calufrax

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Story: Hand in Hand for Eternity
Author: AceOnGallifrey
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 971
Author's Summary: The Time Lords want Romana back. Romana wants to keep on running. The Doctor? Well, he knows what he has to do.
Characters/Pairings: Romana II, The Doctor (4th)
Warnings: None, well not unless you're philosophically opposed to "fix it" fic, I guess.

Recced because: Well, I guess it's no secret by now to those of you with even a passing familiarity with my fannish activities that I'm a big, fat sucker for the whole notion of Four/Romana (and Doctor(s)/Romana(s) in general). This fic isn't quite flat-out Four/Romana II, but it's arguable that it's strongly hinting at that. But let's face it, one of the big strengths of Four and Romana as a partnership, especially during S17 once they've got that whole Key to Time thing out of the way, is that it doesn't really matter whether you're invested in the idea of the "/" between them. They're just best friends forever, careening slightly manically around time and space on their holidays, holding hands, comedy double-acting at each other and any supporting character they run into, being extremely silly and somewhat cool and most importantly having enormous fun while they're at it. ~~It's like Ten and Rose during S2 of NuWho but not annoying.~~ I kid!

But then comes S18 and, while there's still a fair bit of the above to be had, things also suddenly get very real. They both know they're on borrowed time together, that their "thing" isn't going to last much longer. It only lasts as long as it does, in fact, because of a freak navigational accident that strands them temporarily in another universe (and you have to suspect that once they're in E-Space, Romana knows in her hearts of hearts that she won't be accompanying the Doctor on the journey back).

And this fic considers the scene that it all turns on; that scene in Full Circle where Romana gets the summons back to Gallifrey and the Doctor...the Doctor shows every sign of just going along with it. "You can't fight Time Lords." He should know. He tried, and look how it turned out for him in the end. Four's reaction is as understandable in that light as his decision to cut Sarah Jane loose before answering that earlier summons, but the quiet tragedy of what I've heard described as Four and Romana's "break up" is there if, like me, you're a fan of the pair of them. And this fic nicely examines that scene, describing the thoughts and emotions that we can only guess from the performances on the television screen. And then it turns it on its head, and yes, you could describe it as a "fix it" were it not for the real sense you get that, the positive note the fic ends upon aside, the Doctor's decision here may or may not end well for either him or Romana - it's a terrible risk they're both taking. And yet, sometimes it is better to fight and lose than not to fight. Or even run. And the ending makes me go sort of "Awww", and that's worth a rec in itself. :)

( A Sample )

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And for today's rec we have an author who doesn't seem to have been recced on Calufrax before (and sadly, seems not to be actively writing any more, but who knows what effect a bit of attention and encouragement might have?)

Story: Running
Author: Jesht
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 1,001
Author's Summary: "The ones that ran away? I never stopped."
Characters/Pairings: The Doctor (Academy era), the Master (Academy era)
Warnings: None

Recced because: I find that I really like Gallifrey-set, Doctor-origin-story sort of stuff, up to and including Academy fic. I mean, enough to write it myself and enough to jump into it with both feet if I find it on the Teaspoon or anywhere else. This is another story that I only ran across very recently, although it's a few years old, and it hooked me in instantly.

I know this sort of fic isn't to everybody's taste. I respect the argument that there are some mysteries about the Doctor's past that ought to remain just that - mysteries. That's an important part of what he is as a character and of the whole feel of the show, going right back to that junkyard in 1963. I personally would probably be horrified if the actual show ever decided to tell the definitive version of the Doctor's origins or to reveal anything more than the odd hint or throwaway reminiscence. And not just because it would ruin the air of mystery but because whatever they did, they'd do it "wrong"!

And this is why I think this is a good area for fanfic to explore. Every fic writer is free to explore and play with the material and put their own spin on it, and the rest of us can either take it or leave it depending on our inclinations without anybody expecting us to accept it as "canon". And in the case of Gallifrey and its Academy and the Doctor's early years, we simultaneously know so much and so little. There's so much lore, built up over years of television stories, but so much of it contradicts earlier stories and so many of the key questions remain unanswered that it's ripe for this sort of fictional interpretation and exploration. And this fic is a fine example of the genre. Every fic author worth their salt puts their own unique spin on this material and builds on what we know of Gallifrey in different ways and Jesht is no exception in that regard. We have mention of the Doctor's and Master's families, of the Untempered Schism - of Looms! - and also some intriguing invented Gallifreyan history and politics and all according to the author's own individual vision of how all this should fit together.

And it also addresses something that I think most fan fictioneers who have thought about this stuff have considered, if not actually written; with their long, complex and ever-developing relationship over what we imagine must be centuries, just how did the Doctor and Master first meet? I like the version presented here, for its understatement and for the ring of schoolyard truth it has about it. And the ending of the fic then plays back into the theme of the Doctor-Master relationship as we learn that the Doctor, as we perhaps have suspected for a while now, had the potential to end up more like his "friend" in the end than he would probably like to think in later life. There but for the grace of...etc.

And a question to consider, as you're reading this fic: which Doctor do you hear narrating this story as he looks back on his youth? After a couple of read-throughs, I think I hear Ten now (which would be appropriate considering the bit of onscreen lore the fic is drawing from); what about you? Anyway, go and read it and leave a few words of appreciation; maybe the author will read them and be inspired to take up the quill again.

( A Preview... )

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Well, it's good to be back. Seems like only yesterday that I was last here reccing for your consideration, but a cursory glance tells me that actually it was last March. Anyway, I've got another raft of stories I hope you'll all enjoy as much as I have and I'll be here all week sharing them with you.

Story: Missing Link on the Brink of Destruction
Author:

clocketpatch
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 3,580
Author's Summary: Between losing the Ponds and landing in Victorian London there were adventures...
Characters/Pairings: The Doctor (11th), original companion
Warnings: None that I can think of

Recced because: Sometimes you read a fic that instantly, out of the blue, unceremoniously elbows its way to the front of your "to rec" queue. I know I do, anyway; I have little discipline or sense of orderliness when it comes to these things. I'll confess that I only saw this fic yesterday when it was linked to here on Livejournal, and in the interests of full disclosure the author has been an online associate of mine for quite some time, but I hope when you come to read it you will see why I was instantly taken with it and why I think it more than deserves a bit of buzz.

In her notes the author describes having written this as a stocking filler; "filler" is the last thing that this story is. Neatly bridging the gap between the end of The Angels Take Manhattan and the Doctor's introduction in The Snowmen, it considers some of the issues raised by the conclusion of the first story while providing creative answers to some of the unanswered questions in the latter, particularly one glossed-over but potentially very important point that I won't specify in the interests of non-spoileriness. I especially like the way the fic addresses Eleven's self-proclaimed and, in some ways, somewhat out-of-character "retirement" and makes it seem far more plausible to me than the actual televised story did. The main thing I loved about this story, though, is the original companion it has Eleven taking on in the gap between the two TV stories. I know original companions aren't everybody's cup of tea, and not always easy to do well, but in this instance the concept is so pleasingly off-the-wall and done so well that I found myself wishing Mr Moffat would do something similar next time around (although I can see the practicalities that might make such a character difficult or impossible to realise on screen). And at the risk of sounding pretentious, the thread of scientific/philosophical discussion running through the fic from start to finish strikes me not only as very Doctorly but also as having something interesting to say about the Doctor himself and his universe.

As anybody who has been watching this comm for a while will know,

clocketpatch is no stranger to being recced here, but there is a reason for that. On top of all of the points above, she consistently tries to do interesting things with her prose; not just great descriptive writing and spot-on in-character dialogue, but using words and unusual turns of phrase to try and create a certain feeling and effect. By the nature of such things, it isn't going to work 100 percent of the time, but when it does... Anyway, all I can say is go and read this if you haven't already and, I hope, leave some words of encouragement for the author.

