Cabin Pressure

[kindkit]

I raced through the BBC radio show Cabin Pressure and am now 2/3 finished with my second listen. (This, I have discovered, is what mp3 players are for: listening to radio drama in bed at night.) It's always funny and sometimes bittersweet in just the right way; I think the best comedy always has a measure of sorrow in it.

If, like me until a few days ago, you are tragically unacquainted with the show, do give it a try. Its BBC website is here and the first two series are available to download via this link at what I think is a very reasonable rate. And did I mention the fannish associations? Benedict Cumberbatch is one of the stars, and in series 3 Anthony Head has a recurring guest role. You can listen to a free S1 episode on the BBC site, by the way.

/promotion

So, as is my wont, I looked for fanfic.

Oh, dear.

There is a weird dearth of humorous fic, considering the show's a comedy. Instead, there are a billion schmoopy woobified romance fics, the majority being m/m slash, but with crossover het and Mary Sues original female characters making a strong running. Worse yet, there's an inexplicable fanon trope that Martin has an eating disorder. This turns up in fic after fic by various authors, and there's no canon justification for it whatsoever. I'm not sure if people are importing this from Cumberbatch's Sherlock Holmes, who might plausibly have an eating disorder, or if they're extrapolating from (and thus completely missing the point of) Martin's S3 speech about how he's so poor he's living on toast and the occasional baked potato "for a treat." (The point, of course, being that he would like to be eating other, nicer, more plentiful food. And certainly he shows no disinclination for the cheese tray during flights. This is not a man with an eating disorder, but a man who can't afford to buy food.)

Humorous genfic is not normally what I want, but oddly enough I wish there was some for Cabin Pressure. Or slash that's actually plausible; although I'm not averse to the idea of Martin/Douglas, Douglas's extensive heterosexual history makes this a pairing that needs to be earned within each fic. Actually the pairing I'd really like to see is Martin/the actor who Carolyn hires to play him in the recorded welcome message. They did make a not!date, after all!

Also, I want Sherlock crossovers that make sense. Martin is not Sherlock's visual double; the word that comes up over and over to describe him is "little," so we have to assume he doesn't look like Benedict Cumberbatch. But they do have near-identical voices and there've got to be a few plots in that.

Oh dear god I have just thought of Martin/Mycroft as a pairing, with Mycroft working out his semi-incestuous feelings for Sherlock via sex with Martin, and I think I have BROKEN MY OWN BRAIN.

Comments

[tree_and_leaf]

There's a lot of really crap Cabin Pressure fic out there, but there's also some gems.

My favourite is probably Yalta, by Caulkhead (gen) is absolutely hilarious - it really feels like a missing episode.

I can't remember if you watch Torchwood, but AJ Hall (also known as legionseagle has a very funny Cabin Pressure fic set in the middle of Judgement Day here.

Also by AJ HAll, a historical AU (well, actually it's a cross-over with the Bronte's juvenillia, but you don't have to have read them, but the latest installment of AJ Hall's excellent Sherlock/ John fic series, the Queen of Gondal is a Cabin Pressure crossover, and despite the fact that GERTI is now a boat, it's remarkably true to the spirit of CP. The downside is that it probably doesn't make all that much sense if you haven't read the rest - but it's all good.

[kindkit]

Thanks for the recs!

I've read a bunch of AJ Hall's Sherlock fic, but the Bronteverse one didn't work for me (it had more OCs and more plot than will hold my attention, and frankly not enough m/m slash). So I may give that a miss, but now that I know there are some decent CP fics out there, I may see if I can sift through and find them.