Random thoughts on a Friday evening:

-- I feel stuffed to the gills with Doctor Who at the moment. "Waters of Mars," what an episode, huh? After watching it and then reading through what other people had to say, it feels like there's almost too much to think about. Funny thing is, one of the reasons I sought the episode out right away was so I wouldn't have to avoid spoilers, but since I then went ahead and indulged in reading various reaction posts, I have come across new spoilers for "End of Time." LJ is definitely not a great place for the spoiler-phobic, but it's worth it anyway.

-- At least Teaspoon is now a (relatively) spoiler-free place. Once again there are story summaries and even story titles that are spoiler-ish for WoM, but it's okay since I've seen it.

-- "END OF TIME" IS BROADCASTING HERE ON DECEMBER 26TH!!!!!!!!! I am so jazzed, can you tell? I'm already planning the viewing party, if I can get any of the few fellow fans I know of here to come over on the day after Christmas. Not that the date makes any difference at all to me. Where are all my fellow Jewish Doctor Who fans?? (And don't say New York. Yes, there are times when I miss living there.)

-- I have written 219 words of my Yuletide story; only 781 to go! Except that I'm not quite sure yet about the direction the story is taking, so I might dump some of this and start over. Boy, this deadline stuff is hard! I have been having a lot of fun re-visiting the canon for this fandom, though. It really is a great fandom, and my recipient has excellent taste. I just hope I can do a good job with their story.

-- "Turn Again" is percolating, but feeling like it's ready to bubble over. I think I'm going to have to block out some serious time tomorrow and write.

I'm not ready yet to do a full reaction post -- if I ever am -- but I did want to get down the following two scene excerpts.

( cut for spoilers )

I recently rented "Arc of Infinity" because I was in the mood for some Fifth Doctor, and because I hadn't seen it in a very long time. The episode was on the mediocre side, as I remembered, but the commentary was one of the best I have ever heard.

In point of fact, Peter Davison, Colin Baker*, Sarah Sutton and Janet Fielding were hysterical. I highly recommend that everyone go listen to this commentary, even if you didn't like the episode that much. Yes, it's that good.

I think there's definitely something to be said for having actors do a commentary 20 years after they've been employed by the show. You get to hear what they really think! And by the way, do not dare Colin Baker to cluck like a chicken every time a certain feathered hat appears on-screen, because he will. : )

*If you're confused about why Colin Baker did the commentary for a Peter Davison story, it's because this is the story where he plays Maxil, a Time Lord guard. On the other hand, Collin and Peter played off each other so well, I now hope that Peter gets invited to do a commentary on one of Colin's stories just for the hell of it.

Here's my newfound collection of Doctor Who books, now released from storage. I have put them in order alphabetically by Doctor, but for some I had to open them up and look for companion names in order to figure out which Doctor they were, so if you spot any mistakes, let me know!

Some of these have to be my brother's -- I know I didn't buy all these First and Second Doctor books! On the other hand, I think most of the Fourth Doctor ones are mine . . . especially the ones with Sarah in them. ; )

( click here for the list )

The state of my fannish life:

( ramble on Yuletide and finding Who-related stuff while unpacking )

Okay, I am seriously considering going for Yuletide this year. If I do it, I want to:

a) consider my story a gift to the recipient -- to really try to write them a story that I think they will like, not just write the story that I most want to write out of the options the recipient presents; and

b) consider it a writing challenge, and go into it knowing that I may be stretched as an author.

However, as someone who writes almost entirely G-rated fic and doesn't do a lot of shippy stuff, not even Doctor/Sarah (although I did have them briefly kiss once, wow, how extreme am I), I'm a little worried about fulfilling possible het and slash requests. I sorta kinda get the impression that it's pretty common for people to request het and/or slash, and I just don't know if I can write it. I'm not just talking about bowing out of writing anything adult-rated, which I'm assuming would be pretty acceptable to the community; I mean that I don't know if I can write a romantic pairing at all.

Anyone out there who's done Yuletide have experience with this? I know that optional details are optional, and I also know that this could be the challenge part of the Yuletide challenge for me, but I'm wondering what the odds are of pleasing someone with genfic. Any guesses?

Miscellaneous update post on writings past, present and future:

( more here )

Title: Rosemary
Rating: G
Characters: Sarah Jane, Ten, Four, Aunt Lavinia, Andrea Yates
Spoilers: Hand of Fear (DW), School Reunion (DW), Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane (SJA) and The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith (SJA)
Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction, offered freely. Doctor Who, Sarah Jane Adventures and all characters belong to the BBC.
Summary: There was something Sarah had realized when she was young.

( (STORY HERE) )

And here we go: ( activating spoiler negotiation mode now )

Okay, I never would've guessed that watching the second half of "The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith" would make me need to immediately go re-watch an episode of Classic Who . . . and even if I had guessed that, I wouldn't've guessed that the episode I would need to re-watch was "Hand of Fear."

