Crossovers ahoy!
Aug. 14th, 2010 01:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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As anyone who knows me, one of my other loves in fanfic is a good crossover. It's the one thing you really can't have in the actual show (because of pesky rl considerations, like copyright, actors now being consideably older / dead etc.) and Doctor Who is built for it. Where other shows have to beat about the bush trying to explain the crossover, or just making it crack!fic to get away with it, all any DW fanficcer has to write is 'The TARDIS lands...' and we're away.
What crossovers would you like to see more of? Or those you'd just love to see? Are there any real crossover no-nos when it comes to Doctor Who? I've always been of the opinion that you can cross it with anything, but maybe there are limits.
What ideas does everyone have?
What crossovers would you like to see more of? Or those you'd just love to see? Are there any real crossover no-nos when it comes to Doctor Who? I've always been of the opinion that you can cross it with anything, but maybe there are limits.
What ideas does everyone have?
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Date: 2010-08-14 03:31 pm (UTC)I've read several good Star Trek XI/Doctor Who crossover fics, and I was working on a Defying Gravity/DW crossover fic with another LiveJournal user. That series in particular needs more fic, and Doctor Who is a perfect fit for it.
I'd love to see some Moonlight/DW fics, especially since the actress who played Reinniete/Madam de Pompadour in S2 also starred in Moonlight. I'd also love to see a Full Metal Alchemist/DW crossover where the 9th Doctor is teasing Ed about his height and is trying to explain away alchemy.
Finally, a Torchwood/Carnivale crossover where Jack goes undercover with the Carnavale troupe to investigate the strange events that always seem to happen when they're around.
Personally, I don't think there are any limits when it comes to crossing Doctor Who with another series, since the TARDIS can go pretty much anywhere in time and space. As long as the author can come up with a decent explanation as to why the Doctor is in that particular place/time/universe, I'd say go for it.
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Date: 2010-08-15 08:45 pm (UTC)Yeah, I'm pretty much with you on the any cross thing. There probably are some I'd hesitate over, but a good author can usually win me over.
I don't know pretty much all of the crosses you've mentioned though! *blush*
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Date: 2010-08-14 04:20 pm (UTC)But when it's done well, then it's absolutely brilliant and lots of fun.
Personally I'd love to see some good x-over fics for the following fandoms (fair warning, I'm a huge fan of Martha so most of these feature her!):
The Mentalist - I'm thinking Patrick Jane and Martha would be an interesting combo, because she'd not let him get away with half the cr4p that Lisbon does, after dealing with Ten's cr4p!
Highlander - Martha discovering she's an Immortal, and learning sword-fighting from Methos would be awesome!
Sanctuary - yes, I want to put Martha and Peter Wingfield's James Watson together. So sue me for being a Martha fan AND a Peter W fan! :P
The Scarifyers (ask me for more info if you're interested, but let me just mention that Nick Courtney and Terry Molloy, aka The Brig and Davros play the leads!) - Three and Liz running into Lionheart and Dunning would be awesomesauce on awesomecake!
Queen of Swords - Martha and Ten meeting Dr Robert Helm and the Queen of Swords would be great fun - I can just see the ladies ganging up on the guys! *smirks*
Murdoch Mysteries - Martha and Ten meeting Dr Julia Ogden and Detective William Murdoch - Martha could empathise with Julia over her travails in being a woman Doctor in the c19th.
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Date: 2010-08-15 08:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-16 05:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-16 05:28 pm (UTC)I suppose the only thing I can do in my defence is to work out just how exactly you do file a suit against someone for being a fan of Martha... :lol:
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Date: 2010-08-16 05:34 pm (UTC)But I warn you I shall just sick James and Alesha onto you! :P
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Date: 2010-08-16 05:38 pm (UTC)...And following that typo, now I am very very scared...
LOL LOL LOL
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Date: 2010-08-16 05:43 pm (UTC)So....
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Date: 2010-08-19 07:35 pm (UTC):lol:
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Date: 2010-08-19 07:39 pm (UTC)Have you not come across the phrase "I'll sick X onto you" before?
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Date: 2010-08-14 07:37 pm (UTC)Of course, a game show crossover is weird, because does that count as its own universe or as RPF. Whatever, it still amuses me.
I've been wanting to see a crossover between Who and Dark Angel for a bit. I can just see the Doctor being mistaken for one of the genetic experiments...
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Date: 2010-08-15 08:43 pm (UTC)You know, I don't think I watch almost any of the shows the three of you have listed so far - I am safe from any rabid bunnies! :lol:
I just want more B7/DW crossovers. How can there be so few? There should be more, more, I tell you... *cough*
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Date: 2010-08-15 09:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-14 10:09 pm (UTC)(Except LOTR. Somehow, crossing LOTR never quite works. It's so extremely unique.)
I'd like to see more crossovers featuring companions without the Doctor. And if I had to pick one fandom to have more Who crosses in, it'd be Sapphire & Steel!
