Fandom Growth Exchange 2023
Aug. 10th, 2023 10:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lurking_latinistDear Author,
Thank you so much for signing up to write/draw something for our shared fandom. I hope you will find some information here that's useful to you: I have listed the freeforms I requested and added some notes on where I think they might go, where that occurred to me. I truly do see prompts as a springboard rather than a checklist, so I hope that (after DNWs) you pay exactly as much attention to my prompts as is necessary for *you* to create a story that you love! I can't wait to see what you come up with.
I have the setting to receive gifts on, and I welcome treats in any format should anyone feel inspired!
DNW: sexual content, rating over T for any reason, focus on unrequested ships.
General fic likes: hurt/comfort, travel & visiting interesting (including imaginary) places, the Doctor (or the Doctor/Romana) trying human things, the Doctor being willing to go to great lengths for companions, moral dilemmas/conflicting priorities, how one character responds when they think the other is dead, 'everything is happy and nothing hurts', 'everything hurts a little bit but still we've got each other,' stories with historical settings, as well as really alien aliens.
I also, for requests where this is relevant, like stories where platonic pairings go through typical shipping tropes (mistaken for a couple, accidental marriage, only one bed, etc.) and navigate those situations in their own unique ways, ultimately reaffirming how much they value their relationship the way it is (i.e. not ending up as a romantic or sexual pairing).
General art likes: portraits with symbolism, characters doing things (anything from an action scene to playing a board game!), awesome clothes, alien landscapes and culture, historical fashion, headcanons about the appearance of audio-only characters (I love when they’re drawn looking like their actors and I love when they’re drawn completely different), abstraction, unconventional materials (don’t feel obligated to include these last two, but don’t be afraid to!)
The length of the prompt doesn’t reflect how much I want the ship; if anything, it reflects how often I’ve requested it before! My prompts tend to accrete.
Windrose Chronicles, Joanna/Antryg:
I'm not as articulate as I'd like to be about these books; when I try to talk about them I just start squeeing. There's something so special to me about how these two people, who on the surface really could not be more different or unsuited for each other, see each other's true selves and love and sacrifice for each other. I also enjoy a lot of Hambly's worldbuilding, especially the intersection between magic and technology (this would be an awesome starting point for art as well as fic!), and the books' themes of agency and vulnerability (which I think is an intellectual way of saying: mmm, hurt/comfort). This is one of those canons where I'm just left saying Yes But I Want More Please. So anything you do with them will make me happy!
WtOVPIC, no relationships nominated:
This fandom has a lot of room for 'missing episode' type stories. For instance, what's a Cresdon Green Christmas like? What if the villagers decided to put on a play or start their own TV station to make up for the lack of media? And so on.
But I'd also be interested in stories outside the parameters of the show, such as a pre-canon fic about Uljabaan's time in disguise as Lord Ayleswater. Given that Uljabaan isn't actually very good at human stuff, how many obvious clues did the other characters miss for those eighteen months?
I'm not super interested in post-canon--I like the ambiguous ending--but if you had a great idea for it, I wouldn't be averse. (I think my favorite potential post-canon situation is that they eventually give up on the invasion and Uljabaan for some reason has to stay on Earth and learn to live as a human for real, hopefully from Lucy. But I'm not specifically asking for this in a fic.)
I love Katrina and Lucy's friendship and scheming! I'm also weirdly fascinated by Margaret--her weird right-hand-woman relationship with Uljabaan and her own tendency towards evil overlorditude as manifested in village politics. In general I love how this show creates layered characters with complex relationships without ever disrupting its generally lighthearted tone.
Since these are audio-only characters, I'd love to see your mental image of them if you signed up for art!
DOCTOR WHO THINGS
Some of these I just kind of threw in because I saw them in the tagset and thought 'that looks neat, I want to know what whoever offers that has to say about it!' so I may not have many specific prompts. But my general likes are always a good guide.
