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Lurking Musings

~ Musings of a newly published writer

Lurking Musings

Tag Archives: entertainment

Dianna Hardy Giveaway!

26 Friday Jul 2013

Posted by D.A Lascelles in Giveaway

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

books, Cry of the Wolf, Dianna Hardy, entertainment, Fur and Fangs Giveaway, Giveaway


Yesterday you were treated to an extract from Cry of the Wolf. Today you are to be treated to a giveaway of swag related to all things Dianna Hardy. This swag bag contains goodies such as a fangs and fur fridge magnet and quote bookmarks.

Tameside-20130725-00291

To enter this giveaway, click on the Rafflecopter link below and perform each of the tasks listed to gain extra entries. If you comment on this post below you also gain an entry into the big giveaway on Dianna’s own blog as well. You only have a week to enter this giveaway so you had better get clicking before the timer runs out!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

K. Hari Kumar – a success story you may not have heard of (yet)

26 Wednesday Jun 2013

Posted by D.A Lascelles in Publicity

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Tags

'The Man Who Loved me', Bollywood, Book trailer, Cinematography, drama, entertainment, film, IFF Melbourne, India, K. Hari Kumar, The Visitor, When Strangers meet


Despite worldwide communications through an extensive series of phone and internet connections that reach even to the most remote parts of the planet, individual countries are often oblivious to what is going on in other parts of the world. The recent incidents in Turkey are a very serious example of this – an issue highlighted by blogs and online support but largely ignored by the media until brought to light. Even in the global village we have built walls around our own interests and barely peek above them to see what the neighbours are up to. To potentially stretch the metaphor too far, we only care when their hedge gets too tall or they make loud noises at 3 in the morning.dp1

Which is why you have almost certainly not heard of K. Hari Kumar. Unless you are one of the million people who read his blog or buy his books. That’s right, one million blog readers and a book that has sold out many times over. The reason you have never heard of him is because all those readers are from India and we Brits and Americans have not bothered to peek over the hedge to see what they are up to over there. I’d not heard of him until I was asked to do this blog on his behalf. He’s big in India but, like many UK pop stars yearning to break the US market, now wants to make big in other parts of the world.

So, I am here to introduce you to K. Hari Kumar and his work. Read on to find out all about an Urban Fiction novel with a Bollywood flavour and the young cinematographer who wrote it.

K.Hari Kumar is the author of the English novel When Strangers Meet… He’s also a two time International award nominated Photographer.

Having born in to a Tulu family in Tripunithara, he grew up in the thick suburbs of the Millennium city, Gurgaon. He did his schooling from DAV Public School, Gurgaon. After completing his engineering in 2011, K.Hari Kumar left for his hometown in Trichur, Kerala. Since then he has been assisting couple of ad-filmmakers from Cochin and has ghost-written dozens of conceptual screenplays for TVCs of reputed brands. Storytelling is his passion and he is working on his second novel. He wishes to assist mainstream filmmakers and eventually make Feature films in future. His earliest attempt ‘The Man who loved me’ was selected for the prelims at ‘IFF Melbourne’ in the year 2011. The film had K.Hari Kumar in the seats of Lead Protagonist, Screenwriter, editor & Director. It was made with a digicam. He has directed 4 short films and a cinematic documentary till date. He chose not to act in his 4th short film ‘The Visitor’ which is a horror short film shot entirely in Black and white, as an ode to classic Noir of the 50s.

An interview with The Deccan Chronicle

An interview with The Deccan Chronicle

K.Hari Kumar’s greatest fascination is tales about the supernatural and is an ardent lover of Hitchcock movies.

K.Hari Kumar’s blog ‘Strangeronmyshelf.in’ is an innovative concept where upcoming short-filmmakers, writers, poets, photographers, musicians etc are given a free of cost platform to portray their works of creative art. The blog now boasts of a small family but he wishes to extend it to a large family of Strangers who shall help others to showcase their dreams on the world wide web thereby promoting mutual cooperation as well. The blog has over eight lakh hits already.

