For the absence of any Doctor Who news lately, with the exception of the John Barrowman interview; which has been talked about on the forums. I decided to delve into the world of Doctor Who fan fiction. I made like little Jack Horner and stuck my thumb in and pulled out a plumb, a delicious plum which may not be the biggest one in there, but one I savored.
The tale I wish to share today is probably one of the best crafted ideas of what an 8th/9th Doctor regeneration story could be like. I considering trying to find out what really caused the 8th Doctor to regeneration to be like the flipping pot of gold at the rainbow, or Excalibur. You can spend ages trying to track it down but it will never be there for you, instead you need to content yourself with the stories that crop up about it. This one is probably the best out there. It’s linked below for you to access.
From This Day to the Ending of the World
As seen above, it’s called From This Day to the Ending of the World and while I don’t wish to give away anything about the plot; to put simply it’s just after the end of the Time War and The Doctor and TARDIS have crash landed on a planet still recovering from the deadly war, what follows is a deep but brief tale of how our favourite Time Lord struggled to reconcile his past with the present and the future, knowing almost everything he was is now gone.
The author does a lovely job of trying to paint our imaginations with the scenery that he has visioned in the writing, we get to have a good look about what the war has done to not only the Doctor’s little world, but we can also see some of the effects on the wider Universe and the people involved, giving a bigger sense of scale which the series does seem to lack at points. however the real strength lies in looking at the Doctor and getting an idea of how he thinks, especially for the new series, the author attempts to justify his pain and loss more, while we always know The Doctor as a secretive and careful person we also know how we can be when driven too far, this shows us more of his personal conflicts, despite his intelligence he has suffer more loss then anyone can fathom.
The story tries to throw off the image that we would expect from Old Who and works to pull on the image that New Who has adopted, it feels darker with that sense of optimism that The Doctor pulls off, knowing he somehow keeps doing despite having a weight the size of a star on his back, he struggles with what he was, if there is any point for him anymore and then remembering that someone needs to be there to sort out the mess at the end of the day, and it works so well. It’s a transformation as the 9th Doctor comes out of his cocoon. We feel his pain and we can relate to him so much more.
I used the words brief harshly earlier on, if anything this functions as a well written and deeply imaginative prologue that sets up the new series really well, but some of that imagination feels lost considering some of what has come out of New Who over the years. The event that helps make The Doctor realize what he is does seem a little too quick but then at times it takes the simple things to put the bigger picture together, and for it’s length the pacing is excellent, it doesn’t feel like it drags on at all and leaves the reading hooked like some sort of new narcotic that’s come out. It helps to justify The Doctors anger and sense of loss we have seen over the years, to the point of getting a little sick of it although I am reminded of how a single year means a lot less to The Doctor then us, it appeals to our love, hope and respect we have for The Doctor, like the wise, quirky grandfather we have seen him be.
So read it, it’s ten or fifteen minutes well spent. We may never see what really happened in the Time War on TV, but this is still a damm good effort and should show how Doctor Who does make us think, how it throws hooks into our skin and drags us willingly into the vast Universe it creates.