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I love supernatural stories. Suitable Gravity and All The Queen's Men are favs, as is Legacy of Temptation. I'll read any supernatural story. I got sucked into Unfinished Melody also.

I don't care if the stories are AU or they are investigating the paranormal.

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heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com

There isn't any supernatural in Suitable Gravity, is there? Or am I getting mixed up?

I'm the opposite, btw *g* - supernatural usually (not quite always) throws me in Pros. I love it that there's so much to enjoy in this fandom, that there's room for such a wide range of tastes! I have the lads living more towards the "real"-ish (or at least, realistic-ish) end of the spectrum in my brain, I think ... science fiction, yes, absolutely; supernatural, not so much. eh ::shrugs:: there's more than enough for us all to love.

FWIW, if they're going to encounter the supernatural I'd imagine this more in an AU I suppose. But as so often, it depends on the writer and their skill and style - I've long since given up saying (or even thinking) "I'd never get into reading such-and-such" when the very next fic has me carried away with precisely that.

Come to think of it, I'd forgotten there was once a time when I thought I didn't like AUs ... how wrong I was!

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I think I was lumping anything supernatural with scifi and fantasy. :)

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Hee - I had that same thing about thinking I didn't/wouldn't like AUs. So glad I was so wrong! *g*

I wonder why the supernatural throws you in Pros - are you not so interested in it in other stories too, so it seems more out of place in Pros, maybe? I quite like supernatural stories in general, so even though there's no supernatural element in Pros I'm happy with it being slotted in (just as I'm happy for history to be slotted in, for instance), but perhaps if you're not keen on spooky stories to start with it would seem wrong to add them to Pros...

Or summat. *g*

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heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com

I'm not generally much of a supernatural fan - well, Dracula's well worth the read, of course, and Kinski was an exceptional Count (mind you, he does seem well suited to playing pretty much any megalomaniac sociopath ... *g*) but I don't tend to read ghost stories or anything with supernatural characters (except when I used to read BtVS fanfic, where it's canon of course). It does feel out of place in Pros to me, perhaps because the show was so tangibly set in its fictional version of the real world. I'm very fond of Due South, though, come to think of it, which has canonical ghosts and a generous helping of magical realism, so it feels perfectly right there!

So, a bit of both, really - not a huge fan of the supernatural per se, on the one hand, and I feel that while it does belong in some fandoms it feels out of kilter in Pros. Unless the writing really does it for me, of course, as I was saying before - the right writing from the right writer can make me go with them almost anywhere, and I can certainly enjoy a supernatural Pros story; I'm just a bit harder to bring along, perhaps, because it's not my thing straight off the bat. (agree w what you said before too - it's all about the characterisation; as long as they still feel like them, and nobody's a fainting violet!

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I'm rewatching BtVS right now, though I've never been moved to read any fanfic. It's such a fun series though - and with added dark, which is always interesting... *g*

Pros ... was so tangibly set in its fictional version of the real world
Oh, good way of putting it - yeah, one of the things I love about Pros is its realism, how it was never a cartoon of itself (as I felt S&H was, for instance). It didn't take itself seriously in that earnest way that some shows have, but it was completely grounded... in fact that's what made the moments of comedy work for me here as opposed to in shows like S&H, they felt like real humorous moments, the kind used by people trying to deal with things in real life, not just added to amuse the audience...

That said, I can still quite easily see our lads dealing with a supernatural world - partly cos I find supernatural worlds interesting to start with, I guess, and perhaps partly cos the eps mean I can imagine them dealing with it as real people...

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As an S&H fan I wanted to toss something out. If you watch S&H at the beginning, it was gritty and considered the most violent show on telly. That's why they were "forced" by the studios because of pressure from the media and outraged viewers to make more light hearted episodes and delve into "social justice" with eps about child abuse and rape. Finally at the end, the creators went back to their roots and ended with close to the same programme they started with. Just an observation since I find both S&H and Pros are closely related in their execution in many aspects. It would have been interesting if Pros had gotten the (extra) 30 eps S&H did and what scripts would have come out.

Edited Date: 2013-03-22 11:02 am (UTC)

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To be fair it's been years since I saw a complete S&H ep - probably not since I was a wee kiddie, even before I saw Pros, so I'm mostly going off clips and bits that I've seen in vids, or posted around, and I know that's not entirely representative. The whole lighter-side thing does stick in my mind, though, which Pros didn't have to the same extent.

Oh, but I wish that Pros had had an extra 30 eps! I can't imagine them delving into the same sort of material though, as B/D and S/H were based in different parts of law enforcement, I think - S&H were basic policemen, right? So they'd've had a wider remit than B/D, and let more of the social justice element in. There's probably only so many Cold War spy stories that a show can make, unless it's going to go more deeply into the personal lives of the characters (again, how I wish! *g* Mind you - it's because they didn't that we have so much to play with, with B/D... *g*)

Hmmn though - being very violent doesn't necessarily make something more realisitic-feeling, thinking about it... You've got me more curious to glance at S&H than I've been before, mind... *g*

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Oh sure, different laws and customs and countries, and scripts will vary. S&H are indeed city police officers and do tend to stick with the local sort of crime, drug smuggling, murder, prostitution, etc. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have had even ten more Pros eps? Man, it makes me tingle with pleasure thinking about it. LOL!!

