DrWho the fanfiction (thoughts, not links, it'll take time to scrounge up links)

[petronia]

I know myself enough to realize that there is something bubbling away on the back brain burner at this point, that will coalesce from the primeval broth of my preoccupations in eight months or whenever I find the hook (and here one pictures a metal fish hook lowered into a supersaturated solution of salts). Some of the stuff I'm preoccupied with:

* Apartments and other living spaces
* Asexuality
* The hairy ball theorem as it pertains to coconuts and cyclones
* Isomorphism (I could swear I've done the Laplace transform as metaphor before, but where)
* Charles Darwin

Anyhoo. No way this is going anywhere until I find out what else the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Moffat has to say on the topic of weeping angels. And possibly retrace the entirety of the Knife's research for their opera ahaha of course I could just write an album review instead of an album review disguised as a Doctor Who fanfic but where is the fun in that my friends, where is the fun in that. Although as much as anything I just want any excuse to borrow the libretto, which I find... intensely moving? Like it gets to what touches the soul/heart about SCIENCE by not foisting meaning on one at all, just presenting the act of observation (and cataloguing, and cogitation) for what it is. I keep coming across reviews that are like "asd;jklsd this is SO CHALLENGING" and it's like... really? There are 3-4 songs that are yr typical The Knife/Fever Ray and okay, the rest is recitative over techno noises rather than eg. a harpsichord, and lovely experimental ambient stuff that probably accompanied video projections and contemporary dance numbers onstage, and that one can safely zone out to without feeling like one has failed as a listener (or the creators qua creator) because one can't locate the pop oomph. Like, maybe you're challenging yourself to hear something that's not meant to be there? So says the person who has never managed to get into Gas.

Other ppl's fic, as a matter of generalization, because that's what's important to me at the moment:

* Martha is more fun in the fic than she was in the series, and Donna less. Guessing either 1) the rapport between David Tennant and Catherine Tate that was not a function of the script at all and/or 2) polemic, the kiss of death even when one agrees. Or 3) the fact that Martha comes with a structural conflict and Donna doesn't, if it has to be a direct comparison; or 4) the assumption that Martha can carry one of multiple plot threads on her own.

* Fandom's collective competency kink which ayalesca so memorably raged against some months earlier. XD Ngl, I have a massive competency kink. The key however is that eg. Leonard McCoy is meant to be competent, it is a matter of degree and realism, whereas eg. the Master is meant to be a bit rubbish. Also someone had a scan somewhere where Douglas Adams calls him "the guy in the black hat", which makes me think of xkcd. That is, ebil lacking motive is a writing weakness to Adams, but that's the actual comedic value of Black Hat Guy, right? That in a sense, he lives life with no sense of proportion (because anything he does/says could conceivably - pace Lady Teldra - be the appropriate response by someone to some situation, just not that one).

* Whereas the comedic value of Daleks, or rather the comedic timing of Daleks, is that they will stop to process new information. They always come to the same conclusion, of course, but they will actually take the time to take it in, little ears flashing as they keep their captive audience in suspense. It's a bleak Looney Tunes comedy on the irrepressible hope aspect of the human condition, like maybe this time they'll geddit? And for once Wile E. will run off the edge of the cliff with an anvil in his arms and make it to the other side.

* It's the massive fanboiwank webcomix end of things that do Daleks well. They do lose quite a bit of their charm when translated to text. XD

* I feel as if ppl who look at Ten II/Rose and are like "their relationship is beset by situational and psychological pitfalls and will never last D:" are like, okay maybe not the same ppl who'd say that sort of thing at a wedding, but why predict the worst? The worst case is pretty obv here tbh and easier than coming up with an interesting plot oh snap. I do believe in plot, cos I don't reaaaaally see'em doing the Torchwood thing for long. Just a hunch. Also the canon is wrapped around a spinoff season or two's worth of missing plot, cos frankly, Rose's quest is touching and all, but Torchwood, UNIT, etc. are unlikely to help someone blow a hole between universes just for the feel-good factor. Or even for great science. I'm not even sure if anyone explained what happened to Peteverse!Doctor; am inclined to think Earth civ would differ by more than a few zeppelins or Cybermen if he'd never existed, but. Alternately Time Lords are singular across all or this immediate subset of related universes, in which case what were they doing to hold shit stable that the Doctor isn't/can't, and where are the Daleks?

