Children of Time Awards, Part Eleven
As you know, the Children of Time awards are up for voting. And as there's so many fics up in each category - and only one vote per category, I'm going through the fics in a mad attempt to figure out how on earth I should vote.
I figured my notes might come in handy to the rest of you.
In Part One, I reviewed Chaos Theory, Six Stages, and Not One Line.
In Part Two, I reviewed The Devil You Know, Wolf Moon, Dulce et Decorum Est, and Passing Notes.
In Part Three, I reviewed Non-Linear Love Story, And So Things Go, and What Doesn't Kill You.
In Part Four, I reviewed You That Way, We This Way, Human Nature, Teach Me More, Coming Around, and Passing the Torch.
In Part Five, I reviewed I Had No Idea I Had Been Traveling (series), 9.8 Metres Per Second Squared, First and Last, and Tender Moments That Don't Last.
In Part Six, I reviewed 7 Words and a Metaphor, Illyria (series), and The Unsexy Sex.
In Part Seven, I reviewed The Bliss series, The Doctor Got Abducted, Ulysses, and There is No Peace That I've Found So Far.
In Part Eight, I reviewed To An Outsider's Eye, A Thousand Languages, Dancing Bananas, and Autumn Days That Make You Feel Sad.
In Part Nine, I reviewed Aftermaths, Don't Ask Don't Tell, Contagious, That Quiet Part, and More than an Echo.
In Part Ten, I reviewed I Ching, A Sky Without Zeppelins, I Believe in You, Dancing at the Sugar Shack, and Ten Times the Doctor Didn't Say "I Love You" (and One Time He Did).
In The Special Drabble Edition, I reviewed all nine drabbles nominated.
Today, I'll review:
Passing the Torch by Calapine
Tidewater by orange-crushed
Without a Doubt by Joolz
Nothing But Sand by travels in time
Fabric by wishingwillow
The Still Lost series by unfolded73
Therefore, without further ado:
Why You Should Vote For This Fic:
Passing the Torch by calapine
Characters: Donna, et al
Rating: PG
Details: Crack AND character death, Donna-centric, one-shot made up of lots of quick shorts.
Why It Rocks:
Actually, this rocks from the sheer fact that we've not only got character death (the Doctor's, no less), but it's also crack-tastic. The Summary as phrased by Calapine puts it best: Just before dying, the Doctor passed on his awesome legacy to Donna Noble.
From there, we watch as Donna goes back to meet all of the various people in the Doctor's life, both Classic Who and New Who, armed with only her wits, her sonic screwdriver, her intact memory of the Doctor's life, and her copy of "How To Carry On My Legacy By The Doctor". With predictable results.
Donna took a flick through the book. “Ah, here we are. ‘Romana, Time Lord.’ Apparently I’m supposed to either kiss you silly, then shag you senseless-“
“He did not write that...”
“Or one of us is supposed to exile and/or abandon the other in a parallel universe and break my hearts into tiny little pieces like the soulless unfeeling...” She paused. “The next bit’s scribbled out,” she said diplomatically.
Make no mistake, folks, this is fluff of the highest order. It is pointless, plotless, and entirely without purpose. And very, very, very funny. Donna remains Donna right to the end; the comments the Doctor leaves her on his previous companions are all very Doctor. (The entry for Jack Harkness is exactly four words: Do Not Shag Ever, underlined several times; Martha's is fairly incomprehensible.)
What's particularly fun about the story, however, is how Donna interacts with everyone. With Romana, you get the idea that Donna is attempting to check-mark a box. With Sarah Jane, she's looking for sympathy. And then, there's the Master or Martha, with whom she's attempting to right some wrongs (with Donna's predictable logic and flair):
“Evil Time Lord nutters, nil points; Donna Noble, twelve,” [Donna] muttered, flipping open her mobile to call the authorities.
In short, vote for this fic. It's funny, it's fantastic, it's got Donna being brilliant, and it features appearances by all your favorite Doctor companions/enemies. It's got men in uniform and puppies. It'll actually make you long to see the Doctor die (especially if he can pass on his Awesome Legacy to Donna). It's absolutely worth your vote.
*
Tidewater by orange_crushed
Characters: Ten, Rose, River
Rating: PG
Details: AU pre-JE, one-shot
Why It Rocks:
Such a pleasure to find this story - I didn't think we'd get another River Song story in the mix. This one is a particularly interesting one, too, because it was written in between the River Song episodes - meaning that we only had Silence of the Library, and didn't actually know how River died at the end of that adventure. So it's a curious mix of AU and conjecture: we have a world in which Rose has not only returned to the Doctor - but one in which River is still part of his future as well - and ends by being the catalyst to the Doctor's own eventual happiness.
It's a bit heady, but it makes for an amazing story. In most River-fic, the author has to try to deal with the fact that the Doctor loves Rose, and has lost her. He meets River, knowing that he'll lose her too, and won't even get to say a proper goodbye (which seems to be a theme with him). But here, River and Rose don't compete. There is no heart-achy hurdle for the Doctor to surmount.
When we first meet River, in the context of the show, she's had a long history with the Doctor already. But not just with the Doctor - with Rose, too. And somehow, River knowing Rose - not just knowing of Rose, but actually knowing her, and liking her - makes everything different.
[Rose] grins, tongue between her teeth, and she is not plain any longer but lovely; transformed by a brief and simple sort of happiness so luminous that River smiles as well, caught...[The Doctor] crosses his arms and rocks backwards on his heels, mischief and happiness at the edges of his mouth and eyes. River's throat constricts.
River begins to fill her diary with their adventures, the three of them, gradually learning to like them both, although already she's falling for the Doctor, even if it's subtle. But time passes for Rose and the Doctor faster than it does for her, and it's several years before one day the Doctor appears in her adventure, this time alone. Now River travels with him - now she tries to fill the role that Rose once kept. Partially yes, because she herself loves him, and wants to be with him.
