Fanfic Recs

[selenak]

Black Sails:


Echoes: it's that rarity, a post-Treasure Island fanfic not in denial of same which has Silver reflecting on his past, specifically the relationship with Madi. Also Flint, but here the focus is on Madi. And it takes what happens in the s4 finale fully into account.

Book of Days: Miranda (and James) after London and in the years before the show starts. Beautiful and painful.

Class:

....a question for everyone who has watched this little gem of a spin-off and the most recent season of Doctor Who: at which point of the Doctor's timeline do you think he met Charlie & Quill and brought them to Earth? We know that there were only three months between that and the Class pilot, and that Clara (as well as Danny) are listed as the most recent names on the Coal Hill board in the pilot, so it must most likely have been post-Clara for the Doctor, and I'm guessing pre-Bill, but was it before or after the events of Extremis flashback that reveals his s10 arrangement with a certain someone in the vault? At the time Class was broadcast, jesuswasbatman speculated he might have been projecting his best enemy on to Miss Quill (though they're actually quite different, other than love of sarcasm, if you look at motivation and goals), and it occurs to me the s10 revelation makes that even more likely, but it could have worked both ways - he could have had his Rhodian & Quill encounter before the flashback events, in which case it would have been part of the build up to the decision he makes there, or after, in which case the decision could have been part of the projecting and ignoring that the Quill and Charlie situation really isn't alike.

Okay, on to the fanfiction:

wear me like a locket 'round your throat: Charlie and Quill before, during and after the season finale.

Two stories using the fact that Clara Oswald taught at Coal Hill:

To to learn to be brave: in this one, she's April's favourite teacher and inspiration, but April also observes her downward spiral.

Per Aspera Ad Astra: in which Clara makes a nostalgic incognito visit to Coal Hill post DW season 9 and promptly runs into the not at all nostalgically minded Quill.

Comments

[elisi]

....a question for everyone who has watched this little gem of a spin-off
'little gem of a spin-off' That's my new favourite description! <3

at which point of the Doctor's timeline do you think he met Charlie & Quill and brought them to Earth?
I think he *saved* them post-Clara and pre-Extremis. It seems very quick, and without a lot of fuss. 'Here you are, new planet, plus a background story and names should you want them. Sorry about your planet and your people, bye!'

Then his second visit, when the Shadowkin appear, is presumably post-Extremis and pre-Bill. Which is when they get the big speech and possibly he projects a bit onto Quill.

(I am half-tempted to place it fairly early on (from his POV), so he's travelling forwards by quite a number of decades. By the time we get to Bill, he's so settled and comfortable that it seems unlikely he'd skip along to help the Coal Hill kids, esp since he stays out of the fray for all the rest of the invasions. Unless he just figures 'They're on it, I'm not going to bother'.)

[selenak]

I recently aquired Class on dvd, so it's been returning to my mind; so very, very good!

Re: the saving, I agree that it went pretty quickly, though I'd argue even the Doctor would have needed a few days at least to establish their cover stories. (Maybe calling in favours from Kate Stewart at UNIT?) Because getting Quill hired and not fired requires string pulling beyond creating some fake IDs, among other things. Ditto for getting Charlie a place at this particular school, and not just any, surely?

Btw, rewatching the Class pilot reminds me that at least Quill has the Doctor's phone number for emergencies. (Charlie may or may not have it as well, we don't learn one way or the other, but we do see Quill using it.) I'm going with "only Quill has it",because Charlie might have used it in some of the other cases, but Quill wouldn't (not in anything involving the Shadow Kin after finding out Charlie has a working cabinet at his disposal, since she wants him to use it). (Yes, the obvious Doylist reason why they don't use the phone number again for the rest of the season is because the spin-off needed to stand on its own legs, but let's stay Watsonian here.) Which would be an interesting choice for him to make (giving Quill but not Charlie the number, I mean), don't you think?

re: the big speech: something that struck me this time around - "you will help this amazing humans and they will help you" - because suddenly I thought, what with the second part, maybehe's projecting not just Missy but also himself on Quill? Because he's very aware he needs "amazing humans" (and other mortals) to prevent himself from going bonkers.

