Yuletide, 2022
Oct. 14th, 2022 09:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kateoftheangelsDear Yuletide Creator,
Thank you for offering to create for me! I promise that I'm easy to please, and am certain I will be delighted with whatever you devise.
Here's some further information if you think it might be helpful, and possible directions you may want to take your story in, should you find yourself in need of inspiration. If this additional detail is not for you, please feel free to skip it in its entirety.
My AO3: Kate_Wisdom
General likes: Banter, Best Enemies, Bodyswaps, Comrades-in-arms, Canon-era Crossovers, Enemies to Lovers, Emotional Constipation, Emotional Intensity, Ethical Dilemmas, Explicit Content, Forced Intimacy, Historical AUs, Hurt/Comfort, Iron Woobieness, Moral Shades of Grey, Plot, Punishment, Restrained Language, Spanking and Corporal Punishment, Sex Pollen, Situationally-Appropriate Crying, Third Parties Made Them Do It, World-Building
(I am enthusiastically consenting to Yuleporn, and my smut likes can be found here.)
I am also enthusiastically consenting to treats in all forms!
Request 1
Fandom: Colditz (1972)
Character: Preston AND/OR Carter
DNWs: Onscreen Character Death or Permanent Injury/Mutilation (or offscreen, for Preston), Underage, Character/Ship Bashing (specifically no Caroline-bashing or Cathy-bashing), Dark Preston, Dark Carter, Dark Allies or Dark Kommandant, Gender Identity Headcanons, Sex Changes.
Background:
Colditz (TV, 1972) is a British TV show that ran from 1972 to 1974, and is about Allied POWs imprisoned at the supposedly escape-proof Colditz Castle in WW2. The show is so great, in terms of setting and historicity, featuring real escape attempts both successful and unsuccessful. Many of its characters were also based on real people, including one of Season One’s main POV characters, Pat Grant, an expy of British Army captain Pat Reid, POW and author of the book on which the show was based.
The show wasn’t just a rollicking adventure story filled with escapes and derring-do, its episodes dealing with loneliness and patriotism and what happens when enemies and uneasy allies are forced to live in close contact with each other (I should warn for some period-typical British chauvinism).
It had a great ensemble cast, as well, which included US movie star Robert Wagner, and Bernard Hepton as the humane, conflicted Kommandant (who would later switch sides to star as Belgian resistance leader Albert Foret in Secret Army); it also had mostly great acting, particularly by Jack Hedley as magnificent iron woobie Colonel Preston, and David McCallum, fresh from his starring turn in Man from U.N.C.L.E. (TV).
Resources:
All of its 28 episodes are available on BBC iPlayer, as well as on Youtube.
This is an excellent resource on both the show and the actors, including photographs of its filming locations (the real castle is in Leipzig, Dresden, but the show was mostly shot in the UK).
Characters:
John Preston, played by the dashing Jack Hedley. Preston is the strong and immensely capable Senior British Officer of Colditz Castle, who epitomises characteristic British stiff-upper-lip restraint. He leads the sad, desperate men of the British contingent in Colditz by straight-backed example; he is respected by every man in the camp, both ally and foe, including his Best Enemy, Kommandant Karl; at the same time, he’s just as lonely and disillusioned as all the prisoners imprisoned there.
Simon Carter, played by David McCallum, for whom I’ve rekindled my old affections, is a RAF flight lieutenant who takes over as head of the escape committee at Colditz, becoming Preston's effective second in command. Hotheaded, scrappy and determined, Carter is an experienced bomber pilot who is also capable of seeing the bigger picture. He also develops a Best Enemy at camp in the form of Major Horst Mohn.
Prompts - - Gen:
I would love a missing scene or character study of either or both of these men before, during or after the war. I would equally love a story that made use of Colditz’s ensemble cast, as long as it involved Preston and/or Carter in some principal way: future fic, backstories, missing scenes, vignettes, or plotty episodes. Some ideas:
+ A heartwarming ensemble piece. In 2020, I received this magnificent treat fromlilliburlero, where the boys put on a Christmas show, and Preston delivers Prospero's soliloquy, and it was utterly perfect. This year, how about a game of five-a-side or cricket in the square, or speed chess?
+ Series finale: What if Mohn had not in fact taken himself off the board for the Colditz endgame, and remained in the camp to countermand the Kommandant’s surrender, insist that the castle ought to be held by German forces, and Allied prisoners who resisted be dealt with? What action would Preston, Simon and the boys have been forced to take to protect themselves and other POWs in the camp?
+ Post-war: would Preston and/or Simon have stayed in the military, and tried their best to help the Allies deal with the fallout? Would they have consulted in the running of the POW camps in England? What would a Bad Ending/Enemies Win setting and/or conclusion look like for Preston, and/or Simon? (I want them to survive it, but not all other characters need to).
+ Crossover: What if there was an Enemy at the Door crossover? Richter and Reinicke replace Karl and Mohn in Colditz. How do Preston and Simon and the boys deal with them (and would the outcome of, say, S2E4, with the three British commandos, have been different)? Would the endgame change with these very different Germans in charge?
+ Bodyswaps: What kind of mayhem would ensue if Preston swapped bodies with Simon (and, in a prompt that belongs to the shipping section, they had to bang to switch back)? Or with the Kommandant? With Mohn? Now, that would be an interesting escape plan indeed!
+ Historical AUs: What if the boys were prisoners of war in WW1 instead? Or in the Napoleonic wars, or the Silesian wars, or even in Roman British times?
