Calufrax

Story: And the last shall be first
Author: whovian42
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 3,424
Author's Summary: The final incarnation of the Doctor is tired and has only thing left to do, lay his ship to rest.
Characters/Pairings: The Doctor (author created) - to say more would give the game away
Warnings: None

Recced because: Again with the full disclosure: I was, at the time of writing a quite close online associate of the author of this piece (although she has since dropped out of online fandom to a large extent, and is no longer as far as I know producing fic), and was sort of tangentially involved in the creation of this fic in providing beta-ing support and discussing a couple of ideas with her. I think whovian42 might be exaggerating my contribution just a little bit in her author's notes on the Teaspoon, though. :) I hope this conflict of interest does not disqualify me from recommending this fic here, because it is well worth your time to go and give it a read. You will not, I assure you, be disappointed. 

Recently, I have been thinking a lot about the upcoming 50th Anniversary of the greatest television programme ever made. And in that context, this fic seems highly appropriate. It is about beginnings and endings, where we were then and where we are now. And it's about the very last Doctor - the very end of his story. It's hard to imagine how the television series would handle that finality - the end of the Doctor, for real - if they were ever required to do so. I hope they never have to, to be honest; when NuWho ends - as it inevitably must, sooner or later - I would hope that the ending they provided was as beautiful and open-ended as the one that the original series (unwittingly) gave us in 1989, all set up for the third generation to take up the mantle a decade or two down the line, if the conditions were right. If not, though, they could do a lot worse than to provide us with something like this story.

This story, in telling what happens to the Doctor at the very end of his lives, takes in the whole history of Who, all of the people he has known and loved over the centuries of his existence. It also goes right back to the very beginning, beyond even the start of the televised stories, to the Academy and the shifting, ever-conflicting fandom and expanded-universe myths about what happened back there. And it pays tribute to possibly the defining, the purest, the most moving relationship of the whole series - you know the one I mean. Or you will if you've seen The Doctor's Wife, at any rate. And in the end, it all comes back on itself, perfectly circular. Seriously, go and read this fic and leave some words of appreciation for the author.

( A Brief Teaser )