I do think if you give the entire run of S&H a chance you might see what I see, another great set of lads who love each other and are darned fun to watch. Not to mention pretty to look at. There is a lighter side mostly in the tags, which it has been proven were actually suggested and done by the actors. They thought (and still do think) that the silly gags guys like to play on each other are hilarious. Me, I cringe at some of the gags but they have stated they enjoyed them and found them fun to do.

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Me too - though as

heliophile_oxon says, alot of it still has to do with the writing (and characterisation). I adore Legacy of Temptation, but Jane's lads in Unfinished Melody just don't work for me at all. Doyle as an uber-powerful vampire who's constantly fainting in Bodie's arms? Not for me... *g*

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moonlightmead.livejournal.com

I dunno, I rather liked Doyle the uber-powerful and confident vampire in Jane's Flesh and Steel stories - such a nice change from her usual Doyles! - but that is just soo... I dunno, immersive? ... that I find myself enjoying it and then thinking "But, um... how did we get from 1970s CI5 lads to high medieval fantasy Spain-dwelling crusade-conducting supernatural lads?" There's some other elements in it which seriously bother me, but they're not the supernatural bits.

I liked Flesh and Steel enough that I started keeping an eye out for Unfinished Melody. Are they not similar at all, then?

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I love horror, so any story in that genre is sure to catch my interest. Adding the lads only makes it more interesting. And isn't that what fanfiction is all about? Creating new possibilities for the characters? Yes, in slash that possibility is greatly slanted toward the romantic one, but I like when a story has more than that. There's nothing wrong with a love story, but I don't know if I'd like slash half as much if that's all it had.

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There's nothing wrong with a love story, but I don't know if I'd like slash half as much if that's all it had.
That's what I reckon too! I want most especially to know about our B/D - that's the focus of any story for me - but there has to be more to the story than that. As Bodie says in Larton, who wants to read about a couple that just settle down to growing roses together? I want to know how they got there, and the how they got there - or the growing of roses - is much more interesting when it takes place in the big wide world of tensions and problems to solve and mysteries to unravel... *g*

I wonder if it might depend on whether you like supernatural stories in the first place (which - we've already had this discussion, but I've just thought of a better way to explain myself! - aren't the same to me as "horror" stories, because whilst you can have horror without something being supernatural, the supernatural aspect is a thing in and of itself... *g* I'm not mad keen on horror, although I can go with it if its in context of something else, such as the supernatural, or science fiction). If you're not keen on supernatural then I guess it would seem even stranger to take the lads out of their ep-seen natural world and put them into it...

But yes - I think a bit part of why I like the lads is being interested in how they'd react in different situations, and how those situations would affect them as our B/D... *g*

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I wonder if it might depend on whether you like supernatural stories in the first place (which - we've already had this discussion, but I've just thought of a better way to explain myself! - aren't the same to me as "horror" stories, because whilst you can have horror without something being supernatural, the supernatural aspect is a thing in and of itself... *g* I'm not mad keen on horror, although I can go with it if its in context of something else, such as the supernatural, or science fiction).

I do tend to lump them together, but I get what you mean. Sort of like "The Dead Zone," or "The Green Miles," both of which have elements of the supernatural but without being true horror.

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Hmmn - I suppose I tend to think of things like Saw (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saw_(franchise)) as a horror film, and as far as I know that's not supernatural... oh, and films like Pyscho (though I suppose now that'd be considered more psychological suspense), and the film with Kathy Bates - erm... oh, Misery (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misery_(film))!

Lots of horror does cross over into supernatural though...

Oh, I know! Another example of supernatural that's not horror is The Ghost and Mrs Muir () (as in The Ghost and Raymond Doyle (http://ci5hq.livejournal.com/203033.html)! *g*

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starlite876.livejournal.com

I separate "horror" stories from "supernatural" stories as well.

PJ's Dust and Secrets (http://www.thecircuitarchive.com/tca/archive/13/dustand.html) is another "non-horror" supernatural story that I often re-read. The lads are working with the SAS on protective security details when they encountered the ghost. Because the story covers several genres (case-work, first-time, supernatural) the supernatural element is almost believable. *g*

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Oh I remember Dust and Secrets, yes!

And yeah, I have a definite separation of the two things, though they often do cross over... but I think I would have expected something quite different if our theme had been Pros Horror Stories!

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I wonder how much that has to do with changing times? I grew up reading Poe and Lovecraft (there wasn't much else until the late 60'sor so,) so I've always grouped horror and the supernatural together, sort of how scifi and fantasy are. For me, movies like "Saw" are more like torture porn.

And, yes, "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" would be considered supernatural while not being horror.

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You're probably right about it having something to do with changing times - I'd guess that bloody-splattering movies like Saw didn't exist until relatively recently (by which I mean later 1900s - and erk for being able to use that as a historical term when I lived in them!) So when people (e.g. you! *g*) spoke about horror, that wasn't what they meant cos it didn't exist... they were probably getting more common when I was growing up, so to me that's what horror is... Good point! *g*

Mind you, I wouldn't call something like Saw "torture porn" either - for me, "porn" always suggests something sexual, and surely there's nothing sexual in those films...? (Bearing in mind that I never have and never will see them to know for sure!)

Edited Date: 2013-03-23 09:49 am (UTC)

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I've never seen any of them either (and have no plans to,) and it's hard to imagine their attraction. But just like horror, I think porn's definition has changed, too.

Television shows, articles, photographs, etc., thought to create or satisfy an excessive desire for something, especially something luxurious: the irresistible appeal of food porn; an addiction to real-estate porn. (from Dictionary.com)

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