* And next up on Team TARDIS, Diane Wynne Jones

* Obviously I appreciate that the whole thing is a massive sandbox environment XD Ppl write some really weird pairings in really weird situations. Timey-wimey stuff... Thinking aloud: Bad Wolf is a conceptual challenge because "it" only existed for one moment in time, unless there was more to the mechanism than shown, but it affect(s/ed) every(thing/where) at once in relation to the particular problem it meant to solve. Which means that the "Doomsday" beach was a necessary consequence? I guess? And "Turn Left" through "Journey's End". Which makes sense because, Daleks, but then again they're not even the same faction of Daleks are they. = =

Anyway I have been fiddling with a longstanding original fiction project that I have now given a firm deadline, but anything relating to that will be on carnet where it belongs.

Comments

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

The worst case is pretty obv here tbh and easier than coming up with an interesting plot oh snap

Ahahaha and suddenly I get why so much of the Buffy fic I've been skimming has been frustrating to me - it's not only that it's depressing aaaaaangst when I'm a sap who likes happi endo in my fic - it's also that the emo is easy, while story is hard; stories require progression rather than destruction, and building up takes more thought than breaking down?

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Entropy, innit. Or as they say: dying is easy, living is hard. XD

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

Chrissie and I started watching Dr. Who on Netflix, the Martha Jones episodes, and I can tell you that so far I like them a lot more than either the Rose episodes or Donna's Christmas special episode. The special magic of an uber-competent, high-teamwork debut takes a long time to wear off, maybe.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I liked Martha, I just objected to the fact that the Doctor was kind of a dick to her and felt that particular brand of shoujo emo was unnecessary. XD;; Watch on, MacDuff!

[canis-m.livejournal.com]

but why predict the worst?

IAWTP, then again am idealist and therefore feel this way about basically all fanfiction ever, i.e. why write the one where Hikaru gets hit by a truck ahaha j/k j/k I know there was totally a reason for that. I'm sure someone has written the one where Ten II gets hit by a truck.

Anyway w/r/t plot, you heard about the whole deleted scene with the baby TARDIS coral or whatever, rite? Certain factions have really glommed onto that. Also am pretty sure there's a coordinated fan movement to do an entire spinoff season's worth of TenII/Rose adventures, complete with plot arc masterminded by one author standing in for RTD and everything XD; but I haven't been paying close attention.

Peteverse!Doctor & Daleks: isn't it pretty easy to posit that they existed, but conveniently wiped each other out (for reals!)? or is that too convenient.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Well, to be fair a lot of the time it's just cos ppl want to tell a different story about Ten II and/or Rose that's not them living happily ever after together! XD; So they handwave it and don't do what I want them to do, which is engage with the actual wacked-out-ness of the actual canon setup. Meanwhile the shippers adopt a hypothesis of "it was weird for 5min, then it was basically okay," which I think is... as valid as any other. IDK it's one of those "I would like one story" situations. I'd like one story re: my perception of Ten's psychologically baroque efforts to make himself stop because he's tired of going and going, but he conflates stopping with dying and he doesn't want to die. Because of ontological terror. XD; It was ontological terror as John Smith and it's ontological terror in The End of Time. Post-"Doomsday" he just comes up with these crazy scenarios that remove him from the action, like keeping the Master on his TARDIS (now that would've worked well for a proverbial five minutes) or sending Rose off with Ten II, which the coral thing underlines, because giving them the ability to travel reproduces the "perfect" circumstances of his and Rose's relationship, even "fixing" that pesky Time Lord vs Human gap. As opposed to keeping her with him (in full awareness of what he's going to do to Donna). Like, Moffat had it ass-backward - Ten isn't shunting Rose out of the way, he's making himself redundant. But he can't lie down and die, he keeps ticking forward until he's pinned... none of which has to do with Ten II/Rose per se, except that this must be in his head as well.