But that's just what happened.

Other than that, I don't feel ready to make a post about my reaction yet, other than to say that I liked it.

I've watched "The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith" part 1 twice now, and the last 5 minutes of it four times, and I'm so flail and squee that I have to post something, but there's no need for a spoiler cut because I'm too incoherent to put down anything other than OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OHMYGOD!!!!!

Yes, I liked that. A lot.

(And SJA? Remember what I said about your last episode? All is forgiven.)

I seem to be in the minority, but I really didn't like "The Madwoman in the Attic" at all.

( spoilers follow )

Really funny "Big Bang Theory" tonight. And I'm pretty sure that was a Dalek on Wil Wheaton's t-shirt, which just makes it all that much better. : )

I'm back from my trip, and I had a fantastic time! One of the places I went was Cardiff, and I actually really liked the city; it's well worth going to even without the Doctor Who exhibition (which, as I had been warned, was fun but not a sufficient reason to go to Cardiff in and of itself). Didn't see any filming or actors or crew, but I did enjoy recognizing the Millennium Center, seeing the exhibition (best part for me was seeing the K-9 from "School Reunion"), and I also came across a ( CoE spoiler )

Other than that, I'm adjusting back to non-vacation life and looking forward to SJA. I also predict a fair amount of fic reading in my immediate future, and hopefully some fic writing as well.

I'm leaving on my trip later today, so I will likely disappear from LJ for a month, although if I come across free wifi I may catch up on some journals / communities and who knows, maybe I'll even leave a comment.

Other than that, hope everyone has a happy September and I'll be back in October!

Title: Turn Again
Rating: PG
Characters: Sarah Jane, Ten, Maria, Luke, Clyde, Alan, the Brigadier, Harry, Capt. Magambo, Ross Jenkins, Rose
Spoilers: Turn Left (and the DW episodes referenced within it) and the first season of SJA
Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction, offered freely. Doctor Who, Sarah Jane Adventures and all characters belong to the BBC.
Summary: Sarah Jane wakes to a world where the Doctor is dead. A missing story from "Turn Left."
Warnings: Should go without saying, but let's be clear: there's character death here, folks. Not my fault; go complain to RTD. But it's all just a canon AU, so don't worry.
A/N: While there’s angst, especially in the first chapter, this story will not be an angst-fest. Promise.

(Chapter One here)

(Chapter Two here)

(Chapter Three here)

(Chapter Four here)

( Chapter Five here )

--Moving soon, so I've been busy packing, and I've also been discovering all sorts of interesting things -- like the fact that I have "Terror of the Zygons" on videotape. I'd completely forgotten that. Unfortunately, the tape has now gone into a box and I won't see it again for about six weeks. However, at least that's far sooner than when that episode will get released on DVD.

--I knew I didn't have "Android Invasion" since the tape that episode was on went boom. But I did find a "best of Tom Baker" videotape box set that I didn't remember I had that might have some clips from the episode. However, in a fit of zealous packing, I went ahead and put the box set into a box before checking on that. Probably for the best, though; I'd probably have wasted hours watching the whole box set if I hadn't.

--I'm not sure why I lost track of the videos I own -- whether it's because I now mostly go to the DVDs, or whether it's because I own too many videotapes. But I obviously need to have a good old-fashioned Tom Baker VHS marathon when the movers eventually show up with my boxes.

--Caught up on "Merlin" and saw the episode where Julian Bashir plays a bad guy. Of course, I mean the episode where the actor who played Julian Bashir plays a bad guy, but it's much more fun to say it was Julian Bashir. He actually did a very good job of being a villain, even though I kept (and keep) thinking of him as Julian Bashir. In fact, it put me in the mood to go back and watch the DS9 episode "The Passenger" so I could really see Julian Bashir being evil.

--It's looking good for my being able to post chapter 5 of "Turn Again" soon. It'll be a short chapter -- just a little over 1,000 words -- but I found a good place to break so it should be a true and proper chapter. Hopefully this will keep people interested in the fic until I return from my travels and have the chance to post chapter 6! It's also looking like chapter 6 might be the very last chapter. We'll see . . .

I am trying to decide some things about an upcoming trip to Europe, especially in regard to Wales. Since I am fortunate enough to have people on my flist who've actually been there, plus others who if nothing else live a lot closer to Wales than I do and might have heard some useful information, I thought I'd go ahead and ask for advice here.

I (currently) don't have much time blocked out for Wales -- just 3-4 days. I am thinking of starting off in Cardiff, then going to Chester (which isn't in Wales, I know), and then using Chester as a base to see Conwy. So basically, I'd be dipping a toe into South Wales and then dipping another toe into North Wales, which seems pretty much all I can accomplish given the short amount of time.

Anyone have any advice on this? Any alternative suggestions of "oh no, you must do this" instead? Keep in mind that I am trying to avoid having to rent a car, and am looking at primarily traveling by train (although coach would be acceptable, too).