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doctorthasmin · 4 years

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Hi! First off I just want to say I love your writing :) Would you consider writing something where 13 is forced to travel somewhere on Earth "normally" and the fam have to help her figure it all out? I think it could be quite funny! 💛💛

Aw thank you! ⭐️ awesome prompt too! Hope you enjoy!

“Well she’s not happy.” The Doctor grumbled as the Tardis door locked shut, the smoke trapped inside as Yaz and Graham stood outside their arms crossed.

“At least we’re in our present!” Yaz offered cheerily, smiling at the bashful embarrassed Time Lord.

“Yeah, that’s true, she’ll go back to Sheffield when she’s not in a mood.” The Doctor rolls her eyes, the Tardis door opens once more before slamming shut. The Doctor winces, swallowing, she was going to pay for this.

“Alright leave her be Doc, come on I recognise the area we need to find a tube stop.” Graham suggests, holding his arm out for Yaz to encircle as they all trudge across the green, misty fog clearing their lungs.

It’s about ten minutes before the Doctor stops sulking and grabs Graham’s over arm, following his lead for a change. She snuggles her nose into her bright scarf, resisting the urge to fill the companionable silence with her usual banter. It’s Yaz who breaks the quiet a few moments ,after when she jumps up pointing to a tube station.

“Nice, Hyde Park Corner we can ride the tube all the way to Kings Cross get the train home.” Graham grins, fishing out his wallet to remove his Oyster card, Yaz doing the same. The Doctor being the Doctor marches up to the scanner at the entrance and firmly presses the psychic paper against it. When there’s no beep she frowns, whacking the leather against the wall before trying again. No beep.

“Maybe it’s because the Tardis is repairing herself?” Yaz offers, moving her forward so she and Graham can tap their cards as a queue begins to form.

“Hmm maybe, will I have to stowaway then? We haven’t done that since we met Tesla, hope there’s no Skithra onboard.” The Doctor says glumly as they walk into the main station, Graham leading the Doctor to the ticket machines.

“Nah don’t be silly Doc, I’ll sort you a ticket back to Sheffield. God I hate these new machines, Piccadilly line, north bound single that’s the stuff.” Graham murmurs, slipping some coins into the machine before it spits out a paper ticket.

The Doctor hangs onto it with her sweaty hands like a 6 year old on their first trip out, Yaz and Graham take pity and wedge her between them as they approach the turnstiles, it’s hot and packed and the Doctor feels unusually flustered as she feeds the ticket in, the wrong way around, immediately spitting it back out.

“Come on will you hurry up some of us need to get back to work!” One guy behind Graham huffs. Swallowing her panicky sensation the Doctor smiles frantically jamming the ticket back in.

“Alright cockle, she’s not from the manor okay, you’ll get to work.” Graham chides, giving the man a stern stare as the turnstile opens and the Doctor breathes a sigh of relief ripping the ticket back out and barrelling up to Yaz for a half hearted cuddle.

“I don’t think I’m good at 21st century travel.” The Doctor mumbles as people stream past them into the tiled corridors. Yaz grasps her hand squeezing it reassuringly.

“It’s less than ten stops, we’ll be on the train home before you know it.” Graham murmurs as they hear the hiss of the doors opening and the tannoy calling out “mind the gap”.

The Doctor makes a comical leap across grinning as she lands in the middle of the tube waiting for Yaz and Graham to step over and huddle with her against the main pole. Dozens of people pile on and before they know it the trio is squeezed together like sardines. Yaz doesn’t mind it so much, beats being pressed up against strangers and the Doctor has her arm around her lower back protectively.

“Last time I was on a tube this packed was a West Ham game.” Graham comments chuckling as a few lads further down the train start singing an arsenal chant.

“Think it was a seminar on policing my last time, had to wear the uniform, people give you a load of space when you’ve got a stab vest on believe me.” Yaz chuckles as the trains jolts to a stop with passengers getting off and a rush of cold air comes in. The doors hiss shut once more and they’re off again, next stop Kings Cross.

“Got a vague memory of leading people into Holborn station in 1940.” The Doctor mentions quietly, it passes Yaz by but Graham catches her eyes and he flashes her a small smile, putting his hand in her shoulder warmly.

“You’re always there when we need you eh.” He whispers making the Doctor grin softly before inhaling deeply. The doors hiss open once more and in a human chain the trio step off onto the platform following Graham as they make it up to the train station.

“You girls stay here I’ll get the tickets.” Graham says grinning as Yaz sits down on the bench gently pulling the Doctor down with her.

“I know you’re sad about the Tardis, but she’ll forgive you don’t worry.” Yaz says softly, rubbing circles on her back as the Doctor leans into her side sighing.

“I know, just didn’t realise how bad I was at travelling without her.” The Doctor jokes, making Yaz smile and laugh for the first time all morning.

Hey folks! It’s been a nice break reading other people’s stuff 😊 I will be writing more but prompts are very much welcomed because I’m still struggling for inspiration!