Please dump all of your Gallifreyan family headcanons on me! Regardless of what they are, I love them all. I would love to see this relationship be complicated but not all bad, whether it's a young Susan on Gallifrey or perhaps Brax (re?)connecting with her later in her life. I can't think he would understand or approve of her choices, nor the Doctor's choices regarding her, but he might learn to respect her for who she is. I think she might take after him a bit, actually, in personality (which would not necessarily help their relationship...).
I'd love anything exploring the Doctor's probably complicated feelings about this, or indeed Cameca's. Missing scene, or even something where they meet again somehow.
I suspect that, if you offered this, it's because you wanted to know what on earth I was thinking--so here's what I was thinking: what if the Second Doctor, during his "Season 6B" period of working for the Time Lords, has to investigate and deal with time anomalies of various kinds... including the girl who definitely shouldn't have survived the crash of the R101. This could be an AU of Storm Warning with Two instead of Eight, or something where Two confronts his future self--is he quite as laissez-faire about the potential paradoxes as Eight is? There are lots of different directions you could take this; or if you were picturing bringing Two & Charley together in a different way entirely, I'd love to see that too! I just think their personalities would be so interesting together.
Just an awesome combination that I saw in the tagset and loved. I really like stuff that explores the Doctor's frustration with being trapped on earth, so maybe something set in that era?
Scientists! Yay! Maybe this is an early version of the companions' support group?
I'm fascinated with the weird obsessive enemies-friends-rivals-foils thing these two have going on, and I want more of it. I think about what Missy said hundreds of years and several regenerations later--"a friendship older and more complex than your civilization"--and about the idea of Time Lord friendships being as intense and consuming as humans tend to think of romantic relationships, and therefore equally explosive when they go wrong. I tend to think the Doctor and the Master were both fairly amoral young wanderers when they left Gallifrey, and that's who the Master is expecting to find when he comes to Earth--he has no idea the Doctor has had character development. And maybe the Doctor isn't 100% sure he wants to keep the character development, if the alternative is having his best friend back and a working TARDIS, to boot. I'm really interested in a story about a bond of friendship that doesn't go away just because they're on opposite sides, and that has both corrupting and redeeming potential for both of them.
A great team--I love how they have a surprising amount in common (for instance, they both took to their heels when they were offered the role of leader of their people) and would love a story that explores that. Please write Leela in a way that respects her intelligence & expertise.
For a few short episodes Four and Romana are pretty much co-parenting Adric and I desperately want to see more of how they handle it. The Doctor doesn’t like responsibility and I’m not sure Romana likes children very much–how do they discuss or avoid the fact that they now have a whole teenager living in their house? What does Adric observe and think of them? (Feel free to cram extra time into the E-Space trilogy, or write in an AU where Romana returned to N-Space with the Doctor and Adric, or whatever.)
I used to think this was impossible but now I've read some stories that really make it work, so whatever way of making it work you find, I'm sure to love. They have a lot of unfinished business and I do think they just genuinely miss each other. But Five's very different from Four, partly I think because he'd grown used to having Romana around and is trying to get on without her. So what happens if they reconnect? If you want to include Five's companions, what do they think of her and of their relationship?
Iris! She's so much fun, and I'm fascinated by the side of the Doctor that she brings out. Maybe they have some adventures together after The Wormery and work through some of what's happened to them lately? (Canon-typical ship-teasing--mainly one-sided on Iris' part--is fine and welcome.) Iris is just always a delight, and I love how strangely comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time she makes the Doctor--especially Six, who wears his hearts on his colorful sleeves.
There is just not enough of them! I especially love Flip and Constance's adorable friendship with its big sister & little sister vibes. I would love to see a story that uses each of their strengths, especially one where Flip gets to shine and impress everybody--she's more than just the little cute one! Also something involving Constance's historical background would be cool.
