![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
Rec: The Beacon in Space
Nov. 1st, 2011 07:26 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
jjpor.livejournal.comStory: 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 )
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 )
