Fic: The Volteze Falcon
Oct. 31st, 2009 08:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jjporFic: The Volteze Falcon, Part One: Eve, Sam, Harry
I know what you're thinking: "Where's my retro-Torchwood?" "Where's my Sontarans up the Jungle, for that matter?" "ANOTHER WIP??!!". You see, I got mugged by this plot-bunny, and...
Well, it's like this. Like many of you, I greatly enjoyed last week's SJA story “The Mad Woman in the Attic”. The characters Eve, Sam and Harry in particular seemed made for sequel-fic. And then I got thinking; there are quite a few NuWho-era characters out there by now, wandering the stars in search of sequels. And then I read this fic, which I thought was marvellous: www.whofic.com/viewstory.php . Plus I thought wouldn't it be kewl to write something in the freewheeling, slightly cracky vein of some of the 80s and 90s-era DWM comic strips. No shapechanging penguins, though; sorry. And then this plot-bunny jumped out on me, and... So, anyway; Doctor Who, SJA, Torchwood and all the characters and copyrights contained therein belong to the BBC and their individual creators and definitely not to me. Enjoy (I hope)!
The link:
www.whofic.com/viewstory.php
no subject
Date: 2009-10-31 08:51 pm (UTC)Heh, I'm sure it'll be great.
BTW, I saw the Torchwood Graphic novel 'Rift War' at work. It had Harriet and Gerald in it in the middle. That seemed so weird. I was in the library, going, "B-b-but they belong to JJ..." (And Harriet had stolen a tank and a stray Captain, picked up Gerald and then Jack found them both, hugged them both (!) and called Harriet Harry.)
Do you really want shooting? 8-o
no subject
Date: 2009-11-01 03:02 pm (UTC)I knew you'd be thinking all of those thoughts, as you can see. What can I say? Normal service will be resumed?
Yeah, I have read that comic. Well, flicked through it in a bookshop as in Clocket's tale below (yes, I can spend an hour in a bookshop and end up not buying anything - I'm sure the staff find this highly annoying). Like Colonel Crichton, though (the obvious comparison), they're just blank slates as characters go, you could write them any way you liked. So I have this disapproval/grudging respect thing going on between Gerald and Jack, because it amuses me I guess (I nearly typed love/hate, but that's a bit strong). I'm sure my version would be absolutely horrified if Jack hugged him, under any circumstances (although Jack might well do it just to annoy him). And in my version Jack and Harriet never really were that close, mainly because I have Jack going to fight in WW1, and by the time he gets back...er... Plus, Gerald would probably shoot Jack if he suspected there was anything untoward going on there. And then wait for him to come back to life so he could shoot him again.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-02 07:27 pm (UTC)Anyway, the BBC don't seem to want Col. Crichton! ;-p (It's their loss.)
You should try that in a library - we never expect you to buy things and you can look at stuff all day. And even take it home for a few weeks, all for nothing, too. (We're just marvellous like that... :lol:) I always find bookshop staff look coldly on those who browse deeply and do not buy (having done the same thing on occasions being as I can hardly hang around reading in a library these days!)
no subject
Date: 2009-11-02 11:07 pm (UTC)Well, when I bring out my "original" fic about the adventures of Gerard and Henrietta, nobody will be any the wiser...er... (no, not really!).
I think it's probably some sort of heretical error or something to write Torchwood fic in which other members of the team don't hero-worship/get...intimate with Jack. Mind you, Owen in the TV series always had a spiky sort of relationship with the good Captain, which might have been why I quite liked him. You know, despite the fact that he was really rather obnoxious and unlikeable. ;D
no subject
Date: 2009-11-04 07:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-04 08:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-02 08:48 pm (UTC)Oh, and what a nasty little review someone put on Torchwood 1907. (I was investigating the home page & being nosy. I always wonder whether that gets extra reviews or not - sometimes it does). Completely uncalled for when they got that far and only stopped to make unpleasant comments without even bothering to read anything. Much worse than the person who told me I was making my story up. (Well, it's true. I was). And I say this as someone who will give criticism as well as praise (erm, as you know only too well).
no subject
Date: 2009-11-02 10:59 pm (UTC)Okay, I was convinced Kennedy was going to die a hero's death, but this may just be paranoia because I'd adopted him as "my" little character. I also entertained notions that Tilly would end up back in her own time, either with or without Nat, but the reasons you give for her not wanting to do that (and Six's nicely characterised incomprehension and exasperation at her for having them) were all very well-argued and plausible, and seemed very in-character for her. Plus, she wanted to stay with Nat!
