Round Two Reviews - Part 21
Today's Featured Stories Include:
*
A Man Who Wasn't There , by Coru, link goes to Teaspoon
Category: WIP
Characters: The Ninth Doctor, Rose Tyler, various other characters
Rating: All Ages
Details: The episodes from Series Two, staring Nine, instead of Ten. Approximately 13 episodes and TARDISsodes, around one or two chapters apiece. Last episode posted February 2009.
Why It Rocks:
A Man Who Wasn't There is a very long series, so get a nice cup of tea, a few biscuits, and settle in for a good read. It is also a work in progress, and nominated in that category, so be sure to check back in for more updates.
Coru's saga seems to operate on a simple premise; the Ninth Doctor never regenerated at the end of Parting Of The Ways. And she retells each episode, in order, with Nine adventuring with Rose Tyler, instead of Ten. The set up may be simple, however, the execution is everything but.
This series, in the hands of a different author, could be excruciatingly boring. We, the audience, obviously already know what happens. And it's easy to imagine a fan fiction using this scenario, but only switching out Ten's babble for Nine's clipped sarcasm. Fortunately, Coru treats us to something much more complex and character driven.
While he remains the same man at his core, the Ninth Doctor operates differently than the Tenth. The impulses he gives into are different, and the words he uses are most definitely different. Coru's stories are fascinating because while they maintain enough of the original structure to be familiar, they explore how subtle choices can impact the other characters, and change the overall narrative.
Coru's choices start small. In New Earth, something as tiny as the Doctor holding the elevator for Rose forces Cassandra to change her plans, which ends in dire consequences for our villain. Nine also retains a bit of his darkness, more edge, and as a result, less sympathy and a more brutal solution. I also love the tiny detail that he doesn't let Rose sit on his leather jacket.
In School Reunion, Rose and Sarah Jane still react to each other with jealousy, but it's fun to watch how Nine's calm and annoyed eye rolling acts to diffuse the situation so much more deftly than Ten's neck rubbing befuddlement did. Through a tiny change, large portions of Girl In The Fireplace are completely rewritten. While the Doctor still spends his time with the adult Reinette, Rose remains on the spaceship with the younger version. The addition of the child, and a special guest appearance, make this episode especially memorable.
But my absolute favourite, is the Rise of the Cyberman/Age of Steel two-parter. Rather than attending the party as servants, the Doctor and Rose pass themselves off as guests, and the results are remarkable. This simple change allows Rose to speak to this universe's Jackie as an equal, instead of a subservient. I applaud Coru for having this insight, and allowing the story to adapt in a wonderful way. Needless to say, the choices have become even braver, and the impact starts to affect the overall narrative of the season's arc. I don't want to reveal too much, but considering a few of the character decisions that have been made so far, I very much look forward to where Coru will take us in the future.
And then, AND THEN, in between each episode, Coru also gives us a fun little Tardisode. These are short stories, set in the vortex, as the Doctor and Rose rest between adventures. While the main parts of the series move the plot along, these Tardisodes let us watch the relationship between our characters gradually shift from one of friendship to romance. Filled with warmth and humour, these slice of Tardis-life moments build with a delicious slow burn.
Oh, and on top of all that, Nine's dialogue is always spot on and brilliant. An excerpt between him and Sarah Jane in School Reunion:
"I tried so hard to get close after that crash last spring," Sarah Jane was laughing as the Doctor tinkered with K-9. "And then everyone decided it was a hoax, after days of proclaiming it the first contact! First, more like four hundred and thirty-seventh."
"Wasn't a crash," the Doctor corrected, tugging out a long tangle of wires and adjusting - with much sparking - their connections. "Just a bit of capitalism gone bad. Sorted out all right, had more trouble with Mickey over there than the aliens. Did have a good time locked in the cabinet room with Harriet Jones, but that was really a side note."
Sarah Jane shook her head, a slight smile on her face. "Then," she paused, glancing past him to the younger pair across the restaurant. "Rose was...?"
"She was there too," he nodded, jerking his hand away from a particularly nasty spark and shoving it in his mouth momentarily. He let out a breath and stared hard at the table. "You're allowed to be angry, Sarah Jane. Hate me even, if it helps."
"I don't hate you, Doctor," Sarah Jane reached for his burnt hand and held it between hers. "I just don't understand why you...didn't want me any more."
"It's been thirty years for you," he met her eyes flatly. "It's been five hundred for me. What part of that would you have lived?"