( A Taste )

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And now the end is near, and so I face the final curtain...of this week's reccing on Calufrax, that is! It's been fun sharing some of my favourite stories again. I hope you've all found them as worth reading as I have, even the unsettling heavy-going ones. I thought I'd end the week with something a little lighter, however:

Story: Afternoon Matinee
Author: vvj5
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 1,082
Author's Summary: The Doctor feels that Romana has some cultural lessons to learn.
Characters/Pairings: Romana I, The Doctor (4th)
Warnings: None
Recced because: Well, because it's a very funny, well-characterised look at two of my favourite Who characters of all time? That should be a good enough reason to be going on with, I should think. ;) Vvj5, aka

lost_spook, is surely no stranger to the majority of you who frequent this comm and the Teaspoon site. This is yet another excellent entry from her, a rare foray into the field of Doctor/Romana fluff and very well done indeed, especially considering it isn't one of her main areas of fanfictional interest. This shows all of the author's usual deep Who knowledge and appreciation, attention to detail, restraint and good taste, insightful characterisation and genuinely funny humour. I hope she won't think I'm laying it on a bit thick when I say she is an example to all of us in the field of Whofic and genre fanfiction in general. I think the main reason I like this so much, though, is because it's Four and Romana going to the pictures together and managing to be as witty and argumentative about it as they are about most of the activities they engage in. You can imagine them doing this kind of thing all the time in between the on-screen stories. Good stuff. Go and read it and let the author know how much you like it (because I know you will). :)

( A Preview )

Anyway, that's your lot. :D

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The first part of tonight's double feature, to make up for missing Tuesday. We begin with another dark and unsettling piece, a war story from the biggest War of them all:

Story: Et in Arcadia Ego
Author: Amy Wolf
Rating: "All Ages" on the 'Spoon, but again I'd probably say "Teen"
Word Count: 2,244
Author's Summary: “I was there at the fall of Arcadia. Someday I might even come to terms with that.” – The Doctor, in Doomsday.
Characters/Pairings: Romana III, The Doctor (8th), various hapless OC Time Lords, and the Daleks
Warnings: War action, megadeaths, Daleks being Daleks with all of the gory detail the television stories by necessity leave out
Recced because: The Time War. I think it's one of the very few large additions to Who lore that the new series has made, to be fair, and definitely for me the only one that I wouldn't like to see retconned or forgotten any time soon. For better or worse, it has shaped the whole dynamic of the new series Doctors, their interactions to their companions and their attitudes to their adventures. And I suppose it's the idea of it - the greatest conflict the universe has ever seen, the Time Lords and the Daleks - and it'd have to be the Daleks, the ur-Who monsters, for my money the original and best - locked in combat for mastery of the entire cosmos. I am a big fan of Time War fic, and I think this is one of the very best examples out there.

I think the story shows its pre-End of Time origins - that story told us new things about the War that changed our view slightly from what we thought Nine had told us, and not necessarily for the better imho - but that's not a bad thing. It picks up on one of the many teasing throwaway references to the War the Doctor has let slip in the new series - the infamous fall of Arcadia - and really runs with it. The author manages to make sense of the idea of the Doctor, surely the least likely soldier anybody could imagine, actively participating in a war, and the way he does it seems wholly believable and in-character, as does the crushing sense of survivor's guilt he is left with after each of his escapades. You come away believing that somebody like Eight could turn into somebody like Nine under these circumstances. And it makes the Daleks the nightmarish, murderous, and above all merciless, horrors they are at heart but which they so rarely have a chance to be in any of their television outings. The best part of this story for me, however, is the way it is told; throughout, the author describes the various disasters and atrocities she is relating in a detached, almost nonfictional style that just increases the impact on the reader. Any Time War story that can casually toss in a line about the Daleks blowing up the sun gets my vote.

Go and read it and leave a word or two of encouragement for the author.

( A Brief Excerpt )

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Story: Her Doctor's Voice
Author: Paristani
Rating: A strong "Teen". I might have said "Adult"
Word Count: 2,321
Author's Summary: Six dark vignettes set after Parting of the Ways.
Characters/Pairings: Rose Tyler, the TARDIS, and...well, it took me a couple of read-throughs to be certain who the other character is
Warnings: This is the story I was talking about the other day re warnings. This is an extremely nasty horror story portraying a much-loved character having something truly horrible happen to her mind and body, as well as depiciting an extremely dysfunctional and exploitative relationship. So use extreme caution. I'm not kidding.
Recced because: I'll be upfront; I hesitated long and hard before reccing this story. I've had it on my list for two previous Calufrax weeks and chickened out both times. Partly because I was in two minds as to whether or not this counts as a character-bashing fic, which are rightly against the rules here (we get enough of that particular sort of w*nkery elsewhere on Livejournal without it rearing its head here). Having read and re-read the fic, and the author's response to one of the reviews posted on it, and agonised a bit, I don't think that denigrating a particular character or pairing was the author's intention in writing this. If your mileage, as they say, varies, then my apologies. My main concern, though, was to do with the story itself, its plot and content. This is, as I say above, a horror story, and it really does inspire horror. The word "dark" is, I think, a bit overused as an adjective in discussing modern popular culture; this story, however, is not merely dark, it is absolutely pitch black and likely to stay with you a long time after you've read it. I notice I never left a review on this one either, and I think in this case it wasn't so much my usual neglectfulness but a case of not really knowing what to say. It seems to require more of a response than I am usually capable of in my Teaspoon reviews.

I will tell you no more - this is a story best sampled cold, I think. I can't tell you you'll enjoy it, or like it, exactly. I don't think the author would want you to enjoy it or like it, to be frank. I think it is possible to admire it, as I do. It is extremely well and intricately written and shows a great deal of ambition and deep thinking as well as being a genuine critique of a particular period in Who history and a particular strand of Whofic that puts a particularly nightmarish AU spin on The Parting of the Ways and the Ninth Doctor's regeneration. It will not, I know for a fact, be to everybody's taste, quite possibly not even the majority of people's tastes, but I think one of the points of this sort of reccing is to maybe turn people on to things they might not otherwise read, to see what they think of them. I urge you to read it, with the above warnings in mind, and let the author know what you think (even though, unfortunately s/he doesn't seem to be active any more).

( An Extract )

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Story: A Still More Terrible Night Awaits Us
Author: Lyricwritesprose
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 1,278
Author's Summary: The distinction between cosmic horror and cosmic wonder is at least partly one's point of view.
Characters/Pairings: Ace, the Doctor (7th), the Master (Ainley) and a famous 20th Century author, although to say more than that would be to give the game away.
Warnings: None, really...
Recced because: Well, mainly because it's a particularly fine entry in the annals of one of the more skilled and prolific authors the Teaspoon has acquired in recent months. Lyricwritesprose has been very productive indeed over the course of the past year or so, and consistently good across the whole of this output. This is one that I only read very recently for the first time, but it instantly grabbed me, and I think it's only right in the circumstances to share.

I think this story probably works a lot better if the reader is (as I will confess to being) at least reasonably aware of the oeuvre and recurring themes of the real life author who appears in it as a guest character; it works especially well if you are also familiar with said author's somewhat idiosyncratic prose style, which here is the subject of a pastiche simultaneously as amusing as it is impressive. I really cannot be more specific than that, because a lot of the joy of this story, for me anyway, was in the slowly-dawning recognition of exactly who the character was, had to be, confirmed in the final line. I think, though, that the story still works very well even if the reader is not familiar with the guest character's works; I think it says something very perceptive about the Doctor and his adventures that some Who fans might hesitate to recognise. We see the Doctor, by and large, from the point of view of his devoted companions and pseudo-companions he acquires in the course of the various stories; what must it be like, though, to see the Doctor and his adventures from the outside, looking in? Without going overboard on the "Time's Champion"/"Time Lord Victorious" stuff that can occasionally be a bit too much, this story reflects on that side of the Doctor's nature and how he and his associates might sometimes appear to those who stumble, unawares, upon this world. And indeed upon what a vast and uncaring universe, full of powerful and dangerous beings, the Whoniverse often appears to be.

Above all, though, this is a very well-written story by a top-notch Who fanficcer currently at the height of their powers - I urge you, go and read it now and leave a few words of acknowledgement for the author.

