There was ice this morning. Ice. Brrrrrrrrrrr...

[clocketpatch]

Because being egotistic is good clean fun for the entire family, I've stole this memeage from jjpor :

Pick a paragraph (or any passage less than 500 words) from any fanfic I've written, and comment to this post with that selection. I will then give you a DVD commentary on that snippet: what I was thinking when I wrote it, why I wrote it in the first place, what's going on in the character's heads, why I chose certain words, what this moment means in the context of the rest of the fic, lots of awful puns, and anything else that you'd expect to find on a DVD commentary track.

www.whofic.com/viewuser.php


... if you really want to you can grab one of the ones on my lj that hasn't made its way over there yet. But beware, for they are not organized at all.

Comments

Stupid word limit

[clocketpatch]

And the universe was full of so many wrongs. He saw all of them in a mind-numbing instant. His eyes flickered and his soul wavered. Darkness, a red spot approaching to block everything else out. Falling. He saw the war. He saw the death. He saw his planet burn. He looked at Romana-who-wasn't-listening, and saw her ashes floating in space.

He could force her to listen or he could save her life.


That last line there gave me pains and still does, because if he forces her to listen then she lives. If he doesn’t, blah, blah, blah, Time War, dead, here comes angst!Ten. Thus it is inaccurate. What I was trying to say was that, if he forces her, then eventually everything he loves about Romana will die. Eventually, the whole universe will be destroyed, or reordered and brought down to the point where living doesn’t really matter any more. It’s kind of damned if you do, damned if you don’t, but at this point the only way to save her is by letting her go.


"As from this moment there's no such thing as free will in the entire universe. There's only my will because I possess the Key to Time."


It struck me a bit as being like that moment in Lord of the Rings when Sam’s looking for Frodo, and he’s got the ring, and he’s looking at it, and he thinks that he could stop Sauron, and save Middle Earth, and turn the Shire into a beautiful garden for all of the Hobbits to enjoy… Of course, Sam quickly realises that said garden would be maintained by slaves and fertilized with terror, but he does briefly enjoy the fantasy.

I’d say that the Doctor would have been going through a similar temptation here. Worse, maybe, because unlike Sam, I’m thinking that the combination of Time Lord timesense and ultimate MacGuffin Key would have give him a painfully accurate look at what was definitely going to happen if he didn’t act. Sam still had the other hope of the ring being destroyed to cling to. The Doctor, in destroying the Key, lost any other way out.


She listened. She looked at him with concern.

"Doctor, are you all right?"

He was fine. He was better than fine: he was about to save the universe.

But did he have the right?


Hmm… I’m quoting again. I must quote that line in every other fic. Seriously. It’s a good line, but I waaaayyy too much over use it.


Gallifrey burned. He burned. She burned. Flames licked at the hand holding power. A button was before him. A choice: the universe or her? His scarf was suddenly too tight. He was choking. No. He was falling. He was lying crushed and she was somewhere else. Another dimension. No, she was in this dimension. She was president. No, he was president. She was ashes floating in space.

He wished he could float with her.


Here be shippiness and angst. Because I totally ship those two.


If he remained true to his goals and untainted by power he could wield The Key. It could be done. He could prevent every death and maintain free will. But the power was already burning his hand, singeing his nostrils, destroying his mind. If he could maintain control he could save her. Or cause the apocalypse.

Could he take that risk?

And now I’m back to comparing it with Sam and the ring again, because that was really my prime inspiration for this; that, and the fact that I was sure certain sure that Four could see the future and the war that was coming when he held the Key. The Trickster’s comment on it in that Sarah-Jane Adventure’s episode has pretty much confirmed this for me (as well as making me squee uncontrollably at the Classic-y goodness of the reference)

Re: Stupid word limit

[thisbluespirit]

That was very, very interesting. It's a great short fic - probably really my favourite of yours, I think and the jelly babies bit makes it so very Four and gives it that leavening of humour that sells the whole thing. It's a logical take on it and rather scary. The LOTR analogy seems very apt - I might have known. ;-)

Official canon is coming into line with your fanfic? Hey, Clocket, you don't know where the Key is, do you? :lol:

Re: Stupid word limit

[clocketpatch]

*shifty eyes*