#doctor who #thirteenth doctor #yasmin khan #thasmin #graham o'brien #doctorthasmin stories

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upslapmeal · 6 years

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Second Doctor Thoughts

When I finished the First Doctor’s era a year after starting it and in the summer before I started university I joked that at this rate I’d graduate before finishing Classic Who. Well joke’s on me because I very nearly graduated before even finishing the Second Doctor’s era, avoided in large part thanks to a conveniently timed DWSoc screening of The War Games that pushed me to finish the previous two serials in time for that. And I think all this makes it seem as though I wasn’t particularly interested or invested in Two’s era but that really wasn’t the case. Rather, it was more that my progress was bogged down by a combination of having a ridiculous amount of uni work, combining that with starting several other new tv shows (I’m super great at time management and priorities guys) and there being so many missing episodes. I know Power of the Daleks took a month to watch because of the combination of missing episodes making it hard to get a feel for what Two was like (the animation didn’t come out for another year).

And now it feels weird having to talk about my thoughts on something I started three years ago. When I was writing up my thoughts on The Krotons the other day I was struggling to remember what my notes were referring to and that was only several months after watching. But then again this is my thoughts on the era as a whole rather than individual parts of it. And there’s definitely something to be said for taking so long to watch. I mean Two and Jamie have been on-and-off fixtures of my life for the past 3 years which is more or less what they would have been for DW fans back in the 60s. And a six-episode serial back then would have taken over a month for people to watch. Maybe I should pretend this was all intentional to get a ~realistic viewing experience~….

I’m looking back now at my post where I talked about my First Doctor thoughts and I had split it into four sections: the Doctor, the companions, the aliens and the writing/visuals etc. I feel as though I have less to say this time, both as a result of 2/3 of Two’s era being less recent to me than the entirety of One’s had been at the time, but also because I feel as though I went into this era with a better idea of what if would be like. I started Classic Who blind, more just to fill the time while DW wasn’t on air than wanting to actually see what it was like and a lot of my post once I finished One’s era was talking about how pleasantly surprised and how I hadn’t expected to love the characters/character development/plots as much as I did. I had really gone in expecting very little and if you’ve spent any time on my blog you can see how much I really love One’s era now. However, since starting Classic Who I’ve followed a bunch of Classic Who blogs. I’ve seen people talk about Classic Who (including Two’s era) and I’ve even see some people I follow start and work their way through Classic Who at a significantly faster pace than me, going through Two’s stuff before I got there. I tried to not pay attention to plot details (oh how I wish I hadn’t known about the Time Lords in The War Games) but not only is it hard to avoid 50-year-old spoilers, I didn’t start watching only to be surprised by how good a lot of the characterisation and plots were. The quality of some serials still took me by surprise (I knew people said it would be good but The Enemy of the World was really EXCELLENT, can’t wait for Two to save 2018) but I generally had higher expectations.

Obviously this era suffers from missing episodes significantly more than One’s era. I watched all the reconstructions but so often something would be described in the scrolling text that I would pay large quantities of money to get to actually see (x x) and there were serials like The Macra Terror which I could tell were really good and enjoyed but would have been even better if there were full visuals to go with the audio. It’s a shame because all these missing episodes must seems like a huge barrier to a lot of people when it comes to starting Classic Who and I’ve seen people under the impression that most black and white episodes are missing.

But anyway. On to the actual thoughts. Like I said this is going to be shorter than it was for One’s era but please don’t mistake that for lack of enthusiasm. Also I’ll put it under a cut because this preamble has already gone on long enough.

The Doctor:

Isn’t Two fantastic? He’s really just out there to have a good time and explore and help out, and it really builds up well to the revelation that he ran away from the Time Lords because he wasn’t content to just observe the universe without interacting with it. He doesn’t seem to have misconceptions about him in the same way One did and I can’t imagine anyone watching the era and not thinking Troughton was an absolute delight. There’s a child-like amusement mixed in with scattiness that often seems to act as a mask to his thought processes (though not always - this is someone has done the blowing-up-an-island equivalent of sawing off a tree branch while sitting on it). And when you see Two switch to being dead serious you know that the situation warrants it. It was fascinating in particular to get a first glimpse into his interactions and relationship with the other Time Lords and I’m looking forward to the Master being introduced now I’m going into Three’s era to start to build on that (I know we had the Monk with One but that felt different, understandably, as I’m sure at the time there was so concept of Time Lords). Two had a deceptive child-like glee, not the same as One’s but not entirely different either, and I’m going to miss this recorder-playing space hobo and his expressive face.

The Companions:

I didn’t talk much about Ben and Polly in my First Doctor post because I felt I hadn’t really got to know them yet, although I don’t think their four (well…..really three, it’s a shame they weren’t in most of their last serial) stories with Two really told me anything I hadn’t seen with One other than giving them a new surface to bounce off of. I just loved their combination of small, frequently surprised sailor and hip 60s woman who defeats the cybermen using knowledge about nail polish. And of course they were the first ever companions to deal with regeneration and I really enjoyed seeing their different approaches and different amounts of trust in this new Doctor during Power. I’m not usually fussed about the whole ‘first face this face saw’ but seeing how overlooked these two are I like to think they had a special place in Two’s hearts because of this.

And then there’s Jamie who is unquestioningly the defining companion of Two’s era and for good reason too. A lot of the era’s comedy comes from Two and Jamie bouncing off of (and clinging to) each other, and seeing that Jamie lost all that time he spent travelling with the Doctor was really right up there with Donna losing her memories. It would be easy to just think of Jamie as not very clever, but I feel like a lot of the time this came down to a lack of familiarity with what would later become familiar technology (I really enjoyed having a historical companion, done much better than Katarina RIP). Yes he would sometimes be slow to get things and be the butt of the joke, and sure he would do things like jump in front of an ice warrior but it would work and he had a lot of heart and a lot of love for his friends. He would often be an outside perspective to Two, being a voice of reason when Two got a bit carried away (cf. Two’s blowing-up-an-island equivalent of sawing off a tree branch while sitting on it). Here are just a few favourite Jamie moments: x x x. Oh and of course, Jimbo McCribbob.

