(no subject)
Jun. 7th, 2011 02:45 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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who_contestTitle: The Better Part of Valor
Rating: G
Genre: Introspection, gen
Word Count: 299
Characters: Victoria, mentions of Two and Jamie
Warnings: Spoilers for Evil of the Daleks and Fury from the Deep.
Summary: The problem with nights is you're alone with just yourself and the past.
-
Lately, Victoria Waterfield is afraid of the dark.
And it isn’t just that every creak of the old house or rustle of leaves makes her think of cybermats or long, noxious tendrils reaching from the abyss in the sea, though she’d been quite happily ignorant of those horrors before she met the Doctor.
It’s that after the bustle of the day has died down, the weight of everything she’s lost weighs on her. Her father. Her home. She tries to keep her chin up and not show weakness, but when she’s alone the façade drops.
She misses the Doctor and Jamie, too, and she fears for them. There were days when, if it hadn’t been for her, they would have met an awful fate. And maybe, despite all the bravery she’s shown, they think her a coward for leaving. That’s almost unbearable, because she knows how much they value courage. But she lets them think less of her, because her real fear is too terrible to be voiced. She’d been afraid that one day she wouldn’t be enough, and the Doctor’s luck would run out.
Victoria had known that day was coming. It comes for all brave fools. She just doesn’t want to see it. She doesn’t want to think of the day the Doctor and Jamie are parted by the only thing strong enough to part them, or imagine that kindly old face in pain. She doesn’t want to picture the TARDIS collecting moss the day no one comes back.
But every night, there those images are, along with the ones of her father killed by Daleks, her house burning, all the pain and loss she’s seen in her travels. She left all that, deliberately, for a new and peaceful life. She’d thought that leaving would be enough.
Rating: G
Genre: Introspection, gen
Word Count: 299
Characters: Victoria, mentions of Two and Jamie
Warnings: Spoilers for Evil of the Daleks and Fury from the Deep.
Summary: The problem with nights is you're alone with just yourself and the past.
-
Lately, Victoria Waterfield is afraid of the dark.
And it isn’t just that every creak of the old house or rustle of leaves makes her think of cybermats or long, noxious tendrils reaching from the abyss in the sea, though she’d been quite happily ignorant of those horrors before she met the Doctor.
It’s that after the bustle of the day has died down, the weight of everything she’s lost weighs on her. Her father. Her home. She tries to keep her chin up and not show weakness, but when she’s alone the façade drops.
She misses the Doctor and Jamie, too, and she fears for them. There were days when, if it hadn’t been for her, they would have met an awful fate. And maybe, despite all the bravery she’s shown, they think her a coward for leaving. That’s almost unbearable, because she knows how much they value courage. But she lets them think less of her, because her real fear is too terrible to be voiced. She’d been afraid that one day she wouldn’t be enough, and the Doctor’s luck would run out.
Victoria had known that day was coming. It comes for all brave fools. She just doesn’t want to see it. She doesn’t want to think of the day the Doctor and Jamie are parted by the only thing strong enough to part them, or imagine that kindly old face in pain. She doesn’t want to picture the TARDIS collecting moss the day no one comes back.
But every night, there those images are, along with the ones of her father killed by Daleks, her house burning, all the pain and loss she’s seen in her travels. She left all that, deliberately, for a new and peaceful life. She’d thought that leaving would be enough.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-08 01:44 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-08 02:22 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-08 02:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-13 03:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-08 08:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-13 04:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-08 09:19 pm (UTC)The pain you conveyed was so tangible. The reveal of what she was truly afraid of took me by surprise and it moved me that she took it with her rather than voice it. But the last two sentences nailed it for me. The hint that she didn't leave the fear and pain behind like she thought she could. Absolutely perfect!
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-13 04:20 pm (UTC)I'm glad I was able to get the feeling of the story across even to someone unfamiliar with it!
