Calufrax

Story: "Irresistible Force"
Author: synaesthete7
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 11,069
Author’s summary: 'The Fifth Doctor gets a haircut, acquires a temporary new companion, and matches wits with a terrifying alien killer.'
Characters/Pairings: Five
Warnings: None

Recommended because: I'd be holding his hand if I had the nerve. If I tell you this is a first-person, present tense tale of a plucky Canadian student-turned-hairdresser who winds up accompanying the Fifth Doctor in the thrilling pursuit of a murderous alien (but only after running her hands through his silky locks), you'll probably shout 'Mary Sue' - and you won't be entirely wrong. But the companion is the audience POV figure: the entire canon is predicated on a little whiff of self-insertion, that 'what if it were me?' temptation. synaesthete7 embraces that concept and produces an absolute cracker of a story: note-perfect Doctor characterisation (seen through the eyes of the innocent bystander swept up in his usual chaos, the type of wide-eyed enthused newbie that Five never had in his crowded TARDIS), and a narrative that positively fizzes with charm, pace, and quality. Without doubt my favourite Five-era fic.