Scary stuff...

[fajrdrako]

fannish5: I might as well combine the October 19 and October 26 questions, which are: 1. What are the 5 creepiest or most frightening pieces of fan fiction you have ever read?

To which I can only reply: not applicable. I don't like to read or watch scary stuff. If I start a piece of fanfic and find it creepy or frightening, I stop reading. So it's safe to say I've never read a piece of creepy or scary fanfic. I read fanfic for other reasons - because it's interesting, funny, exciting, sexy or imaginative. Never because it's scary.

2. What are the five spookiest episodes or scenes?

As with fanfic, so with entertainment in general: I avoid scary things. But here at least I can scrape up a few answers.

1. The Doctor Who series one two-part episode "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances". I've watched them so often now that any fear-factor they ever had is long gone, but I remember how spooked I felt the first time I watched, and how much I enjoyed the story. I liked its combination of spookiness and humour. These are also the episodes that first introduced Captain Jack Harkness. The story was, of course, by the very best of Doctor Who writers, Steven Moffat. I don't, as a rule, find Doctor Who creepy in the least, but Moffat knows how to scare me and make me like it.



2. The Doctor Who episode "Blink", by (who else?) Steven Moffat.



3. Anything written by Alan Garner. Back in my teens I read The Owl Service. It terrified me and I loved it. Beautiful writing, which frightened me so much I then avoided his his books. Years later, I picked up another of his books - I don't recall the title - and was so scared by the first paragraph I couldn't continue. There wasn't even anything scary on that page. It's just all in his style. He has the unique distinction of being the writer I most love and admire whose works I can't read.



4. The X-Files episode "Humbug". It was the third episode I saw - up to that point, I thought the series rather silly, but not unwatchable for when I was doing exercises. "Humbug" was funny and scary at the same time - I liked that. I then became a passionate X-Files fan for a few years, and particularly a Fox Mulder fan, until the show lost its intelligence.



5. Carnivale. I watched till about the middle of second season, when it got to be too much for me. It was somewhat like a serious continuation of X-Files' "Humbug", with its carnival background - and of course a role for Michael J. Anderson in each. It had its share of time-bending, too. It was loosely about mythological forces of good vs. evil as played out with the story of a Methodist minister (who had supernatural powers) and a travelling "Carnivale" wandering through Texas in the Depression.
   
   Carnivale had consistently good actors, like Nick Stahl, Patrick Bauchau and Clea Duvall - and a special nod should go to Cynthia Ettinger, who played Rita Sue. And it had consistently good writing, for all it didn't usually make a lot of sense. Even the opening title sequence (which won an Emmy) was always fascinating to watch. My favourite episode was the one called "Babylon", a creepy story about a Texas ghost town with an abandoned mine.

Comments

[judymoe.livejournal.com]

I loved "Humbug". It was a melding of two things I enjoyed: X-Files and The Jim Rose Circus Sideshow. The Enigma roxxors! Heh. And JR has THE best patter ever. Though I'd never recommend watching TJRCS if you're at all squeamish. Even though Mr. Lifto *is* made of win. Hee.

I loved it when X-Files was funny and scary. Actually, I like that in lots of shows (CSI can be really fun, sometiimes).

TEC/TDD and Blink are two of my fave DH episodes. Guess I'll have to pay closer attention to the episode writers from now on.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Love your icon!

I never say "The Jim Rose Circus Sideshow" but I heard about it when I was an X-Files fan. I'm not sure I could handle watching it - Carnivale hit my limit and I stopped.

The other Doctor Who episode by Steven Moffat was "The Girl in the Fireplace" which (like ETC/TDD) won a Hugo Award. His episodes are always worth looking at. Likewise I think it's the episodes of Torchwood by Catherine Tregana that are by far the best.

[myfavouriteplum.livejournal.com]

I like Carnivale, it can be fascinating to watch sometimes, but I agree a lot of it doesn't make much sense. I lost my patience and didn't watch past the first episode of the second season.

It seems I couldn't erase "Babylon" from my memory...it is scary.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I agree a lot of it doesn't make much sense.

I personally thought it would be more entertaining if it were somewhat more linear. At a certain point, you want a payoff regarding explanations - even if the explanations are as fantastical as the events. Even if just to get a certain emotional coherence. I probably watched a few more episodes than you get, but I thought it was rambling rather too much, and getting more gross.

