Land of the mildly insane

Yes, apparently we finally have a confirmed date for the return of Merlin. I can't believe I'm still so head-over-heels for this show given it's technically been on hiatus. Then again, I am used to Torchwood and its tendency to swan in, steal your breath, break your heart, and then bugger off for over a year before the next round. Anyway, the return of the 'magical Welsh wizard' brings joy to my heart and gratuitous recs/spamming.

x. The Series 2 tagline: 'You can't escape destiny'. - DO NOT WANT! Considering how much the show has shredded canon so far I don't think it's too much to ask them to disregard the canon tale of everyone getting trapped/killed/dishonoured/left alone/going mad. In my world destiny will be an unequivocal 'Happily ever after'...
x. Fic: Merlin Emyrs and the Totally Gay Triwizard Tournament - Harry Potter/Merlin AU - great, great fun. In a world without Harry Potter, no obvious Dark Lord, but still with Dumbledores and Aurors and Hogwart's most terrifying headmaster we have Merlin fretting over his teenage years and evolving friendship with Arthur against the background of occasionally saving lives and killing monsters, as you do.
x. Double Your Pleasure. - Crack fic. NC-17 crack-fic involving the old chestnut of being accidentally transformed into forms not entirely human. It made me laugh which is always a good thing in my book.
x. Non-spoilery set report and pics of Bradley and Colin filming series 2. I miss these lads, roll on 19th September.

Non-Merlin:
x. Shut Yer Pie-Hole. For those of you who've been watching SPN season 4, this a cross-over with Life on Mars. As someone who's only seen the odd ep of LoM, this still cracked me up and left me insanely happy. If only this could happen...
x. NEWS: Thousands call for Turing apology - non-fandom for a moment. I'm sad to admit I had never really been told about this guy, but my heart bleeds for him (and all the others) after reading this. Hopefully at the very least more people will start to remember him even if the petition doesn't get its hoped-for apology.

Another quick fly-by post before I crash for the night.

x. Lovely Jack/Ianto promo from latest Torchwood magazine. Good to see them both looking just calm and normal rather than apparently trying to pose for some Mills & Boon-esque angst epic.

x. Lovesong. I gave 'iPod, Fruit salad, pond' in response to a request for drabble prompts. The result is a lovely, lovely PG-rated Colin/Bradley ficlet. After all the dramas of late it's good to have something simple, sweet and very well-written. Do go and leave feedback.

And with that I'm out for the night. See you when the sun is back in the sky!

I'm currently attempting to wallow in happy, carefree fics/vids/posts. Merlin is currently proving a nice escape route (so long as you don't think about how it ends which is pretty much Rocks Fall Everyone DIES). Towards that end, I have a song request:

Does anyone have a copy of Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours" that they'd be willing to share?

So I actually missed tonight's ep. Was out with work colleagues seeing Transformers 2. Got home with plans for a final cuppa tea before bedulating, only to see the various flailing reaction posts on LJ and gave into curiosity and caught up on BBC iPlayer.

Now that was more like it. Plot continues to unravel at a frightening pace, tremendous acting from all (Capaldi has never been finer), some beautiful moments between the characters and some nice development from certain quarters. Tomorrow will have its work cut out to live up to the tension of this episode.

And now to the SPOILERS for ep 4 (and the 'Next time' trailer for ep 5). ( If you are not spoiled for ep 4 then keep it that way, seriously... )

So. Slightly less character insight than last week. Do I particularly care? Well, not so much, not yet :)

( Yet again going behind the cut for ep 2 SPOILERS - and yet again, if you're unspoiled it's definitely worth staying that way... )

Right, and with that I'm for bed. Tomorrow is another day and more importantly, to quote the ad, 'we are coming'. Rock on, Torchwood, rock on.

So realising that this rumoured 'free time' was never really going to materialise any time soon, I finally just sat down and ground through all 3 TW BBC audio plays in one sitting. The result was that at time I did have half an ear on something else as 'multi-tasking' is definitely the order of the month right now, but anyway.

All in all? Thoroughly enjoyable, I'd give the trio of plays a definite thumbs up. Audio plays will never be TW's best medium just yet, it's still obvious that some of the guys are more TV actors than audio ones, though they are improved from their last outing.

1) Asylum - I gather that I'm in the minority here in that I enjoyed this one a lot. ( Few more thoughts but no spoilers... )

2) Golden Age - my least favourite, though individual components I did enjoy a lot. ( Again, a few more spoiler-free words here... )

3) The Dead Line - yes, of course this was my favourite. ( Ending with, again, spoiler-free ponderings... )

And with that, it's now T-minus 21 hours till new Torchwood - EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! :)

Just found out that whilst I was away at work the lawn was finally seeded with grass. Which would explain why the local bird life has been staking out the back, industriously pecking away for the past few days. I think this afternoon will be spent making bird scarers...

