Dear Yuletide writer

[donutsweeper]

First off a HUGE thank you for writing! Overall, I'd really like if you have fun with this story and write something you'd like to read yourself. Stories that make me happy tend to concentrate on the characters being in character and acting and speaking like they would on the show and lean towards the gen side of things. But overall, I love all three of these fandoms and would be thrilled to read any story written for them

New Amsterdam (tv) John Amsterdam, Omar York

Father and son interaction between the two please. Either subtly like we saw in the pilot when John gets Omar out of trouble with his bookie by making a desk or something more overt. Or about the problems of an immortal having a child, and the child gets older and older while the parent doesn't age. Gen please.

New Amsterdam only lasted eight episodes, but it should have been more. Luckily they are all up at Hulu so they didn't disappear completely. I loved how at first we thought Omar was just a bartender and a friend of John's, but then we learn differently. It's also great that in the flashback with Omar's mother, Lily, we learn that John's secretary at the time was (presumably) also his daughter. It's so rare for immortals in fiction to be able to have children (as seen in most vampire myths, the Highlander series, etc.) that dealing with this issue is fascinating to me. What was it like to have a father that was younger than you? To see your child grow up while you don't? Obviously John and Omar figured out their relationship, and it's such a wonderful one. I just love to see them interact.

Big Valley (tv) Heath Barkley, Victoria Barkley

Canon never told us exactly why or when Heath started calling Victoria "Mother." A story about that moment would be wonderful, but any story about the relationship between these two would be absolutely fantastic. Gen please.

Luckily S1 of Big Valley is also available at hulu because it doesn't air too often anymore. I was always amazed how gracious Victoria was with Heath, she truly came to consider him one of her sons. But how? What made her open her heart up to him in that way? Why did he go from calling her Ma'am to Mother? How did this new family and new mother affect his feelings towards Leah and Rachel and Hannah?

Secret Adventures of Jules Verne (tv) Jules Verne, Phileas Fogg, Rebecca Fogg

Both Phileas and Rebecca went through exhaustive training to become spies, including (as we were shown) quite a bit of physical conditioning. Jules never had any of that and he's gotten hurt and or captured several times as a result. How did Phileas and Rebecca deal with that? Did they ever think he shouldn't be put in harms way? Or worry he'd get killed or get them killed?

This show isn't that easy to find, although some kind soul posted the edited version over at youtube (which is the version most people in the US saw on SCIFI when it first aired). The relationship between the Foggs and Verne was always fascinating. Rebecca seemed to consider him a little brother to an extent and Phileas seemed to vacillate between thinking Verne was a liability and an asset. All in all, the relationship of the three is just wonderful in canon and it's too bad we didn't see more of it.

Comments

[captain-tiv.livejournal.com]

Canon never told us exactly why or when Heath started calling Victoria "Mother." A story about that moment would be wonderful, but any story about the relationship between these two would be absolutely fantastic. Gen please.

I don't think I've ever seen Big Valley air in chronological order, but the earliest episodes I can think of that showed the mother/son relationship forming between Victoria and Heath were:

First episode, we had the speech Victoria gave Heath about "that's what I would tell you -- if you were my son."

The episode where Victoria went to Strawberry and met Hannah, Uncle Matt and Aunt Rachel. She told Matt, "I have four sons." That was Jarrod, Nick, Heath and Eugene.

The first time I can think of when Heath called her mother was when he was trapped under the wagon and Victoria gets Bruce Dern to help get him out. When Victoria tries to move the wagon, Heath calls her "Mother."

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I've watched Big Valley *way* too many times. They're actually all up at Hulu now (the first season anyway). I haven't rewatched them lately, but I'm 99% positive Heath is calling Victoria "Mother" by the episode "The Invaders" if not even earlier with "The Guilt Of Matt Burnell" and both are in the first half of S1. (here's an awesome episode guide of the show (http://www.angelfire.com/tv2/bvsmdm/BVepguide.html)) And, like you said, she's definitely claimed him as a son by the Bruce Dern episode "By Force or Violence" which is near the end of S1.

The Strawberry episode is very early, the third, ("Boots with my Father's Name") and Heath didn't call her Mother then, it seemed random to me when I suddenly noticed he did. But they still had such a great relationship, which considering everything was pretty amazing.

[captain-tiv.livejournal.com]

I found some good stories at a Big Valley fic website and some on ff.net. There seems to be a fic-plot running around that Victoria hated being called "Ma'am" or "Mrs. Barkley" by Heath. In one story, after he's been hurt, he call her "ma'am" which told Victoria how much he was hurt.

Also, in fic, Heath looks like Tom Barkley so there's no doubt in Victoria's mind that Tom is his father. Also, Heath is more like Tom physically than any of the other boys, so that makes it easier for Victoria to accept him. Most fics have Victoria wanting to be a mother to Heath because he's an extraordinary individual. I like those stories. ;)

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Humorously, according to IMDB they are currently filming a "The Big Valley" movie with Lee Majors as Tom Barkley!

Yes, there are some great Big Valley fics at ff.net, especially those by http://www.fanfiction.net/u/810498/kashkow and I've found a few other websites here and there although a lot disappeared when geocities went down- you're right the "Ma'am" has definitely become fanon, it's vaguely canon, I can't remember which episode, but one of the really early ones he calls her ma'am and she comments something about it.

As the massive Heath fan that I am, I like those stories where she wants to mother him for that too. :)

[franzeska]

That's interesting. I didn't know SAoJV had been edited. Was this to put more commercials in in the US or what?

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I assume so. I didn't know either until a little local station showed the episodes and there were scenes that were missing from the SCIFI aired version- none were major, but they added a bit. In the finale there are more scenes of Jules in the 'hospital' with the doctors dosing him and a few more on the Aurora with people sitting at his bedside and things like that (I only remember these because I'd taped the SCIFI version and watched it numerous times but then, totally by accident, caught the other version when it aired)

[franzeska]

Man, it's so frustrating they're never releasing it on DVD. It's such a gorgeous show. The tiny, blurry files I've seen just don't do it justice. :(

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

*coughs* ahem (http://www.megavideo.com/?v=KFHEOOCZ) *coughs* (only one episode, but still)

I can't believe it hasn't been released on DVD. I'd definitely buy it!

[franzeska]

If you need some help coughing and aheming in preparation for yuletide, I believe I can help you out. Just saying.


I would totally buy it too. I hear it basically went so far into debt that the rights are all tied up or something.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I think I'm okay in that regard, I'm well acquainted with the sekkrit comms.

Ah, debt issues makes sense- I think I remember reading that's why S2 died before it could get done