"Babylon" I think was the best episode - the one which most sticks in my head as a unit, and a clear, frightening story. Otherwise I tend to remember characters and scenes. Like the one where Ben met the little girl who couldn't walk, with the red wagon, and cured her, and we saw the fields around them dying. Ot the scenes where Ben's mother was dying.

And maybe best of all - I loved the scenes with "The Management", who seemed to have no body. I just read that the voice of "The Management" was Linda Hunt - I've always liked her work.

[myfavouriteplum.livejournal.com]

"I just read that the voice of "The Management" was Linda Hunt - I've always liked her work."

I didn't know it's her!

"At a certain point, you want a payoff regarding explanations - even if the explanations are as fantastical as the events."

I can understand show creators like to think of themselves as manipulators. But the manipulating can't go on forever.

""Babylon" I think was the best episode"

I agree. I watched the episode in the late n ight. It's wonderfully creepy...feel both so real and surreal.

"Otherwise I tend to remember characters and scenes."

I tend to remember scenes, too. A lot of them are visually stunning.

I also remember the love triangle of Sofie, Rita Sue and Clayton. I like these characters both before and after the love triangle. Can't say this about a lot of the TV love triangles...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I can understand show creators like to think of themselves as manipulators. But the manipulating can't go on forever.

No. Either there has to be a pay-off, where something is resolved in a satisfying way, or you have to raise the stakes to renew interest. Otherwise it just spirals into a series of events that don't add up, and that gets boring.

It's wonderfully creepy...feel both so real and surreal.

The most convincing part of the story, I thought, not least because it was a fairly coherent complete-in-one-episode piece with the backdrop of the larger ongoing story.

I also remember the love triangle of Sofie, Rita Sue and Clayton.

All good characters. Yes, I liked that too.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

The only things that frighten me in fic are things that are not meant to be frightening, but are: generally written by 14-year-olds or people with a mental/emotional age of 14:

In Patriot fandom:
An 18C story with a vegetarian Valley-Girl-in-Paniers author-insert heroine. Another that had a tartan-wearing warrior heroine who somehow managed to be descended from both William Wallace and Rob Roy Macgregor. All signs that the authors knew f-all about history but a lot about bad 'bodice-ripper' fiction.

In KoH fandom:
Anything that involves Baldwin IV and sex. The bishounen-ing of the character by stupid young girls who impose manga/anime stereotyping on every bloody fandom, even when it's totally culturally inappropriate. Worst of all: Guy/Baldwin rape.

What terrifies me is that the perpetrators do not actually see that there is anything wrong with this, especially when using real-life characters.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

It doesn't bother me much in this sort of fanfic, because I think the greatest thing about fic is the total freedom it gives everyone - even the fourteen year olds - to write whatever they want. And I have, of course, the freedom not to read it.

And I don't read stories like the above, because they are, generally speaking, easy to avoid because their nature is usually clear from the first paragraph. Even if not that, it might well have a warning that says something like, "This is my first KOH story ever, be kind," and adds that it hasn't been beta'd. Or worse, that list of people who beta'd it goes on forever - for some reason, those are the worst.

I wrote stories when I was fourteen, and they probably weren't any better. But I didn't let many people see them, either. Just as well I couldn't put them online!

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I wish that teenagers today had the same self-restraint. I wouldn't even share some of my stories with my parents when I was young. "Writing for the drawer" has gone out of style. They are all rampant exhibitionists who want praise (and nothing but) for everything they do. Then, of course, there are those who are over 14 in years, but are just emotionally retarded.

I was on a yahoo group, that meant I couldn't avoid getting the 18C stuff mailed to me in the lists. What I found disturbing was that negative comment, however polite, was not allowed, and was considered to be 'flaming', lest it deter some people from writing. The fact that some people ought to be deterred didn't seem to occur to anyone. Some of the worst examples (such as the imposition of Japanese manga stereotypes on 12C Outremer) were by over-20-year-old adults who were still emotionally 14-ish.

I strongly believe in deterring bad writers (including published ones). There should be a "national do-not-write-a-novel month". Or year. They could always take up knitting, or something that they are actually good at.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

You would never, ever want to see my knitting.

[filkferengi]

One of my very favorite DW moments: "Everybody lived!"

:)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Oh my goodness yes. Great moments in television!