"Lazarus Experiment" and "Reset" (such unmet possibilities in their names...)
*whew* My week is fairly stuffed with schoolwork alone, not to mention any fic-work I'm trying to get done on the side... Next week, besides trying to get up on other schoolwork while I can, I have a ten-page research paper I need to look into (top of my list: what the topic is), so, for practical purposes, how much I will exist in the coming days? Anyone's guess.
But I didn't have many thoughts on "Lazarus" and "Reset", so I might as well keep the tradition up and post my thoughts...
Luckily, since I'm a bit pressed for time, my thoughts on "The Lazarus Experiment" were brief indeed: 1) I like Martha's dress, 2) So, buried deep in our genes is a Zombie Scorpion King? Whatever, plagiarists, play on..., 3) Why do I not like Martha's mother?
Only 3 needs any elaboration at all. It's a puzzle I'm still trying to work out fully, because seriously, I should be one of the first ones to jump on board the characterization of Ten as a dangerous idiot. I suppose it's the grounds of her assertions that get to me. "He's dangerous!" after he saves her from her daughter's mutant boss, "I don't even know him!" when he's still just a friend that she's brought to a party... Too knee-jerk, too "oh, no, she's going off with a man I don't know and getting into trouble, she'll wreck the life we've planned for her!"... It'd be too much for a character to just hate Ten on principle, huh? Or, there won't be another Jackie Tyler: You took my daughter; you routinely take her into danger and you're doing it right now; I don't know who you are and you can't promise me she won't be safe; get out of our lives, you bastard! You could like Nine, approve of Rose's decision, and still know where she was coming from. Nuance. Those were the days, eh?
I still want to figure out why Mrs. Jones is an old bat (besides that the writers want her to be), but it'll take more thought than I can devote to it right now. So, to Reset:
Mom: Mmm... I don't think I'm in the mood to sit through Torchwood tonight.
Me: What if I told you Owen died in the end?
Mom: What, really? In this one?
Me: Well, I don't want to spoil it for you... but from what I hear...
Mom: Huh!
Me: But he's gonna come back pretty quick, though.
Mom: Damn.
Yeah, I don't care how awesome Burn Gorman is, I don't trust Owen Harper even as far as I could throw him. I think I could throw him pretty far if I had some time to work on it, get some harnesses or trebuchets involved. It's an experiment I would like to try sometime. Way to not be useless for a week, Owen Harper. Condolences on your suspiciously timed death. See you next week. Stop leading Toshiko along like a worthless douchebag this time on, yeah?(Word "spoiler" doesn't have much meaning for me when it comes to TW.)
Other than that-- "I already have a boyfriend"? Oh, Martha, for the love of God, tell me you met some nice man at UNIT. *headdesk* I foolishly took your comments at the end of LotTL to mean that you were going to be devoting a little effort toward getting over him. And okay, canonically, you're still going to love him, but: he is not your boyfriend, he never was; Ten especially never could be. Even if he were, referring to him as such, ESPECIALLY in the present tense!, is counterproductive beyond all telling. Oh, Martha, Martha, Martha.
In short: I prefer my version. No doubt because Anno Domini Martha was as close as I could canonically get to my ideal Martha. AD Martha was recovering, focusing on her life, starting on the patient work of persuading her heart of what her head knows has to be true: he isn't perfect. There may be a future with him, but never a life. My ideal, wildly OOC Martha would be starting to think back on all that time, questioning the implications of all she's been through, questioning everything she knows about him-- not even disapproving, I don't ask for that much, but just seriously, seriously reflecting on it all. His power, her own. His actions, hers. What could happen and what ought to. What he was to her, what she was to him. And, yeah, if she did disapprove just a tiny bit? Icing on the cake. I'll go on and admit it-- this is what I want post-S3 Martha to be. It's an idea I keep hanging onto.
Tomorrow, I'm going to try to post that Anno Domini co-fic I was talking about, on ff.net at the very least. If I don't, especially by Friday, please kick my ass. For reference, its pretentious Latin title is "Sic Semper Tyrannis".
