lizbee | It's time for the end of year fandom meme! (Reply)

1. Your main fandom of the year?

Star Trek: Discovery. You may have noticed.

2. Your favorite film you watched this year?

I saw a lot of movies this year, not least because I made a deliberate choice to see fewer superhero movies and more non-blockbusters.

So, of course, two of my favourites included Black Panther and Into the Spider-Verse, but I also saw The Favourite just last weekend and adored it. It's been on my mind since I walked out of the cinema, and I'm now reading one of the Queen Anne biographies I've been meaning to get around to for years.

3. Your favorite book read this year?

CHALLENGING, because a lot of my reading has been for the Aurealis Awards, and we're not meant to blog about those books -- or, if we must, we have to use a lot of disclaimers emphasising that these are our personal opinions and not representative of the relevant judging panels, etc.

Anyway, some books I have loved:

Nevermoor by Jessica Townsend (middle grade fantasy that felt like reading Harry Potter for the very first time)
After the Lights Go Out by Lili Wilkinson (YA where the daughter of a prepper finds herself in the middle of an actual apocalypse -- which sounds grim, and it certainly gets quite dark, but it's also about the value of community over Lone Manly Hero Men and such. Oh God, it's hopepunk, isn't it?)
Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch (which came on the heels of my reread of the entire Rivers of London series, and wrapped up certain subplots in interesting ways)
White Night by Ellie Marney (YA about country kids and family and, you know, cults. Wait, was that this year? 2018 has gone on forever.)

4. Your favorite album or song to listen to this year?

Dessa's Chime has been on constant repeat.

5. Your favorite TV show of the year?

Other than Discovery? The Good Place and Counterpart.

6. Your best new fandom discovery of the year?

Star Trek fandom is still great. And also still terrible. I just enjoy having feelings, okay?

7. Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year?

Doctor Who. I hoped the excitement of having a female Doctor would overcome Chibnall's limited storytelling skills, but ... if anything, he got worse.

8. Your fandom boyfriend of the year?

Having written 100,000+ words about his misadventures, I guess it has to be Gabriel Lorca -- but the prime version that only exists in my head. Though the best boyfriends are always the imaginary ones.

Runners up: Chidi Anagonye, for being smart and anxious and kind; Peter Grant, for extending the concept of human rights to vampires and revenants; Thomas Nightingale, for having the decency to let Peter teach him as well as the other way around.

9. Your fandom girlfriend of the year?

The really strange thing is that I sometimes leave my nice fannish bubble and find out that other people also love Kat, and consider her a well-rounded and interesting supporting character.

Not bad for a character who was meant to be killed off at the end of her third episode! (It would have been too late, I already loved her by then.)

10. Your biggest squee moment of the year?

It's difficult to pick just one! The entirety of "The War Without, The War Within"? The whole mirror universe arc that preceded it? I'm sure there are standout moments, but it just feels like 2018 had a baseline level of squee.

11. The most missed of your old fandoms?

I miss having feelings about Doctor Who other than apathy, disappointment and irritation.

12. The fandom you haven't tried yet, but want to?

Oh gosh, there's nothing right now. I'm completely stuck for things to watch other than Star Trek and Counterpart -- and, two-thirds of the way through season one of Enterprise, I'm not feeling hugely motivated to keep going. I wish Michelle Yeoh would put a sword through Archer's back and kick him into another dimension.

13. Your biggest fan anticipations for the coming year?

SEASON TWO OF DISCOVERY STARTS ON 18 JANUARY (my time). AWKWARDLY, I'll be visiting family that day, and am seriously considering handing my phone over to my mother so I don't spend the entire afternoon looking at spoilers on social media. Then I assume there'll be some kind of family dinner taking place right as it hits Netflix AU, but eventually I'll get to watch it.

I'm excited for Captain Marvel -- so excited, in fact, that I've blacklisted all mention of her from my social media, so that my innate contrarian tendencies don't kick in and make me resent the hype.

And I believe The Picard Series is earmarked for late 2019 -- which means filming will probably start shortly. Discovery's set was remarkably free of leaks and spoilers, and I'm sure The Picard Show will be the same, but there'll be HINTS and SPECULATION and probably the first trailer will be out at SDCC. I'm torn between fannishly wanting ALL THE CAMEOS and a slightly more realistic hope that we get a supporting cast of completely new characters, giving us a fresh generation preparing to enter the twenty-fifty century.