8th December
We're a week into this re-visit and I hope everyone's enjoying being reminded of this year's highlights. Most fanfic writers on LJ seem to be knee-deep in challenges right now, so take this as encouragement - all the people here completed at least 20,000 words. They did it!
Fancy having a go yourself? Watch this space...
Two Smiths by Pete Galey. Art by M_Alodel and Unithien_Rerith
Title: Two Smiths
Author: peeeeeeet
Fandom: Old Who, New Adventures (Virgin)
Characters/Pairings: The seventh Doctor, Bernice Summerfield, The tenth Doctor, Martha Jones, and sundry folk from both versions of Human Nature
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 37,426
Betas: Lurky McLurklurk. With thanks to Calapine for some random ideas
Summary: The tenth Doctor became human to hide from the Family of Blood in a sleepy town on the eve of the Great War. But both he and they are surprised when a second John Smith turns up, looking uncannily like the Doctor's seventh incarnation.
Notes from the Author
Ah, Two Smiths. What a funny little story. The idea first came to me while reading this LJ post of Calapine's:
http://calapine.livejournal.com/420443.html
When I was first thinking about putting Dr Smith from the New Adventures novel Human Nature and Mr Smith from the new series serial "Human Nature" / "The Family of Blood" in one story, I envisaged it as a sort of screwball comedy of errors, with Smith-Ten and Smith-Seven trying to outdo each other in their rivalry for Joan; and then proceeded to write nothing of the sort. Instead it became a vehicle for an outpouring of the bits of quasi-mythic personal canon I'd had running round my head for about ten years. The opening of the story, up until Dean wakes up, is exactly how I'd have wanted to open the new series if I'd been showrunner. Later in the season you'd have got the wakes-up-in-his-own-head-and-meets-Tom-Baker chapter. That's why, unlike in Timewyrm: Revelation, which introduced the idea of past incarnations living on in a mental landscape, the descriptions of Numbers Four and Six more closely resemble how the actors look these days, compared to the Doctors they played; and why later on, Four obliquely refers to the first three having faded away like ghosts. At the end of the season there'd have been a big Gallifrey story, with the melody/harmony motif and the eighties-comic-strip cosmic craziness of the legends and the twin suns. Obviously I didn't come up with the untempered schism, but was delighted how neatly it fit in. As I was writing, I was pleased with other bits of synchronicity, most notably the parallels between the two wars coming over the horizon - one universe-shattering, one all too human. As a result, Latimer's "an invention for a future war" is probably my favourite line in the story.
Do I think it stands up, several months on? Well, on rereading it I was pleased that the plot seems just about to hold together, though Laylock just sort of disappears; there's no explanation for how the non-corporeal family made soup out of Baines (lets say it was something to do with scarecrows); and the most blatant cock-up, that Rocastle has two awkward conversations one morning but one of them in the afternoon, just shows that I don't concentrate as hard during a second draft as I do during a first. The prose is a bit choppy and reveals that I hadn't written anything approaching this length for a little over two years; some of the descriptive passages work hard rather than smart; and everyone seems to have only two facial expressions, as if they're all being played by Roger Moore. Occasionally there's a feeling that it's the author rather than the characters who doesn't know what to do next. But the dialogue is mostly good, no one is ever massively out of character, and there's lots going on. The epilogue is strong enough on its own that I've pulled out several threads from it for an original project I'm working on, while the wealth of possibilities suggested by the Doctor's mental landscape has led to my being forty thousand words into another story investigating them. While it may not always be easy to reconcile the world of the New Adventures with the new series, any attempt to do so creates all sorts of new ideas and avenues to explore.
