Calufrax

No, of course I haven't forgotten that I'm reccing here these two weeks - I'm just spreading them out a bit. Yes, that's right. Spreading them out. Clearly. Anyway, without further ado:

Story: Blood From A Very Tall Stone
Author: nostalgia
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 1,416
Author's Summary: So, like, Romana and Duggan clearly liked each other in 'City Of Death'. This is the post-ep fic about how the Doctor was like really jealous or something. Can the epic timelove be saved? Will K-9 survive? What happens to the cups of tea that vanish early on in the story?
Characters/Pairings: Romana II, The Doctor (4th)
Warnings: None that I can think of

Recced because: Well, as may have become embarrassingly clear based on some of my earlier reccing spells, I'm more than a bit partial to a bit of Four/Romana, especially Four/Romana II, and even more especially when it evokes the spirit of those gloriously silly Season 17 stories as well as this does.

File this one under the by now bulging dossier of fics I can't believe hadn't already been recced on the comm. I mean, it's a really good fic by a well-known member of the LJ Whofic community and it seems like years since I first read it (five years in fact, from the timestamp on the review I left over on Teaspoon), so it would seem to be a shoe-in for having already been brought up here. In fact I was fairly sure it had been, but it turns out not.

The idea of a Romana/Duggan "thing" during City of Death, and of imagining the Doctor's reaction afterwards seems by now to be a well-worn path for Four-ficcers to take, although it's always interesting to see the different takes on it. For my money, this is one of the very best versions out there, and what really makes it work is the dialogue. Sparkling, I believe is the word for it. Every other line is a zinger. Those wonderfully absurdist word-games that the Doctor and Romana managed to veer into at the most unlikely moments, rendered here with incredible fidelity to the original source material. It's a bit of a cliché to observe when praising dialogue in fanfic that you can hear the original actors saying the words, but I really can when I read this. And as I know from bitter experience, unless you're a genuine comedic genius like Douglas Adams (and who of us is?) writing that stuff even reasonably well is hard. So hats off, really, to anybody who can do it as seamlessly as in this fic.

So yes, if Four/Romana is your thing, then this is the real deal. 24 carat stuff. Go and check it out and leave a word or two of appreciation.

( An Excerpt )