Whoa, it's become Fanfiction Central in here! Just to clear things up, please don't go posting the entire things in this thread (though I doubt you were going to). Advertising of them in the way of blurbs and short previews like you two have done is fine, I guess. (It might be nice in future to stick any fairly long sections of fanfiction under a spoiler so that anyone not interested in reading them doesn't have to scroll through huge chunks of text. <-In hindsight to this comment: who am I to talk about huge chunks of text? *eyes the rest of her post*) I just don't want this place to become a discussion of Doctor Who fanfiction rather than a discussion of the programme itself.
Seeing as this isn't a fanfiction thread, I'll curb my instinct to go into a full out review and just give some random comments on each of them (but you might find a PM coming your way with some more in-depth crit, Nagash, because there's some stuff I'd like to say about yours).
UltimateNagash: It's fairly well-written, and the storyline from the blurb does sound interesting. Is it going to be a chaptered fic or just a longish one-shot? If it's the former I don't know if I could be bothered following it, but if the latter I'd be quite happy for you to PM me with the whole thing.
I was quite pleasantly surprised to see that you're using the Tenth Doctor, as I'd expected the Ninth from you. Bear in mind though that as this is me, if I do end up reading the whole thing and you mangle his character in any way, I will personally murder you. So no pressure there. :>
storymasterb: It was okay, but I agree with Yami Ryu that you need to improve generally in writing terms before going into Doctor Who fanfiction for the sake of doing the series justice. And have fun with the fact that this leads directly on from the end of Journey's End - when the Christmas special comes around, it might well lead on from there itself (though this year there's a chance it won't because we didn't get a cliffhanger), rendering your fic impossible to fit within canon.
Also, the Doctor came across as having forgotten that Donna was no longer there for a moment. I doubt he would do, seeing as it's probably going to be weighing heavily on his mind for a while.
I'm sorry, but I greatly disagree with the bolded part. The way I see it, the Doctor's lived for so long and seen so much suffering and death that he can't bear to see any more if he can help it. He's harbouring so much sadness and guilt for all the deaths - particularly those of the Time Lords, of course - that he feels were his fault, or even that he just feels he might have been able to prevent. Add to this the fact that he clearly believes every single sentient individual to be worth something no matter how apparently insignificant others might see them, and you get someone who'll do almost anything to stop yet another person suffering.
Take an example which draws a lot of attention to this: the scene at the end of Evolution of the Daleks where the Doctor confronts Dalek Caan. The Daleks are responsible for his loss of the Time Lords, his loss of Rose, but the Doctor still showed compassion to Dalek Sec and helped him when he started to change his views on humanity. The other three Daleks threw that compassion back in his face, killed Dalek Sec and then committed genocide on an entire species - one which was part Time Lord, which clearly upset and angered the Doctor a great deal. Yet he still gave Dalek Caan the chance to live and offered to help him, even specifically stating that it was because he'd seen one genocide that day and did not want to be responsible for another. Perhaps, because Dalek Caan was now the last of his kind, the Doctor identified with him and could put aside the fact that he was a Dalek simply because he knew how Caan felt (or would feel if he had any capacity for emotion. But he's a member of the Cult of Skaro, so you never know,) and felt sorry for him.
You've also got the later part of that scene where Tallulah brings in the dying Laszlo. She asks if the Doctor can save him, and he looks at her very sorrowfully for a moment before leaping up and exclaiming, "Too many people have died today! Wayyy too many people! ... And I am not having one more death, d'you hear me? Not one!"
As for the "You have one chance" thing, that in itself is compassionate. A nice example of this is in The Poison Sky where he goes up into the Sontaran ship with the atmospheric converter for the sake of giving them a choice. He could quite easily have sent it up on a timer like Martha suggests, but that would have destroyed the Sontarans without any chance of them escaping. So instead, even though he must have known that there was no way General Staal would decide to retreat (he is a Sontaran), the Doctor sacrifices himself (well, intends to anyway) to give them that option of survival. Because if he'd just killed them all without asking them first, it would have made him practically a monster.
To use an even more egregious example, there's the Human Nature two-parter. Oh, undoubtedly the punishments he inflicts on the Family are ruthless and terrible (it was one of those moments where I actually became slightly scared of the Doctor), though it should at least be noted that he took no pleasure whatsoever in doing it. But before all that, the Doctor went to very great pains to turn himself human for three months, not because he was hiding, but because he was giving the Family their chance to have their time and die. Baines even said it himself in his voiceover; the Doctor was being kind.
