Fic Embryo for Doctor Who
11 Jul 2010 12:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
promethia_tenkI've been doing a lot of writing lately, and today I produced something which just might be the beginning of a very long fic indeed. It does, however, scare me because 1) I very rarely finish what I start 2) it seems to be in a fairly straight-forward, realistic style, rather than my usual humor, crackfic, or pretentious poetic nonsense 3) it's going to involve a lot of weighty time travel stuff like it's . . . proper science fiction or something.
I've decided to post it in the hopes that its being on the internet will make it seem more real and just in case some kind member of my flist had any thoughts.
PG, no real warnings, "Big Bang" spoilers sort of, and River Song:
The corridors of the Archaeology department at the University of Santa Croce were swarming with students, and Amy and Rory were having a hard time keeping up with the Doctor as he wove between them, making for the lab on the fourth floor from which the transmissions they’d tracked seemed to be coming.
Amy, intent on plowing ahead, ran suddenly into the Doctor’s back. “Woah, watch it there!” He’d stopped in his tracks in the middle of the hallway and was standing, head tilted in puzzlement, hands grasping abstractedly at the air. The students squeezed by on both sides.
“Amy?” He pointed back to her without turning around. “Did you just see that?”
“See what?”
“Rory? No? Back there, down the hall, about twenty seconds ago?”
“Uh . . .” Rory looked in confusion from Amy to the Doctor and back again. “Bit of a blur. I saw students . . . a bench . . . doors?”
“Doors! Yes!” The Doctor twirled on the spot and grinned at them. “Or rather, a specific door . . .” He set off with a skip and brought himself up just in time to avoid crashing into said door, an entirely unremarkable office door amongst a whole bunch of other unremarkable office doors. “Or rather, a specific door plate . . .” and he brought his nose to within a few inches of the lettering and gave it a good squint. “Hello there . . .” He smiled at the door and turned expectantly to his companions, who had just caught him up.
Amy brushed her hair out of her face and eyed up the situation. Under a small frosted window, just below eye level, were two small plaques:
“Hey, what the . . . ???!?! What’s this about?” An alarmed-looking man in a sweater vest greeted them from behind a desk, jumping to his feet to confront the intruders.
The Doctor, glancing around the room in interest, took a moment to reply: “Oh, very sorry. Looking for Dr. Song, have you seen her?”
“She’s in a lecture. Are you students?” Dr. Blackstrop sat back down. His desk was painfully neat, as was the whole side of the room around it. The room itself was small and very cramped.
The Doctor looked at him, slightly insulted. “Students?” Then he turned to his companions and, eyeing them up and down, changed his mind. “Ah . . . no, not as such. Well, students of life, really, but then, who isn’t?” Blackstrop looked unimpressed. “No, we’re just friends, passing through . . . happened to be in the neighborhood.” Then, as if an idea had suddenly occurred to him: “Where is this lecture?”
Amy smirked to herself and wondered if River deserved some advanced warning. Blackstrop, however, was glancing at his watch: “She’ll be done soon, and I have a meeting I need to be in. I suppose you can wait here, just don’t . . .” he nudged a stray pen back in line with some others, “. . . touch anything.”
The Doctor watched the movement doubtfully. “Wouldn’t think of it.” And turning to the messy side of the room, he climbed over River’s desk and plopped down in her chair. “Enjoy your meeting.”
Dr. River Song put a hand to her head and watched her students filing out. It had been a good class, all in all. There had been questions, for once: a handful of stupid ones, three or four legitimate, and one genuinely interesting one that inspired some frantic scribbling on the overhead screen, some improvised back and fourth, and a promise to get back to them once she’d looked some things up. Now, however, the energy was wearing off, and she felt rumpled and exhausted. She could feel her hair coming out of its clasp, frizzy tendrils falling into her eyes. She hadn’t slept six hours together the last two nights, she had two chapter revisions due to her editor by the end of the week, and her shoes were absolutely killing her. Thank goodness she had some time before office hours that afternoon.
River gathered up her familiar pile of books and data pads and, cursing the lack of pockets in this suit, stuck her laser stylus into her bun for safekeeping. Coffee, she thought, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee. And she headed back to her office, willing every person she passed on the way not to stop her to talk.
Her door was, strangely, unlocked, which led her to re-lock it by accident and then struggle vainly with the stuck door. By the time she’d sorted that out, she was in about as cranky a mood as she was willing to allow herself. It did not help matters, therefore, when she walked into her office to find three strangers within, two standing around looking bored, and an odd-looking one with his feet up on her desk, studying her copy of Thedeuseus.
