If I posted to fandomsecrets ...

[scarfman]

In wintercompanion, a Doctor/Jack community, dameruth wrote a post-Children of Earth Doctor-Jack meetup that I saw recommended on dwfiction for the explanation it offers for the Doctor not showing up while the 456 threatened Earth. That explanation (which isn't all of worth that the story offers) is that all signals to and from Earth were being jammed, and though Martha and Sarah Jane both attempted to reach the Doctor they couldn't. The comments on the page run about twice the length of the story, and almost all of them state the commenter is adopting that explanation.

My story offering a different explanation was posted on the order of six hours earlier, was listed at who_daily a day earlier, and yet acquired only half the story's pagelength of comments in approbation of what I thought to be the best possible explanation for the Doctor's absence: that the 456 events are part of Earth's history and the Web of Time, and as such it falls to the Doctor not to prevent them and even to preserve them.

(There's also at least one congratulatory comment on the other story for observing that the Doctor and Jack both wear long coats, which is something I'd put in a post-CoE Doctor-Jack story I was working on but junked because it didn't really offer anything that my other CoE story has; because, unlike the other post-CoE Doctor/Jack stories out there, mine wasn't interested in giving Jack peace of mind that I believe will only be jossed at the character's next appearance.)

Granted there is, if I recall correctly, dialog in CoE referencing signal jamming: it may have been put there precisely for this extrapolation to be made. But is it really the better story? When I feel slighted because it seems to me that the easier, kinder solution is more popular than mine, am I being small?

Comments

[kaffy_r]

I often have reactions like that, and it's certainly a human/writerly reaction; then I remember that it's just the way of the world for us writers. I long ago (that'd be about two years ago, when I started writing fanfic. Ahem.) realized that my stuff wasn't going to be as popular as that of other fic writers, largely because my interests in, and views on, the Whoniverse differed from a large number of other writers in the fandom. These were writers whose work I enjoyed, so I couldn't blame them, and I couldn't blame readers for not having my tastes, either. So I shrugged, felt a little bruised, and then let the bruise fade.

(Hell, I've had professional attempts returned many a time - and that certainly makes your skin thick. Heh.)

By the way, I thought both your explanation and dameruth's explanation were excellent fic extrapolations.

[scarfman]

Thanks. Your thoughts help.

[c-carol.livejournal.com]

Both explanations work fine, but I think I like yours better.

[scarfman]

Thanks.

[scarfman]

Being ashamed of some humans has never obscured the Doctor's concern for innocents. I'm thinking of his final scene with the drug dealer in Nightmare of Eden. That alone wouldn't keep him off.