTIC STORYTELLING

Thorne is unwilling to meaningfully develop or expand characters and subplots to fit a visual medium. He introduces a plot-point, invents unnecessary padding around it, circles it for an hour, then moves on.

Pullman’s books are driven by internal monologue and big, complex theological concepts like Daemons and Dust. Instead of finding engaging, dynamic ways to dramatise these concepts through the actions of characters or additions to the plot, Thorne turns Pullman’s internal monologue into dialogue and has the characters explain them to the audience

The novels’ perspective on its characters is narrow, first because Northern Lights is told only from Lyra’s POV, and second because Pullman’s writing is plot-driven, not character-driven. Characters are vessels for the plot and themes he wants to explore.

This is a fine way of writing novels. When adapting the books into a longform drama, Thorne decentralised Lyra’s perspective from the start, and HDM S1 uses the same multi-perspective structure that The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass do, following not only Lyra but the Gyptians, Mrs Coulter, Boreal, Will and Elaine etc

However, these other perspectives are limited. We never get any impression of backstory or motivation beyond the present moment. Many times I’ve seen non-book readers confused or frustrated by vague or non-existent character motivations.

For example, S1 spends a lot of time focused on Ma Costa’s grief over Billy’s disappearance, but we never see why she’s sad, because we never saw her interact with Billy.

Compare this to another show about a frantic mother and older brother looking for a missing boy. Stranger Things uses only two flashbacks to show us Will Byers’ relationships with his family: 1) When Joyce Byers looks in his Fort she remembers visiting Will there. 2) The Clash playing on the radio reminds Jonathan Byers of introducing Will to the song.

In His Dark Materials we never see the Costas as a happy family- 1x1’s Gyptian ceremony focuses on Tony and Daemon-exposition. Billy never speaks to his mum or brother in the show 

Instead we have Ma Costa’s empty grief. The audience has to do the work (the bad kind) imagining what she’s lost. Instead of seeing Billy, it’s just repeated again and again that they will get the children back.

If we’re being derivative, HDM had the chance to segway into a Billy flashback when John Faa brings one of his belongings back from a Gobbler safehouse in 1x2. This is a perfect The Clash/Fort Byers-type trigger. It doesn’t have to be long- the Clash flashback lasted 1:27, the Fort Byers one 55 seconds. Just do something.

1x3 beats into us that Mrs Coulter is nuts without explaining why. Lots of build-up for a single plot-point. Then we're told Mrs Coulter's origin, not shown. This is a TV show. Swap Boreal's scenes for flashbacks of Coulter and Asriel's affair. Then, when Ma Costa tells Lyra the truth, show the fight between Edward Coulter and Asriel.

To be clear, Thorne's additions aren’t fundamentally bad. For example, Will boxing sets up his struggle with violence. But it's wasted. The burglary/murder in 1x7 fell flat because of bad editing, but the show never uses its visual medium to show Will's 'violent side'- no change in camera angle, focus, or sound design, nothing. It’s just a thing that’s there, unsupported by the visual language of the show

The Magisterium scenes in 2x2 were interesting. We just didn't need 5 of them; their point could be made far more succinctly.

In 2x6 there is a minute-long scene of Mary reading the I Ching. Later, there is another scene of Angelica watching Mary sitting somewhere different, doing the SAME THING, and she sees an Angel. Why split these up? It’s not like either the I Ching or the Angels are being introduced here. Give the scene multiple layers.

Thorne either takes good character moments from the books (Lyra/Will in 2x1) or uses heavy-handed exposition that reiterates the same point multiple times. This hobbles the Witches (their dialogue in 2x1, 2 and 3 literally rephrases the same sentiment about protecting Lyra without doing anything). Even character development- see Lee monologuing his and Mrs Coulter's childhood trauma in specific detail in 2x3

This is another example of Thorne adding something, but instead of integrating it into the dramatic action and showing us, it’s just talked about. What’s the point of adding big plot points if you don’t dramatise them in your dramatic, visual medium? In 2x8, Lee offhandedly mentions playing Alamo Gulch as a kid.