He flirts when he ought to hold back and he holds back when he ought to be kind. He gets cold and distant suddenly, when she says the wrong thing or the doors open onto the wrong scene(familiar places are the worst.) He hugs her and turns her about and tosses her balance to the air- she's an adult who feels like a girl around him, since the beginning, infatuated and wary and spinning, inside, always.
But partially too, because she wants him to be happy in a way she remembers him being with Rose. Only, River isn't Rose, and she knows it. River might not feel as though she's coming between them - particularly since Rose is long since gone - but it's clear that the Doctor can't quite give in. Without or without Rose, the Doctor is still somewhat unreachable.
River looks away. It's a face of his she's never seen. "Square six, square seven," she calls out. She never really knew- guessed, maybe. "Kata and George. Chii, you take square eight." She was never that young, that bright, not with him. "Square nine we'll move on tomorrow- there's some soil that needs moving." She loved a shadow of that man, she tells herself.
So here we have River, running along one time-line, and the Doctor, running along another. River knows that the Doctor will get Rose back - and what's more, she knows that he'll lose her, and that such loss will destroy him. River has seen him both happy and sad, and she knows which she likes more - and still, she knows that Rose has something with the Doctor that she can never match.
And here, she has the Doctor, before any of it happens - before Rose is even returned to him - and she has a single moment in which to use it.
She promised him, a version of him, that she wouldn't love him; promised herself that she would, anyway, forever. Promised him that she'd keep his own secrets from himself, protect his future as much as possible.
We tell ourselves, we wouldn't destroy the time line, wouldn't save the person we love most. We tell ourselves this. But remember - River lies.
In short, vote for Tidewater. It's about love and lies and remembering and forgetting. It's a different way of looking at River Song and how she might have played in the Doctor's life. It's a lovely wrappy time-whimey story, and the twist at the end is so clever, you might find yourself reading it again for sheer joy. It's an absolute delight and it absolutely deserves your vote.
*
Without a Doubt by Joolz
Characters: Rose, Nine, Jack
Rating: Adult (sex)
Details: long one-shot, OT3 in the second half.
Why It Rocks:
I think I've read more OT3 in the last month than I did in the previous year. And, as always, the parts that interest me the most are the interaction between the three involved, no matter if it's Ten with Rose/Jack or Nine with Rose/Jack.
Without a Doubt is no different. Told from either Jack's or the Doctor's POV, we start off with an ultimatum: the Doctor has, once again, inadvertently, put the three of them in a life-or-death situation. Well, specifically, life-or-death for Rose and Jack, specifically. One will life, one will die, and he must choose.
Jack, believing the Doctor will choose Rose to live, readies himself for Death. (Note this is pre-immortal Jack.) And then hears the Doctor say that Rose will die instead. Jack, not believing his ears, reacts the only way he can: he forces the guard to kill him instead.
There was pain, there most certainly was. But he could hear Rose shrieking hysterically, which meant she was still alive. That was good. That was the important thing. He had succeeded. Calmness descended over him as his awareness faded to black.
Of course, Jack doesn't die, but not because he's immortal. It seems that the entire situation was virtual - a test of the travelers to see if they're "worthy" (although worthy of what, we never really find out, and it's not terribly important anyway). What is important that afterward, the three of them on the TARDIS, we learn that all three of them reacted to the situation differently. Jack, of course, saw Rose chosen to die, and had taken her place. Rose believed the Doctor chose Jack to die, and had watched it happen.
The Doctor? Was probably the only one who had faith.
“You think you know me, what I would do in that situation,” he spat. “You’re wrong.” The last word was a low, dangerous rumble. “You and your tiny, limited little ape brains. You can only understand yes or no, one or the other. Like I would stand there and choose which one of you would die.”
The Doctor's probably right, actually. Rose has seen quite a lot with him by now - she knows he'll get her out of any situation. She has faith in Jack, too, or at least expressed as much during The Doctor Dances. And yet, both she and Jack were unable to conceive of a way for the Doctor to save them both. It was very much as if the virtual reality world they were thrust into was a sort of manifestation of the sexual tension on the TARDIS - who did the Doctor want more, Jack or Rose?
Ooo, I like that.
Neither of them - not Jack, nor Rose - could conceive that possibly, the Doctor might want them both - until now, while both are obviously wanting him, they've seen him largely as asexual. The Doctor might dance, Rose thinks, but not with her - although certainly she wishes he did, and this was played out in her scenario. Jack knows the score for the both of them, and when it doesn't go that way, he falls back on his training ("protect the girl"), and pushes the conclusion to the way it ought to be.
The Doctor follows neither of these scenarios, and instead forges his own way, enabling all three of them to emerge unscathed. To him, this is the most logical conclusion, and it's only later, when he realizes that both Rose and Jack had experience very different scenarios, that he almost loses confidence. How can they even think that he'd not find a way out?
“How do you think I feel watching you die, watching any of you die? I’ve lost companions before.” He let that information sink in. “It’s not something I take lightly. You’re not expendable. Either of you.”
But here, safe aboard the TARDIS again - the scenarios they'd experienced still resonate. There is still Rose, and the Doctor, and Jack, and the Doctor, and the fact that underneath the three of them is a fairly unsteady balance of trust and faith. Rose and Jack need to believe that the Doctor will save both of them, every time. More importantly, the Doctor needs them to believe it.
And how, precisely, does one foster that kind of trust?
[The Doctor] could accept what had been simmering beneath the surface all along, and express it the way humans needed it expressed...He wanted it so much in that moment, to be allowed the simple pleasure of loving and being loved. Rose and Jack made it seem possible, like it was right there waiting for him to reach out his hand. It was an illusion, but maybe it could be real.
Sex, obviously.
In short, vote for Without a Doubt. It's sweet, it's deeper than you'd think on first read. It's got virtual reality deaths and aliens and spears and a few orgasms thrown in for good measure. It's an enjoyable read and an excellent adventure, and it very much deserves your vote.
*
Nothing But Sand by Travels-in-Time Link goes to Teaspoon
Characters: Nine, Rose, Jack, Ianto, Jack and Jack
Rating: PG
Details: Timey-whimey to a major degree, crossover with Torchwood.
