Calufrax

Ahoy there, Who fanfictioneers! As always when I begin a new stint reccing here on calufrax, I am struck by how little time at all it seems since last time I did this, and how long it in fact was. Tempus fugit and all that. Well, without further ado, allow me to kick off this round of recommendation with something of a rare gem:

Story: Bounce
Author: Nancy Brown
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 5,470
Author's Summary: A mysterious device affects the lives of the Doctor and his friends.
Characters/Pairings: Amy Pond, Canton Everett Delaware III, Jenny Flint, Madame Vastra, Rory Williams, Strax, The Doctor (11th)
Warnings: None, apart from some references to Victorian-era murders

Recced because: Well, full disclosure, this was written in response to one of my prompts in the EleventyFest ficathon, way back in 2013. When I gave the prompt, though, I don't think I was expecting it to elicit anything as seriously good as this bit of prime Eleven-era fic. This is the fic I was going to rec last time around before being distracted, magpie-like, by another story by the same author, but this time I'm making very sure indeed to put this one front and centre.

The story follows the trail of a strange, and possibly deadly, presumably alien device across three time periods, and with three groups of investigators. In the Victorian era, Madame Vastra, her wife Jenny and the inimitable Strax are called in by Scotland Yard to consult in a case of multiple murders. Meanwhile in the late 1960s, G-Man Canton Everett Delaware III looks into a slew of missing persons against the backdrop of the countercultural anti-war movement and the Nixon administration. And finally in futuristic Scotland, the Doctor and the Ponds are drawn to a museum of extraterrestrial curiosities. The skill with which the author weaves these various strands together to tell a single story, using time travel pleasingly to tie the plot together, is only one of the several great things about this piece.

I especially enjoy the way the different eras each have their own distinctive style, from the Sherlockian stylings of Vastra and Jenny's nineteenth century adventures to the hardboiled inner monologue that drives Canton's sections (and I don't think you have to find him as cool a character as I do to really dig those parts). As with those of this author's other works that I have read, it is the characterisation and the voices that I find most compelling about this. Canton's private-eye-esque patter aside, the Doctor-Amy-Rory team TARDIS (one of my favourite of all time) really shine here, and even Strax gets one excellent, and very Strax-like, exchange.

I urge you - don't walk, (metaphorically) run over to the Teaspoon and read this one, and please be sure to tell the author how much you liked it.


( An Extract )

Story: Ports of Call
Author: rutsky
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 1,192
Author's Summary: They eventually discovered he'd lied about New York
Characters/Pairings: Amy Pond/Rory Williams, River Song
Warnings: None as such, but does contain a good dose of grit and reality in its portrayal of Amy and Rory's post-Doctor relationship.

Recced because: I think it would be fair to say that I was, and definitely remain, a huge fan of the Eleventh Doctor and his era. I even, gods help me, genuinely think that New Who would have been very much the poorer without Steven Moffat's tenure as showrunner and that most (most!) of his judgments and instincts as writer and general head-honcho-type have been bang on the money. I recognise that as a whole the era had good stories and bad stories, as every Who era does, but I refuse to subscribe to arguments that it somehow declined in quality over the course of its run or that "it was time for a change". I'm very much enjoying the Twelve era so far and think Peter Capaldi is nothing less than a demigod in human form, but I could have lived with another season or two of Eleven, no problem at all.

Having said all of that (just so you know where I'm coming from)...

I @#&%ing hate The Angels Take Manhattan. Or at least its ill-conceived ending which, imho, fails on so many levels I'd be listing them all night and clocking up more words than the fic I'm theoretically reccing. Your mileage, as they used to say, and as is the case with all things fan-related, may and probably does vary. I consider it a poor exit for the two companions I consider to be probably the best (certainly when considered as a pair) of the 2005 series.

So, having laid my cards so verbosely on the table, I probably wouldn't classify this fic as a fix-it (which the author admits to being in two minds about) so much as a statement of the facts as they stood at the end of said story. One senses perhaps in reading the piece that the author was as nonplussed by that ending and as aware of its gaping plot-holes as I and, going from comments I read at the time, quite a lot of other people were. That's really beside the point, though. I'm not reccing this fic because its author happens to come down on my side in a fanw*nky argument, but because it highlights two really important things about the Eleven era.

The first of these is that Eleven was a bit of a slippery customer, morally. I'm not really convinced by some of the PR efforts to paint Twelve as a particularly edgy and ruthless Doctor, although he's certainly more up front about it, because it always seemed that Eleven got up to some dodgy stuff, more or less constantly and unapologetically (although he did tend to hide it behind his goof-ball exterior) and I think most of the time we the audience were supposed to notice that and think about it. I say most of the time, because some of the dodgiest stuff he did, though, particularly in his personal relationships, went more or less uncommented upon and indeed tacitly condoned "by the show", for want of a better term. I think even as big a fan of Eleven and his era and Moffat's work as I will admit to being, or indeed somebody really invested in the relationships between the characters, can see some of the morally problematic things that are going on there and wonder why "the show" seems unaware of them. It's an important aspect of the era and one I see confronted in too few fanworks. This one takes it head on; this Doctor's a liar, and not always for good reasons.

The other really important thing about the Eleven era this fic highlights and plays homage to, one of its central planks, is the relationship between Amy and Rory. These are two imperfect people (like all of us) and they have this very complicated, not always easy, bond but it ends up being one that they both draw strength from and one that neither of them can live without. This fic examines that complex relationship warts and all and the way Amy's and Rory's situation in Manhattan after parting from the Doctor might have affected it. It also confronts us with the incredible strength both of these characters have shown in adversity and the toll the sorts of adventures they have been involved in have taken upon them. I would say that that is the main selling point of this fic for me, apart from the fact that it is very well-written; it is unflinching in its consideration of how this situation might really play out. For a supposed "fix-it", it pulls few punches, either in its portrayal of the characters, their relationship and their predicament, or in considering the off-screen Doctor and his actions. And it does so not out of a desire to bash but out of a deep concern and investment in the material and the characters. Good stuff, in other words.

Anyway, thanks for reading my rant. Now go and read the fic and tell the author how much you liked it. ;)

( A Taste )