On Doctor Who and fanfiction
Feb. 18th, 2015 07:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scripsiI have the flu and what better use of me laying in bed than write a bit about Doctor Who? I plunged heads on into fandom in the past few months, but I’m not a new fan. Nevertheless, after starting writing fanfic about it, I have thought a lot more about the show than before and I feel the need to write it down.
I never saw Doctor Who as I grew up, something I am quite annoyed with. I’m a child of the 70’s and just about every British series was aired in Sweden in the 70’s and 80’s and I watched Monthy Pyton, Black Adder, The Young Ones and Red Dwarf, but never DW. So when I started watching the show around 2003 I had not real idea of what to expect. Tom Baker was for me Puddleglum in Narnia, not the Doctor. I started the 1970 season, the year when DW became a show in colour, which means the Third Doctor was my very first one. I had seen most of old Who when it started again in 2005 and I began watching the new series. I’m currently re-watching new Who with my husband, who has never seen it before and we have just begun season 4. I’m also re-watching old Who, starting from the beginning and currently on season 21 with the Fifth Doctor.
The Doctor
I think the person who came up with regenerations must have been a genius. It’s such a clever way to re-new the show, allowing the main character to change personalities and being able to let the show live on over decades. I have yet to see the Eighth Doctor, but so far I have liked all the Doctors, though some I like more than others. I love the Third, Fourth and Fifth Doctor and the Ninth and Tenth. I am growing very fond of Twelve, though I think he needs some more fleshing out. Over all I really love the story arch the new Doctors are on; the Ninth still shell-shocked from the war becoming Ten who is consumed by anger to brittle Eleven who tries to forget it all. Twelve should be the Doctor who gets healed, but I felt the last season was mostly about establishing his new personality. I have high hopes for him!
Old Who is a very charming show, but I really enjoy the darkness in the new series.
The Companions
Even if I like all Doctors, I don’t like all companions. Kamelion, at least when he is himself, is pretty awful and I can’t stand Adric, even if he didn’t deserve to die like that. I’m not very fond of Tegan either, even if she had her moments. I didn’t like Clara at all when she first turned up, I felt that companions who fall for the Doctor could need a break. But I think she has a lot more chemistry with Twelve than she had with Eleven and she also feels much more like her own person than just an Impossible Girl.
On the whole I have a penchant for the brainy companions like Liz Shaw, Romana, Nyssa and Martha, probably because I’m more brainy than plucky myself. I do like Jo Grant a lot, which it seemed that many do not. She annoyed dme at first, but she’s so sweet and warm-hated and she has the loveliest chemistry with Tree, so I like her even if she is a bit of scatter-brain. And I absolutely adore Donna! She is such a glorious, wonderful character and I’m still upset that she was treated so badly by the writers. Even if she couldn’t go on travelling with the Doctor she deserved to live a glorious, wonderful life and instead she got, well, reduced, I think I want to say. Actually, I will say that her treatment stinks of misogyny, she is the strongest and most independent of all new Who’s companions and while Rose gets her Doctor (in a way) by the end and Martha an exiting job at UNIT and Amy, Rory and River at least each other and their memories, Donne is left without her memories and without knowledge how wonderful she was. That is harsh. And while I am at it, I really dislike the way Tegan and Peri is mostly used as eye-candy with lots of legs and cleavage but not much of character depth.
The Master
I’m such a sucker for a good villain. I love a flawed her, like the Doctor is, but I don’t think I would have loved the show as much if the Master wasn’t in it. As tree was my first Doctor, Delgado was my first Master and I adore him! He is evil and ruthless but at the same time he manages to convey that he cares deeply about the Doctor. And really, he could conquer the universe from any planet, but he just have to stay on Earth to do so as long as the Doctor can’t leave. Also, Roger Delgado seems to have been the kind of super nice, intelligent, well-read kind of man who is just my type in real life. In fact, just the kind of man my husband is. So, total crush on Delgado’s Master. I also really like Ainley’s Master. He is quite a bit more insane but though both he and Delgado are camp and over the top, they also play their Master’s straight, which gives it all a nice balance and the Master dignity.
Simm’s Master I don’t care for much at all, I’m sorry to say. I like the actor a lot, he is fantastic in Life on Mars, for example, but his Master isn’t written well. The camp insanity is there in spades, but it is too much and at the same time his violence is quite mundane. I think both the Doctor and Master works best when they are allowed some darkness, in the Doctor’s case, and some light, for the Master, but poor Simm’s is so bad it gets silly from time to time. I can’t say I’m overly fond of the crispy Master’s either, they are much more just monsters.
