Lack of Two: Discuss, please!

[thisbluespirit]

It's a funny thing, because ask anyone who's a fan of Classic Who, or the whole series, who's their favourite Doctor, and Patrick Troughton usually comes high up the list, but looking at the categories on Teaspoon, not only is Two the most under-represented Doctor in the BBC's archives, but also fic-wise. (One is next, then Six.) The one is probably related to the other, and, of course, somebody's got to be least, but maybe we could come to his rescue? Two is a rather marvellous Doctor, after all...

Any thoughts? Any Second Doctor era bunnies, or 'wishes' running about? (You can click on the character tag to see what ideas have already been left here).


(And while I'm around - there's still a day before the second Prompt of the Month #2 closes at the end of tomorrow. )

Edit I liked akashasheiress's suggestion for inspiration, a lot, so I went to the DW Random Pairing Generator for some completely random suggestions for whom Two should meet (I'm not throwing them out as ships, but as general prompts here):
Duplicate Tenth Doctor (a.k.a., Handy) / Second Doctor / 500 year diary
Second Doctor / Braxiatel / dreaming
Second Doctor / Ian Chesterton / ice
Romana I / Second Doctor / friends with benefits
Jack Harkness / Second Doctor / in the dark
Vincent van Gogh / Second Doctor / crossing over
Brigadier Winifred Bambera / Second Doctor / bad hair day

I'd particularly like to see someone pull off the last, but I can imagine the one with Jack has potential for hilarity.

Then I used the new threesomes option for further inspiration:
The War Chief / Victoria Waterfield / The Celestial Toymaker / teasing
Steven Taylor / Evelyn Smythe / Zoe Heriot / asking for a favor
The Valeyard / Zoe Heriot / Rose Tyler / dragons
The War Chief / Gita Chandra / Second Doctor / honesty
Duplicate Tenth Doctor (a.k.a., Handy) / Omega / Second Doctor / Aztecs
Tenth Doctor / Second Doctor / Nyssa / tourists in time

And then I looked for some Two-era folk prompts, too. For some reason the RPG was disturbingly keen on Polly/Ian... (And it was reluctant to produce many Zoe prompts today. Random is the word, of course.)

Princess Astra / Victoria Waterfield / vampires
Victoria Waterfield / Roz Forrester / defying gravity
Victoria Waterfield / K-9 / telling a story
Colonel Robert Dalton / Jamie McCrimmon / guns
The Master (Roberts) / Jamie McCrimmon / running
Ian Chesterton / Polly Wright / sonic screwdriver
The War Chief / Polly Wright / the Cloister Bell
Ian Chesterton / Polly Wright / legends
Polly Wright / Winston Churchill / weapons
Ben Jackson / Third Doctor / memories
Leela / Ben Jackson / seeing things differently
Ian Chesterton / Ben Jackson / love
Polly Wright / Ben Jackson / unexpectedly
Owen Harper / Zoe Heriot / lost in space
Steven Taylor / Zoe Heriot / detective work

I think I'd quite like to see Ian and Ben having a chat about life, love, the universe and everything. Somehow. And, as for Polly and Winston Churchill with weapons - I think the planet might implode, while Princess Astra and Victoria fighting vampires definitely sounds like a must...

♥ the RPG.

There, does that help, or does it make things worse?

Comments

[akashasheiress.livejournal.com]

I think it might have something to do with the overall lack of non-burninated Two-serials. Then again, that doesn't stop people from having him as a favourite.

I haven't had any Two-bunnies lately, I'm sorry to say. It might be an idea write him in sitations that he usually isn't put in in fic? For example, whenever he's paired up with someone, it's nearly always Jamie. Nothing against that pairing, but a bit of variety might be fun. Has anyone ever written Two/Master?

[thisbluespirit]

That's a really good point, re. Jamie. Of course, he's a great character, but it might be a starting point. Mind, I think there's plenty of room for more Two, Ben and Polly prior to The Highlanders!

[john_amend_all]

I have seen Two/Master show up from time to time (often by identifying the War Chief with the Master, but there's also this where I think he's a different pre-Delgado incarnation).

[pedanther]

Has anyone ever written Two/Master?

Yes.

[lithrael]

OK I just got back from reading that and it was lovely. XD

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

I was going to say the same thing as akashasheiress - burninated eps doesn't help much!

Personally I'd like to see Two meet Liz, Martha or Romana. (But then I'm a sucker for Two & Martha!)