Prompts - - Shipping:
+ Preston has zero opportunities for romantic contact in the show; when he loses his wife Caroline in S1E9, he is not permitted to even accept a gesture of comfort from Flt Lt Simon Carter, who spends all season butting heads with him but who does it because he adores him, or from the Kommandant who has to break the terrible news to him, and who, to no one’s surprise, secretly also adores him also.
+ Perhaps Preston lets one of them comfort him after Caroline’s death? There would be conflict and guilt afterwards, because any romantic contact would still be illegal and a court-martialable offence, but the comfort and companionship might be too strong to resist.
+ Perhaps the camp is struck by a misplaced Allied raid, or an escape attempt has gone awry, or by sex pollen, and Preston needs to rescue one of these hapless gentlemen - - or, even more deliciously, finds himself in need of rescue? Or perhaps Preston needs to discipline Simon over some military infraction? Or the Kommandant needs to punish his Best Enemy, but he can't quite manage it, and Preston has to step in to assist?
+ Perhaps Mohn manages to ensnare Simon in some cunning manner, on one of Simon’s escapes or long show-canon confinements in solitary? Perhaps Preston (and Karl?) need to rescue Simon from his own Best Enemy?
+ Fake Marriage AU: What if Preston or Carter were compelled by their German captors or bizarro SS rules or impending Allied postwar imprisonment to marry their Best Enemies, or each other? Would a practical yoke of convenience lead to physical intimacy?
+ Futurefic: Post-war, perhaps Simon seeks Preston out - - then a lonely widower trying to raise two small boys on his lonesome. What would that bittersweet post-series future happiness in post-war Britain look like for them?
Request 2
Fandom: Enemy at the Door (TV)
Characters: Richter
DNWs: Onscreen Character Death, Permanent Injury/Mutilation (or offscreen, for Richter or Philip), Underage, Character/Ship Bashing or bashing of spouses, Dark Richter or Dark Philip, Nazi apologism, Gender Identity Headcanons, Sex Changes.
Background:
Enemy at the Door (TV) is a British TV show that ran from 1978 – 1980, and is about the German occupation of the Channel Islands during WW2. This show is so great, in terms of setting and historicity, and also its writing, which excellently portrays the balance of power and fragile harmony between the islanders and the German occupying forces.
The show centres around Dr Philip Martel (Dr Who stalwart Bernard Horsfall), a member of the Guernsey Controlling Committee, and Major Dieter Richter (the late, great Alfred Burke), the commander of the German occupying forces, as well as a sterling ensemble cast that includes Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Anthony Stewart Head in his first TV role. It’s a historical war drama that explores conflict and patriotism and enemies forced to live in close contact with each other, telling its characters’ stories in nuanced character arcs that spans the two seasons, and dealing with ethical dilemmas and slice-of-life events in complex, moral shades of grey.
This excellent fanvid by lostspook1 really captures the thoughtful, melancholy atmosphere of the show;thisbluespirit has a fandom manifesto here (both linked to with thanks).
Resources:
All 26 of its episodes are available on Amazon Prime, as well as on archive.org.
Madeleine Bunting’s The Model Occupation: The Channel Islands Under German Rule, 1940-1945 is a balanced and fairly non-apologist account of the occupation.
Character:
Dieter Richter, played by ascetic, saintly-faced Alfie Burke. Richter is the urbane Kommandant of the island of Guernsey, who was a professor of philosophy in peacetime. Richter is very much a military commander - - he takes decisive actions, eg in court-martialling the young soldier whom one of the islanders accuses of rape, and having him executed by firing squad - - but at the same time he does try to mitigate the hardships of the occupation for the islanders. He’s also morally conflicted about the atrocities of the regime; unfortunately, not sufficiently to do enough about it (when confronted in S2E3, he tells Dr Martel, “Whatever may be the abuse of man, that is the use of nature: first survive”).
Prompts - - Gen
Although Richter is my favourite, and I would love a missing scene or character study of him before, during or after the war, I'm very interested in this historical period and place, and would equally love a story that makes use of the cast and setting: future fic, backstories, missing scenes, vignettes or whole plotty episodes. Some ideas:
+ A scene from the Season 3 canon never gave us, post the Season 2 finale in April 1943. For instance, as the war progressed, the Channel Islands found themselves ignored and Guernseyans faced tremendous deprivations - - how would Richter and his men have addressed this situation? In July 1944, the von Stauffenberg assassination and coup attempt failed; as part of the aforementioned plot, von Stülpnagel, the military governor of occupied France, managed to arrest most of the SS commanders in the Paris garrison. What, if anything, would Richter and his men have done about Reinicke, the SS attache attached to their command?
+ Also in July 1944, fanatical Admiral Huffmeier arrived in Guernsey and was shortly promoted to Channel Islands commander. What would Richter (and Reinicke) done about this lunatic, who refused to surrender the Channel Islands to the Allied forces even though Germany had surrendered, and how would they have negotiated the last difficult lead-up to V-day?
+ Richter has so many great, conflict-ridden interactions with the islanders that tread the line between respectful and coercive (as Olive says, “When is it not just survival? When does it become helping the enemy?”). I’d love to see him taking tea with Olive Martel, or calling on Helen Porteous, or crossing swords with Peter Porteous; perhaps you might envision a social event to which the Martels invited Richter because they wanted to get something out of him, and vice versa.
+ Crossover with Colditz (TV)! Karl, Ullmann and/or Mohn come to visit Guernsey, or Preston, Pat and/or Simon are part of a British raid on the aircraft defence system on Sark. How would Richter and co. have reacted?
