Party pooper LJ!

[wiseheart]

Well, folks, it seems that LJ has decided to crash our birthday party - the original post is no longer visible. But I still have most of the comments in my inbox, and will re-post the original entry and list the available comments with the simple mentioning of the names, if it's all right with you. If not, tell me, and I'll delete yours.

We won't allow LJ to crash our party!

Original post

Hi folks! *waves*

Time is flying by, isn't it? It's that time of a year again - I'm getting older. In this case, I'm turning 56 on October 9, which means I'd have been retired for a year already, back under the old regime. Women could retire at the age of 55 back then. So I've decided to ignore all that fantastic headway we've supposedly made towards democracy in the last two decades and have considered myself retired for the last year, blithley overlooking the fact that I'll have to work another 6 or 7 or only God knows how many years.

So, let's party! Last years virtual birthday party yielded 943 comments on 7 pages, which won't be easy to top, but we're good, aren't we? WE CAN DO IT! WE CAN BREAK THE 1000-COMMENT-BARRIER! So, let's give it a try! In the recent years, it has always been great fun, so let's have fun again!

You're all cordially invited to help yourself to a slice of virtual cake of your choice. If you want to post your favourite recipe in a comment, be my guest. If not, just drop by and say hello.

Cheers!

Note: The party will be closed on October 9, at midnight, sharp.
Join us and have fun! Feel free to start any thread, any topic you want; we can discuss it, mock the general stupidity of life and laugh at it.

Last count was 1328 comments on 6 pages.

NB: Shoud the original party post mysteriously reappear, I'll delete this one.

Comments

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

sammydragoncat:

Mine was 10 - first ep of the 3rd series BBC America was doing a
marathon, and I got hooked.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

espresso_addict:
It's interesting how many people seem to have missed out on the Hiding
Behind the Sofa experience as children :)

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

wiseheart:
Nah, we just hid behind the sofa for different reasons. mine was a French
series called Belphegor - the Phantom of the Louvre - the old
version, featuring Juliette Gréco, not the new one.

It counted as so scary that we children weren't allowed to watch it at
all, so we had to get glimpses durign the reruns when the adults weren't
at home. In hindsight it couldn't have been so scary, as the reruns were
in the morning, but, well, in the 1960s...

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

I think this is where this comment goes:

Me:
> I didn't see any of it as a child, as my family didn't have a tv.
> However, I have recently started watching from 1, but not got very far
> yet... 11 is a mixture of good and bad - some of the episodes are great,
> some a appalling, the arc plots are possibly a bit better than 10's but
> still have holes... (I don't understand why the whole series does arc
> plot so badly)

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

espresso_addict:
My television watching was hugely curtailed as a child, but I was allowed
to watch BBC children's television. (But not ITV until I was about 15.) I
don't really know why I didn't give Moffat a try, as I liked many of his
episodes. To be honest it might just be that I've almost given up
watching live television altogether. I suppose that holes are inevitable
when one farms out episodes to a large number of writers, but I'm not
sure I understand exactly what Moffat/RTD were doing for their money.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

Me:
> *nods* There seems to be very little good on tv... I don't know - I guess
> Babylon 5 spoiled me for arc plot (in that most things there fit -
> there are a few odds and end s that seem to be dropped but not may) - I
> guess there just needs to be someone in charge who is looking at the big
> picture more than writing episodes...

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

espresso_addict:
Babylon Five is yet another thing that I've never seen that
innumerable people have recommended. DS9 didn't do too badly until the
final season when everything was a bit odd & rushed.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

Me:
> Babylon 5 is my favourite tv show - it does an amazing job of arc
> plot, characters (there are so many wonderful characters, including so
> many one episode characters that seem so real and detailing) - in some
> ways it is dated, but in a lot of ways it holds up better than a lot of
> sf shows...

> I haven't seem DS9 properly - I've seen loads of episodes, but not in the
> right order (makes it hard to judge the arc plot) - I should really watch
> it properly :)

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

espresso_addict:
Most people I know who rave about B5 also rave about DS9. (There again,
they're mainly B7 fans originally, which is not something one could
recommend for world-building, continuity, or the like.) It's particularly
good for strong women, and it has a number of memorable one-off
characters.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

Me:
> Strong women are good - and sadly rare in tv - I might have to check that
> out at some point (characters are the most important thing to me - I can
> forgive many things in books and tv if the characters are interesting) :)

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

espresso_addict:
Two of the leads (Kira Nerys & Jadzia Dax) present very different
versions of strong women, and neither is defined by her romantic
relationships. Nor are they expected to be chaste to be taken seriously;
in fact they get more action than most of the male leads! And there are
some wonderful minor female characters; in particular, Winn Adami is one
of the most interesting women in televisual sf, to my mind. [Really
must get myself a DS9 icon with a woman on it; both of mine are
Bashir!]

If you do pick it up, S1 is a bit uneven; there are a few poor eps. It
really picks up in S2 through to S6. I didn't like S7 as much, tho'
others differ.