TARDIS Week Rec: Comes the Wolf

[teleidoplex]

Coming to you live from the Time Vortex, it's TARDIS Week! All week long, I'll be reccing fics wherein our favorite blue Police Box takes a starring (or at least active) role.

Hang on. It's going to be a bumpy ride -- then again, when is it not?

Story: Comes the Wolf
Author: Camilla Sandman
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 1196
Author's Summary: Kiss the storm, Rose Tyler. Kiss it before the wolf comes.
Characters/Pairings: Nine/Rose/TARDIS
Warnings: None

Recced because: I love Camilla Sandman's writing, and this is an excellent example of the tightness of her prose. She doesn't waste words, and is able to convey deep emotion to a greater extent and in a shorter space than many other authors I've read. This fic is a brief snapshot into the possible complexity of the relationship between the three characters, playing with the archetypes of Bad Wolf and the Oncoming Storm. It's hard to imagine how a fic could be both urgent and lyrical, but this one manages it.

Rec: Mistress of the Jolly Dark

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

Story: Mistress of the Jolly Dark
Author: Kalima
Rating: Adult
Author's Summary: In 19th century London, a down-on-her-luck prostitute meets a strange little man with a red-handled umbrella.
Characters/Pairings: Seventh Doctor/OFC
Warnings: Graphic Sex, Horror

Recced because: I don't gravitate toward darkfic--as you've probably long since figured out--but this little parable of why Time Lord/human sexual relationships are a really, really, really, really, really bad idea fascinated me with its depictions of the Seventh Doctor's despair and inner demons (this Doctor is definitely the Oncoming Storm of the NAs), an original character skillfully fleshed out in a very few paragraphs and the atmosphere of dread suffusing their encounter right from the start. Please be forewarned that this is indeed a horror story featuring a very alien Doctor, and while he's sorry, so sorry for what he's inadvertently done, he still can't put things right in the end.

rec: what the thunder said

[kindkit.livejournal.com]

Story: What the Thunder Said
Author: eponymous_rose (eponymous_rose)
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 4474
Author's Summary: A doomed world, only slightly more lost than our own; through the eye of the Inferno and into the realm of memory. Time's end.
Characters/Pairings: Third Doctor, Liz Shaw, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Sergeant John Benton, plus "Inferno" AU versions of the latter three.
Warnings: None.

Recced because: It's gorgeous and it's smart. "What the Thunder Said" builds on the Third Doctor story "Inferno," with its fascist alternate England, and unflinchingly (but never unsympathetically) explores that world and its versions of familiar characters. That in itself would be fascinating, but the story goes several steps further, raising questions about alien-ness, alienation, moral choice, and the nature of "self" when multiple selves are possible, and tying the whole thing into the Third Doctor's experience of exile. If I've made it sound philosophical, it certainly is, but never in a dull or heavy-handed way; the story accomplishes it all through characterization and structure.

Besides all this, the prose is lovely--poetic in the best sense (clear and sharp, not overwrought).

The plot contains major spoilers for "Inferno," and in any case won't make a bit of sense if you haven't seen that serial. In fact, it helps to have the serial fairly fresh in one's mind.

( a snippet )

If you enjoy the story (and I'm sure you will), please don't forget to leave feedback for the author.