+ Bodyswaps: What kind of mayhem would ensue if Richter swapped bodies with Reinicke (and, in a prompt that belongs to the shipping section, they had to bang to switch back)? Or with General Muller? Or with Clive? (Not for nothing do I append this beautiful classic black-and-white photo of ASH in satin and lace <3)
+ Historical AUs: What if the Germans invaded Guernsey in WW1? Or during the Silesian wars, or the time of the Vikings? Would Richter have been a reluctant captain in Frederick the Great's army, or an even more reluctant Viking chieftain?
Prompts - - Shipping
The show doesn't sugar-coat, nor is it apologist for, the dark moral choices made by Richter or indeed the other Nazis or islanders on Guernsey, and I would be interested in all dark moral choices and fraught non/dubious consent shippy scenarios, with Philip Martel, with Reinicke, and really anyone else in the cast, which would involve Richter suffering stoically and being wracked by guilt.
+ Perhaps Richter was unexpectedly placed in harm’s way by enemy action or his own side? Dr Martel would clearly be the only man whom he could rely on to administer both medical and non-medical treatment. Or Richter finds himself compelled as part of his duties to subjugate one of the islanders in all senses of the term, and Martel is the only one he can bear to inflict himself on? Or in an even darker version of events, after V-Day, the islanders brand Martel a collaborator, and force him to punish Richter as a sign of loyalty?
+ Alternatively, I would be delighted with these gentlemen bickering over radio requisitions, or risking their lives/their careers to rescue each other (Martel from the terrible SS a la Judgement of Solomon or Richter from a POW internment in a terrible Soviet gulag), or sharing a romantic breakfast of ersatz coffee at the Kommandantur or the Hotel Normandie. (Please deal with Anna and Olive respectfully in the manner you think best -- perhaps Olive is all for her husband's uncomfortable closeness with the Kommandant, or perhaps she's decided to pack it in and leave Philip for That Nice Doctor Forbes.)
+ Richter is definitely the sort of commanding officer who would wearily do his duty when one of his senior officers was imperilled by sex pollen or captured in a commando raid or by the Resistance, even if that officer was Reinicke. They hate each other rather cordially, and though Reinicke is a stickler for military hierarchy, he is also a terrible troll; the fact that both of them are at such ideological odds with each other, and would hate this situation equally, is part of its draw.
+ Fake Marriage AU: What if Richter was compelled by vengeful islanders or bizarro SS rules or impending Allied postwar imprisonment to marry Reinicke, or (in a scenario where Olive leaves) Philip? Would a practical yoke of convenience lead to physical intimacy?
+ Futurefic: Postwar, what if Richter, newly released from Allied imprisonment and with or without Anna in tow, decided to search for a newly single Philip, or an equally liberated Reinicke? How do they navigate a delicate postwar relationship that becomes a romance?
Request 3
Fandom: Man From U.N.C.L.E. (TV) RPF
Character: Robert Vaughn AND/OR David McCallum
DNWs: Noncon or dubcon, Character Death, Underage, Character/Ship Bashing esp of Jill Ireland (and mention of McCallum’s RL political beliefs), Dark Characters, Gender Identity Headcanons, Sex Changes, Permanent Injury/Mutilation.
Background:
Man from U.N.C.L.E. (TV) was an American spy fiction television series, produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television and first broadcast on NBC; it detailed the exploits of secret agents Napoleon Solo (played by Robert Vaughn) and Illya Kuryakin (played by David McCallum), who work for a secret international counterespionage and law-enforcement agency called U.N.C.L.E. The series premiered on September 22, 1964, completing its run on January 15, 1968. The series won the Golden Globe Award for Best TV Show in 1966.
This is such a great show, which, in its heyday, was the most popular show on Western TV, and made instantly recognisable celebrities of its two stars. When the Beatles visited America, they asked to be introduced to Robert Vaughn!
Resources:
The show is available on Netflix, and here.
Here is a link to Vaughn’s fan site, with several photo articles on his life and relationship with McCallum, and to his autobiography, A Fortunate Life.
Here is a link to McCallum’s fan site, with more than you wanted to know about the man’s life and career, his relationship with his fans, his musical ability, and his relationship with Vaughn.
Characters:
All-American Vaughn (November 22, 1932 – November 11, 2016) would, post-U.N.C.L.E., go on to play detective Harry Rule in the 1970s series The Protectors; General Hunt Stockwell in the fifth season of the 1980s series The A-Team; and grifter and card sharp Albert Stroller in the British television drama series Hustle (2004–2012). He also appeared in the British soap opera Coronation Street as Milton Fanshaw in 2012. In film, he portrayed the gunman Lee in The Magnificent Seven with Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen, Ross Webster in Superman III with Christopher Reeve, and war veteran Chester A. Gwynn in The Young Philadelphians with Paul Newman, which earned him a 1959 Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
A lifelong Democrat, Vaughn was the first popular American actor to take a public stand against the Vietnam War; he debated William F. Buckley Jr. on his program Firing Line on the Vietnam War, and campaigned for the Kennedys. He studied at Los Angeles State College of Applied Arts and Sciences, earning a master's degree in theatre. After graduating from college, Vaughn was drafted into the Army, serving as a drill sergeant. While working on U.N.C.L.E., he worked on a Ph.D. in communications, and obtained it the University of Southern California in 1970. In 1972, he published his dissertation as the book Only Victims: A Study of Show Business Blacklisting.
McCallum (born 19 September 1933) is a Scottish actor and musician who would in the years post-U.N.C.L.E. go on to play Simon Carter in Colditz (SEE ABOVE) and alongside Joanna Lumley in Sapphire & Steel. In recent years, he gained renewed international recognition and popularity for his role as NCIS medical examiner Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard in the American television series NCIS. With John Leyton and William Russell, he is one of the last living actors from the 1963 classic The Great Escape.