The structure remains the same, but the essence of Nine is less aloof, more direct, and as a result, the conversation is allowed to hit a different emotional tone. Subtle yet insightful, meaningful and perfect.
In Short: Vote for A Man Who Wasn't There It's a Herculean effort. And Coru has met the challenge with consistent shrewd perception into who the Ninth Doctor is, how he operates, and how his presence would have changed the landscape of the entire second season.
*
Time Out, by Cordelialear, Link goes to Teaspoon
Category: Jack Harkness
Characters: The Doctor (10th), Rose Tyler, Jack Harkness
Rating: All Ages
Details: Short ficlet - 826 words. Humour. The Doctor and Jack are captured … by children. Rose rescues them.
Why It Rocks:
Cordelialear has built quite a large body of stand alone ficlets. Each glimpse provides a tantalizing little moment in time - a snapshot of Rose and the Doctor's adventures together. The stories are filled with brimming character, a lot of warmth, humour, and always end on a twisting punch line.
Time Out is an excellent introduction to Cordelialear's own little self-made genre. It starts, right in the middle of the action, with the Doctor and Jack captured, tied up with duct tape, and bickering over a possible escape. We have no idea how they got there - we don't need to know. The setup is unimportant; what matters is the conversation happening right now. And besides, allowing your own mind to fill in the details of how these two ended up suffering this humiliating fate is a well executed device to make the story all the more fun.
Time Out has been nominated in the Jack Harkness category, so the question becomes, do you find this story to be a good, accurate depiction of Jack's voice as he appears on Doctor Who? Note, personally I believe Jack is quite a bit different on Who than he is on Torchwood, and the fact he gets his own category in this section of the awards seems to indicate I am not alone.
Here, Jack is traveling with the Tenth Doctor and Rose. Timelines and explanations would bog down the story with unnecessary detail. One can assume from the arrangement this must be post Utopia, and a reunion with Rose, which means this is an older, wiser Jack. One who has survived a couple hundred years already, and is secure in his own indestructibility.
What I like about Jack is that if anyone could ever be an equal to the Doctor, it would be him. Their lives and friendship will intertwine for centuries, and in this story, they are well on their way. Jack loves the Doctor, respects him, is happy to flirt with him, but he can also see through the bull, and is so, so, so not afraid to take the mickey when the situation calls for it.
So our two heroes are questionably restrained, down some kind of pit, and dirty laundry is being thrown at them. Rose is missing in action. The Doctor, of course, is overanalyzing and panicking, with this hilarious bit of dialogue:
"Right. We need to find out if they’ve got Rose. Judging by their expert holding facilities, and their impressive ability to wield duct-tape, I’m not sure which I’d prefer. Their lack of preparedness makes me nervous. They weren’t expecting anyone to find them, and that makes them dangerous.”
Jack's response? Sarcasm and laughter. He can see their ridiculous situation for what it is, and has full confidence their girl will come to their rescue.
When Rose appears, Jack has had enough and decides the Doctor needs a time out. He hoists the skinny alien over his shoulder in a fireman's carry, and merrily bumbles him back to the TARDIS. Just like you know Jack has been dying to do for ages.
In Short: Vote for Time Out. In under a thousand words, it describes and delivers a fully imagined capture/rescue scenario, firmly establishes the trio's dynamic, and ends with a series of hilarious images. And yes, Jack is absolutely Captain Jack Harkness, ego, sexiness, and humour and personified.
*
Blessing, and Blessing, by Cordelialear, Link goes to Teaspoon
Category: Crackfic
Characters: The Doctor (10th), Rose Tyler
Rating: All Ages
Details: One-shot.
Why It Rocks:
Oh crack fic - the lovely little genre where we take our beloved characters and exaggerate them to extremes. Place them in ridiculous situations and watch the hilarious outcomes bend where they will. A really good crack fic will also serve as a parody or spoof, either of the canon text, or a fandom cliché. It will result in a well-timed revealing zing mixed in with the laughter.
Blessing, and Blessing is a really good crack fic. It takes aim at two infamous fandom clichés at once: Rose and the Doctor locked in a prison, and aliens made them do it. Personally, I love a good sporking of these two scenarios. The first, because Rose and the Doctor were never actually imprisoned in canon, yet they seem to spend an inordinate amount of time there in fic. And the second, because, well, aliens making them do it is riddled with creepy consent issues.