Writing a Ten-erasing retcon would probably be a bad idea, but I know how it would happen. There's a family-owned company somewhere in the not-so-distant future, colony of Earth, tapping abother rift-- until it opens, and things start spilling through. They put the company on lockdown, trapping hundreds of menial workers in the section with the opening Rift to die-- "We can't risk those things getting out," they'll say. But Aisha will see a pretty boy trying to get though the doors. She'll watch him and his girl, struggling through the company, hear him saying he could fix everything: and when he gets to that last door, she'll give him the codes to open it.
He'll save the day, for those workers, at least-- start closing up the Rift, dislocate the disruption while he does so. "They left you in there to die," he'll say. "They played with this Rift, nearly got us killed, sat by while people were suffering, and it's only fitting they get burned by it. No second chances." All of the executives will get sucked into the Rift before it closes-- and a few people who aren't, but Ten doesn't think about consequences. Unfortunately for Aisha, Ten will be the only person who doesn't realize she gave him the codes; and the others, all her family, will know to blame her, will walk away into the streets of the unknown city and leave her alone.
One person will stay with her, though. With no resources, no money that's worth anything, they'll get by in the slums of the city for a while-- before they're rounded up with other undesirables and buses to what the officials decide is their country of origin. That country is more autocratic. That country has scientists who need lab rats. It's exposed surprisingly soon after they get there, but not soon enough-- that other person will be gone, and no one's going to put much effort into figuring out how to reverse the scientists' work on the causes of schitzophrenia's auditory hallucinations.
Which means Aisha has no one left, lost in time and space, betrayed and trying to ignore all the voices in her head that tell her all she failed to do-- except one. There's one voice that says, Let me help you, Aisha. Says, I'll guide you, Aisha, I'll keep you safe, I'll lead you to him. I'll help you and you'll help me and we'll help him. Please, believe me, Aisha...
*sigh* Or, you know, something like that. Bit melodramatic, but that's the sort of crap Ten does and would do without thinking about it every day, and it's actually a fairly optimistic estimate. And I can't help it; Aisha's tugging at my brain. And so is Sayuri; Sayuri, at least, is a very good idea. I should probably try to write that part up without bothering with the causes-- without worrying who moved that one atom to make it different...
God, I'm rambling on about fic plots and being inexcusably cryptic. I am so sorry. I should not be up this late, on a school night especially, and that's the only excuse I can offer. Stupid stream-of-consciousness.
But I didn't have many thoughts on "Lazarus" and "Reset", so I might as well keep the tradition up and post my thoughts...
Luckily, since I'm a bit pressed for time, my thoughts on "The Lazarus Experiment" were brief indeed: 1) I like Martha's dress, 2) So, buried deep in our genes is a Zombie Scorpion King? Whatever, plagiarists, play on..., 3) Why do I not like Martha's mother?
Only 3 needs any elaboration at all. It's a puzzle I'm still trying to work out fully, because seriously, I should be one of the first ones to jump on board the characterization of Ten as a dangerous idiot. I suppose it's the grounds of her assertions that get to me. "He's dangerous!" after he saves her from her daughter's mutant boss, "I don't even know him!" when he's still just a friend that she's brought to a party... Too knee-jerk, too "oh, no, she's going off with a man I don't know and getting into trouble, she'll wreck the life we've planned for her!"... It'd be too much for a character to just hate Ten on principle, huh? Or, there won't be another Jackie Tyler: You took my daughter; you routinely take her into danger and you're doing it right now; I don't know who you are and you can't promise me she won't be safe; get out of our lives, you bastard! You could like Nine, approve of Rose's decision, and still know where she was coming from. Nuance. Those were the days, eh?
I still want to figure out why Mrs. Jones is an old bat (besides that the writers want her to be), but it'll take more thought than I can devote to it right now. So, to Reset:
Mom: Mmm... I don't think I'm in the mood to sit through Torchwood tonight.
Me: What if I told you Owen died in the end?
Mom: What, really? In this one?
Me: Well, I don't want to spoil it for you... but from what I hear...
Mom: Huh!
Me: But he's gonna come back pretty quick, though.
Mom: Damn.