( A Most Squamous and Loathsome Excerpt... )

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Story: Feed Your Head
Author: whovian42
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 29,593
Author's Summary: The tenth Doctor offers to take a grad student River Song on an anthropological study; the study is side-lined when they discover something has altered 1960's Earth History. Along the way they receive help from some surprising sources.
Characters/Pairings: The Doctor (10th), the Doctor (7th), the Doctor (4th), Ace, Leela, River Song, various historical figures associated with the 1960s counterculture.
Warnings: Some swearing
Recced because: I don't know about you, but I never tire of multi-Doctor stories, and especially not ones doing something as interesting as this. Cards on the table: I was one of the people who beta-read this back in 2009, but I hope that doesn't disqualify me from putting in a good word for it here, because I think all of you should read it and that you might enjoy it rather a lot if you do.

2009 seems like a long time ago now. This story was written pre-Eleven, pre End of Time, even; pre-finding out what the deal actually was with River. Hard to think there was a time when all that was known of her was what was seen in the Library two-parter. The relationship between Ten and River is at the core of this story, and due to when it was written very different to what we've watched unfold during the Eleven years. This is a different River with a different backstory and a different way of looking at the world, written with insight and affection. I can't honestly say that I prefer the "canon" version of Doctor/River from the television stories over this one (and that's probably a massive understatement on my part).

As I said, it's also a multi-Doctor story, and the portrayals of Four and Leela and Seven and Ace in this are just as deftly done - especially, for my money, Seven and Ace, and especially Ace. That alone makes me like this story a great deal.

I think the thing that really recommends this story to me, however, is the plot and the setting. It takes Ten's throwaway remark about Janis Joplin's coat and expands it via a little Alternate History sleight-of-hand into a nightmarish psychedelic vision of a 1960s that is very different to our universe's, where monsters become leaders and heroes become villains and our Doctors and their companions have to fight to save causality itself.

So go and read it, and if you enjoy it (you will, I think), let the author know.

( Some Tennish Repartee )

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Apologies for missing yesterday, my fellow Calufraxers - it will be made up later in the week. For today, have this intriguing yet disturbing little piece (also possibly not as disturbing as one of the recs I have lined up for later in the week, although we will come to that in due course):

Story: Broken Koan
Author: rutsky
Rating: All Ages on the Teaspoon; to be honest, were it my story I would have rated it at least "Teen".
Word Count: 616
Author's Summary: Time can't heal that which it violates.
Characters/Pairings: The TARDIS
Warnings: Nothing explicit, but it touches on stuff (specifically, things being done to living beings against their will) that I would think could be quite triggering for some readers.

Recced because: I hope I'm not putting anybody off with the above warnings (as I say, one of the stories I plan to rec later in the week probably warrants them more), but I would hate to subject any of you to undue distress by reccing incautiously. The central theme of this short fic is indeed extremely distressing, perhaps especially in light of one of the stories in the last series of new Who.

I refer to "The Doctor's Wife", which for me was the standout story of Season 6 or whatever number we're assigning to it. I think the beauty of it was that it told us things that were on the face of it entirely new information, but which on reflection we Who fans had known for a very long time. We'd always known, surely, that the TARDIS was more than merely a machine and indeed that her (we knew she was "female" too, as ships are) relationship with the Doctor was more than that between vehicle and pilot. Yet we also knew that her nature was something bigger and stranger than could be easily comprehended by somebody who was not a Time Lord. These are certainly not new themes, I think, as far as fanfic is concerned. This piece, written long before S6 aired, does an excellent job of expanding on some of them and of portraying the TARDIS from her own point of view in a way that is simultaneously poetic, strange, endearing and, as the story moves on, heartwrenching. As I say, many of us Who fans have known for a long time on some level that the TARDIS is a living being, that she feels. Consider, then, the story "The Sound of Drums" and consider what the Master did to the TARDIS in that story... The author puts "horror" as one of the tags for this piece, and I think it's warranted, and not merely as a genre description.

So, as I say, read this with caution, but I hope that if you do read it you will...enjoy may not be the right word, but will appreciate the skill and artistry of the author, and the deep consideration and deep affection for the TARDIS and for Doctor Who that this story shows. If so, please leave a word or two to express your appreciation.

( A Taste )

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Greetings, fellow fanfic aficionados (try saying that three times, fast) - I will be doing my best this week to meet all your reccing needs. Let us kick off with something that I personally find to be right up my fan-fictional street:

Story: Cheer Up, Emo Time Moppet
Author: LizBee
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 7,504
Author's Summary: The Doctor and Romana's secret alien lovechild learns some hard truths about life.
Characters/Pairings: The Doctor (10th)/Romana II, Rose Tyler, Sarah Jane Smith
Warnings: None

Recced because: Well, if any of you are at all familiar with my previous reccage or indeed output in Whofic, that little "/" between the "The Doctor (10th)" and "Romana II" may strike you as a significant clue. I think it's debatable whether or not somehow bringing Romana back from E-Space/the dead and having her interact with the new series Doctors and their companions would actually be a good idea on TV for a variety of reasons; it can, however, work very well indeed in fic, and this is a very good example. Here we have Romana returning from her long sojourn with the Exo-Universe...with Livia, her and the Doctor's by-now adolescent daughter, in tow. Yes, I'll leave you to digest that idea and imagine exactly how it might play out when Ten (of all Doctors) and his modern-day associates are confronted with this state of affairs, and then gently suggest that you rush over to the Teaspoon and see that whatever you imagined, it wasn't as funny, as well-thought out or as true to the various characters as this story.

I can never get enough of Doctor/Romana, personally, but this isn't the only thing, or even the main thing, going on in this story. Ten and Rose are probably never going to be in my list of favourite Doctor-companion teams, but their interaction here is very well portrayed in a way I wish the TV stories had managed more often. Sarah Jane is very well done too, and K-9 (both of him) is...well, K-9. Above all, young Livia's self-centred teenage point-of-view which continually misses the nuances of the relationships between the other characters (as we are prone to do at that time of life) is a hoot.

This author is no stranger to these pages, but anybody's who's read any of her works will know there's a reason for that. I first read this one a good two or three years ago, or maybe longer, at I think the recommendation of a Livejournal associate, and I'm somewhat shocked to see that I never left a review on it, because it's something I've gone back to more than once and always thought fondly of in between times. Indeed, rereading it before posting this, I was struck by how many of its ideas I must have taken on board and how they have clearly influenced my own efforts to write new series Doctor/Romana fic. Fellow Calufraxers, I urge you, don't be the discourteous fool I was - when you read this (as I'm assuming you will), please leave a small indication of your appreciation for the author.

( A Sample: )

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And so I come to the end of another week's reccing here on Calufrax. It seems to have gone over very quickly this time, but I've still got one story to rec before I leave you to your own devices. Anyway, thanks those of you who have posted reviews on this week's recs and I hope we can do it again some time.

Story: Soon, Love, Soon
Author: Maggadin
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 1147
Author's Summary: Soon, love, soon/Such a wide, wide chasm of faith to leap.
Characters/Pairings: The Doctor (11th), the TARDIS, Romana (author-created)
Warnings: None, unless for some reason you have a real aversion to Doctor/Romana.

Recced because: Repeating yourself, they say, can be an indication of advancing old age. I hope not, because this is the second time this week I've recced a story featuring the Doctor and Romana, although this time we have a different Doctor and indeed a different Romana, and the two stories themselves are, I think, very different in tone and intent.

When I rec here, I often use these notes to pontificate on what I think good fanfiction is and the things fanfiction can do. And I think the idea of crossing different eras of Who is one of the things that a great many writers of Who-fic toy with at one time or another. I suppose such fics ultimately take their lead from the multi-teamup anniversary stories in the original series, principally The Five Doctors, although of course there was no (intentional!) shipping in that. I don't know whether the idea of Eleven/Romana is an obvious one or not, but there are quite a few examples out there by now and in just about all of them the pairing works very well indeed, and casts interesting sidelights on Eleven and his situation. And I think this fic is one of the very best examples.

