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dbskylerSo the DVD commentary meme has been going around again, and as I confess that I've always been curious to try it, I'm giving it a shot:
Pick a paragraph (or any passage less than 500 words) from any fanfic I've written, and comment to this post with that selection. I will then give you a DVD commentary on that snippet: what I was thinking when I wrote it, why I wrote it in the first place, what's going on in the characters' heads, why I chose certain words, what this moment means in the context of the rest of the fic, lots of awful puns, and anything else that you'd expect to find on a DVD commentary track.
Well, I don't know about puns -- I'm not so good with those -- but I'm always up for rambling about my own writing, so lay it on me! However, since it's always more fun to find out more about how your writing is viewed than to hear someone waffle on about their own writing, here's my extra twist:
Alternatively (or in addition), provide me with a paragraph or short passage from your OWN writing -- something you know for sure that I've read (i.e., I left you a review on it) -- and I will give you a reader commentary: what I was thinking when I read it, what I think is going on in the characters' heads, what strikes me about the words you chose, what that moment means to me in the context of the rest of the fic, and anything else you wouldn't expect to find on a DVD commentary track.
I'm not sure how this will all work out, but let's find out, shall we? Have at it!
Pick a paragraph (or any passage less than 500 words) from any fanfic I've written, and comment to this post with that selection. I will then give you a DVD commentary on that snippet: what I was thinking when I wrote it, why I wrote it in the first place, what's going on in the characters' heads, why I chose certain words, what this moment means in the context of the rest of the fic, lots of awful puns, and anything else that you'd expect to find on a DVD commentary track.
Well, I don't know about puns -- I'm not so good with those -- but I'm always up for rambling about my own writing, so lay it on me! However, since it's always more fun to find out more about how your writing is viewed than to hear someone waffle on about their own writing, here's my extra twist:
Alternatively (or in addition), provide me with a paragraph or short passage from your OWN writing -- something you know for sure that I've read (i.e., I left you a review on it) -- and I will give you a reader commentary: what I was thinking when I read it, what I think is going on in the characters' heads, what strikes me about the words you chose, what that moment means to me in the context of the rest of the fic, and anything else you wouldn't expect to find on a DVD commentary track.
I'm not sure how this will all work out, but let's find out, shall we? Have at it!
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(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-17 06:23 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-17 09:09 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-17 01:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-18 04:43 am (UTC)--------
She looked around, wondering why the TARDIS had brought her here, wherever 'here' was, then she heard a faint call. Was the Doctor calling her, she wondered.
"Doctor?" she called back, hoping it was safe to do so and that no one nasty was lurking nearby.
"Martha!" A faint cry answered her.
She began to forge a path forward through the snow, and quickly found the Time Lord sprawled in a snowdrift.
--------
Okay, so first of all I have to say that hurt/comfort is one of my favorite genres to read, and I can't write it worth a damn (I've tried). So I always appreciate a good hurt/comfort story like this one. In the above section, I like that Martha's wondering where she is and what's lurking around. Then when you use words like "faint cry" and "sprawled in a snowdrift," I get a vivid mental image. At this point I'm thinking, "Poor Doctor! Hurry up, Martha, get to him!"
--------
"What the hell happened to you?" she asked, shocked by the state of his clothes, and the bruises she could see on his face.
"Had a bit of an accident," he answered, his voice sounding weak.
"How badly are you hurt?" she asked immediately.
"Broke several bones," he said, "including my right ankle."
Martha swore softly. "How am I going to get you into the TARDIS?" she asked, wishing she'd had the chance to bring Jack, who could have helped her to carry the Doctor.
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In this section, I'm thinking that the Doctor sounds like he's in bad shape, and also that Martha is thinking and acting like a doctor -- assessing the situation and pragmatically considering how best to help him.
--------
"There's — " He stopped, gasping for a moment, then continued. "There's a special stretcher in the Med Bay, it floats," he told her. "Ask the TARDIS to find it for you."
"All right. I'll be back as quick as I can."
He gave a tiny nod, then his eyes closed, and Martha turned and hurried back to the TARDIS as quickly as she could.
"I need the floating stretcher," she told the ship as she dashed inside. She found the Medical Bay was just outside the Control Room, and on top of one of the beds was an object that was clearly a stretcher, even if it did look rather futuristic. She snatched it up, then hurried back out to the Doctor.
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Poor Doctor with his gasping and his tiny nod and his eyes closing! I'm worried about his state of health. (Nicely done; conveys a great mental image without overdoing it.) I'm also thinking that a floating stretcher is a really cool idea.
--------
"There's no way I can put you onto this without hurting you," she told him apologetically as she positioned the stretcher close by.
"I know," he answered, his voice barely above a whisper.
Martha bent and kissed his forehead, then gritted her teeth and carefully rolled him over onto his back with the stretcher beneath him. He let out a harsh cry, then blacked out; she felt her heart clench and her stomach churn at his reaction, then she activated the mechanism that made it rise up from the snow as if gravity meant nothing at all.