I've come to terms with Kennedy being the odd man out in that whole tenuous ship-triangle of my own imagining; he is, in many ways, a latter-day Benton, or so it seems to me, and Benton never had much luck in those stakes either, did he? Now I'm imagining Kennedy whiling away his evenings ballroom dancing with his sister Dolly or whatever, and being all manly and stiff-upper-lipped at Tilly and Nat's eventual wedding. ;D
Yeah, I was to be honest, a little bit bemused by that review...especially the bit about "if you're going to go posting your stories on an archive, you might want to..." I hope my response was suitably sarcastic in a passive-aggressive sort of way, without providing future flamebait. Hey, at least I didn't end it with "moron", or point out the couple of stories I could see on _their_ homepage with similarly, er, minimalist summaries; that would, I felt, be sinking to their level...XD
no subject
Date: 2009-11-04 07:55 pm (UTC)Ah, the trouble with trying to write clearly - I was merely trying to portray the Master as a credible villain and using my OCs and Evelyn to show up just how evil he actually is. (Except, of course, in his first incarnation when he's not evil at all. *remains in denial*). Although, I did hit a point in the middle when I wasn't feeling like having a happy ending. ("Okay, let the Master kill Tilly, or have her go home after all!" I did AU Tilly's choice, because both you and Prim seriously seemed to think she might go back. That was so bleak, I had to bring the Doctor back to sort out the mess he'd made. As everyone knows, Tilly is usually right...)
As to Kennedy... :-D It might also have been that I noticed this and was winding you up just a tad here and there? ;-) No, I like him - he coped ably with the Capt running off in Transition and I made mental notes to promote him. And the triangle is not your imagining - it's there; I just never spelled it out, so I'm pleased that someone got it. But the key is there in Strange Weapons - when it comes to Tilly Kennedy has a sense of self-preservation that Nat doesn't. (They both - not intentionally, I should add, it just worked out that way) do something to save her - Kennedy shoots one of the possessed soldiers, but Nat nearly gets himself shot. Also, it's a triangle where Nat and Kennedy's growing friendship is equally important. In SW, poor old Corp Leonards gets killed and he's Kennedy's friend, but by the end of that he's bonded with Nat a little and they have a rather awkward friendship, because Nat's the Scientific advisor and gets to be the one who gets to give orders, but he's a few years younger than Kennedy (and not like Prof. Arnolds - and the Sgt was one of the few people who got on with him). So playing with the three of them was the most fun - in Lonely House there is some actual rivalry, but by Stardust Kennedy is pretty much resigned to the inevitable (and finding much amusement in standing back and watching Nat get things wrong. And contemplating intervention if they don't just get on with it...).
*coughs* Not that I've spent the last three months thinking about these OCs or anything oddly obsessive like that.
And, btw, Kennedy would like me to tell you that he's not sure who you are and why you're so interested in his private life, but he doesn't have a sister, he has two brothers (and if he did, she'd never have a name like Dollie), he thinks the stiff-upper lip thing sounds a bit daft and posh, and he would like to make it very, very, very clear that he has never been ballroom dancing. (There might have been a barn dance once, and that was bad enough). :lol:
And yeah, that review - it's the difference between talking to someone and saying "Oh, btw, you have a smudge on your face" and marching over to someone randomly, to announce the fact and then waltzing off again. *shakes head*
no subject
Date: 2009-11-04 08:38 pm (UTC)Tilly is always right. I thought the ending as you had it was just right; I think bleakness can be a bit overrated sometimes (although just the ticket at others, mind you), but I'm sure you would have sold the bleak ending as well as you did the one you actually used. But yes, you did make the Master credibly threatening and quite unlikeable in a way that Ainley!Master very rarely is, and it worked very well. It certainly raised the stakes by showing how dangerous he is and how important it was that the Doctor stop him.
Without wanting to get into the whole Master-characterisation thing again, I flip-flop myself on the Delgado!Master as-bad-as-the-rest-but-hiding-it-under-a-gentlemanly-facade/not-necessarily-evil-but-completely-indifferent-to-who-gets-in-the-way-of-his-schemes thing. The others, I think we can all agree, are all wrong'uns.
Yeah, I did detect a certain element of, er, audience-participation shall we say, with regard to Kennedy. I liked the way you drew the relationships between the whole 80s-UNIT crew, and particularly between the central triangle, as it were. And as you demonstrate, you obviously put a lot of time and thought into all of that, and it shows; I'll be honest, I was following this whole series of stories for the OCs and to find out how their stories ended, and I mean that as a very sincere compliment.
