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stunt_muppet at 07:21pm on 09/03/2008 under bouncing ideas off y'all, doctor who, meta blather, writing
stunt_muppet at 07:21pm on 09/03/2008 under bouncing ideas off y'all, doctor who, meta blather, writing(I'm taking a break, so there.)
You remember how stuck I was on those last two segments for that Five Times fic I mentioned?
I THINK I MAY HAVE IT.
So? So? Plausible? Not too forced? Opinions? Anything?
Back to the essay; should be done soon.
You remember how stuck I was on those last two segments for that Five Times fic I mentioned?
I THINK I MAY HAVE IT.
Okay, so the Three-and-Four segment I knew was going to involve Sarah Jane somehow, but now I think I know how I'm going to manage it.
The idea: After The Deadly Assassin, Four tries to return to Aberdeen to pick up Sarah Jane. Only the TARDIS is still reeling from having been so close to an unstable Eye of Harmony, so he overshoots the date (but not the place) by several hundred years.
He doesn't know he's overshot the date, though, until he wanders into a castle basement that happens to have Three tied up inside. Whereupon Four stares at him for a minute and says "Oh."
Three figures out who Four is (after a slightly roundabout conversation), and as Four unties Three the latter berates him for leaving behind Sarah Jane. Four, of course, responds that he didn't really have a choice, and the two of them get to commiserate about how their fellow Time Lords are jerks.
I'm not sure where I want the conversation to go from there, or where precisely the "advice" happens, but I know as the segment comes to its close, Three's going to ask Four, "Is it very soon, then?" - meaning his regeneration. I don't know how Four answers yet.
I also had this bit written where Three and Four disparage each other's chosen outfits, but I'm not sure how in-character that is.
Five-and-Seven is, in fact, going to involve the Chameleon Arch, but I've run into a previously unforseen problem - at the end of The Caves of Androzani, Five expresses doubt that he's going to regenerate. But why would he even have those doubts if he's already met his own future incarnation?
However, I don't know if this was adressed in The Two Doctors (since, via Two, Five would retroactively have knowledge of Six), and I don't even think it was Authorially Handwaved in Time Crash, so maybe I've no need to worry.
Anyway, Seven deliberately crosses his own timeline so that he can fix the Chameleon Arch while it's still reparable - which ends up being in Five's era. Trouble is, because he never used it, he doesn't remember precisely where it is in Five's TARDIS (did the TARDIS change between Five and Seven? It must have.), so Five (and possibly Peri?) walk in on him while he's looking for it. Seven introduces himself and explains why he's there. Most of the rest of the ficlet, in my mind, is then taken up with Seven examining the extremely rickety Arch, Seven asking why Five's never used it, and Five asking why he needs it (and replying that wouldn't Seven know why he never used it?). The discussion is intended to highlight the differences between their personalities, but I haven't the grasp on Seven to know exactly what I want to highlight.
After a bit of poking around, Seven announces (somewhat conspicuously) that there are things he simply must attend to in his own timeline. He writes out a very specific set of instructions for Five (who is vaguely insulted, and insists he knows how to make the repairs on his own), bids them both adieu, and dashes off in his own TARDIS.
Flash forward a few decades, relative time. The Doctor has been charged with taking the Master's remains back to Gallifrey. The Doctor is also well aware that the Master is probably not completely dead, and if he is alive he'll be hungry for a new body - preferably a Time Lord's body with a Time Lord's remaining lives. To prevent such a situation, before the Master's remains are installed in his TARDIS, Seven breaks out and switches on the Chameleon Arch, with its setting on "Human".
And then smiles, very knowingly, as the thing shorts out halfway through the process.
The idea: After The Deadly Assassin, Four tries to return to Aberdeen to pick up Sarah Jane. Only the TARDIS is still reeling from having been so close to an unstable Eye of Harmony, so he overshoots the date (but not the place) by several hundred years.
He doesn't know he's overshot the date, though, until he wanders into a castle basement that happens to have Three tied up inside. Whereupon Four stares at him for a minute and says "Oh."