Quick shoutout to almost-companion Samantha Briggs - if she had ended up staying as originally intended we would have missed out on Victoria so I don’t wish that had happened but I thought she was really brilliant in The Faceless Ones and I loved her interactions with Jamie.

What I loved and also found sad about Victoria was her interactions with Two, how he showed a real understanding of the fact that she had lost everyone and come on the TARDIS out of a sense of having nowhere else to go rather than out of curiosity and a sense of adventure (Tomb of the Cybermen stands out in particular in this respect). She was often scared (and I’m pretty sure I would have been terrified in the situations she was put in) but always kind and I thought her exit was really earned. She deserved to live in a stable place with people she could grow to call family and not constantly feel in danger. That life just wasn’t for her as much as she loved Jamie and Two and I appreciated that the Doctor refused to try and persuade her otherwise, no matter what Jamie said.

Oh Zoe. My science daughter. My incredibly intelligent science daughter who didn’t know how candles worked #just21stcenturyproblems. Firstly: congrats Two! You only (accidentally) kidnapped one (stowaway) companion! I liked that she was introduced in a cyberman episode, contrasting her wanting to feel everything like someone who hasn’t been trained to be a human computer and the cybermen who want to erase emotions. And again, all that is lost when she leaves and it’s a tragedy. But this show always has to have bits of tragedy woven in every now and then, keeping us grounded. It’s a show that does bittersweet well. Her advanced scientific and mathematical knowledge meant that she had a dynamic with the Doctor that we also saw with Vicki only to a lesser extent and I liked that she often thought of things before the Doctor (oh what I would have given to see Zoe and Vicki meet at some point). Also, and very importantly, Zoe always made a cute(r than usual) face when she was complemented!

The aliens:

This is going to be very short, limited to four quick points:

I found Two-era cybermen increasingly difficult to understand and I’m not sure if that was just me or something people found in general

also interesting to see the introduction of another (if less-so) recurring alien with the ice warriors (and in a serial with Peter Sallis no less!)

yeti!! made even better by the fact that I got to see the actual costume when I went to the DW Experience this summer

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS THE MACRA

The plots, writing, and visuals:

I think this is where I’m going to have notably less to say than in my post for the First Doctor. What I will say is that while there were many outstanding or particularly fun stories (Enemy and Macra as I said earlier but also The Faceless Ones, The Mind Robber, The Invasion, The Web of Fear (Anne Travers <3 and the Brig!!) and The War Games to name a few), I’m definitely more a fan of going-on-an-adverture-to-find-stuff-out stories than the base-under-siege pattern that this era had a lot of and I felt like there were more stories that I was indifferent to than in One’s era, but even then that wasn’t any great amount. Oh and historicals. I miss historicals. One thing that I will say is that while this era managed have more roles played by black actors, whenever we we met a black character my first thought was always ‘I hope they don’t die’ (especially Kemel and Fariah), and as far as I can remember I was let down every time. But that is more a complaint with 1960s TV in general rather than being something specific to Doctor Who.

Overall:

The Second Doctor era has really been a constant in a significant era of my life, and I don’t think I have anything left to say that I’ve not already said in this overly-long post. I’m glad it’s not totally goodbye forever though, there’s still the anniversary specials to look forward to and I haven’t heard characterisation complaints for Two and co. in the same way as for One and Susan. But for now it’s onto the (temporarily) Earth-bound world of colour and UNIT, back with the Brig and getting to meet Liz, Benton and Yates (and later Jo and Sarah-Jane)! Autons! Dinosaurs! The Master! Let’s just hope this doesn’t take another three years!

Goodbye cosmic hobo. I’ll miss you.

#THIS IS LONG WHOOPS #second doctor #classic who #doctor who #patrick troughton #wanderings in the fourth dimension

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fanfictionlive · 5 years

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Writing a Doctor who fanfic.

I'm currently in the middle of writing a Daredevil fanfiction and I really want to write one on Doctor who.

The general premis would be that we follow a Time Lord who was born during the Time war. He uses a Fob watch to escape the last days of the war and escapes to earth, since he's met the war doctor who made the planet sound like a paradise. Especially compared to a war torn Gallifrey.

But he lands in a post apocalyptic wasteland version of earth that exists during the tail end of the reign of the third human empire.

Meets a female scavenger who will be his companion (more like a stowaway) who saves his life when he's human. She stores ancient earth relics. Which includes things like a Sontaran stun stick, Silurian masks (which she wears to intimidate raiders) and an entire cyberman that no longer functions. Plus, a white, cylindrical capsule that she can't seem to open.

Long story short, she saves him raiders. They come for revenge. Kidnap her, beat up our time lord who opens the watch upon hearing whispers from the device. Warrior Time Lord physiological restored he uses the Sontaran weapon to paralyse the raiders.

Uses the tech that the companion recovered to invade the raiders HQ. The companion also engineers a partially successful escape along with other prisoners and the time lord basically gave them a window to escape.

Our Time Lord saves her not out of kindness but out of obligation. Since she saved him when he was human.