And I'm sure he never did any ballroom dancing, because, well, he wouldn't.
What was Benton's sister called? Did he say in The Daemons? I'm going to have to find out now that I've thought about it...
no subject
Date: 2009-11-07 06:10 pm (UTC)Oh, the Master. This is why I tend to limit my writing of the Delgado Master to THis Time Round, where he can be secretly good, but has to keep up his bad reputation, tediously dull though he finds it. TTR is like that. Nyssa is a psychotic Adric-killer, too... :lol:
Heh. And I wrote in Bessie for Prim, too. Seralising fic seems to have that effect, on me at any rate. Time and thought? Insanity is the word... I'm sure (I hope) you know what I mean, when you have all these things you know about these imaginary people and they want their stories Told. Er. Maybe that is insanity? ;-) (And, looking back at your theory - is it bad and wrong that I wrote the wedding?? Admittedly, it was about Private Robinson encountering Ten at the back of the church and making an understandable mistake, but still...)
And I have a feeling it was Mabel. Wasn't in the Android Invasion?? For some reason, I had that in my head.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-07 09:56 pm (UTC)You wrote the wedding?! With Ten involved?! I want to read it! I've noticed the same thing happening when I post fic in instalments - somebody will say something in a response that will make me think about something else I might not have otherwise, or consider doing something differently. And I also know what you mean about wanting to share things about characters -definitely. He isn't really my character, but Gerald in the Torchwood fic has quite the backstory now (in my head!). He's an only child, you know, and not nearly as upper-class as he might appear at first glance. Born in South Africa, mind you (although he never talks about it, had even been known to deny it); his father was a sergeant-major in the Army, but died when he was four, killed by the Zulus at the Battle of Isandlwana in 1879, but not before saving the life of his Colonel, who being filthy rich and a man of honour to boot, paid for Gerald to receive a very expensive education by way of gratitude (his mother died in Cape Town while he was at boarding school in England), with the aim of turning him into an officer and a gentleman. Well, the officer part worked, anyway... Insanity, you say? ;D
no subject
Date: 2009-11-08 01:22 pm (UTC)Hah! *is relieved* That is the fun of LJ, because there's a fine line between 'writing' and all that goes with it and insanity. I love your Gerald background there. You just have to know this stuff. (Except for some characters who remain stubbornly blank...) I feel better now that I know the fate of all Tilly's brother's and sisters, that Nat's dad died in 1968 (when Nat was 10), but the body never turned up, so he became a Missing Person and there were lots of comlications, which his mother (Peg) coped with admirably. And he has a younger sister called Kate. And I know how his Mum and Dad met and everything. And, yeah, all these missing scenes - I'll probably have to do something with them at some point, including the wedding. (And of course the Doctor came!! He would. A UNIT wedding? They never had one of those, because Jo eloped...)
The idea of a sort of LJ 'DVD box set with extras' post amuses me greatly. (I already have a commentary for Transition, a deleted Coda for Strange Weapons, missing scenes from Lonely House and an AU ending for Stardust). I may have to - the thought makes me laugh at myself a lot. *coughs* Sorry, was I claiming I wasn't insane, after all?
no subject
Date: 2009-11-08 10:12 pm (UTC)Well, I know I'd love to read some of that stuff if you ever wanted to post it, along with some thoughts and comments on it all. Definitely. Some of the stuff about Nat's and Tilly's families etc sounds like it might well come into play in that Nat/Tilly original fic you were talking about. And maybe I'll post some of my "fictional non-fiction" stuff about Torchwood (or "insert name here" if we're talking the "original" fic version) in WW2 and the intersection between alien fighting and Cold War skulduggery in the 50s and 60s (including the deplorable career of Professor Osterhagen of Key fame).
And I know what you mean about some characters remaining blanks. To take another example from the Torchwood fic, I know pretty well the outline of Enderby's career with the Institute even if I don't know all of his biography (he died in 1938, of natural causes. Well, brandy and natural causes), and the nature of Douglas's Dark Secret (and that he unexpectedly ended up being commanding officer Torchwood Three from 1920-1930), but that chap Caldicott is a mystery to me. All I know is he's slime.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-09 08:39 pm (UTC)Blank charcaters - it's funny, isn't it? Until suddenly something reveals all...