Yeah, I don't care how awesome Burn Gorman is, I don't trust Owen Harper even as far as I could throw him. I think I could throw him pretty far if I had some time to work on it, get some harnesses or trebuchets involved. It's an experiment I would like to try sometime. Way to not be useless for a week, Owen Harper. Condolences on your suspiciously timed death. See you next week. Stop leading Toshiko along like a worthless douchebag this time on, yeah?(Word "spoiler" doesn't have much meaning for me when it comes to TW.)
Other than that-- "I already have a boyfriend"? Oh, Martha, for the love of God, tell me you met some nice man at UNIT. *headdesk* I foolishly took your comments at the end of LotTL to mean that you were going to be devoting a little effort toward getting over him. And okay, canonically, you're still going to love him, but: he is not your boyfriend, he never was; Ten especially never could be. Even if he were, referring to him as such, ESPECIALLY in the present tense!, is counterproductive beyond all telling. Oh, Martha, Martha, Martha.
In short: I prefer my version. No doubt because Anno Domini Martha was as close as I could canonically get to my ideal Martha. AD Martha was recovering, focusing on her life, starting on the patient work of persuading her heart of what her head knows has to be true: he isn't perfect. There may be a future with him, but never a life. My ideal, wildly OOC Martha would be starting to think back on all that time, questioning the implications of all she's been through, questioning everything she knows about him-- not even disapproving, I don't ask for that much, but just seriously, seriously reflecting on it all. His power, her own. His actions, hers. What could happen and what ought to. What he was to her, what she was to him. And, yeah, if she did disapprove just a tiny bit? Icing on the cake. I'll go on and admit it-- this is what I want post-S3 Martha to be. It's an idea I keep hanging onto.
Tomorrow, I'm going to try to post that Anno Domini co-fic I was talking about, on ff.net at the very least. If I don't, especially by Friday, please kick my ass. For reference, its pretentious Latin title is "Sic Semper Tyrannis".
Writing a Ten-erasing retcon would probably be a bad idea, but I know how it would happen. There's a family-owned company somewhere in the not-so-distant future, colony of Earth, tapping abother rift-- until it opens, and things start spilling through. They put the company on lockdown, trapping hundreds of menial workers in the section with the opening Rift to die-- "We can't risk those things getting out," they'll say. But Aisha will see a pretty boy trying to get though the doors. She'll watch him and his girl, struggling through the company, hear him saying he could fix everything: and when he gets to that last door, she'll give him the codes to open it.
He'll save the day, for those workers, at least-- start closing up the Rift, dislocate the disruption while he does so. "They left you in there to die," he'll say. "They played with this Rift, nearly got us killed, sat by while people were suffering, and it's only fitting they get burned by it. No second chances." All of the executives will get sucked into the Rift before it closes-- and a few people who aren't, but Ten doesn't think about consequences. Unfortunately for Aisha, Ten will be the only person who doesn't realize she gave him the codes; and the others, all her family, will know to blame her, will walk away into the streets of the unknown city and leave her alone.
One person will stay with her, though. With no resources, no money that's worth anything, they'll get by in the slums of the city for a while-- before they're rounded up with other undesirables and buses to what the officials decide is their country of origin. That country is more autocratic. That country has scientists who need lab rats. It's exposed surprisingly soon after they get there, but not soon enough-- that other person will be gone, and no one's going to put much effort into figuring out how to reverse the scientists' work on the causes of schitzophrenia's auditory hallucinations.
Which means Aisha has no one left, lost in time and space, betrayed and trying to ignore all the voices in her head that tell her all she failed to do-- except one. There's one voice that says, Let me help you, Aisha. Says, I'll guide you, Aisha, I'll keep you safe, I'll lead you to him. I'll help you and you'll help me and we'll help him. Please, believe me, Aisha...
*sigh* Or, you know, something like that. Bit melodramatic, but that's the sort of crap Ten does and would do without thinking about it every day, and it's actually a fairly optimistic estimate. And I can't help it; Aisha's tugging at my brain. And so is Sayuri; Sayuri, at least, is a very good idea. I should probably try to write that part up without bothering with the causes-- without worrying who moved that one atom to make it different...
God, I'm rambling on about fic plots and being inexcusably cryptic. I am so sorry. I should not be up this late, on a school night especially, and that's the only excuse I can offer. Stupid stream-of-consciousness.