I’m literally screaming, Jack, why the flying fuck wasn’t there a flashback of young Lee and Hester playing Alamo Gulch and being stopped by his abusive dad? It’s not like you care about pacing with the amount of dead air in these episodes, even when S2’s run 10 minutes shorter than S1’s. Lee was even asleep at the beginning of 2x3, Jack! He could’ve woken from a nightmare about his childhood! It’s a little lazy, but better than nothing.

There’s a similar missed opportunity making Dr Lanselius a Witchling. If this idea had been introduced with the character in 1x4, it would’ve opened up so many storytelling possibilities. Linking to Fader Coram’s own dead witchling son. It could’ve given us that much-needed perspective on Witch culture. Imagine Lanselius’ bittersweet meeting with his ageless mother, who gave him up when he reached manhood. Then, when the Magisterium bombs the Witches in 2x2, Lanselius’ mother dies so it means something.

Instead it’s only used to facilitate an awkward exposition dump in the middle of a trial.

The point of this fanfic-y ramble is to illustrate my frustration with the additions; If Thorne had committed and meaningfully expanded and interwoven them with the source material, they could’ve strengthened its weakest aspect (the characters). But instead he stays committed to novelistic storytelling techniques of monologue and two people standing in a room talking at each other

(Seriously, count the number of scenes that are just two people standing in a room or corridor talking to each other. No interesting staging, the characters aren’t doing anything else while talking. They. Just. Stand.) 

SEASON 2 IMPROVEMENTS

S2 improved some things- Lyra's characterisation was more book-accurate, her dynamic with Will was wonderful. Citigazze looked incredible. LMM won lots of book fans over as Lee. Mary was brilliantly cast. Now there are less Daemons, they're better characterised- Pan gets way more to do now and Hester had some lovely moments. 

I genuinely believe 2x1, 2x3, 2x4 and 2x5 are the best HDM has been. 

But new problems arose. The Subtle Knife lost the central, easy to understand drive of Northern Lights (finding the missing kids) for lots of smaller quests. As a result, everyone spends the first two episodes of S2 waiting for the plot to arrive. The big inciting incident of Lyra’s plotline is the theft of the alethiometer, which doesn’t happen until 2x3. Similarly, Lee doesn’t search for John until 2x3. Mrs Coulter doesn’t go looking for Lyra until 2x3. 

On top of missing a unifying dramatic drive, the characters now being split across 3 worlds, instead of the 1+a bit of ours in S1, means the pacing/crosscutting problems (long establishing shots, repetition of information, undercutting momentum) are even worse. The narrative feels scattered and incohesive.   

These flaws are inherent to the source  material and are not the show’s fault, but neither does it do much to counterbalance or address them, and the flaws of the show combine with the difficulties of TSK as source material and make each other worse.

A lot of this has been entitled fanboy bitching, but you can't deny the show is in a bad place ratings-wise. It’s gone from the most watched new British show in 5 years to the S2 premiere having a smaller audience than the lowest-rated episode of Doctor Who Series 12. For comparison, DW's current cast and showrunner are the most unpopular since the 80s, some are actively boycotting it, it took a year-long break between series 11 and 12, had its second-worst average ratings since 2005, and costs a fifth of what HDM does to make. And it's still being watched by more people.

Critical consensus fluctuates wildly. Most laymen call the show slow and boring. The show is simultaneously too niche and self-absorbed to attract a wide audience and gets just enough wrong to aggravate lots of fans.

I’m honestly unsure if S3 will get the same budget. I want it to, if only because of my investment in the books. Considering S2 started filming immediately after S1 aired, I think they've had a lot more time to process and apply critique for S3. On the plus side, there's so much plot in The Amber Spyglass it would be hard to have the same pacing problems. But also so many new concepts that I dread the exposition dumps.

[lilydalexf]

Old School X is a project interviewing X-Files fanfic authors who were posting fic during the original run of the show. New interviews are posted every Tuesday.

Interview with Marasmus

Marasmus only has a handful of fics left at Gossamer, but you can find more X-Files fics at AO3 (as finisterre). Some of my favorites of her stories I've recced here before, including one of the most clever fics you could read, Cellphone (here at AO3), and the lovely, London-set A Candle for Katherine (here at AO3, bonus commentary at LJ). Big thanks to Marasmus for doing this interview.