And would that I could move on from here with dignity, but, to be honest, yes, I'm sure you'll see some of that stuff. Writing about the pair of them has seen me through the restructure this far and if I emerge into the real world again before that's over, I may give up. (We're losing 6 out of 9 of our team; my post's dead and I'm to be a Jack of All Trades. Because professions and specialisms are elitist and wrong. The dustbin men are so going to like being managed by a children's librarian. Oh, and I can still do what I do now at the same time. Yay. I can't wait.) So, Nat/Tilly obsession seems like a very good idea. Besides, I shall have to do the missing Sept 1985 scenes from Lonely House at least. Sgt Kennedy gets to carry Tilly to sickbay. :lol: (And where we find out civil servant Mr Argyle feels that people whose fathers disappeared are Not Reliable and that Kennedy's maths isn't great. So Nat claims, anyway.)
And, yeah, I did write that 'original' version and, yes, you're right. And it's a 1985 tale of sex, drugs and rock and roll. Oh, no, wait. The noisy music bit isn't going in... *grins*)
no subject
Date: 2009-11-09 09:51 pm (UTC)But yeah, I can't get enmeshed in all that stuff. The WW2 stuff has had a strange half-life for a while as possible original fic, without going beyond research and note-taking, although recently the notes have started assuming that the shady 1940s-era British alien research unit (hitherto unnamed) is the wartime incarnation of Torchwood; that could change though. Turns out that in real life the British and Americans had various cutthroat special operations and intelligence units (which, depending on the eccentricity and/or charisma of the men leading them sometimes came to amount to little private armies) whose job was to follow hot on the heels (and sometimes actually ahead of) the advancing armies and nick the best bits of German science and technology (and the scientists too!) before the Russians could. Seems like exactly the sort of thing the Institute would do, assuming the Germans had been messing with alien tech (Google Nazi UFOs if you want to be simultaneously tickled by wacko conspiracy theories and deeply concerned by the credulity/political dubiousness of some of the people peddling them. The original Foo Fighters were not a band made up of the survivors from Nirvana!). Research makes me feel virtuous and useful, anyway! ;D
And I feel for you regarding restructuring; we too are currently doing more with less or whatever the hell they call it, and it is worrying times in general. I try not to worry about things that are beyond my control while at the same time trying to make sure my escape routes are clear if it comes to it (although that's not so easy in these times). And you're right; writing helps a lot.
So yeah, Nat, Tilly, Kennedy and the rest of them; bring 'em on! Hang on a minute...it contains what, what and what??!! Oh, no rock and roll? That's all right then... ;D
no subject
Date: 2009-11-12 06:41 pm (UTC)Yes, I remembered you saying your work wasn't great either at the moment, either. :-( However, one potential line of escape seems very promising to me, even if you have to work at Tesco the rest of the time to get actual money... (But, you know, you could still be the Next Big Thing and then you wouldn't have to. :lol:) Heh. We've been doing more with less for at least ten years.
Oh, there'll be stuff. Presently. The worse things get at work, the more there'll be. :lol: (And I may possibly have exaggerated just a teensy bit there.)
no subject
Date: 2009-11-13 01:42 pm (UTC)Re lines of escape; it'd be nice, wouldn't it? Well, maybe not the Tesco bit, but I'd tell myself it was just til I broke through! ;D Have to actually write something before you can break through, though...
Well, I look forward to the stuff, then, and don't let them grind you down.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-13 06:11 pm (UTC)So finish something. Anything, but finish something original. Seriously, I get to read and review things frequently and you have it all in terms of ideas, plot, characterisation and style. The one thing I didn't know is if you finish things. People get published whatever the market by finishing books and then never letting up till one of them gets accepted and nothing's changed. Except you might need an agent these days, which is very irritating.
(No, I meant Tesco to subsidise the ridiculously small income you would have from your published book. Unless, of course, it shot up the bestseller lists like a rocket. Authors by and large have to be madly popular or have a long backlist not to need a second job. Or a spouse with a Proper Job. But it's a bit mercenary to go looking for one of those for that reason. ;-D Of course, authors do like moaning when they get together in packs, so maybe they exaggerated, but I think it's more or less true! You'll find you suddenly develop an interest in the survival of libraries, because of the library lending right, too...)
Anyway, I'm sure you could live without another one of my annoying, bossy comments, but I've had to read enough unoriginal rubbish that's actually been published to be dismayed by the thought of you simply not finishing things. (You could always do short sf stories. There's still an opening there, and they only publish male authors, so you have the advantage. Hah.) I'm sure you know all this, I know, I know. All anyone needs to know this stuff is the internet and the Writer's and Artist's Yearbook.
