Calufrax

Story: Gentleman Caller
Author: locker_monster
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 3819
Author's Summary: Who's the grey-haired Scottish man the Chandras keep seeing at Sarah Jane's house? Does she have a new boyfriend?
Characters/Pairings: Clara Oswin Oswald, Gita Chandra, Haresh Chandra, Sarah Jane Smith, Sky, The Doctor (12th)
Warnings: None

Recced because: Like the rest of Doctor Who fandom, I was dismayed to hear of the untimely death of Elisabeth Sladen in 2011. Although it pales into insignificance by comparison, as much as I recognised that ending the series at that point was the right decision, I was also very sad to see the end of The Sarah Jane Adventures, my favourite Who spin-off (sorry, Torchwood!). I know I was not alone in this, nor in craving hints as to what might have happened next to the Bannerman Road gang, and especially how their paths might have crossed again with characters from the main series. So any fic that explores these areas is going to be one I want to read.

I find this fic particularly delightful for the way it focuses on two of my favourite SJA characters, Rani's parents Gita and Haresh, and for portraying them so vividly and in a manner that is so true to their onscreen characters. They both react exactly as you might expect to the notion of a mysterious new man appearing in Sarah Jane's life, which is to say completely differently and at considerable cross purposes. Another thing I find extremely interesting here is the way the author imagines how life might have continued for the characters following the end of the TV series, picking up on the hints in those final episodes to present a considerably altered status quo, with the younger characters moving on beyond school and parents and the newly introduced Sky coming more to the fore. This is no doubt the path the series itself would have followed had it been able to continue.

The highlight here, of course, is the great crossover it imagines which surely would have happened had SJA continued up to the present day (considering the episodes featuring Ten and Eleven) - the Twelfth Doctor meeting Sarah Jane Smith. It's done very well and hearwarmingly here, with Twelve showing as we might have guessed by now that his brusque exterior hides a somewhat less curmudgeonly centre, and of course has an added poignancy due to the rl reason that that encounter can never take place for real.

But enough of that - go and read this fic because it is really rather lovely, and please leave some words of encouragement for the author.


( A Moment )