Hailing from a musical family, McCallum won a scholarship to University College School, where, encouraged by his parents to prepare for a career in music, he pursued the oboe. On leaving school, he joined the British Army's 3rd Battalion the Middlesex Regiment, which was seconded to the Royal West African Frontier Force. In March 1954 he was promoted to lieutenant. After leaving the army he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (also in London), where Joan Collins was a classmate. A classically-trained musician, in the 1960s McCallum recorded four albums for Capitol Records.
The tabloid press famously reported that there was an on set feud between Vaughn and McCallum, but whatever the truth of the matter, there are a zillion photos out there with the two of them on the press circuit and on the road, looking like they were enjoying each other’s company - - including at the memorable Golden Globes 1964, where they walked onstage to collect their award holding hands (emcee Andy Williams cracks, "You guys have been together too long”!) They men stayed in touch over the years since U.N.C.L.E., speaking to each other on their birthdays; McCallum gave his former co-star a moving tribute at a 2009 dinner for Vaughn.
In 1983, the men hit the talk show circuit together to promote the less-than-stellar The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E - - taking part in an adorable a joint Return interview, where, to the talk show host's "There were rumours that you two didn't get along!", Vaughn said, "Absolutely untrue!", and McCallum quipped back, "There were rumours that we knew each other very well!". In 1986, McCallum guest-starred in a Season Five episode of the A-Team, The Say UNCLE Affair, playing a Kuryakin-esque villain Ivan Trigorin who has a charged history with Vaughn’s General Stockwell. In 2007, they came together for a reunion interview for the re-re-release of the UNCLE DVD set, and were as handsy and adorable as ever! When Vaughn passed on in 2016, McCallum spoke of his "utter devastation", saying, heartbreakingly, “losing him is like losing a part of me”.
Prompts - - Gen:
+ Series Finale and post: MFU Season Four was famously cut short thanks to a tonally-inconsistent season and plunging ratings; to all accounts Vaughn and McCallum were taken completely by surprise. How would they have managed if they had been given the rest of Season Four (and potentially a Season Five)? Would the Return Movie have been different, if they had?
+ Crossover: What if Vaughn and McCallum found themselves in an entirely different spy duo/buddy cop franchise like The Professionals, or Starsky & Hutch? Or, in a reverse of MFU TV Season One's The Project Strigas Affair (which guest-stars Leonard Nimoy and Will Shatner sharing the small screen two years before their Star Trek debut), what if they'd been cast in Star Trek: the Original Series? What if Vaughn had joined McCallum on Colditz or NCIS, or if McCallum had joined the cast of The Magnificent Seven, or Hustle, or Coronation Street?
+ Bodyswaps: What kind of mayhem would have ensued on the MFU set if Vaughn swapped bodies with McCallum (and, in a prompt that belongs to the shipping section, they had to bang to switch back)? What if it had happened during the Return movie, or the Say UNCLE Affair?
+ Historical AUs: What if Vaughn and McCallum were suddenly transported to the front lines of World War Two? Would they have been able to help stave off the Wehrmacht enslaught on the Channel Islands, or the London Blitz, or fought side by side at Normandy?
Prompts - - Shipping:
I confess to shipping it, intensely. The glare of fame when they were in their early 30s! Living in each other's pockets in Hollywood during the demanding filming schedule, and being joined at the hip while on the road across America and Britain and the Far East carrying out the studio's punishing promotional schedule in the hiatus between seasons, fending off hordes of hysterical fans all the while! The nearly 60 years of history and friendship, the hand-holding and the easy intimacy, the handsiness and bantering - - all the while bickering and teasingly competitive, in the same way of Napoleon and Illya's bickering, bantering, push-and-pull onscreen relationship.
Various aspects of Napoleon's and Illya's bitingly flirtatious onscreen dynamic only made sense if they were shagging on the sly - - perhaps their dynamic only played out that way because Vaughn and McCallum were themselves shagging on the sly?? "There were rumours that we knew each other very well" wouldn't have come out of a vaccuum, after all!
+ Envision for me various interstitial hookups between those flirty episodes, and/or the long decades of their on-again, off-again relationship!
+ Season finale: the penultimate S4 episode has the agents’ boss, Mr Waverly, remarking on what terrible husbands his spies would make; the episode ends with Illya gazing at his partner and remarking, meaningfully, “At least we have each other.” What happens when the cameras stop rolling?
+ "You guys have been together too long!" Give me a behind-the-scenes look at the hand-holding at the Golden Globes, and what came after?
+ McCallum's marriage to Jill Ireland famously fell apart during the filming of MFU Season 3. What if bachelor Vaughn helped him cope, intimately, on set, or on one of their overseas tours?
+ Fake Marriage AU: S3's The Suburbia Affair saw the spies setting up house in suburbia to spy on an enemy scientist gone to ground (no, really), with Napoleon and Illya squabbling over the bread run and making a souffle. What if Vaughn and McCallum had to set up house for the job, too? Would fighting over exploding milk and doing the dishes have led to physical intimacy at last?
+ Futurefic: Perhaps Vaughn and McCallum finally hook up fifteen years after MFU's demise, during the filming or press circuit of The Return Movie, or the A Team's Say UNCLE Affair? (If you go with this prompt, please deal kindly with wives Linda and Katherine; feel free to have them join in in a polyamorous OT4, or have them give their enthusiastic blessing to these two old friends, who would have finally managed to find their way to each other at last <3)
Thank you again for creating for me, and I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with this Yuletide!