Anyway, it's been a most pleasant weekend, with ridiculous amounts of sunshine, good food, excellent company, and of course a bit of retail therapy *happy sigh*

There was also the Robin Hood finale which was so epically bad it became good, quality entertainment for 40 minutes. ( Cut for SPOILERS... )

Anyway, now that's over for a while, let's get back to that new series that launched this year featuring several familiar faces from British TV. If I quote "Audiences clearly loved the first series which featured the cream of British acting talent with gripping 'torn from the headlines' storylines" you will all obviously guess that I am, of course, talking about Law & Order UK. Which has been recommissioned for a further 13 new episodes.

Oh hurrah.

Anyway, moving on. Have some fic recs.

TORCHWOOD: And Indeed There Will Be Time by kaydeefalls - set post the S2 finale, with Mickey helping out in the Hub. There's a lovely rapport between all the characters, with familiar faces visiting from Doctor Who. This is a good old-fashioned plot-driven tale, though thoroughly bolstered by the emotional tales of its various protagonists, triggered by the mysterious appearance of a man falling through a possible rift in time into the Irish Sea. Cracking example of time being complicated wibbly-wobbly stuff that is highly confusing when you're caught in the middle of the timelines, though highly clear and obvious when you finally get to the end. Assuming you survive that is.
MERLIN: Just Wait For It by seperis - crack. Fantastically funny crack. Ficlet set in the future, where a presumably immortal Merlin is trying to keep an eye on an as yet oblivious, reincarnated Arthur Pendragon. Who has wound up in Metropolis. Which is where I mention that this is a crossover with Smallville with exchanges along the lines of "Do you think I care, you pedantic little alien?". Not quite Merlin vs. Superman, but at the least a clash of personalities. Good stuff.

Apologies for spamming your FLs this evening. This is more for my personal reference as already my memories are pretty hazy, and there are some gorgeous photos already out there on the various Merlin coms, for example here or here.

(WARNING: the following post will contain SPOILERS for series 2.)

In terms of the Q&A, Geek Syndicate posted their audio recording of the entire session. You can listen/download on their website over here. ETA: MCM Expo also have their own YouTube channel, so far they've posted part 1 and part 2 of the Merlin panel, hopefully the third and final vid will appear before too long.

Anyway, last year at Expo the queues were insane. Had things changed this year? In a word: NO. But still, I'm very glad I went. ( A few more memories of the Q&As from Expo... )

And that was that! Or at least, that is what I can recall at this late hour.

After we all emptied out back into the main hall and after some false starts, finally found the queue for queue for the autographs. This time around we were definitely being rushed through, with less time for chat and certainly no photos. Which was a bit of shame but then again this was a free signing so I ain't complaining, and if you could keep your brain intact and get a question out then the cast were all very happy to try and give you a decent answer, and in all cases you got a killer smile.

( So did my brain stay intact? Not really, but the cast were very very lovely... )

And that really was that :) They sat and signed and smiled and chatted. There was a brief flurry when, I think, Colin and Bradley had beckoned some fans forward from where they were standing by the barrier. Except when the fans came forward they were swarmed on by security and firmly put back where they had originally been waiting. The lads did seem rather dismayed so I guess they learnt a lesson about how security at these events works. But that excitement aside it was quite calm albeit with ridiculous amounts of queuing. Which I guess means that, given the opportunity, I'd quite likely do it all again. So something must have gone right :)

( A few memories, AKA pictures... )

Farewell weekend of awesomeness, obscene amounts of sugar, alcohol and not a great deal of sleep. Fri/Sat kicked off proceedings with wine, more wine, tequila, shopping, and watching the new Star Trek.

Let me repeat that in case you missed it. I have seen the latest Star Trek and yea I have squee and will not be denied.

F**king AWESOME :) So much love for that film. I am now seriously tempted to actually start watching Heroes just because it has Mr Quinto. Great casting all round, I can't wait to watch it again and bore people silly with random quotes worked into everyday conversation.

Then it was on to celebrate the elders' 60th wedding anniversary. I arrived amidst thunder and lightening and scary amounts of rain. I left in sunshine after being very well fed and having silly amounts of champagne waved in my direction. Good times.

Winding up this post with some random links:
x Clip of Zachary Quinto in 'noTORIous' - AKA yep it's the gay kiss in the sauna.
x The abridged version of Star Trek - done in the '... in 15 minutes' style, a highly amusing summing up of the new film.
x 'Mysterious Cities of Gold' finally released on DVD - I LOVED THIS SERIES AS A KID!! Perfect way to end a weekend of geekish joy :)

This year's Expo.

There is a Merlin panel.

With all four main leads. Yes, we have Arthur, Gwen, Merlin and Morgana.

Yes I have my ticket. You may now commence to point and mock, but frankly at this point I don't care :)