Discussion post: in other media...

[thisbluespirit]

Time for another Discussion Post! (And don't forget anyone's welcome to start one should they wish.)

This time it's fics based on spin-offs – collectively, there’s probably quite a number but individually it can be tough to get a fix of your fave non-TV team TARDIS. Of course, it’s obvious why – if you haven’t been able to listen that audio/read that book/comic, you don’t know the characters. Duh, as they say.

However, I find fic is a good way to get an introduction – some of them are even better in fic! Certainly, I got lost and bewildered long before the EDAs had finished their run, and never got to meet Anji, (tho' I know Fitz) but I find I really enjoy fic with that team. Fitz-fic has a tendency to be entertaining also. And I tried out fic with Hex, Lucie and Erimem before I got to meet any of them - it acted as a useful taster. And being way behind with Big Finish’s main ranges, I’ve never yet caught their Gallifrey series, but I love almost any humorous fics based on it.

So, maybe fic here is even more important than for the mainstream characters, as it can work as a taster (or even a substitute for out of print stuff)? What do people think and which spin-off characters deserve more fic?

Are you an addict for anything Bg Finish? Missing the New Adventures, or the PDAs? Or are there some highly obscure one-off novel/audio/comic strip characters/ideas you’re desperate to have explored further? (e.g. I managed to get hold of one of Kaldor City audios. Now if I can only get the rest, I’d love to see some fic for that – how’s about that for obscure? But snarky. Oh, how snarky…)

I did (it’s got Traditional) collect some Random Pairing Prompts to whet our appetites, but as there were so many characters, it got epic so see the previous post for the prompts! It’s Big Finish’s fault for taking in the other spin-offs, [Benny, Fitz, Izzy, Frobisher…], I suppose - it became impossible to separate them. (I do like BF’s optimistic view that it’s a big universe, universes, in fact, and the timeline’s pretty wibbly-wobbly and that all of this happened somewhen, somewhere and we don’t need to un-canonise anything. Sorry, slightly off-topic.)

So, what do people think and, more importantly, what fics would we like to see? Any ideas, people? There's no guarantee they'll get picked up, but they may (and all suggestions will be included on updates and put into the hat for Prompt of the Month).

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

I love Frobisher - I'd heard of him, but BF's The Holy Terror was I think on DWM's top ten, so I got that & he was great fun. I must get my hands on The Maltese Penguin sometimes, too, that reminds me.

I must confess I have a really weird reaction to Faction Paradox - I think they make a suitably nasty background thing in Alien Bodies but I literally hate them - not in an 'I think they're rubbish' way but anything more to do with them, and I react with a sort of instinctive revulsion. And you will have gathered by now that that's pretty unusual for me! I suppose that must mean they're v effective baddies, but it makes me want to burn anything they're in. I never want to do that. So when I say weird, I mean *weird*. I have no idea why. Just something about them gets at me, clearly. Good luck with sucking people in to writing stuff (but if someone starts throwing spam and causing techincal issues to eat the fic, well, that'll be me. If I knew how to do that stuff. :lol:) Isn't life strange? :-) Um, sorry. Even seeing the words typed in this comment - I shuddered. And considered deleting it. Which would be rather against the spirit of the thing!! Heh.

[thisbluespirit]

Deleting the comment might be in the spirit of Lawrence Miles, though, I suppose...

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

Yes... ;D

Frobisher and characters like him just go to show how creative the comics writers had to get, considering they didn't always have the rights to use most of the supporting characters - and indeed, they were at times writing the strips before any of the stories featuring a particular Doctor had aired, meaning that they sometimes just had to make up characterisation etc. At times, the effect was very strange, and at times it led to some great things...

It's interesting that you say that, because reading some of the Faction Paradox spinoff books like The Book of the War...I don't know, there's something creepy going on there, in that you're sort of piecing together the real story from a lot of hints and suggestions and clues that you're meant to piece together as you go along, and the overall effect can be strangely unsettling at times. A bit like with some of the recent Eleven arc, but with no concessions made to the fact that it's going out on a Saturday teatime and the majority of the audience couldn't care less about clues etc. Maybe it's just something about Miles's writing, then. I don't know, really...

[thisbluespirit]

Yes, it wasn't intended as a criticism (as far as his books go, I have only read Alien Bodies and Interference - both volumes - and I loved Alien Bodies whereas I disliked Interference a lot) but from that much of them I developed a reaction of feeling uncomfortable and queasy when they were on the page - wanting to be in a universe where they had never even been invented. I don't think I could pinpoint it to anything logical so it must be some deep-seated squick they're hitting. I haven't read the others, and I usually like writing like that. But obviously, as you can imagine, if I feel horrible when Faction Paradox is mentioned [urgh], I have not chased those particular spin-offs. For obscure spin-offs (as opposed to the NAs, PDAs and Big Finish), I shall stick to trying to chase down those first four Kaldor City audios, (which is not easy). Robots of Death and Fendahl and possibly-Avon-calling-himself-Iago, and plotting and snark. (Can't imagine what the attraction there is, then.) ;-D