Thank you for offering to create for me! I promise that I'm easy to please, and am certain I will be delighted with whatever you devise.
Here's some further information if you think it might be helpful, and possible directions you may want to take your story in, should you find yourself in need of inspiration. If this additional detail is not for you, please feel free to skip it in its entirety.
My AO3: Kate_Wisdom
General likes: Banter, Best Enemies, Bodyswaps, Comrades-in-arms, Canon-era Crossovers, Enemies to Lovers, Emotional Constipation, Emotional Intensity, Ethical Dilemmas, Explicit Content, Forced Intimacy, Historical AUs, Hurt/Comfort, Iron Woobieness, Moral Shades of Grey, Plot, Punishment, Restrained Language, Spanking and Corporal Punishment, Sex Pollen, Situationally-Appropriate Crying, Third Parties Made Them Do It, World-Building
(I am enthusiastically consenting to Yuleporn, and my smut likes can be found here.)
I am also enthusiastically consenting to treats in all forms!
Request 1
Fandom: Colditz (1972)
Character: Preston AND/OR Carter
DNWs: Onscreen Character Death or Permanent Injury/Mutilation (or offscreen, for Preston), Underage, Character/Ship Bashing (specifically no Caroline-bashing or Cathy-bashing), Dark Preston, Dark Carter, Dark Allies or Dark Kommandant, Gender Identity Headcanons, Sex Changes.
Background:
Colditz (TV, 1972) is a British TV show that ran from 1972 to 1974, and is about Allied POWs imprisoned at the supposedly escape-proof Colditz Castle in WW2. The show is so great, in terms of setting and historicity, featuring real escape attempts both successful and unsuccessful. Many of its characters were also based on real people, including one of Season One’s main POV characters, Pat Grant, an expy of British Army captain Pat Reid, POW and author of the book on which the show was based.
The show wasn’t just a rollicking adventure story filled with escapes and derring-do, its episodes dealing with loneliness and patriotism and what happens when enemies and uneasy allies are forced to live in close contact with each other (I should warn for some period-typical British chauvinism).
It had a great ensemble cast, as well, which included US movie star Robert Wagner, and Bernard Hepton as the humane, conflicted Kommandant (who would later switch sides to star as Belgian resistance leader Albert Foret in Secret Army); it also had mostly great acting, particularly by Jack Hedley as magnificent iron woobie Colonel Preston, and David McCallum, fresh from his starring turn in Man from U.N.C.L.E. (TV).
Resources:
All of its 28 episodes are available on BBC iPlayer, as well as on Youtube.
This is an excellent resource on both the show and the actors, including photographs of its filming locations (the real castle is in Leipzig, Dresden, but the show was mostly shot in the UK).
Characters:
John Preston, played by the dashing Jack Hedley. Preston is the strong and immensely capable Senior British Officer of Colditz Castle, who epitomises characteristic British stiff-upper-lip restraint. He leads the sad, desperate men of the British contingent in Colditz by straight-backed example; he is respected by every man in the camp, both ally and foe, including his Best Enemy, Kommandant Karl; at the same time, he’s just as lonely and disillusioned as all the prisoners imprisoned there.
Simon Carter, played by David McCallum, for whom I’ve rekindled my old affections, is a RAF flight lieutenant who takes over as head of the escape committee at Colditz, becoming Preston's effective second in command. Hotheaded, scrappy and determined, Carter is an experienced bomber pilot who is also capable of seeing the bigger picture. He also develops a Best Enemy at camp in the form of Major Horst Mohn.
Prompts - - Gen:
I would love a missing scene or character study of either or both of these men before, during or after the war. I would equally love a story that made use of Colditz’s ensemble cast, as long as it involved Preston and/or Carter in some principal way: future fic, backstories, missing scenes, vignettes, or plotty episodes. Some ideas:
+ A heartwarming ensemble piece. In 2020, I received this magnificent treat from
lilliburlero, where the boys put on a Christmas show, and Preston delivers Prospero's soliloquy, and it was utterly perfect. This year, how about a game of five-a-side or cricket in the square, or speed chess?+ Series finale: What if Mohn had not in fact taken himself off the board for the Colditz endgame, and remained in the camp to countermand the Kommandant’s surrender, insist that the castle ought to be held by German forces, and Allied prisoners who resisted be dealt with? What action would Preston, Simon and the boys have been forced to take to protect themselves and other POWs in the camp?
+ Post-war: would Preston and/or Simon have stayed in the military, and tried their best to help the Allies deal with the fallout? Would they have consulted in the running of the POW camps in England? What would a Bad Ending/Enemies Win setting and/or conclusion look like for Preston, and/or Simon? (I want them to survive it, but not all other characters need to).
+ Crossover: What if there was an Enemy at the Door crossover? Richter and Reinicke replace Karl and Mohn in Colditz. How do Preston and Simon and the boys deal with them (and would the outcome of, say, S2E4, with the three British commandos, have been different)? Would the endgame change with these very different Germans in charge?
+ Bodyswaps: What kind of mayhem would ensue if Preston swapped bodies with Simon (and, in a prompt that belongs to the shipping section, they had to bang to switch back)? Or with the Kommandant? With Mohn? Now, that would be an interesting escape plan indeed!
+ Historical AUs: What if the boys were prisoners of war in WW1 instead? Or in the Napoleonic wars, or the Silesian wars, or even in Roman British times?
