It's been how long?

So I've been rewatching Space: Above and Beyond for the first time in years, and the first time since I got the DVD set.  It's interesting to see what I remember and what I've forgotten, and it's still an outstanding show even if the computer special effects haven't aged well.  And I still have as much of a crush as ever on Cooper.  

There's something else, though. 

Back when I was living in England, in 1997, one of the four channels I got on the TV in my room started showing S:AAB, and I started watching it--more out of desperation than anything else.  I'd refused it the first time around in the U.S. since I didn't want to watch a military show, but with just the pilot I was hooked.  

I watched each episode greedily and even went to the length of going to Bristol to buy a used VCR so I could record some (no small expense for me at the time).  The movie rental place in Bath actually carried the first episode on tape, though that was the only one they ever had, and I watched that too.  I picked up some of the spin-off novels and novelizations and kid's books and graphic novels for the show--yes, they existed, but possibly only for the British fans. 

And I was disappointed.  Most of the plotlines/writing were terrible, and never rose above mediocre.  I thought to myself that I could do better.  Mind you, at the time my exposure to published fanfic was basically nil, and while I did eventually write a little, I was more focused on doing a better job at novelization than the official writers had. 

So I started with the first episode I had on tape, which was "Hostile Visit".  I spent hours rewinding in increments to get the dialogue down, and I wrote it out slowly, describing the action and interpreting the facial expressions.  I even threw in a bit of supposition here and there, to make it more interesting.  I got about three-quarters of the way through "Choice or Chance" (maybe more) before I went home.  

(Side note: I took the tapes with me but of course they wouldn't play in the U.S. machines.  I left before the station had broadcast all the episodes, and had to wait over a year before someone reran it in America.  Argh.  It was not released on videotape here.)  

Before I left, though, I started exploring the fledgling Internet for fandom information, and found a S:AAB fansite with fanfic.  And they accepted my novelization of "Hostile Visit".  When I got a FF.net account, I put it up there too.  

It's still there.  It dates back to before FF.net allowed italics, so I used asterisks instead.  *eyeroll* 

It's fascinating to watch the episode and hear my own phrasing rising in my mind.  I've certainly improved as a writer since then, there are bits that make me wince, but it's been ages since I actually read it and I'm astonished that I could recall things at all. 

Oddly enough, I'd like to clean up the posted version and settle one or two words that were ambiguous on videotape but clear on DVD (there's at least two I got flat wrong).  I'd like to finish "Choice or Chance" even though the audience has to be about nil now.  But I'm afraid to mess with the FF.net version because that might pop it back up to the top of my fic list, and that would just confuse people. 

I wonder where I put the hard copy...