rec: the real reason the doctor and rose tyler never had sex, by azriona

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Story: The Real Reason the Doctor and Rose Tyler Never Had Sex
Author: azriona
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 315
Author's Summary: Exactly what it says on the tin, kids. The reason that the Doctor and Rose didn’t have sex has NOTHING to do with the hour the show was aired.
Characters/Pairings: Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Warnings: None
Recced because: It's hilarious, and like the best humor fics it needs no other excuse. But even better, the humor comes from a well-known fact about the Doctor that I'd never thought about in this context until I read this fic. The result is total win.

Comments

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

THERE.

[sue-denimme.livejournal.com]

Does anyone know the story/episode where it actually *said* the Doctor has a lower body temperature than humans?

I happen to have been going through transcripts of the classic series (the site is at http://www.chakoteya.net/DoctorWho/index.htm) for a while now. I'm well into Four's era, and haven't seen anything about it yet. The two hearts, yes; respiratory bypass, yes; allergy to aspirin, yes; body temperature, no. But then I haven't been looking specifically for that information, just quotes for my collection.

[nonelvis]

I'd thought it was in "Spearhead from Space," but apparently not. It seems to be something referenced in the audios, though the DW wiki cites "Planet of the Daleks" as a reference for the Doctor's ability to lower his body temperature below freezing while recovering from injury.

[sue-denimme.livejournal.com]

Hm, here it is, courtesy of the site I mentioned --

Jo: (speaking into a log recorder) His respiration was very shallow and his skin icy to the touch. I could find no trace of pulse or heartbeat, and his breathing apparently ceased. But I've seen the Doctor in this condition once before and he recovered after a sudden rise in temperature.

That's it, as far as I can tell. Seems pretty clear, to me anyway, that the lower body temperature was a temporary thing. How it got to be thought of as a normal state of affairs for him, to the point where every fanfic author has to mention how "cool" he is to the touch, I have no idea. (I'm guilty of it too.)

I'd think, with all the hand-holding he does in canon, not to mention medical exams and so on, oh and let's not forget all the times Ten got his face snogged off, someone would have said something about it every now and then.

[nonelvis]

I think it all depends on what you consider canon, and we could probably debate for the rest of our lives (and beyond!) about what constitutes canon in the DW universe. By this time, it seems like well-established fanon at minimum, so it never bothers me in fic -- nor do I feel bad about using it myself, given that audios and the Visual Dictionary refer to it.

[sue-denimme.livejournal.com]

I myself tend to think of only the official TV show as canon; however, I'm "cool" :-) with others being more generous in that regard than I am. Hell, I'll probably go on writing "he was cool to the touch", myself (if only to avoid all the "corrections" I'd probably get).

[nonelvis]

(Replying to your PM here, since your privacy settings won't let me PM you directly)

We do want people to rec new stories, though you're right that this isn't noted anywhere. Thanks for calling this to my attention; I'll add it to our profile.

[sue-denimme.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Sorry about the privacy settings. I don't recall putting them like that. I'll have a look.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Sorry, just have to jump in here. I realize I don't have the whole conversation, so I might be misconstruing things, but are you saying that older stories shouldn't be recced on Calufrax? If so, why not? Good fic is good fic -- why should it matter when it was written? In fact, I would argue that it's a lot harder for readers to come across the old gems than it is for them to find the good newer fic on their own. If everyone had already read all the older stories, that would be one thing, but Teaspoon is a big place, and there are new readers coming into the fandom all the time. If this is really a change you're considering, could you explain your thinking?

[nonelvis]

No, no, I mean that people should only rec stories that haven't been recced here before! Sorry; you didn't have the original message for context.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Ah, great, thank you! I'm glad I misunderstood. : )

[john_amend_all]

The novelisation of The Caves of Androzani says that the Doctor's body temperature differs from human norms, but doesn't say whether it's higher or lower.

The creature before it presented the outward features of a human being, but some of the incoming data did not scan. The body temperature was wrong, and the internal construction was different. Humans did not have two hearts. But this creature did...

[sue-denimme.livejournal.com]

OK, thanks. :-)

[ravenskyewalker.livejournal.com]

I've been a Whovian for years, and can tell you that fandom taught me back in the 1980s that the Doctor had a considerably lower body temperature than humans (60° F), but I don't remember where this detail came from, because it's not on-screen, except for the Third Doctor getting ice all over his face while in a recuperative coma in "Planet of the Daleks." I remember it turning up in print fanzine stories. I also remember it turning up in an American article (in TV Guide) in 1983, introducing DW to new viewers while talking about "The Five Doctors." Are we confused yet? *grin*

ETA: Oh, as for the aspirin allergy... yes, the Third Doctor warned in "Mind of Evil" that human medication would probably kill him, as he had the wrong metabolism, but I refuse to believe that he'd been offered aspirin. That was something invented by Kate Orman back during the writing of the Virgin New Adventures. He'd just been tortured and terrorized, and one of his hearts gave out -- ASPIRIN would cure that?! (Okay, yes, aspirin can help during human heart attacks. But please, after torture and almost dying of sheer terror? I... don't think so, really.)

[sue-denimme.livejournal.com]

I remember that TV article too! It was right around the time that I first happened to discover the show (thanks to it being aired by a then-new local station, not PBS, surprisingly enough, but I digress). I believe that was also where I first heard about the 60 degrees thing.

Apparently it's just a little factoid that got stuck in someone's head somehow, and got entrenched enough that various audios and other non-TV stories mention it even no one can find the exact reference in the TV series itself.

[sue-denimme.livejournal.com]

That's "even though no one can find". Ugh.

[sue-denimme.livejournal.com]

OK, here's the quote (I love that transcript site).

(The Doctor is comatose after being subjected to the Keller machine)
JO: Doctor? Doctor, take one of these. Come on. Come on, just try.
(Jo can't get the tablet in the Doctor's mouth.)
DOCTOR: That's wrong, wrong metabolism. It'd probably kill me, Jo. I'm all right. I'm all right, Jo. Just, just let me rest. Let me rest.

So I guess I misremembered that aspirin was involved. There was in fact no mention of what type of tablet it was that Jo tried to give him (if the transcript is accurate; I don't have the episode). Thanks for the correction.

[kittenmommy.livejournal.com]

YES. Someone else who remembers that Time Lords have a lower body temperature than humans!!! Bravo!!! :D

[azriona.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the rec! I was wondering what prompted the reviews, until one mentioned calufrax. :)

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

It was my pleasure!