Rec: Missing Link on the Brink of Destruction by Clocketpatch
Well, it's good to be back. Seems like only yesterday that I was last here reccing for your consideration, but a cursory glance tells me that actually it was last March. Anyway, I've got another raft of stories I hope you'll all enjoy as much as I have and I'll be here all week sharing them with you.
Story: Missing Link on the Brink of Destruction
Author: clocketpatch
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 3,580
Author's Summary: Between losing the Ponds and landing in Victorian London there were adventures...
Characters/Pairings: The Doctor (11th), original companion
Warnings: None that I can think of
Recced because: Sometimes you read a fic that instantly, out of the blue, unceremoniously elbows its way to the front of your "to rec" queue. I know I do, anyway; I have little discipline or sense of orderliness when it comes to these things. I'll confess that I only saw this fic yesterday when it was linked to here on Livejournal, and in the interests of full disclosure the author has been an online associate of mine for quite some time, but I hope when you come to read it you will see why I was instantly taken with it and why I think it more than deserves a bit of buzz.
In her notes the author describes having written this as a stocking filler; "filler" is the last thing that this story is. Neatly bridging the gap between the end of The Angels Take Manhattan and the Doctor's introduction in The Snowmen, it considers some of the issues raised by the conclusion of the first story while providing creative answers to some of the unanswered questions in the latter, particularly one glossed-over but potentially very important point that I won't specify in the interests of non-spoileriness. I especially like the way the fic addresses Eleven's self-proclaimed and, in some ways, somewhat out-of-character "retirement" and makes it seem far more plausible to me than the actual televised story did. The main thing I loved about this story, though, is the original companion it has Eleven taking on in the gap between the two TV stories. I know original companions aren't everybody's cup of tea, and not always easy to do well, but in this instance the concept is so pleasingly off-the-wall and done so well that I found myself wishing Mr Moffat would do something similar next time around (although I can see the practicalities that might make such a character difficult or impossible to realise on screen). And at the risk of sounding pretentious, the thread of scientific/philosophical discussion running through the fic from start to finish strikes me not only as very Doctorly but also as having something interesting to say about the Doctor himself and his universe.
As anybody who has been watching this comm for a while will know, clocketpatch is no stranger to being recced here, but there is a reason for that. On top of all of the points above, she consistently tries to do interesting things with her prose; not just great descriptive writing and spot-on in-character dialogue, but using words and unusual turns of phrase to try and create a certain feeling and effect. By the nature of such things, it isn't going to work 100 percent of the time, but when it does... Anyway, all I can say is go and read this if you haven't already and, I hope, leave some words of encouragement for the author.
Perhaps the human scientist should have used dominos rather than billiard balls to test his theories. In a line of dominos the predictability chain doesn't break down after eleven collisions. The hundredth domino will fall as gracefully as the first. The thousandth domino will fall the same way as the ten thousandth - provided the chain has been set up properly. A domino chain supports an ordered cosmos.
But does an ordered cosmos support any individual with the madness and patience to line up ten thousand dominos, only to see what happens when the first is knocked over?
Story: Missing Link on the Brink of Destruction
Author: clocketpatch
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 3,580
Author's Summary: Between losing the Ponds and landing in Victorian London there were adventures...
Characters/Pairings: The Doctor (11th), original companion
Warnings: None that I can think of
Recced because: Sometimes you read a fic that instantly, out of the blue, unceremoniously elbows its way to the front of your "to rec" queue. I know I do, anyway; I have little discipline or sense of orderliness when it comes to these things. I'll confess that I only saw this fic yesterday when it was linked to here on Livejournal, and in the interests of full disclosure the author has been an online associate of mine for quite some time, but I hope when you come to read it you will see why I was instantly taken with it and why I think it more than deserves a bit of buzz.
In her notes the author describes having written this as a stocking filler; "filler" is the last thing that this story is. Neatly bridging the gap between the end of The Angels Take Manhattan and the Doctor's introduction in The Snowmen, it considers some of the issues raised by the conclusion of the first story while providing creative answers to some of the unanswered questions in the latter, particularly one glossed-over but potentially very important point that I won't specify in the interests of non-spoileriness. I especially like the way the fic addresses Eleven's self-proclaimed and, in some ways, somewhat out-of-character "retirement" and makes it seem far more plausible to me than the actual televised story did. The main thing I loved about this story, though, is the original companion it has Eleven taking on in the gap between the two TV stories. I know original companions aren't everybody's cup of tea, and not always easy to do well, but in this instance the concept is so pleasingly off-the-wall and done so well that I found myself wishing Mr Moffat would do something similar next time around (although I can see the practicalities that might make such a character difficult or impossible to realise on screen). And at the risk of sounding pretentious, the thread of scientific/philosophical discussion running through the fic from start to finish strikes me not only as very Doctorly but also as having something interesting to say about the Doctor himself and his universe.
As anybody who has been watching this comm for a while will know, clocketpatch is no stranger to being recced here, but there is a reason for that. On top of all of the points above, she consistently tries to do interesting things with her prose; not just great descriptive writing and spot-on in-character dialogue, but using words and unusual turns of phrase to try and create a certain feeling and effect. By the nature of such things, it isn't going to work 100 percent of the time, but when it does... Anyway, all I can say is go and read this if you haven't already and, I hope, leave some words of encouragement for the author.
Perhaps the human scientist should have used dominos rather than billiard balls to test his theories. In a line of dominos the predictability chain doesn't break down after eleven collisions. The hundredth domino will fall as gracefully as the first. The thousandth domino will fall the same way as the ten thousandth - provided the chain has been set up properly. A domino chain supports an ordered cosmos.
But does an ordered cosmos support any individual with the madness and patience to line up ten thousand dominos, only to see what happens when the first is knocked over?