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Martha flipped through the pages of another sword-and-sorcery novel, but she couldn't quite make herself read it. It was another trite dragonslayer plot—dragon kidnaps princess, knight kills dragon, knight marries princess, happily ever after.
They took place all over the globe, but the stories were exactly the same. Not a bad story the first half dozen times, not really, but she couldn't imagine why the Doctor kept so many books of its type.
She'd wanted to read The Fall of Arthur—Tolkien was a fine author, even if it wasn't Martha's preferred genre—but the Doctor had snatched it out of her hands an instant after she'd found it. "Spoilers," he'd said. "You wait until it's published in your time."
"What spoilers?" Martha had protested. "It's just another few years. And anyway, you've read it, I'll bet."
"Of course I read it," he'd replied, "I helped with the research." And he'd promptly shoved the stack of sword and sorcery novels in her arms and taken the other book away.
Martha flipped through another few pages and sighed. "Am I being punished?" she finally asked. "For trying to read ahead?"
"What? No," the Doctor replied, "no, why would you think that?"
Martha set the book down and leaned forward, staring intently at the Doctor. "You're making me read these."
The Doctor grinned. "No, no, that's... that's not a punishment. I just thought you could, ah, get a bit of a background before we go there."
"Go where?" Martha asked. She blinked, looked down at the stack of books, and then back at the Doctor. "Wait, there? In the stories?"
"Well, not in the stories," the Doctor corrected, "but where they take place. Well, where some of them take place."
"We're going to see dragons," Martha said. "And knights. And...." She waved her hands at the books.
The Doctor nodded. "Dragons kidnapping princesses, knights in shining armor, King Arthur, jousting, the whole lot." He frowned. "Although, the dragons are a sight friendlier than the ones you're reading about, and that whole 'damsel in distress' is just political nonsense. But...." The TARDIS landed with a thump, and the Doctor's grin returned. "You'll see soon enough. Welcome," he finished, opening the doors, "to Camelot!"
Martha flashed him a grin and leaped to her feet, knocking over the stack of books in the process. She ran out the door, leaving the Doctor to clean up the mess.
"Camelot!" she called after a moment. "Right. Kingdom of plastic and cardboard and tarmac."
"What?" The Doctor dropped the books and stepped outside to join her. He scratched his head, staring at their surroundings.
They'd landed in a parking lot, just outside of a Renaissance Festival.
They took place all over the globe, but the stories were exactly the same. Not a bad story the first half dozen times, not really, but she couldn't imagine why the Doctor kept so many books of its type.
She'd wanted to read The Fall of Arthur—Tolkien was a fine author, even if it wasn't Martha's preferred genre—but the Doctor had snatched it out of her hands an instant after she'd found it. "Spoilers," he'd said. "You wait until it's published in your time."
"What spoilers?" Martha had protested. "It's just another few years. And anyway, you've read it, I'll bet."
"Of course I read it," he'd replied, "I helped with the research." And he'd promptly shoved the stack of sword and sorcery novels in her arms and taken the other book away.
Martha flipped through another few pages and sighed. "Am I being punished?" she finally asked. "For trying to read ahead?"
"What? No," the Doctor replied, "no, why would you think that?"
Martha set the book down and leaned forward, staring intently at the Doctor. "You're making me read these."
The Doctor grinned. "No, no, that's... that's not a punishment. I just thought you could, ah, get a bit of a background before we go there."
"Go where?" Martha asked. She blinked, looked down at the stack of books, and then back at the Doctor. "Wait, there? In the stories?"
"Well, not in the stories," the Doctor corrected, "but where they take place. Well, where some of them take place."
"We're going to see dragons," Martha said. "And knights. And...." She waved her hands at the books.
The Doctor nodded. "Dragons kidnapping princesses, knights in shining armor, King Arthur, jousting, the whole lot." He frowned. "Although, the dragons are a sight friendlier than the ones you're reading about, and that whole 'damsel in distress' is just political nonsense. But...." The TARDIS landed with a thump, and the Doctor's grin returned. "You'll see soon enough. Welcome," he finished, opening the doors, "to Camelot!"
Martha flashed him a grin and leaped to her feet, knocking over the stack of books in the process. She ran out the door, leaving the Doctor to clean up the mess.
"Camelot!" she called after a moment. "Right. Kingdom of plastic and cardboard and tarmac."
"What?" The Doctor dropped the books and stepped outside to join her. He scratched his head, staring at their surroundings.
They'd landed in a parking lot, just outside of a Renaissance Festival.