He kills no one since the raiders aren't worth the effort (he's fought Daleks after all) and they go back to her home. He's about to leave in the capsule (which is a TARDIS) but she argues that he used her stuff to save them so she deserves to know what the capsule is.

He reluctantly opens the door, bigger on the inside, blah blah blah. And they go on adventures.

I've got personalities down too. He's around 400, young by Time Lord standards but he tries to act mature beyond his years by behaving somewhat pretentiously and berating others. But that's just to hide his experiences in the war.

He gets panic attacks on occasion and has no interest in saving anyone but does so either accidently or due to a desire to prevent paradoxical events.

Large scale events like super novas, other planets and such don't really enamor him. But small things like certain local foods, animals and people do. But he refuses to show it.

The companion will be excited about everyone and everything. She grew up in a waste land hearing stories about other planets and systems so she will not waste this opportunity. Her child like enthusiasm balances his stoic facade and he slowly grows some compassion by being with her. Though she's too kind hearted on occasion and that gets her into trouble.

I've got some idea of the characters and the first few chapters but that's it.

Doctor who allows one to write all manner of stories but I've no idea how to make them.

Should I do it like Star Trek where there are individual episodes with no overarching story but the characters develop regardless?

Or do the new who approach of individual stories that build up to a climax?

Any ideas or suggestions would be awesome.

submitted by /u/Kami7754 [link] [comments] from FanFiction: Where Magical Ponies battle Imperial Titans http://bit.ly/2D9l0xN

#fan fiction #writing #fanfiction #tv show #series #movie #fan #write

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sightofsea · 7 years

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this is rly dumb and there is the HUGE chance im going to regret this but ok

basically when i was 15 i wrote an approx. 200k OC doctor who fanfiction featuring a kind of half self insert/half attempt to subvert mary sue comapnion stereotypes named jenna quigley. and ive been thinking about it more lately like the general storyline bc like. idk. n i figured i should write it out.

i should mention this is all 11th doctor era bc i was a huge fan at that time, and it takes place between that time he leaves amy n rory to when he does his farewell tour bc i wanted to try n add some canonical irony that ill get to later

so basically its all narrated from jenna pov as kind of stories she’s telling to the tardis database via recording. why, we don’t know yet. she;s. ok so in the plot she was from our universe n was an AVID fan of the show which like tacky i know but whatever. she starts out 15 and in basically my house and neighborhood (this fic started from a constant daydream i would have of going on adventures w the doctor bc i was a nerdy 15 yo so like. sue me) and there have been a disturbing amount of disappearances in the surrounding area that local police are stuck on. so everyones kinda afraid to go out into their own homes and at one point, jenna is doing something out in her backyard and actually witnesses one of the abductions, but is surprised to see the kidnapper looks like the silence, aka the television show shes been watching. she thinks shes going bonkers. her family leave her alone for the day to go to a thing for one of her siblings and she’s just kind of ruminating on this event when--lo and behold, an officer arrives at her door.

and jenna, she’s very skeptical about this guy. like, given recent events she doesnt trust her own eyes. and the guy is...off. like his badge n credentials, if she concentrates, looks like something else for a flash of a second, and for some reason the figure of him is kind of hazy whenever jenna tries to look directly at him. he is shown to have a quirky, friendly demeanor n jenna figures well, i gotta tell someone about what ive seen, so she invites him in. they have a brief chat n its obvious to the reader that this guy is someone VERY familiar (mostly due to my bad writing at the time) and jenna begins to explain what she saw and how its like this one show she watches, and this guy suddenly becomes very very interested in this before realizing he’s got it all pieced together and asks for jenna’s help in navigating the area to find what is, ultimately, a silence space ship.

jenna agrees and over time realizes this guy is most definitely connected to something in the whoniverse and originally believes he might be a time agent bc that seems more likely given their number as they travel to the ship. its also revealed that the officer has brought jenna along bc the key thing about what she saw is that she actually remembers the silence and can see past perception filters due to the qualities of alternate universe, slightly alternate brain chemistry and so on. its not exactly perfect--she can’t get through perception filters rly, especially good ones--but its enough to know something is wrong n remember certain things others from the dw universe might not be able to like the actual silence aliens themselves.

anyway they make their way to the ship, which has come through a massive tear in reality that the officer came through. in the fic lore i guess tears are seen as usually benign things meant to leak ideas of universes into other universes as a kind of waste disposal system, and as a side effect create inspiration in those who are close to them. this tear, though, became too big, kind of like a leaky pipe, and actual material was able to get through by keeping a frequency from both ends of the tear as a kind of safety rope. and to maintain their energy as a stranded ship the silence have been using humans as batteries. i put a lot of thought into this, i know.