--------
The affection Martha has for the Doctor really shows through here in her care for him. Then the Doctor passes out -- nicely written -- and Martha's reaction is perfect: it's a knife to her gut, but she gets on with what she has to do.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-18 06:21 am (UTC)Aw!
In the above section, I like that Martha's wondering where she is and what's lurking around. Then when you use words like "faint cry" and "sprawled in a snowdrift," I get a vivid mental image. At this point I'm thinking, "Poor Doctor! Hurry up, Martha, get to him!"
Oh good! Because I wanted you to be anxious about the Doctor, but understanding of Martha's initial hesitation since she has no clue what's going on...
In this section, I'm thinking that the Doctor sounds like he's in bad shape, and also that Martha is thinking and acting like a doctor -- assessing the situation and pragmatically considering how best to help him.
Good! I don't think the show, never mind other fic writers, really did enough to convey that Martha IS a doctor (or almost) so that while she would be concerned in such situations, she would also be pragmatic and careful.
Poor Doctor with his gasping and his tiny nod and his eyes closing! I'm worried about his state of health. (Nicely done; conveys a great mental image without overdoing it.)
Thanks!
I'm also thinking that a floating stretcher is a really cool idea.
Heh. I can't recall where I first came across the idea of a floating stretcher (Star Trek?) but it's a brilliant idea!
The affection Martha has for the Doctor really shows through here in her care for him. Then the Doctor passes out -- nicely written -- and Martha's reaction is perfect: it's a knife to her gut, but she gets on with what she has to do.
Poor Martha - she must have been dying a little inside!
(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-17 02:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-17 05:27 pm (UTC)(This is going to be the "dbskyler confesses to fics she's read but forgot to review" meme, isn't it?)
(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-19 03:53 pm (UTC)*puppy eyes*
(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-19 04:52 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-19 05:03 pm (UTC)'10 February: Uh-oh. I must've worried the Doctor, because today I got make-up presents: a stuffed dinosaur, a stuffed spider, a stuffed adipose and a stuffed Loch Ness Monster. Although why he would think I would want stuffed animals as mementos of our time together is beyond me.
11 February: Ooh, the stuffed Loch Ness Monster looks great next to my stuffed owl.
14 February: Valentine's Day, and what do I wake up to? A Sontaran helmet, a Dalek eyestalk and a (fortunately non-working) Cybermat. Honestly, it's as if he's presenting me with dead alien trophies now. Where am I supposed to put all this stuff?
16 February: Have stuck the Cybermat out front and am passing it off as a garden ornament. Fingers crossed.
17 February: Neighbour's cat tried to eat the Cybermat. It's a Cyber-hairball now.'
(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-20 07:31 am (UTC)10 February: Uh-oh. I must've worried the Doctor, because today I got make-up presents: a stuffed dinosaur, a stuffed spider, a stuffed adipose and a stuffed Loch Ness Monster. Although why he would think I would want stuffed animals as mementos of our time together is beyond me.
11 February: Ooh, the stuffed Loch Ness Monster looks great next to my stuffed owl.
-------
I spent a lot of time thinking up things for the Doctor to give to Sarah. What might still be in the TARDIS that he could return to her? And what other random stuff might he decide to start giving her? I went with stuffed animals because of the stuffed owl that Sarah took with her when she left in "Hand of Fear." Each animal echoes an adventure that Sarah had with the Doctor except for the adipose, and there I'm implying that Sarah met up with an adipose at some point, although I'm also playing off the RL fact that there really are stuffed adiposes (adiposi?) that you can buy. But I also went with an adipose because I was running out of ideas for stuffed things that he could give her. I wanted more than three items, but what else could I use? A stuffed Zygon? A stuffed Dalek? A stuffed Mandragora Helix? You can see why I went with the adipose.
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14 February: Valentine's Day, and what do I wake up to? A Sontaran helmet, a Dalek eyestalk and a (fortunately non-working) Cybermat. Honestly, it's as if he's presenting me with dead alien trophies now. Where am I supposed to put all this stuff?
-------
Again, this was mostly me just trying to think up strange things for the Doctor to give her. However, I was heavily influenced by an auction of Doctor Who memorabilia being advertised at the time -- the auction included all sorts of bizarre items just like these.
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16 February: Have stuck the Cybermat out front and am passing it off as a garden ornament. Fingers crossed.
-------
I found this an amusing mental image. Poor Sarah, drowning in random alien artifacts to the point where she's trying to pass off a Cybermat as a garden ornament because she has nowhere else to put it! It made me laugh, so I put it in the fic. (That's how I write my humor fics, by the way -- I put in the stuff that makes me laugh, and then hope that other people will find it funny, too.)
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17 February: Neighbour's cat tried to eat the Cybermat. It's a Cyber-hairball now.
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I've always thought that a Cybermat would make a really good cat toy, so I jumped at the chance to finally write that into a fanfic. It also made me giggle quite a lot.
reader's commentary for "One More Time"
Date: 2010-11-20 06:07 am (UTC)-------------
"But, Doctor, this is your last life. You can't get yourself killed now!”
