Verteidigungskrieg, by Von_Quixote
Story: Verteidigungskrieg
Author: Von_Quixote
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 19,408 (thus far, in four chapters)
Author's Summary: After 'Scream of the Shalka, the Doctor's as-yet-unknown superiors send him, the Master and Alison to Passendale. It's July 1917, and there's something weird going on in no-man's-land.
Characters/Pairings: Shalka!Doctor, Alison, Shalka!Master, other canon character revealed later
Warnings: Explicit Violence (though I think this is debatable)
Recced because: Scream of the Shalka may have had many things wrong with it, but what it did have was a lovely snarky team TARDIS too seldom used in fanfic in this reviewers opinion. The dialogue in the show was great; the dialogue in 'Verteidigungskrieg' is great-er. Not that you really need to know 'Shalka' to read this - it landed us in much the same un-explained sort of scenario, though this one is more interesting, I think, and the story goes along at a better pace than the original (plus you don't have to look at the animation). This Doctor is a bit like Three and Six and a bit like Withnail, and everything he says is a joy. Most importantly in 'Verteidigungskrieg', there's always the read-on feeling that something very important is about to happen any minute now...
"Should you be telling us this? I mean, we're English. Careless talk costs lives, y'know."
"I like the sound of that. 'Careless talk costs lives'..." Eisner held out a hand and moved it horizontally with each word, rather like he was spelling out a slogan on an imaginary poster - which, of course, he was.
"Wrong war again," said the Doctor. "And of course he should be telling us. It's interesting. So, the Ridge exploded - then what?"
"Well, after that, Colonel von Lossberg arrived and he always seems to know exactly what the British are going to do - "
"He is a genius." The Doctor winked, enormously and sardonically, and Alison stifled a smile.
"And they always seem to know exactly what we are going to do."
"Well, maybe they have a genius too."
"And then there are the stretcher parties."
"Oh? What about the stretcher parties?"
"They never bring back any dead. Only wounded. Ever since the British took Messines."
"What happens to the dead?" Alison looked across at the Doctor, who raised an eyebrow, as if to say 'good question'.
"Nobody knows. They just disappear."
Author: Von_Quixote
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 19,408 (thus far, in four chapters)
Author's Summary: After 'Scream of the Shalka, the Doctor's as-yet-unknown superiors send him, the Master and Alison to Passendale. It's July 1917, and there's something weird going on in no-man's-land.
Characters/Pairings: Shalka!Doctor, Alison, Shalka!Master, other canon character revealed later
Warnings: Explicit Violence (though I think this is debatable)
Recced because: Scream of the Shalka may have had many things wrong with it, but what it did have was a lovely snarky team TARDIS too seldom used in fanfic in this reviewers opinion. The dialogue in the show was great; the dialogue in 'Verteidigungskrieg' is great-er. Not that you really need to know 'Shalka' to read this - it landed us in much the same un-explained sort of scenario, though this one is more interesting, I think, and the story goes along at a better pace than the original (plus you don't have to look at the animation). This Doctor is a bit like Three and Six and a bit like Withnail, and everything he says is a joy. Most importantly in 'Verteidigungskrieg', there's always the read-on feeling that something very important is about to happen any minute now...
"Should you be telling us this? I mean, we're English. Careless talk costs lives, y'know."
"I like the sound of that. 'Careless talk costs lives'..." Eisner held out a hand and moved it horizontally with each word, rather like he was spelling out a slogan on an imaginary poster - which, of course, he was.
"Wrong war again," said the Doctor. "And of course he should be telling us. It's interesting. So, the Ridge exploded - then what?"
"Well, after that, Colonel von Lossberg arrived and he always seems to know exactly what the British are going to do - "
"He is a genius." The Doctor winked, enormously and sardonically, and Alison stifled a smile.
"And they always seem to know exactly what we are going to do."
"Well, maybe they have a genius too."
"And then there are the stretcher parties."
"Oh? What about the stretcher parties?"
"They never bring back any dead. Only wounded. Ever since the British took Messines."
"What happens to the dead?" Alison looked across at the Doctor, who raised an eyebrow, as if to say 'good question'.
"Nobody knows. They just disappear."