A post about a book and some TV

[triedunture]

So I finally FINALLY finished reading John Hodgman's latest book, More Information than You Require. It's a funny book, but exhausting to read. The joke is that it's a book packed with "information" and so there's a lot of it, but sometimes the energy required to read all of it so as not to miss out on any of the funny is just too much.

There was, however, an awesome tangent Hodgman went on concerning a love affair between Thomas Jefferson and a re-gendered mole man. That made me LOL hard out in the park this afternoon.

I declare it good times, but maybe not good subway reading.


OK, onto TV.

SO GUYS I JUST FINISHED WATCHING SEASON 3 OF DOCTOR WHO. ZOMG.

Jesus fucking Christ! That was some epicness that just wouldn't stop being epic! The GAH and the WHEW and the WUT and the ARGH! Emotional rollercoaster. Emocoaster?

So now that I've finished the season *grabby hand gesture* MASTER/DOCTOR FIC PLZ. I'm obv. going to be scrounging for some myself, but if y'all got some that you've been hiding from me, plz to be sharing because...because...because....!

IMMA GONNA HAVE A PAIRING SQUEE RIGHT ABOUT NAO.

Guys, this is totes the feel-bad pairing of the century! It's doomed and twisted and sick and wrong, and it's also sad and weird and a little crazy. But it's also, I dunno, sweet the way the Doctor wants to take care of the Master, to help him, to keep him safe. And the Master is fucking insane in such a cool way. But so is the Doctor! And so, so, so, soooooo BLARGH.

ZOMG I have no FUCKING idea how the canon works here, but I've already got questions. I've already got ideas! Was it the Doctor that gave the Master the watch that would allow him to run from the Time War? Did the Doctor let him go because he wanted to keep him safe? No, no, no, he had no idea the Master was still alive, right? So I guess these watches are just, I dunno, Time Lord kit that gets handed out at the academy? How fucked up is that!?

Oh, hey, speaking of fucked up...

"We've gone back exactly one year ago, right after the President of the USA was assassinated. EVERYTHING'S BACK TO NORMAL! :D"

GUYS YOU COULDN'T HAVE GONE BACK 1 OR 2 MINUTES MORE TO I DUNNO SAVE OUR LEADER FROM BEING INCINERATED?

Hey, that's cool. I know how pissed you were at us back in 2006. I get it. But still. You've sort of left America hanging there. (Though I guess your PM was also teh ded so I suppose that's fair.)

ANOTHER QUESTION THIS TIME ABOUT TIME LORD BIOLOGY. So I guess, barring any accidents, a Time Lord's body can live indefinitely? I mean, the Master packed 900 years into the Doctor's body and it was still going, even though he looked gross. I heard a rumor somewhere (*cough*wikipedia*cough*) that Time Lords can only regenerate 13 times. Trufax? Or no?

ALSO HAI JACK HARKNESS = BOE. That's effed up too. Even a trillion years into the future, even if Jack was just a floating head in a jar, you KNOW he'd still be coming onto that Furry nurse of his and trying to shoot people in the face and downright being AMERICAN.

(btw, how cute is it when he says British phrases in his American voice? "You lot"? Dang, Russell T Davies, get an American friend to glance over your script. Or not! After all, you did kill our president like hard.)

While I'm at it, I guess Jack/Doctor isn't TOO distasteful. Bring it on, INTERNET.

I think that's all the squeeing and questions I have for now. MAN, am I glad I stuck with this show. Brew, thanks for kinda sorta making me watch it.

Comments

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

So I guess, barring any accidents, a Time Lord's body can live indefinitely? I mean, the Master packed 900 years into the Doctor's body and it was still going, even though he looked gross. I heard a rumor somewhere (*cough*wikipedia*cough*) that Time Lords can only regenerate 13 times. Trufax? Or no?

Yes to the first point; no to the second (twelve, not thirteen).

ALSO HAI JACK HARKNESS = BOE. That's effed up too.

No kidding. A lot of people eyeroll at RTD and handwave it if they're ficcing it (or, sometimes, write it interestingly into their stories).

While I'm at it, I guess Jack/Doctor isn't TOO distasteful. Bring it on, INTERNET.

As Boe himself says, you are not alone. There's definitely both Jack/Nine and Jack/Ten fic out there. And Master/Doctor (in different incarnations, too)!

Thankies!