The odd one looked up at her with a knowing smile: “Hi, honey.”
River didn’t bother hiding her annoyance: “Who the hell are you?"
______________________________________________________________________
Ideas about where this is going:
1) This is, in fact, the second time River has met the Doctor. The first time was a different regeneration, and she still knows precious little about him. She doesn't quite trust he's the same person.
2) The thing in the lab that the Doctor tracked is an artifact River picked up in a supposedly empty part of space. It is giving off weird time readings.
3) River's specialty of archaeo-astronomy is a real thing: it involves studying past cultures' understanding of the sky and of celestial bodies. I imagine by the 51st century this field has expanded to include the study of how past civilizations traveled through space, understood spacetime, etc.
4) River's book that she's working on involves documented evidence of historical spacetime anomalies, as seen in the remains of past civilizations. She believes these anomalies are the result of sloppy time travelers. One of the most famous of such anomalies surrounds the destruction of the first base station on Mars.
5) There's a good deal of political debate going on about time travel and its regulation. As always happens in these situations, the science is being brushed aside as various special interest groups vie for attention.
6) There will be a scene that takes place in a 360 degree virtual planetarium that River uses to visualize spacetime. The user seems to stand in the middle of space and can rotate the view, travel, bend spacetime, visualize other dimensions, etc. by using hand gestures. Amy will be impressed. River and the Doc will geek out together and have fun pushing the stars around.
7) Team TARDIS will travel to the supposedly empty area of space to investigate. Turns out it's not empty, but full of inverted time loops. The TARDIS keeps falling into them, causing time to flow backwards for short periods.
8) River may or may not have a bad physical reaction to these time loops that may or may not be attributable to some mixed species DNA back in the murky depths of her gene pool. I'm not sure how weird I want to make her.
I've decided to post it in the hopes that its being on the internet will make it seem more real and just in case some kind member of my flist had any thoughts.
PG, no real warnings, "Big Bang" spoilers sort of, and River Song:
The corridors of the Archaeology department at the University of Santa Croce were swarming with students, and Amy and Rory were having a hard time keeping up with the Doctor as he wove between them, making for the lab on the fourth floor from which the transmissions they’d tracked seemed to be coming.
Amy, intent on plowing ahead, ran suddenly into the Doctor’s back. “Woah, watch it there!” He’d stopped in his tracks in the middle of the hallway and was standing, head tilted in puzzlement, hands grasping abstractedly at the air. The students squeezed by on both sides.
“Amy?” He pointed back to her without turning around. “Did you just see that?”
“See what?”
“Rory? No? Back there, down the hall, about twenty seconds ago?”
“Uh . . .” Rory looked in confusion from Amy to the Doctor and back again. “Bit of a blur. I saw students . . . a bench . . . doors?”
“Doors! Yes!” The Doctor twirled on the spot and grinned at them. “Or rather, a specific door . . .” He set off with a skip and brought himself up just in time to avoid crashing into said door, an entirely unremarkable office door amongst a whole bunch of other unremarkable office doors. “Or rather, a specific door plate . . .” and he brought his nose to within a few inches of the lettering and gave it a good squint. “Hello there . . .” He smiled at the door and turned expectantly to his companions, who had just caught him up.
Amy brushed her hair out of her face and eyed up the situation. Under a small frosted window, just below eye level, were two small plaques:
Dr. Florian Blackstrop, Archaeology
Dr. River Song, Archaeo-Astronomy
Dr. River Song, Archaeo-Astronomy
“River!?” And suddenly Amy’s eyes narrowed, and she swatted playfully at the Doctor’s arm. “You knew she was here!”
“Had no idea. But what luck, eh? Come on!” He pushed open the door without knocking and barged in. Amy and Rory exchanged a look before following him.“Hey, what the . . . ???!?! What’s this about?” An alarmed-looking man in a sweater vest greeted them from behind a desk, jumping to his feet to confront the intruders.
The Doctor, glancing around the room in interest, took a moment to reply: “Oh, very sorry. Looking for Dr. Song, have you seen her?”
“She’s in a lecture. Are you students?” Dr. Blackstrop sat back down. His desk was painfully neat, as was the whole side of the room around it. The room itself was small and very cramped.
