Zombie Who
I am painstakingly retyping this, since LJ doesn't want me to copy and paste and make my life easier.
I don't know if it's because I read too much paranormal fiction, of it it's because of the recent SFX art context, or the artwork I have found, or if I should blame it on the odd mix of DW and zombie stuff I got for Christmas, but I have the craving to do a massive Doctor Who zombie epic. Now, this isn't unusual; I already have plans for a smaller-scale zombie story, a werewolf story, and a vamire story (basically, I'm playing paranormal bingo here), but this epic is a new idea.
What I want to do is an AU (obviously) that spans all eras, many planets and alien species, all Doctors, and several companions. I have a rough storyline set for most of the Doctors, an I was thinking of dividing it into three parallel stories: the core story, which follows the Doctor, a story composed of vignettes told from the POV of companions, similar to World War Z by Max Brooks (this would be awesome if I had other writers involved) and a story about how this all affects Ten-II in Pete's World (this story is called Dead Man's Hand. That's non-negotiable. I don't know what I want to call the other two stories, or the overall series.)
The basic concept is that the First Doctor is infected, becomes a zombie, rampages, etc. Then his body hits a point where it's too damaged/decayed to go on, and he regenerates. At first, the Second Doctor seems to be fine, until his body starts to decay. From that point on, we discover that the Doctor, after regeneration, will seem normal at first, but gradually falls apart as time goes on. Once he hits a terminal phase, he becomes a full zombie, and the cycle continues. I'm trying to decide if this is purely AU, or if there's a paradoxical event caused by something a later Doctor did that results in One's infection, which then spreads through the rest of the Doctors. This would make poor Ten-II's story more horrifying, I think, as he experiences the changing memories. But... I don't know yet.
Anyway, here's an outline of what I have so far:
One - Becomes infected, wreaks havoc. I'm still not sure about the circumstances behind this.
Two - Believes that his regeneration cured him, and goes on as he normall would. Then he slowly succumbs to the change, eventually resulting in a violent finale. The Time Lords don't realize his condition carries over, so once he regenerates, the exile him to Earth without another thought.
Three - He's now aware there's something wrong with him, and works with UNIT's technology to find a cure. He fails. The end result is the First Zombie War.
Four - The Time Lords are now aware there's something terribly wrong with him, and assign Romana to study him, either to find a cure, or to kill him.
Five - Not sure yet
Six - Not sure yet
Seven - Not sure yet
Eight - The Time War. The Time Lords have come up with something that can help the Doctor hold back the terminal phase, and offer to give it to him - if he fights the Daleks. Stuff happens, the Doctor can't get to the inhibitor, and he later storms Gallifrey with a bunch of zombie Daleks. Because dammit, I want zombie Daleks.
Nine - Unlike any of the other Doctors, he doesn't live long enough to reach the terminal phase. And I want the Bad Wolf energy to have some sort of effect on him when he regenerates, but I don't know what.
Ten - I don't know how yet, but he's going to cause the Second Zombie War.
Eleven - When he crashes into Amelia's garden shed, he's already close to the terminal phase - it's happening more quickly with every regeneration. He tries to help Amelia, but he bites her in the process. Since he's not fully changed yet, she doesn't turn, but it makes her sickly as a child and, later, immune to the infection.
Somewhere in the Five-Six-Seven era, I want zombie Cybermen. And whole planetary systems falling to zombies. And a zombie!Master. And I need to think of reasons that the Doctor would continue picking up companions, knowing what's going to happen to him.
This is a scary epic project, and it would take a lot of work. But it could be fun, if I could work out the kinks and figure out waht I want to do and how to end it. Feedback is welcome and encouraged!