He is currently travelling across the major metros of India, promoting his novel to the farthest possible extent.

In promoting When Strangers Meet, he put together an interesting alternative to the concept of a book trailer. An actual trailer using live actors.

Reviews of When Strangers Meet :

‘A simple story narrated in a gripping style which forces you to turn pages’ – Yatin Gupta (IBN)

http://iyatingupta.com/book-review-when-strangers-meet-k-hari-kumar/

‘I think this book appeals to me because of its realism. The plot appealed to me personally with a father-son relationship being involved. And it touched me. What I like in this book is Hari’s narration.’ – Leo (Bookworm musing)

http://abookwormsmusing.wordpress.com/2013/05/20/book-review-when-strangers-meet-by-hari-kumar/

‘A light, entertaining and enjoyable read with a message. Surely unputdownable. ‘ -Nimi Vashi (Reader Cosmos)

‘You might say that the plot can be predictable, yet the author will catch you off guard with a twist at the end. An entertaining read!’ – Debdutta Sahay

TITLE: When Strangers meet… A Story of a Lifetime (IYER&JAI)

AUTHOR: K.Hari Kumar

PAGES : 216

PUBLISHER : Srishti Publishers and Distributers

GENRE: Urban Fiction; sub: Drama,Suspense,Bollywood

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17789080-when-strangers-meet

Kindle Amazon : http://www.amazon.com/When-Strangers-meet-ebook/dp/B00DA06W6I/ref=la_B00DA9YEUA_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371702384&sr=1-1

BLURB:

What happens when an irritating but lovable wise-cracking ‘Stranger’ called Iyer meets a frustrated and arrogant teenager, Jai, on a fateful day in a congested room at the metro station? Catastrophe!!!

Meanwhile, Pathan never had the pleasure of happiness in his life yet he thanked Allah for every second of it…

Abandoned by fate and friends, surrounded by responsibilities and poverty… This hard-coated man from the city of Delhi knew only thing and that was to keep faith in Allah… Now he is set on a journey to turn around his fate…

The tale from the Iyer’s past will change Pathan’s present and Jai’s future… And trust me…
Sometimes all it takes is a stranger’s tale to change the track of your life…

Three Men… One fateful day… and a Story of a Lifetime…

The Stranger is coming this May… are you ready to receive him? 😉

Official page: www.facebook.com/kathaharik

Blog: www.strangeronmyshelf.in

[Vampire Month] The Rewards of Horror by Aaron Smith

06 Wednesday Mar 2013

Posted by D.A Lascelles in Vampire Month

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

100000 Midnights, Aaron Smith, books, dark literature, entertainment, guest blogging, guest posts, horror, Horror writers, Musa Pubkishing, Vampires, Why write horror?


I’ve written stories in quite a lot of different genres. Mentioning any particular type of fiction gets a certain reaction, especially if the person you’re talking to is not specifically a fan of that genre. They might smile politely, they might ask if your work is comparable to a well-known book, character, or franchise in the same genre (usually Star Wars or Star Trek if you mention science fiction, Harry Potter if you talk about fantasy), or they might ask a silly question. But one genre is likely to get the strongest and strangest reactions of all. That would be horror. (To be fair, I’ve heard that erotica gets some weird reactions too, but since I haven’t written anything in that category, I can’t speak from experience, but horror has to be at least a close second.) DSC00358

Some people get excited by the revelation that I sometimes write horror. You find fans of dark literature in the most unexpected places sometimes. That’s always a pleasant surprise. But you get the opposite a lot too. Some people tilt their heads and give you a look like you just started speaking in tongues or confessed to a five-year-long murder spree that stretched across seventeen states. The most common reaction that comes from those who find it surprising that I write horror is a simple question: Why?