Why it Rocks:
Well, that was just fun.
Normally, timey-whimey gives me headaches. But this kept me laughing all the way through. It probably helps that we've got at least three different versions of Jack at any one time, which definitely makes it more interesting.
Now, Rule One, as we all know, is Don't Wander Off. Jack and Rose certainly don't mean to wander off, but a time storm gets in the way, and they take wandering off to a whole new level. Jack is deposited in Cardiff in his future, and Rose is whisked back to 1941 during the Blitz.
So now we have three Jacks: Immortal!Jack, 1941!Jack, and Traveling!Jack. Immortal!Jack, of course, remembers everything, and stays in the background, out of sight. 1941!Jack finds Rose, and gives her a safe place to stay while she figures out what to do. And Traveling!Jack meets up with Ianto, and manages to send a message to the Doctor using the Rift.
So the story is about Rose and Jack trying to find their way back to the Doctor - but also about how the Jack and Ianto they're with see them.
For Ianto, it's somewhat disconcerting. The Jack who is hiding somewhere in the Hub is the familiar Jack. Ianto knows the score with his boss; he knows the limits and the barriers. But the Jack who has descended upon his doorstep is an unfamiliar entity, and yet, almost familiar.
This Jack, though...he talked just as much, but he didn't seem to be holding anything back, censoring himself, as the other one so often did. Ianto was learning more about his supervisor in the few hours this Jack had been there than in a year of working with him. Places he'd been to, adventures he'd had, people he'd slept with. Ianto had long suspected that Jack had more experience with aliens than he'd revealed to his team, but he'd never realized exactly how much Jack had been concealing.
1941!Jack is having to deal with just as much curiosity as Ianto. He knows that Rose is from his future, and he knows he shouldn't know too much more. But something about Rose bothers him:
She'd come on board his ship without a backwards glance. He'd given her a drink and she'd accepted it without question. She trusted him, that was clear. Beyond any boundaries of common sense, really.
So...however they'd met, whoever she really was, he hadn't been conning her, then. She wouldn't be nearly as trusting if he had.
Or maybe he just hadn't conned her yet.
He was surprised at how disheartened he felt at that thought.
Ianto and 1941!Jack both have to grapple with their own curiosities about the people they're helping. 1941!Jack is essentially at the beginning of the paradox. He knows that Rose is from his future, is able to gather that at some point, she sees him - not the conman, probably not a lover, but as a friend and a confidante. She trusts him, and somehow, that makes her more interesting, and the possibility of his future with her more interesting by association.
Traveling!Jack, however, is in the middle. He remembers bit by bit his first meeting with Rose, and how she was rescued by both him and the Doctor. He realizes that he's the catalyst for their rescue, and you get the sense that he's just following the script, in a sense, unable to speak of the past or the future to Ianto, who's dying to know both.
And, at the end of the story, we get Immortal!Jack, who again rejoins Ianto when Traveling!Jack is gone. For him, the story is done, the paradox is complete, and he's once more left behind by the Doctor and Rose to wait for their return. The circle continues, but now without him.
The only thing we're left with is a peculiar message left with Ianto. You see, a message that goes through time to a certain person isn't necessarily going to reach the person at the right time. We fans of River Song know that all too well. Ianto and Jack receive the message, "I'll come back for you." Jack, of course, thinks this means that Nine will appear for him - and does - and so the message is complete.
Ianto, who knows his Jack is waiting for a man who might never appear, believes differently.
In short, vote for Nothing But Sand. It's twisty and turny and has half a million Jacks running through it. It's got Ianto and sushi and Chinese and funny pick-up-lines and Glenn Miller. It'll make you laugh out loud and sigh, and it's one of the more enjoyable stories I've read today. It absolutely deserves your vote.
*
Fabric by wishingwillow Link goes to Teaspoon
Characters: Reinette, Ten
Rating: PG-13
Details: One-shot from Reinette's POV, during the end of Girl in the Fireplace
Why It Rocks:
Most fanfic, even when not categorized as fluff, is still fluff. It's light, it's airy, it's easy to read and understand. You read it quickly, and laugh or cry as appropriate, and when it's done, you (hopefully) review and go on about your day.
This is not one of those fics.
It is not what attracts them of course, what brings them flocking in almost unfathomable number to her side. They see her wealth and position, the great kingdom that she is surely key too. Her loyalty to a husband long since accepted as dead, which only increased the fervor of their ambitions. They see everything but her strength.
In Fabric, Willow shows us the whole of Reinette, distilled into a few deeply thoughtful moments. Reinette thinks quickly - the events story take place in what is surely only two or three minutes' time - but it's obvious that the things she is mulling over have been on her mind for a very long time. Reinette, as we saw in the show, is very much aware not only of herself as a person, but of herself as a figurehead in French politics, her position at court, and how the world sees her. The one thing she's never been quite certain of is her position within the Doctor's life, and how he sees her there.
Reinette, you see, has been waiting, just about her entire life, for the Doctor to come to her. And now he has, is standing before her, cut off from the world he knew previously.
It could just be a quick story about Reinette's waiting, but it isn't. Willow also shows us another woman waiting - the mythological Penelope, who waited twenty years for her husband to return to her from war. Towards the end, and faithful to her absent husband still, she invented a guise by which during the day, she wove a burial shroud for her father-in-law, saying she would marry when shroud was complete. By night, however, she picked out her stitches. This went on for three years.
Penelope, in the end, got her husband back. Reinette, in the end, has waited and found her Doctor. But life isn't a fairy tale - and the Doctor who stands before her isn't exactly hers.
It was there, mingling with the complexities of the days nodes of wrongness, even more than what the events of the past hours compelled. The Doctor was resigned. Resigned to the conversation, the days, they days that would come and even, perhaps her.
And so, Reinette has a choice - does she take this proverbial fabric she has wrought and hold it over the Doctor's eyes, keep him with her and try to make him happy....or does she whisk it away, and show him the way home, but by doing so, risk that she will ultimately lose him?