SO once theyre in the ship the “”officer”” (we know who he is by now lets just face it) and jenna are captured n separated. jenna is held hostage and it is revealed she is a part of a second half of the “silence will fall when the question is asked” prophecy which goes “the unexpected shall follow the guided task” (i loved rhymes) which is further revealed to the be the following: change the timeline and destroy the doctor. and jenna, being jenna, is like “listen u guys i dont even know the guy so uh failed step one i guess”. she’s saved by the “”officer”” in the nick of time through work of faulty electrical work (like? i know its for style but the silence have all those lights on the floor n it is VERY dangerous) so the whole ship is blacked out n she hears the differently pitched speech patterns (”why do u sound all different” “they took my equipment nevermind lets go”) and after doing some work to reverse the frequency and basically make the ship implode back into its original universe they run back to jenna’s home in the dark, seeing as she was out for quite a bit. her family is conveniently not home yet n decided to hang out with some friends. and when she gets back n is finally in the light SURPRISE!!! turns out the officer was the doctor all along in disguise from the silence using a perception filter. 15 year old me was a literary genius.

n u might think hannah this is rly long is it done now and of course it isnt!! that was just the intro!! after the initial shock jenna kind of parses what era the doctor is from, which is pre-silencio but after finding out about it n in that 200 yr stretch that was never rly shown. and jenna’s like, a whole season ahead of him basically and knows all this stuff and is trying to engage with this guy she’s a huge fan of without like accidentally spilling the beans on his future. she sits him down to explain the whole tv show thing n lets him watch an episode while she goes to her room to pack like clothes n her laptop because its not every day the doctor just flies in and she’s 15 so shes like hellz yeah im gonna be a COMPANION not even THINKING of the consequences in terms of the multiverse, the prophecy and her family (she does leave a note but its self centered n kinda lame tbh just like be back whenever). afterwards she walks the doctor back to the tardis and is like so where we gonna go n the doctor looks at her like jenna you are a literal child im not taking you anywhere and jenna though some MASTERY of writing that was basically hey look over there! and doing it anyway sneaks into the tardis when the doctor isnt looking n becomes his stowaway.

for the next few weeks she just kind of chills in the tardis with this fear that the doctor will immediately bring her back home so might as well have fun and kinda sneaks around him and keeps couch hopping from room to room. the tardis does not like her one bit due to the whole different universe funky energies thing (and this was pre-clara and i really wanted to see a companion the tardis didnt like so) and has multiple conversations with it via the interface hologram which meant i could write cameos for classic companions and write the tardis as a character bc i was a nerd.

SO after weeks of casually avoiding the doctor eventually she gets caught by him and hes not happy about it so shes like well ok then send me home n then she gets the real kicker which is the tears all mended up. after the material was put back in place it went back to being benign n too small for anything to travel between. so jenna basically stuck in this foreign universe with a very slim chance of returning back to her old life and her family and friends and she mistakes the doctors anger at the situation for anger at her so shes like basically im all alone here oh god n has a crisis n has a dramatic run off into the bowels of the tardis hallways

eventually the doctor finds her and they bond over being kind of the last of their kind in a way and he takes a kind of fatherly role and is like well youre already here and im miserable on my own so why dont we two birds one stone it n just go on adventures for the time being and takes a kind of fatherly platonic role with jenna bc i was sick of seeing companions hook up with the doctor and was confused as to why they wanted to hook up with him (spoiler alert: huge lesbian)

so they set off on their adventures. the first one was about the doctor and jenna accidentally boarding a ship of genetically engineered soldiers called evos being shipped off to a galactic war and finding out some of them had rebelled and had been camping out in the ships underbelly. they had no mouths but were able to communicate via sign language n empath touch powers of transferable memories. the captain was a bitch who didnt see the evos as living things n eventually in a stand off either offered them a chance for the other, still podded evos to live and for them all to live a horrible life or have the podded evos be ejected into space in return for them to have a chance to fight for their freedom. the choice ended up coming down to jenna, somehow, i think, and she chose freedom and cost the lives of like 200 evos but were able to get the ones they were able to save (about, like, 100 i think) to safety and create their own civilization away from harm on a distant planet and their success and triumph to live their own lives i guess canceled out the fact that jenna played a part in the deaths of 200 beings. it was. i dont even know

the next “episode” after a brief interlude of less impactful adventures and discussing mortality was a sherlock crossover episode that im too embarrassed to go into detail about but did reveal jenna’s newly formed abandonment issues due to her stranded in a strange universe situation and the fact she had a self harm problem that, surprise, mirrored mine. her n the doctor went on some more adventures over the next few months that were mentioned in passing. it should be noted that this first “act” i guess takes place over a solid year

the next episode featured river song bc i was gay for her without knowing it and i had just learned about easter island in history class and i decided to expand on one of the adventures said in passing during the series to kind of root my fic in canon bc i was a smarmy bitch. it involved being perceived as gods and the silence and using the flesh as a means of luring villagers to be used as human batteries and also putting a percetion filter on the ship so what was actually a crater was perceived to be a mountain. through this episode we saw the doctor again facing his own mortality, river sitting jenna down after a series of events pieced together her abandonment issues n harm problem n being like you cant rely on the doctor for this alone trust me i know its fun but when it starts ending it wont be. jenna gets kidnapped again by the silence n is reproduced as flesh to try and steer the doctor n river away from saving the day but overcomes that impulse and eventually pulls herself out of it and helps save things.

this episode also imports an important plot device of misplacement, which i shouldve put in earlier if im honest. the basic idea of it, within the fic lore, was that the universe, multiverse, whatever had to compensate for temporal displacement all the time when choices were made, but when big things that would alter history happened--like a giant supposed mountain blowing up 200 years after it had already blew up--it had a fail safe to transport the object causing the harm to the exact place but in a different time where the event would have less of a temporal impact. theres also an important note here where the doctor doesnt recall jenna being with him on their first adventure together. both are setting up the larger plot.