Literature
Basic OC Bio Sheet
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QUICK REFERENCE:
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Weakness:
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IN DEPTH:
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Personality – Aims and Drives:
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Backstory – Early Life:
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Backstory – Prior to the Story:
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Skills and Traits - Combat:
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Skills and Traits - Peaceful:
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Extra info:
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Literature
Character bio sheet BASIC
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Contacts?:
Glasses?:
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Body build(slim, muscular, etc.):
Body abnormalities(Cleft lip etc.):
Extra extremities(Another arm, tail, horns etc.):
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Patterns/designs(on skin/fur and where they are, such as a zeb
Literature
Blank Character Bio
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Parents: Siblings: Children: Relatives: Partner: Familiar: Mentors: Friends: Allies: Rivals: Enemies: Pets:
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Suggested Collections
Featured in Groups
Prologue
Part 2 - fav.me/d743edb
The prologue, and just the prologue, can be considered a crossover because I've crossed it with one of my "original" works in progress, thus its presence in the "other crossovers" folder of my own Doctor Who group, as well as any other Doctor Who crossover groups I manage to submit it to.
You can find an early draft of a scene in that original piece (albeit written long before I'd decided crossed it with Doctor Who) starting here on my other account fav.me/d37xpqe
Featuring the Tenth Doctor and Martha as portrayed by David Tennant and Freema Agyeman.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again--I am lumping most of my Doctor Who fics among my original fiction in terms of first rights. That is, some publishers/magazines only do first rights, won't print something that's already been published, and posting online counts as "publishing" in that context, therefore I won't be posting my Who fics online beyond occasional notes and such.
It's not just the hope of some day being allowed to publish them as Who fics, however unlikely that chance might be. It's also that I'm in the process of rewriting most of them, a la Faction Paradox, so that they, technically speaking, won't be Doctor Who stories anymore. Or, considering the Faction Paradox example, they might be alternate universe Doctor Who fics, but
without any of the copyrighted elements that would prevent publication.
This one, however, is not one of those.
See, there's a certain subplot somewhere in this story--not the "prince and" bit, though the Doctor oddly enough managed to allude to it already--that I'd had other plans for before I stuck it in the middle of a Doctor Who story, and I figure if I'm going to do rewrites, I'll just go with the original plan for that one. Hopefully I'll have that subplot written out and published, self or otherwise, before "first rights" becomes an issue.
As such, this particular Doctor Who story has no real place among my original fics (that I'm aware of), rewritten or otherwise, except maybe as certain minor recurring elements (which I'll start throwing in somewhere in the next couple of chapters) tie it to the other Doctor Who stories and their rewritten versions. And I could probably get around those ties some other way if I need to. This story, therefore, is posted as fanfiction as my other Who fics will not be.
Whether I post the entire thing, however, remains to be seen....
Now, then, notes on the actual chapter:
"another trite dragonslayer plot"
I maintain the belief that "there are no original ideas, only original applications."
Just because an idea has been used before, even many times before, that doesn't make it trite or cliche... but some stories do have a way of repeating themselves even in application. Thus Martha's disinclination to read through the entire stack of near-identical plots.
"Fall of Arthur--Tolkien was a fine author"
I had a bit of work trying to choose a suitable title to name-drop. All I really needed was a fantasy-ish novel (as the genre vaguely relates to where I'm taking this story), but I needed something ahead of Martha's time for Ten's remark about spoilers. But choosing the right book was a little trickier.
At one point I'd considered Tales of the Perilous Realm--posthumous publishing doesn't bother me for the purpose, and it was published late 2008, so even if you allowed that she's from 2008 (as per my headcanon on timing in the show sidequestpublications.wordpres… which I really need to put up on this site at some point), she wouldn't have seen the book yet.
Then I realized that even though the anthology was new, the stories within had all been published long before that. So I kept looking.
I also came across Dragonheart, written by Todd McCaffrey, son of the late Anne McCaffrey. And, naturally, anything published after that, though I was focusing on 2008 at the time. It could've worked... but I still wanted to explore my options.
And then I came across The Fall of Arthur, a poem by Tolkien published in 2013. And it just so happened that the topic related just a little more closely to my intended plot, even if the relation remained vague and limited to things like the Doctor's Camelot promise. So I simply changed Martha's protest from "another few months" to "another few years," and I had a perfect title to drop in.
Also, I have no idea what genres Martha prefers. I know she mentioned Harry Potter in the Shakespeare episode, and one of the official novels, The Last Dodo, mentions medical dramas (though it mentions she finds them hilarious due to the inaccuracies, which she thinks might be the Doctor's reason for reading science fiction), but I have no idea if it ever comes up anywhere else.