If I have an OTP it's Doctor/Romana. I really love Romana’s intelligence, her intensity, and her unique perspective as a Time Lady who's not strictly a renegade, but also not bound by the typical prejudices and assumptions of the Time Lords, and she and the Doctor complement each other so well. The tension between them in their different attitudes to Gallifrey and the wandering life is delicious, too. I am familiar with EU material, so you can use or not use however much of it you want to, and I'd love it if you want to throw in your own Gallifreyan worldbuilding headcanons on Romana's side as well--I love canon soup!
I listened to The Diary of River Song season 2 and now I ship them. I love how they’re both such passionate, dramatic, emotional people, and they create this kind of beautiful harmony of intensity. A missing scene from their audio? An AU where they spend a longer time together? Another first meeting? (They’ve had so many…) Don’t feel the need to explain and justify how it fits into their timelines, especially at this length, unless you want to. Amnesia lipstick covers a multitude of paradoxes.
I once said of Six and River that I just want them to be able to settle down and have lots of extremely curly-haired children. You don't have to go quite that far (although you can! I opt into babies and kids for this!), but one thing I want for them is the opportunity to be soft and a bit silly. So much goes wrong for both of them, and in their one audio together they manage to be SO romantic, and I want them to get to do cute fluffy things. Probably with angsty undertones, but hey, it's River. Cute fluffy things where they both know it can't last forever is the vibe I'm feeling. Or else romance in the midst of the action-adventure that neither of them seems to be able to avoid. Or let them have their heads and create loads of the high drama they both gravitate towards. Anything romantic with them will make me happy!
I'd be really interested in exploring their relationship either within Trial of a Time Lord--for instance, what about a canon divergence AU where they have to work together for some reason?--or before/after. In the books it's hinted that Six avoided taking actions which Seven later thought were necessary because he was afraid of starting the path to becoming the Valeyard, and while I am by no means asking you to stick to (or use at all) book canon, this could be an interesting prompt: how does Mel react to this fear of the Doctor's, especially if they then encounter the Valeyard himself again? It would also be interesting to see the Valeyard's perspective on encountering a companion of whom he presumably has quite a few memories.
Such a delightful tiny team--they work so well together, and yet there seems to be so much they don't tell each other. I'd be fascinated by each of their perspectives on how the Doctor's regeneration has affected their relationship. Or just seeing them at work in an adventure!
My #1 request for Ray is just that I want more adventures with her! I think her friendship with the Doctor in the brief time they know each other is beautiful and they seem to really get each other. A canon-typical adventure or scene in an AU with Ray as companion would make me very happy!
He's such a cool character--I love that in addition to being a musician he's actually a psychology student on holiday--and there is literally one fic for him on the Archive (it's by me and it's a drabble). I'd love some exploration of who he is, what he does with his life, and what he thinks of the Doctor and Ace and the one-night revolution.
I'm fascinated by how Hex changes the Doctor and Ace’s dynamic: in some ways having him around makes the two of them more of a pair, because he's the new guy, but then they each have an important friendship with Hex as well. I especially love how each of them seems to feel the need to protect the other two, and would love a story that showcases this (or one where it backfires on them!). I really like them in historical settings; they seem to have a lot of stories where they get dropped into the middle of a warzone, and I can see why. Or what about some other kind of setting where they have to work as a team, like a heist, or an alien or historical royal court full of intrigue?
canon dialogue from No Future:
‘No, time doesn’t work like that. She’s ferociously neat, she –’
‘She?’
‘Time.’
‘Are you two going out, or what?’
The Doctor frowned. ‘Once. But now she’s seeing somebody else.
Look, why not take it literally? Or at least semi-literally. Be metaphorical; be surrealistic; go wild!
All the Menti Celesti stuff in the VNAs is just so wild and bizarre and fascinating, and I’d love to see the Doctor’s notions of his own duty and destiny, his own (doubtful?) future, and what being a Time Lord means to him now, explored through his relationship with this personification/goddess/whatever she is.
