The man at the bar

[Kat]

Lisa - see my comment on the previous page in regards to our off topicness.
Darn Poot... short post... grr.

[Peter Murray]

Kli6 asked:
What's your favorite fandom thing in the YW books?

I don't think it's my favourite, but I like the references, like Pikachu on Carmela's TV. and the How Much For Just The Planet? reference in the W@W excerpt #3 that has gone away now.

[Birdhead]

What's your favorite fandom thing in the YW books?

How do you define a "fandom thing"? <STRIKE>I mean, there's that whole chapter of Journey songfic in HW...</STRIKE>

But I like "Hearnssen," personally, although of sourse I had to have it pointed out to me. But now, every time I read it, I laugh. :P Of course, I'm too young for most of the fandom except the anime, and I don't watch anime because it's too hard to get here, so...

I'm waiting for the Pig to say "42" when being asked what the meaning of life is, I will admit.

ETA: OMG I am an idiot, I forgot my favourite thing! Kit's creating worlds. LOTR! And Rice Burroughs! And references, some of which I actually got! So that's my favourite fandom thing, then.

I also like the way we get name-repeats. Like Charles and Alison Redpath I know are mentioned in AWAb, and then Charles Redpath is in STEKR (I think that's the one.) It's not really a fandom thing, I think, but it's the kind of reference it's fun to pick up.

[alla]

Fav. Fandom thing? Dairine's Yoda PJ's and the other Star Wars stuff that I can actually pic up on, as like Tui, I'm not old enough to understand some of the things.

Whats STEKR?

Alla

[Kathy Li]

Stealing the Elf-King's Roses. It's sort of DD's fantasy take on a police procedural in a world where fairy gold has an atomic weight and a commodity index. Dead fun.

My favorite in-joke on that one is that the heroine was named after Lee.

[alla]

Whoops... I had a mental blank. Dad has that one at home, but I haven't got around to reading it yet. I will at some stage.

I guess I could go looking for this, but how many charries are actually named after/around Lee?

Alla

[Gigo]

Didn't the book say that the man was simply hominid? Here's the revelent part from the book:

" She never found out anything about the man who helped her. Nor did he ever find out anything more about her....being telepathically sensitive (as so many hominids are), he could sense only that some considerable power had been sucessfully exercised........satisfied with that, he smiled to himself and went on about his travels, just one more of the billions of hominids moving about the worlds."

It clearly states that they didn't know anything about each other, and never found out anything more. Satisfied?

[Birdhead]

Actually, before that I think it mentions that he's human. But it's not really relevant, because if you read the last six pages you'd know that he's the Doctor from Dr Who, which I think has been independently confirmed by DD, and apparently he's pretty recognisable by himself... it's like if, say, in the next Harry Potter book JKR mentions a lady dressed in white running around with a blaster and two massive buns on either side of her head... she wouldn't have to tell you she was human for you to know that it's Princess Leia, right? :P

Er, not that Princess Leia is going to show up in HBP, or anything, although that WOULD be an interesting twist. :P

[Peter Murray]

Alla asked:
I guess I could go looking for this, but how many charries are actually named after/around Lee?

Apart from Lee Enfield in Stealing the Elf-King's Roses, I only know of Lia Burke in the Star Trek novel Wounded Sky. Lia appears in at least one of DC's Star Trek comics, which DD wrote.

Tui said:
Actually, before that I think it mentions that he's human.

The Doctor looks human, but isn't. Gallifreyans have two hearts and various other differences from Earth's humans, most of which were probably just convenient for a particular story. In the US TV movie, they said that the Doctor was half-human *ack* *sptt* which sounds too Star Trekky to fit the character.

And how do you know Princess Leia won't be in HBP?

[Birdhead]

Okay, so there we go, he's NOT human. :P (Hey, it's not my fandom, okay?)

You know what, Peter? If Princess Leia is in HBP, I will write Harry/Hermione for you because I think it's about as likely.

But when I say "in," I mean "is a character." It doesn't count if we just see a posater, or whatever.

[Kathy Li]

Speaking of Princess Leia walking through things, I was watching this really really really old B&W WWII-era British spy movie called The Adventures of Tartu (aka Tartu or Sabotage Agent), where the hero was played by Robert Donat.

He's a British UXB officer, who just happens to be fluent in lots of languages, who gets recruited by the Intelligence Service to become an undercover agent, posing as a member of the Rumanian Iron Guard, to help the local underground blow up a Nazi poison gas factory. Just trust me. It made sense at the time.

Anyway, we're into the third act, and his cover's been blown, and his girlfriend in the underground has to warn him so he can blow up the factory (he's been given tiny bombs to set off), and I suddenly notice--she's got this '40s hairdo where her hair is collected in two large buns at the nape of her neck. Our hero goes flying down these corridors (sort of octogonally shaped, like a square with its corners sliced off), through this white, dome-like interior, to drop bombs [ahem] down the main ventilation shafts (which just happen to be very big vertical pipes, surrounded by circular catwalks). Then the guards spot him, so he runs for it.

And as he's pounding down a corridor, with the Nazi soldiers after him, they start closing these blast doors, and he leaps through them, just before they shut, and the Nazis are left on the other side, pounding, yelling, "Open the door! Open the door!"

I'm just saying. I snort when people point to Kurosawa's Hidden Fortress for the R2D2/3P0 stuff. That's not nearly as obvious.

[Birdhead]

*laughing* Okay, so that's brilliant. I may have to take back my bet... but I don't THINK so.

Get lost, Poot. *feels guilty*

[Peter Murray]

Tui said:
Actually, before that I think it mentions that he's human. But it's not really relevant, because if you read the last six pages you'd know that he's the Doctor from Dr Who, which I think has been independently confirmed by DD, and apparently he's pretty recognisable by himself...

Hey, that's odd. He's so minor a character, yet he's got a photo in the Concordance.

"If the description is correct, he might look something like the man in the image to the right."

Now the question is - where's the photo from ? The story Castrovalva?

[Birdhead]

Hmm, yes, I did see that photo... Although you may notice that despite actually putting a picture up there, DD has totally refrained from ever conclusively saying that we got it right (we in the most general sense, that is) and it really, truly, honestly is the Doctor.

[Gigo]

Heh heh. I've got a link in the Discussion thread, that proves that it is Doctor Who. It's called Doctor correctly. Long-time fans of the Doctor will say that 'Dr' is wrong.

Hehehe. Hail my link, which doesn't actually prove anything, but is good enough to BE proof.