There's a couple of things beautiful about this story - the first, of course, is how Penelope's tale is woven into Reinette's, almost seamlessly. Both women wait years for a man they love, and they have no idea if he's going to come home or not. (Penelope for her Ulysses, Reinette for her Doctor.) Both women create a ruse to keep themselves busy while they wait, to make others believe one thing of themselves when another in in fact true. (Penelope will marry when the shroud is finished, Reinette is content to be the King's mistress.) Even their beds are compared to each other - Penelope's bed with Ulysses, which is built partially from a still-growing oak tree, and therefore steadfast and strong; Reinette's bed, where she has seduced and contented many men before, but is ultimately not able to sustain or anchor a relationship.)
Her body has welcomed and warmed all kinds and surely she could do that for him as well. Pull the threads of the sheets, silk and strong in her hands, over them both and make him forget. Manipulate them both, bodies and minds, until it actually felt like the right choice.
Which meant, of course, there was one.
The other lovely thing about this story is that you really have to spend time reading it. You can't whisk over it quickly; you can't fit it in when you've got five minutes to spare. You have to really read it, slowly, digest the words. You might have to read it twice, but that only gives it a richer finish.
In short, vote for Fabric. It's beautiful and poetic, mystical and mysterious. It's akin to reading a memory, and it'll capture your imagination and twist you in circles. If you didn't like Reinette much before, you'll find her to be a very compelling person now. And in doing that, it absolutely deserves your vote.
*
The Still Lost series by unfolded73 Link goes to Teaspoon
Characters: Ten, Rose, Donna, et al
Rating: Adult (sex)
Details: Reunion!fic. Series of several chaptered and one-shot stories. Some OT3, some torture and sex and angst and AU and fluff. Kind of a fanfic smorgasbord, really. AU after The Doctor's Daughter.
Why It Rocks:
First, a disclaimer: I haven't read all of the Lostverse, but that's more of a function of the fact that it's incredibly vast and I'm short on time. (Oh, to own a TARDIS...) However, I've read the first story (Still Lost), the last story (A Little More Time) and several of the one-shots in between, so I'm feeling pretty confident in the following review:
This 'verse rocks. Let me tell you why.
The Lostverse started midway through S4, and actually turns AU after The Doctor's Daughter - which means, essentially, that we get Jenny and Donna, but no River. You won't miss her. Unfolded has given us a world in which the Doctor and Jack and Donna all work together to bring Rose back to the Doctor. It's a complicated series of events that covers both dreams and reality, and even a quick visit from an enemy or two (and consequently setting up a later story within the 'verse).
What makes this particular reunion!fic different form the rest, however, is that the Doctor really does have to work with everyone in order to get Rose back. And the actual getting of Rose back is the crux of the entire first part of the story - it's not a duex es machina to get to the smut. (Although let's face it, all reunion!fic does have elements of that.) Here, the Doctor is actually mostly clueless about what's happening - or at least, he's trying to ignore it.
“She is returning, Doctor.”
“Yeah, yeah.” He left the tea room...
The Doctor has every indication in the world that Rose is returning - but it takes Donna and Jack to sit him down and tell him point blank that it's actually happening, that she's actually coming back, for him to not only believe it, but do something about it. And part of what's made him complacent is that he's been pretending all along that Rose, in the other world, is happy. It's easier, in a way, for him to leave her there, if he can imagine her living a full, complete, human life. But as long as the proverbial cat stays locked in the proverbial box, you can't actually know what's going on.
"She could’ve died the next day and you would never ever know. You imagine a fantastic life. You fear and hope that she is living the grand adventure of a job and taxes and childbirth. Instead she got a car crash. She died with her face a mask of blood, gasping your name."
Another thing that makes the series wonderful is the mix of light and dark. For the most part, Still Lost is fairly light - as is a few of the one-shots that come after. But a great deal of the stories in the 'verse are dark - up to and including the last in the series, "A Little More Time", which if you ask me, is the strongest of the bunch. In it, the Doctor deals with the consequences of his choice to bring Rose back to his world - which is that eventually, she has to die. Rose, of course, has known this would occur all along. In fact, she was able in her foiled attempts to reach the Doctor, to see him after her death, so she knows there's some amount of continuity there. But this was uncharted territory for the Doctor - he has lost companions before, yes. But none with whom he spent so much time, so much love, so much effort to keep with him.
“Sorry. What did you say your name was?” [The Doctor] kept smiling awkwardly.
“Ianto Jones, sir.”
“Now, that is just weird,” the Doctor muttered.
“No,” Ianto responded evenly, “it’s Welsh.”
It's part of the reason Ten has such an odd connection to his own body - and probably part of the reason many of us fear what will come after David Tennant leaves the show. So much of what makes Ten Ten is because he has been shaped by Rose. The Doctor is even willing to admit this:
...as long as he wore this face there was still something of Rose with him.
Finally - it's about the writing. It always comes down to the writing, of course. Unfolded gives us vibrantly clear images of both the action and the emotions that occur throughout, from all the characters within. She has a firm grasp on not only the Doctor, but on Rose, on Donna, on Jack, and on Ianto. She could probably tackle a fairly decent interpretation of the TARDIS's view of events, if she put her mind to it - and even the tricky bits, where she weaves canon into her own world, are handled with a careful touch:
Rose’s hand...felt strange, substantial but not, almost like something about it was flickering, vibrating. Donna held on tightly as Rose started to jerk her hand away in confusion. “Wait, please wait. You’re Rose. Rose Tyler.”
In short, vote for the Still Lost series. It's rich with stories and love and longing, it's about people who are lost being found again, it's got dreams and nightmares and lost years and lost chances. It's got naked!Jack and Donna being brilliant. Don't lose another minute - this fic absolutely deserves your vote.
*
On to Part Twelve, where I review:
Out of Joint by HonorH
So Close by rickmaniac101
The Loved 'verse by fid-gin, and guest appearances by unfolded73
Cheating Time, by Gillian Taylor/dark aegis & wendymr
Diamond Sea by whochick
Well, that was a productive morning. I'll try to have another six posted tomorrow.