Does it surprise you that people are still interested in reading your X-Files fanfics and others that were posted during the original run of the show (1993-2002)?

Mine, yes, older XF in general, no — some of that stuff is amazing. Though I wonder how well fandom operates now there is not a plethora of rec sites. I know of yours and one more Tumblr blog and that’s it.  I find it really difficult to find good stories in any fandom unless someone whose taste maps to mine recommends something.

What do you think of when you think about your X-Files fandom experience? What did you take away from it?

I look back on it fondly, but it was one of the first things that really hammered it home to me that every grouping throughout life follows the pattern of school.

A lot of people are really talented and funny and kind. Then there are absolute ego-rampaging nightmares who act like lady bountiful in public but do cruel things in private, or chuck their toys out of the pram at the least provocation.

And like school, fandom brings together a disparate group of people who you’re friendly with, but once you leave, the ones you stay in touch with are your friends.

Social media didn't really exist during the show's original run. How were you most involved with the X-Files online (atxc, message board, email mailing list, etc.)?

Thank God.

I watched the show pre-widespread internet and mostly when I had almost no money. I didn’t have regular internet access until the third season, and that was only at my incredibly conservative workplace. I didn’t get home internet access until midway through season six. You couldn’t download episodes easily, you couldn’t stream, you just had to wait until it aired overseas. I decided I didn’t care if I was spoiled and that worked for me. In fact for some particularly annoying episodes, I was glad.

I was a newsgroup and mailing list sort of person. Never really did message boards unless a newsgroup counts, though I had a Haven account.

What did you take away from your experience with X-Files fic or with the fandom in general?

Mostly, how talented people are. I know some are now professional writers, but so many people who didn’t do it as anything but a hobby were also amazing.

What was it that got you hooked on the X-Files as a show?

I always liked science fiction, oddness and urban legends, so it was kind of made for me. But it was the relationship between Mulder and Scully that kept me around, and after season six, it was the fandom that kept me around. I loved Scully in particular, cos let’s be honest, Mulder can be kind of a twerp at times.

What got you involved with X-Files fanfic?

I hung out on alt.tv.xfiles.analysis (a newsgroup), which was one of the smartest boards I’ve ever been on. The threads were full of well-read, erudite people. That led to a site which collated reviews of XF episodes. They mentioned alt.tv.xfiles.creative, and I got there the summer after Gethsemane, which was pretty optimal timing.

I’d take floppy disks into conservative workplace and quietly download the most gloriously filthy fanfic onto them for reading at home on my ancient second-hand Mac.

After that I joined Scullyfic, a mailing list, which was a lovely place to hang out for a while, and got stories through a couple of other mailing lists.

What is your relationship like now to X-Files fandom?

Like my relationship to ice hockey: glad that activity exists and that some people enjoy it, but not watching and not involved myself.

Were you involved with any fandoms after the X-Files? If so, what was it like compared to X-Files?

Reading, yes, and writing the odd bit of feedback, but any other fandom involvement didn’t really take. I’ve never found a bunch of people I liked as well as I liked some of the people in XF.

Who are some of your favorite fictional characters? Why?

I am usually more interested in female characters than male ones (the Doctor, Mulder and Jack O’Neill notwithstanding), which is why I only read a bit of m/m slash. I usually develop a perverse dislike for any woobie the fandom loves.  

Some favourites are: Samantha Carter and Jack O’Neill, Granny Weatherwax, Furiosa, everyone from The Good Place, Donna Noble, Sarah Jane Smith, Martha Jones and Yasmin Khan, Maia from The Goblin Emperor, Cordelia Naismith and Miles Vorkosigan, General Leia Organa, Rey and Finn, and lately all of The Old Guard, even Booker...

I like nerds, pining, best friends discovering feelings for each other, second chances, redemption narratives, people being sneaky for good ends and stoics who stay stoic through all kinds of misery, only to crack and start crying when they get a happy ending.

Basically, you know Eleanor at the end of the Emma Thompson Sense and Sensibility? That.

Do you ever still watch The X-Files or think about Mulder and Scully?

No. I had about four years there where I made up stories about Mulder and Scully on any commute where I’d forgotten a book, but that’s gone now. I watched two episodes of the revival, but it wasn’t for me.