Roz is just a wildly underappreciated companion. Her journey and her relationship with the Doctor are so interesting--she never treats him as any kind of moral authority and is happy to disagree with him. Something that explores that would be cool. But also, the books they're in are often very dark, and I'd enjoy a softer or quieter moment from Roz's time as a companion, or maybe the Doctor helping to support her and being her friend after some of the canonical things she goes through.
Utterly fascinated by her. The only decent Time Lord! What happens to her after the events of Lungbarrow? What is readjusting to the outside world like? And does she maintain/rebuild a relationship with the Doctor (including after his regeneration)? Feel free to lean into the gothic novel vibes of Lungbarrow, or explore your own Gallifreyan headcanons. I’d actually also love to see her in an AU (or, you know, some other version of canon) where she wasn’t trapped in Lungbarrow for so much of her life. What if she got involved in one of the TV Gallifrey stories–War Games or Deadly Assassin or Invasion of Time or Arc of Infinity or Trial? (A couple of those could only be improved by her presence…) Would she stick up for her renegade Cousin? Would she try to persuade him to live a more conventional life? What if he persuaded her to come see a little bit of the universe with him?
They're so delightful. She's there for some of the worst moments of his life and she loves him dearly and never takes him too seriously. She's a protagonist in her own right and he's the cosmic force she's experiencing along her journey, and they hang out. What's not to love?
I like Seven to be in love and sad about it. Or at least with an undertone of melancholy. His tendency to know rather too much, especially about his own past and future, would combine very interestingly with River's whole deal, I think. Don't worry about how it fits into canon, though, unless that's important to the story you want to tell--you can go AU, or just assume his memory gets erased later.
I feel like we very often see the Doctor and Anji sort of mediated through Fitz, who's close to both of them. So I'd love something that explores their relationship directly with each other. Maybe exploring Anji's (very reasonable) doubts and mistrust of the Doctor, and how the Doctor responds to her, and how they are friends anyway. Or something about how they work together on a problem or puzzle--that's one thing they have in common, problem-solving.
Reconnecting in any way, at any point in either of their timelines, would be just wonderful. Charley will probably recognize that the Doctor has a lot of fascinating new issues to repress, but I'd love it if she got the chance to talk about some of her experiences and feelings that she and Eight never really resolved. Possibly in the middle of adventure and danger!
I’m fascinated by this strange and wonderful audio, and especially “The Difference Office.” I’d love to see a bit more of this alternate Gallifrey. (Full disclosure, I'd be ready to ship the Warrior and Romana, but I'm just as interested in their friendship, and indeed I think they'd have to build a friendship at some length before they could possibly manage a romance. So this is just a note that if your fic does have any pre-relationship elements to it, I'm just fine with them--but it certainly doesn't have to.)
I love the Doctor and Romana in main canon, and I fell in love with them all over again in this standalone alternate universe. Ingenue/civil servant/assassin Romana and her Lord President just fascinate me. I love the deep sense of loyalty to his position that has her defending him before she even knows anything good about him, combined with the way they immediately feel drawn to each other and realize they could be friends. He's such a mess, personally and morally, and so is she but in very different ways, and I'd love to see them struggling towards a better way together.
I'd love to see what happens with them after "The Difference Office," or a missing scene from when they're on the run (while Romana's android double is being interrogated).
I feel like we almost know more about Alison's relationship with the Master than with the Doctor, so I'd love to see what brings the two of them together. Does he see himself (or past companions) in her longing for a bigger, fuller life? What kind of places do they go, and what's their approach when they get there? I'd love to see them working as a team that knows each other well. They deserve a long friendship.
I'm fascinated by the ways in which they aren't the Doctor and Ace--whether that means different backstory, different worldbuilding, or really meta fic involving alternate universes (crossing over is fine as long as the proper Doctor Who characters don't crowd out the Time Travellers). We got a bit of Alice's "legally distinct from Dorothy McShane" backstory; how about the Professor's? What's his planet (?) like and how'd he come to leave it? How about their timeship? I'd also love something that explores how the events of the series shape their relationship--they're often separated from each other for quite long periods of time, and we never actually see them reunite after Punchline. What keeps them coming back to each other?