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Date: 2010-08-15 08:36 pm (UTC)But as a general rule, no. And DW requires an explanation of some kind for the existence of magic, and it depends how the writer pulls that off to retain the integrity of both fandoms for it to work, so that effects a lot of things. I'm often uncomfortable about DW/Harry POtter crossovers, although I know a great drabble...
And: aw, crossover love! ♥
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Date: 2010-08-15 09:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-16 05:42 pm (UTC)Mind, I do like what
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Date: 2010-08-16 07:26 pm (UTC)I rather wonder if Lawrence Miles has, too. The description of Mictlan in Alien Bodies reminded me very much of Hell in TGD.
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Date: 2010-08-29 03:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-14 11:08 pm (UTC)If you wanted to leave the premise of one or both series intact after the crossover, that would rule out various other possibilities. Particularly if the other series is driven by some long-standing problem that the Doctor could solve in seconds with a wave of the sonic screwdriver. I should think that any Doctor from say, Four, onwards, with a working TARDIS, would be able to get Voyager home, and he'd have to have quite a good reason not to.
There could also be Universes where the problem would be differences in the underlying philosophy: 'Things are dreadful and this Must Not Change' versus 'Nine times out of ten, things will be considerably better once the Doctor has paid a call'.
One other crossover thought: I don't much care for the thing where two villains in the different universes are identified as the same entity, despite having precious little in common. This is directed, I hasten to add, more at things like the New Adventures' habit of trying to force all sorts of Doctor Who monsters into the Lovecraft pantheon, rather than casting gags about characters who happen to be played by the same actor; heaven knows I'm as guilty of that as anyone!
The other thing that can cause trouble in a crossover is where you've got two sets of heroes, either of whom would normally be expected to be able to solve the problem on their own, and the author has to contrive situations where they're both necessary. Some ways around that might be:
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Date: 2010-08-15 08:31 pm (UTC)1. involving dreams and myths in some way (i.e. maybe the presence of the TARDIS getting into Fiver's dreams)
2. You have a central threat that the Doctor tries to stop that also affects the rabbit community and tell it in alternating sections where, like yr ST idea they interact ("I say, this wire's been chewed right through!") but obvious not knowingly. (And for some reason, it was clearly a crossover involving Four, Harry and Sarah.) That, I think, if someone could do it - and my WD memories are bit vague, and even though I've read the book, still clouded by the terror the mythical bits at the start of the film brought in - could be really clever and fun.
3. You try the slightly cracky approach and make it a double crossover also involving Dr Dolittle.
Actually, I think with the second problem, there are few examples where you can't use the historical get-out clause for some reason (importance, being too far in the future, fixed points, yadda yadda yadda) not being able to meddle. Same reason you can't bust Anne Boleyn out of the Tower of London... And Voyager is a bit of a bad example, because the show treats Voyager's ending up in the Delta Quadrant as a Signifcant Event (both in consequences of the trip, and in the disappearance being like the Titanic sinking), not to mention the incredible timey-wimey-ness that must surround it, especially when you even try to induce a headache by thinking about the ending. (I have a DW/Voyager WIP somewhere that doesn't even consider any of this because I assumed all that as read). Which brings me to your heroes at odds things, because if you can picture the scenario where the Doctor won't use his TARDIS, and Captain Janeway discovers that... well, heaven help the Doctor. Or the Doctor might end up trying to fix the tangle Admiral Janeway makes of time (which would have the same potential complication as above, plus the two Janeways probably on different sides of the argument), or, of course, you have the situation where he can take them home, but not the ship, and Janeway won't go without the ship (I think they did this somewhere along the line, I have a feeling). I'm waffling a lot, but hope that makes sense. In fact, a DW crossover that had the Doctor and Janeway head to head over her cavalier attitude to time travel, I would adore! With her popping his balloon of Time Lord pomposity as much as him putting her straight, obviously. :-)
As regards the two heroes not being needed, well, most shows (not so much DW, though), do tend to have a plot where they have to find someone to help them in some way - and the Doctor slots nicely into that role. Plus, it could be more a character piece, and then saving the day is an optional extra.
But crosses with companions are fun, your funny spoil=sport TNG crossover sounds v entertaining, and I agree about not making all villains connected. Except I think Wolfram & Hart, and Torchwood should enter into some sort of dodgy negotiations at some point.
On thinking about it, I wonder about crosses with things that are mentioned as fictional within DW (Harry Potter, Agatha CHristie) but it doesn't stop me writing things with Miss Marple in! (I think Miss Marple and Poirot just exist, like Sherlock Holmes... :-D)
I am v amused now that I could work a crossover for Watership Down! Mind you, I have to say, I'd have a problem with Redwall. ("Okay, we've found a lot of mice and badgers wearing armour, and building a fort... Is that normal?" And somehow, already this is a very weird fic with Eleven, Amy and Rory. See... anything, you can cross anything... :lol:)
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Date: 2010-08-15 09:39 pm (UTC)When it comes to Voyager, I've only watched a handful of episodes so I'll readily accept the 'fixed point' explanation. Though it might be fun to see Janeway try to hijack the TARDIS; between her crew's unfamiliarity with the systems and the TARDIS's legendary unreliability, they could end up in some amusing places.