Do you think I spend too much time reading The Bookseller and stuff? ;-D (It's dramatic stuff, I tell you, The Bookseller... "it's the End of the publishing trade/the Book/libraries" every week. They definitely exaggerate. :lol:)
I would give you hints on trends, but these date and all I know is that Horror stuff if back in with the children's and teen, thanks to Twilight. Goosebumps are reappearing and there's various series. And the rest is still pink and sparkly. I don't think it's quite the same in the adult. Although a top tip on how to get published as an adult author that you might not know is this:
1. Write a family saga (fondly known as the Aga Saga)
2. Give yourself a female pseudonym (unlike sf being male is a downside here. And who says gender stereotyping is dead?)
3. Get published. (Make sure the book is fat enough to do well at the airports).
4. Try to find out how to make your publisher let you do something that isn't an Aga Saga...
You're probably really working in a publishers and raising your eyebrows at me now...
no subject
Date: 2009-11-14 08:29 pm (UTC)The best bets at the moment seem to be the "original" version of the Torchwood fic(s), which wouldn't really be a direct lift, as I envision "my" secret Edwardian weird-science organisation as being very different in scale and organisation and less alien-fixated than Torchwood are, and this strange retro space-opera thing I've been messing about with for a while (but which I haven't actually written that much of in finished form); any of the other things I've got on the go at the moment are much further away from actually being the finished article (including the WW2 stuff, which is lots of ideas and research but without an actual story to hang them on at the moment).
But I'll definitely let you know how I get on, and maybe ask you and others on my flist to look some things over when I have them in readable form (if that isn't too much of an imposition - I know you have things to be getting on with too!)
no subject
Date: 2009-11-14 08:46 pm (UTC)I've written rubbish, but finished rubbish, in every case. It's just a shame it's rubbish. :lol:
And certainly. I have a contract that says the council own my life anyway, so I'd have to get a different job to seriously write something myself. Of course, by that time I might have forgotten how it was to be a librarian and not have anything useful to say, but I always count it a privilege to get to proof-read things. Just if it's graphic stuff, you'll need someone else, because I'll be skimming over it hastily...
(I say, we're going for a narrow thread again here. Are we two old windbags or what?)
no subject
Date: 2009-11-15 03:33 pm (UTC)Well, thanks for the offer, and I think I will be taking you up on it, so be warned! I think setting oneself targets and deadlines, and moreover letting other people know you have set yourself targets and deadlines so that you have that element of pressure to make sure that you do it, is probably a good idea, even if it is something I always wussily shy away from.
So, give me a chance to clear my decks ongoing fanfic wise (and write my Xmas fic, which I want to do), and we shall see... We shall indeed...
no subject
Date: 2009-11-15 08:15 pm (UTC)Cool
Yes, it's called
accountability...
And I'll only regret it
if you have page
long
paragraphs.
:-p
Xmas fic!!
no subject
Date: 2009-11-15 08:48 pm (UTC)Heh
Yes
Very
Good!
And
Yes,
Xmas
Fic!
Possibly
with
Three
and
UNIT
and
Delgado!Master
in
it.
Possibly.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-17 06:21 pm (UTC):-p
no subject
Date: 2009-11-17 08:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-01 08:12 am (UTC)In sort of the same line of subject, I saw that Torchwood Archives book for sale when I went nerding with Newton over the summer. I sort of flipped through it in store, shaking my head and going "but this is ALL WRONG! What really happens is... *insert JJ fic here*"
no subject
Date: 2009-11-01 02:52 pm (UTC)Just keep chanting with me; there is no canon, there is no canon, there is no...
If you're wondering where I got my retro-Torchwood info, I've discovered it's still up here (with the group photo that was only glimpsed in the TV episode):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/torchwood/sites/arg/pages/episodes.shtml?folder=tw_case_ep03&tab=1&nonflash=1
You can see the bits I nicked to use in my stories as well - airships, etc. Be warned, Harriet's paragraph contains SPOILERS
BTW, Ianto said Harriet was 26, not 24 in the actual episode (I have it written down on my tattered old fanfic piece of paper here); and Ianto was never wrong about anything. Well, apart from that plan to foil the 456 actually working, but...that was the very last time he was ever wrong about anything...
Ace, Ten and Donna; I'm _thinking hard_ about it, but you know how it is with the bunnies etc. It will happen, though.