after the deal with the kidnapping and the flesh and all their adventures the doctor becomes kind of protective of jenna because i mean the dude also has abandonment issues like lets be real. so he kind of tones down the danger in fear of jenna dying or getting hurt. i mean, its been a year and theyve kind of become these friends who snark at each other like a family would and its nice that jenna has this person she can trust because she watched the show and like, knows him and knows his tells and calls him out on his bullshit before he can even get started and feels a kind of responsibility for due to the prophecy she was given and the doctor has someone to talk to and someone he also doesnt have to hide from really because she already knows almost everything. theyve been equally protective of each other--jenna keeping the doctor in the dark about the prophecy about her and keeping mum on the fact that she knows he isnt going to die, and the doctor worrying about jenna’s safety and trying not to screw her up like he has past companions to kind of try to atone for his past mistakes and make it up to this girl whose life he kind of unintentionally ruined. ok honestly idk why im getting in depth but i spent. years on this fic you dont understand

so. after a while jenna just kind of calls the doctor out like come on lets at least go somewhere fun and end up spending christmas eve in new york in the forties and befriend this newly single mother and jenna fakes a REALLY BAD accent to get across that her n the doctor are related n poor to gain sympathy. they do all the things she wants like times square and macy’s, where surprise! she sees amy n rory n their son and just kind of like. guides them away from the doctor like guys. this aint ur guy. and it would fuck EVERYTHING up also hi i know your guys’s entire life story, cute kid, etc. they give jenna some advice dealing w the doctor and she tells them that she’ll try her best to make sure he doesnt like, go self hating n all that bullshit n they part ways. her n the doctor meet up again and throughout this whole first part jenna’s been noticing people following her? with like, these weird orange-y eyes. and she thinks like fuck ok this’ll ruin the adventure, maybe theyll leave but they end up starting to go after her and reveal themselves to be a species called the visicheck

after escaping and dumpster diving because the visicheck hunt based on scent, jenna and the doctor start heading towards the single mother’s place for refuge (she had seen their situation n offered a place to spend christmas eve) and on the cab ride over the doctor explains that the visicheck r these ancestors of the family of blood, and basically are lifeless specks that latch onto living things and possess them until they burn them out and move onto the next one. they consume what is the basic energy a thing needs to exist and be alive, and for different species there’s different levels. lets say a dw universe human is ur basic ten on the scale. because of different circumstances in different universes, jenna is basically a 120 on the scale. like, these things could possess her body and use it for centuries to wreck havoc with the kind of energy she holds. and jenna, thinking about the prophecy of changing the timeline and also not wanting to basically be the living dead is like yeah ok fuck this is bad.

they find some brief refuge in the single mothers apartment for a time and enjoy a lovely christmas eve dinner but eventually the visicheck catch up to them. the doctor escorts the single mother n her kid into a cab to get as far away as possible while jenna is just supposed to keep holed up in the apartment, but things arent so easy and they end up breaking in. she’s able to hit them over the head with a pan n kind of stave them off for a bit and heads for the roof, but is eventually backed into a circle. knowing the visichek can’t possess something that is dead and not wanting to potentially endanger the universe just to keep her life jenna jumps off the building in a dramatic fashion that i wrote to play with the carol of the bells because i thought it was cool, and you know what? it was. it really was.

and so jenna dies

at least for a bit

she wakes up in the tardis, rly confused because like, she died. like she knows she did. and the doctors not speaking n acting all broody and she finally gets the story out of him that after she died (posted as an anonymous person in the newspaper, i should note, and put in an unnamed grave to keep the whole “written in stone” thing in line) he kind of. went off on his own for a bit before rly hating himself for letting jenna die right in front of him and went back to catch and save her before she landed, therefore altering the events as it happened. and jenna is...not happy about this. like, one bit. because, in a twist of fate, because she is both living and dead the universe must compensate by going to misplacement, but jenna can’t fully complete the misplacement “”process”” i guess until she is in the exact location she is misplaced from, only different time and all, and in this case she’s in the tardis which almost always has its shields up, so she can’t even complete that bit. so, as explained, the universe will start the process over whenever the tardis decides to fly off again, and send jenna to a different time within the tardis’s general vicinity.

basically, she’s gonna be stuck hopping around the doctor’s timeline. like, all of it, until she finally meets up with the right doctor who knows her n has been past this point. which could take years for her. and, mind you, the task she was “assigned” in the prophecy was to change the timeline, and as a result destroy the doctor. so this is basically jenna’s worst nightmare, and she finally spills the beans about the prophecy in a fit of anger before trying to say goodbye and being whisked off

and this is where the angst stuff happens

basically, for the next year or so (when i rewrite in my head its two years, makes more sense) jenna is thrown around one end of the universe to the other, trying to stay out of the way of the doctor’s events while also trying to, you know, survive and eat and drink and sleep. she’s basically a homeless vagabond for most of it, and her abandonment issues and self harming kind of escalate. she begins leading a really lonely life, and grows this kind of love/hate relationship with the doctor where she really hopes to see him again but also grows bitter against him for putting him in this situation. she visits companions before their time with the doctor, like donna, by accident and stumbles through meeting them and trying to just keep going. in her loneliness she starts talking to a version of the doctor in her head, which starts taking more and more of a form to her before its a fully grown kind of hallucination she’s created out of loneliness (which was kind of based off of me being a lonely kid and having pretend conversations with characters to simulate human connection which is. sad. i know. really sad. its a lot).