Three figures out who Four is (after a slightly roundabout conversation), and as Four unties Three the latter berates him for leaving behind Sarah Jane. Four, of course, responds that he didn't really have a choice, and the two of them get to commiserate about how their fellow Time Lords are jerks.
I'm not sure where I want the conversation to go from there, or where precisely the "advice" happens, but I know as the segment comes to its close, Three's going to ask Four, "Is it very soon, then?" - meaning his regeneration. I don't know how Four answers yet.
I also had this bit written where Three and Four disparage each other's chosen outfits, but I'm not sure how in-character that is.
Five-and-Seven is, in fact, going to involve the Chameleon Arch, but I've run into a previously unforseen problem - at the end of The Caves of Androzani, Five expresses doubt that he's going to regenerate. But why would he even have those doubts if he's already met his own future incarnation?
However, I don't know if this was adressed in The Two Doctors (since, via Two, Five would retroactively have knowledge of Six), and I don't even think it was Authorially Handwaved in Time Crash, so maybe I've no need to worry.
Anyway, Seven deliberately crosses his own timeline so that he can fix the Chameleon Arch while it's still reparable - which ends up being in Five's era. Trouble is, because he never used it, he doesn't remember precisely where it is in Five's TARDIS (did the TARDIS change between Five and Seven? It must have.), so Five (and possibly Peri?) walk in on him while he's looking for it. Seven introduces himself and explains why he's there. Most of the rest of the ficlet, in my mind, is then taken up with Seven examining the extremely rickety Arch, Seven asking why Five's never used it, and Five asking why he needs it (and replying that wouldn't Seven know why he never used it?). The discussion is intended to highlight the differences between their personalities, but I haven't the grasp on Seven to know exactly what I want to highlight.
After a bit of poking around, Seven announces (somewhat conspicuously) that there are things he simply must attend to in his own timeline. He writes out a very specific set of instructions for Five (who is vaguely insulted, and insists he knows how to make the repairs on his own), bids them both adieu, and dashes off in his own TARDIS.
Flash forward a few decades, relative time. The Doctor has been charged with taking the Master's remains back to Gallifrey. The Doctor is also well aware that the Master is probably not completely dead, and if he is alive he'll be hungry for a new body - preferably a Time Lord's body with a Time Lord's remaining lives. To prevent such a situation, before the Master's remains are installed in his TARDIS, Seven breaks out and switches on the Chameleon Arch, with its setting on "Human".
And then smiles, very knowingly, as the thing shorts out halfway through the process.
So? So? Plausible? Not too forced? Opinions? Anything?
Back to the essay; should be done soon.
still mad about the water
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I'm not sure why Seven wants to fix the Arch for Five, but hey, go for it. I'd handle that bit about OMFG THE MASTER NEEDS A NEW BODY delicately lest it becomes anvillicious though. :)
Um, in conclusion, I'd read this.
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I think crossing one's own timeline is against the First Law of Time or something. But it's not like the Doctor follows rules anyway, so...I think he'd just get sick of figuring out the pronouns.
By the way, I'm pretty sure "The Five Doctors" is hidden away somewhere on YouTube - I'll go look for the link after I finish typing this comment. There are plot holes you could drive a truck through, several of the companions don't get to do anything, and some of the dialogue is just appalling, but it's so full of crack it almost doesn't matter.
The idea I had at first about Seven and Five (it's a couple entries back, I think) was that the Doctor'd never used the Arch, so by the time Seven needed it, it was basically worthless - in such ill repair that it couldn't even be fixed. So he had to nip back a bit further into his own timeline and repair it while it could still be repaired.
Actually, it was mostly just that I needed a way for Five and Seven to cross timelines, and that was the first thing that came to mind. :)And, as a bonus, it handily retconned away the "half-human" thing in the TV Movie.
And since almost the entirety of the TVM consisted of the Master trying to steal a body and then the Doctor's remaining lives, I don't think it'll be necessary to belabor the point, or even really go into it except as it relates to Seven's scheme. But thanks for the warning.
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