I figured my notes might come in handy to the rest of you.
In Part One, I reviewed Chaos Theory, Six Stages, and Not One Line.
In Part Two, I reviewed The Devil You Know, Wolf Moon, Dulce et Decorum Est, and Passing Notes.
In Part Three, I reviewed Non-Linear Love Story, And So Things Go, and What Doesn't Kill You.
In Part Four, I reviewed You That Way, We This Way, Human Nature, Teach Me More, Coming Around, and Passing the Torch.
In Part Five, I reviewed I Had No Idea I Had Been Traveling (series), 9.8 Metres Per Second Squared, First and Last, and Tender Moments That Don't Last.
In Part Six, I reviewed 7 Words and a Metaphor, Illyria (series), and The Unsexy Sex.
In Part Seven, I reviewed The Bliss series, The Doctor Got Abducted, Ulysses, and There is No Peace That I've Found So Far.
In Part Eight, I reviewed To An Outsider's Eye, A Thousand Languages, Dancing Bananas, and Autumn Days That Make You Feel Sad.
In Part Nine, I reviewed Aftermaths, Don't Ask Don't Tell, Contagious, That Quiet Part, and More than an Echo.
In Part Ten, I reviewed I Ching, A Sky Without Zeppelins, I Believe in You, Dancing at the Sugar Shack, and Ten Times the Doctor Didn't Say "I Love You" (and One Time He Did).
In The Special Drabble Edition, I reviewed all nine drabbles nominated.
Today, I'll review:
Passing the Torch by Calapine
Tidewater by orange-crushed
Without a Doubt by Joolz
Nothing But Sand by travels in time
Fabric by wishingwillow
The Still Lost series by unfolded73
Therefore, without further ado:
Why You Should Vote For This Fic:
Passing the Torch by calapine
Characters: Donna, et al
Rating: PG
Details: Crack AND character death, Donna-centric, one-shot made up of lots of quick shorts.
Why It Rocks:
Actually, this rocks from the sheer fact that we've not only got character death (the Doctor's, no less), but it's also crack-tastic. The Summary as phrased by Calapine puts it best: Just before dying, the Doctor passed on his awesome legacy to Donna Noble.
From there, we watch as Donna goes back to meet all of the various people in the Doctor's life, both Classic Who and New Who, armed with only her wits, her sonic screwdriver, her intact memory of the Doctor's life, and her copy of "How To Carry On My Legacy By The Doctor". With predictable results.
Donna took a flick through the book. “Ah, here we are. ‘Romana, Time Lord.’ Apparently I’m supposed to either kiss you silly, then shag you senseless-“
“He did not write that...”
“Or one of us is supposed to exile and/or abandon the other in a parallel universe and break my hearts into tiny little pieces like the soulless unfeeling...” She paused. “The next bit’s scribbled out,” she said diplomatically.
Make no mistake, folks, this is fluff of the highest order. It is pointless, plotless, and entirely without purpose. And very, very, very funny. Donna remains Donna right to the end; the comments the Doctor leaves her on his previous companions are all very Doctor. (The entry for Jack Harkness is exactly four words: Do Not Shag Ever, underlined several times; Martha's is fairly incomprehensible.)
What's particularly fun about the story, however, is how Donna interacts with everyone. With Romana, you get the idea that Donna is attempting to check-mark a box. With Sarah Jane, she's looking for sympathy. And then, there's the Master or Martha, with whom she's attempting to right some wrongs (with Donna's predictable logic and flair):
“Evil Time Lord nutters, nil points; Donna Noble, twelve,” [Donna] muttered, flipping open her mobile to call the authorities.
In short, vote for this fic. It's funny, it's fantastic, it's got Donna being brilliant, and it features appearances by all your favorite Doctor companions/enemies. It's got men in uniform and puppies. It'll actually make you long to see the Doctor die (especially if he can pass on his Awesome Legacy to Donna). It's absolutely worth your vote.
*
Tidewater by orange_crushed
Characters: Ten, Rose, River
Rating: PG
Details: AU pre-JE, one-shot
Why It Rocks:
Such a pleasure to find this story - I didn't think we'd get another River Song story in the mix. This one is a particularly interesting one, too, because it was written in between the River Song episodes - meaning that we only had Silence of the Library, and didn't actually know how River died at the end of that adventure. So it's a curious mix of AU and conjecture: we have a world in which Rose has not only returned to the Doctor - but one in which River is still part of his future as well - and ends by being the catalyst to the Doctor's own eventual happiness.
It's a bit heady, but it makes for an amazing story. In most River-fic, the author has to try to deal with the fact that the Doctor loves Rose, and has lost her. He meets River, knowing that he'll lose her too, and won't even get to say a proper goodbye (which seems to be a theme with him). But here, River and Rose don't compete. There is no heart-achy hurdle for the Doctor to surmount.
When we first meet River, in the context of the show, she's had a long history with the Doctor already. But not just with the Doctor - with Rose, too. And somehow, River knowing Rose - not just knowing of Rose, but actually knowing her, and liking her - makes everything different.
[Rose] grins, tongue between her teeth, and she is not plain any longer but lovely; transformed by a brief and simple sort of happiness so luminous that River smiles as well, caught...[The Doctor] crosses his arms and rocks backwards on his heels, mischief and happiness at the edges of his mouth and eyes. River's throat constricts.
River begins to fill her diary with their adventures, the three of them, gradually learning to like them both, although already she's falling for the Doctor, even if it's subtle. But time passes for Rose and the Doctor faster than it does for her, and it's several years before one day the Doctor appears in her adventure, this time alone. Now River travels with him - now she tries to fill the role that Rose once kept. Partially yes, because she herself loves him, and wants to be with him.
He flirts when he ought to hold back and he holds back when he ought to be kind. He gets cold and distant suddenly, when she says the wrong thing or the doors open onto the wrong scene(familiar places are the worst.) He hugs her and turns her about and tosses her balance to the air- she's an adult who feels like a girl around him, since the beginning, infatuated and wary and spinning, inside, always.