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-13 12:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-13 04:38 pm (UTC)I kind of have Classic Who on the brain, as I've been watching the whole thing in order. (Currently on Three and Jo's episodes. And yes, that does mean I made it through all 108 recons.) I'm a huge fan of the new series as well, of course.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-14 10:52 pm (UTC)ALL OF WHO? IN ORDER!? My giddy aunt, as Two would say! Ambitious and something I've never done actually. I only own a couple of the recons (the Yeti stories with Victoria included) and despite being a fan of all eras there are many stories I haven't seen, including some renowned ones (Key to Time Season, Talons of Weng Chaing, Dameons). But good luck to you!
Have you got any of the About Time Book Collection? It's a series of a critical look at the Classic Series and each story and well worth reading whilst seeing some of the stories! :)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-15 01:03 am (UTC)The only one of those renowned stories I've seen and you haven't is The Daemons. It was like a Good Omens crossover waiting to happen.
I have a friend who watched all of Who in order in a year, something my ship has already sailed on. (Actually, she skipped ahead to Five's serials, then watched them again in order, so she saw all of his episodes twice.) The only thing I've cheated on so far is I watched the TV movie, but I say that doesn't count because it's not part of the same run.
Some stuff I couldn't imagine watching out of order, like, The War Games hit hard because I'd been following Two and his companions, and then Spearhead from Space was almost like The War Games Part 2 for me, on an emotional level. (Apparently, the same guy was in charge of both those stories, and only those two. They share a certain...feel, which ties together what would otherwise be two different stories about two different Doctors.) Even where there isn't overt continuity, there's emotional continuity.
And actually, as for cliches...I've seen some. I've lost count of the number of Victoria fics I've seen involving her being unable to get out of her clothes without assistance. I think this is some kind of helplessness kink, or perhaps misguided feminism (in a, "See how far we've come? Women couldn't even get undressed by themselves in Victorian times!" way). I've done the research, and it is perfectly possible to get out of crinoline and a corset by yourself. Victoria being stuck in her underwear is about as probable as Amy not being able to get her own bra off because it hooks in the back and that's hard. Plus a lot of classic fic tends to be shippy, in a WAFF-y, heteronormative, foregone-conclusion sort of way. Like, this dude and this lady were totally in the same episodes, you know they got married and had babies! And that just does nothing for me. :/ (I like gen, though! Gen is good!) Not knocking classic fic, some of it's spectacular! Just saying that Sturgeon's Law applies across the board. XD
I do not have the About Time Book Collection, though this blog (http://tardiseruditorum.blogspot.com) has some very interesting meta, mostly for the Hartnell era thus far. I also watch some of the episodes with my partner and discuss it with the friend I mentioned who's seen all of them, so we get some pretty good analyses going. :D
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-15 10:22 pm (UTC)It's fair to say that the 60's female companions were - interesting and occasionally well written as they could - were often there to scream, sprain their ankle and other rather womenly things. Despite this I do love many of the 60's girls - Barbara, Vicki and Victoria in particular.
I usually prefer Gen Fic too given that it's like the actual show and the era it's trying to replicate. That being said I do have my prefered 'pairings' which have either always been around (like Ian/Barbara, Jamie/Victoria, Five/Nyssa and Amy/Rory) or fellow fans have got me hooked into (case in point - lostspook getting me into Liz/Brigadier!) But despite that I reckon Classic Stuff tends to be less (and forgive me for not having a better word but as a fanboy it does always pop up in my mind) 'fangirly' than several New Series fics. Indeed this has often threatened to put me off characters like Rose Tyler altogether! But to each his or her own.
Anyway, hope you enjoy the rest of the Pertwee era! Three is one of my joint place top three Doctors (Five and Ten being the other two) and I think you'll really enjoy the first appearance of Sarah Jane and Tom's first season (Giant Robot! Davros' first appearance! Highly Campy Cybermen and Snakeish Cybermats!).