Thank you so much for signing up to write/draw something for our shared fandom. I hope you will find some information here that's useful to you: I have listed the freeforms I requested and added some notes on where I think they might go, where that occurred to me. I truly do see prompts as a springboard rather than a checklist, so I hope that (after DNWs) you pay exactly as much attention to my prompts as is necessary for *you* to create a story that you love! I can't wait to see what you come up with.
I have the setting to receive gifts on, and I welcome treats in any format should anyone feel inspired!
DNW: sexual content, rating over T for any reason, focus on unrequested ships.
General fic likes: hurt/comfort, travel & visiting interesting (including imaginary) places, the Doctor (or the Doctor/Romana) trying human things, the Doctor being willing to go to great lengths for companions, moral dilemmas/conflicting priorities, how one character responds when they think the other is dead, 'everything is happy and nothing hurts', 'everything hurts a little bit but still we've got each other,' stories with historical settings, as well as really alien aliens.
I also, for requests where this is relevant, like stories where platonic pairings go through typical shipping tropes (mistaken for a couple, accidental marriage, only one bed, etc.) and navigate those situations in their own unique ways, ultimately reaffirming how much they value their relationship the way it is (i.e. not ending up as a romantic or sexual pairing).
General art likes: portraits with symbolism, characters doing things (anything from an action scene to playing a board game!), awesome clothes, alien landscapes and culture, historical fashion, headcanons about the appearance of audio-only characters (I love when they’re drawn looking like their actors and I love when they’re drawn completely different), abstraction, unconventional materials (don’t feel obligated to include these last two, but don’t be afraid to!)
The length of the prompt doesn’t reflect how much I want the ship; if anything, it reflects how often I’ve requested it before! My prompts tend to accrete.
Windrose Chronicles, Joanna/Antryg:
I'm not as articulate as I'd like to be about these books; when I try to talk about them I just start squeeing. There's something so special to me about how these two people, who on the surface really could not be more different or unsuited for each other, see each other's true selves and love and sacrifice for each other. I also enjoy a lot of Hambly's worldbuilding, especially the intersection between magic and technology (this would be an awesome starting point for art as well as fic!), and the books' themes of agency and vulnerability (which I think is an intellectual way of saying: mmm, hurt/comfort). This is one of those canons where I'm just left saying Yes But I Want More Please. So anything you do with them will make me happy!
WtOVPIC, no relationships nominated:
This fandom has a lot of room for 'missing episode' type stories. For instance, what's a Cresdon Green Christmas like? What if the villagers decided to put on a play or start their own TV station to make up for the lack of media? And so on.
But I'd also be interested in stories outside the parameters of the show, such as a pre-canon fic about Uljabaan's time in disguise as Lord Ayleswater. Given that Uljabaan isn't actually very good at human stuff, how many obvious clues did the other characters miss for those eighteen months?
I'm not super interested in post-canon--I like the ambiguous ending--but if you had a great idea for it, I wouldn't be averse. (I think my favorite potential post-canon situation is that they eventually give up on the invasion and Uljabaan for some reason has to stay on Earth and learn to live as a human for real, hopefully from Lucy. But I'm not specifically asking for this in a fic.)
I love Katrina and Lucy's friendship and scheming! I'm also weirdly fascinated by Margaret--her weird right-hand-woman relationship with Uljabaan and her own tendency towards evil overlorditude as manifested in village politics. In general I love how this show creates layered characters with complex relationships without ever disrupting its generally lighthearted tone.
Since these are audio-only characters, I'd love to see your mental image of them if you signed up for art!
DOCTOR WHO THINGS
Some of these I just kind of threw in because I saw them in the tagset and thought 'that looks neat, I want to know what whoever offers that has to say about it!' so I may not have many specific prompts. But my general likes are always a good guide.
