Recent reading

[raven]

I am pleased and flattered to see that a few people have friended me recently - hello, nice to meet you! - and the anonymous love meme was another thing that was, um, love. I never knew I had so many friends.

Actually, I suppose I'm still a little bit stuck in the new-girl-at-school mindset; I didn't have many friends growing up and didn't notice the change because it happened so insiduously. So, in danger of sounding somewhat drunk (one glass of white wine, true, but it is not responsible for this), I'd just like to say I love you people. Really, honestly do.

Other than this, I have been a little bit blue. Rhiannon left on Saturday afternoon, and since then my mother has been cooking relentlessly for something or other she's hosting tomorrow, and Mani came and went. Mani is my oldest friend, the one with the dying and dead goldfish (they're dead; the family now have a border collie), and she was here less than twenty-four hours. Still, that gave us time to bitch about A-level Chemistry, run around like idiots on the beach trying to jump to the top of the signs, fight over my pillows, squee over shoebox_project, tease Kartik - her younger brother; I have bullied him since the literal minute he was born - about the fact he is now six feet tall and apparently has a girlfriend, and finally promise to eat each other's food next year.

Ah, the delights of old friends. Her mother and mine are both sobbing quietly that as of next year, all five of the toddlers who went to the Unofficial Spital Playgroup will be university students. As I informed them earlier, it is sadly no longer 1990. I'm interested to note that I do remember 1990. At least, I remember being woken just before midnight on New Year's Eve and being taken out into Chittaranjan Park, and it being surprisingly cold for Delhi. I also remember my fourth birthday, which must have been three weeks later. Before that it all goes a bit fuzzy.

After that small aside, I'd rather talk about 2005 again, where I have decided to read more. My to-read list was getting silly, so I have finished Strange Poison and Gaudy Night. They were both good, but the latter particularly. As I was told by so many people, it's set in Oxford and the setting is richly described. Lord Peter Wimsey went to Balliol, which makes me happy, and it would appear that the fictitious college Shrewsbury is on top of Balliol's cricket ground.

But to be honest, I have only one thing to say concerning the novel, and that is this. If anyone ever proposes to me, they had better phrase it, "Placetne, magistra?"

[I will admit my inner Latin geek went into overdrive. It's not too difficult, thankfully.]

Next on the list is Tom Holt, as I still have one of Jane's books unread, and I want to reread the Targets. Particularly The Invasion of Time, partly because of the brilliance of the Time Lord Andred helping Leela decide what to wear, but mainly because of this:

"The Doctor smiled and seemed to relax. Suddenly, Borusa saw not a power-mad traitor, but the Doctor he had always known, the pupil whose impudent charm had so often brought an unwilling smile to his face."

I just think it's cute. It is cute. It summons up cute mental imagery. I want to re-read it and The Deadly Assassin for Gallifrey canon, just so's I can write university Doctor/Master/Rani. The problem is, of course, names. The Doctor is Theta Sigma, and I can probably get away with "Koschei" for the Master. But as far as I know, the Rani doesn't have any other name, and I find it hard to believe the trio were using their ostentatious titles when they were quite that young. Sigh. Dilemmas.

On that note, the fic-writing front is not that wonderful. All the fics I had on the go have keeled over and died. All I'm currently writing is a very brief girl!Doctor snippet, that is fun but not particularly meaty. Talking of which, other people have been writing her as well as me. doyle_sb4 wrote what happens when Four and Romana II meet girl!Doctor, and amchau wrote me this drabble, chronicling the inevitable problem facing a newly female Time Lord:

One of regeneration's annoying side effects was to fill the bladder. Thankful that there were no companions needing explanations, the Doctor trundled off, cursing clothes which fitted the previous body but not this one, and stumbled (why did a Time Lord's legs insist on changing length?) into the toilet.

Rapidly, the TARDIS removed the urinals, prompting the Doctor to utter obscenities for the second time in ten minutes, as the reality of the change slowly dawned.

When the Doctor was safely in a cubicle, the TARDIS — seeing the potential for future problems — changed the sign on the door to "Ladies".

[amchau - if you want me to take this down, tell me and I will do so with pleasure.] I now really want to see what would happen if the Brigadier met girl!Doctor.

Anyway, blah blah blah I am boring. My next entry will probably have reviews of the next books I read, which are all Short Trips anthologies. They, too, are love.

I should go to bed.

Comments

[gwynnega]

But to be honest, I have only one thing to say concerning the novel, and that is this. If anyone ever proposes to me, they had better phrase it, "Placetne, magistra?"

Hee. Lord Peter Wimsey is a hard act to follow! So glad you enjoyed the book. (Not that I had any doubt that you would!)

partly because of the brilliance of the Time Lord Andred helping Leela decide what to wear,

In Doctor Who: The Tom Baker Years, TB comments on how in "The Talons of Wang-Chiang," they finally made Leela put some clothes on, and that it was a relief: "Acting with half-naked people is distracting."

