Fandom Meme

Gacked from izhilzha:

sockkpuppett wondered in her LJ about the moments we, as fans, become an actual /fan/ of a show, as opposed to a casual watcher. So, I thought it would be an interesting mental exercise to see if I could remember that moment for each of my shows.

Star Wars
As cliche as it sounds, the first time I saw the opening crawl for Return of the Jedi is when I became a fan. I can only have been about six or seven at the time (!), but even then I knew this was something different - and so it's proved to be!

Highlander
In this one from the very beginning. Before the beginning, in fact, since I actually started watching the show a good six-eight months before it was first shown in the UK on Sky One - we had cable TV and one of the channels we got was RTL, over from Germany and I needed something to practice my listening/comprehnsion with and Highlander looked like it. I'm now about to commit fandom herasy: The first HL episode that really, really hooked me was Bad Day In Building A. The selfless way Duncan offers himself as the victim to the goons holding the court room, the fact that Tessa was there because she had so many overdue parking fines, the completely ruthless way Duncan takes out the goons... I absolutely loved the whole boiling of it - and loved it even better when I finally got to see it in English!

Power Rangers
The thing about this that got me interested was the fact that the heroes were more or less my age (exactly my age, as it turned out - they graduated from High School in 1997, which is when I'd have graduated, had I been American), that plus I caught the first showing of Day of the Dumpster here in the UK (I get into these things early ne?!) and couldn't make my mind up whether it was supposed to be drama or comedy or both. The moment I became a proper out-and-out fan was when the introduced the Green Ranger and the whole Green with Evil arc. That was when it really hit me that yes, there was actually more to this than the spandex and the bad special effects - for a kids show, the characters were surprisingly well drawn and there was a really pleasing edge to the whole thing.

Chalet School
I was nine and out of library books but too lazy to go to the library myself, so my mother went on my behalf and picked out some books. In amongst them was this three-in-one with a very boring looking cover (yes, I judged books by their covers). It got left till last. Middle of the following Saturday, though, I was out of books again, just this boring looking three-in-one left. So I thought "what the heck" and started to read... I think it was around about chapter two of book one (New House, for those who know the series!) that I realised this was the series for me. Something about the way the characters were written really grabbed my attention and before I knew it, I'd finished that and moved on to the next book in the three-in-one and I was completely and utterly hooked.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
I'd watched this off and on throughout seasons one-three (there's an entry a few months back noting that I actually managed to watch the majority of season three without realising it!) but I'd never really become a devotee, and then about three years ago, eternalmusings was over, in London and came to stay the weekend that Once More With Feeling was broadcast on Sky One for the first time. As she's a major Buffy & Angel fan, I taped both (they were broadcast on the Thursday) and we watched them on the Friday night. This *still* did not turn me into an out and out fan, though. I was intreagued, but not quite enough to try and find time to watch the show on a regular basis, though I did buy season six on video and watched that. Then eternalmusings sent me a video of "Beneath You" and the tag scene, in the church, between Buffy and Spike, is was completely and utterly hooked me. It's a fantastic scene, brilliantly written and played and I was completely and utterly lost. (as you can tell from my music choice!)

So, there you go.

*sigh*

I have now spent nearly £200 on my car this week - today it was £95 on new tyres, alignment and trims. Still, all being well, I might not actually have to shell out any more (barring fuel) for while.

Except that I ought to get Mike the Mechanic to take a look at it as it's been cutting out randomly...

*sigh*

I feel like a pelican: Whichever way I turn there's always an enormous bill in front of me.

*ends gratuitous Blackadder quoteage*

In other news, I'm umpiring today. Tis the last league match of the season. Westberries IIIs need to win to stand a chance of promotion. On the upside, the team we're playing isn't one of the strongest in our league and we beat them 6-0 last time round. On the downside, the team we're playing is one of my bette noirs as far as umpiring goes. Oh joy.

More weird dreams last night - nothing I remember, beyond being convinced I was a real Jedi... (This is what comes of reading a chapter of I Jedi just before going to sleep, me thinks!)

On the writing front, I've been singularly uninspired of late. I have got some projects on the go, but they're moving at a snail's pace, mostly because I'm so snowed at work. I am trying though. I promise, I will have Five by Five finished before Sol goes supernova!