Please dump all of your Gallifreyan family headcanons on me! Regardless of what they are, I love them all. I would love to see this relationship be complicated but not all bad, whether it's a young Susan on Gallifrey or perhaps Brax (re?)connecting with her later in her life. I can't think he would understand or approve of her choices, nor the Doctor's choices regarding her, but he might learn to respect her for who she is. I think she might take after him a bit, actually, in personality (which would not necessarily help their relationship...).
I'd love anything exploring the Doctor's probably complicated feelings about this, or indeed Cameca's. Missing scene, or even something where they meet again somehow.
I suspect that, if you offered this, it's because you wanted to know what on earth I was thinking--so here's what I was thinking: what if the Second Doctor, during his "Season 6B" period of working for the Time Lords, has to investigate and deal with time anomalies of various kinds... including the girl who definitely shouldn't have survived the crash of the R101. This could be an AU of Storm Warning with Two instead of Eight, or something where Two confronts his future self--is he quite as laissez-faire about the potential paradoxes as Eight is? There are lots of different directions you could take this; or if you were picturing bringing Two & Charley together in a different way entirely, I'd love to see that too! I just think their personalities would be so interesting together.
Just an awesome combination that I saw in the tagset and loved. I really like stuff that explores the Doctor's frustration with being trapped on earth, so maybe something set in that era?
Scientists! Yay! Maybe this is an early version of the companions' support group?
I'm fascinated with the weird obsessive enemies-friends-rivals-foils thing these two have going on, and I want more of it. I think about what Missy said hundreds of years and several regenerations later--"a friendship older and more complex than your civilization"--and about the idea of Time Lord friendships being as intense and consuming as humans tend to think of romantic relationships, and therefore equally explosive when they go wrong. I tend to think the Doctor and the Master were both fairly amoral young wanderers when they left Gallifrey, and that's who the Master is expecting to find when he comes to Earth--he has no idea the Doctor has had character development. And maybe the Doctor isn't 100% sure he wants to keep the character development, if the alternative is having his best friend back and a working TARDIS, to boot. I'm really interested in a story about a bond of friendship that doesn't go away just because they're on opposite sides, and that has both corrupting and redeeming potential for both of them.
A great team--I love how they have a surprising amount in common (for instance, they both took to their heels when they were offered the role of leader of their people) and would love a story that explores that. Please write Leela in a way that respects her intelligence & expertise.
For a few short episodes Four and Romana are pretty much co-parenting Adric and I desperately want to see more of how they handle it. The Doctor doesn’t like responsibility and I’m not sure Romana likes children very much–how do they discuss or avoid the fact that they now have a whole teenager living in their house? What does Adric observe and think of them? (Feel free to cram extra time into the E-Space trilogy, or write in an AU where Romana returned to N-Space with the Doctor and Adric, or whatever.)
I used to think this was impossible but now I've read some stories that really make it work, so whatever way of making it work you find, I'm sure to love. They have a lot of unfinished business and I do think they just genuinely miss each other. But Five's very different from Four, partly I think because he'd grown used to having Romana around and is trying to get on without her. So what happens if they reconnect? If you want to include Five's companions, what do they think of her and of their relationship?
Iris! She's so much fun, and I'm fascinated by the side of the Doctor that she brings out. Maybe they have some adventures together after The Wormery and work through some of what's happened to them lately? (Canon-typical ship-teasing--mainly one-sided on Iris' part--is fine and welcome.) Iris is just always a delight, and I love how strangely comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time she makes the Doctor--especially Six, who wears his hearts on his colorful sleeves.
There is just not enough of them! I especially love Flip and Constance's adorable friendship with its big sister & little sister vibes. I would love to see a story that uses each of their strengths, especially one where Flip gets to shine and impress everybody--she's more than just the little cute one! Also something involving Constance's historical background would be cool.