Haaaa I guess Eleven will be less Samsara-tastic. XD;;; One hopes. I'd been thinking the regeneration might fix the Doctor's emotional wobbliness but that's not the pressing issue at all, the pressing issue is the incipient megalomania.

I think the fan seasons tend to be some of the best writing in this fandom! It forces ppl to take their plotting to the next level rather than just be like "this is what RTD did rong" (which I think is scuppering a lot of post-S4!Donna fic for me; great, I agree, now can we move on).

Pete!verse: yeah, we can even posit that the Doctor wiped out all the Time Lords and Daleks and didn't survive himself, and the universe is much less fraught and/or interesting. XDD

[luckykitty.livejournal.com]

(I want to comment on your post and this comment but feel infinitely not smart enough; that said, I am really enjoying reading your thoughts! I keep going OH MAN, THAT'S TRUE, HMMMM....)

[ampersandals.livejournal.com]

Ok, so I've only watched the new series up to Martha Jones eps and I don't think I've ever enjoyed/considered DW at an intellectual level, but this comment~!

Ten isn't shunting Rose out of the way, he's making himself redundant.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Oh, do watch the rest of it if you can. XD I think the Tenth Doctor's character arc is coherent in this really satisfying way (...and kind of dark, granted), but one really has to see the whole thing out to get it. Plus S4 is one of the best.

[canis-m.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I guess w/r/t Ten II and Rose I still feel like...when benevolent (?!) Uncle Rusty gives you (generic you, meaning me & my ilk) a matching blue-and-magenta action figure canon AU playset for your birthday, obv you have the option of ripping off their little plastic heads and flushing them down the toilet, but that's not what they're for, izzit--and if your primary inclination is to do that, then they weren't meant for you in the first place, so go be destructive with some other toys, you little hellion! or something. But this is not to say I wouldn't like fanwriters to engage** with the playset in interesting and elaborate ways that are not limited to happi endo, complete with Daleks if necessary--though if we're going to have Daleks in the Peteverse I want them to be AU, too, somehow. Pastel pink, for instance. My Little Daleks.

Of course Moffat gets it bass-ackward, I doubt Moffat can even conceive of a Doctor who's that...self-effacing isn't quite the right word but you know what I mean. That willing to write himself out of the action.

Nrgh, maybe I'd be able to muster more intellectual curiosity re: Eleven if I didn't hate the actor's face. I guess fugly Doctor + sexy sexy redhead was bound to happen when the straight fanboy took over from the gay one. What I'm really afraid of is what if it's not shoujo anymore. ;_; XD;

**Not that I've actually been reading fic. ; Btw by this point I'm sure you've read way more than I have and one of these days I will demand links, but today is not that day.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I think Moffat thinks the Doctor should be basically a cool frood with science-y and also romantic lead elements (as opposed to lonely godhood, or unsettling alienness, or crusaderdom in a branded outfit) that some other actor may well play heroic-straight, but that Eleven will be quirky because Matt Smith bleeds quirkiness. I don't think he's fugly. XD I sort of like how many of the Doctors are kind of interesting-looking and you sit there trying to decide if they're handsome or not? It's the Tenth who's an outlier (what happens when you regenerate as a direct result of smooching an attractive human girl you want to impress).

I don't think it's not so much that it won't be shoujo anymore as it might not allow for the same wide-open fanfictional pastures? You know how there are some shows that are wobbly/cheesy fun that you want to write for, and some shows that are fun to watch but that you don't want to write for because they feel satisfactory in an entirely self-contained way. Moffat's own scripts tend toward the latter, at least. OTOH Neil Gaiman would've been an awkward match for the feel of RTD's cycle, which is probably why it never panned out, but I can see his thematic strengths playing to Moffat's. (Or they could bollocks it up, as typically happens when famous writers guest script for TV.)