The best element of Cordelialear's story is that it takes the stance that Rose and the Doctor have become aware of the bizarre behaviour of their captors. In a nice bit of breaking the fourth wall, they acknowledge that these damn aliens keep trying to make them do it, and they are as baffled as we are by the scenario. A sample:
“Have you ever noticed that we’re either being thrown in some dank, prison where the guards are overly fond of bondage, or being forced to bless some bloody temple?”
He sighed rubbing a hand over his eyes, wearily. “That does seem to be the case, now that you mention it.”
“Why?”
He looked up at her then: her gold hair was twisted elaborately up, leaving her shoulders tantalizingly bare. The gauzy, scarlet layers wrapped about her torso left little to the imagination.
“I haven’t the foggiest, and that’s saying something,” he replied.
I love the extra detail that Rose is dressed in some elaborate and suggestive attire, because of course she is. The procreation-obsessed aliens are forever dressing her up in sex-encouraging outfits. One wonders how they get her to sit still long enough to do her hair and makeup. The Doctor's blasé "got me" response to her current lack of clothing is also perfect. To such a brilliant mind, the absurd situation really just makes no sense. Why do the aliens care so much?
Unlike some crack, which drifts beyond mere exaggeration and slips into total off-canon characterization, our heroes remain recognizable in Blessing, and Blessing, a writing choice that makes the parody of the clichés much more pointed. Rose is very pragmatic about the whole sex situation, and finds a solution with the level-headed yet fun directness we expect from her. The Doctor, on the other hand, analyses the predicament, relies on his trusty sonic screwdriver, and deals with the suggestion of sex with the coughing and neck rubbing we expect from him. And neither of them even consider having sex just because the aliens want them to.
In Short: Vote for Blessing, and Blessing. The characters are true to the Doctor and Rose we know and love, keeps them recognizable, and places them in an outrageously absurd situation. It then uses these ingredients to give a hilarious poke to two fandom clichés that more than deserve the ribbing.
*
How To Stop A Party, by Cordelialear, Link goes to Teaspoon
Category: PWP
Characters: The Doctor (10.5), Rose Tyler
Rating: Adult
Details: Sexy ficlet. Humour. Rose and the Doctor hide in a kitchen closet during one of Jackie's parties.
Why It Rocks:
In her author's notes, Cordelialear claims How To Stop A Party is "…so far off from what I typically write it just met the others on its trip back." I assume she means because most of her other stories are rated all ages, and this one, well, this one decidedly is not. In every other way though, this short story matches her usual humourous voice and style.
Once again, we are launched right into the middle of the situation, with a line of dialogue that immediately sets the tone. Here, “It’s incredibly unlikely, is all I’m saying,” the Doctor said, cramming as many hors d’oeuvres into his mouth as he could manage. The half-human Doctor and Rose are trapped once again, and desperately seeking escape routes. Only this time their captors aren't sex-crazed aliens. Instead, it's Jackie Tyler, and the prison is one of her elaborate parties.
A lot of porn without plot gets weighed down with a lot of, um, plot. Or maybe it's just categorized incorrectly. It's a tough question; how much plot should a porn without plot, plot, before… Well, you get what I mean.
To my mind, Cordelialear handles the balance perfectly. The setting is craftily drawn in the first line. The Doctor and Rose are allowed to engage in just the right amount of banter to establish their relationship, and remind us why we love them together. And a sense of fun and sexy adventure is created as our two characters, as always, seek a common goal - get out. Get out as soon as possible. At all costs.
Once all those elements are in place, let the smut begin!
How To Stop A Party adds the slight kink of danger to the porny proceedings by placing the Doctor and Rose in a situation where they are likely to be caught. They find themselves unexpectedly hiding in the kitchen closet, and they can't keep their hands off each other. Well, the Doctor doesn't even try very hard, and why should he? Their sexual relationship is still excitingly new.
And what particular variety of smut do we get? Ohhhhh, one of my favourites. Rose is a delicious specimen you see, and the Doctor devours her. Slowly.
As Rose nervously listens for voices outside, the Doctor hides beneath her skirt, and tempts the knickers right off of her.
His hands, which had been softly caressing her calves and thighs while he kissed her, were once again heading north, skimming a path from her inner legs to her outer hips, where his clever fingers slid beneath the silky fabric of her knickers and began caressing the skin he found there. She was going to stop him any moment now…
As the reader, we are seduced right along with Rose, as the prose skips mischievously between the Doctor's actions, and voices getting ever closer to the door. Teasing might not be fair, but it can be wonderful. Like Rose, we ache for him to finally touch her where she wants, and are just as relieved when she reaches her climax. The signature of a good smut story is when the reader wants it just as much as the characters do, and Cordelialear pulls that off nicely.
