DONNAAAAAAAAA!
1. Close Call by Shining_moment
Donna is injured, the Doctor is frantic, commas are missing. Grammar lesson time! In dialogue, a person's name should be preceeded by a comma. For example: "“Another close one, Donna!", NOT "“Another close one Donna!"
Furthermore, a new speaker's dialogue should begin with a capital letter, even if it doesn't make the beginning of a sentence, and "Time Lord" is two words. Two.
In short: good dialogue marred by very basic writing errors.
2. Anchor by Time_converges
This is very cute. It's also very short, so there's not much more to say, except -- once again -- TIME. LORD. Not "timelord".
3. Memory Lapse by Calapine (Carmen Sandiego)
This fic is fabulous -- a post-"Journey's End" ensemble piece in which life goes on (unless you're a jellyfish) while the Doctor's friends try to figure out a way to help Donna, and Donna figures out a way to help herself. There are a few stray clunky lines, but Calapine captures the best of every character, and "Time Lord" is two words. (Yes, I'm going on about it. It's a Thing.) And the ending is heartbreaking, and so much better than a mere fix-it.
4. Six Impossible Things by Netgirl_y2k
I'm in favour of Donna/Romana on principle, but this is slightly marred by an occasional absence of commas. Very cute, though, and funny, and quite in character. Just, commas!
5. How The Winds Are Laughing by Kathryn Andersen
A complex and satisfying "Journey's End" fix-it. Marred by the occasional bit of clunky dialogue, but all the commas are in the right places, and the characterisation feels true.
6. Floating by Woffproff
This is an unspeakably lovely story. Donna and the Doctor are in character, the dialogue crackles, and the concept is clever. A+ WOULD READ AGAIN.
7. Nine Ways Donna Noble Had A Fabulous Life by Butterflykiki
I wanted to love this fic, which does exactly what it says on the tin. (Query: when did "Five Things" stop being enough?) Unfortunately, a lot of the scenarios don't feel remotely true to Donna's character, despite the accurate tone and good dialogue. Donna going into parliament is just about plausible, but winning the Nobel Peace Prize or devising her own comedy show and being interviewed by Stephen Fry is less convincing. Also, useful fact: "retcon" only has one 'n'.
8. Operation Awesome by Neadods
I'm quite torn about this story. The second half is wonderful, clever and heartbreaking. The first half is full of fanon cliches -- the Doctor's companions band together! And unearth the companions of the UNIT years! Because one of their number has a problem, and they need to set the Doctor straight! It's a wonderful idea, but it's been done so many times before that the effect is somewhat diluted. And then there's this line: 'Inside the blue box, long legs squirm for purchase, pushing a body deeper under the console while sparks fly.' I had to read it several times, before I figured out that the legs were attached to the body, and this wasn't some kind of bizarre sex/body disposal ritual. The second half is brilliant; it's a shame the build-up is so underwhelming.
9. All In a Day's Work by Miss_baxter
Charming fic in which Donna (between "The Runaway Bride" and "Partners in Crime") saves the world from Vogons. It's clever, in-character, everything is spelled properly and the commas are all in their appropriate places. Which, as you'll have seen, is no faint praise for this category.
10. Used To Be Brilliant by dark_aegis (Gillian Taylor)
I am a bit puzzled by this story; it opens with Donna musing on the strangeness of London, as if she didn't grow up there. Otherwise, the story is about the Ninth Doctor fixing the metacrisis; it's not bad, but unremarkable.
11. The New Adventures of Supertemp by Athousandwinds
Another story about Donna having a fantastic human life. It's a wonderful idea, but they're all sort of blurring together. Is it plausible that Donna can temp at a library, memorise the Dewey Decimal System, and yet has never had a library card? Anyway, this is competent, there's yet another ex-companion cameo, I liked it better when I first read it, when it wasn't one in a long line of interchangable Donna fics.
12. The Taste of Ash Still Lingers by Marcasite
This story opens with Evanescence lyrics, which is never a promising sign, but this isn't as terrible as that would suggest. True, Martha is described as having "hair the colour of midnight and cocoa-coloured skin", and Donna encounters Lee in the present-day, when he was from the future. But it's not a bad fic, merely unremarkable.
13. Doors We Never Opened by the_magpye
Tiny white text on a black background means that I have a headache even before I manage to find the first chapter and convert it to ?style=mine, and then the paragraphs only have single line breaks, which makes them extremely difficult to read on a screen. Anyway, Donna gets a job working for Rose Tyler, which promises an interesting plottish twist, and then meets Lee (see objections from the previous fic). The dialogue is inconsistently phonetic, and the plot is less compelling than the set up would promise.
OVERALL... The mediocrity of this category was incredibly disappointing. "Journey's End" fix-its rapidly became generic and dull, and the consistent canon!fail in making Lee a contemporary 21st century character was very strange. The standouts are the fics that aren't fix-its, like "All In a Day's Work", and the fix-its that do something different, like "Memory Lapse".