I certainly wasn’t alone, but I thought Missy was the master from the starts and I think she does a good job for it, though perhaps still a tad too crazy for my taste. Much as I would want the kind of Master that Delgado and Ainley plays, I suspect that they are seen as old-fashiond villains nowadays and won’t return. A girl can hope, though.
Shipping and slash, fanfic at last
I don’t have any OTP, or ship some exclusively, even if there are pairings I like more than others. This means that I happily read any pairing as long as I feel that it works, which depends mostly on the skill of the writer. I’m mainly a writer of het, but I have written slash in other fandoms and I might again.
When I was active in other fandoms I was often made to feel uncomfortable about the disdain slasher could lash out toward those who like het, and vice versa. I don’t think one thing is better than the other and I really hated the times I was kind of cornered by people who urged me to write slash because they thought I wrote well but they couldn’t stand to read the icky het. I also dislike shipping wars. Of course there are pairing I won’t care for, but I can just quietly ignore those.
I am quite fascinated by slash as a phenomenon, though. It’s such a shining example of female sexuality at works on a sphere where it can blossom undisturbed from the male gaze. It do have a parallel in pron movies were there is often girl on girl action. there is a huge difference, though, the girl on girl is just a diversion before the MAN arrives, the girl’s real lust object. In fanfiction slash is allowed to be a real sexuality, not a diversion. until the real deal arrives. I think the preference to slash versus het for a large part in if one’s need is to objectify or identify. Well, I think you always do both, to a certain degree objectification is needed for us to be sexually attracted to someone, but I think we balance them differently. I need to be able to identify to really enjoy what I read or write, which makes me partial to het. If you prefer slash, then you may have a bigger need to objectify. Note that I don’t put any better or higher value to either identification or objectification.
When it comes to DW, well, it’s kind of impossible to not notice the strong attraction between the Doctor and the Master, regardless if you choose to see that as sexual or not. In my mind Time Lords have a fluid sexuality. In a race and looks and even gender can change through regeneration it seems logical that sexual attraction would work above such things. In other words, I think that both the Doctor and the Master can be attracted to either sex and that their real obsession lies with each other. I don’t think I’m a good slash writer, but I don’t think it will be impossible for me to write something about these two.
Meanwhile I will have to resign myself to wanting and writing the most unpopular kind of fics, dark het with the Master. It’s a bit frustrating because few have been written and few reads it which means no feedback at all and I’m left to wonder if it is any good at all. (I have the flu, I’m whiny, I know, I will feel better about when it stops feeling like my body wants to kill me.) On the other hand my main goal when writing is to please myself and I do enjoy writing these stories a lot.
It’s interesting to see how some things resonates through a fandom and other things don’t. I saw Planet of Fire yesterday, which I haven’t seen before and I was a bit surprised by the Master clearly checking out Peri’s assets.
He also was unusually physical with her and I don’t believe for a moment that he deplores twisting her arm like that, I think he enjoyed it. Also, why dragging Peri along to help when he would have a much easier time dominating one of the poor people on Sarn who thought he was the Outsider who they must obey? No, my brain immediately came up with a host of more sinister plans. I think that’s an excellent point for fanfiction, but evidently not. Oh well, I will have to write it myself then.
On a brighter note, this fandom makes me want to write short and more sweet stories, which I have never done before. It’s quite fun!
I never saw Doctor Who as I grew up, something I am quite annoyed with. I’m a child of the 70’s and just about every British series was aired in Sweden in the 70’s and 80’s and I watched Monthy Pyton, Black Adder, The Young Ones and Red Dwarf, but never DW. So when I started watching the show around 2003 I had not real idea of what to expect. Tom Baker was for me Puddleglum in Narnia, not the Doctor. I started the 1970 season, the year when DW became a show in colour, which means the Third Doctor was my very first one. I had seen most of old Who when it started again in 2005 and I began watching the new series. I’m currently re-watching new Who with my husband, who has never seen it before and we have just begun season 4. I’m also re-watching old Who, starting from the beginning and currently on season 21 with the Fifth Doctor.