[thisbluespirit]

No, they certainly don't help! :-(

Those would all be interesting, especially Liz.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Liz and Two... Maybe I'll throw out a bunny...

[thisbluespirit]

Why not? Throw it as hard as you like, the pesky little... Oh, not like that, you mean? :lol:

Yes, why not?

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

When I can think of a prompt, I'll share it...

[thisbluespirit]

When you said about Liz meeting Two, I knew I'd read a fic like that somewhere, and accidentally chanced upon it today - enjoy! A Break from the Norm (by Gary Merchant).

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Oh! Thanks...

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

If we're talking combinations, Two and Seven would represent an interesting meeting of minds - they are by way of being each other's "evil twins" in some ways after all...

(And we could also have Ace leading Jamie etc astray too!)

[thisbluespirit]

Aw, neither of them are evil - they're the Doctor! I couldn't imagine trying to write Two and Seven for that reason - it would be really interesting to see if someone could pull it off. I did see one where Seven pulled off a Zoe-fixit for the War Games, which was lovely. :-)

8-o

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

I could imagine them having a good conversation, though, the two of them... Do you have a link or a title for that one? Sounds interesting.

[thisbluespirit]

It is! It's Setting Things Right (again, by Gary Merchant), and there's a sequel with Seven and Jamie A Time to Remember. :-)

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recs! :)

[john_amend_all]

This probably isn't a good time to mention there's a 6380-word fic on my hard drive with Two, Jamie and Sam that I wrote last year and somehow never got around to posting...

I've got one Two-era bunny: usually, any crossover with The Box of Delights has Cole Hawlings be the Season 6B Doctor, on the perfectly reasonable grounds that he's played by an older Troughton (eg). But, if they're different people, and since Hawlings is really the mediæval philosopher Ramon Llull, that suggests an adventure set in the 13th century where they get mistaken for each other.

Oh, and there was also that idle remark about putting Jamie and Victoria in Carry On Up The Khyber :-)

[thisbluespirit]

Heh, well, I know you've been doing your bit for the Troughton era! :lol:

Wait, unposted Two, Sam and Jamie? Now, come on, share! :-D

Oh, no, not the Carry On one. I've still got a fully worked out way to cross Three and the Brig with Carry On Screaming that I'm not thinking about... But Two would rather fit in with Khyber. Heh.

If you see the prompts I found above, there's one that's right up your street: Steven, Zoe and detective work. How about that?

[john_amend_all]

I'm trying to write another mystery with Zoë and Lily at the moment, but Zoë won't play ball; she keeps going off at complete tangents and seems more interested in investigating boys than mysteries.

Whether adding a hot-shot space pilot would make matters worse or better, I don't know.

[thisbluespirit]

:lol: The girl has forgotten what little fun she ever had - it's hardly to be wondered at. Throw in a hot-shot space pilot/planetary ruler, and she can combine both interests. Or something...

[john_amend_all]

Wait, unposted Two, Sam and Jamie? Now, come on, share! :-D

I obey.

via two_love

[biichan.livejournal.com]

I think part of it might be that people are intimidated when it comes to writing such an awesome Doctor as Two. Because you want to get him just right, you know.

Re: via two_love

[thisbluespirit]

Heh, yes - he's too awesome for fanfic? :lol:

You make a good point, though - I have a tendency to write least for my favourite Doctors, and that might easily be a part of it.

And didn't Doctor Who Magazine always used to ask anyone who'd written a Two novel how it was writing for the 'difficult' Doctor? I'm not entirely sure that last bit isn't sort of self-perpetuating myth, though.

But Two being Too Awesome would work as an explanation... :-D

Re: via two_love

[biichan.livejournal.com]

He intimidates me and I've written more Two-fics than most people!

I actually have a lot of Two-fics that I've started and never finished. There's one that's post-S3 Two/Martha which got jossed by canon and a Two/Romana (which takes place during 6B for him and the Gallifrey audio era for her). And one of the Two/Jamie fics I wrote ("Lacuna", the 6B one) is actually supposed to be part of a trilogy, except I never wrote the other two parts. (One of the parts would have been Two/Master! Delgado!Master, actually. I don't buy into the War Chief Master theory.)

Re: via two_love

[thisbluespirit]

It sounds like what you're writing is what everyone else in this post is asking for!