Most people who know me, whether they happen to be relatives, friends, coworkers, or just casual acquaintances, seem to think I’m a nice person. I try to be nice. I’m polite, have never intentionally hurt another person, and try not to offend anyone unless it happens in the process of some sort of debate (in which case I will state my opinion and speak honestly about any topic). So I can understand why some people, especially those who don’t often read horror and might have some erroneous notions about the genre, would wonder how I could want to put myself through the process of taking the darkest and most gruesome thoughts in my mind and putting them into words and eventually casting them out into the world where others can read them. Why would I go down that road?

The answer is that writing horror, and reading it too, can be a very rewarding experience. Here are some of the reasons why.

Horror brings out the best of its characters. At the core of all fiction is the responsibility of the writer to put their characters 320_7303743through hell. It’s essential in telling a story to make your characters go through tough experiences. Otherwise, what’s the point? Without struggles or difficulty or high stakes, a story is boring. In horror, the stakes are highest, lives are at risk, and the danger is turned up to maximum volume. I find that the events at the heart of my horror stories tend to break the chains of the characters’ lives, setting them free from the mundane or dull elements of life and throwing them headfirst into the unknown, which is not necessarily a bad thing to have happen to someone.

In my novel, 100,000 Midnights, the lead character, Eric, leads as boring a life as you can imagine, never really fitting in, until he gets pulled into a world he never knew existed, a world populated by vampires and other creatures of the night. He goes through a month of gruesome, dangerous, life-threatening experiences but it makes him stronger, gives him a fuller life to live, and even shows him what love truly feels like. Without the horror, where’s the story?

In my other horror novel, Chicago Fell First, which is due out around Halloween of this year, a group of strangers are brought together by a series of very horrific events and tested as hard as anyone ever is, but those who survive are, perhaps, better for having been through it.

If I’m going to bring characters to life, I might as well have them face the worst of things. If they make it to the end of the story, what they’ve learned on the way there can be looked at as having truly been earned.

A second reason that makes horror worth writing is purely selfish on the part of the writer. It provides a release, gives us a 179269709method by which to take all our darkest thoughts and most disgusting ideas and put them to good use. As we write horror, that blank page on the screen and the keyboard at our fingertips dare us to go there, dare us to not hold back, to push all our darkness out into words and lay it out there for the world to see. I’ve written scenes that have made me nauseous, and I see that as a success! I can wake up in a cold sweat after a terrible nightmare…and make something out if for which people will send me money. I think that’s a pretty good reason to write horror.

And third, and maybe this is the most important driving force behind horror writing: I hope it sometimes serves as medicine for the reader.

What I mean is that life can be pretty frightening sometimes. Turn on the news and you’ll see war, disease, crime, debates over gun control, incompetent politicians, religious fanatics, and an assortment of other awful things either happening or on the verge of happening. And that’s just the worldwide, publicized stuff. I have no idea what’s going on in the personal lives of anyone reading my books. They might be facing illnesses, worrying about money, going through a hard ending to a relationship, or struggling through any of a number of types of hardships. Just as hearing a happy song can make a broken heart ache even more, but a sad one can make you feel like somebody somewhere understands just how you feel, I hope getting lost, even for a short time, in a world filled with monsters can dull the pain of real life just a bit. Scared of life’s terrors? Maybe the best medicine can be reading about somebody else having a worse time. Maybe the exaggerated, dramatic experiences of the teenagers fleeing the homicidal maniac or the victim about to be bled dry by the vampire or the citizens of Chicago on the run from hordes of zombies can do for the frightened reader what the deepest blues music does for the brokenhearted lover. I hope that’s the case.

So for anyone who’s mystified about why a seemingly nice guy would want to write about some of the worst things imaginable, there are a few good reasons. I hope that answers the question.

***

Aaron Smith can’t stand to go a day without writing. He’s the author of more than twenty-five published stories in genres including mystery, horror, science fiction, and fantasy. He has written stories featuring well-known characters such as Sherlock Holmes and Allan Quatermain. His novels include Gods and Galaxies, Season of Madness, and, most recently, 100,000 Midnights.