In Short: Vote for How To Stop A Party. This is absolutely a lovely visit to the land of porn without plot, blended together with a mix of smut and fun. Most of all, this is Cordelialear's only PWP, and she needs to be encouraged to give us more!
*
When Dex Was Three, by azriona
Category: Fluff, Ficlet
Characters: The Doctor, Rose Tyler, Sarah Jane Smith, Ianto Jones, Dex Tyler
Rating: PG
Details: One-shot, kid!fic. AU following Season Two. One shot set within The Crossroads Universe, but can be read independently.
Why It Rocks:
There are two things that are very hard to do when writing fan fiction. All right, there are many things that are hard to do, but these two in particular can really grate if the author makes an attempt, and gets it wrong. These two tests are: accurately capturing the voice of a young child, and creating an original character that is just as fully fleshed out and layered as those from canon.
In When Dex Was Three, Azriona not only bravely faces these challenges, she conquers them so thoroughly, she makes it seem simple. Don't be fooled by her easy flowing prose, however, writing a story entirely from the point-of-view of a three-year-old is a very difficult task, and Azriona deserves high praise for getting it so right.
In less capable hands, human children featured in stories often turn into wise beyond their years caricatures, which either speak with a precocious vocabulary that matches the author, or coo in single syllables that are far too young. It's all in the developmental timing. A child of the Doctor's presents a further dimension of quandary: how to balance a possibly advanced Gallifreyan brain, with the inexperienced emotions of a youngster?
Azriona makes a strong choice. Dex Tyler, the three-year-old son of the Tenth Doctor and Rose, may have a wunderkind grasp of reading and writing, and be on the verge of mastering geometry and calculus, but in every way that really matters, he is endearingly normal. He loves pterodactyls and drawing with crayons, occasionally on walls; he looks forward to the day he will be old enough to marry his Aunt Sarah Jane; and he all but worships the great Ianto Jones, despite remaining desperately shy in front of him.
Best of all, Dex views the entire world in terms of how it revolves around him. When the TARDIS malfunctions, he believes he is responsible because of the wall-drawing incident, and fears being caught. While he doesn't quite believe a baby could fit in his mother's tummy, he is quite aware of how she no longer has room to cuddle him on her lap. And he resents the fact that the entire family has been grounded from time travel while they wait for this baby to arrive. To sum up, his life was perfectly fine, until a new sister is on the way, and suddenly everything is topsy turvy.
Azriona also does a wonderful job illustrating how bewildering pregnancy must be for a young child. Dex knows his parents are acting strangely, but he doesn't quite grasp why. In the middle of the story, Dex experiences a very bad day.
Mum cried, and stubbed her toe, and was so upset that Dex’s hair wouldn’t stay flat on his head that she threw the comb across the room. Dad had dark circles under his eyes, and his shirt was misbuttoned and untucked. When Dex decided to pour himself a glass of milk and ended up spilling the entire litre out on the galley floor, accidentally frying the circuits leading to the transitional crossfluxes - Dad yelled.
Dad never yelled.
But he yelled.
Ianto Jones waited for them in the little shop that posed as the Torchwood front door. Dex felt as though his father was walking him to his execution. There was every possibility that Dad would tell the great and mighty Ianto Jones of every last transgression Dex had committed over his entire lifetime, and the shame was almost too much to bear.
The passage captures Dex's love for his parents, and his confusion, again all through the lens of his innocently self-centered world view.
While the plot of the story revolves on the addition of a new baby for the family, it isn't entirely an exercise in sugary fluff; Azriona uses this insecure period for Dex to have his first experience with a rather complex emotion, loneliness.
Dex must be feeling a little lonely himself, though he doesn’t necessarily recognize the emotion in himself. He also picks up on a trace of loneliness from his father's memories, and later makes a further emotional connection when he meets a weevil who has lost her child. Through the experience Dex begins to build his sense of empathy, for his father, the weevil, and even his hero Ianto Jones. Still with a child's level of understanding, Dex begins to realize how terrible it must be to be alone and afraid, and develops a new sense of how lucky he is to have his family, and how it has room for a new baby sister, even if she is "nearly completely useless".
In short: Vote for When Dex Was Three. It is full of warmth, affection and humour. It is a glimpse into the lives of our canon characters from a completely new perspective - that of a child. It lets us inside the mind of an original character, and makes us love him. And it is one of the most engaging and loving depictions of childhood you will ever find in this, or any other, fandom.
