#time trips

[keatulie]

Jamie marched in, bag under his arm, chanter in his mouth, cheeks puffed out to blow. He finished his tune on a long, low note, and bowed. Then he backed out of the door and returned with a tray holding three bowls of steaming porridge.

Doctor Who: The Anti-Hero (Time Trips)

Jamie “have I mentioned I’m scottish today” McCrimmon.

[theladyjojogrant]

Just finished this incredible Doctor Who short story and...

How have I never heard of it before????? I had never even heard of the collection it’s in (Time Trips) and the only reason I read it was because I stumbled upon the book at the library. 

Anyway, it’s “Into the Nowhere” by Jenny T. Colgan (her stories are always winners though). In short, it’s the shippiest 11xClara thing I’ve ever read or seen and it’s adorable. Okay here are the highlights: 

11 and Clara go through some crazy stuff. You know how writers always say that making your characters suffer makes the story a lot better? Yeah that’s literally this entire story. They’re suffering the entire time (well, mainly Clara, but you get it) 

I feel like so much is added to Clara’s character in just this short span of time? Man, did Colgan do some digging. Clara’s afraid of snakes. Her teeth chatter when she’s terrified. (And boy, does she get terrified in this one.) She has conflicting feelings of being a coward and being brave. She loves children and can tell when they just want to be loved (even when the children are skeletons???) Also she knows French! She hears whispers of her past lives in her head. Like, SO MUCH GOOD CLARA STUFF!

During the whole fic story (I actually typed fic at first because I still can’t believe this is canon) Clara struggles with feeling like she doesn’t mean anything to the Doctor. She’s challenged pretty intensely at the end of the story and sort of hypnotised, and the bad guy who’s trying to get her to do something really bad says, “[The Doctor] doesn’t care for you! He lets you bleed and you don’t even know it! Will he bleed for you?” The last line is a repeated question the bad guy keeps asking Clara during this scene. And the Doctor, in trying to get Clara away from the bad guy while she’s in a trance, literally rips the skin of his hands and responds, “Always.” And as soon as his blood falls to the ground Clara snaps out of her trance. 

LIKE. Y’ALL. THIS. IS. CANON. This whole scene is gold just: 

“He doesn’t even care for you!” screamed the snake. “He lets you bleed and you don’t even know it! Will he bleed for you?” 

The Doctor lifted his injured hands instinctively, and let the wounds show. 

She hadn’t even known his blood was red. 

They both watched as the drops fell, vivid on the bright green grass, forming a ‘C’.

The second the first drop hit the ground, she snapped back to him. 

“Stop that,” she said, looking directly at him at last. “Stop it immediately.” 

The Doctor reached out, gently, his fingers weaving into her dark hair. He had forgotten how small she was; she barely came up to his chest. 

And then he basically puts himself inside her head to show her why she can’t have this forbidden universe knowledge fruit (it’s complicated) and the Doctor also sees Clara’s inner self, the part of her that even she doesn’t know herself. 

And then they rebuild an entire planet together and at the very end 11 picks a rose and puts it behind Clara’s ear, then calls her “Senorita.” Then, of course, Clara proceeds to blush and then put a rose behind his ear. 

I just...I just can’t. Still can’t believe I read this story with my own two eyes. I’m not sure if you can buy Time Trips anymore, but if you can, it’s worth it for just this story. The first story with the Fourth Doctor was good too though! I’m excited to read the rest of the short stories! 

[robinchan-hananomi]

The Bog Warrior was an interesting short story for Tenth Doctor. A very Cinderella story with a twist.

So the Doctor is traveling alone, and he ends up arriving at a planet where he sees a beautiful young woman getting a pair of diamond shoes. He follows the girl to a masquerade ball, which I gotta be honest Ten doesn’t have a good track record at masquerade balls. There he meets the boy who gave the young woman the shoes.

The boy is named Root, and he explains a summary of what is happening. There are two countries at war with each other, and to avoid war they are holding the ball to arrange a wedding. The other kingdom is represented by Prince Zircon and he is to choose a bride. He has his eyes on Ash, the young woman from earlier.

Ash is the daughter of the previous queen and king. Her parents were upsured by a woman and her two daughters. The woman arranged for the original queen’s execution before marrying the king and becoming Ash’s stepmother. After having the king killed she had him charged with treason and sentenced Ash to hard labor. The new queen is also a necromancer apparently, able to revive the dead. This leads to the army of the kingdom being made of Bog Warriors, the living dead of those sacrificed in the nearby bogs.

Zircon wishes to marry Ash, but Ash’s stepmother will not allow it. Zircon picks Ash but the shoes give her away to who she is. The Doctor decides to help by fleeing with Ash. They get separated, each ending up with one of the shoes. The Doctor is then reunited with Root and agrees to help them. After finding Ash again, the Doctor suspects the reanimated dead are do to the shoes and he and Ash need to get the shoe she had, that she put back in the castle. Disguised as women employees the Doctor and Ash sneak in and recover the shoe. They go get the shoe the Doctor had and Ash is able to stop Zircon’s execution by breaking the shoes and laying the dead back to rest. The people side with Ash and as she takes over as Queen, the Doctor slips away.

The story was interesting. The Doctor remarks that he shouldn’t get involved, and as he says this he’s literally moving to help because he really can’t leave well enough alone. He’s sad and disheartened at what we assume is the combined losses of his companions, but this win seems to help him at least a little.

Overall it was an interesting story, one I will likely read again.

[quotation--marks]

While she was washing the plates, she suddenly wondered how he had known her unmarried name. But it was unsettling, so she consigned it to the place where she kept all unsettling thoughts, the enormous dark lake in her mind’s eye. It was a lonely spot, green and bare and silent, and she let things slip below the oily waters and then they didn’t bother her again. 

Nick Harkaway, Keeping Up With the Joneses

[casmation]

“Very well. Proceed.” He watched them suspiciously, then his eyes fell upon the Doctor. “Hello, lovely.” The Doctor adopted a high-pitched giggle and hurried away, shyly. (This extract is from a story The Bog Warrior written by Cecelia Ahern in a book called Time Trips.)

This made me laugh a lot more than it probably should have, even though the thought of Tenth Doctor in a dress alone was enough to make me crack up a bit. :P

[tuiyla]

‘Perpugilliam…’ He enunciated the word with delight. ‘An enchanting name. It is Latin for “by a handful”, is it not?’ ‘By a fistful if you’re not careful.’

Time Trips #5: A Handful of Stardust