Do you ever still read X-Files fic? Fic in another fandom?

I occasionally wander in and read a bit on AO3, but nothing that deals with anything past season seven. Not interested in William, not interested in domestic fiction, not even interested in post-col any more, which was 100% my crack during XF fandom days. I did read By the Dim and Flaring Lamps [Lilydale note: by @sunflowerseedsandscience] earlier this year. Love a bit of AU historical.

I read lots of different fandoms, though I am between intense enthusiasms at the moment, which always feels a bit odd.

Do you have any favorite X-Files fanfic stories or authors?

Yes, but they’re all about 20 years old. Is there such a thing as fandom classics any more?  There used to be a litany of stories that ‘everyone should read’. I wonder how well they hold up now.

I think there are waves of writers who come into a fandom and then leave again: I think I was part of a second wave, with the first wave being Mustang Sally, RivkaT, Karen Rasch, Lydia Bower, Nascent etc.

Then there must’ve been a third wave for the revival (and mini-waves in between). I don’t know that group of writers, so I am probably leaving out people who are really good.

One of my favourite Scully voices is Five Years and One Night [Lilydale note: by Shalimar], because of the contrast between her inner monologue as written and how little she actually says.

I really like quieter, thoughtful authors like Michelle Kiefer, Cecily Sasserbaum, Scullysfan, Cofax, Anjou, Maria Nicole, Kipler.  Love everything Kel ever wrote.

At one point there were also about three authors called Rachel who were knockout. I like to think Rachel Howard is writing professionally because it’s a waste of talent if she’s not. Rachel Anton had a crazy gift for pacing and wrote a good Krycek.

I really liked Branwell’s strange AU novels, which riff off The Field Where I Died (a wretched episode but so much good writing came from it.) [Lilydale note: Condemned to Repeat It by Branwell is a really long story involving The Field Where I Died.]

Everyone who is reccing other people’s stuff here is also a good writer. (and their taste in recs is — mostly — excellent): http://www.thebasementoffice.com/museaxfnet/museans/TitlesAF.html

What is your favorite of your own fics, X-Files and/or otherwise?

I like The Flexible Concept of Tomorrow. I loved trying to work out the timelines. I like the one about airships and cross-dressing which only exists on my iPhone and in my imagination right now.

Do you think you'll ever write another X-Files story? Or dust off and post an oldie that for whatever reason never made it online?

Only an AU, if ever. I am completely at sea with canon.

Do you still write fic now? Or other creative work?

In my head. Mostly AUs. Everyone has daemons! It’s an airship! They’re exploring space! It’s mediaeval Slovenia!

Most of my creativity is sucked away by work. Which is good I suppose, as writing fanfic never paid my Netflix subscription.

Where do you get ideas for stories?

Reading long-form journalism and non-fiction books.  

What's the story behind your pen name?

Well, I changed mine. The first one was picked out of a magazine article about Branwell Bronte, and I liked the shape of the word. Then I got to feel uncomfortable with it because it was a real illness that made people suffer. The current one comes from the shipping forecast when I was a kid.

Do your friends and family know about your fic and, if so, what have been their reactions?

No, and also absolutely not. Over my dead body. Over YOUR dead body.

Is there a place online (tumblr, twitter, AO3, etc.) where people can find you and/or your stories now?

I took my stories off Gossamer but I don’t remember why. They’re on AO3 now and there are probably stray copies on some archives out there.

Is there anything else you'd like to share with fans of X-Files fic?

I have made all of these mistakes. All of ‘em.

— On no account offer unsolicited concrit. In fact, do not provide concrit EVEN IF THE PERSON ASKS FOR IT, unless you know them reasonably well and it’s in private.

— Avoid the wank. If you have the perfect riposte to something awful, write it and file it to drafts for two days. If you still want to send it after that, godspeed.

— Write anything you want, and when you start keep going. You can edit later.

— Never put any story into the public sphere unless you’ve had a second pair of eyes on it, preferably the eyes of someone who is willing to say “are you SURE about that?”

Finally, just have fun. Being in the grip of love of story is a wonderful thing, and you never know how long it will last.

(Posted by Lilydale on September 29, 2020)