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nym_wibblyI could probably be expected to do "Rumbelle" here, but the fact is I've been so busy writing about Belle and Rumple since 2012 that I never actually got around to being a consumer of Once Upon a Time fandom's fannish output. My handful of fave fics from early on are either spectacularly jossed - not that this diminishes them, but it does mean they need a bit of context to understand - or were abandoned mid-flow. So, I'll go with Doctor Who for this challenge instead. Specifically the Doctor and the Master. "/" optional. It's a fandom sub-genre that I've watched evolve for as long as I've been in fandom, yet only recently dipped my own writerly toe into. Only recently stopped and thought much about. I love these two alien assholes and their ancient, unhealthy relationship. I've found very few fanworks that hit the spot for me with the Doctor/Master pairing, and even fewer of those are completed fanfics. I used that misfortune to narrow down my potential handful to a list of just three recs for today's Snowflake Challenge.
Stand with me - Margarita Life
Not a fanvid as I know it - the music doesn't steal this show. It's background, muted to the point where I couldn't even identify the song, while adding pathos to a canon storyline that already has plenty built in. The momentum of the vid is carried by the show's dialogue and the creator's wonderful editing. It's an epic-style, emotive trailer for the Doctor-Master story I wish to goodness was on its way (but give Big Finish time). Beautifully made vid, and a beautiful recap of New Who's additions to the Doctor-Master story.
Doctor Who Season Four - Ariastar Ariastar's Doctor Who Season Four. Tenth Doctor, John Simm's Master. A post-Last of the Time Lords AU, one of the first fully formed ones. And one of only two stories I've gone for in the Livejournal format, as an interesting aside. (The other was the M*A*S*H-slash that got so much sudden attention from so many sides at once that the author went "gah!" and took it private).This was the first fanfic that persuaded me that slashy headcanons about the Doctor and the Master were story-worthy, as opposed to PWP material. It's a season's worth of stories, just like it says on the tin, and the twist is that the Master survived to board the TARDIS. You'll find this linked from Fanlore, along with a handful of other pieces that shaped, steered, or redefined the niche shelf of Doctor Who fandom where the Doctor and the Master are in an un-platonic relationship. It was a definitive moment in the evolution of the pairing, and one that (for once) I was active in Doctor Who fandom to witness in real time. Even folks writing "Twissy" today (oh, dear god, are they calling it "Thissy" now? No, don't tell me, I don't want to know after all...) are likely to have been unconsciously influenced by earlier pieces, headcanons, fanons, discussions, and so on that were, in their turn, influenced by Ariastar's Season Four.
As a story, it's a great, uncomplicated, well-thought-out episodic yarn - popcorn-munching enjoyable, somewhat plotty, and with a side of Martha Jones to set it firmly in its Whovian era. Slash is the garnish, not the banquet, but the Doctor and the Master are vivid figures. It opened my eyes to so many possibilities for Doctor Who fanfic. More importantly, it made me grin from ear to ear every time I read a new 'episode'.
Lapidary - Savaial
I read this one a few weeks ago in hospital, after an op. It's been on my to-read/rainy day list for a long time, having started it before and realised I wasn't doing it justice - I think it's even changed archives in the meantime. It's Tenth/Simm!Master again, and it's the sort of fanfic I remember from the full-length fanzine days; a long story about a relationship, a will-they/won't-they/could-be romance, with all the emotional twists and turns that, in mainstream romantic fiction, I can't be bothered with. In the right fanfic, in the hands of the right author, those tropes keep me on the edge of my seat.I've come across very, very few pieces of fanfiction that so immersed me that I saved it to read again (and again) in the future. The majority of the ones I've saved were either Star Wars prequel AUs, or written by Telanu. Lapidary, with its deep world-building, its markedly alien protagonists, its mild whump, its fluency with the canon, its startlingly different take on the Master, and its increasingly self-aware Doctor, went straight on that 'keepers' list.
Stand with me - Margarita Life
Not a fanvid as I know it - the music doesn't steal this show. It's background, muted to the point where I couldn't even identify the song, while adding pathos to a canon storyline that already has plenty built in. The momentum of the vid is carried by the show's dialogue and the creator's wonderful editing. It's an epic-style, emotive trailer for the Doctor-Master story I wish to goodness was on its way (but give Big Finish time). Beautifully made vid, and a beautiful recap of New Who's additions to the Doctor-Master story.
Doctor Who Season Four - Ariastar Ariastar's Doctor Who Season Four. Tenth Doctor, John Simm's Master. A post-Last of the Time Lords AU, one of the first fully formed ones. And one of only two stories I've gone for in the Livejournal format, as an interesting aside. (The other was the M*A*S*H-slash that got so much sudden attention from so many sides at once that the author went "gah!" and took it private).This was the first fanfic that persuaded me that slashy headcanons about the Doctor and the Master were story-worthy, as opposed to PWP material. It's a season's worth of stories, just like it says on the tin, and the twist is that the Master survived to board the TARDIS. You'll find this linked from Fanlore, along with a handful of other pieces that shaped, steered, or redefined the niche shelf of Doctor Who fandom where the Doctor and the Master are in an un-platonic relationship. It was a definitive moment in the evolution of the pairing, and one that (for once) I was active in Doctor Who fandom to witness in real time. Even folks writing "Twissy" today (oh, dear god, are they calling it "Thissy" now? No, don't tell me, I don't want to know after all...) are likely to have been unconsciously influenced by earlier pieces, headcanons, fanons, discussions, and so on that were, in their turn, influenced by Ariastar's Season Four.
As a story, it's a great, uncomplicated, well-thought-out episodic yarn - popcorn-munching enjoyable, somewhat plotty, and with a side of Martha Jones to set it firmly in its Whovian era. Slash is the garnish, not the banquet, but the Doctor and the Master are vivid figures. It opened my eyes to so many possibilities for Doctor Who fanfic. More importantly, it made me grin from ear to ear every time I read a new 'episode'.
Lapidary - Savaial
I read this one a few weeks ago in hospital, after an op. It's been on my to-read/rainy day list for a long time, having started it before and realised I wasn't doing it justice - I think it's even changed archives in the meantime. It's Tenth/Simm!Master again, and it's the sort of fanfic I remember from the full-length fanzine days; a long story about a relationship, a will-they/won't-they/could-be romance, with all the emotional twists and turns that, in mainstream romantic fiction, I can't be bothered with. In the right fanfic, in the hands of the right author, those tropes keep me on the edge of my seat.I've come across very, very few pieces of fanfiction that so immersed me that I saved it to read again (and again) in the future. The majority of the ones I've saved were either Star Wars prequel AUs, or written by Telanu. Lapidary, with its deep world-building, its markedly alien protagonists, its mild whump, its fluency with the canon, its startlingly different take on the Master, and its increasingly self-aware Doctor, went straight on that 'keepers' list.
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Date: 2 Jan 2019 18:49 (UTC)♥
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Date: 3 Jan 2019 01:34 (UTC)no subject
Date: 3 Jan 2019 05:35 (UTC)no subject
Date: 5 Jan 2019 17:56 (UTC)I think the only other Doctor/Master trope I love quite as much as the "historical fiction" genre. And that's just because I'm a nerd.