Information about his work can be found on his blog, Gods and Galaxies,  or his Amazon page.

 

Old Memories…

01 Friday Mar 2013

Posted by D.A Lascelles in Musings

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

action roleplaying game, entertainment, galactic empire, Video, Waypoint, You Tube, youtube


Before we launch into the fangfest that will be Vampire month tomorrow, I wanted to share this:

 

Between 2002 and 2008 I ran a Live Action Roleplaying game called Waypoint. It was a sci fi setting and involved the various different races who were part of a Galactic Empire coming together after millenia of seperation following a galaxy wide disaster that destroyed the hyperspatial gate network that once united them.

The campaign ended after 6 years with the player characters desperately seeking a way to defeat a threat from another galaxy by searching through the archives of the Empire for clues. Finally, while the invaders were attacking all over the galaxy, they found the clues they needed and put into effect their plan. Part of this plan involved taking an ancient technological artifact into gatespace and using it to do clever things with physics that would destroy the alien threat. The players who went to achieve this (while the rest remained outside defending them from attack) were played the audio file that is attached to this video which contained some clues as to what they had to do mixed in with many, many red herrings.

Several of the voices on the video were those of player characters who had been asked to contribute an audio file in which they talk about their personal theories of the gates. None of them knew what they were doing this for until they heard the file.

The photographs cover the entire six year run of the game and show many of the awesome costumes and props that were made by players. I hope you enjoy the video…

What might have been…

25 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by D.A Lascelles in Musings

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Alternative Universes, David Tennant, Doctor Who, entertainment, Female Doctor Who, Hattie Jacques, honour blackman, joanna lumley, Matt Smith, Miranda Hart, Penelope Keith, Sherlock Holmes, Steve Moffat, Sue Perkins, Tom Baker


Not too long ago, this article was flashing about the internet.sue perkins

http://www.scifind.com/features/the-other-11-doctors/

It is an article with a single premise – what if the Doctor was female? It essentially takes each of the 11 incarnations of the Doctor and considers the most likely actor who might have played them based on who was around at the time and had approximately the same CV as the male version in our universe.

It is an interesting read and throws up a number of interesting choices. I would never, for example, have considered Hattie Jacques in the role. Her fame being largely based on her involvement with the Carry On franchise it never seemed to fit in my mind that she would be good for the role. However, the article gives a good argument for why she would have made a superlative second Doctor. Ditto Penelope Keith – I had never considered the star of To The Manor Born and The Good Life stepping into Tom Baker’s emormously large scarf but here again the article is convincing as to why she would be perfect.

It is unfair in other ways, I have to say. To tar Miriam Margoyles with the position as the sixth Doctor is unfortunate. Based on her other performances, I would have thought she would have done far better in the role regardless of script and production issues than is intimated here. Then again, I suppose that she can do loud and brash rather well so this may have been a way she would have taken the character.

I am, however, especially impressed with some of the casting. Honour Blackman as the third Doctor is a rather obvious one and Joanna Lumley was always one who was under consideration for the role should the Doctor ever have regenerated into a woman (and indeed was in Curse of the Fatal Death which also had Johnathon Pryce as one of the best Masters I have seen – watch the interviews on the DVD for true ‘method acting’) though putting her in the position of the sensitive and caring fifth Doctor rather than a more action oriented one is a stroke of genius. Sue Perkins wearing David Tennant’s ‘brainy specs’ is also absolutely spot on casting and part of me loves the idea of the love story between the Doctor and Rose still being there in that circumstance – an excellent piece of pro LGBT casting. Though I would also have liked to have seen the reversal in genders go further than that to the extent of more of the companions being male instead of remaining female.

In fact, this article has affected me so much that I have actually begun to re-imagine some of the stories with these actors in play. I rewatched the more recent Christmas special not long ago* and I could totally see Miranda Hart prancing around the big snow globe thing pretending to be Sherlock Holmes and Sue Perkins as a School Mistress** in 1913 or being grim and fatalistic with Bernard Cribbens.*** Obviously, the idea has legs and those legs are kicking.