The story stands in awkward relation to the novel and TV serial. It's not a third version of Human Nature, but it does have equivalents of the big set pieces, particularly the ones I felt were missing from the truncated TV adaptation: Smith's thoroughly modern history lesson becomes a lecture on evolution, several chapters before the Daleks implicitly embody intelligent design; Bernice meets someone claiming to be the tenth Doctor (a scene which seemed such a gift it was a deciding factor in my choosing to write the story); and perhaps the most unfortunate omission from the TV version - the bullying of a child going fatally wrong, only to be redeemed by the aura of Time Lord magic. And then at the end of writing the first draft, stuck for a suitably fresh setting for the final scene in which we see both Tims together as old men, Calapine said, "someone should write about the church in Cheldon Bonniface" (http://calapine.livejournal.com/467065.html), helping bookend the story and make Two Smiths a more general celebration of Paul Cornell's contribution to the mythos of Doctor Who.
If you enjoy Two Smiths, there are two bonuses that might interest you. One is a prelude I wrote to accompany it. I resisted using it to open the story directly because it gives too many clues as to what might be going on, though it does give the story a better shape, and puts another bit of personal myth out there:
Two Smiths - Prelude http://peeeeeeet.livejournal.com/396574.html
The other is a story I wrote more recently that also tries to reconcile the two versions of Human Nature, taking a completely different approach. I'm not sure which is my favourite of the two, but this one certainly has the advantage of being over thirty-five thousand words shorter. Mainly it hints that you could have a successful version of Human Nature for just about any Doctor, each speaking to that incarnation's unique need for a connection to humanity. I think I'd like to see the eighth Smith the most. Or how about the Doctor-Donna's?
"Second Nature" http://peeeeeeet.livejournal.com/416219.html
What others said:
"My brain hurts, but in a good way, like after watching the Usual Suspects or Memento for the first time…"
"I really liked this. Not only was it well-written and interesting, but I also liked how you married the two Human Natures up..."
"…It is, ultimately, a story about Doctor Who in a way that few are…He nails Seven and Ten in both their Time Lord and human forms (and without spoiling it, there's an absolutely brilliant bit towards the end that would fall completely flat without him having them spot on) and the supporting cast are all well done too... [from ionlylurkhere's rec]
Read all comments here WARNING! Comments may contain spoilers for the story.
And remember, it's never too late to tell the author you liked it!
Art is by m_alodel and unithien_rerith. Click the thumbnails to comment to them.
Fancy having a go yourself? Watch this space...
Two Smiths by Pete Galey. Art by M_Alodel and Unithien_Rerith
Title: Two Smiths
Author: peeeeeeet
Fandom: Old Who, New Adventures (Virgin)
Characters/Pairings: The seventh Doctor, Bernice Summerfield, The tenth Doctor, Martha Jones, and sundry folk from both versions of Human Nature
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 37,426
Betas: Lurky McLurklurk. With thanks to Calapine for some random ideas
Summary: The tenth Doctor became human to hide from the Family of Blood in a sleepy town on the eve of the Great War. But both he and they are surprised when a second John Smith turns up, looking uncannily like the Doctor's seventh incarnation.
Notes from the Author
Ah, Two Smiths. What a funny little story. The idea first came to me while reading this LJ post of Calapine's:
http://calapine.livejournal.com/420443.html
When I was first thinking about putting Dr Smith from the New Adventures novel Human Nature and Mr Smith from the new series serial "Human Nature" / "The Family of Blood" in one story, I envisaged it as a sort of screwball comedy of errors, with Smith-Ten and Smith-Seven trying to outdo each other in their rivalry for Joan; and then proceeded to write nothing of the sort. Instead it became a vehicle for an outpouring of the bits of quasi-mythic personal canon I'd had running round my head for about ten years. The opening of the story, up until Dean wakes up, is exactly how I'd have wanted to open the new series if I'd been showrunner. Later in the season you'd have got the wakes-up-in-his-own-head-and-meets-Tom-Baker chapter. That's why, unlike in Timewyrm: Revelation, which introduced the idea of past incarnations living on in a mental landscape, the descriptions of Numbers Four and Six more closely resemble how the actors look these days, compared to the Doctors they played; and why later on, Four obliquely refers to the first three having faded away like ghosts. At the end of the season there'd have been a big Gallifrey story, with the melody/harmony motif and the eighties-comic-strip cosmic craziness of the legends and the twin suns. Obviously I didn't come up with the untempered schism, but was delighted how neatly it fit in. As I was writing, I was pleased with other bits of synchronicity, most notably the parallels between the two wars coming over the horizon - one universe-shattering, one all too human. As a result, Latimer's "an invention for a future war" is probably my favourite line in the story.