If I have an OTP it's Doctor/Romana. I really love Romana’s intelligence, her intensity, and her unique perspective as a Time Lady who's not strictly a renegade, but also not bound by the typical prejudices and assumptions of the Time Lords, and she and the Doctor complement each other so well. The tension between them in their different attitudes to Gallifrey and the wandering life is delicious, too. I am familiar with EU material, so you can use or not use however much of it you want to, and I'd love it if you want to throw in your own Gallifreyan worldbuilding headcanons on Romana's side as well--I love canon soup!
I listened to The Diary of River Song season 2 and now I ship them. I love how they’re both such passionate, dramatic, emotional people, and they create this kind of beautiful harmony of intensity. A missing scene from their audio? An AU where they spend a longer time together? Another first meeting? (They’ve had so many…) Don’t feel the need to explain and justify how it fits into their timelines, especially at this length, unless you want to. Amnesia lipstick covers a multitude of paradoxes.
I once said of Six and River that I just want them to be able to settle down and have lots of extremely curly-haired children. You don't have to go quite that far (although you can! I opt into babies and kids for this!), but one thing I want for them is the opportunity to be soft and a bit silly. So much goes wrong for both of them, and in their one audio together they manage to be SO romantic, and I want them to get to do cute fluffy things. Probably with angsty undertones, but hey, it's River. Cute fluffy things where they both know it can't last forever is the vibe I'm feeling. Or else romance in the midst of the action-adventure that neither of them seems to be able to avoid. Or let them have their heads and create loads of the high drama they both gravitate towards. Anything romantic with them will make me happy!
I'd be really interested in exploring their relationship either within Trial of a Time Lord--for instance, what about a canon divergence AU where they have to work together for some reason?--or before/after. In the books it's hinted that Six avoided taking actions which Seven later thought were necessary because he was afraid of starting the path to becoming the Valeyard, and while I am by no means asking you to stick to (or use at all) book canon, this could be an interesting prompt: how does Mel react to this fear of the Doctor's, especially if they then encounter the Valeyard himself again? It would also be interesting to see the Valeyard's perspective on encountering a companion of whom he presumably has quite a few memories.
Such a delightful tiny team--they work so well together, and yet there seems to be so much they don't tell each other. I'd be fascinated by each of their perspectives on how the Doctor's regeneration has affected their relationship. Or just seeing them at work in an adventure!
My #1 request for Ray is just that I want more adventures with her! I think her friendship with the Doctor in the brief time they know each other is beautiful and they seem to really get each other. A canon-typical adventure or scene in an AU with Ray as companion would make me very happy!
He's such a cool character--I love that in addition to being a musician he's actually a psychology student on holiday--and there is literally one fic for him on the Archive (it's by me and it's a drabble). I'd love some exploration of who he is, what he does with his life, and what he thinks of the Doctor and Ace and the one-night revolution.
I'm fascinated by how Hex changes the Doctor and Ace’s dynamic: in some ways having him around makes the two of them more of a pair, because he's the new guy, but then they each have an important friendship with Hex as well. I especially love how each of them seems to feel the need to protect the other two, and would love a story that showcases this (or one where it backfires on them!). I really like them in historical settings; they seem to have a lot of stories where they get dropped into the middle of a warzone, and I can see why. Or what about some other kind of setting where they have to work as a team, like a heist, or an alien or historical royal court full of intrigue?
canon dialogue from No Future:
‘No, time doesn’t work like that. She’s ferociously neat, she –’
‘She?’
‘Time.’
‘Are you two going out, or what?’
The Doctor frowned. ‘Once. But now she’s seeing somebody else.
Look, why not take it literally? Or at least semi-literally. Be metaphorical; be surrealistic; go wild!
All the Menti Celesti stuff in the VNAs is just so wild and bizarre and fascinating, and I’d love to see the Doctor’s notions of his own duty and destiny, his own (doubtful?) future, and what being a Time Lord means to him now, explored through his relationship with this personification/goddess/whatever she is.
Roz is just a wildly underappreciated companion. Her journey and her relationship with the Doctor are so interesting--she never treats him as any kind of moral authority and is happy to disagree with him. Something that explores that would be cool. But also, the books they're in are often very dark, and I'd enjoy a softer or quieter moment from Roz's time as a companion, or maybe the Doctor helping to support her and being her friend after some of the canonical things she goes through.