I'll be honest, the author of this is a firm online associate of mine, but I know for a fact that I would be reccing this regardless of whether I knew the writer or not. This is one of only two stories she has posted on Teaspoon (the other a drabble), but on this evidence she needs to write more. I would describe this story as haunting, hallucinatory (and possibly some other words beginning with "h" if I could think of any); it hints things rather than states them and I find it extremely affecting indeed. In short, it's the sort of Doctor/Romana fic that has me going away shaking my head in admiration and quiet envy. If you're into this pairing, and even if you're not, I urge you to read this and leave encouragement for the author, and maybe she'll write some more.

( An excerpt )

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Story: Never a Wolf
Author: jedi_penguin
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 2241
Author's Summary: She wouldn’t forgive him and she wouldn’t leave. The Doctor thinks this might be a good thing.
Characters/Pairings: The Doctor (7th), Ace
Warnings: Very mild swearing

Recced because: Earlier in the week, I gave you a rec for a story featuring Seven and another for one featuring Ace. In spite of this, I feel justified in returning to the same well, as it were, because both of those stories featured them in isolation and really, to get the full Seven experience imho, you have to have the two of them together. As fine as they are individually, together Seven and Ace are truly greater than the sum of their parts. This fic offers a slightly different slant on the ending of the televised Seven story The Curse of Fenric, in which Doctor and companion respond to the events of the denouement by having something of a frank exchange of views on the nature of their relationship. And what a relationship it is - "complex" does not begin to describe the ambiguous, slightly twisted Seven-Ace "thing", really, and this author captures that tremendously well, showing an extremely good and empathetic handle on the characters and their interactions that makes this Seven fan very happy indeed. And for all of the lies or omissions of the truth that may have passed between the pair of them, this is maybe one of the few Doctor-companion teams where you could imagine them actually having a discussion like this and coming to the conclusions they reach. I really enjoyed this fic, anyway, and keep going back to it. I hope all of you enjoy it as much as I did - and please let the author know how you feel about it.

( A brief preview... )

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Story: Old Shame
Author: johne
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 1175
Author's Summary: The Land of Fiction has one last surprise for Zoe and Jamie.
Characters/Pairings: The Doctor (2nd), Zoe Herriot, Jamie McCrimmon
Warnings: None

Recced because: This really is a top-quality piece of Two-fic that also manages to take what might be termed a playful swipe or two at this great pastime that we call fanfiction. A missing scene from the Two story The Mind Robber, this sees Jamie and Zoe have one last unsettling encounter before they manage to make good their escape from the Land of Fiction. Johne, as those of you who have read his stories will know, is an extremely accomplished writer and moreover has a deep appreciation and affection for the characters he is writing here. For me, that is the mark of good fanfic. Jamie and Zoe are excellently drawn, especially Jamie's sense of straightforward devotion and loyalty to his fellow TARDIS crewmembers. And above all, as a reader and writer of fanfic, I know for a fact that I've experienced the feeling Zoe's feeling here - and I bet a great many of you have too. And on top of all that, it's also very funny indeed. I strongly advise all of you to go and read this and leave the author some well-deserved reviews.

( A Sample )

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Story: The Case of the Dead Doctor
Author: nostalgia
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 1117
Author's Summary: Sherlock/Who crossover.
Characters/Pairings: Sherlock Holmes, John Watson, Mycroft Holmes (Sherlock versions), Ace, River Song
Warnings: None

Recced because: Well, the main reason is probably summed up by the author's extremely succinct summary. Sorry to be reccing two crossovers back-to-back, but this is another one of those stories that I came across very recently and which immediately jumped to the front of my "to rec" list. I like Sherlock. I like it a lot - it's like substitute new Who for when there's no new Who on. That's the first reason why I want to rec this - the take on the Sherlock characters and their interactions with the Whoniverse as Sherlock takes on the task of investigating the Doctor's "death" after S6 is very well done. Of course Mycroft would know all about the Doctor's involvement with UNIT; of course Sherlock would see him almost as another worthy adversary even if he's supposed to be dead. And of course John would be shaking his head at the idea of the other two believing in alien invasions etc. The thing that really made me want to recommend this, however, was the story's middle section where the detective duo visit one of the Doctor's old companions in an effort to track him down, my favourite companion as it happens, because I think we need more fic elaborating upon that throwaway line in the SJA story "The Death of the Doctor". I know, there are other examples out there, but we need more!

Anyway, go and read this, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

( A snippet... )

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Story: Infinitely Late at Night
Author: Siani
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 5511
Author's Summary: The Doctor decides it is past time for a drink.
Characters/Pairings: The Doctor (10th), Kaywinnit Lee Frye (from Firefly)
Warnings: None

Recced because: I think one of the real pleasures to be gained from reading fanfiction is the satisfaction of a good crossover, one written with love and respect for both/all of the settings being crossed over. And this is a good crossover. Cards on the table: I really like Firefly and its spinoff film Serenity. I say that as a well-wisher but not particularly a fan-type-fan of Joss Whedon's other works (you know, imho Buffy really went downhill after she went to college). There's something about Firefly, the cast, the characters the slightly hokey Old-West-in-Spaaace setting that appeals deeply to me. It also seems like the perfect complement for Doctor Who in a crossover such as this one. We have the Tenth Doctor here, travelling the universe in his post-Journey's End self-imposed isolation, consumed by his own guilt and regret. It's easy for that sort of thing to slide into the patented Ten!angst, but here the author deftly avoids wallowing in that aspect of it and instead uses the crossover to comment upon the portrayal of Ten in that period of the show's run. One of the most attractive aspects of Firefly is the genuine, familial bond of affection between the motley spaceship crew, and here that is compared and contrasted with Ten's decision to travel alone and show how that isn't really the best thing for him. Plus the portrayal of the characters and their voices is fantastic. This is Ten at his best and Kaylee as likeable as she is on screen (the bit where she more or less instantly falls in love with the TARDIS is very true, and very nice indeed). So even if you're not familiar with the other half of the crossover, go and read this, I urge you, and say nice things to the author about it.

( Poor old Ten... )

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Story: Broken Toys
Author: Alligatorade
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 3110
Author's Summary: The Doctor and Romana are cruising around space when they notice something a bit off about the children on one particular planet. Their investigations uncover something unexpected and attract some unwanted attention (as ever).
Characters/Pairings: The Doctor (4th), Romana II
Warnings: None

Recced because: Well, I suppose the short answer would be "because I very much enjoy Seasons 16-18 of original-series Who and especially the interactions between Four and Romana and this fic captures that special tone and atmosphere to a tee". As those of you familiar with my online ramblings may know, however, I don't really do short answers...

There's just something about late-period Four. The word I'm looking for, I think, is silly. And I mean that as a pro, not a con. I can see how some Who fans, then and now, don't really like that kind of thing, but it appeals greatly to me. Obviously, Four was that way inclined all along - no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes, etc - but there's something about the Romana seasons, especially once Romana II is on the scene. The Doctor and his companion aren't afraid to be daft, even in the most life-threatening of situations. There's a very specific sense of fun to the proceedings, I suppose. That's a big reason why I like those stories, anyway. And this fiction has it in spades - the character voices and reactions, the playful dialogue. You can imagine it on screen as you read it.

Not that this isn't a fic that has some serious points to make. There's a moral to it, and hints of some very worrying truths about human beings and their attitudes to war. When I first read and reviewed it, I thought the story's last line provided a glimmer of hope, but re-reading it now I'm not so sure whether it doesn't represent the turn of a vicious circle. Thoughts, calufraxers?

I any case, highly recommended. Read it at once and leave your comments for the author.

( The Doctor and Romana in action )

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Well, hello Calufrax. I will be your reccer for the coming week. It doesn't seem like long since I was last reccing here. Time flies, as they say.

