Fic: Protect and Survive

[jjpor]

Fic: Protect and Survive, Part VIII: Protect and Survive

The conclusion! Answers, though they may not be the ones the Doctor wants to hear, and a solution, of sorts; here's hoping it makes sense. More past Doctor cameos too. All of the quotations I have used as chapter headings in this fic are from the movie Dr Strangelove, and some dialogue in this part is taken from the Who stories Genesis of the Daleks by Terry Nation and Resurrection of the Daleks by Eric Saward. The Daleks belong to the Terry Nation estate. None of these things belong to me!

The link:

www.whofic.com/viewstory.php

Comments

[vonquixote.livejournal.com]

I remember 'Rags', and vaguely remember thinking there was an awful lot of sex and violence, and Three forgetting who he is in a moment that seemed so unlike him. I agree that it was a curious choice of Doctor and associates to use for a dark, vicious extended homage to punk rock and exploration of its potential to provoke genuine and shocking violence. The Ragman himself was quite an intriguing creation, though, even if I can't see him and Three together without my brain revolting and saying THIS SHOULD NOT BE. He'd have worked a lot better opposite Seven, I think, just because 'dark but slightly ludicrous' is basically Seven's taste in adversaries right through.

I still enjoyed it, though: it's not badly written, the Ragged Army is an interesting conceit, and I admit to a little parochial thrill when the action kicked off in Princetown and the closest it came to the Home Counties was Glastonbury.

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

I remember enjoying it too; as you say, the concept of it was intriguing, but at the same time it is hard to shake the feeling that sex+violence+Three=DOES NOT COMPUTE! I mean, Three from Season 8 on is about as cosy as Doctor Who gets (and I mean that as an observation rather than a criticism, Three fans).

I think it highlights one issue that the MAs/PDAs ran into; where writers tried to make them more than novel-length professional-standard fanfics, the effect was always a little bit jarring. On the one hand, people like Mark Gatiss and Gareth Roberts were writing spot-on pastiches of Two-era historicals or Three-Master Shenanigans or Season 17 hijinks, which were great reads, but unambitious. On the other hand, the stories that tried to actually do significant things to the characters came off as a little bit strange, slotted as they were into gaps in the onscreen continuity. I can't remember now whether they had some sort of reset button in place, but it stretches credulity that the UNIT posse could go through something like "Rags" and then all be back to cosy-cups-of-tea-in-the-lab and bantering-with-the-Brig the very next week.