*
Today's reviews were written by gowdie.
*
A Man Who Wasn't There , by Coru, link goes to Teaspoon
Category: WIP
Characters: The Ninth Doctor, Rose Tyler, various other characters
Rating: All Ages
Details: The episodes from Series Two, staring Nine, instead of Ten. Approximately 13 episodes and TARDISsodes, around one or two chapters apiece. Last episode posted February 2009.
Why It Rocks:
A Man Who Wasn't There is a very long series, so get a nice cup of tea, a few biscuits, and settle in for a good read. It is also a work in progress, and nominated in that category, so be sure to check back in for more updates.
Coru's saga seems to operate on a simple premise; the Ninth Doctor never regenerated at the end of Parting Of The Ways. And she retells each episode, in order, with Nine adventuring with Rose Tyler, instead of Ten. The set up may be simple, however, the execution is everything but.
This series, in the hands of a different author, could be excruciatingly boring. We, the audience, obviously already know what happens. And it's easy to imagine a fan fiction using this scenario, but only switching out Ten's babble for Nine's clipped sarcasm. Fortunately, Coru treats us to something much more complex and character driven.
While he remains the same man at his core, the Ninth Doctor operates differently than the Tenth. The impulses he gives into are different, and the words he uses are most definitely different. Coru's stories are fascinating because while they maintain enough of the original structure to be familiar, they explore how subtle choices can impact the other characters, and change the overall narrative.
Coru's choices start small. In New Earth, something as tiny as the Doctor holding the elevator for Rose forces Cassandra to change her plans, which ends in dire consequences for our villain. Nine also retains a bit of his darkness, more edge, and as a result, less sympathy and a more brutal solution. I also love the tiny detail that he doesn't let Rose sit on his leather jacket.
In School Reunion, Rose and Sarah Jane still react to each other with jealousy, but it's fun to watch how Nine's calm and annoyed eye rolling acts to diffuse the situation so much more deftly than Ten's neck rubbing befuddlement did. Through a tiny change, large portions of Girl In The Fireplace are completely rewritten. While the Doctor still spends his time with the adult Reinette, Rose remains on the spaceship with the younger version. The addition of the child, and a special guest appearance, make this episode especially memorable.
But my absolute favourite, is the Rise of the Cyberman/Age of Steel two-parter. Rather than attending the party as servants, the Doctor and Rose pass themselves off as guests, and the results are remarkable. This simple change allows Rose to speak to this universe's Jackie as an equal, instead of a subservient. I applaud Coru for having this insight, and allowing the story to adapt in a wonderful way. Needless to say, the choices have become even braver, and the impact starts to affect the overall narrative of the season's arc. I don't want to reveal too much, but considering a few of the character decisions that have been made so far, I very much look forward to where Coru will take us in the future.
And then, AND THEN, in between each episode, Coru also gives us a fun little Tardisode. These are short stories, set in the vortex, as the Doctor and Rose rest between adventures. While the main parts of the series move the plot along, these Tardisodes let us watch the relationship between our characters gradually shift from one of friendship to romance. Filled with warmth and humour, these slice of Tardis-life moments build with a delicious slow burn.
Oh, and on top of all that, Nine's dialogue is always spot on and brilliant. An excerpt between him and Sarah Jane in School Reunion:
"I tried so hard to get close after that crash last spring," Sarah Jane was laughing as the Doctor tinkered with K-9. "And then everyone decided it was a hoax, after days of proclaiming it the first contact! First, more like four hundred and thirty-seventh."
"Wasn't a crash," the Doctor corrected, tugging out a long tangle of wires and adjusting - with much sparking - their connections. "Just a bit of capitalism gone bad. Sorted out all right, had more trouble with Mickey over there than the aliens. Did have a good time locked in the cabinet room with Harriet Jones, but that was really a side note."
Sarah Jane shook her head, a slight smile on her face. "Then," she paused, glancing past him to the younger pair across the restaurant. "Rose was...?"
"She was there too," he nodded, jerking his hand away from a particularly nasty spark and shoving it in his mouth momentarily. He let out a breath and stared hard at the table. "You're allowed to be angry, Sarah Jane. Hate me even, if it helps."
"I don't hate you, Doctor," Sarah Jane reached for his burnt hand and held it between hers. "I just don't understand why you...didn't want me any more."
"It's been thirty years for you," he met her eyes flatly. "It's been five hundred for me. What part of that would you have lived?"