The Doctor
I think the person who came up with regenerations must have been a genius. It’s such a clever way to re-new the show, allowing the main character to change personalities and being able to let the show live on over decades. I have yet to see the Eighth Doctor, but so far I have liked all the Doctors, though some I like more than others. I love the Third, Fourth and Fifth Doctor and the Ninth and Tenth. I am growing very fond of Twelve, though I think he needs some more fleshing out. Over all I really love the story arch the new Doctors are on; the Ninth still shell-shocked from the war becoming Ten who is consumed by anger to brittle Eleven who tries to forget it all. Twelve should be the Doctor who gets healed, but I felt the last season was mostly about establishing his new personality. I have high hopes for him!
Old Who is a very charming show, but I really enjoy the darkness in the new series.
The Companions
Even if I like all Doctors, I don’t like all companions. Kamelion, at least when he is himself, is pretty awful and I can’t stand Adric, even if he didn’t deserve to die like that. I’m not very fond of Tegan either, even if she had her moments. I didn’t like Clara at all when she first turned up, I felt that companions who fall for the Doctor could need a break. But I think she has a lot more chemistry with Twelve than she had with Eleven and she also feels much more like her own person than just an Impossible Girl.
On the whole I have a penchant for the brainy companions like Liz Shaw, Romana, Nyssa and Martha, probably because I’m more brainy than plucky myself. I do like Jo Grant a lot, which it seemed that many do not. She annoyed dme at first, but she’s so sweet and warm-hated and she has the loveliest chemistry with Tree, so I like her even if she is a bit of scatter-brain. And I absolutely adore Donna! She is such a glorious, wonderful character and I’m still upset that she was treated so badly by the writers. Even if she couldn’t go on travelling with the Doctor she deserved to live a glorious, wonderful life and instead she got, well, reduced, I think I want to say. Actually, I will say that her treatment stinks of misogyny, she is the strongest and most independent of all new Who’s companions and while Rose gets her Doctor (in a way) by the end and Martha an exiting job at UNIT and Amy, Rory and River at least each other and their memories, Donne is left without her memories and without knowledge how wonderful she was. That is harsh. And while I am at it, I really dislike the way Tegan and Peri is mostly used as eye-candy with lots of legs and cleavage but not much of character depth.
The Master
I’m such a sucker for a good villain. I love a flawed her, like the Doctor is, but I don’t think I would have loved the show as much if the Master wasn’t in it. As tree was my first Doctor, Delgado was my first Master and I adore him! He is evil and ruthless but at the same time he manages to convey that he cares deeply about the Doctor. And really, he could conquer the universe from any planet, but he just have to stay on Earth to do so as long as the Doctor can’t leave. Also, Roger Delgado seems to have been the kind of super nice, intelligent, well-read kind of man who is just my type in real life. In fact, just the kind of man my husband is. So, total crush on Delgado’s Master. I also really like Ainley’s Master. He is quite a bit more insane but though both he and Delgado are camp and over the top, they also play their Master’s straight, which gives it all a nice balance and the Master dignity.
Simm’s Master I don’t care for much at all, I’m sorry to say. I like the actor a lot, he is fantastic in Life on Mars, for example, but his Master isn’t written well. The camp insanity is there in spades, but it is too much and at the same time his violence is quite mundane. I think both the Doctor and Master works best when they are allowed some darkness, in the Doctor’s case, and some light, for the Master, but poor Simm’s is so bad it gets silly from time to time. I can’t say I’m overly fond of the crispy Master’s either, they are much more just monsters.
I certainly wasn’t alone, but I thought Missy was the master from the starts and I think she does a good job for it, though perhaps still a tad too crazy for my taste. Much as I would want the kind of Master that Delgado and Ainley plays, I suspect that they are seen as old-fashiond villains nowadays and won’t return. A girl can hope, though.
Shipping and slash, fanfic at last
I don’t have any OTP, or ship some exclusively, even if there are pairings I like more than others. This means that I happily read any pairing as long as I feel that it works, which depends mostly on the skill of the writer. I’m mainly a writer of het, but I have written slash in other fandoms and I might again.
When I was active in other fandoms I was often made to feel uncomfortable about the disdain slasher could lash out toward those who like het, and vice versa. I don’t think one thing is better than the other and I really hated the times I was kind of cornered by people who urged me to write slash because they thought I wrote well but they couldn’t stand to read the icky het. I also dislike shipping wars. Of course there are pairing I won’t care for, but I can just quietly ignore those.