Prompts - - Shipping:
+ Preston has zero opportunities for romantic contact in the show; when he loses his wife Caroline in S1E9, he is not permitted to even accept a gesture of comfort from Flt Lt Simon Carter, who spends all season butting heads with him but who does it because he adores him, or from the Kommandant who has to break the terrible news to him, and who, to no one’s surprise, secretly also adores him also.
+ Perhaps Preston lets one of them comfort him after Caroline’s death? There would be conflict and guilt afterwards, because any romantic contact would still be illegal and a court-martialable offence, but the comfort and companionship might be too strong to resist.
+ Perhaps the camp is struck by a misplaced Allied raid, or an escape attempt has gone awry, or by sex pollen, and Preston needs to rescue one of these hapless gentlemen - - or, even more deliciously, finds himself in need of rescue? Or perhaps Preston needs to discipline Simon over some military infraction? Or the Kommandant needs to punish his Best Enemy, but he can't quite manage it, and Preston has to step in to assist?
+ Perhaps Mohn manages to ensnare Simon in some cunning manner, on one of Simon’s escapes or long show-canon confinements in solitary? Perhaps Preston (and Karl?) need to rescue Simon from his own Best Enemy?
+ Fake Marriage AU: What if Preston or Carter were compelled by their German captors or bizarro SS rules or impending Allied postwar imprisonment to marry their Best Enemies, or each other? Would a practical yoke of convenience lead to physical intimacy?
+ Futurefic: Post-war, perhaps Simon seeks Preston out - - then a lonely widower trying to raise two small boys on his lonesome. What would that bittersweet post-series future happiness in post-war Britain look like for them?
Request 2
Fandom: Enemy at the Door (TV)
Characters: Richter
DNWs: Onscreen Character Death, Permanent Injury/Mutilation (or offscreen, for Richter or Philip), Underage, Character/Ship Bashing or bashing of spouses, Dark Richter or Dark Philip, Nazi apologism, Gender Identity Headcanons, Sex Changes.
Background:
Enemy at the Door (TV) is a British TV show that ran from 1978 – 1980, and is about the German occupation of the Channel Islands during WW2. This show is so great, in terms of setting and historicity, and also its writing, which excellently portrays the balance of power and fragile harmony between the islanders and the German occupying forces.
The show centres around Dr Philip Martel (Dr Who stalwart Bernard Horsfall), a member of the Guernsey Controlling Committee, and Major Dieter Richter (the late, great Alfred Burke), the commander of the German occupying forces, as well as a sterling ensemble cast that includes Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Anthony Stewart Head in his first TV role. It’s a historical war drama that explores conflict and patriotism and enemies forced to live in close contact with each other, telling its characters’ stories in nuanced character arcs that spans the two seasons, and dealing with ethical dilemmas and slice-of-life events in complex, moral shades of grey.
This excellent fanvid by lostspook1 really captures the thoughtful, melancholy atmosphere of the show;
thisbluespirit has a fandom manifesto here (both linked to with thanks).Resources:
All 26 of its episodes are available on Amazon Prime, as well as on archive.org.
Madeleine Bunting’s The Model Occupation: The Channel Islands Under German Rule, 1940-1945 is a balanced and fairly non-apologist account of the occupation.
Character:
Dieter Richter, played by ascetic, saintly-faced Alfie Burke. Richter is the urbane Kommandant of the island of Guernsey, who was a professor of philosophy in peacetime. Richter is very much a military commander - - he takes decisive actions, eg in court-martialling the young soldier whom one of the islanders accuses of rape, and having him executed by firing squad - - but at the same time he does try to mitigate the hardships of the occupation for the islanders. He’s also morally conflicted about the atrocities of the regime; unfortunately, not sufficiently to do enough about it (when confronted in S2E3, he tells Dr Martel, “Whatever may be the abuse of man, that is the use of nature: first survive”).
Prompts - - Gen
Although Richter is my favourite, and I would love a missing scene or character study of him before, during or after the war, I'm very interested in this historical period and place, and would equally love a story that makes use of the cast and setting: future fic, backstories, missing scenes, vignettes or whole plotty episodes. Some ideas:
+ A scene from the Season 3 canon never gave us, post the Season 2 finale in April 1943. For instance, as the war progressed, the Channel Islands found themselves ignored and Guernseyans faced tremendous deprivations - - how would Richter and his men have addressed this situation? In July 1944, the von Stauffenberg assassination and coup attempt failed; as part of the aforementioned plot, von Stülpnagel, the military governor of occupied France, managed to arrest most of the SS commanders in the Paris garrison. What, if anything, would Richter and his men have done about Reinicke, the SS attache attached to their command?
+ Also in July 1944, fanatical Admiral Huffmeier arrived in Guernsey and was shortly promoted to Channel Islands commander. What would Richter (and Reinicke) done about this lunatic, who refused to surrender the Channel Islands to the Allied forces even though Germany had surrendered, and how would they have negotiated the last difficult lead-up to V-day?
+ Richter has so many great, conflict-ridden interactions with the islanders that tread the line between respectful and coercive (as Olive says, “When is it not just survival? When does it become helping the enemy?”). I’d love to see him taking tea with Olive Martel, or calling on Helen Porteous, or crossing swords with Peter Porteous; perhaps you might envision a social event to which the Martels invited Richter because they wanted to get something out of him, and vice versa.
+ Crossover with Colditz (TV)! Karl, Ullmann and/or Mohn come to visit Guernsey, or Preston, Pat and/or Simon are part of a British raid on the aircraft defence system on Sark. How would Richter and co. have reacted?