Utterly fascinated by her. The only decent Time Lord! What happens to her after the events of Lungbarrow? What is readjusting to the outside world like? And does she maintain/rebuild a relationship with the Doctor (including after his regeneration)? Feel free to lean into the gothic novel vibes of Lungbarrow, or explore your own Gallifreyan headcanons. I’d actually also love to see her in an AU (or, you know, some other version of canon) where she wasn’t trapped in Lungbarrow for so much of her life. What if she got involved in one of the TV Gallifrey stories–War Games or Deadly Assassin or Invasion of Time or Arc of Infinity or Trial? (A couple of those could only be improved by her presence…) Would she stick up for her renegade Cousin? Would she try to persuade him to live a more conventional life? What if he persuaded her to come see a little bit of the universe with him?
They're so delightful. She's there for some of the worst moments of his life and she loves him dearly and never takes him too seriously. She's a protagonist in her own right and he's the cosmic force she's experiencing along her journey, and they hang out. What's not to love?
I like Seven to be in love and sad about it. Or at least with an undertone of melancholy. His tendency to know rather too much, especially about his own past and future, would combine very interestingly with River's whole deal, I think. Don't worry about how it fits into canon, though, unless that's important to the story you want to tell--you can go AU, or just assume his memory gets erased later.
I feel like we very often see the Doctor and Anji sort of mediated through Fitz, who's close to both of them. So I'd love something that explores their relationship directly with each other. Maybe exploring Anji's (very reasonable) doubts and mistrust of the Doctor, and how the Doctor responds to her, and how they are friends anyway. Or something about how they work together on a problem or puzzle--that's one thing they have in common, problem-solving.
Reconnecting in any way, at any point in either of their timelines, would be just wonderful. Charley will probably recognize that the Doctor has a lot of fascinating new issues to repress, but I'd love it if she got the chance to talk about some of her experiences and feelings that she and Eight never really resolved. Possibly in the middle of adventure and danger!
I’m fascinated by this strange and wonderful audio, and especially “The Difference Office.” I’d love to see a bit more of this alternate Gallifrey. (Full disclosure, I'd be ready to ship the Warrior and Romana, but I'm just as interested in their friendship, and indeed I think they'd have to build a friendship at some length before they could possibly manage a romance. So this is just a note that if your fic does have any pre-relationship elements to it, I'm just fine with them--but it certainly doesn't have to.)
I love the Doctor and Romana in main canon, and I fell in love with them all over again in this standalone alternate universe. Ingenue/civil servant/assassin Romana and her Lord President just fascinate me. I love the deep sense of loyalty to his position that has her defending him before she even knows anything good about him, combined with the way they immediately feel drawn to each other and realize they could be friends. He's such a mess, personally and morally, and so is she but in very different ways, and I'd love to see them struggling towards a better way together.
I'd love to see what happens with them after "The Difference Office," or a missing scene from when they're on the run (while Romana's android double is being interrogated).
I feel like we almost know more about Alison's relationship with the Master than with the Doctor, so I'd love to see what brings the two of them together. Does he see himself (or past companions) in her longing for a bigger, fuller life? What kind of places do they go, and what's their approach when they get there? I'd love to see them working as a team that knows each other well. They deserve a long friendship.
I'm fascinated by the ways in which they aren't the Doctor and Ace--whether that means different backstory, different worldbuilding, or really meta fic involving alternate universes (crossing over is fine as long as the proper Doctor Who characters don't crowd out the Time Travellers). We got a bit of Alice's "legally distinct from Dorothy McShane" backstory; how about the Professor's? What's his planet (?) like and how'd he come to leave it? How about their timeship? I'd also love something that explores how the events of the series shape their relationship--they're often separated from each other for quite long periods of time, and we never actually see them reunite after Punchline. What keeps them coming back to each other?