There's a Deadly Assassin novelization?!

[calapine.livejournal.com]

There's a Deadly Assassin novelization?!

There're novelisations of all the Doctor Who stories save Resurrection of the Daleks and Revelation of the Daleks due to, er, differences that Eric Saward had with the Beeb.

[gwynnega]

No City of Death or Shada either, I think, which is simply a crime!

[calapine.livejournal.com]

Or The Pirate Planet...interesting...now I'll have to go find out why. :)

Shada makes sense though - it was never broadcast...though that's also an argument for novelisation, yes.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I was informed by my trusty second-hand-book man that there is no City of Death novelisation, either. If he's wrong, that would make my month.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Hee, I loved it. So nice to have an arse-kicking heroine in a period setting.

"Acting with half-naked people is distracting."

*giggle* Oh, dear! But that original costume was... well, distracting. TB never stops being funny.

There's a Deadly Assassin novelization?!

I got it at the Blackpool DW exhibition, and adored it. I don't know what the actual episode is like, but the book has the Doctor getting uncharacteristically whumped. Which is good. :)

[gwynnega]

The Deadly Assassin is really violent - the Doctor gets drowned, and he sets this guy on fire, etc. Apparently it was the ep that Mary Whitehouse threw a fit over...

[calapine.livejournal.com]

The PDA novel Divided Loyalties gives the Rani's 'real' name as Ushas. (And gosh, a Master/Rani/Doctor uni-days fic would be truly fabulous, yes.)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Oh, brilliant! That will do me fine.

Also, I am guessing you will know this - is "the Rani" supposed to be a direct reference to the Hindi word pronounced the same way (meaning "queen")? Or is that just a happy coincidence?

[that_mireille]

It was meant to be, yes.

What source did "Koschei" come from?

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

I think it was originally in one of the Virgin novels? It turned up in one of the 5th Doctor PDAs, too.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Ah, thank you.

One of the novels, again. I'm having a brain-fritz on which one exactly. "Dark Path" comes to mind for some reason, but I may be wrong.

[that_mireille]

"One of the novels" works from me. I use/ignore the novels in my personal view of canon, as it suits me.

If I need a name for the Master before the megalomania kicked in full-blast *g*, it'll suit me.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I do that, too. Particularly the loom thing - I tend to ignore it and pretend I don't know about it.

There should be more young!Doctor and/or young!Master fic, actually. *g*

[calapine.livejournal.com]

Twas invented by David A McIntee, who first used it in the MA The Dark Path and he used it again in the PDA The Face of the Enemy. And it was also mentioned in the Academy section of Divided Loyalties, by Gary Russell. IIRC it comes from an Eastern (they used the Cyrillic alphabet anyway) mythological figure, Koshei, who was a lord of death and the underworld, but McIntee added a c so it reminded one less of a character in Babylon 5.

Er, I'll go now, yes. Ahem.:)

[that_mireille]

I would know these things if I'd read more than two of the books, but considering what I thought of those two (and how expensive they were here), I didn't.

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

I've only read two of the books - a first Doctor one called Byzantium, which I liked (my shippy little heart squeed over Ian and Barbara being married) and a Fifth Doctor one which, um... I appreciated the Turlough angst but I could have done without ever reading the 'red hot anal probe' bit.

[that_mireille]

....oh, dear. I don't even want to think about that for too long.

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

I did giggle at Turlough's horror and confusion at the thought that he might have shagged a woman and her line of "you wouldn't stop talking about your friend the Doctor last night". She's an evil torturer, of course, and she's taunting him with the knowledge that he might have betrayed the Doctor but... yeah. Not how I interpreted it.

[that_mireille]

Your interpretation makes me happy.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

I assume that's where the Pip and Jane (Mark of the Rani writers) took it from, especially since she does rule a planet.

[that_mireille]

I remember reading it in DWM, ages ago. (Back when I could still *get* DWM. *sighs*)

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

That's my problem with writing Doctor/Master/Rani uni fic, too, otherwise I'd have done it by now (and Drax! Drax needs more fic love!)

I now really want to see what would happen if the Brigadier met girl!Doctor.

*shakes fist in your general direction*

He'd learned his lesson with Ace; women, particularly the kind of women the Doctor appeared to attract as his assistants, didn't take kindly to being referred to as 'the latest one' or anything of the sort. "You must be the Doctor's companion," was all he said as he shook her hand. "Miss...?"

The woman whom he was, regardless, mentally calling the latest one, had a disturbingly familiar smirk. "Oh, you don't have to go around calling me Miss, Alistair," she said. "Doctor's always done very nicely." While he was still struggling to absorb that, she hauled forward the blonde girl - the other latest one - who was managing to look both stern and as if she was holding back giggles.

Only minutes ago, he would have said that no prospect filled him with terror so much as the thought of being faced with a giggling teenage girl. Give him Cybermen, give him Yeti, but he had never felt entirely comfortable around women and these odd, modern, teenage creatures were a thousand times worse.