Story: Fade Out
Author: Mandragora
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 2880
Author's Summary: A dying being of energy, a feline and a Time Lord's last days.
Characters/Pairings: The Doctor (7th), Wolsey (the Doctor's cat from the New Adventures novels)
Warnings: Swearing; animal death

Recced because: One of the reasons I have to keep coming back and reccing here is that I seem quite often nowadays to read new stories that immediately elbow their way to the front of my "to rec" list. I first came across this gem a couple of weeks ago and still have it on my mind. As I may have let slip one or two times, I'm a very big fan of the Seventh Doctor and while not quite as big a fan of some of the directions taken by the New Adventures after the original television series ended, they were the main outlet for my Who fandom for much of the time between the old series and the new. So reading about Wolsey and Seven's white linen suit and so on takes me straight back to those years. The appeal of this story to me goes beyond that, however. This touches on some deep themes that were starting to emerge in the televised Seven stories and were expanded on in the NAs before resurfacing more recently in the new series. The main one is the reminder that the Doctor, despite having great power (something the so-called Cartmel Masterplan emphasised and the new series is positively obsessed with) is still limited. He is still, for all of his abilities and longevity, only mortal. Probably. And then there is the exploration, particularly apt for a setting where time travel is a reality, of the nature of fate and destiny and how difficult it might prove to cheat them. We're in Turn Left or Waters of Mars territory here, and very definitely going down some of the same byways as Eleven's two series, especially the most recent one. Most definitely, though, this is a fine slice of late-period NA Seven, includes an extremely interesting author-created alien species and offers as good an explanation as any for the TV Movie's Gothic-themed TARDIS interior. And it has cats, for better and for worse.

( A taste... )

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Well, another week of reccing flies by... I hope all of you reading Calufrax have enjoyed the stories I've brought to your attention over the past seven days and smiled indulgently rather than gritting your teeth in annoyance while reading my blather about them :). So, to finish off, another one I think very highly of, and that's me for the time being. Hope we can do this again soon.

Story: Time Lag
Author: castrovalva9
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 2,480
Author's Summary: In 1979 London, the Fifth Doctor, Tegan, and Turlough accidentally crash a Torchwood party.
Characters/Pairings: The Doctor (5th), Tegan Jovanka, Turlough, Torchwood
Warnings: None

Recced because: I don't know if anybody else has seen the recent film version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy yet, but there's a sequence in it in which the great and good (or great...ish at any rate) of the Circus, John Le Carre's fictionalised version of MI6, gather at what looks like the cheesy 70s Xmas office party from hell. And when I saw it, it reminded me strongly of this fic. In a good way! Essentially, that's what happens here - Five and companions inadvertently crash the Torchwood Institute's 100th anniversary bash and hilarity ensues, with dancing, team-building pep talks and flagrant misuse of alien technology all featuring in the course of the evening. I really like the way this story portrays Five, Tegan and Turlough, a Doctor-companion team that always make me smile with their various personality quirks and often spiky interpersonal relations. The character voices and interactions are spot on. As for Torchwood, they don't exactly cover themselves in glory - you know that it probably really was like this for them most of the time. It is all in all extremely funny, and yet also very true to the characters and what we know of this particular corner of the Whoniverse. So, I encourage you to read this and hope you all enjoy it - please leave reviews for the author if at all possible.

( The Kind of Thing I'm Talking About )

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Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to present the second part of today's double feature:

Story: Savor Your Victories
Author: Magnus Greel
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 626
Author's Summary: The Third Doctor knows how to live... good food, good wine, a main course with special meaning... so just why is Jo freaking out?
Characters/Pairings: The Doctor (3rd), Jo Grant
Warnings: None

Recced because: I can't really say too much about this short piece without giving the game away, other than to say that it's very well written, extremely funny (to me, at any rate) and may well leave you with the same feeling of nausea as poor Jo seems to be experiencing at the story's conclusion. I would probably class this as crack fic, if only because I would prefer to think that Three would not "really" do anything like this, but sometimes with Three it's a bit hard to be sure. So read this, and see how long it takes you to work out what's really going on and why Jo reacts in the way she does. I'd also like to urge you to read some of this author's other work on the Teaspoon - Magnus Greel is a Who fan of the old school and has a nicely irreverant, surrealist take on the show and its meandering course over the years, but can also be very sincere and thoughtful when required. I don't think you'll regret taking the time to familiarise yourselves with some of his other stories after this one.

( An Appetiser )

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The first of two recs I'll be posting today, to make up for missing yesterday. Another one I can't believe hasn't been recced already (but the tags do not lie!), because I think it's something special.

Story: Moments, Arbitrarily Gifted
Author:

agapi42
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 1,689
Author's Summary: "Time is a cruel thief to rob us of our former selves." Sometimes time gives something back. (Amelia Rumford/Vivien Fay from The Stones of Blood.)
Characters/Pairings: Amelia Rumford/Vivien Fay
Warnings: None

Recced because: One of the real pleasures to be had from Doctor Who over its many years, in my opinion, is its great supporting characters. Some of them are heroes, some of them are villains, some act as pseudo-companions for one story only and some are only bit-part players, but so many of them, thanks to that hard-to-quantify combination of writing and actor that Who manages to pull off uncannily often, are unforgettable creations, their legends carrying on in fandom to the extent that it's easy to forget that their actual screentime was so limited. And so it is with The Stones of Blood, a very strong story, imo, even if late-period Tom Baker doesn't appeal to all fans, and one that I like a great deal. One of the most interesting things about it is the portrayal of the two guest characters around which this story revolves, because while the kinds of things that people felt comfortable referencing in family television programmes have obviously changed over the intervening 30+ years, on the face of it the relationship between the two doesn't really seem ambiguous at all.

This story is a very fine exploration of the two characters, beautifully written and building on what the TV story showed us of Professor Rumford and Vivien and their life together. It's also a story about fractured time and people living their lives out of synch with each other in a way that seems to happen more often in the Whoniverse than you might think, as well as managing to make a couple of good points about feminist historical theory and matriarchy versus patriarchy. The centrepiece of it, though, is the subtle and well-rounded treatment of the two characters - it underlines the somewhat ambivalent ending of the TV story and will possibly make you think that while Four was probably doing what needed to be done, it was still a bit harsh of him. So go and read this and leave a review, because this story deserves more attention, I think.

( An Extract )

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Story: A tin heart can bleed too
Author: Who_La_Hoop
Rating: Teen, probably
Word Count: 441
Author's Summary: In which K-9 and Mickey do stuff that they really, really shouldn't.
Characters/Pairings: Mickey Smith/K-9. Yes, you read that right.
Warnings: I know the comm rules say we shouldn't warn for either het or slash (and rightly so), but...what do you call man/tin dog?

Recced because: I'll keep this brief, because it's very late and I need to sleep, but here goes: Now, dear readers, I don't want you to go reading this rec and thinking I'm some sort of...odd character for liking it so much. But I do actually think it's pretty awesome, for a variety of reasons. And you know, tin dogs of all kinds need love too, right?

I'll confess to always feeling a bit sorry for Mickey. He never seemed to get a break. Well, until he became a freedom fighter against the Cybermen, somehow married Martha and then ended up running away from Sontarans in derelict industrial areas as Ten angsted at them from afar. So it all came good in the end, you might say. But in between times, he didn't have much luck did he? Which is why I like the idea of him finding a bit of companionship and satisfaction, even with a...yeah...

Look, I'll stop being silly and get to the point. I think you should read this story, because it's very funny, very well written (I love the economical way the author captures Mickey's voice in particular) and if the ending doesn't make you go "Awww"... (while simultaneously snorting whatever beverage you're currently consuming out of your nose), then you probably ought to go and buy a soul somewhere. The review I left over on Teaspoon when I first read it just says "Genius!" and I don't think I was incorrect. :)

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Story: nor shall sound my echoing song
Author:

vegaofthelyre
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 1,453
Author's Summary: “You sent for me, Madam President?” the Doctor says gravely, and she steels herself to break his hearts. Eight/Romana; sequel to had we but world enough, and time.
Characters/Pairings: The Romana II/The Doctor (8th)
Warnings: None. Not unless lovely Time War-related angst counts, anyway.