[thirstyrobot.livejournal.com]

Okay, my more technical Who canon is about as good as your average flower pot's, but I'll try.

I guess these watches are just, I dunno, Time Lord kit that gets handed out at the academy? How fucked up is that!?

LULZ. I think they come with the Chameleon Arch, so yeah, sorta. I suck at Master-background, and he pretty much breaks all the 'rules' anyway which is justified by the fact that he is BATSHIT.

The regeneration thing: 12 regenerations = 13 Doctors is sort of a guideline, I guess? So I'm told? There are ways to cheat it and tons of loopholes in canon, so if Moffatt (taking over for RTD after this round of specials) wants or needs to go beyond 13 a way will be found. The Master got given an extra life by the Time Lords, and then later he turns into a snake-type thing (WHUT) and uses some MacGuffin to get himself a new body. Or something. Just saying, there are ways.

(btw, how cute is it when he says British phrases in his American voice? "You lot"? Dang, Russell T Davies, get an American friend to glance over your script. Or not! After all, you did kill our president like hard.)

Technically Jack isn't supposed to be American, but it still sounds damned silly. It makes a little more sense in his S3 appearances because of where he's been living, but somehow I don't think they thought about that. :P

I've spent so long writing this that everyone else has probably answered it all way better, but oh well.

There is 9,000 gallons of Jack/Nine and /Ten and Doctor/Master ripe for your picking. Sadly I can't rec anything because it's mostly not my bag. (Whoverse pairings seem to need to contain Ianto Jones for me to like them much. Obvs I will tell you to watch Torchwood but you're just as likely to hate it as love it. It's kinda cracky. But canon slash! *points to icon*)

Oh, and if you can get your hands on S4, go for it. It had to grow on me a little but it ended up being a close contender for favorite.

[blackletter]

Yay! Finally I can rec! I should note that I particularly like fics that explore Time Lord culture, biology, language, or general alienness. (Oh, and one thing you should know if you're going to read Doctor/Master fic is that they often refer to each other by their school names. The Doctor = Theta (or Theta Sigma). The Master = Koschei.

For creepy Time Lord history.

For creepy regeneration sex.

More regeneration sex + alien linguistics.

Not creepy Jack/Ten fic

versaphile has lots of good Doctor/Master fic. (Including an *enormous* epic-in-progress called "Praxis".)

dameruth has some awesome crazy Time Lord biology in her fic. this is probably my favorite.

[lady529.livejournal.com]

Welcome to the utter insanity, love.

Also, Captain Jack Harkness? Not American. Otherwise, oh yes, he'd be all over Novice Hame. And her lovely tail too.

The Lady 529

[pinglederry.livejournal.com]

I don't have many DW stories saved to my hard drive, but here are a couple:

Unfinished Conversations, which involves scenes from the Doctor and Master's school life and is vaguely slashy.

What I Didn't Know Then, which isn't exactly slash, and is a conversation between the two.

Paleolinguistics, which is one of my favorite DW stories, even though it's only maybe 200 words. I'm not much in the fandom (too big for my tastes), so maybe it's nothing special, but I like it a lot.

And on a related note...

Whatever Pays the Wages, which is Jack/lots of people (not all at once). Writer's summary - "'Tell me who I have to bribe, fuck, or kill to get out of here.' A case study in types of manipulation."

...It seems I didn't save the two epic-ish Doctor/Master fics I remember reading and liking. Drat. :( If I find them again, I'll let you know.

[alextraordinary.livejournal.com]

-delving into Old Who canonology-

From the special "The Five Doctors" (like Time Crash, but more epic...and cheesy) the Master was given, in exchange for his help, a whole new set of regenerations from the High Council on Gallifrey. I've seen it once but, beyond that, I can't remember much... But, obviously, since the time war this is rendered pretty hopeless.

But, Alas, I have not seen season four, so I can't be too clear on this...

ALSO, for your future reference, time ladies can regenerate at will. (i.e. Romana who chooses several different forms before picking one that looks exactly like a girl they just saved. LOLZ)

I used to have memorized every single way the Doctor's regenerations were killed. I'm a bit fuzzy now, but the first was old age and one (I can't remember which now) was killed in a street gang fight in San Fransisco on New Years Eve 1999. That one's pretty random...

[tasha-elizabeth.livejournal.com]

Hurray! Your Doctor Who squees make me so happy. According to my own journal, I was doing this exactly one year ago today!