[elisi]

I recently aquired Class on dvd, so it's been returning to my mind; so very, very good!
I think it's still on iPlayer (<333) but the second it disappears I shall be buying it. :)

And I have written a lot about it (general tag here, if you want just the actual reviews/meta, follow the 'episode thoughts' tag). I've yet to write about the finale (Doctor Who came along and stole my brain), but I have written about all the rest, and episode 7 especially was just so amazing, I was worried I might not do it justice, but I think I managed. It was so rich, and I found so many things the second I started reliving down into it. The finale... I will get to, but it's so incredible I still don't know where to start.

Because getting Quill hired and not fired requires string pulling beyond creating some fake IDs, among other things.
LOL

Ditto for getting Charlie a place at this particular school, and not just any, surely?
It's the only school he knows?

Yes, the obvious Doylist reason why they don't use the phone number again for the rest of the season is because the spin-off needed to stand on its own legs, but let's stay Watsonian here.
I like your thinking. And agree that yes, that's the most likely explanation for why she doesn't use it.

Which would be an interesting choice for him to make (giving Quill but not Charlie the number, I mean), don't you think?
Hmmm. Yes, it might tie in with the way he tries to teach her responsibility and caring.

Because he's very aware he needs "amazing humans" (and other mortals) to prevent himself from going bonkers.
Good point. And yes, he very much sets her up as his surrogate. Another Capt Jack or Sarah Jane, except Quill really doesn't have that mindset...

[selenak]

The dvds have some deleted scenes, in which Tanyas brothers actually feature and speak. :)

Which reminds me: rewatching rubbed in how brutal Patrick Ness was to Tanya and Ram. Tanya is now a full orphan at age 14, and even if she has now bonded (or started to) with Quill, who is going to take care of her on a day to day basis? The brothers don't look like adults, either. And Ram starts out the show by losing his leg and seeing his girlfriend killed in front of him, and finishes it by seeing his father and his girlfriend killed in front of him. Yes, the later comes back in Shadow Kin form, but still.

It's the only school he knows?

Slander. At the very least, he also knows the one he moonnlighted as a teacher when he was Ten and met Sarah Jane again, and the posh public school where Turlough was hiding as a pupil and the Brig was teaching because they couldn't get Ian's actor to come back in Five's era. And, err. There's the school where John Smith taught, but even the Doctor knows better than to dump two genocide refugees in a school just before WWI.

that's the most likely explanation for why she doesn't use it.

Which is also why I'm more and more certain Charlie doesn't have it as well. Both the petal flower/ Shadow Kin situation mid season and the finale set up would have been obvious situations where him to make that phone call otherwise. I'm now imagining him trying in vain to break the lock code on her cell phone while she's hibernating in the week betweeen episodes 7 and 8. :)

Next question: do you think the Doctor is aware that cabinet isn't just empty furniture from Rhodia?

And yes, he very much sets her up as his surrogate. Another Capt Jack or Sarah Jane, except Quill really doesn't have that mindset...

True, which is why I'm still fond of my idea that Quill's kid isn't just a Quill/Law hybrid but has some human (because of the shape they were in when they had sex) and Rhodian (the last soul which doesn't kill Charlie since Quill knocked him aside, or maybe one of the souls while Quill was inside the cabinet?) in itself as well, because that would give her a reason/excuse not only to stick around Coal Hill (and Earth) now she's free beyond some tentative sympathy for Tanya but also a reason to stick around in the same house with Charlie.

Mind you: I think the Doctor was mostly drawing on his own experience there, more than the Jack and Sarah Jane precedents, aka: How to cope with being the last of your kind and/or an exile 101: be forced to stick around some humans, learn from them to care and get revitalized, adopt Earth as new planet to fight for if necessary.