I am quite fascinated by slash as a phenomenon, though. It’s such a shining example of female sexuality at works on a sphere where it can blossom undisturbed from the male gaze. It do have a parallel in pron movies were there is often girl on girl action. there is a huge difference, though, the girl on girl is just a diversion before the MAN arrives, the girl’s real lust object. In fanfiction slash is allowed to be a real sexuality, not a diversion. until the real deal arrives. I think the preference to slash versus het for a large part in if one’s need is to objectify or identify. Well, I think you always do both, to a certain degree objectification is needed for us to be sexually attracted to someone, but I think we balance them differently. I need to be able to identify to really enjoy what I read or write, which makes me partial to het. If you prefer slash, then you may have a bigger need to objectify. Note that I don’t put any better or higher value to either identification or objectification.
When it comes to DW, well, it’s kind of impossible to not notice the strong attraction between the Doctor and the Master, regardless if you choose to see that as sexual or not. In my mind Time Lords have a fluid sexuality. In a race and looks and even gender can change through regeneration it seems logical that sexual attraction would work above such things. In other words, I think that both the Doctor and the Master can be attracted to either sex and that their real obsession lies with each other. I don’t think I’m a good slash writer, but I don’t think it will be impossible for me to write something about these two.
Meanwhile I will have to resign myself to wanting and writing the most unpopular kind of fics, dark het with the Master. It’s a bit frustrating because few have been written and few reads it which means no feedback at all and I’m left to wonder if it is any good at all. (I have the flu, I’m whiny, I know, I will feel better about when it stops feeling like my body wants to kill me.) On the other hand my main goal when writing is to please myself and I do enjoy writing these stories a lot.
It’s interesting to see how some things resonates through a fandom and other things don’t. I saw Planet of Fire yesterday, which I haven’t seen before and I was a bit surprised by the Master clearly checking out Peri’s assets.
He also was unusually physical with her and I don’t believe for a moment that he deplores twisting her arm like that, I think he enjoyed it. Also, why dragging Peri along to help when he would have a much easier time dominating one of the poor people on Sarn who thought he was the Outsider who they must obey? No, my brain immediately came up with a host of more sinister plans. I think that’s an excellent point for fanfiction, but evidently not. Oh well, I will have to write it myself then.
On a brighter note, this fandom makes me want to write short and more sweet stories, which I have never done before. It’s quite fun!
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no subject
Date: 2015-02-18 11:25 pm (UTC)I'm a slasher by heart. I do approve of dark!het though - and I know there is a lot of it out there, which leaves me confused on why you are not getting the responses you more than deserve!
*HUGS*
no subject
Date: 2015-02-18 11:42 pm (UTC)I read quite a lot of Doctor/Master slash, actually as I think they are an excellent pairing, I'm just not very good at writing it myself. :)
Thank you! I think it also is because I tend to be inspired by the more impopular choises. Old Who over new, for examples and less loved characters like Liz Shaw. I've no doubt more would read if I sent for more popular choices. But what can one do when one's muse point in another direction? Also, I'm new in the Who-fandom and people tend to respons more if you are well known. (I don't mean to sound whiny, here) :)
*hugs*
no subject
Date: 2015-02-18 11:47 pm (UTC)Unpopular pairings...don't really exist in DW. In fact, quite a few old schoolers may come across your fic and be relieved, ecstatic and delighted! I hope they find you soon. DW...it can take a while to get a foothold, but once you do --
I know people will love your work. Just gotta give them time to find you, sweetie!
*HUGS*
no subject
Date: 2015-02-18 11:57 pm (UTC)I have only read few of your fics so far (give me time, though), but those I love!
Oh I will keep on writing, no fear, I love to do it and get a bit itch if I don't get to do at least little writing every day. :)
*hugs*
no subject
Date: 2015-02-22 03:41 pm (UTC)All the love for Donna! I really would have loved to see her get a better ending, too ♥ Having her closure be just a wedding felt like a pretty poor send-off, she should have had something for herself even after the tragedy of losing her memories. It was just too unfair.
I love brainy companions too, Zoe and Liz Shaw are amongst my favourites for the classics thus far (I'm watching in order and up to s7 atm)—I'm sure I will love Romana when I get to her, rather looking forward to that :D The various incarnations of the Master too, of course!