for a time jenna is stuck with the doctor and martha during the months leading up to human nature/the family of blood, and inadvertently meets martha and gets a job at the school as a fellow maid through helping martha drag the doctor to the place. she figures its the only stability she’ll have for a while and since she was never shown in the show it isnt rly affecting the most important bits of the timeline, and resolves to stay as far away from john smith as she can and just live out her life until the events of the episodes start happening and she’ll vamoose. she adopts an accent to blend in and when she has free time finds the stashed away tardis, which initially does not recognize jenna as a companion until finding archived recordings from the future bc duh its a time machine, which brings the whole pov thing full circle, and interacts with the interface to get answers about her growing questions about the silence and her situation and learns about a device called the cage, which has been alluded to in previous “episodes” only by name, as a great machine created by the silence that is meant to basically make it so that anything inside of it would be erased for existence, past present and future, using energy form the cracks in the universe. this was still at a point in the actual series where we knew nothing so i just kind of went buckwild.

anyways

jenna ends up having to interact with the tenth doctor as john smith once, and kind of aims all of her bitterness towards her future self at him and realizes that isnt fair, apologizes, and has a cathartic moment of finally moving past a grudge with the wrong version of the doctor. eventually the events of the episodes start happening and she vamooses before getting sent off to god knows where again, yippee

eventually through the next year jenna kind of begins to rly lose hope. like, it’s been a year already, she doesn’t know if she can keep living like this. so she makes a deal with herself to wait out until the end of this second year of time travelling vagabonding before she decides to off herself to save herself and the universe the trouble.

she keeps going through the motions and actually stumbles upon a future, post-silencio doctor, with rory and amy in tow, and in a fit of like oh my god relief she kind of runs up to him and is like i found you, finally, holy shit n the doctor looks at her like im sorry but i dont...know you? like i genuinely dont know who you are. you might have ur timelines all switched up. and jenna knows this isnt true and freaks out and kind of just is like, theres like fifteen days until the deadline, all hope is lost, gonna just completely self destruct n cuts her hair and stops eating, but on the day of the actual deadline she keeps stalling as she zaps from place to place before finally deciding to end how it should end by jumping off a building n she has this heartfelt convo with this imaginary figure thats kept her company all this time

so she makes the journey up this apartment building in this basically abandoned future...chicago, i think? yeah. and you know, is about to do when whaddaya know, a familiar voice is calling out for her. she thinks its just the hallucination but eventually realizes that its actually the doctor, one that knows her, and they have this really heartfelt hug before she punches him square in the face

after the fact is a lot of secret keeping on jenna’s side. she doesnt want to be a burden and just kind of wants things to eventually get back to normal after a period of just resting finally and lies about her time being thrown around the doctors timeline, telling him it was only a few months instead of two years, and hiding the evidence of her self harm and other forms of self destruction to try and get things back to the way they were. the doctor can see through jenna’s bullshit though and over a month of just kind of chilling in the tardis and getting better she eventually tells him and after being pulled into an adventure with alien bees and a prison break and characters very much based off of the captor brothers from homestuck they kind of find their original rhythm

the next adventure was the one where i stopped writing mostly bc the plot absolutely sucked. it was a beach adventure episode, involving aliens and aliens who were mermaids and being stranded on a remote island. also, at the time i was going through a sexuality crisis and decided jenna was gonna go through it too and made her realize she was gay for one of the alien mermaids and totally made out with her. you can see how the plot was failing a bit, and the only thing i dont regret is the whole mermaid makeout thing really.

the rest of the series from that point on was supposed to go something like this: jenna has to go back to her old high school, except in the dw universe, and finds out she actually doesn’t exist in this universe??? which is weird. the doctor plays teacher and they live in the prop attic of the school investigating a counselor that literally feeds off of emotions until the students are a husk and die. there was going to be a filler where the doctor and jenna start the doctors farewell tour (it is revealed when they finally find each other at the end of the timeline jumping debacle that the doctor has like two years left until silencio happens, with like a hundred years passing between new york n finding jenna) and the doctors mortality is discussed and jenna begins to wonder what happens to her since she isnt at the event or anything going forward, and begins to worry about the prophecy again.

the finale of jenna’s adventures was supposed to go like this: they end up tackling the silence again, only with the help of the cage, after jenna notices the doctor beginning to forget more and more things about her. they get captured and the silence plan to place the doctor in the cage and eradicate him from existence so that the question to be asked never existed to begin with. i hadnt figured out how yet, but basically jenna would finally click everything together and realize it was her destiny to do this, and even had a better chance since it eradicated her from this universe, and she still had a life in another one and could maybe start over and appreciate her family and friends a bit more, and would pull a switcheroo so that she would be put in the cage and slowly eradicated from existence. from that point the silence ship would kind of go haywire from the power being used by the cage and jenna would drag the incapicitated doctor back to the tardis and saying she has to go record something real quick, and then we dont hear from her again.

last scene would be of the doctor, years and years into the future, during one of his alone periods, sifting through the tardis database and happening upon the archived recording files and listening to them, not remembering exactly but living through these events with a person that was there but also never there to begin with, and the last recording being an actual face recording of jenna saying you know, she doesnt regret a minute of it, go out there and have a nice life and dont feel bad for her before saying goodbye and zapping out of existence.