Recced because: Those of you who have had online dealings with me either here on LJ, over at the Teaspoon or elsewhere may well be aware of this by now, but it probably bears repeating: that good old Doctor/Romana stuff, I can't get enough of it myself. I'm a sucker for it, no doubt about it. I think it's something about it, at least when it's as well written as it is here, that speaks to themes going beyond the joys of simple shippiness (not that there's anything wrong with simple shippiness, my friends). When you contrast the Doctor and Romana of Seasons 16-17 with the status quo in the new series (or even, I might argue, with post-Leisure Hive S18), and then filter that through the lens of fanfic, you're immediately getting into stuff about love and loss and growing up and getting old and the things we leave behind. Or so I like to think anyway. And the new series notion of the Time War and the Doctor now being (practically) the last of the Time Lords, combined with the spinoff novels and audios and their general consensus about What Romana Did Next only cast it all in even more bittersweet terms.

And then there's the Time War - another strange attractor for me when it comes to bridging the gap between the old series and the new. Because you know, quite apart from it being an honest-to-gods Time War, to turn somebody like the TVM Eight into the Nine of Rose, it was probably even worse than you think you can imagine.

So having established that I'm pretty easy for any fic combining Doctor/Romana and the aforementioned War, this is nevertheless a story that I think you all should read, even if you don't share my particular predilections, because it's lovely, and sad, and hints at some of the dark deeds behind RTD's throwaway references to the Doctor's part in the conflict. Seeing things from Romana's point of view, it reflects on her relationship with the Doctor and her own conflicted attempts to balance that and her sense of her own morality with the demands of leading the Time Lords in their hour of greatest peril. It's also very well written, structured as a series of moments in time that could just as easily be read backwards as forward. And it ends on a note that if you're as into the whole Doctor/Romana thing as I am will make you go "awww", because at the end of the day, it always comes back to Paris...

So read it!
( A Moment )

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Story: The Beacon in Space
Author: richard hurndall
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 9,332
Author's Summary: Classic Troughton; space stations, Ice Warriors, lots of shouting!
Characters/Pairings: The Doctor (2nd), Jamie McCrimmon, the Ice Warriors
Warnings: None

Recced because: I like this one. What other reason do I need? And also because this is the sort of story that people might not find impressive at first glance, but I think it has more going for it than might be immediately obvious from the first couple of paragraphs (although if you're not drawn in by that author's summary alone, I'm not sure I fully understand you... :) ). I hope the author (should s/he happen to read this) wouldn't take it as a slight if I were to say that that the prose here is somewhat unpolished, and if you're looking for literary pretensions or clever-clever in-jokes or postmodern fannish fun-poking at some of Who's cliches and eccentricities, or even if you just want a bit of shippiness, then you're not going to find much of that here. If you want to read a story that would fit effortlessly into the Troughton television canon, with all that that implies, then you want to read this. It's clear that the author (who I suspect was not the actual Richard Hurndall, going out on a limb there!) has a profound appreciation for Two-era Who and its quirks and conventions and does a very good job of reproducing some of them here, without frills and, somewhat refreshingly to me, anyway, played dead straight. I don't think there's enough Whofic with that sort of approach, to be honest. And while there seems to be more Two fic about than there once was (or is that just my false impression?), there's not that much of it that sticks so closely to the spirit of what comparatively few of the original TV stories remain.

Even the cold opening, with the Doctor and Jamie already enmeshed in the story as it begins, sort of reminds me of some of those Two stories which only exist in partial form - presumably Part One is in the incinerator. Jamie especially gets some nice character moments, as do the supporting OCs, some of whom are just the sort of characters you'd expect to find acting as monster-fodder in a Troughton story. And there are places where Two and Jamie just seem to leap into life, just as they are in black-and-white on your telly (or computer, possibly, nowadays).

So I'd strongly urge you to read this with an open mind and let it win you over with its straightforwardness and sense of period. And just imagine Troughton saying some of Two's dialogue (because you can!)

( A Taste )

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It's good to be back, fellow Whofic enthusiasts. As I sit here, barricades erected against the roaming trick-or-treaters, it seems like only yesterday that I was apologising (to myself!) for managing to go a whole week reccing without including any Seven 'n' Ace stories, so this time we kick off with a fine example of the genre. And it's more than that; it's a crossover, as well as providing a nicely chilly little ghost story for this All Hallows Eve...

Story: The Glade
Author:

wiccagirl24
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 5,807
Author's Summary: Sapphire and Steel are assigned to investigate a snow covered glade where something has gone wrong with time. The Doctor and Ace are drawn to the same place but for them it's spring and the flowers are in bloom. An angry man, a sobbing woman, a mystery.
Characters/Pairings: The Doctor (7th), Ace, Sapphire and Steel
Warnings: None, but it does have some nicely spooky moments.

Recced because: I genuinely thought this one had already been recced, but it seems it hasn't (I checked the tags twice!), so I thought I'd remedy that oversight forthwith. Plus I thought a ghost story for Hallowe'en was a good way to start the week. Mainly, though, I wanted to rec this because I think it's a very good story indeed and I think other people ought to read it.

I'm not overly familiar with Sapphire & Steel, in spite of my associate

lost_spook's LJ posts about it which make me think I really ought to check it out at some point. For those of you even less familiar with it than I, it's a British sf-fantasy series that ran sporadically between 1979 and 1982, starring Joanna Lumley and David McCallum as the titular pair of interdimensional operatives. Sapphire and Steel almost certainly aren't human, although they do a reasonably good job of pretending to be, and their business is time, specifically investigating and fixing problems with it, which from the point of view of us mere humans take the form of all sorts of paranormal and ghostly phenomena. The series is famed for its eerie atmosphere and unsettling storylines, often avoiding giving the audience too many straight answers, and this story certainly captures something of that, as well as painting an impressively subtle picture of the two characters and their very different yet complimentary personalities (with more than a hint., it has to be said, of the old UST, even if they are aliens/angels/whatevers). I honestly don't think lack of exposure to Sapphire & Steel seriously diminishes one's enjoyment of this story, although I'm sure somebody who was a fan would find even more things to enjoy about the way the characters are portrayed here.

The other half of the story, of course, belongs to Seven and Ace, and it does not disappoint on those grounds either. They're my favourite Doctor-and-companion team, with an impressively nuanced and complicated relationship that can sometimes be hard to capture in fic. This story does very well indeed on that score. This is Seven and Ace in Ghost Light or Curse of Fenric mode, where the Doctor is simultaneously educating and testing his companion while, one suspects, using her as part of his solution to a problem he's pretending to have run across by coincidence. At the same time, their closeness and trust and reliance on each other are more than obvious. Yes, Ace comes out with all of her catchphrases and there's the obligatory Nitro-9 scene, but there's something truer and more delicate shining through here, too. Parts of the Doctor-Ace dialogue here make me smile, and others give me a shiver; it's clear the author has a very fine handle on both these characters.

All this and a nasty, tragic little ghost story too. Read it, I urge you, and express your appreciation in the usual place.

( A Brief Excerpt )

Current Mood: content

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Well, that week went quickly, didn't it? It's been a lot of fun, and I hope people have enjoyed the recs I've posted so far. Just one more to go...

Story: Nothing gold can stay
Author: clocketpatch
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 16,535
Author's Summary: In which Romana saves the Doctor's butt, the universe, and some newt people.
Characters/Pairings: The Doctor (4th)/Romana II, K9
Warnings: Although there's nothing explicit, the story does involve possession and the Doctor acting very strangely; it hints at some pretty dark stuff, including violence, but without going into the details

Recced because: Here's another story that I've been meaning to rec either on Calufrax or elsewhere for at least three years now, but somehow never got around to it, because I'm bad like that. I have put in a good word for it here and there, though, in LJ conversations and elsewhere as and when the opportunity arose, because I really do think as many people as possible should read this one, and hopefully enjoy it as much as I have. I'll be honest, clocketpatch has become a pretty firm internet acquaintance of mine over the past couple of years, but I'm not exaggerating or gilding the lily even a little bit when I say she's one of the best writers I've come across online and that I wish her busy real life gave her more time to write, because the world needs more writing of this quality.