And finally, timing within canon:
I've come up with general ideas on when I see my other Who fics taking place, with regard to the show... but I haven't made any such decision in this one.
Other than somewhere between "Smith and Jones" and "Utopia," obviously. Narrowed that one right down, didn't I?
Ah, well, maybe I'll come up with something as I go.
Any Who:
Doctor Who, the Doctor, Martha, and the TARDIS, copyright to BBC et al.
Part 2 - fav.me/d743edb
The prologue, and just the prologue, can be considered a crossover because I've crossed it with one of my "original" works in progress, thus its presence in the "other crossovers" folder of my own Doctor Who group, as well as any other Doctor Who crossover groups I manage to submit it to.
You can find an early draft of a scene in that original piece (albeit written long before I'd decided crossed it with Doctor Who) starting here on my other account fav.me/d37xpqe
Featuring the Tenth Doctor and Martha as portrayed by David Tennant and Freema Agyeman.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again--I am lumping most of my Doctor Who fics among my original fiction in terms of first rights. That is, some publishers/magazines only do first rights, won't print something that's already been published, and posting online counts as "publishing" in that context, therefore I won't be posting my Who fics online beyond occasional notes and such.
It's not just the hope of some day being allowed to publish them as Who fics, however unlikely that chance might be. It's also that I'm in the process of rewriting most of them, a la Faction Paradox, so that they, technically speaking, won't be Doctor Who stories anymore. Or, considering the Faction Paradox example, they might be alternate universe Doctor Who fics, but
without any of the copyrighted elements that would prevent publication.This one, however, is not one of those.
See, there's a certain subplot somewhere in this story--not the "prince and" bit, though the Doctor oddly enough managed to allude to it already--that I'd had other plans for before I stuck it in the middle of a Doctor Who story, and I figure if I'm going to do rewrites, I'll just go with the original plan for that one. Hopefully I'll have that subplot written out and published, self or otherwise, before "first rights" becomes an issue.
As such, this particular Doctor Who story has no real place among my original fics (that I'm aware of), rewritten or otherwise, except maybe as certain minor recurring elements (which I'll start throwing in somewhere in the next couple of chapters) tie it to the other Doctor Who stories and their rewritten versions. And I could probably get around those ties some other way if I need to. This story, therefore, is posted as fanfiction as my other Who fics will not be.
Whether I post the entire thing, however, remains to be seen....
Now, then, notes on the actual chapter:
"another trite dragonslayer plot"
I maintain the belief that "there are no original ideas, only original applications."
Just because an idea has been used before, even many times before, that doesn't make it trite or cliche... but some stories do have a way of repeating themselves even in application. Thus Martha's disinclination to read through the entire stack of near-identical plots.
"Fall of Arthur--Tolkien was a fine author"
I had a bit of work trying to choose a suitable title to name-drop. All I really needed was a fantasy-ish novel (as the genre vaguely relates to where I'm taking this story), but I needed something ahead of Martha's time for Ten's remark about spoilers. But choosing the right book was a little trickier.
At one point I'd considered Tales of the Perilous Realm--posthumous publishing doesn't bother me for the purpose, and it was published late 2008, so even if you allowed that she's from 2008 (as per my headcanon on timing in the show sidequestpublications.wordpres… which I really need to put up on this site at some point), she wouldn't have seen the book yet.
Then I realized that even though the anthology was new, the stories within had all been published long before that. So I kept looking.
I also came across Dragonheart, written by Todd McCaffrey, son of the late Anne McCaffrey. And, naturally, anything published after that, though I was focusing on 2008 at the time. It could've worked... but I still wanted to explore my options.
And then I came across The Fall of Arthur, a poem by Tolkien published in 2013. And it just so happened that the topic related just a little more closely to my intended plot, even if the relation remained vague and limited to things like the Doctor's Camelot promise. So I simply changed Martha's protest from "another few months" to "another few years," and I had a perfect title to drop in.
Also, I have no idea what genres Martha prefers. I know she mentioned Harry Potter in the Shakespeare episode, and one of the official novels, The Last Dodo, mentions medical dramas (though it mentions she finds them hilarious due to the inaccuracies, which she thinks might be the Doctor's reason for reading science fiction), but I have no idea if it ever comes up anywhere else.
And finally, timing within canon:
I've come up with general ideas on when I see my other Who fics taking place, with regard to the show... but I haven't made any such decision in this one.
Other than somewhere between "Smith and Jones" and "Utopia," obviously. Narrowed that one right down, didn't I?
Ah, well, maybe I'll come up with something as I go.Any Who:
Doctor Who, the Doctor, Martha, and the TARDIS, copyright to BBC et al.
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