The structure remains the same, but the essence of Nine is less aloof, more direct, and as a result, the conversation is allowed to hit a different emotional tone. Subtle yet insightful, meaningful and perfect.
In Short: Vote for A Man Who Wasn't There It's a Herculean effort. And Coru has met the challenge with consistent shrewd perception into who the Ninth Doctor is, how he operates, and how his presence would have changed the landscape of the entire second season.
*
Time Out, by Cordelialear, Link goes to Teaspoon
Category: Jack Harkness
Characters: The Doctor (10th), Rose Tyler, Jack Harkness
Rating: All Ages
Details: Short ficlet - 826 words. Humour. The Doctor and Jack are captured … by children. Rose rescues them.
Why It Rocks:
Cordelialear has built quite a large body of stand alone ficlets. Each glimpse provides a tantalizing little moment in time - a snapshot of Rose and the Doctor's adventures together. The stories are filled with brimming character, a lot of warmth, humour, and always end on a twisting punch line.
Time Out is an excellent introduction to Cordelialear's own little self-made genre. It starts, right in the middle of the action, with the Doctor and Jack captured, tied up with duct tape, and bickering over a possible escape. We have no idea how they got there - we don't need to know. The setup is unimportant; what matters is the conversation happening right now. And besides, allowing your own mind to fill in the details of how these two ended up suffering this humiliating fate is a well executed device to make the story all the more fun.
Time Out has been nominated in the Jack Harkness category, so the question becomes, do you find this story to be a good, accurate depiction of Jack's voice as he appears on Doctor Who? Note, personally I believe Jack is quite a bit different on Who than he is on Torchwood, and the fact he gets his own category in this section of the awards seems to indicate I am not alone.
Here, Jack is traveling with the Tenth Doctor and Rose. Timelines and explanations would bog down the story with unnecessary detail. One can assume from the arrangement this must be post Utopia, and a reunion with Rose, which means this is an older, wiser Jack. One who has survived a couple hundred years already, and is secure in his own indestructibility.
What I like about Jack is that if anyone could ever be an equal to the Doctor, it would be him. Their lives and friendship will intertwine for centuries, and in this story, they are well on their way. Jack loves the Doctor, respects him, is happy to flirt with him, but he can also see through the bull, and is so, so, so not afraid to take the mickey when the situation calls for it.
So our two heroes are questionably restrained, down some kind of pit, and dirty laundry is being thrown at them. Rose is missing in action. The Doctor, of course, is overanalyzing and panicking, with this hilarious bit of dialogue:
"Right. We need to find out if they’ve got Rose. Judging by their expert holding facilities, and their impressive ability to wield duct-tape, I’m not sure which I’d prefer. Their lack of preparedness makes me nervous. They weren’t expecting anyone to find them, and that makes them dangerous.”
Jack's response? Sarcasm and laughter. He can see their ridiculous situation for what it is, and has full confidence their girl will come to their rescue.
When Rose appears, Jack has had enough and decides the Doctor needs a time out. He hoists the skinny alien over his shoulder in a fireman's carry, and merrily bumbles him back to the TARDIS. Just like you know Jack has been dying to do for ages.
In Short: Vote for Time Out. In under a thousand words, it describes and delivers a fully imagined capture/rescue scenario, firmly establishes the trio's dynamic, and ends with a series of hilarious images. And yes, Jack is absolutely Captain Jack Harkness, ego, sexiness, and humour and personified.
*
Blessing, and Blessing, by Cordelialear, Link goes to Teaspoon
Category: Crackfic
Characters: The Doctor (10th), Rose Tyler
Rating: All Ages
Details: One-shot.
Why It Rocks:
Oh crack fic - the lovely little genre where we take our beloved characters and exaggerate them to extremes. Place them in ridiculous situations and watch the hilarious outcomes bend where they will. A really good crack fic will also serve as a parody or spoof, either of the canon text, or a fandom cliché. It will result in a well-timed revealing zing mixed in with the laughter.
Blessing, and Blessing is a really good crack fic. It takes aim at two infamous fandom clichés at once: Rose and the Doctor locked in a prison, and aliens made them do it. Personally, I love a good sporking of these two scenarios. The first, because Rose and the Doctor were never actually imprisoned in canon, yet they seem to spend an inordinate amount of time there in fic. And the second, because, well, aliens making them do it is riddled with creepy consent issues.
The best element of Cordelialear's story is that it takes the stance that Rose and the Doctor have become aware of the bizarre behaviour of their captors. In a nice bit of breaking the fourth wall, they acknowledge that these damn aliens keep trying to make them do it, and they are as baffled as we are by the scenario. A sample:
“Have you ever noticed that we’re either being thrown in some dank, prison where the guards are overly fond of bondage, or being forced to bless some bloody temple?”