Another question: If there'd been a second season (sob!), I assume April would have been switched back into her own body for practical reasons (i.e. need to see the actress, not the GCI creature) sooner rather than later, but if Patrick Ness had known this would be the only season in advance, do you think he'd have let her stay dead (and maybe spare one or two of the parents instead)? Also, while some fanfics have Ram post Lost lingering in anger at Charlie for shooting April and not using the Cabinet sooner, I note not one has Matteusz doing anything other than providing comfort, and that strikes me as unlikely given the fear he voices in the sixth episode and his horror when Charlie actually goes through with it in the finale. Technically, since he doesn't see what the audience sees, he doesn't know Charlie doesn't simply kill all the Shadow Kin who followed Corakinus to Earth but their entire species and their planet to boot, but the way Charlie put it in episode 6 wouldn't leave Matteusz much doubt in that regard, and I'd hope that an actual second season would have given him time to process that. (Charlie as well, btw. A lot of the fanfics I've found treat what he did simply as teen angst, treatable with a cuddle, so to speak, but wiping out an entire species - and the way it was filmed, Charlie definitely knew that was what he was doing, and wanted to do it at this point - is something so enormous that it would take more than a few days of brooding if you're not a psychopath.) (And that's leaving aside the death-of-all-Rhodian-souls factor.)

[elisi]

The dvds have some deleted scenes, in which Tanyas brothers actually feature and speak. :)
*gasp*

Which reminds me: rewatching rubbed in how brutal Patrick Ness was to Tanya and Ram.
True, but it's not like the others fare much better. Charlie & Quill have seen their whole race murdered in front of their eyes, and their planet is destroyed. April's father tried to kill her, and her mother is disabled. (Still, she is probably the most privileged) And Matteusz of course gets rejected by *his* family. The difference is we SEE what happens to Tanya and Ram.

There's the school where John Smith taught, but even the Doctor knows better than to dump two genocide refugees in a school just before WWI.
Hee. Plus, they might not have taken a female teacher.

I'm now imagining him trying in vain to break the lock code on her cell phone while she's hibernating in the week betweeen episodes 7 and 8. :)
Surely someone must have written that fic...

Next question: do you think the Doctor is aware that cabinet isn't just empty furniture from Rhodia?
I think he suspects. And probably trusts Charlie not to use it.

but also a reason to stick around in the same house with Charlie.
She has that reason already. He killed the Shadowkin, it's the one thing she wanted above all else. He'll have great difficulty living with himself (much like the Doctor post-Time War) and she will be the support she was forced to be, but this time of her own violition. (This is one of the main reasons I would so desperately love a S2 - the chance to see the Charlie/Quill relationship turned on its head.)

How to cope with being the last of your kind and/or an exile 101: be forced to stick around some humans, learn from them to care and get revitalized, adopt Earth as new planet to fight for if necessary.
Good point.

not one has Matteusz doing anything other than providing comfort
That is very odd. Since part of the whole drama of Not Using The Cabinet was that he'd lose Matteusz if he did.

(Sorry about the late reply, have been on holiday.)

[selenak]

(Still, she is probably the most privileged)

Though also the one sacrificing her life. With all the Jossverse echoes in the show, I wonder whether a second season would have seen April going through something like Buffy's s6 alienation and depression as a result?

re: Matteusz, we do see it happening to him (sort of) when Charlie picks him up for the Prom and then later when Matteusz shows up at Quill's and Charlie's after having been thrown out. Rewatching the show has reminded me that contrary to fanfic, where Matteusz is always the comfort giver and Charlie always the brooder, the show actually has Matteusz go through on screen pain and hurt first with Charlie in the comforter role. (And Charlie doesn't start to on screen brood in earnest until after having been tempted to use the cabinet in the mid season two parter.) Which brings me to:

That is very odd. Since part of the whole drama of Not Using The Cabinet was that he'd lose Matteusz if he did.