Very nice prose stylings, interesting use of words and vivid descriptive passages are the things I most associate with clocketpatch's writing, and this story is no exception. Another thing which endears it to me is the fact that it's about Four, Romana and K9, with more than a hint of Four/Romana about it; I can't get enough of that sort of stuff, as anybody who has had any fanfic-related dealings with me probably knows. Here, though, what is often thought of as a quite light, fluffy Team TARDIS find themselves involved in some quite grim, dark stuff indeed. I don't want to give more away than I did in the warnings section above, but it's interesting to see these characters in that sort of setting, and strangely it's extremely effective. Another thing this author does very well is to ground her stories very much in the often harsh reality of life, but without going overboard with grimness for grimness's sake. It's a fine line to tread, but she does it very well.

It's not all darkness, though - the portrayal of Four and Romana and their unique star-crossed relationship, and the whimsy of it, is very nice indeed. It makes me smile, and kind of "get something in my eye" at points, especially in the epilogue which provides a perfectly bittersweet ending to the whole tale. Another thing well worth mentioning is the world-building in this story; the author's aliens are very alien while remaining understandable to the reader, a hard thing to achieve.

Lastly, I cannot overstate the big impression this story made on me the first time I read it and how it consciously or unconsciously influenced my own later fic about Four and Romana and indeed the way I see their characters nowadays. Go and read it!

( Four Reflects )

And it occurs to me, somewhat shockingly, that I've managed to go a whole week without reccing any Seven fics... I suppose I'll just have to do better next time. :)

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Story: Smoke and Mirrors
Author: scarlettgirl
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 1275
Author's Summary: It's 1914 and Gerald Carter visits Oxford to observe Harriet Derbyshire. Does she have what it takes to join Torchwood?
Characters/Pairings: Gerald Carter and Harriet Derbyshire as (very briefly) featured in the Torchwood episode "To The Last Man". That's them in my icon there.
Warnings: None. Unusually for a Torchwood fic. :D

Recced because: There was a time, believe it or not, when I was slightly reluctant to identify as a Torchwood fan. I may even, St. Peter-like, have denied it in polite company once or thrice, something that I would never, ever do in the case of Doctor Who. I don't know, maybe it's just that "classic" Torchwood, pre-Children of Earth, always seems like such a...guilty pleasure. And not even always a pleasure, exactly, yet I kept watching it. Anyway, nowadays I'm out and proud: I'm a Torchwood fan. Deal with it, world.

One of the genuine pleasures to be had, though, from the first two seasons of Torchwood, for me anyway, was the sense we got of the Institute's long and storied history, the little glimpses of its past, especially in Season 2, when we were introduced to such luminaries as Emily Holroyd and Alice Guppy, Charles Gaskell, and my favourites - those two in the icon, Gerald and Harriet, from the First World War-era Team Torchwood. I even wrote fic about them. Long and involved fic about two characters who appeared on screen for a couple of minutes tops. I sometimes wondered whether that made me a little bit strange. And then I found this story and...someone else likes them too! I thought. Since then, I've discovered that there are a handful of Gerald and Harriet fics out there, not all on Teaspoon however, but for me this one remains the gold standard. Plus it takes its inspiration from the same BBC website fluff I was using for my fics and none of those falsehoods and calumnies spread by Gary Russell in his Torchwood Archives book! :D

But I rec this fic for somewhat better reasons than that it made me feel validated in my fic-writing eccentricities. It really is a very well-written, quite lovely story that takes two characters who barely had time to name themselves in the television story and make them living, breathing people in a very particular historical time and place. I suppose the danger of writing fanfiction about such very minor canon characters is that they end up becoming de facto OCs, and as I observed the other day, some people have very understandable objections to OCs in fanfic. Personally, I think that fleshing out minor characters is very much within the fanfic writer's prerogative, especially when it's done as well as this by a talented author. I don't expect anybody to share my particular enthusiasm for these particular characters, but I encourage all of you to read this because it more than deserves to be read on its own merits. For me, things like this, the expansion upon barely-glimpsed nooks and crannies of canon, done with intelligence and insight and respect for the source material, are one of the things fanfiction is all about.

( An Extract )

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Story: Death To All Androgums!
Author: Celestialhost
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 940
Author's Summary: After the Androgums have been thwarted, the Doctor explains to John and Gillian their duty to fight and destroy monsters.
Characters/Pairings: The Doctor (2nd), Gillian, John
Warnings: None, on the face of it, although imho there is something slightly...unsettling going on in this story

Recced because: Without wanting to get repetitive, because when I was reading it, I thought "That's great! If I ever do Calufrax, I'm well going to rec that!" (I'd apparently temporarily started talking like Ace too) And it's one of those stories, even though it's comparatively short and on the face of it quite simple, that I keep thinking about even long after reading it. The first thing that it has going for it is its tackling of the pesky TV Comics comic-strips from the 60s and their portrayal of the Doctor's adventures with his other two grandchildren, John and Gillian. Celestialhost, judging from her/his other work, has a fascination for these cranky bits of greater Who continuity and trying to work them into the greater context of the show, an attitude I greatly admire. The effect here is to show a Doctor just a little bit...different from the one we might be used to. The TV Comics Doctor, after all, used to do things like carrying ray-guns, as alluded to here, appearing as an expert on TV chat shows, inventing wondrous new devices and crowing about how they'd make him rich, and generally acting a little bit...well, as I say, different... Here, he expounds some views that a lot of Doctor Who fans might find a little bit uncomfortable coming from the mouth of Our Hero.

That's the thing that makes this story weigh heavily upon my mind, however, because those attitudes while presented here in the sort of blithe, seemingly unthinking way you'd expect from TV Comics are actually closer to the television programme than we might like to admit. Two's speech about "things that must be fought", on the face of it rather heroic and admirable, is here twisted into something chilling, and the thing is that while we might like to think otherwise, Two often did display this Seven-like willingness to right wrongs by any means necessary, but crucially, Two (or the show's producers and writers at the time) didn't really seem to share the Seven era's reservations about how those sorts of actions might gradually compromise the Doctor. A lot of fans have accused the current, Eleven era, of a similar shortsightedness, and so this fic seems particularly apt at a time when the message boards and LJ comms are ringing with debates about the kind of person the Doctor should be and the kind of ways he ought to act.

So, yes, I applaud this fic because it does something quite deceptive and clever in that it confronts us with the cracky, TV Comics stuff upfront, but is actually much deeper and more thoughtful than it might at first appear. And it's very well-written too. Which is why I urge you to read this and as much of Celestialhost's other stuff as you can (some good Seven stories there as well).

( A Pertinent Moment )

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Story: Cake and the Rani
Author: primsong
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 11,098
Author's Summary: In which the Master takes up baking, Three disapproves of his culinary planning and Ten loses his britches, with the Rani's help. No TARDISes were harmed in the making of this fic.
Characters/Pairings: Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Sergeant Benton, The Doctor (3rd), The Master (Delgado), The TARDIS, UNIT, The Doctor (10th), The Rani and other characters
Warnings: In spite of the worrying implications of the author's summary, surprisingly none

Recced because: I'll be candid right at the outset and admit that I may have had some tangential involvment in inciting this particular fic, or that at any rate I may have been involved in some of the discussions that led to it being incited. A couple of years ago, on a Doctor Who forum that I frequent, a kind of fictional prompt or challenge arose quite by accident from some chance remarks made by members of the forum. To cut a long story short, people started writing humorous fics with one common premise; they all featured Ten, naked, chained to Three by the Master and both of them covered in cake. Despite the worrying potential, I don't think any of these fics veered into the obvious places you might think from that summary. And so a genre was born. Cakefic. And this story remains one of the premier examples.