Apart from these chances he gives being an act of compassion when he could simply destroy his foe straight away, you've also got the fact that the Doctor will often go to his enemies with the words: "I can help." Obviously there are a few races he doesn't even bother trying this on (read: Daleks), but he recognises that a lot of his enemies are only doing what they do because they want something perfectly reasonable and are simply trying to get it through immoral means, or because there's something wrong with them in the vein of the Master's drumming in his head. By offering help, the Doctor tries to give them what they're after while also minimising any suffering to anyone else, because with the TARDIS and his intelligence and power, there are things he can do that others might only be able to manage by hurting a lot of people.
Whew. I said I was capable of writing an essay. D:
It is interesting to note, though, that the Doctor's compassion does have a limit to it or else he'd give everything unlimited chances - but then again, a line does have to be drawn to prevent too many people being hurt if someone decided to turn down his offers again and again. The question of what it takes to make the Doctor snap from compassion to mercilessness is a good one, I think.
I'll just finish by saying this is one hella interesting topic we've managed to start a discussion on, and I've really enjoyed thinking about it. Replies would be great, because I'd love to keep this discussion going.
What do you mean exactly by how he "wins"? It's not clear.
Also, I personally don't think the satsuma was luck, as such. The Doctor didn't just throw it randomly; his expression turned a lot darker as he did, meaning he fully intended for the shot to kill the Sycorax Leader. He must have realised the Leader was coming up behind him and known what the button he threw the satsuma at did, making the act actually quite calculated despite it looking like a stroke of luck.
Which is one of the many things I like about the Tenth Doctor, myself. He makes things look spontaneous and haphazard, but actually there's quite a bit of logic and planning hidden away underneath there. I'd say it works fairly well to keep his enemies off-guard. Example because I'm apparently loving them this post: the scene in The Family of Blood where he stumbles into the Family's spaceship, "accidentally" pressing buttons as he does so.
To finish off, because I'm sure this post will be far too tl;dr for a lot of people, I'll just end by encouraging all of you who haven't done the Awards topic yet to do so whenever you have a spare moment. Remember, if you think it'll take you too long, you can always just pick a few - I'd still love to read your opinions on the series.
Also, if you're looking for somewhere to get fairly accurate quotes from, try Wikiquote. It has a lot of the best quotes from each episode.
-elyvorg/Martha
Seeing as this isn't a fanfiction thread, I'll curb my instinct to go into a full out review and just give some random comments on each of them (but you might find a PM coming your way with some more in-depth crit, Nagash, because there's some stuff I'd like to say about yours).
UltimateNagash: It's fairly well-written, and the storyline from the blurb does sound interesting. Is it going to be a chaptered fic or just a longish one-shot? If it's the former I don't know if I could be bothered following it, but if the latter I'd be quite happy for you to PM me with the whole thing.
I was quite pleasantly surprised to see that you're using the Tenth Doctor, as I'd expected the Ninth from you. Bear in mind though that as this is me, if I do end up reading the whole thing and you mangle his character in any way, I will personally murder you. So no pressure there. :>
storymasterb: It was okay, but I agree with Yami Ryu that you need to improve generally in writing terms before going into Doctor Who fanfiction for the sake of doing the series justice. And have fun with the fact that this leads directly on from the end of Journey's End - when the Christmas special comes around, it might well lead on from there itself (though this year there's a chance it won't because we didn't get a cliffhanger), rendering your fic impossible to fit within canon.
Also, the Doctor came across as having forgotten that Donna was no longer there for a moment. I doubt he would do, seeing as it's probably going to be weighing heavily on his mind for a while.
I'm sorry, but I greatly disagree with the bolded part. The way I see it, the Doctor's lived for so long and seen so much suffering and death that he can't bear to see any more if he can help it. He's harbouring so much sadness and guilt for all the deaths - particularly those of the Time Lords, of course - that he feels were his fault, or even that he just feels he might have been able to prevent. Add to this the fact that he clearly believes every single sentient individual to be worth something no matter how apparently insignificant others might see them, and you get someone who'll do almost anything to stop yet another person suffering.
