Rec: The Pandora Project
Story: The Pandora Project
Author: Calapine
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 53,658
Author's Summary: At the end of series three, the Doctor and the Master end up travelling together and totally manage not to destroy each other or the universe. More or less. Meanwhile, Martha gets a job offer from UNIT, Jack fails to realise his team are a bit useless, and there's a giant squid for no good reason whatsoever.
Characters/Pairings: Ten/Simm!Master, Jack Harkness, Martha Jones
Recced because: This story has been on my to-be-recced list practically since calapine first posted it to LiveJournal, but I haven't gotten around to reccing it until now because I wanted to re-read it first, and could never quite find the time to sit and read a 53,000-word fic. But I thought I'd spend a few minutes at least skimming it this weekend ... except that "skimming" suddenly turned into "do nothing else until you finish reading this amazing fic in its entirety."
Seven years after Series 3, fandom has long since turned "the Master survived the events on the Valiant and travels with the Doctor instead" into a well-worn trope, but rarely is it handled as wittily, in-character, and compellingly as it is here. There are cameos from Classic Who characters, endless snark between the Tenth Doctor and the Master, and yes, a giant squid -- a vampire squid, to be exact, because if you're going to have a giant squid in a Doctor Who story, it might as well be a vampire, too. And there is also, of course, a fine plot holding all of this together, one that seamlessly blends the classic series with the new one, but saying more would spoil it. If you didn't have weekend fic-reading plans before, I hope you do now.
Excerpt:
"You're vibrating," muttered the Master, as he lay sprawled across the sofa watching Teletubbies. It was, in the Doctor's opinion, the single most ridiculous television show that humanity had ever had the misfortune come up with, and that included everything he'd seen on the Gamestation, but since the Clangers DVD had been lost along with A Muppet's Christmas Carol and the good television, he couldn't persuade the Master to watch anything else.
So was he curled up in one of the armchairs, trying to read and being distracted by the interminable nonsense that spewed out of the box instead. And now he was apparently vibrating. Lovely.
"Well, answer it," snapped the Master.
Oh, right, vibrating. He plucked the mobile from his pocket and flipped it open. "Ah, hello, the Doctor here?"
"Doctor? How're things going? You okay?"
"Miss Jones!" he said, delighted. He ignored the look the Master shot him.
"Doctor now, actually," she said, sounding rather pleased with herself, but not nearly as pleased as the Doctor felt..
"Gosh, that's brilliant. Well done you. Really, very, very well done. I know lots and lots of doctors and you're definitely one of the top three...top five...definitely one of my very favourite doctors ever, Martha Jones. Dr. Jones. Heh, think of all the cheap jokes I could make!"
"Thank you," she said, and he could hear her smiling. "But what about you? How are you doing? Really?"
"Oh, I'm fine. Doing the usual. Pottering about the TARDIS. Landing exciting places. Not getting killed."
"You sure? I mean he's not tried to...well, he's behaving, right?"
"As well as can be expected," the Doctor said, and the Master snorted.
Author: Calapine
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 53,658
Author's Summary: At the end of series three, the Doctor and the Master end up travelling together and totally manage not to destroy each other or the universe. More or less. Meanwhile, Martha gets a job offer from UNIT, Jack fails to realise his team are a bit useless, and there's a giant squid for no good reason whatsoever.
Characters/Pairings: Ten/Simm!Master, Jack Harkness, Martha Jones
Recced because: This story has been on my to-be-recced list practically since calapine first posted it to LiveJournal, but I haven't gotten around to reccing it until now because I wanted to re-read it first, and could never quite find the time to sit and read a 53,000-word fic. But I thought I'd spend a few minutes at least skimming it this weekend ... except that "skimming" suddenly turned into "do nothing else until you finish reading this amazing fic in its entirety."
Seven years after Series 3, fandom has long since turned "the Master survived the events on the Valiant and travels with the Doctor instead" into a well-worn trope, but rarely is it handled as wittily, in-character, and compellingly as it is here. There are cameos from Classic Who characters, endless snark between the Tenth Doctor and the Master, and yes, a giant squid -- a vampire squid, to be exact, because if you're going to have a giant squid in a Doctor Who story, it might as well be a vampire, too. And there is also, of course, a fine plot holding all of this together, one that seamlessly blends the classic series with the new one, but saying more would spoil it. If you didn't have weekend fic-reading plans before, I hope you do now.
Excerpt:
"You're vibrating," muttered the Master, as he lay sprawled across the sofa watching Teletubbies. It was, in the Doctor's opinion, the single most ridiculous television show that humanity had ever had the misfortune come up with, and that included everything he'd seen on the Gamestation, but since the Clangers DVD had been lost along with A Muppet's Christmas Carol and the good television, he couldn't persuade the Master to watch anything else.
So was he curled up in one of the armchairs, trying to read and being distracted by the interminable nonsense that spewed out of the box instead. And now he was apparently vibrating. Lovely.
"Well, answer it," snapped the Master.
Oh, right, vibrating. He plucked the mobile from his pocket and flipped it open. "Ah, hello, the Doctor here?"
"Doctor? How're things going? You okay?"
"Miss Jones!" he said, delighted. He ignored the look the Master shot him.
"Doctor now, actually," she said, sounding rather pleased with herself, but not nearly as pleased as the Doctor felt..
"Gosh, that's brilliant. Well done you. Really, very, very well done. I know lots and lots of doctors and you're definitely one of the top three...top five...definitely one of my very favourite doctors ever, Martha Jones. Dr. Jones. Heh, think of all the cheap jokes I could make!"
"Thank you," she said, and he could hear her smiling. "But what about you? How are you doing? Really?"
"Oh, I'm fine. Doing the usual. Pottering about the TARDIS. Landing exciting places. Not getting killed."
"You sure? I mean he's not tried to...well, he's behaving, right?"
"As well as can be expected," the Doctor said, and the Master snorted.