So, the question has to be, can something be done with this concept? Yes, this is another ‘somebody make this happen’ post. Obviously, until the advent of safe and effective time travel we cannot go back in time and film new episiodes of Doctor Who only with the female counterpart, but there could be other ways. For example, I would love to see an anthology of short stories in the style of the old Doctor Who Short Trips series with a story per Doctor. I would also love some audio adventures and, maybe, in a universe where all my dreams came true, Steve Moffat might make a couple of shorts in the style of the Comic Relief/Children in Need sketches and the recent ‘Pond life’ web broadcast teasers. Were I a less lazy author, I’d get proactive and troll fan fic sites or lobby writers I know who are involved in Who in some manner to do something about it. I’d campaign Miranda Hart and Sue Perkins to agree to star in something linked to this, stand outside Steve Moffat’s house with placards, demand my MP did something about it and so on. However, I am lazy so none of this is going to happen. If any of you out there wish to do something about it, though, I’ve totally got your back. I might even submit a short story to an anthology or something. I can probably summon up enough proactivity to achieve that.

So, some questions…

What do you think about the selection of actors chosen here for a female Doctor?

Would you change any of them?

What already filmed Who story would you like to see redone with a female Doctor and do you think the story would be significantly changed by it?

Feel free to answer these in the comments….

* How many times has Richard E Grant been in Who now? Quite a few, I think. He played the Doctor in Curse of the Fatal Death, was also the Doctor in at least one online animation and now is here as a villain…

** And no, not in THAT way…

*** Another actor who seems to have been in Who multiple times.

Vampire Month – Seeking fresh blood

22 Tuesday Jan 2013

Posted by D.A Lascelles in Guest posts

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Ann Rice, books, Bram Stoker, entertainment, guest blogging, guest posts, Jason Petty, Joss Whedon, literature, Ninfa Hayes, Rachel Caine, Rebeka Harrington, Skyla Dawn Cameron, Stephenie Meyer, Vampires


It has been an age old tradition of this blog, dating back all the way to March 2012 (yes, all those many months ago), for the month of March to be assigned ‘Vampire Month’ and to be taken up with guest posts and interviews by writers who work in genres involving nightstalking bloodsuckers. Last March we had some wonderful posts by Diana Hardy, Skyla Dawn Cameron, Ninfa Hayes and Jason Petty covering subjects ranging from muses to book buying and now it is almost time to get things organised for this March…Vampire

So, with this in mind, I am putting out a call. I need fresh blood to fill the pages of Vampire month this year.

If you are a writer of something which could be construed in some way to be ‘vampire fiction’ or you know a writer who is and can contact them without stalking them I would be very interested in speaking with you. Contact me via this blog, Twitter, Facebook or my email address (dalascelles-writing@yahoo.co.uk) and tell me all about yourself or the author you think you can contact for me.

Of course, while I’d love to be able to get Ann Rice, Rachel Caine, Stephenie Meyer and similar on board for this (or even Jos Whedon or Toby Whitehouse) I am equally happy to accept less famous writers so long as you can do an interesting blog post and answer some interview questions. I would not, of course, say no to any of the above. However, if you contact me claiming to have exclusive access to Bram Stoker, I’d tell you to put him back where you found him and that Grave Robbery is so 1800s, darling…

UK Appreciation Month – Why the UK is Doomed

27 Tuesday Nov 2012

Posted by D.A Lascelles in Guest posts

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Avengers, Avengers Assemble, Bookaholics Book Club, books, entertainment, film, guest blogging, guest posts, hellblazer comics, Joss Whedon, Misfits, Superhero, writing


So, in October I was asked to contribute to a series on this blog (the Bookaholics book club blog) and since I had just been watching Avengers and Misfits in the same week and had been idly browsing some old Hellblazer comics the following thought occured to me:

http://bookaholicsbkcl.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/uk-appreciation-month-da-lascelles.html#.UKYSdlaRmbg.twitter

Because, lets be fair here, UK superheroes aren’t really up to much at all, are they?