Take an example which draws a lot of attention to this: the scene at the end of Evolution of the Daleks where the Doctor confronts Dalek Caan. The Daleks are responsible for his loss of the Time Lords, his loss of Rose, but the Doctor still showed compassion to Dalek Sec and helped him when he started to change his views on humanity. The other three Daleks threw that compassion back in his face, killed Dalek Sec and then committed genocide on an entire species - one which was part Time Lord, which clearly upset and angered the Doctor a great deal. Yet he still gave Dalek Caan the chance to live and offered to help him, even specifically stating that it was because he'd seen one genocide that day and did not want to be responsible for another. Perhaps, because Dalek Caan was now the last of his kind, the Doctor identified with him and could put aside the fact that he was a Dalek simply because he knew how Caan felt (or would feel if he had any capacity for emotion. But he's a member of the Cult of Skaro, so you never know,) and felt sorry for him.
You've also got the later part of that scene where Tallulah brings in the dying Laszlo. She asks if the Doctor can save him, and he looks at her very sorrowfully for a moment before leaping up and exclaiming, "Too many people have died today! Wayyy too many people! ... And I am not having one more death, d'you hear me? Not one!"
As for the "You have one chance" thing, that in itself is compassionate. A nice example of this is in The Poison Sky where he goes up into the Sontaran ship with the atmospheric converter for the sake of giving them a choice. He could quite easily have sent it up on a timer like Martha suggests, but that would have destroyed the Sontarans without any chance of them escaping. So instead, even though he must have known that there was no way General Staal would decide to retreat (he is a Sontaran), the Doctor sacrifices himself (well, intends to anyway) to give them that option of survival. Because if he'd just killed them all without asking them first, it would have made him practically a monster.
To use an even more egregious example, there's the Human Nature two-parter. Oh, undoubtedly the punishments he inflicts on the Family are ruthless and terrible (it was one of those moments where I actually became slightly scared of the Doctor), though it should at least be noted that he took no pleasure whatsoever in doing it. But before all that, the Doctor went to very great pains to turn himself human for three months, not because he was hiding, but because he was giving the Family their chance to have their time and die. Baines even said it himself in his voiceover; the Doctor was being kind.
Apart from these chances he gives being an act of compassion when he could simply destroy his foe straight away, you've also got the fact that the Doctor will often go to his enemies with the words: "I can help." Obviously there are a few races he doesn't even bother trying this on (read: Daleks), but he recognises that a lot of his enemies are only doing what they do because they want something perfectly reasonable and are simply trying to get it through immoral means, or because there's something wrong with them in the vein of the Master's drumming in his head. By offering help, the Doctor tries to give them what they're after while also minimising any suffering to anyone else, because with the TARDIS and his intelligence and power, there are things he can do that others might only be able to manage by hurting a lot of people.
Whew. I said I was capable of writing an essay. D:
It is interesting to note, though, that the Doctor's compassion does have a limit to it or else he'd give everything unlimited chances - but then again, a line does have to be drawn to prevent too many people being hurt if someone decided to turn down his offers again and again. The question of what it takes to make the Doctor snap from compassion to mercilessness is a good one, I think.
I'll just finish by saying this is one hella interesting topic we've managed to start a discussion on, and I've really enjoyed thinking about it. Replies would be great, because I'd love to keep this discussion going.
What do you mean exactly by how he "wins"? It's not clear.
Also, I personally don't think the satsuma was luck, as such. The Doctor didn't just throw it randomly; his expression turned a lot darker as he did, meaning he fully intended for the shot to kill the Sycorax Leader. He must have realised the Leader was coming up behind him and known what the button he threw the satsuma at did, making the act actually quite calculated despite it looking like a stroke of luck.
Which is one of the many things I like about the Tenth Doctor, myself. He makes things look spontaneous and haphazard, but actually there's quite a bit of logic and planning hidden away underneath there. I'd say it works fairly well to keep his enemies off-guard. Example because I'm apparently loving them this post: the scene in The Family of Blood where he stumbles into the Family's spaceship, "accidentally" pressing buttons as he does so.
To finish off, because I'm sure this post will be far too tl;dr for a lot of people, I'll just end by encouraging all of you who haven't done the Awards topic yet to do so whenever you have a spare moment. Remember, if you think it'll take you too long, you can always just pick a few - I'd still love to read your opinions on the series.
Also, if you're looking for somewhere to get fairly accurate quotes from, try Wikiquote. It has a lot of the best quotes from each episode.
-elyvorg/Martha
And unfortunately for you elyvorg, it is an entire story, my plan at the moment has sixteen chapters.