Calufrax

It’s my penultimate day of fiction gathering and of course Doctor Who is on tonight (well for me anyway). But since we’ve already had a visit from Amy and Rory, let’s see what the Fourth Doctor and Leela are up to instead!

Story: Running All The Time
Author: Sigyn
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 1908
Author's Summary: The Doctor had been treating Leela like a student, trying to teach her history and her heritage, how to see the universe through the lens of scientific truth, rather than superstition and ritual. He was slowly stripping away a lifetime of savage brutality, in an attempt to reveal the brilliant and singular woman he knew her to be. But he began to suspect his one-side training was robbing her of something just as precious as her intellect.
Characters/Pairings: Fourth Doctor, Leela
Warnings: None

Recced because: Leela was one of those Companions which as a child I didn’t totally ‘get’ at the time since I saw her in the odd story as merely ‘some sort of savage type’. Whilst this is the case the truth is that if you look past that and her appeal for the Dads in the audience she’s a fantastic companion because of her view on the universe. Leela isn’t stupid but merely ignorant of aspects of society she has never seen and yet often some of her lines on the show demonstrated a keen mind interested to understand and give her own opinions. This story is great because Sigyn takes the Doctor’s desire to educate her as seen during the show and display that it is important that Leela should retain parts of her old life as much as embrace new ones. In short - the Doctor can learn from Leela as much as she can from him. This very idea has made Leela one of my favourite companions as an adult and this fanfic a clear demonstration of that fact.