He sighed rubbing a hand over his eyes, wearily. “That does seem to be the case, now that you mention it.”
“Why?”
He looked up at her then: her gold hair was twisted elaborately up, leaving her shoulders tantalizingly bare. The gauzy, scarlet layers wrapped about her torso left little to the imagination.
“I haven’t the foggiest, and that’s saying something,” he replied.
I love the extra detail that Rose is dressed in some elaborate and suggestive attire, because of course she is. The procreation-obsessed aliens are forever dressing her up in sex-encouraging outfits. One wonders how they get her to sit still long enough to do her hair and makeup. The Doctor's blasé "got me" response to her current lack of clothing is also perfect. To such a brilliant mind, the absurd situation really just makes no sense. Why do the aliens care so much?
Unlike some crack, which drifts beyond mere exaggeration and slips into total off-canon characterization, our heroes remain recognizable in Blessing, and Blessing, a writing choice that makes the parody of the clichés much more pointed. Rose is very pragmatic about the whole sex situation, and finds a solution with the level-headed yet fun directness we expect from her. The Doctor, on the other hand, analyses the predicament, relies on his trusty sonic screwdriver, and deals with the suggestion of sex with the coughing and neck rubbing we expect from him. And neither of them even consider having sex just because the aliens want them to.
In Short: Vote for Blessing, and Blessing. The characters are true to the Doctor and Rose we know and love, keeps them recognizable, and places them in an outrageously absurd situation. It then uses these ingredients to give a hilarious poke to two fandom clichés that more than deserve the ribbing.
*
How To Stop A Party, by Cordelialear, Link goes to Teaspoon
Category: PWP
Characters: The Doctor (10.5), Rose Tyler
Rating: Adult
Details: Sexy ficlet. Humour. Rose and the Doctor hide in a kitchen closet during one of Jackie's parties.
Why It Rocks:
In her author's notes, Cordelialear claims How To Stop A Party is "…so far off from what I typically write it just met the others on its trip back." I assume she means because most of her other stories are rated all ages, and this one, well, this one decidedly is not. In every other way though, this short story matches her usual humourous voice and style.
Once again, we are launched right into the middle of the situation, with a line of dialogue that immediately sets the tone. Here, “It’s incredibly unlikely, is all I’m saying,” the Doctor said, cramming as many hors d’oeuvres into his mouth as he could manage. The half-human Doctor and Rose are trapped once again, and desperately seeking escape routes. Only this time their captors aren't sex-crazed aliens. Instead, it's Jackie Tyler, and the prison is one of her elaborate parties.
A lot of porn without plot gets weighed down with a lot of, um, plot. Or maybe it's just categorized incorrectly. It's a tough question; how much plot should a porn without plot, plot, before… Well, you get what I mean.
To my mind, Cordelialear handles the balance perfectly. The setting is craftily drawn in the first line. The Doctor and Rose are allowed to engage in just the right amount of banter to establish their relationship, and remind us why we love them together. And a sense of fun and sexy adventure is created as our two characters, as always, seek a common goal - get out. Get out as soon as possible. At all costs.
Once all those elements are in place, let the smut begin!
How To Stop A Party adds the slight kink of danger to the porny proceedings by placing the Doctor and Rose in a situation where they are likely to be caught. They find themselves unexpectedly hiding in the kitchen closet, and they can't keep their hands off each other. Well, the Doctor doesn't even try very hard, and why should he? Their sexual relationship is still excitingly new.
And what particular variety of smut do we get? Ohhhhh, one of my favourites. Rose is a delicious specimen you see, and the Doctor devours her. Slowly.
As Rose nervously listens for voices outside, the Doctor hides beneath her skirt, and tempts the knickers right off of her.
His hands, which had been softly caressing her calves and thighs while he kissed her, were once again heading north, skimming a path from her inner legs to her outer hips, where his clever fingers slid beneath the silky fabric of her knickers and began caressing the skin he found there. She was going to stop him any moment now…
As the reader, we are seduced right along with Rose, as the prose skips mischievously between the Doctor's actions, and voices getting ever closer to the door. Teasing might not be fair, but it can be wonderful. Like Rose, we ache for him to finally touch her where she wants, and are just as relieved when she reaches her climax. The signature of a good smut story is when the reader wants it just as much as the characters do, and Cordelialear pulls that off nicely.