Unless someone has some counter arguments to this? Feel free to comment if you do….

Disney and Star Wars?

31 Wednesday Oct 2012

Posted by D.A Lascelles in Film

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Cthuhlu, Disney, Eliza Dushku, elizabeth bennet, entertainment, George Lucas, horror, Jane Austen, Joss Whedon, Megan Fox, Michael Bay, Nathan Fillion, pirates of the carribean, Pride and Prejudice, Serenity, Sigourney Weaver, Star Wars, videogames


Today, on this hallowed day that celebrates horror in all its forms, the internet is abuzz with news of a horror beyond even the worst imaginings of your average geek.

No, it is not that the stars are right for the rise of Great Cthuhlu from the vasty depths of R’lyeh. Despite what the great Mayan practical joke would have us believe about the end of the world being nigh, Cthuhlu is not likely to be rising anytime soon as he forgot to set his alarm clock before he went to bed.

Mitt Romney before his morning cup of coffee

And no, it is not the news of a new version of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice directed by Michael Bay and starring Megan Fox as Elizabeth Bennet and Sigourney Weaver as a modern, lesbian take on Mr Darcy with more explosions, car chases and giant robots than any previous version of Pride and Prejudice…*

It’s not even as horrific as the possibility of a new version of Babylon 5 written by Stephenie Meyer with a new concept for Vorlons which has them as ‘sparkly’…

No, the true horror that has gripped geekdom this Halloween is the news that Disney has bought the rights to Star Wars…

People are rightly concerned. They see Disney as a twee insititution which whitewashes over stories to make them far less dark than they actually are. They also look at John Carter and consider what a mess was made of that film. They quake in fear at the possibility of an animated Star Wars with a big goofy dog instead of a wookie and jedi with large ears and squeaky voices… and the joke memes are already coming in thick and fast.

Me, I am optimistic… While Disney is indeed guilty of the crime that was John Carter, other voices on the internet have spoken up and said such things as ‘But what about Pirates of the Carribean? And what about Avengers?’ Yeah, what about them? Disney is as responsible for those two success stories as they are for John Carter and, frankly, I think two phenomenal successes totalling two excellent films and 2 sort of OKish sequels to one of them make up for one failure.

And amidst all the discussion one possibility has arisen which has got many excited. The name Joss Whedon has crawled its way out of the lamentations… Disney got him to do Avengers, are hiring him again for the sequel… what if they also attached him to the Star Wars project?

Think about that for a moment, revel in it. A new Star Wars film, written and directed by Joss Whedon. Could it get any better than that? What would such a film likely include? Well, here are my predictions…

1) A kick arse female jedi. One thing the Star Wars films have always lacked was female jedi. They exist in the universe, there are even books that include them as characters and some of the computer games also have them, but they have never really been seen on the big screen. Whedon is known for his kick arse female characters – Buffy and River Tam being his main ones – and he even managed to give Black Widow some Buffyesque moments in Avengers. I think Whedon would take this step and make the female lead a jedi instead of a constitutionally confused princess in a republic. That or make one of the bad guys a kick arse woman in black leather. Possibly played by Eliza Dushku…

2) Smugglers. One thing I always felt the prequels lacked was the presence of a smuggler style character. A Han Solo to Luke’s clean cut farm boy, a Jack Sparrow to Will’s clean cut blacksmith. The relationship between the morally dubious Han Solo and the rest of the cast in Star Wars was an integral part of the character dynamic which was lacking in the prequels and made them so flat as a result. I think Whedon would insert such a character because he knows only too well the importance of there being friction between the characters. Now, in the ideal dream world, this smuggler character might well be played by a certain Mr. Nathan Fillion, who would no doubt leap at the chance, but that may depend on whatever other projects he is working on at the time… and at this point you have to ask yourself the very important question: Exactly how tempted would Whedon be to make Star Wars VII as close to Serenity II as he possibly can without anyone noticing?