Donna is injured, the Doctor is frantic, commas are missing. Grammar lesson time! In dialogue, a person's name should be preceeded by a comma. For example: "“Another close one, Donna!", NOT "“Another close one Donna!"
Furthermore, a new speaker's dialogue should begin with a capital letter, even if it doesn't make the beginning of a sentence, and "Time Lord" is two words. Two.
In short: good dialogue marred by very basic writing errors.
2. Anchor by Time_converges
This is very cute. It's also very short, so there's not much more to say, except -- once again -- TIME. LORD. Not "timelord".
3. Memory Lapse by Calapine (Carmen Sandiego)
This fic is fabulous -- a post-"Journey's End" ensemble piece in which life goes on (unless you're a jellyfish) while the Doctor's friends try to figure out a way to help Donna, and Donna figures out a way to help herself. There are a few stray clunky lines, but Calapine captures the best of every character, and "Time Lord" is two words. (Yes, I'm going on about it. It's a Thing.) And the ending is heartbreaking, and so much better than a mere fix-it.
4. Six Impossible Things by Netgirl_y2k
I'm in favour of Donna/Romana on principle, but this is slightly marred by an occasional absence of commas. Very cute, though, and funny, and quite in character. Just, commas!
5. How The Winds Are Laughing by Kathryn Andersen
A complex and satisfying "Journey's End" fix-it. Marred by the occasional bit of clunky dialogue, but all the commas are in the right places, and the characterisation feels true.
6. Floating by Woffproff
This is an unspeakably lovely story. Donna and the Doctor are in character, the dialogue crackles, and the concept is clever. A+ WOULD READ AGAIN.
7. Nine Ways Donna Noble Had A Fabulous Life by Butterflykiki
I wanted to love this fic, which does exactly what it says on the tin. (Query: when did "Five Things" stop being enough?) Unfortunately, a lot of the scenarios don't feel remotely true to Donna's character, despite the accurate tone and good dialogue. Donna going into parliament is just about plausible, but winning the Nobel Peace Prize or devising her own comedy show and being interviewed by Stephen Fry is less convincing. Also, useful fact: "retcon" only has one 'n'.
8. Operation Awesome by Neadods
I'm quite torn about this story. The second half is wonderful, clever and heartbreaking. The first half is full of fanon cliches -- the Doctor's companions band together! And unearth the companions of the UNIT years! Because one of their number has a problem, and they need to set the Doctor straight! It's a wonderful idea, but it's been done so many times before that the effect is somewhat diluted. And then there's this line: 'Inside the blue box, long legs squirm for purchase, pushing a body deeper under the console while sparks fly.' I had to read it several times, before I figured out that the legs were attached to the body, and this wasn't some kind of bizarre sex/body disposal ritual. The second half is brilliant; it's a shame the build-up is so underwhelming.
9. All In a Day's Work by Miss_baxter
Charming fic in which Donna (between "The Runaway Bride" and "Partners in Crime") saves the world from Vogons. It's clever, in-character, everything is spelled properly and the commas are all in their appropriate places. Which, as you'll have seen, is no faint praise for this category.
10. Used To Be Brilliant by dark_aegis (Gillian Taylor)
I am a bit puzzled by this story; it opens with Donna musing on the strangeness of London, as if she didn't grow up there. Otherwise, the story is about the Ninth Doctor fixing the metacrisis; it's not bad, but unremarkable.
11. The New Adventures of Supertemp by Athousandwinds
Another story about Donna having a fantastic human life. It's a wonderful idea, but they're all sort of blurring together. Is it plausible that Donna can temp at a library, memorise the Dewey Decimal System, and yet has never had a library card? Anyway, this is competent, there's yet another ex-companion cameo, I liked it better when I first read it, when it wasn't one in a long line of interchangable Donna fics.
12. The Taste of Ash Still Lingers by Marcasite
This story opens with Evanescence lyrics, which is never a promising sign, but this isn't as terrible as that would suggest. True, Martha is described as having "hair the colour of midnight and cocoa-coloured skin", and Donna encounters Lee in the present-day, when he was from the future. But it's not a bad fic, merely unremarkable.
13. Doors We Never Opened by the_magpye
Tiny white text on a black background means that I have a headache even before I manage to find the first chapter and convert it to ?style=mine, and then the paragraphs only have single line breaks, which makes them extremely difficult to read on a screen. Anyway, Donna gets a job working for Rose Tyler, which promises an interesting plottish twist, and then meets Lee (see objections from the previous fic). The dialogue is inconsistently phonetic, and the plot is less compelling than the set up would promise.
OVERALL... The mediocrity of this category was incredibly disappointing. "Journey's End" fix-its rapidly became generic and dull, and the consistent canon!fail in making Lee a contemporary 21st century character was very strange. The standouts are the fics that aren't fix-its, like "All In a Day's Work", and the fix-its that do something different, like "Memory Lapse".