In Short: Vote for How To Stop A Party. This is absolutely a lovely visit to the land of porn without plot, blended together with a mix of smut and fun. Most of all, this is Cordelialear's only PWP, and she needs to be encouraged to give us more!
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When Dex Was Three, by azriona
Category: Fluff, Ficlet
Characters: The Doctor, Rose Tyler, Sarah Jane Smith, Ianto Jones, Dex Tyler
Rating: PG
Details: One-shot, kid!fic. AU following Season Two. One shot set within The Crossroads Universe, but can be read independently.
Why It Rocks:
There are two things that are very hard to do when writing fan fiction. All right, there are many things that are hard to do, but these two in particular can really grate if the author makes an attempt, and gets it wrong. These two tests are: accurately capturing the voice of a young child, and creating an original character that is just as fully fleshed out and layered as those from canon.
In When Dex Was Three, Azriona not only bravely faces these challenges, she conquers them so thoroughly, she makes it seem simple. Don't be fooled by her easy flowing prose, however, writing a story entirely from the point-of-view of a three-year-old is a very difficult task, and Azriona deserves high praise for getting it so right.
In less capable hands, human children featured in stories often turn into wise beyond their years caricatures, which either speak with a precocious vocabulary that matches the author, or coo in single syllables that are far too young. It's all in the developmental timing. A child of the Doctor's presents a further dimension of quandary: how to balance a possibly advanced Gallifreyan brain, with the inexperienced emotions of a youngster?
Azriona makes a strong choice. Dex Tyler, the three-year-old son of the Tenth Doctor and Rose, may have a wunderkind grasp of reading and writing, and be on the verge of mastering geometry and calculus, but in every way that really matters, he is endearingly normal. He loves pterodactyls and drawing with crayons, occasionally on walls; he looks forward to the day he will be old enough to marry his Aunt Sarah Jane; and he all but worships the great Ianto Jones, despite remaining desperately shy in front of him.
Best of all, Dex views the entire world in terms of how it revolves around him. When the TARDIS malfunctions, he believes he is responsible because of the wall-drawing incident, and fears being caught. While he doesn't quite believe a baby could fit in his mother's tummy, he is quite aware of how she no longer has room to cuddle him on her lap. And he resents the fact that the entire family has been grounded from time travel while they wait for this baby to arrive. To sum up, his life was perfectly fine, until a new sister is on the way, and suddenly everything is topsy turvy.
Azriona also does a wonderful job illustrating how bewildering pregnancy must be for a young child. Dex knows his parents are acting strangely, but he doesn't quite grasp why. In the middle of the story, Dex experiences a very bad day.
Mum cried, and stubbed her toe, and was so upset that Dex’s hair wouldn’t stay flat on his head that she threw the comb across the room. Dad had dark circles under his eyes, and his shirt was misbuttoned and untucked. When Dex decided to pour himself a glass of milk and ended up spilling the entire litre out on the galley floor, accidentally frying the circuits leading to the transitional crossfluxes - Dad yelled.
Dad never yelled.
But he yelled.
Ianto Jones waited for them in the little shop that posed as the Torchwood front door. Dex felt as though his father was walking him to his execution. There was every possibility that Dad would tell the great and mighty Ianto Jones of every last transgression Dex had committed over his entire lifetime, and the shame was almost too much to bear.
The passage captures Dex's love for his parents, and his confusion, again all through the lens of his innocently self-centered world view.
While the plot of the story revolves on the addition of a new baby for the family, it isn't entirely an exercise in sugary fluff; Azriona uses this insecure period for Dex to have his first experience with a rather complex emotion, loneliness.
Dex must be feeling a little lonely himself, though he doesn’t necessarily recognize the emotion in himself. He also picks up on a trace of loneliness from his father's memories, and later makes a further emotional connection when he meets a weevil who has lost her child. Through the experience Dex begins to build his sense of empathy, for his father, the weevil, and even his hero Ianto Jones. Still with a child's level of understanding, Dex begins to realize how terrible it must be to be alone and afraid, and develops a new sense of how lucky he is to have his family, and how it has room for a new baby sister, even if she is "nearly completely useless".
In short: Vote for When Dex Was Three. It is full of warmth, affection and humour. It is a glimpse into the lives of our canon characters from a completely new perspective - that of a child. It lets us inside the mind of an original character, and makes us love him. And it is one of the most engaging and loving depictions of childhood you will ever find in this, or any other, fandom.
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Today's reviews were written by gowdie.