Now, I don't expect anybody who wasn't a participant to care at all about the previous paragraph, but I still think they should read this fic. Not only does primsong manage to take a pretty silly prompt indeed and weave from it a decent, lengthy and not wholly frivolous story, but she does it with such a deft touch and affection for all of the disparate characters involved. I think one of the things that I really respond strongly to in Doctor Who fanfic is the sense you get in some stories of the writer's deep, abiding love for the show and its characters, and especially when it's clear that love extends across more than one era of the show without fear or favour or fan-wankiness. And that's what I get when I read this fic. Ten and Three and the Master and the Rani and the UNIT bods are all drawn with such affection and insight into their essential natures. And there are some telling little moments, like Three's wistful realisation when he sees his future self's TARDIS that his own exile isn't forever, or the Rani's businesslike ruthlessness and her spiky relationship with the Master, even if it's Delgado!Master in this instance. And it's pretty funny indeed. And it features Ten naked, chained to Three and covered in cake. So go and read it.

( A Brief Extract )

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Story: A Game of Two Halves
Author: Gary Merchant
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 1316
Author's Summary: It's the best of Galactic Football Action, from Gallifrey.
Characters/Pairings: Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Davros, Sutekh, The Celestial Toymaker, The Daleks, The Doctor (10th), The Doctor (1st), The Doctor (2nd), The Doctor (3rd), The Doctor (4th), The Doctor (5th), The Doctor (6th), The Doctor (7th), The Doctor (8th), and quite a few others as well.
Warnings: Only if you have some in-built aversion to the game known variously as football/soccer...

Recced because: Recced because the first time I read this it absolutely tickled me pink. Essentially, it's a pretty unique take on that concept that seems to haunt the dreams of all us fanfiction writers, the Ultimate Multi-Doctor Team-Up, but in the form of a football (soccer, that is, for those of you on the other side of the Pond there) match, with a motley visiting team of villains and monsters providing the opposition. The story is absolutely stuffed to bursting with clever references and asides to the wide and varied history of Who, both in-universe and real life; if you like a good in-joke (and I would tentatively place myself in that category), you will find much here to amuse you. What really elevates this story for me, however, is the style in which it is told. Truly oddball television football commentary is something of a dying art nowadays, but the author here captures its unique idiom perfectly, somewhat filtered through the prism of that Monty Python election results sketch which was mocking the same sort of thing. Certainly, if you're familiar with the way football used to be televised in the UK in the days before Sky Sports, you'll get an extra kick out of this, but even if not you'll still find a lot to like about this and a lot of humour in it, I'm sure. So go and read it - this instant!

( In case I haven't explained myself sufficiently: )

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Story: Night Terrors
Author: Lyricwritesprose
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 8529
Author's Summary: People have called Rory Williams brave. He doesn't always feel that way.
Characters/Pairings: Rory Williams, the Doctor (11th)
Warnings: In the author's own words: "It's worth noting that while this story isn't violent, it does reference House's psychological torture. It would rate a mental manipulation warning, if there was one."

Recced because: Unlike most of the stories I'll be reccing this week, this is one that I only read very recently. I was put onto it by a member of my flist here on LJ, who spoke very highly of it, and when I read it I immediately saw why. I'm almost certain somebody else would have recced this on here at some point had I not done so, but you know, I thought I'd pre-empt them. For the nonexistent bragging rights of reccing something first (which may only exist in my head), and because this story is just that good that it deserves as wide an exposure, as quickly as possible.

The story follows Rory in the middle of one sleepless night soon after the events of "The Doctor's Wife", as he tries to come to terms with his experiences in that story and the private fears they have triggered in him, as well as having a typically bizarre conversation with Eleven in the TARDIS console room which leads on into darker areas. What makes this story special, and had me going "instant classic!" even as I was reading it, is the portrayal of its two main characters and the bizarre, dangerous world they inhabit. From descriptions of the TARDIS's internal geography and the ways it interacts with its inhabitants, to riffing on Eleven's various quirks and mannerisms, the author's creativity and sheer love for Doctor Who and its foibles shine through. And then there is the portrayal of the Doctor as seen through Rory's eyes, the author doing an excellent job of conveying the frightening alienness of him combined with his whimsical nature, and captures his voice perfectly. The most magnificent aspect of the tale, for me, though, is the portrayal of Rory as a viewpoint character, with all of his inner fears and insecurities and hints at unspoken traumas of his past, and the overwhelming sense that he is much more of a hero than he gives himself credit for. Also nicely handled are his lingering Roman memories and his chilling recollection of what it was like to be an Auton too.

And the author-created alien who makes a guest appearance is well worth reading about too.

So all I can say is read this, you won't regret it. In fact, I would hope you'll all like it as much as I did.

( A Pretty Spiffing Excerpt )

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Well, hello there. Long-time reader, first time reccer here. If you'll all just try and bear with me, we can all get through this week as easily and painlessly as possible...

Story: UNIT: Strange Weapons
Author: vvj5 a.k.a

lost_spook
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 36335
Author's Summary: April 1985: Good scientific advisors are hard to find. Dr Webber discovers why when he’s expected to deal with zombies, aliens and Torchwood on his second day and his only help is a tin dog and a ghost. Colonel Crichton and Sarah Jane are planning an exit strategy of sorts, Bambera is trying to keep her men from joining the opposing forces. They'll all be lucky to stay alive.
Characters/Pairings: K9, Sarah Jane Smith, Winifred Bambera, Colonel Crichton, UNIT, Torchwood, OCs
Warnings:

lost_spook isn't really that type of author :)

Recced because: Recced firstly because when I first read it I more or less immediately thought "if I ever rec on Calufrax, this is definitely going on my list!", and secondly because I think more people should read it and then go on to read the "80s UNIT" series of which it is part and allow themselves to be drawn into and captivated by it the way I have been. This isn't actually the first story in the series, although it is the first to feature our soon-to-be heroes Nat and Tilly. Some people are understandably wary of fanfic heavily featuring OCs, but I think these OCs and this story and its sequels more than justify the author's decision to use them. They're lovely, they are. :D And as you can see from the summary above, there are plenty of "canon" Who characters getting in on the act (K9 is brilliant in this, and you can never have too many fics featuring Bambera, I say), not least Colonel Crichton from The Five Doctors (briefly), who here goes from walk-on obscurity to a certain quiet, noble British heroism that would do the Brig himself proud. And plus you get to find out just what UNIT was up to between Seeds of Doom and Battlefield and learn all about their ongoing struggle with the dastardly men in grey suits from the Torchwood Institute. I could go on gushing for another few paragraphs, but suffice to say, read this. And then read all of the sequels. Yes, all of them.

( A taster )

reccity-rec-rec

calufrax is sleeping in your mind. One day, it may be brought back in front of your eyes.

April 2018

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A rec comm for A Teaspoon And An Open Mind

Entries tagged with reccer: jjpor

Rec: Hand in Hand for Eternity by AceOnGallifrey

Rec: Running by Jesht

Rec: Missing Link on the Brink of Destruction by Clocketpatch

Rec: Afternoon Matinee by vvj5

Rec: Et in Arcadia Ego by Amy Wolf

Rec: Her Doctor's Voice by Paristani

Rec: A Still More Terrible Night Awaits Us by Lyricwritesprose

Rec: Feed Your Head by whovian42

Rec: Broken Koan by rutsky

Rec: Cheer Up, Emo Time Moppet by LizBee

Rec: Soon, Love, Soon by Maggadin

Rec: Never a Wolf by jedi_penguin

Rec: Old Shame by johne

Rec: The Case of the Dead Doctor by nostalgia

Rec: Infinitely Late at Night by Siani

Rec: Broken Toys by Alligatorade

Rec: Fade Out by Mandragora

Rec: Time Lag

Rec: Savor Your Victories

Rec: Moments, Arbitrarily Gifted

Rec: A tin heart can bleed too

Rec: nor shall sound my echoing song

Rec: The Beacon in Space

Rec: The Glade

rec: Nothing gold can stay by ClocketPatch

rec: Smoke and Mirrors by scarlettgirl

rec: Death To All Androgums! by Celestialhost

rec: Cake and the Rani by Primsong

rec: A Game of Two Halves by Gary Merchant

rec: Night Terrors by Lyricwritesprose

rec: UNIT: Strange Weapons by vvj5

reccity-rec-rec

Links

April 2018

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