beccaelizabeth's dreamwidth journal

"Embedded in the mud, glistening green and gold and black, was a butterfly, very beautiful and very dead."

I've seen arguments about regeneration that start from very different assumptions from mine, so I post a poll to see how widespread they are.

We have seen Romana, River, the Master and the Doctor regenerate.
Romana tried a few bodies on for size before settling on the one she wanted, which was an exact copy of someone else. Conclusion: A Lot of Control.
River concentrated on a dress size and seemed happy with the result. Conclusion: maybe some control.

The Doctor, however...

9th Doctor: I might never make sense again! I might have two heads, or no head. Imagine me with no head, ha! And don't say that's an improvement... But it's a bit dodgy, this process. You never know what you're going to end up with.

So I don't figure he has control. Two was offered choices of who he'd look like next but didn't get to decide for himself, and was very cross about it. Everyone seems to need a mirror to get to know their new selves. 11 didn't recognise himself and thought he looked a bit rubbish. I've always thought of regeneration as something that happens to him, not something he does.

So, which do you reckon?


Also, I know since The Corsair we know for certain Time Lords can be male or female when they regenerate, so I don't see how there'd be a difference in regeneration ability, but with only the handful of data points *big shrug*.


It's only the Doctor we've really seen go through a life cycle. And the Doctor, according to the Doctor, even if we'd rather ignore him, is half human. Others from Gallifrey could therefore differ from the Doctor quite a lot.

Actually if there's one thing we know about the Doctor it's that he's very thoroughly atypical.

So, summer is here, all my classes done, only one email to send before I pass.
... And the fact it got to 10pm without me sending that email does mildly worry me, yes.
Still, after that, I have interesting and varied possibilities.

[Poll #1211620]

Things it will include: Fantasy & SF elements, some kind of setup where there's more than one world coexisting, secrets being read differently by different people, clashing ideologies, more than one side that could be considered right, some kind of disability theme or metaphor. Because I couldn't keep any of that out if I tried.
( Read more... )
Not knowing where to begin: Always the big problem.

See for assignments you get Learning Outcomes and Assessment Criteria. You don't actually start from a blank page. You can make a bubble diagram with every outcome and all the criteria and then tag ideas to specific points. You can do the same for fanfic, where you're starting with particular characters, so you've got 'do something for each character' as one criteria for a script shaped story. Also there's locations, themes, relationships. And a page limit.

Writing something original... what are my criteria? What am I trying to do? And how does each character, setting, plot point contribute to the overall message?

That's not how the writing books start things. Well, not exactly. But there's a lot of writing books and the only actual rule is do what works.

Maybe I could take my Close Reading bubble diagram and work it backwards. You know, take the bubbles about gender/ethnicity/class/sexuality/generation/disability and figure out what I want each one to say and then take those as my criteria.

*ponders*

Polyphonic. Democratic. Equality... in a systemically unequal world?
Something where 'pawns team up and fight the big bads' is the logical and necessary outcome.
So that's multi character, varying abilities, varying specialities, and a big bad that's really unequally big in power and resources, be that because it's one superpowered individual or an institution of many annoying people or some combination of both.

Hmm, and I did that chart about how to write Torchwood and buried it somewhere in an I Can Has Teamwork post... *digs* *finds!*

[Poll #770309]

Poll #770309 Canon and character background
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All. Participants: 30

Giles - do we know everything important about him?
View Answers
Yes
5(16.7%)
NO
25(83.3%)

Little clicky poll to start with.

I was wondering, do you think that we already know, from canon, everything important about Giles? We got a reveal in The Dark Age, we got bits about his background. We got to find out what kind of donuts he likes. Do we know all the major things?

If we're writing fanfic, and we make something up, have we got big stretches of blank or really obvious necessary things that need filling in? Or are we fiddling with the details?

If we add bits to the making of him, will they be like table legs, or just more twiddly carvings?


We know about his Duty. We know about a Horrible Trauma. Is there more, somewhere in those years before canon?

Is there more in the bit after canon, when he went back to England? Was what happened to him then particularly significant?

What do you think are the key moments in Giles canon anyway?