I hope Two behaves and stops intimidating you, then - they all sound reaslly interesting. (And there's always AU if canon's got haywire, isn't there? :-D)

[lithrael]

Romana I / Second Doctor / friends with benefits

Aaahahha. I could definitely see Romana I getting on better with Two than Four. She'd certainly enjoy telling Four that Two is lovely to her rather than sulky and sarky and wanting to tell her off and show her up all the time. I wonder whether or not Two would be a little bit Astrid-style smitten with her if she flirted with him. Although he's still three times her age! XD

[thisbluespirit]

It would be fun, wouldn't it? ;-) (Go on, you know you want to... :lol:)

And, btw, love your Polly icon!

[ugerchucker.livejournal.com]

I have many unfinished Two fan fics on my hard drive. I keep telling myself I'm going to finish them, but always seem to loose the plot. I do have a cute little fic I've tried posting on Teaspoon, but it's been rejected twice on punctuation and grammatical grounds. It's annoying.

I do enjoy writing Two though. I find him fairly easy.

[thisbluespirit]

Sounds good! (And if that's so, maybe you need to find a kind - maybe pedantic - beta to help out, then? After all, grammar and punctuation are rather handy things, when you come down to it, especially for any readers. ;-D Then you'd get on the 'Spoon, I'm sure - it is do-able!)

More Two-fic is always a good thing, as I keep saying, though... Love your Jamie icon, too!

[ugerchucker.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I really need to find a beta. What's weird though is I have two stories on Teaspoon already. Not sure what makes this one different.

Thanks, I love it too.

[ladyyatexel]

Hahaha, this is the story of my life. I write really long things that I'm too scared to post, so I have mountains of Two sitting around. I remember looking in this community to see if there was any Two-fic that people actually WANTED to see, so I could gain some confidence, but the lack of prompts was a bit sad.

I'm not really sure what the end point of this comment is, but here I am, sympathizing with the lack of Two.

[thisbluespirit]

Maybe you should bite the bullet and post - or find a friendly beta? It seems a shame if that's the case - the online world of fanfic is rather a fun one, by and large. :-)

But anyway we can, let's see if we can get a little more Two in the world, yes... :-D

[lithrael]

For the record, I would beta the holy crap out of any Two anyone has lying around. Not that I am an excellent beta or anything though. XD

[ladyyatexel]

It is possible there are 45 pages of Cyber-Jamie. Just sayin'.

I am cripplingly shy about posting writing to this fandom, though, so I will probably need to be dragged/threated out of my writing closet or something.

[thisbluespirit]

All right then, post or something, or I'll beat you over the head with a jelly baby!*

(*never was very good at violence).

;-) Good luck, anyway.

[lithrael]

I very very volunteer to give it a once over and help ensure that it is kick-ass and needs to be read by everybody. What do I need to do to encourage this activity to begin?

[ladyyatexel]

I am not entirely sure! I am hella intimidated, so I'm posting art and tiny scraps of it until I feel like I'm not going to embarrass myself. I still have to get enough material together for a first chapter anyway, since I've managed to write 20,500 words all across the entire story, rather than in any kind of order. I'm pretty sure the fear of doing this is comically out of proportion and totally illogical, but it is crippling, daunting, and lots of other -ings.

I appreciate the offer, and I shall see if I can ever take you up on it! I guess look at the art and snippets in the meantime?

More Random Two Goodness!

[derekmetaltron.livejournal.com]

Ben Jackson / Antimony / civil war
Zoe Heriot / First Doctor / what is that?
The War Chief / The Face of Boe / Reapers
Reinette Poisson / Zoe Heriot / home
Rosita / Second Doctor / Torchwood

Second Doctor / Compassion / Tish Jones / past relationships
Katarina / Joan Redfern / Second Doctor / forgetting
Polly Wright / Mr. Smith / Rassilon / never looking back

###

The Two/Rosita and Two/Katarina/Joan ones sound very interesting to me, quite like to see a try at that. :)

As far as Two is concerned he is a pretty hard Doctor to write - in the Summer I wrote a 10,000 word story for a Doctor Who Book, having picked Two. The critera was Jamie, Zoe and 60's era Daleks, and I tell you it was a hard thing to write even with my love of those metal pepperpots, and I even threw in the Meddling Monk for good measure. I was never completely happy with the final result and I'm still waiting for the book to be published (its a fan thing by the way - supposedly meant to be done for Christmas as a present by a guy to his Doctor Who mad father, except several of the other stories didn't get finished sadly, so the book's rather in the air right now). But still, it is fun to write him at the end of the day. :)

James

Re: More Random Two Goodness!

[thisbluespirit]

Heh, the RPG is always entertaining! :-)

The books sounds like quite a project - hope they do get it finished.