Do I think it stands up, several months on? Well, on rereading it I was pleased that the plot seems just about to hold together, though Laylock just sort of disappears; there's no explanation for how the non-corporeal family made soup out of Baines (lets say it was something to do with scarecrows); and the most blatant cock-up, that Rocastle has two awkward conversations one morning but one of them in the afternoon, just shows that I don't concentrate as hard during a second draft as I do during a first. The prose is a bit choppy and reveals that I hadn't written anything approaching this length for a little over two years; some of the descriptive passages work hard rather than smart; and everyone seems to have only two facial expressions, as if they're all being played by Roger Moore. Occasionally there's a feeling that it's the author rather than the characters who doesn't know what to do next. But the dialogue is mostly good, no one is ever massively out of character, and there's lots going on. The epilogue is strong enough on its own that I've pulled out several threads from it for an original project I'm working on, while the wealth of possibilities suggested by the Doctor's mental landscape has led to my being forty thousand words into another story investigating them. While it may not always be easy to reconcile the world of the New Adventures with the new series, any attempt to do so creates all sorts of new ideas and avenues to explore.
The story stands in awkward relation to the novel and TV serial. It's not a third version of Human Nature, but it does have equivalents of the big set pieces, particularly the ones I felt were missing from the truncated TV adaptation: Smith's thoroughly modern history lesson becomes a lecture on evolution, several chapters before the Daleks implicitly embody intelligent design; Bernice meets someone claiming to be the tenth Doctor (a scene which seemed such a gift it was a deciding factor in my choosing to write the story); and perhaps the most unfortunate omission from the TV version - the bullying of a child going fatally wrong, only to be redeemed by the aura of Time Lord magic. And then at the end of writing the first draft, stuck for a suitably fresh setting for the final scene in which we see both Tims together as old men, Calapine said, "someone should write about the church in Cheldon Bonniface" (http://calapine.livejournal.com/467065.html), helping bookend the story and make Two Smiths a more general celebration of Paul Cornell's contribution to the mythos of Doctor Who.
If you enjoy Two Smiths, there are two bonuses that might interest you. One is a prelude I wrote to accompany it. I resisted using it to open the story directly because it gives too many clues as to what might be going on, though it does give the story a better shape, and puts another bit of personal myth out there:
Two Smiths - Prelude http://peeeeeeet.livejournal.com/396574.html
The other is a story I wrote more recently that also tries to reconcile the two versions of Human Nature, taking a completely different approach. I'm not sure which is my favourite of the two, but this one certainly has the advantage of being over thirty-five thousand words shorter. Mainly it hints that you could have a successful version of Human Nature for just about any Doctor, each speaking to that incarnation's unique need for a connection to humanity. I think I'd like to see the eighth Smith the most. Or how about the Doctor-Donna's?
"Second Nature" http://peeeeeeet.livejournal.com/416219.html
What others said:
"My brain hurts, but in a good way, like after watching the Usual Suspects or Memento for the first time…"
"I really liked this. Not only was it well-written and interesting, but I also liked how you married the two Human Natures up..."
"…It is, ultimately, a story about Doctor Who in a way that few are…He nails Seven and Ten in both their Time Lord and human forms (and without spoiling it, there's an absolutely brilliant bit towards the end that would fall completely flat without him having them spot on) and the supporting cast are all well done too... [from ionlylurkhere's rec]
Read all comments here WARNING! Comments may contain spoilers for the story.
And remember, it's never too late to tell the author you liked it!
Art is by m_alodel and unithien_rerith. Click the thumbnails to comment to them.