Exactly. I suspect it all ties to certain established fanfic and shipping patterns, especially in m/m pairings. Matteusz is kind, lovely and arguably by the end of the season the sole character who's never shown a dark side. (If you count Tanya's raging grief and readiness to see the Shadow Kin dead as dark.) So he gets stuck with the "perfect angel" role of the always understanding, unconditionally loving boyfriend who is solely there to provide comfort, instead of being seen as a character in his own right who might go through a crisis of his own after having seen his greatest fear fulfilled. Ignoring that he's consistently pointed out the dark potential of the cabinet ("weapon of mass destruction") through the season, that it was apparantly Matteusz, not Charlie, who needed a week on his own post "Detention" to work through what had been said there, and that Charlie, who knows Matteusz as well as anyone, seems to be quite convinced that he'll lose him if he ever goes through with the Shadow Kin genocide.

(Fanfic patterns in other fandoms this reminds me of include: good old Blake's 7 with post series finale stories where Blake somehow survives being shot at by Avon but Avon is the character who needs to be comforted all the time; those few post Civil War (MCU) fanfictions which include Rhodey as a major character (you have to look long and hard) have him in the comforter and Tony Stark in the oomforted, brooding role, never mind that Rhodey is the one who just lost the use of his legs.)

re: the Charlie & Quill relationship (arguably the most interesting of the show) - I so want more of this, too, with Quill's new freedom and Charlie's Shadow Kin killing changing the odds. Why why why weren't the ratings better!

Am trying to decide whether or not the Doctor would have told Missy about the Coal Hill gang in general and Charlie & Quill in particular during their years in Bristol. Otoh, better not tell any incarnation of the Master about potential genocidal instruments, minds to mess with and people the Doctor finds interesting, as that usually does not end well for the people in question (poor Osgood). Otoh, she was locked up, the end goal from his pov was to redeem her, and if the ending of the ghost house episode was anything to go by, he told her any of his experiences which might interest or amuse her to help her pass away the time.

[elisi]

Though also the one sacrificing her life. With all the Jossverse echoes in the show, I wonder whether a second season would have seen April going through something like Buffy's s6 alienation and depression as a result?
Hmmm. She's a very different personality to Buffy, so it might have taken a different shape. And re. putting her back in her own body, they might have done what they did with cyber!Bill, using the actress most of the time, and her own self-image.

re: Matteusz, we do see it happening to him (sort of) when Charlie picks him up for the Prom and then later when Matteusz shows up at Quill's and Charlie's after having been thrown out.
Very true. I was thinking more that we never see them. The Shadowkin never use them as leverage, instead they use Matteusz himself as leverage; he becomes Charlie's new family.

the show actually has Matteusz go through on screen pain and hurt first with Charlie in the comforter role
Which makes sense. Charlie has been through loss and pain, he can draw on his own experiences. (Of course he also comes from privilege, in contrast to Matteusz - I love that they have a Polish character, it's brilliant.)

Charlie, who knows Matteusz as well as anyone, seems to be quite convinced that he'll lose him if he ever goes through with the Shadow Kin genocide.
This, absolutely. (I have written about this a lot in my meta/reviews, and have written/read no fic, so it sort of seems a no-brainer. But shippers are a law unto themselves.)

I so want more of this, too, with Quill's new freedom and Charlie's Shadow Kin killing changing the odds. Why why why weren't the ratings better!
Because it was shown on BBC3. And there was very little advertising. If I hadn't been in fandom, I'd never have known it existed.

Am trying to decide whether or not the Doctor would have told Missy about the Coal Hill gang in general and Charlie & Quill in particular during their years in Bristol.
I doubt it. I presume it all took place pre-Extremis, so for him it'd be 70 years in the past. And since none of them die I don't know if she'd be entertained a la Knock Knock.

[jesuswasbatman]

I liked the April & Clara fic, but wondered when it was written, as I initially thought the blonde woman confronting Missy would be Thirteen, and was briefly confused before recognising Kate.

[selenak]

Ha, I know there are already stories with Thirteen out there, but that one was really somewhat older. I had the occasion to rewatch some Class episodes, that's how I came across it these last few days.