Calufrax

That's it for me this week! Hope you've enjoyed. To finish, one of my favorites!

Story: Before I Let You Go
Author: sleepismyfriend
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 4177
Author's Summary: Sarah's wedding to Peter Dalton wasn't the first time the Doctor interrupted.
Characters/Pairings: Sarah Jane Smith, Fourth Doctor, OCs
Warnings: None

Recced because: I have so many ideas of what might have happened to Sarah in the years between Hand of Fear and School Reunion, but this particular fic was such an unusual take on what one option might have been, and I love it for that. sleepismyfriend creates a beautifully bittersweet scenario in which Four returns for Sarah Jane only to find that she has moved on with her life, to an extent. It's a lovely prequel of sorts to both School Reunion and The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith, but offers more closure between Sarah and the Fourth Doctor. It also gives a great take on Aunt Lavinia and Sarah's fiancé, a character who must have been very difficult to make believable and even likeable, but which she does wonderfully. Simply gorgeous.

Story: Warmth
Author: MinvervaFan
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 717
Author's Summary: Set after Pyramids of Mars. Sarah Jane Smith doesn't remember ever seeing the Doctor cold, shivering. She doesn't remember ever seeing him helpless before.
Characters/Pairings: Sarah Jane Smith, Fourth Doctor

Recced because: This is a short piece, but a powerful one. One reason it really stuck with me was the idea that "Sarah is used to this sort of thing--her piddling human brain is like a children's toy to most of the aliens she encounters. She has been drugged, hypnotized, brainwashed, confused, so many times she doesn't care to think about it." The Doctor, however, isn't used this sort of vulnerability, and in this instance Sarah is the guiding hand. She's simply, quietly, there for him in the aftermath. It's a lovely snapshot of their relationship at this point in time.

Story: The Curse of Mandragora
Author: Amilyn
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 6126
Author's Summary: Josh and Sarah are stranded in a crippled spaceship, high above earth, and a bright light is coming toward them. How will they get out of it? And what does the Mandragora Helix have to do with their situation and possibly their solution?
Characters/Pairings: Sarah Jane Smith, Josh Townsend, Nat Redfern
Warnings: None

Recced because: I was so excited when I saw this among this year's Yuletide selections because I've been looking for a fic like this for ages - the SJS Big Finish audios end on a hell of a cliffhanger. The Curse of Mandragora picks up from where Dreamland leaves off, resolving and continuing the story so believably that I had no trouble accepting this as my personal canon. Told from Nat's point of view, this fic wraps up the Mandragora storyline first started in 1976. There's action, drama, a definite bittersweetness, and the team in fine form - like the Doctor, Sarah chose her companions well, and that's especially apparent in Amilyn's version of Nat. There's an equally brilliant sequel, Everything Ends, which follows Nat and Sarah's correspondence over the following years and sets up the Sarah Jane we see both in School Reunion and at the beginning of SJA.

Hi, everyone! I'm averita, and I'll be reccing this week. As a die-hard Sarah Jane fan, most of the fic I have for you guys will involve her in some capacity, but there should be a good variety of Classic Who, New Who, Big Finish, and SJA characters and themes! To start, one of my favorites:

Story: Miles from Aberdeen
Author: dbskyler
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 19,414
Author's Summary: Getting left in Aberdeen requires Sarah to make more than one type of journey.
Characters/Pairings: Sarah Jane Smith, Ten, Rose Tyler, Mickey Smith, Harry Sullivan, the Brig
Warnings: None

Recced because: I'm pretty sure that this is the first Who fic I read; if not, it was certainly the first one that made a major impression on me. This gorgeous piece, set during and immediately after School Reunion (with a couple of perfectly-situated flashbacks), fits into canon but fills in a lot of the scenes we didn't see onscreen, such as Sarah Jane finding out about the Time War. The focus is on Sarah, her emotional journey, and her relationship with the Doctor, but all of the interactions are pitch-perfect - there are a couple of great scenes with Rose towards the end that I would have killed to see in canon! As satisfying as School Reunion is, this fic expands on some of the undercurrents that were only touched on in the episode, and does so beautifully.