But partially too, because she wants him to be happy in a way she remembers him being with Rose. Only, River isn't Rose, and she knows it. River might not feel as though she's coming between them - particularly since Rose is long since gone - but it's clear that the Doctor can't quite give in. Without or without Rose, the Doctor is still somewhat unreachable.
River looks away. It's a face of his she's never seen. "Square six, square seven," she calls out. She never really knew- guessed, maybe. "Kata and George. Chii, you take square eight." She was never that young, that bright, not with him. "Square nine we'll move on tomorrow- there's some soil that needs moving." She loved a shadow of that man, she tells herself.
So here we have River, running along one time-line, and the Doctor, running along another. River knows that the Doctor will get Rose back - and what's more, she knows that he'll lose her, and that such loss will destroy him. River has seen him both happy and sad, and she knows which she likes more - and still, she knows that Rose has something with the Doctor that she can never match.
And here, she has the Doctor, before any of it happens - before Rose is even returned to him - and she has a single moment in which to use it.
She promised him, a version of him, that she wouldn't love him; promised herself that she would, anyway, forever. Promised him that she'd keep his own secrets from himself, protect his future as much as possible.
We tell ourselves, we wouldn't destroy the time line, wouldn't save the person we love most. We tell ourselves this. But remember - River lies.
In short, vote for Tidewater. It's about love and lies and remembering and forgetting. It's a different way of looking at River Song and how she might have played in the Doctor's life. It's a lovely wrappy time-whimey story, and the twist at the end is so clever, you might find yourself reading it again for sheer joy. It's an absolute delight and it absolutely deserves your vote.
*
Without a Doubt by Joolz
Characters: Rose, Nine, Jack
Rating: Adult (sex)
Details: long one-shot, OT3 in the second half.
Why It Rocks:
I think I've read more OT3 in the last month than I did in the previous year. And, as always, the parts that interest me the most are the interaction between the three involved, no matter if it's Ten with Rose/Jack or Nine with Rose/Jack.
Without a Doubt is no different. Told from either Jack's or the Doctor's POV, we start off with an ultimatum: the Doctor has, once again, inadvertently, put the three of them in a life-or-death situation. Well, specifically, life-or-death for Rose and Jack, specifically. One will life, one will die, and he must choose.
Jack, believing the Doctor will choose Rose to live, readies himself for Death. (Note this is pre-immortal Jack.) And then hears the Doctor say that Rose will die instead. Jack, not believing his ears, reacts the only way he can: he forces the guard to kill him instead.
There was pain, there most certainly was. But he could hear Rose shrieking hysterically, which meant she was still alive. That was good. That was the important thing. He had succeeded. Calmness descended over him as his awareness faded to black.
Of course, Jack doesn't die, but not because he's immortal. It seems that the entire situation was virtual - a test of the travelers to see if they're "worthy" (although worthy of what, we never really find out, and it's not terribly important anyway). What is important that afterward, the three of them on the TARDIS, we learn that all three of them reacted to the situation differently. Jack, of course, saw Rose chosen to die, and had taken her place. Rose believed the Doctor chose Jack to die, and had watched it happen.
The Doctor? Was probably the only one who had faith.
“You think you know me, what I would do in that situation,” he spat. “You’re wrong.” The last word was a low, dangerous rumble. “You and your tiny, limited little ape brains. You can only understand yes or no, one or the other. Like I would stand there and choose which one of you would die.”
The Doctor's probably right, actually. Rose has seen quite a lot with him by now - she knows he'll get her out of any situation. She has faith in Jack, too, or at least expressed as much during The Doctor Dances. And yet, both she and Jack were unable to conceive of a way for the Doctor to save them both. It was very much as if the virtual reality world they were thrust into was a sort of manifestation of the sexual tension on the TARDIS - who did the Doctor want more, Jack or Rose?
Ooo, I like that.
Neither of them - not Jack, nor Rose - could conceive that possibly, the Doctor might want them both - until now, while both are obviously wanting him, they've seen him largely as asexual. The Doctor might dance, Rose thinks, but not with her - although certainly she wishes he did, and this was played out in her scenario. Jack knows the score for the both of them, and when it doesn't go that way, he falls back on his training ("protect the girl"), and pushes the conclusion to the way it ought to be.
The Doctor follows neither of these scenarios, and instead forges his own way, enabling all three of them to emerge unscathed. To him, this is the most logical conclusion, and it's only later, when he realizes that both Rose and Jack had experience very different scenarios, that he almost loses confidence. How can they even think that he'd not find a way out?
“How do you think I feel watching you die, watching any of you die? I’ve lost companions before.” He let that information sink in. “It’s not something I take lightly. You’re not expendable. Either of you.”
But here, safe aboard the TARDIS again - the scenarios they'd experienced still resonate. There is still Rose, and the Doctor, and Jack, and the Doctor, and the fact that underneath the three of them is a fairly unsteady balance of trust and faith. Rose and Jack need to believe that the Doctor will save both of them, every time. More importantly, the Doctor needs them to believe it.
And how, precisely, does one foster that kind of trust?
[The Doctor] could accept what had been simmering beneath the surface all along, and express it the way humans needed it expressed...He wanted it so much in that moment, to be allowed the simple pleasure of loving and being loved. Rose and Jack made it seem possible, like it was right there waiting for him to reach out his hand. It was an illusion, but maybe it could be real.
Sex, obviously.
In short, vote for Without a Doubt. It's sweet, it's deeper than you'd think on first read. It's got virtual reality deaths and aliens and spears and a few orgasms thrown in for good measure. It's an enjoyable read and an excellent adventure, and it very much deserves your vote.
*
Nothing But Sand by Travels-in-Time Link goes to Teaspoon
Characters: Nine, Rose, Jack, Ianto, Jack and Jack
Rating: PG
Details: Timey-whimey to a major degree, crossover with Torchwood.
Why it Rocks:
Well, that was just fun.
