Story: The Girl at the Bottom of the Garden

Author: Atraphoenix

Rating: All Ages

Word Count: 1106

Author's Summary: Luke Smith has a new friend. She lives in the shed at the bottom of his garden.

Characters/Pairings: Luke Smith, Susan Foreman

Warnings: None

Recced because:

Darn it, I tried to rec authors who haven’t been recced before, but some of the stories I’ve marked as favorites are just too good to ignore.  I think Luke and Susan have a lot in common, since they are both very intelligent and slightly odd.  Luke’s fumbling attempts at romance are endearingly awkward, and would be even if he wasn’t a genetically engineered genius.

Story: Breaking Eggs

Author: Spikewriter

Rating: Teen

Word Count: 3318

Author's Summary: "You can't make an omelet without breaking eggs." "If you made an omelette, I'd expect to find a pile of broken crockery, a cooker in flames and an unconscious chef!" What if Romana had asked Duggan to come along at the end of "City of Death?"

Characters/Pairings: Fourth Doctor, Romana II, Duggan

Warnings: None

Recced because:

“City of Death” is one of my favorite classic Who stories, and Duggan is one of my favorite minor characters.  This is just a fun look at what it would have been like for him to travel with Four and Romana.  Predictably he picks fights, bashes people, and nearly causes an interstellar incident.  The dynamic between Four and Romana with him onboard is interesting too.   

Story: Five Times the Doctor Got in the Way of Captain Janeway (and One Time They Got Along Just Fine)

Author: vvj5

Rating: All ages

Word Count: 5,526

Author's Summary: Captain Janeway doesn't think much of time travellers and higher beings who turn up on board her ship.  The Doctor doesn't take much notice of prime directives.  It's a tea/coffee thing.

Characters/Pairings: Doctors One, Three, Six, Eight, Nine & Eleven; Vicki, Jo, Peri, Charley, Captain Janeway, various Voyager crew members

Warnings: None

Recced because:

This week I’m trying to rec mainly authors who haven’t been recced here before, but since this bit of crossover fun merges my two favorite SciFi fandoms it caught my eye.  The Doctors and companions are all spot-on, and so are Captain Janeway and her crew.  It’s always fun to see someone interacting with multiple Doctors, especially when it’s non-linear.  

Story: Seven Days in a Year that Never Was

Author: Ebbyzone

Rating: All Ages – One story rated Adult

Word Count: 14,932

Author's Summary: Seven days in the life of Martha Jones during the year she walked the Earth for the Doctor.

Characters/Pairings: Martha Jones, Tenth Doctor, others

Warnings: None

Recced because:

I'm starting with the longest one.  It’s somewhat unusual to rec a series, but these stories could easily just have been chapters in one story, so I decided to go for it.   I really like how Ebbyzone describes some of the moments Martha had during the YTNW when she wasn’t actively running for her life.   Martha’s memories of happier times with her family are what I imagine she would have thought about a lot during her travels, both because she was worried about them, and because it gives her strength to remember what normal feels like.   There are mild spoilers for the novel “The Story of Martha” in this, but to be honest that book disappointed me a little.   These stories didn’t.

Story: The Purloined Poet

Author: Philyra

Rating: Teen

Word Count: 17,327

Author's Summary: The Doctor and his new friend Emma encounter America’s darkest and most misunderstood poet on a train in 1849. Pursued by strange bird-like aliens, they are forced to jump into unknown dangers.

Characters/Pairings: Tenth Doctor, Original Companion

Warnings: None

Recced because:

I am a fan of Edgar Allen Poe, and clearly so is Philyra.  I love stories that take kernels of truth about a real person, and then imagine how they might have come to pass; this story does that extremely well.  It also contains scary, original aliens.   As a trio who have all suffered heart-breaking losses, the Doctor, Emma and Poe make a great team.  The final chapter contains an idea that I now like to consider reality, even though it is about a fictional character.

Story: Most of All

Author: thirty2flavors

Rating: All ages

Word Count: 1217

Author's Summary: It’s been months since he spent any decent amount of time on the TARDIS, what without eight-hour layovers as part of a daily routine, and so the prospect of finding a mug he hasn’t used in a room he hasn’t been in is, frankly, unsettling.

Characters/Pairings: Tenth Doctor

Warnings: Spoilers for Planet of the Dead.

Recced because:

This takes inspiration from one of my favorite deleted scenes between the Doctor and Donna.  It explores how the Doctor knows that his most recent companions would disapprove of his decision to travel alone, and yet he can't bear to lose another.  This implies that what he really can't bear is to let go of Donna.  It also mentions one of my all-time favorite poems, and is just too beautifully written to not have more reviews!

Story: A Butterfly for Every Storm

Author: Nostalgia

Rating: All ages

Word Count: 527

Author's Summary: Martha's tattoo is oddly appropriate.

Characters/Pairings: Tenth Doctor, Martha Jones

Warnings: None

Recced because:

I like so much about this short piece it's hard for me to explain why I like it.  Blending an idea from a throwaway line in The Shakespeare Code, Freema's real-life tattoo, and two of the Doctor's personas into a powerful ficlet takes skill.  Nostalgia uses the butterfly as a symbol of the Doctor's companions; ephemeral creatures that flit through his life so briefly.  The last line packs a real punch.