He would still have rather been subjected to an army of them than a female Doctor.

"Rose Tyler, Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart; Brigadier, Rose Tyler." The Doctor grinned widely, as if delighted that she'd got it all off in one breath. "And I'm the Doctor. I've regenerated again, but I expect you noticed that."

"They do say one's powers of observation diminish in old age," he said drily. "The world's in trouble again, I suppose."

The Doctor batted his shoulder. If he was any judge of these things - he usually wasn't - it was an alarmingly flirtatious gesture. "When is it not? Room in the TARDIS for one more, do you fancy coming for a spin, help save the planet again?"

He looked back at the house. Doris wouldn't look too kindly on him disappearing with two strange women, even if the fate of the world was at risk. And there was so much needed done, he hadn't even started on that grass...

Feeling younger than he had in years - perhaps since the last time the Doctor had crashed back into his life - he smiled. "Yes, why not?"

[gwynnega]

Hooray!

[that_mireille]

Eee! The Brig! And Doris! This is wonderful.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*smirk* That is absolutely wonderful. When Doris finds out, the Brig is going to be in a lot of trouble.

Who's Drax, out of interest?

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

Drax is an old classmate of the Doctor's (and the Master and the Rani's) - he's in the episode The Armageddon Factor. He failed his exams ("I was all right on the theory...") and ended up spending 10 years in Brixton, where he aquired a Cockney accent that Four patronizes him about. He's a bit of a Delboy type and insists on calling the Doctor Thete, which he doesn't appear to like much. He delivers the line "blimey, it's a little metal dog!" in a way that makes me giggle quite a lot.

There's another old classmate in The Deadly Assassin, isn't there? The TV presenter who mentions the Doctor being expelled "after that scandal". Can't remember his name...

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*giggle* The Doctor seems to have been at school with so many bizarre people, it's a wonder that he's the renegade.

Runcible? Is that his name?

[eternalwings.livejournal.com]

Is it scary I DONT remember 1990 as I was approximatly erm only just born lol

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Well, as you weren't born, it is understandable. :)

[amchau.livejournal.com]

No, the drabble's fine. I meant to post it in my lj, but haven't got around to it.

Don't be blue. I'm thinking about more girl!Doctor stuff, and if I have a change while I'm away, I might write it (completely neglecting the things I'm supposed to be writing...).

I intend to phone you at the weekend, as that looks likely to be the first chance I'll have.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Ah, good to hear that. More girl!Doctor fic from you would be very much of the good, yes. Have fun in Durham. :)

[(Anonymous)]

I am having fun, thanks (am in their local library). May I advise you to check your phone for messages?

[amchau.livejournal.com]

Eh, logging in didn't work. It's me, of course.

[leyo.livejournal.com]

Nice to meet you too :)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*g* Haven't run for the hills yet, huh?

[leyo.livejournal.com]

Not yet ^_~

[tau_sigma]

Would you mind if I join in and friend you too? Your posts are really interesting and often full of Doctor Who-goodness... :)

There's a bit of cute Borusa/Doctor interaction in The Deadly Assassin too (at least there is in the video). Pity Borusa went power-mad. University Docter/Master/Rani would be fun to read.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't mind at all! Pull up a chair, make yourself comfortable. :)

I was actually really disappointed at Borusa going evil! I liked the guy, dammit. (Although I do think "But you had time to change?" is one of the best lines of dialogue ever.)

[tau_sigma]

Hee, thank you. Nice comfy chair.

The first time I saw Borusa was in the Five Doctors, so I was a bit confused watching the Deadly Assassin for the first time... I thought he was going to be the bad guy! He is rather nice in Deadly Assassin though. It's nice having mentions of the Doctor's childhood and what sort of student he used to be. And yes, the changing... and the 'insert object here' of Rassilon. ;) (ooh, and the Doctor plays harp! I love that.)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I am a sap for the Doctor's childhood. I sort of want him to have been a happy child who got in trouble at school and with a Time Lord mummy and daddy and lots of little friends who grew up to be evil megalomaniacs.

Yes, the Spoons of Rassilon! The Ironing Board of Rassilon! The Red Toothbrush of Rassilon!

[me-ves-y-sufres.livejournal.com]

I liked Gaudy Night very much: I read it a couple of weeks ago when I was homesick in a foreign youth hostel, curled up on a sofa in the rain. It was an absolutely perfect reminder of my favourite city. I particularly liked the Latin also, as well as the reflections about the awesome continuity of ducks. So cute.

Strong Poison was less shiny, but well worth reading it merely for the awesome (and kind of cruel) piss-take of the avant-garde at that party Lord Peter attends.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Oh, you're so right. It's a delightful comfort read. I'm really loath to give it back to its owner.

That is cruel, isn't it? Impeccably observed, of course.

[gamesiplay.livejournal.com]

Love you, too. :)