Normally, timey-whimey gives me headaches. But this kept me laughing all the way through. It probably helps that we've got at least three different versions of Jack at any one time, which definitely makes it more interesting.
Now, Rule One, as we all know, is Don't Wander Off. Jack and Rose certainly don't mean to wander off, but a time storm gets in the way, and they take wandering off to a whole new level. Jack is deposited in Cardiff in his future, and Rose is whisked back to 1941 during the Blitz.
So now we have three Jacks: Immortal!Jack, 1941!Jack, and Traveling!Jack. Immortal!Jack, of course, remembers everything, and stays in the background, out of sight. 1941!Jack finds Rose, and gives her a safe place to stay while she figures out what to do. And Traveling!Jack meets up with Ianto, and manages to send a message to the Doctor using the Rift.
So the story is about Rose and Jack trying to find their way back to the Doctor - but also about how the Jack and Ianto they're with see them.
For Ianto, it's somewhat disconcerting. The Jack who is hiding somewhere in the Hub is the familiar Jack. Ianto knows the score with his boss; he knows the limits and the barriers. But the Jack who has descended upon his doorstep is an unfamiliar entity, and yet, almost familiar.
This Jack, though...he talked just as much, but he didn't seem to be holding anything back, censoring himself, as the other one so often did. Ianto was learning more about his supervisor in the few hours this Jack had been there than in a year of working with him. Places he'd been to, adventures he'd had, people he'd slept with. Ianto had long suspected that Jack had more experience with aliens than he'd revealed to his team, but he'd never realized exactly how much Jack had been concealing.
1941!Jack is having to deal with just as much curiosity as Ianto. He knows that Rose is from his future, and he knows he shouldn't know too much more. But something about Rose bothers him:
She'd come on board his ship without a backwards glance. He'd given her a drink and she'd accepted it without question. She trusted him, that was clear. Beyond any boundaries of common sense, really.
So...however they'd met, whoever she really was, he hadn't been conning her, then. She wouldn't be nearly as trusting if he had.
Or maybe he just hadn't conned her yet.
He was surprised at how disheartened he felt at that thought.
Ianto and 1941!Jack both have to grapple with their own curiosities about the people they're helping. 1941!Jack is essentially at the beginning of the paradox. He knows that Rose is from his future, is able to gather that at some point, she sees him - not the conman, probably not a lover, but as a friend and a confidante. She trusts him, and somehow, that makes her more interesting, and the possibility of his future with her more interesting by association.
Traveling!Jack, however, is in the middle. He remembers bit by bit his first meeting with Rose, and how she was rescued by both him and the Doctor. He realizes that he's the catalyst for their rescue, and you get the sense that he's just following the script, in a sense, unable to speak of the past or the future to Ianto, who's dying to know both.
And, at the end of the story, we get Immortal!Jack, who again rejoins Ianto when Traveling!Jack is gone. For him, the story is done, the paradox is complete, and he's once more left behind by the Doctor and Rose to wait for their return. The circle continues, but now without him.
The only thing we're left with is a peculiar message left with Ianto. You see, a message that goes through time to a certain person isn't necessarily going to reach the person at the right time. We fans of River Song know that all too well. Ianto and Jack receive the message, "I'll come back for you." Jack, of course, thinks this means that Nine will appear for him - and does - and so the message is complete.
Ianto, who knows his Jack is waiting for a man who might never appear, believes differently.
In short, vote for Nothing But Sand. It's twisty and turny and has half a million Jacks running through it. It's got Ianto and sushi and Chinese and funny pick-up-lines and Glenn Miller. It'll make you laugh out loud and sigh, and it's one of the more enjoyable stories I've read today. It absolutely deserves your vote.
*
Fabric by wishingwillow Link goes to Teaspoon
Characters: Reinette, Ten
Rating: PG-13
Details: One-shot from Reinette's POV, during the end of Girl in the Fireplace
Why It Rocks:
Most fanfic, even when not categorized as fluff, is still fluff. It's light, it's airy, it's easy to read and understand. You read it quickly, and laugh or cry as appropriate, and when it's done, you (hopefully) review and go on about your day.
This is not one of those fics.
It is not what attracts them of course, what brings them flocking in almost unfathomable number to her side. They see her wealth and position, the great kingdom that she is surely key too. Her loyalty to a husband long since accepted as dead, which only increased the fervor of their ambitions. They see everything but her strength.
In Fabric, Willow shows us the whole of Reinette, distilled into a few deeply thoughtful moments. Reinette thinks quickly - the events story take place in what is surely only two or three minutes' time - but it's obvious that the things she is mulling over have been on her mind for a very long time. Reinette, as we saw in the show, is very much aware not only of herself as a person, but of herself as a figurehead in French politics, her position at court, and how the world sees her. The one thing she's never been quite certain of is her position within the Doctor's life, and how he sees her there.
Reinette, you see, has been waiting, just about her entire life, for the Doctor to come to her. And now he has, is standing before her, cut off from the world he knew previously.
It could just be a quick story about Reinette's waiting, but it isn't. Willow also shows us another woman waiting - the mythological Penelope, who waited twenty years for her husband to return to her from war. Towards the end, and faithful to her absent husband still, she invented a guise by which during the day, she wove a burial shroud for her father-in-law, saying she would marry when shroud was complete. By night, however, she picked out her stitches. This went on for three years.
Penelope, in the end, got her husband back. Reinette, in the end, has waited and found her Doctor. But life isn't a fairy tale - and the Doctor who stands before her isn't exactly hers.
It was there, mingling with the complexities of the days nodes of wrongness, even more than what the events of the past hours compelled. The Doctor was resigned. Resigned to the conversation, the days, they days that would come and even, perhaps her.
And so, Reinette has a choice - does she take this proverbial fabric she has wrought and hold it over the Doctor's eyes, keep him with her and try to make him happy....or does she whisk it away, and show him the way home, but by doing so, risk that she will ultimately lose him?