As for crosses with things that are fictional in the Whoniverse, there's the Literary Agent Hypothesis (already invoked to explain how the Doctor has met both Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes), there's the Land of Fiction, and if all else fails there's Storytime.
In general: Trying to come up with crossovers that won't work does seem to lead to a desire to make them work, doesn't it?
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Date: 2010-08-19 07:37 pm (UTC):lol: That does sound like fun. Mind you, if it's post-Seven of Nine's arrival, they'd probably fly it better than he does, and they'd still have a Doctor on board. He'd be annoyed.
*nods*
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Date: 2010-08-19 07:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-20 05:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-20 06:14 pm (UTC)I do like the idea of Robert Hardy as a Dream Lord, though.
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Date: 2010-08-20 06:21 am (UTC)Since there aren't any humans around (there aren't, are there?), clearly it's an alien planet where the local intelligent life just happens to resemble Earth animals. Possibly in the same part of the galaxy the Judoon come from.
(Or somewhere near the planet my hypothetical Lion King crossover was set on.)
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Date: 2010-08-20 05:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 03:50 pm (UTC)(Can you tell I was a massively Srs Bisnes Redwall fan when I was younger? *g*)
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Date: 2010-08-20 06:53 am (UTC)Modesty Blaise: While the Doctor and Modesty put their heads together to save the day, Leela and Willie compare bosses, discuss knife-throwing technique, etc.
The Anubis Gates: Irving Braxiatel wants a copy of William Ashbless's memoirs for posterity - which entails going back, tracking Ashbless down, and persuading him to write them.
Kage Baker's Company series: The Doctor keeps running into agents of the Company in different time periods, leaving them puzzled as to who he is and how he fits into what they believe they know about history and time travel. (I have an answer in mind, but I don't know if it actually works, because so far I've only read one of the Company novels and I gather the series does an Everything You Know Is Wrong moment later on.)
The latter two are both interesting in that they're crossovers with works that have time travel, with rules that initially seem to contradict the observable rules of the Whoniverse. I think they're doable, though.
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Date: 2010-08-20 05:15 pm (UTC)Again, not ones where I really know the cross, though, sadly. I like the sound of the middle one particularly. Maybe just because 'archaeological shenanigans' always seems to promise a lot of fun. And old maps and things.
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Date: 2010-09-08 05:43 pm (UTC)(If you have any objection, please let me know, and I will select a new one immediately!)
Classic Who Crossovers And Writing Difficult Crossovers
Date: 2011-01-07 09:52 pm (UTC)I have a few DW crossovers I've started to write over the years but theres a great amount of difficulty into getting them realised, far more than regular Who fiction (or indeed any other non-crossover fic) because you have to sinch up those two universes in some way (has there been some Void crossing, is it a shared universe and if so how much?) together with the characters. Worse is that I then come up with another dozen ideas in the midst of that planning and I get that terrible fiction split-personality thing where one half wants to carry on and the other wants to try something new. And whilst the latter is tempting I feel uncomfortable with umpteen unfinished crossovers on my plate.
Thank the lord for dwstraybunnies then, gives me the chance to share some of the more feasible ideas and see if a more focused writer can make better sense of them.
For example I have this very complex Alien vs Predator crossover with DW which has been in my thoughts for at least two years. When I came up with it orginally it was just the Aliens and the Daleks, the latter attempting to exploit the Xenomorphs on an infested world and the Tenth Doctor, Martha Jones and Jack Harkness (I think the idea was this was going to be an untold adventure sometime after they beat the Master but before Martha finally decides to leave the TARDIS in Series 3 - I wanted a medical person basically) togther with a bunch of Marines trying to stop them. Then last year it became the 11th Doctor with Rory and Amy, first between 'Amy's Choice' and 'Hungry Earth', then after the Series 5 Finale in their honeymoon period. And then the new AVP Sega Game came out and I realised the story would make a perfect foil as a sort of sequel.
The Daleks kept switching from Classic to RTD to Paradign versions (the former because I realised that the AVP universe is sometime after the 2167 Dalek Invasion of Earth, so the Marines would be aware of Daleks) and I had Bishop and the Weyland-Yutani Corporation in as an 'evil human' group, just as keen to exploit the Daleks as they are the Xenomorphs and the Hunters who try to stop them. I actually started writing a timeline, suggesting that Weyland-Yutani had pieced together Dalek tech from incidents in 1963 and 1984 and the 'Vulcan Colony disaster'. And I was even intending to have (as per the game with its set of storylines) perspectives from multiple sides - the Doctor and the Marines, Weyland's crew, the Daleks, the Xenomorphs and the Hunters. As you can tell, it was very ambitious and is still on the cards in theory, but... it might be rather too ambitious really, I'd have to see. Besides, I have to really finish other stuff including a SW crossover with Who, so I'll have to think about it.
Hope that wasn't too long but I figured I'd have my say about Who and crossovers in general.