+ Bodyswaps: What kind of mayhem would ensue if Richter swapped bodies with Reinicke (and, in a prompt that belongs to the shipping section, they had to bang to switch back)? Or with General Muller? Or with Clive? (Not for nothing do I append this beautiful classic black-and-white photo of ASH in satin and lace <3)
+ Historical AUs: What if the Germans invaded Guernsey in WW1? Or during the Silesian wars, or the time of the Vikings? Would Richter have been a reluctant captain in Frederick the Great's army, or an even more reluctant Viking chieftain?
Prompts - - Shipping
The show doesn't sugar-coat, nor is it apologist for, the dark moral choices made by Richter or indeed the other Nazis or islanders on Guernsey, and I would be interested in all dark moral choices and fraught non/dubious consent shippy scenarios, with Philip Martel, with Reinicke, and really anyone else in the cast, which would involve Richter suffering stoically and being wracked by guilt.
+ Perhaps Richter was unexpectedly placed in harm’s way by enemy action or his own side? Dr Martel would clearly be the only man whom he could rely on to administer both medical and non-medical treatment. Or Richter finds himself compelled as part of his duties to subjugate one of the islanders in all senses of the term, and Martel is the only one he can bear to inflict himself on? Or in an even darker version of events, after V-Day, the islanders brand Martel a collaborator, and force him to punish Richter as a sign of loyalty?
+ Alternatively, I would be delighted with these gentlemen bickering over radio requisitions, or risking their lives/their careers to rescue each other (Martel from the terrible SS a la Judgement of Solomon or Richter from a POW internment in a terrible Soviet gulag), or sharing a romantic breakfast of ersatz coffee at the Kommandantur or the Hotel Normandie. (Please deal with Anna and Olive respectfully in the manner you think best -- perhaps Olive is all for her husband's uncomfortable closeness with the Kommandant, or perhaps she's decided to pack it in and leave Philip for That Nice Doctor Forbes.)
+ Richter is definitely the sort of commanding officer who would wearily do his duty when one of his senior officers was imperilled by sex pollen or captured in a commando raid or by the Resistance, even if that officer was Reinicke. They hate each other rather cordially, and though Reinicke is a stickler for military hierarchy, he is also a terrible troll; the fact that both of them are at such ideological odds with each other, and would hate this situation equally, is part of its draw.
+ Fake Marriage AU: What if Richter was compelled by vengeful islanders or bizarro SS rules or impending Allied postwar imprisonment to marry Reinicke, or (in a scenario where Olive leaves) Philip? Would a practical yoke of convenience lead to physical intimacy?
+ Futurefic: Postwar, what if Richter, newly released from Allied imprisonment and with or without Anna in tow, decided to search for a newly single Philip, or an equally liberated Reinicke? How do they navigate a delicate postwar relationship that becomes a romance?
Request 3
Fandom: Man From U.N.C.L.E. (TV) RPF
Character: Robert Vaughn AND/OR David McCallum
DNWs: Noncon or dubcon, Character Death, Underage, Character/Ship Bashing esp of Jill Ireland (and mention of McCallum’s RL political beliefs), Dark Characters, Gender Identity Headcanons, Sex Changes, Permanent Injury/Mutilation.
Background:
Man from U.N.C.L.E. (TV) was an American spy fiction television series, produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television and first broadcast on NBC; it detailed the exploits of secret agents Napoleon Solo (played by Robert Vaughn) and Illya Kuryakin (played by David McCallum), who work for a secret international counterespionage and law-enforcement agency called U.N.C.L.E. The series premiered on September 22, 1964, completing its run on January 15, 1968. The series won the Golden Globe Award for Best TV Show in 1966.
This is such a great show, which, in its heyday, was the most popular show on Western TV, and made instantly recognisable celebrities of its two stars. When the Beatles visited America, they asked to be introduced to Robert Vaughn!
Resources:
The show is available on Netflix, and here.
Here is a link to Vaughn’s fan site, with several photo articles on his life and relationship with McCallum, and to his autobiography, A Fortunate Life.
Here is a link to McCallum’s fan site, with more than you wanted to know about the man’s life and career, his relationship with his fans, his musical ability, and his relationship with Vaughn.
Characters:
All-American Vaughn (November 22, 1932 – November 11, 2016) would, post-U.N.C.L.E., go on to play detective Harry Rule in the 1970s series The Protectors; General Hunt Stockwell in the fifth season of the 1980s series The A-Team; and grifter and card sharp Albert Stroller in the British television drama series Hustle (2004–2012). He also appeared in the British soap opera Coronation Street as Milton Fanshaw in 2012. In film, he portrayed the gunman Lee in The Magnificent Seven with Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen, Ross Webster in Superman III with Christopher Reeve, and war veteran Chester A. Gwynn in The Young Philadelphians with Paul Newman, which earned him a 1959 Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
A lifelong Democrat, Vaughn was the first popular American actor to take a public stand against the Vietnam War; he debated William F. Buckley Jr. on his program Firing Line on the Vietnam War, and campaigned for the Kennedys. He studied at Los Angeles State College of Applied Arts and Sciences, earning a master's degree in theatre. After graduating from college, Vaughn was drafted into the Army, serving as a drill sergeant. While working on U.N.C.L.E., he worked on a Ph.D. in communications, and obtained it the University of Southern California in 1970. In 1972, he published his dissertation as the book Only Victims: A Study of Show Business Blacklisting.
McCallum (born 19 September 1933) is a Scottish actor and musician who would in the years post-U.N.C.L.E. go on to play Simon Carter in Colditz (SEE ABOVE) and alongside Joanna Lumley in Sapphire & Steel. In recent years, he gained renewed international recognition and popularity for his role as NCIS medical examiner Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard in the American television series NCIS. With John Leyton and William Russell, he is one of the last living actors from the 1963 classic The Great Escape.