The Doctor looked at him, slightly insulted. “Students?” Then he turned to his companions and, eyeing them up and down, changed his mind. “Ah . . . no, not as such. Well, students of life, really, but then, who isn’t?” Blackstrop looked unimpressed. “No, we’re just friends, passing through . . . happened to be in the neighborhood.” Then, as if an idea had suddenly occurred to him: “Where is this lecture?”
Amy smirked to herself and wondered if River deserved some advanced warning. Blackstrop, however, was glancing at his watch: “She’ll be done soon, and I have a meeting I need to be in. I suppose you can wait here, just don’t . . .” he nudged a stray pen back in line with some others, “. . . touch anything.”
The Doctor watched the movement doubtfully. “Wouldn’t think of it.” And turning to the messy side of the room, he climbed over River’s desk and plopped down in her chair. “Enjoy your meeting.”
Dr. River Song put a hand to her head and watched her students filing out. It had been a good class, all in all. There had been questions, for once: a handful of stupid ones, three or four legitimate, and one genuinely interesting one that inspired some frantic scribbling on the overhead screen, some improvised back and fourth, and a promise to get back to them once she’d looked some things up. Now, however, the energy was wearing off, and she felt rumpled and exhausted. She could feel her hair coming out of its clasp, frizzy tendrils falling into her eyes. She hadn’t slept six hours together the last two nights, she had two chapter revisions due to her editor by the end of the week, and her shoes were absolutely killing her. Thank goodness she had some time before office hours that afternoon.
River gathered up her familiar pile of books and data pads and, cursing the lack of pockets in this suit, stuck her laser stylus into her bun for safekeeping. Coffee, she thought, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee. And she headed back to her office, willing every person she passed on the way not to stop her to talk.
Her door was, strangely, unlocked, which led her to re-lock it by accident and then struggle vainly with the stuck door. By the time she’d sorted that out, she was in about as cranky a mood as she was willing to allow herself. It did not help matters, therefore, when she walked into her office to find three strangers within, two standing around looking bored, and an odd-looking one with his feet up on her desk, studying her copy of Thedeuseus.
The odd one looked up at her with a knowing smile: “Hi, honey.”
River didn’t bother hiding her annoyance: “Who the hell are you?"
______________________________________________________________________
Ideas about where this is going:
1) This is, in fact, the second time River has met the Doctor. The first time was a different regeneration, and she still knows precious little about him. She doesn't quite trust he's the same person.
2) The thing in the lab that the Doctor tracked is an artifact River picked up in a supposedly empty part of space. It is giving off weird time readings.
3) River's specialty of archaeo-astronomy is a real thing: it involves studying past cultures' understanding of the sky and of celestial bodies. I imagine by the 51st century this field has expanded to include the study of how past civilizations traveled through space, understood spacetime, etc.
4) River's book that she's working on involves documented evidence of historical spacetime anomalies, as seen in the remains of past civilizations. She believes these anomalies are the result of sloppy time travelers. One of the most famous of such anomalies surrounds the destruction of the first base station on Mars.
5) There's a good deal of political debate going on about time travel and its regulation. As always happens in these situations, the science is being brushed aside as various special interest groups vie for attention.
6) There will be a scene that takes place in a 360 degree virtual planetarium that River uses to visualize spacetime. The user seems to stand in the middle of space and can rotate the view, travel, bend spacetime, visualize other dimensions, etc. by using hand gestures. Amy will be impressed. River and the Doc will geek out together and have fun pushing the stars around.
7) Team TARDIS will travel to the supposedly empty area of space to investigate. Turns out it's not empty, but full of inverted time loops. The TARDIS keeps falling into them, causing time to flow backwards for short periods.
8) River may or may not have a bad physical reaction to these time loops that may or may not be attributable to some mixed species DNA back in the murky depths of her gene pool. I'm not sure how weird I want to make her.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 11 Jul 2010 06:58 am (UTC)It sounds interesting. I can't really say anything else, because I have very little idea of where it's going, and I haven't really been given an indication about where it's going other than "the Doctor, Amy, and Rory meet River and possibly go on merry adventures together; drunken shenanigans may or may not happen." But 360 degree virtual planetariums are always fun, and I can just see Rory accidentally walking right into the Milky Way. (If it's there, that is.)
It'd be nice to see River and the Doctor have a conversation about Bowie Base One. I'd love to see Eleven's reaction, though in my head right now, I'm hearing some more of the "bad day, I made a very big mistake" sort of brush-off. Also, political debate about time travel regulations? Yes, please!
