It's good to know that Bryan Fuller's American Gods adaption is still on, and progressing. (Not just because I'm looking forward to the Fuller-meets-Gaiman result, but because I would like a Fuller series I can watch again. Says she who tried and disliked Hannibal, thus gave it up after eight episodes.) Meanwhile, I've just seen a (German) tweet to the effect that they want to do a remake of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Methinks someone took notice of the fact that Penny Dreadful is drawing an audience and recalled they still have the Alan Moore property. Dear movie makers who own the LoeG rights: I didn't see your first movie because your git of a director and your idiot of a producer gave an interview before it ever came out in which they said they changed the set up from Mina being the leader to Alan Quatermain being the leader because "can you imagine Sean Connery taking orders from a woman?" So if you want me to watch a new film version, pray go back to the Moore, let Mina stay the leader (and don't change her into a vampire, the entirely human sharp tongued take charge woman of the first two LoeG volumes will do nicely), and if you must add non-Moore characters, don't let these be Dorian Gray and Tom Sawyer. Go for Lydia Gwilt from Armadale and Marian Halcombe from The Woman in White instead.

Yesterday I got a mail informing me the BBC will stop its Global iPlayer service, so that was depressing. Whyyyyy, BBC? I loved watching your shows in my trusty iPad! Has the newly confirmed Cameron slashed your budget that much already? On the bright side of BBC news, though, they're planning an adaption of A Place of Greater Safety. Considering this is the Hilary Mantel novel I love, whereas I have mixed "yes, BUT" feelings about the Thomas Cromwell novels, I hope this will indeed come to pass. Not least because: a British production about the French Revolution in which the French revolutionaries are the heroes and there's not a heroic aristocrat, British or otherwise, in sight, that will truly be a first one. (There are some sympathetic aristocrats in Mantel's novel - poor trying-to-do-the-right-thing Lafayette who gets loathed by Marie Antoinette and the Jacobins alike for his trouble, Mirabeau as the gifted and corrupt but not evil type, oh, and Mantel has fun giving a few scenes to the author of Les Liasons Dangereuses since he's Philippe d'Orleans' sidekick for a while - but they're all supporting, not major characters.) I'm also looking forward to bisexual Camille Desmoulins, a tragic instead of evil Robespierre and hope that whoever gets cast as Danton has the necessary charisma (and voice!). Finger crossing for Alex Kingston as Annette Duplessis - for Lucille, I have no opinion yet.


And lastly, because Elementary is so much on my mind these days, a fanfic rec:


When You Know I Can't Love You (3319 words) by AxolotlQueen
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Elementary (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes & Joan Watson, Sherlock Holmes & Kitty Winter
Characters: Sherlock Holmes, Joan Watson, Kitty Winter, Jamie Moriarty | Irene Adler
Additional Tags: Character Study, Platonic Love, Mental Health Issues, Mentions of addiction, Past Sherlock Holmes/Jamie Moriarty | Irene Adler, Gray aromantic Sherlock, Loneliness
Summary:

He had thought himself, for a long time, incapable of love. Some people simply are, after all.

A character study of Sherlock and various kinds of love.

viciouswishes just came up with this, and it seems immensely suitable for my last 2006 post. So, picked from rec posts I made throughout the year, the stories that I loved best in the past 12 months. Like viciouswishes, I left out my recent yuletide recs, so this goes until the start of December:


Alias

Still Life by kangeiko. Sydney's pov on the three First Gen Spies, post-finale. Beautiful, terse, and taking all the tangled web into account.

Able Seamen, same author: Jack 'n Arvin as young men, and lo and behold, 'tis angst-free, with a light comedy touch, and yet entirely in character for both. Adorable and just the thing to read if you don't want your heart ripped out by those two.

Cause & Effect by eirena: Sydney during No Hard Feelings in season 5. Back to the angst, and how. This is a brilliant take on Sydney and her reactions to late s5 events.


Battlestar Galactica

Judge Not by tkp. Post-Collaborators, an ensemble portrait, and absolutely brilliant.


Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel the Series


Who by Accident by callmesandy. Not just one of my 2006 favourites but general favourites, full stop. Great Buffy post-Chosen, great Connor post-NFA, it pulls of a tricky pairing (Buffy/Connor) in a convincing manner, it makes excellent use of Dawn and Robin Wood (and Mr. Wyndham-Price, who gets a cameo appearance through Buffy's Slayer dreams), it has the Buffyverse mixture of comedy and angst, and, still a rarety in fanfic, it has plot.


All Ways by kita0610. If you, like me, like the idea of Angel/Buffy/Spike as a concept but frequently have a problem with the executions (i.e. one usually can tell whether the writer primarily 'ships Buffy/Spike, Buffy/Angel or Angel/Spike, because the relationship in question is prioritized and the third party not given the same depth as the other two), this is what you've been waiting for. Set post-NFA, with all three characters rendered wonderfully well, and all the various relationships between them explored. I'm still awed.

Dr. Who

Tiny Human Heads by lordshiva. Probably my favourite post-Doomsday-story. Ten/Sarah Jane, but so much more. It's Ten after Doomsday and Sarah Jane being quite serious about her "No" to being a Companion again but being a friend anyway, it's Sarah Jane the journalist, and a story which New and Old Who fans alike can enjoy. (Meaning if you've seen Sarah Jane with Three and Four, you'll be thrilled, and if you haven't seen her anywhere except in School Reunion with Ten, you'll be thrilled as well.)

Farscape

But for Grace by hossgal. Rygel and Crichton (aka my Farscape OTP), the question of forgiveness, and of living. Set post-Peacekeeper Wars.


James Bond

Queen of Spades by astolat. Bond/M, and by now I'm sure really everyone has read it, but if someone hasn't, and even if that someone has not seen a single Bond movie: go. Read. Now.


The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (comicverse)

The Author of All This (Our Sorrow) by cesario. Mina Murray post after the second volume of League. This is Mina in all her complexity, and I adore it.


X-Men (comicverse)

For the Kingdom of Heaven by c_elisa. This? Based on the Gifted arc of Astonishing X-Men, wherein the cure is introduced, is how the cure storyline should have been handled in the movieverse and so was not. Terrific Hank McCoy, and no easy solutions.


X-Men (movieverse)

Coalescence by andrastewhite. The definite Charles Xavier portrait, if anything is, taking all three movies into account. Andraste's idea of just what made Charles decide re: Jean is still my favourite fanon.

Sandman


Take your carriage clock and shove it by amberite: Thessaly post-Wake. This is Thessaly in her sharp, unsentimental glory. *loves*


And that's it. Happy new year, everyone!