Hailing from a musical family, McCallum won a scholarship to University College School, where, encouraged by his parents to prepare for a career in music, he pursued the oboe. On leaving school, he joined the British Army's 3rd Battalion the Middlesex Regiment, which was seconded to the Royal West African Frontier Force. In March 1954 he was promoted to lieutenant. After leaving the army he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (also in London), where Joan Collins was a classmate. A classically-trained musician, in the 1960s McCallum recorded four albums for Capitol Records.
The tabloid press famously reported that there was an on set feud between Vaughn and McCallum, but whatever the truth of the matter, there are a zillion photos out there with the two of them on the press circuit and on the road, looking like they were enjoying each other’s company - - including at the memorable Golden Globes 1964, where they walked onstage to collect their award holding hands (emcee Andy Williams cracks, "You guys have been together too long”!) They men stayed in touch over the years since U.N.C.L.E., speaking to each other on their birthdays; McCallum gave his former co-star a moving tribute at a 2009 dinner for Vaughn.
In 1983, the men hit the talk show circuit together to promote the less-than-stellar The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E - - taking part in an adorable a joint Return interview, where, to the talk show host's "There were rumours that you two didn't get along!", Vaughn said, "Absolutely untrue!", and McCallum quipped back, "There were rumours that we knew each other very well!". In 1986, McCallum guest-starred in a Season Five episode of the A-Team, The Say UNCLE Affair, playing a Kuryakin-esque villain Ivan Trigorin who has a charged history with Vaughn’s General Stockwell. In 2007, they came together for a reunion interview for the re-re-release of the UNCLE DVD set, and were as handsy and adorable as ever! When Vaughn passed on in 2016, McCallum spoke of his "utter devastation", saying, heartbreakingly, “losing him is like losing a part of me”.
Prompts - - Gen:
+ Series Finale and post: MFU Season Four was famously cut short thanks to a tonally-inconsistent season and plunging ratings; to all accounts Vaughn and McCallum were taken completely by surprise. How would they have managed if they had been given the rest of Season Four (and potentially a Season Five)? Would the Return Movie have been different, if they had?
+ Crossover: What if Vaughn and McCallum found themselves in an entirely different spy duo/buddy cop franchise like The Professionals, or Starsky & Hutch? Or, in a reverse of MFU TV Season One's The Project Strigas Affair (which guest-stars Leonard Nimoy and Will Shatner sharing the small screen two years before their Star Trek debut), what if they'd been cast in Star Trek: the Original Series? What if Vaughn had joined McCallum on Colditz or NCIS, or if McCallum had joined the cast of The Magnificent Seven, or Hustle, or Coronation Street?
+ Bodyswaps: What kind of mayhem would have ensued on the MFU set if Vaughn swapped bodies with McCallum (and, in a prompt that belongs to the shipping section, they had to bang to switch back)? What if it had happened during the Return movie, or the Say UNCLE Affair?
+ Historical AUs: What if Vaughn and McCallum were suddenly transported to the front lines of World War Two? Would they have been able to help stave off the Wehrmacht enslaught on the Channel Islands, or the London Blitz, or fought side by side at Normandy?
Prompts - - Shipping:
I confess to shipping it, intensely. The glare of fame when they were in their early 30s! Living in each other's pockets in Hollywood during the demanding filming schedule, and being joined at the hip while on the road across America and Britain and the Far East carrying out the studio's punishing promotional schedule in the hiatus between seasons, fending off hordes of hysterical fans all the while! The nearly 60 years of history and friendship, the hand-holding and the easy intimacy, the handsiness and bantering - - all the while bickering and teasingly competitive, in the same way of Napoleon and Illya's bickering, bantering, push-and-pull onscreen relationship.
Various aspects of Napoleon's and Illya's bitingly flirtatious onscreen dynamic only made sense if they were shagging on the sly - - perhaps their dynamic only played out that way because Vaughn and McCallum were themselves shagging on the sly?? "There were rumours that we knew each other very well" wouldn't have come out of a vaccuum, after all!
+ Envision for me various interstitial hookups between those flirty episodes, and/or the long decades of their on-again, off-again relationship!
+ Season finale: the penultimate S4 episode has the agents’ boss, Mr Waverly, remarking on what terrible husbands his spies would make; the episode ends with Illya gazing at his partner and remarking, meaningfully, “At least we have each other.” What happens when the cameras stop rolling?
+ "You guys have been together too long!" Give me a behind-the-scenes look at the hand-holding at the Golden Globes, and what came after?
+ McCallum's marriage to Jill Ireland famously fell apart during the filming of MFU Season 3. What if bachelor Vaughn helped him cope, intimately, on set, or on one of their overseas tours?
+ Fake Marriage AU: S3's The Suburbia Affair saw the spies setting up house in suburbia to spy on an enemy scientist gone to ground (no, really), with Napoleon and Illya squabbling over the bread run and making a souffle. What if Vaughn and McCallum had to set up house for the job, too? Would fighting over exploding milk and doing the dishes have led to physical intimacy at last?
+ Futurefic: Perhaps Vaughn and McCallum finally hook up fifteen years after MFU's demise, during the filming or press circuit of The Return Movie, or the A Team's Say UNCLE Affair? (If you go with this prompt, please deal kindly with wives Linda and Katherine; feel free to have them join in in a polyamorous OT4, or have them give their enthusiastic blessing to these two old friends, who would have finally managed to find their way to each other at last <3)
Thank you again for creating for me, and I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with this Yuletide!