Ugh, I really hate fandom wars and close-minded people who just disregard and scorn the parts of fandom/fandom writing they don't enjoy, too. Goodness, people, some maturity and respect, is it honestly that hard? =P
Interesting thoughts about identifying vs. objectifying, I completely agree but I'd never actually put the difference into words, just knew it as a "feeling", you know? I can read a bit of everything, but I will write and ship het much more readily, and also femslash after some evolution of my own sexuality—so I definitely also lean towards identification… That is also why I have always enjoyed Doctor/Master, but it took Missy to really make me obsessed with them ;) That kind of made me feel a bit weird at first, but I realize that's a silly reaction since it doesn't mean I have any prejudice against slash, it's just the identification part that was missing and I really need that to make the difference between a ship I quite like and an OTP.(I agree about Time Lords not having a sexuality that bends to gender differences, besides—you made the point about gender-switch regeneration, and Nine's comments about Jack's sexuality and human prejudices also seem to strongly hint that he personally feels quite distanced from such considerations.)
no subject
Date: 2015-02-22 04:52 pm (UTC)Thank you! I'm past the worse, but still prefer to not move so much. We all have it here and the dogs are climbing the walls for lack of long walks. :)
I love talking fanfiction, it's such an interesting subject!
Yes, Donne getting married felt a bit like a low-dow. Perhaps it would have felt better if one had got a good sense of the man she married, that they were just terrific together, but one didn't.
I love brainy companions too, Zoe and Liz Shaw are amongst my favourites for the classics thus far (I'm watching in order and up to s7 atm)—I'm sure I will love Romana when I get to her, rather looking forward to that :D The various incarnations of the Master too, of course!
I like Romana I the most, Romana II is more cute girl, but on the other hand you do get that Tom Baker and Lalla Ward had a very real romance and their chemistry is very nice.
Ugh, I really hate fandom wars and close-minded people who just disregard and scorn the parts of fandom/fandom writing they don't enjoy, too. Goodness, people, some maturity and respect, is it honestly that hard? =P
Exactly!
Interesting thoughts about identifying vs. objectifying, I completely agree but I'd never actually put the difference into words, just knew it as a "feeling", you know?
I know, it took me some time to put words to it as well. I read slash more for a good story, if it's well-written and interesting, but usually not PWP as they don't really give me anything. (Unless it is very, very good PWP). So I have nothing against slash either, it just don't give me that little bit of extra. I have a good friend who is man and bi-sexual, but leans more toward men and he feels the same as I, only the opposite. :)
Sometimes a story just want to go a certain way. I struggled a lot with a Dracula-fic I just finished until I realised that the love story should be between two women, not boy meets girl. When I changed that, the whole story fell into place.
Nine's comments about Jack's sexuality and human prejudices also seem to strongly hint that he personally feels quite distanced from such considerations.)
So he does. And Ten treats both Martha and Jack the same when it comes to the crushes he has on them. I also think that DW did a great thing in Jack. :)
no subject
Date: 2015-02-26 08:22 pm (UTC)Poor dogs—but poor you all, mostly! Good to hear you're slowly getting better!
I love talking fanfiction, it's such an interesting subject!
Definitely :)
Yes, Donne getting married felt a bit like a low-dow. Perhaps it would have felt better if one had got a good sense of the man she married, that they were just terrific together, but one didn't.
Indeed. That might sound silly but I kind of liked the Library!husband too, Lee—he was sweet; but I guess it would also have sent the wrong message if she had settled for someone one might consider as a fantasy life, and one that didn't look like she was doing something great for herself, either, just pretty much living a lie. But the guy was sweet. It wasn't his fault ;P
I like Romana I the most, Romana II is more cute girl, but on the other hand you do get that Tom Baker and Lalla Ward had a very real romance and their chemistry is very nice.
Thatʼs great! And more of other Time Lords should be a thrill ♥
I read slash more for a good story, if it's well-written and interesting, but usually not PWP as they don't really give me anything. (Unless it is very, very good PWP).
*nods* Getting that… As far as Iʼm concerned, it kind of depends on oneʼs definition of PWP. Iʼm fine with a story where the sex is the main or a very significant focus, but I like it handled with good writing of course, and sensuality and emotion/interesting character insight. Sex isnʼt just a combination of smart moves on erogenous parts to get to climax, it can convey so much about a character or a relationship, if well handled…
I also think that DW did a great thing in Jack. :)
Jack is the best thing ♥