rec: providence
Feb. 11th, 2008 07:00 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
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Story: Providence
Author: Branwyn
Rating: teen
Word Count: 2641
Author's Summary: Not all the monsters in the TARDIS are locked safely in the attic.
Characters/Pairings: Ten, Martha, Ace, Seven
Warnings: None.
Recced because: Lots of fics have dealt with the Tenth Doctor as the lonely god, bringer of cosmic vengeance, all shall love him and despair etc, but few have done so with such intellectual detachment, or such a neat plot. "Providence" acts as a missing scene in "Family of Blood", examining the punishment of the Brother and its implications for the Doctor's past. Branwyn's Doctor is firmly steeped in the Cartmel era -- The Doctor knows exactly what he's seeing when he looks into a mirror. This body he shaped for Rose's benefit, it doesn't hide him from himself. According to the myths, Merlin had aged in reverse. One day he will be Merlin. Perhaps one day soon---it's there on his to-do list, somewhere, and it feels like the right time, he'll have to ask Martha how she'd feel about playing Nimue for a bit -- but with the extra twist of darkness and awful (awesome) power that the Doctor has acquired in his tenth incarnation.
But this is also a story about Martha, and the Doctor's respect and admiration for her simply burns through every line. And it's a story about Ace, and about myths, and coming full circle. And I don't know if it's intentional, but the final sentence rings with the echo of things to come, the Master and the Year That Never Was. All constructed in Branwyn's careful, lyrical prose.
Author: Branwyn
Rating: teen
Word Count: 2641
Author's Summary: Not all the monsters in the TARDIS are locked safely in the attic.
Characters/Pairings: Ten, Martha, Ace, Seven
Warnings: None.
Recced because: Lots of fics have dealt with the Tenth Doctor as the lonely god, bringer of cosmic vengeance, all shall love him and despair etc, but few have done so with such intellectual detachment, or such a neat plot. "Providence" acts as a missing scene in "Family of Blood", examining the punishment of the Brother and its implications for the Doctor's past. Branwyn's Doctor is firmly steeped in the Cartmel era -- The Doctor knows exactly what he's seeing when he looks into a mirror. This body he shaped for Rose's benefit, it doesn't hide him from himself. According to the myths, Merlin had aged in reverse. One day he will be Merlin. Perhaps one day soon---it's there on his to-do list, somewhere, and it feels like the right time, he'll have to ask Martha how she'd feel about playing Nimue for a bit -- but with the extra twist of darkness and awful (awesome) power that the Doctor has acquired in his tenth incarnation.
But this is also a story about Martha, and the Doctor's respect and admiration for her simply burns through every line. And it's a story about Ace, and about myths, and coming full circle. And I don't know if it's intentional, but the final sentence rings with the echo of things to come, the Master and the Year That Never Was. All constructed in Branwyn's careful, lyrical prose.