There's a couple of things beautiful about this story - the first, of course, is how Penelope's tale is woven into Reinette's, almost seamlessly. Both women wait years for a man they love, and they have no idea if he's going to come home or not. (Penelope for her Ulysses, Reinette for her Doctor.) Both women create a ruse to keep themselves busy while they wait, to make others believe one thing of themselves when another in in fact true. (Penelope will marry when the shroud is finished, Reinette is content to be the King's mistress.) Even their beds are compared to each other - Penelope's bed with Ulysses, which is built partially from a still-growing oak tree, and therefore steadfast and strong; Reinette's bed, where she has seduced and contented many men before, but is ultimately not able to sustain or anchor a relationship.)
Her body has welcomed and warmed all kinds and surely she could do that for him as well. Pull the threads of the sheets, silk and strong in her hands, over them both and make him forget. Manipulate them both, bodies and minds, until it actually felt like the right choice.
Which meant, of course, there was one.
The other lovely thing about this story is that you really have to spend time reading it. You can't whisk over it quickly; you can't fit it in when you've got five minutes to spare. You have to really read it, slowly, digest the words. You might have to read it twice, but that only gives it a richer finish.
In short, vote for Fabric. It's beautiful and poetic, mystical and mysterious. It's akin to reading a memory, and it'll capture your imagination and twist you in circles. If you didn't like Reinette much before, you'll find her to be a very compelling person now. And in doing that, it absolutely deserves your vote.
*
The Still Lost series by unfolded73 Link goes to Teaspoon
Characters: Ten, Rose, Donna, et al
Rating: Adult (sex)
Details: Reunion!fic. Series of several chaptered and one-shot stories. Some OT3, some torture and sex and angst and AU and fluff. Kind of a fanfic smorgasbord, really. AU after The Doctor's Daughter.
Why It Rocks:
First, a disclaimer: I haven't read all of the Lostverse, but that's more of a function of the fact that it's incredibly vast and I'm short on time. (Oh, to own a TARDIS...) However, I've read the first story (Still Lost), the last story (A Little More Time) and several of the one-shots in between, so I'm feeling pretty confident in the following review:
This 'verse rocks. Let me tell you why.
The Lostverse started midway through S4, and actually turns AU after The Doctor's Daughter - which means, essentially, that we get Jenny and Donna, but no River. You won't miss her. Unfolded has given us a world in which the Doctor and Jack and Donna all work together to bring Rose back to the Doctor. It's a complicated series of events that covers both dreams and reality, and even a quick visit from an enemy or two (and consequently setting up a later story within the 'verse).
What makes this particular reunion!fic different form the rest, however, is that the Doctor really does have to work with everyone in order to get Rose back. And the actual getting of Rose back is the crux of the entire first part of the story - it's not a duex es machina to get to the smut. (Although let's face it, all reunion!fic does have elements of that.) Here, the Doctor is actually mostly clueless about what's happening - or at least, he's trying to ignore it.
“She is returning, Doctor.”
“Yeah, yeah.” He left the tea room...
The Doctor has every indication in the world that Rose is returning - but it takes Donna and Jack to sit him down and tell him point blank that it's actually happening, that she's actually coming back, for him to not only believe it, but do something about it. And part of what's made him complacent is that he's been pretending all along that Rose, in the other world, is happy. It's easier, in a way, for him to leave her there, if he can imagine her living a full, complete, human life. But as long as the proverbial cat stays locked in the proverbial box, you can't actually know what's going on.
"She could’ve died the next day and you would never ever know. You imagine a fantastic life. You fear and hope that she is living the grand adventure of a job and taxes and childbirth. Instead she got a car crash. She died with her face a mask of blood, gasping your name."
Another thing that makes the series wonderful is the mix of light and dark. For the most part, Still Lost is fairly light - as is a few of the one-shots that come after. But a great deal of the stories in the 'verse are dark - up to and including the last in the series, "A Little More Time", which if you ask me, is the strongest of the bunch. In it, the Doctor deals with the consequences of his choice to bring Rose back to his world - which is that eventually, she has to die. Rose, of course, has known this would occur all along. In fact, she was able in her foiled attempts to reach the Doctor, to see him after her death, so she knows there's some amount of continuity there. But this was uncharted territory for the Doctor - he has lost companions before, yes. But none with whom he spent so much time, so much love, so much effort to keep with him.
“Sorry. What did you say your name was?” [The Doctor] kept smiling awkwardly.
“Ianto Jones, sir.”
“Now, that is just weird,” the Doctor muttered.
“No,” Ianto responded evenly, “it’s Welsh.”
It's part of the reason Ten has such an odd connection to his own body - and probably part of the reason many of us fear what will come after David Tennant leaves the show. So much of what makes Ten Ten is because he has been shaped by Rose. The Doctor is even willing to admit this:
...as long as he wore this face there was still something of Rose with him.
Finally - it's about the writing. It always comes down to the writing, of course. Unfolded gives us vibrantly clear images of both the action and the emotions that occur throughout, from all the characters within. She has a firm grasp on not only the Doctor, but on Rose, on Donna, on Jack, and on Ianto. She could probably tackle a fairly decent interpretation of the TARDIS's view of events, if she put her mind to it - and even the tricky bits, where she weaves canon into her own world, are handled with a careful touch:
Rose’s hand...felt strange, substantial but not, almost like something about it was flickering, vibrating. Donna held on tightly as Rose started to jerk her hand away in confusion. “Wait, please wait. You’re Rose. Rose Tyler.”
In short, vote for the Still Lost series. It's rich with stories and love and longing, it's about people who are lost being found again, it's got dreams and nightmares and lost years and lost chances. It's got naked!Jack and Donna being brilliant. Don't lose another minute - this fic absolutely deserves your vote.
*
On to Part Twelve, where I review:
Out of Joint by HonorH
So Close by rickmaniac101
The Loved 'verse by fid-gin, and guest appearances by unfolded73
Cheating Time, by Gillian Taylor/dark aegis & wendymr
Diamond Sea by whochick
Well, that was a productive morning. I'll try to have another six posted tomorrow.