3) Story. Joss Whedon understands how stories work. He has an almost innate grasp of structure and knows how to insert tension and plot to keep a film interesting for the viewers. The prequel trilogy seemed to drag in places, Whedon would make the story jump and move.

4) One liners. Another thing Whedon is good at are pithy one liners that get geek juices flowing. His characters quip and joke and worry about ordinary day to day things – not everything is all about the plot.

I could go on, I could regale you with endless points discussing at length the things that Joss Whedon would bring to the Star Wars franchise if someone let him get his greasy hands on it. But I think you have got the point already and I am aware that many of you may well have stopped reading at point 2 above and are currently sitting there with a dreamy expression and sighing the words ‘Nathan Fillion’ over and over again and therefore lost to any further eloquent arguments. So I will end there with only a final entreaty to Disney… MAKE THIS HAPPEN! Please…

*Note to Hollywood, just in case you do want to make this film, you can buy the rights off me. I’ll do you a good deal for it. I think the world is ready for a lesbian Miss Darcy. Have your people call my people… well, maybe wait a bit so i can acquire some people then call them or maybe just call me direct. If it helps I can pretend to be my own people and go through the rigmarole of pretending to put you through various departments until you get me. i’ll even do the voices.

The Avengers UK: Crossover universes

15 Friday Jun 2012

Posted by D.A Lascelles in Film, Musings, Wierdness

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

All the Geek, Anthony Stewart Head, Avengers Assemble, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doctor Who, doctor who companions, Emma Peel, entertainment, geek culture, Gene Hunt, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, James Bond, Joss Whedon, Judi Dench, Lara Croft, Nick Fury, River Song, Sarah Jane Smith, Sherlock Holmes, Steve Moffat, The Avengers, y chromosome, You Tube Fake Trailers


This particular photo-meme caught my eye the other day. It caused in me two almost simultaneous responses:

1) OMG someone should so make that film!!! Or at least make a fake trailer for it on You Tube by splicing together lots of bits of different shows in a way that makes it look as if they are all in the same plot!!!

2) There were no women in the group they had put together…

Before I discuss 2, let me just say that I really, really, REALLY want someone to make that trailer. Because I am sad like that. Such things really do amuse me. I went squee when I found this video done in celebration of Doctor Who’s 50th Anniversary. So if someone with the right skills could put together a video like that for the Avengers; United Kingdom I would be really pleased.*

Number 2… I was surprised at how much it concerned me. The fact that the purported fictional TV show was very Y chromosome heavy did make me wonder about the role of women in UK geek culture.

Now, don’t get me wrong. There are strong women in UK Geekdom. What concerned me was the fact that all the examples I could think of off the top of my head were supporting characters and many of them were already involved in the franchises represented by characters in that line up. Hermione Granger, various Doctor Who companions (Sarah Jane Smith and River Song being the two that spring most readily to mind), Judi Dench’s portrayal of M in James Bond… the UK just did not seem to have a straight up Geek lead character who was female (unlike the US where there are a few, though many of them are Whedon creations like Buffy). I was so concerned I expressed my opinion on Facebook and did get a couple of suggestions for strong female characters who were not involved in the franchises already mentioned (Emma Peel being one who I had somehow forgotten…) or who were sole leads (Lara Croft) but it does seem as if UK geekdom is a little thin on the ground. Plus, my concerns were not so much with the state of the feminist credentials of UK geekdom but rather with my own inability to think of some. I mean, I can be excused not thinking of Lara Croft because I have never played the game** nor watched the films but I used to watch the Avengers (the UK TV drama) all the time as a child*** so Emma Peel should have leapt out at me…

Maybe I am overthinking this, of course. It was, after all, just a fun bit of photo-manipulation that someone did. However, I think the discussion on facebook did come up with the following concept…