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-16 10:36 pm (UTC)Also, this (http://www.youtube.com/user/johnnyfanboy) is the guy on YouTube who makes his own. He uses the narrated versions for most of them, unlike the Loose Cannon ones which are un-narrated, so it's a personal preference thing. I found it easier to get through some of them with the narration.
There was certainly a lot of ankle-spraining, but I did feel that right from the getgo, they were making an effort to have strong, intelligent women. Susan, an early favorite of mine, was established as a mysterious genius. Sadly, many of the later writers seemed to take their cue from "child" rather than "unearthly," and her character was assassinated in subsequent episodes, but I remain enamored of what I consider the spirit of the character.
I do love Zoe, and I appreciate what they were trying to do with her, but it seemed her character (revisiting the idea they'd failed twice at with both Susan and Vicki--a girl genius) threatened the writers themselves. The better they wrote her, the more they feared her and felt the need to put her down. It was fascinating watching this push-pull of their desire to support feminism and their kneejerk fear of it. This lead to the Doctor being something of an ass to her, like that infamous, "Logic, my dear Zoe, only allows one to be wrong with authority" line, on a statement of hers that was completely logical, and, as it turned out, completely correct. There was absolutely no reason to doubt it. Except that she was a woman.
This, admittedly, is part of the reason I have such fondness for Victoria--she wasn't a feminist statement, so the writers let her be. They were somewhat better at feminism when they weren't trying, because they didn't feel the need to keep kicking Victoria in the teeth like they did to some of the other girls. That, and Deborah Watling's charming performance, of course! <3
I am kind of all hot or all cold when it comes to shipping--I ship complete and utter crack, I ship Ian/Altos from The Keys of Marinus because Altos looked like he needed some warming up, I happily ship Doctor/everyone while asserting that he's asexual, and these things need not get in the way of each other, name a thing and I will find a way to ship it. (A friend once pointed out that the Starwhale loooooooved children. CANNOT UNSEE.) I will absolutely ship canon too--I don't have many posted DW stories, but about half of them are Amy/Rory--it's just that I hate limitations. Shipping Amy/Rory doesn't mean I won't ship Amy/Jamie/starwhale/Altos.
(I had to split this teal deer.)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-16 10:37 pm (UTC)I shipped them both with the Doctor, though.I do get what you mean about fandom being, well, fangirly, and I know that 90% of it is crap, as per Sturgeon's Law, but I kind of....object to that, nonetheless, because women's writing is often ghettoized and dismissed for being women's writing. Even when the writing of some women is legitimized, it's because she beat men at their own game, not because her own game was in any way legitimate. What I love so much about fandom is that it is pretty much female-dominated, and is a female culture. Even when I shake my head at how utterly shitty a lot of fanfiction is, I kind of love it, too, because it's shitty in a very feminine way, and it isn't being stigmatized for that, it's being celebrated, the way we've celebrated masculine shite for god knows how long.
So when I see women's fiction, fanfiction, being dismissed or mocked for the unlikely romances, or the Mary Sues, or the whump, or the hurt/comfort, or the rape fantasies, or god forbid, even mpreg, I feel defensive of it. (I am also a fine purveyor of whump and unlikely romances myself.)
I have noticed that classic fandom is more male, because you have all the old school fanboys that were watching when Tom Baker was on the air, and didn't need a nice female audience avatar like Rose to ease their way in. (Thank you, Rose! :D) So I can understand why dudes would be more comfortable there, and I'm not judging. It's actually a bit of a surprise to me, as I go further into classic fandom, how in some places I'm pretty much the only girl, and I wonder how they see me and my revisionist headcanon and my profound love for Doctor/Master in any form.
I certainly look forward to more Doctor Who! Sarah Jaaane. ;____; I watched all of The Sarah Jane Adventures, so I am quite attached to her character despite not seeing her original run yet. This is gonna break my heart even more.