(no subject)
Date: 11 Jul 2010 08:29 pm (UTC)I've been in the mood to read straightforward, non-poetic stuff lately. I've no idea why. Maybe because I just finished killing things on Warcraft? Quite possibly.
Hee. I've always been a bit envious of/defensive about the people who can write those long, plot-y, straightforward fics. I feel like that can be much more difficult to do well than something arty and experimental. There's nothing to hide behind.
"the Doctor, Amy, and Rory meet River and possibly go on merry adventures together; drunken shenanigans may or may not happen."
A lot more serious than that, actually, although I do always enjoy drunken shenanigans. It's my personal theory that how "everything changes" will involve the struggle over who will control time now that the Time Lords are gone. That attempt to build a TARDIS from "the Lodger" felt like it was setting something up, and I also think that the Time Lord Victorious never got properly resolved, more like acknowledged and then pushed aside, and while Eleven is a lot more cautious, I think that other guy is still lurking around in the background. At any rate, I think "who River is" is at least, in part, a counterbalance to that side of the Doctor: she prevents him from being the Lonely God again. So this fic would be setting her up for that role.
Also, political debate about time travel regulations? Yes, please!
The historical preservation lobby are a bunch of bloody hardliners ;-)
(no subject)
Date: 11 Jul 2010 07:43 am (UTC)*curses RL*
Also, because I am me, "Hi Honey," was my favourite line of the whole thing! :)
(no subject)
Date: 11 Jul 2010 08:30 pm (UTC)*curses RL*
*shakes fist*
Also, because I am me, "Hi Honey," was my favourite line of the whole thing! :)
Gee, why does that not surprise me? ;-)
(no subject)
Date: 11 Jul 2010 01:06 pm (UTC)This River is so believable and more-down-to-earth-but-still-very-River-y (make sense, much?), and I would love to see more of her. And the Doctor finally knowing more than River (maybe?) is so intriguing…
(no subject)
Date: 11 Jul 2010 08:42 pm (UTC)This River is so believable and more-down-to-earth-but-still-very-River-y (make sense, much?), and I would love to see more of her.
General consensus amongst fic writers seems to make her fairly young and also a bit of a shady, underworld figure when she meets the Doctor, and I've enjoyed reading all those stories, but something in that idea of River has never quite clicked for me. Then I locked onto that much more serious and intellectual side of River we see quite a lot of and wondered if maybe that's who River was before she met the Doctor. She does truly bloom around him in a way she doesn't with others, so I can see the expressive, theatrical, larger-than-life (criminal) side of her being something he brought out in her.
(no subject)
Date: 11 Jul 2010 09:14 pm (UTC)I absolutely love the idea of him bringing it out in her! It has never occured to me, but it's brilliant and I'm absolutely loving it. It would be so typical of the Doctor to have that effect on someone. And, oh, there's some kind of chemical reaction or something that reminds me of, but I just can't get it out.
(no subject)
Date: 12 Jul 2010 01:32 am (UTC)This! I'll believe she's got a dark streak to her, but from what Moffat's shown us so far, I really can't believe she's a total con woman. She really is a professor (someday)--that kind of thing don't come from being frivolous and causing trouble across the galaxy. I'm far more inclined to believe the criminality is a hobby she indulges in in her association with the Doctor.
It would be so typical of the Doctor to have that effect on someone.
Right? The Doctor makes people live. Of course River always had to have it in her, but running with the Doctor is freedom, and River, it seems to me, enjoys that freedom to an extent we've never seen from anyone else. Plus, I always come back to the "Time of Angels" opening, which I think is one of the most romantic things I have ever seen, and the reason is that every part of it is so perfectly tailored to who the Doctor is: the sheer audacious cleverness of it, the over the top theatricality, the Gallifreyan, the timey-wimey, the museum, and the astounding level of trust it displays. Can you think of a more perfect love note? And he doesn't quite get it at the time, but you can tell he's loving it anyway, all whooping and grinning and jumping around the TARDIS. And yeah, she's having a ball herself, but she also does it for him ;-)
And, oh, there's some kind of chemical reaction or something that reminds me of, but I just can't get it out.
Ooo . . . I almost know what you mean. If you think of it, could you tell me? I'm sure it would be a useful metaphor.