 – Ditch Harry Potter and replace him with Hermione. Her competence far exceeds his and it means we can have a couple of love scenes with Ron, who can also get jealous when Bond makes a move on her somewhere in the middle of the film (she’ll rebuff him, cos she’s not an idiot, though there may be some flirting, but Ron doesn’t know that…)

 – Chuck in Emma Peel in the Black Widow role. She fits the stereotype of that part perfectly, albeit with more English poise…

“I recognise the council has made a decision, but given that it’s a stupid-ass decision, I’ve elected to ignore it.”
Come on, you can so see her delivering that line as well as Samuel L Jackson did 🙂

– The team needs a Nick Fury. Someone to be all tough and shouty and manly and sarcastic at all the team members when they mess up. Which UK character suits this role best? Why, only Judi Dench’s M has the sheer brass balls to step into Samuel L Jackson’s shoes.

 – There has to be a role in this for Rupert Giles. Ok, technically Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a US show but Giles is so very British and there are few things that cannot be improved by the addition of Anthony Head. He could be the team’s librarian and be having an understated and typically British affair with M.

 – An enemy. In Avengers Assemble (or The Avengers as we still call it in the UK despite the rename…) that enemy was Loki who is devious and entertaining and malicious. There is really only one enemy that fits this mould in UK geekdom to my mind – The Master.

Of course there were other more outre suggestions for this film. Someone suggested that, since The Doctor is involved, in theory no time period is restricted. This means that we could have some other rather cool UK TV characters turning up. He suggested Richard Sharpe but we could also have Cadfael, the medieval mystery solving monk, Miss Marple and several others. Plus it might explain why Gene Hunt is there in 2012 (almost 30 years after the events of Ashes to Ashes and possibly in an alternate universe created by the minds of Sam Tyler and Alex Drake) and why Emma Peel is there (being, as she is, a character intrinsicly tied to the 1960s). In fact, in my head, this plot involves a centuries spanning plot spotted in several different time periods by different characters…

Hmmm, maybe I am overthinking this. Time to stop for now, I think. Before I start writing fan fic (and I have enough trouble finding time to write the characters I have created never mind taking on someone else’s intellectual property…)

What this does reveal is the appeal of crossover universes. Even though such things are ludicrous in concept and are likely to be done badly in fan fic and similar, they can be the cause of squee. They can also be done rather well in the right circumstances, as evidenced by the Wold Newton family created by Philip José Farmer  which ties many ficitonal characters (including Sherlock Holmes and James Bond) together into one family tree (making them all descendents of a group of people exposed to a radioactive meteorite near the North Yorkshire village of Wold Newton). There is also Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen**** which has a similar concept. In fact, in the 1969 version of this series there is a very cool cameo by a certain Mr Tom Marvolo Riddle.

So, for discussion purposes, feel free to comment to add ideas for UK genre characters you would add to our Avengers team or for plot ideas for things that the team can face. Also comment if you have any other ideas for crossovers or actual crossovers that you have seen (whether they are well done or not).

*And if you could persuade Steve Moffat to actually make it, even better… having first made sure you have sacrificed to the gods of litigation to prevent various companies suiing him for Copyright… And if Moffat does want the gig and can sort out the copyright for the franchises he doesn’t own in that selection I have some plot ideas for him… 🙂

** No, really. I have never played Tomb Raider. I don’t tend to play computer games much. It’s ok, though. I checked. I don’t need to hand in my Geek card unless I also stop roleplaying and reading, watching and writing science fiction and fantasy.

*** And this had nothing to do with Emma Peel, leather catsuits and particular hormonal imbalances that occur around the age of 11. Absolutely nothing at all. I only ever watched it for the articles.

**** The graphic novel version not the film which was sort of OK (for, as Obi Wan Kenobi would say, a given value of OK which some may translate as ‘awful’) but had nothing on the graphic novel in terms of Victorian sleaze, drugs and nastiness and made Alan Quartermain not a drug addict and Mina Harker a vampire instead of the traumatised victim of a Vampire.

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