last “scene” i guess would be a fifteen year old jenna, rather than the 18-19 year old we’ve come to know, waking up the day it all started and realizing she accidentally napped through the whole day when her parents wake her up. it seems apparent she doesn’t remember a thing, but her parents say something offhand that wouldve been a prolific line and she has a sense of deja vu and hints towards her someday maybe remembering but also having a chance to live a life without the trauma of her life lead in the other universe

so uh yeah. idk why i decided to write all of this. actually i do i have an essay i have to write but. idk this fic was a huge part of my life for like. a good amount of time and despite its tackiness im actually very proud of it and just wanted to share its story without having anyone ever have the link to it and read it because despite my careful planning i did narrate like a superwholock for most of it and it was REALLY annoyin. but this fic and the character of jenna actually helped me work through a lot of my own bullshit and im still kind of in love with it. and in the years to come actually m*ffat fucking used these plot points like the tardis hating the companion n the doctor forgetting about a companion like years after i wrote this shit but i think i wrapped up the cracks in the universe n silence thing pretty fucking well so uh. petition for fifteen year old me to rewrite the last half of season 6 i guess. anyway its 2 in the morning and i just wrote honest to god a full 5,000 words about my doctor who oc fanfiction so uh. yeah. fuck.

#so dumb

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tardis-stowaway · 3 years

Text

Concept: A streaming service releases a movie about a person caught in a time loop that ends not with breaking the time loop, but with the protagonist reaching peace with the new condition of their life, making a point of finding joy in small things and doing good works even if they don’t last.

It was a pretty good movie, so when you have a friend over who you think would like it, you watch the movie again. About 2/3 way through the movie, something starts feeling off. You didn’t exactly memorize the movie the first time, but it feels like some scenes are going differently. As the movie goes on, you become more and more certain that it’s not the same. The ending is definitely different. The protagonist still ends the film trapped in the time loop, but this time they’re in despair about it. This ending emphasizes the futility of trying to change controlling systems and the way people’s fundamental natures trap them in destructive cycles.

You’re initially shocked not to see the movie you expected, but you realize that it must have two alternate versions, shown either randomly or in some designated order depending on how many times you’ve viewed the film. You wonder if there’s more than two versions, so you watch it again.

Broadly speaking, it seems like the same film you watched the first time, but even though you can’t put your finger on any specific changes, it feels a bit different, like maybe the film’s editor used different takes. In the jubilant final scene, you realize that the protagonist isn’t wearing a snazzy leather jacket like you remember, but instead a button-down shirt with sleeves rolled up their forearms.

The fourth time you watch it, you get the grim ending again, except this time in the final scene the protagonist isn’t crying silently while staring into the distance, but wailing while covering their face with their hands.

The fifth viewing, the protagonist goes mad by the end, though the film is clear that they’re mad within a time loop rather than imagining a time loop due to madness. The sixth time, the mood of the ending is stoic resignation.

You finally get online to look for information about this film. There’s plenty of people talking about the film and its different versions. The streaming service has implemented some super-advanced anti-piracy technology, so no one can save clips, and even trying to use another device to film a tv showing the movie seems to just result in weird static. That makes it impossible for people to compare footage from their versions and figure out exactly how many there are, but it’s clear there are lots.

The director and cast did some publicity before the film was released, talking about the characters and the setting, but there was no mention of alternate versions. They haven’t done any press since the release. One person online claims to have run into the director at a Starbucks in Malibu and asked whether there were any alternate endings where the movie’s protagonist escapes the time loop.

“The structure of storytelling, at least as we understand it in Western culture, always calls for an ending,” the director said with a wink, then slipped out the door, clutching a triple-shot hazelnut latte. The online person reporting this encounter didn’t realize until too late that that wasn’t actually an answer.

You watch the movie again and again, usually several times a week. You take notes each time so you can better spot the differences. You start changing how you watch it: different times of day, on different devices, with different settings. Maybe there’s a trick to control which version you’ll get. It’s never exactly the same twice. (Just how long did they spend filming all these versions? You can’t find any information about the lead actors working on any new projects.) The repetition and lack of resolution are maddening, but every time you decide you’re done with watching this movie you only make it a few days before you give in and watch it again. You keep hoping to find the ending where the time loop breaks, but it never happens.

Finally, in frustration, you open a document on your computer. You stay up until 4 am furiously typing. Eventually you have it: a new version of the latter half of the movie where the protagonist successfully breaks the time loop. Your ending is true to both with the film’s worldbuilding and the protagonist’s character. It’s big and triumphant. You can’t remember the last time you felt so satisfied.

You go to sleep. The next day, you open up the streaming site. Your cursor lingers on the time loop movie you’ve watched so many times before, but instead you select a teen rom com that looks like it will take absolutely no narrative risks. You feel free.

The day after that, you have an idea for how the time loop film’s protagonist could break out of the loop in a super ridiculous way. Just thinking about it cracks you up. You don’t want to forget any part of this hilarious idea. You open another document and type it out.

Three weeks later you’re sitting in a Starbucks. You have another idea for how the protagonist can break out of the loop but with absolutely heartbreaking consequences. It’s painful to consider, but the idea won’t let you rest. You open your laptop and go to the folder already growing crowded with version after version of the protagonist’s escape from the time loop. You take a sip of triple-shot hazelnut latte and begin again.

#original fiction #time loops #my writing #long post #second person narration #eerie #(ish)#don't mind me just felt like writing up this idea #tardis-stowaway's writing & stuff

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