(no subject)
Date: 12 Jul 2010 06:03 pm (UTC)Me neither. Sure, she’s seems to like that hallucinogenic lipstick (though, notably, we’ve so far only seen her use it when the Doctor is involved), but she also seems genuinely sorry for the clerics and Father Octavian, and I don’t think someone who is a con artist through and through would. She was also very quick to say she couldn’t have caused the Byzantium to crash, which could be seen as her not wanting another year in prison, or her trying to convince herself she couldn’t have.
I'm far more inclined to believe the criminality is a hobby she indulges in in her association with the Doctor.
I find this theory so exciting and
a little bit hilarious. Reminds me so very much of Indiana Jones.I would not be surprised if the Doctor inadvertently starts her criminal career needing her help with something and not thinking it all the way through. XD
[…] River, it seems to me, enjoys that freedom to an extent we've never seen from anyone else.
Yes, yes, yes! She keeps emphasising the running, the craziest adventures. And she can fly the TARDIS, and, well, the TARDIS = freedom.
[…] every part of it is so perfectly tailored to who the Doctor is: the sheer audacious cleverness of it, the over the top theatricality, the Gallifreyan, the timey-wimey, the museum, and the astounding level of trust it displays. Can you think of a more perfect love note?
This is why I adore it, too, but you just said it so much better than I ever could! That rescue… Seriously, you can make a list of things the Doctor is known for/lives for and then just tick them off one by one. From the unexpected clothes to the last second escape…
If you think of it, could you tell me?
I definitely will.
Sorry for the huge comments, I just can’t help myself. :)
(no subject)
Date: 13 Jul 2010 01:24 am (UTC)Ooo . . . all very good points. I'm filing them for future use.
I would not be surprised if the Doctor inadvertently starts her criminal career needing her help with something and not thinking it all the way through. XD
Plot bunnies, plot bunnies . . .
This is why I adore it, too
Oh good, I'm not the only one! Most everybody acknowledges that it is massively cool, but I haven't seen many other people describe it as romantic. Perhaps it gets overshadowed by the massive coolness (and the Doctor going all cranky later), but it's the kind of thing that, when I stop to think about it, gets me absolutely choked up.
Sorry for the huge comments, I just can’t help myself. :)
Oh, dear god, no apologies. I live for long comments. I just left a four-comment long response on somebody else's journal. I have a "rambling" icon for when I need it (see displayed).
(no subject)
Date: 13 Jul 2010 04:12 pm (UTC)*encourages you*
(no subject)
Date: 14 Jul 2010 04:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 14 Jul 2010 04:50 pm (UTC)One word at a time
Date: 29 Jul 2010 12:17 am (UTC)Re: One word at a time
Date: 30 Jul 2010 12:20 am (UTC)Nice to know I'm not the only one. It does get frustrating, but what can you do?
However, you've got one hell of an idea germinating here.
Thank you! And thanks for commenting! I think I've basically shelved this one to work on the Doc and River as Amy's parent's fic, but once that's done maybe I'll get back to this.
(no subject)
Date: 25 Feb 2011 09:45 am (UTC)are we ever gonna see s'more of this? <3
[reading thru all of yr fics again, yes...]
(no subject)
Date: 25 Feb 2011 11:31 pm (UTC)Thing is, I'm not even in a fic reading mood at the moment. I've been skimming stuff and not finishing it. I know you want more stuff, but I can't really force it. Plus, I really need some kind of idea I'm wrestling with to write a fic--something I'm trying to work out. Even the little fluffy things I'm exploring character dynamics and such. And I really do feel like I've exhausted what I have to explore, at least until we get some new material :(
(no subject)
Date: 25 Feb 2011 11:43 pm (UTC)I'm just dying for fic in general. Another reason series 6 needs to hurry up and get here...
(no subject)
Date: 25 Feb 2011 11:59 pm (UTC)But I'm horribly flaky with fandom projects, and don't want to end up disappointing you. If I can't be flaky and just do what I want on a whim with fandom stuff, where can I, you know?
SERIES SIX WHERE ARE YOU???!?!?!? *dies waiting*
(no subject)
Date: 26 Feb 2011 12:07 am (UTC)>>SERIES SIX WHERE ARE YOU???!?!?!? *dies waiting*
How the hell have I survived this far??? The last month is KILLING ME AUGH.
(no subject)
Date: 26 Feb 2011 12:56 am (UTC)Amen.
(no subject)
Date: 25 Feb 2013 08:58 pm (UTC)