"No, Not the Mind Probe!!?!"

Less than 24 hours to go, at least here in the UK, until Eleven bites the big one and Mr Peter Capaldi takes up the Doctorly mantle. In the meantime, please allow me to extend the best wishes of the season - and of whichever midwinter holiday you may or may not be celebrating - to all of you. Have a good one. :)

And thinking of Eleven, and my own sadness tinged with excitement concerning his impending demise, I thought I'd just run through eleven of my favourite Eleven stories and why I like them:

( 11 Eleven Stories )

There were certainly a number of others that would have made the list had it been longer, or had I been compiling it on a different day. The only reason The Day of the Doctor didn't make it is because I don't think it counts as purely an Eleven story...and because I'm still recovering from it a month later and can't really offer an objective assessment as yet. I'm sure all of you will have your own that you would have included in such a list while being quietly appalled by some of my choices. Who fandom - I hope it never changes. :) Please feel free to discuss any serious omissions I may have made in the comments to this post.

I don't know who wrote them for me yet (all will be revealed next week), but I'd like to recommend the two excellent fics I have been gifted as part of the eleventyfest fanworkathon:

Title: Bounce
By: Anonymous
Words: 5,470
Type: Gen
Age: Teen
Characters: The Doctor (11th), Amy/Rory, Vastra/Jenny, Strax, Canton Everett Delaware III
Author's Note: A mysterious device affects the lives of the Doctor and his friends.

Why you should read it: Because it's great. It's basically a compendium of some of my current favourite things/obsessions: "Classic" Eleven+Amy+Rory; the Consulting Detective, wife and butler; Mr Delaware being basically the coolest dude ever. And it's really well written, and even includes glimpses of Historical Torchwood and an ace in-passing X-Files reference too. Good stuff. Ticks all my boxes.

Title: Trouble in the Deep
By: Anonymous
Words: 4,940
Type: Gen, F/F, F/M
Age: Teen
Characters: The Doctor (11th), River, Amy/Rory, Vastra/Jenny, Strax, Silurians
Author's Note: Something wicked is afoot under London and Vastra can't stop dreaming. Jenny calls in the Doctor, River calls in Amy and Rory, and the problem turns out to be much bigger than anyone imagined.

Why you should read this one too: Because it's also great, again ticks numerous of my idiosyncratic boxes. And it's a well-thought-out story with a mystery that only deepens as it goes on before being resolved in a way that makes more sense the more you think about it. As well as exploring something of the condition of the Doctor and the life he leads, through looking at the relationships of those around him. The characterisation of Jenny in particular is great. Also good stuff.


Well, go on, then, read them! :)

Again, MASSIVE SPOILERS if you've somehow managed to remain completely incommunicado since last night (although if you're reading this and you're in the UK, you probably saw the news already practically as soon as you launched your web browser):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22745398

Fancy a bet on any of those? Me neither.

And here's more or less exactly the same story from the last time this happened:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7699513.stm

Look, it was the only pun I could think of, okay?

( SPOILERY musings follow... )

50th Anniversary Fanwork-a-thon-a-thon, Round One: Eleven

(Secondary prompt: Sonic Screwdriver)

You will all recall me discussing my plans for a series of monthly fanwork challenges counting down to the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who. Well, today's the day. Please, if you are at all interested in Doctor Who fanwork, take the time to check out the launch posts on the Who @ 50 comm and maybe even, y'know, sign up.

The Livejournal Version

The Dreamwidth Version

All are welcome!

Boosting the signal - if you're so inclined, please check out the 3rd Annual Eleven/Romana Ficathon:

http://eleven-romana.livejournal.com/7493.html

To quote the esteemed clocketpatch, its creator and proprietor:

The time when we gather together to write fic (and make art) about Eleven-era characters meeting up with Romana. Why do we do this? Because Eleven is awesome and Romana is awesome, therefore putting them together must obviously = double the awesome and the fic results from past years certainly support this conclusion. So, without further ado, I open day registrations for the third annual Eleven_Romana ficathon!

Rules:

All entries must contain at least one Eleven era character interacting with Romana. This can be Romana I, II, III or an author created version. There is no minimum length requirements, but anything over 1000 words must be under a cut or link. There are no rating restrictions, but you must cut and warn for anything over PG-13.

You know you want to...

Look, I don't condone River Song or the causes of River Song, but I was thinking: Surely somebody, somewhere, has by now made an Eleven/River fanvid to the song "She's a River" by Scots dad-rock legends Simple Minds? I mean, surely? The lyrics are even halfway appropriate, if you listen to them in the right frame of mind...

Title: Four Weddings and a Funeral
Author: jjpor
Characters: Romana (IV?), the Doctor (11th), mentions of the S6 crew, a couple of British Prime Ministers, one original companion, Autons, Ice Warriors, Daleks, Sontarans, Cybermen, Uncle Tom Cobley and all
Rating: All ages
Word count: 13,000 approx (it grew!)
Disclaimer: Doctor Who and its many different copyrights and characters do not belong to me but rather to the BBC and/or their original creators. The Daleks in particular belong to the Terry Nation estate.
Author's notes: Written for clocketpatch's eleven_romanaficathon. It's only *mumble* days late, too! It's sort of a sequel to my earlier Eleven/Romana stories Fearful Symmetry and Stop Me If You've Heard This One, generally looking at how the surviving present-day Romana in those might react to the events of the Season 6 finale (and if you want to know how she survived, read those stories - shameless plug there! :D). And a bit of Doctor/Romana too, because that's what I'm into.
Summary: As the Doctor approaches his big day - in more ways than one - he turns to one of his old friends for help. And she remembers some of the times they had. Spoilers for The Wedding of River Song.

I liked that one rather a lot - the first S6 story since, oh...The Doctor's Wife, probably, that I can go, unreservedly "that was a good'un, that one!" (The Gangers two-parter - okay, mostly. AGMGTW - surprisingly disappointing - I may elaborate on why another time. Let's Kill Hitler - pretty good from an entertainment point of view but kind of empty when you got past the fun bits. Night Terrors - a damp squib, to be honest). But yeah - liked it. Gillan, Darvill, Smith were ace and you know, it was actually about stuff. You could actually consider the options and decisions the characters took on a basis that was more than just timey-wimey technobabble.

So, thumbs up! The SPOILERY question I wanted to pose, though, was this:

( Read more... )

Next week looks like a corker, just going from the trailer. We will see...