The thirteenth Doctor smiled down at his companion - his best friend, feisty as ever - Sarah Jane Smith. "Who says it's my last life?"
-------------
Probably not a typical reader response, but there's a big smile on my face now at "feisty" Sarah Jane, still the Doctor's best friend. Okay, moving on . . .
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"But..." Sarah fumbled for words. "But you told me yourself. Twelve regenerations, thirteen lives. Teeth and Curls was number four, Rooster-hair with the sneakers was number ten, and you've regenerated three times since him. Thirteen lives."
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Rooster-hair! LOL.
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The face might change, but that grin never did. "Ah, but that's not quite accurate. I referred to each of my different appearances as a different regeneration, for convenience's sake, but I do actually have one more coming."
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At this point I'm wondering where you're going with this. One more regeneration?
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"You mean you once changed your appearance without regenerating?" Sarah silently ran through the changes of face she knew about and the reason for each one. They’d all been fatal.
"Exactly. Well, not exactly. When the Time Lords captured me during my second life, they didn't actually execute me before exiling me. I suppose they felt it was too barbaric."
-------------
And now I understand that you're saying the change from the Second Doctor to the Third Doctor was not an actual regeneration.
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"Then... But I've seen pictures of you. Him. The second you. A little black-haired fellow with a face like a basset puppy, right? And the way he dressed — he was the exact opposite of my first Doctor."
"Yes. In every way, the exact opposite."
The Doctor obviously thought that was tremendously significant, but Sarah couldn’t figure out why.
-------------
I don't know why it's significant either. What's the deal?
-------------
"So what did they do to you, if they didn't... regenerate you?" she demanded.
"Well, actually..." The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "To be honest, they — well…”
“They what?” Sarah prompted.
“They reversed my polarity."
-------------
LOL and groan and then LOL again! I absolutely did not see that coming. Very clever!
(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-18 12:16 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-18 06:01 am (UTC)From your Break of Day
"Doctor?" she asked to be sure, although she already knew. Who else would ask if he was in the correct year, and who else would grin at her like this? Besides, while he appeared young, younger even than the last version of him she had met, there was an air about him that gave away the passage of centuries. "Are you all right?" she asked as he continued to stand on her doorstep, uncharacteristically still. "What are you doing here?"
"Regenerating," he answered. A wisp of golden energy escaped his mouth, then he smiled again.
"Okay," she said, half-worried, half-bemused. "I suppose you'd better come in, then."
"Oh no," he responded, "I’m not here to visit. I'm only here to ask you a question." He paused, as if he had forgotten his train of thought, then, "Aunts!" he proclaimed suddenly, and she took a startled step backwards. "I need to know more about aunts. You have an aunt, right?"
"I have an ant?" she asked. "I don't have any ants that I’m aware of. What sort of ants did you have in mind?"
"The human sort," he replied. "You have no aunt? I thought you had an Aunt Lavinia."
"Ah," said Sarah. "Yes, I did. What do you want to know about her?"
The Doctor swayed a little on his feet, then steadied. "She raised you, correct? Because you have no parents?"
"Yes," Sarah answered. She took a deep breath and reminded herself that he was regenerating, so it wasn't his fault that he was being tactless. Then she remembered that he was often tactless even when he wasn't regenerating, but reminded herself that he was her friend anyway. "I was orphaned as a baby, and my Aunt Lavinia raised me. Is there anything else you want to know?"
The Doctor leaned forward and peered at her. "What was that like -- being orphaned?"
Sarah reminded herself about the tact again, but gave him a pointed look anyway. "Difficult," she replied.
He didn't seem to notice. "Four more questions, then. Did your aunt leave you on your own when you were a child? Did she ignore you when you spoke about terrifying cracks in your wall? Would she have noticed if you'd suddenly disappeared one night? And would she have missed you after you left?" He held up a finger for each question, counting them off.
Sarah sighed. "Yes, no -- but I had no cracks in my wall, or no terrifying ones -- yes, and I certainly hope so. Doctor, what is this about?"
"I just thought I should check," he answered vaguely. "One more question. Just the one," and he held up a single finger. He stared at it for a moment, then dropped it and looked straight at her. "If I had met you when you were a child, and you had then traveled with me, would you have regretted it later?"
(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-18 06:45 pm (UTC)-------
"Doctor?" she asked to be sure, although she already knew. Who else would ask if he was in the correct year, and who else would grin at her like this? Besides, while he appeared young, younger even than the last version of him she had met, there was an air about him that gave away the passage of centuries. "Are you all right?" she asked as he continued to stand on her doorstep, uncharacteristically still. "What are you doing here?"
-------
I decided to have Sarah recognize the Doctor right away. One reason was because I didn't want to go into a whole lot of "Who are you? Is it really you, Doctor?" stuff as that's not what the fic is about, and I thought that spending a lot of words on that would weigh the fic down. But also, it just seemed to me that Sarah would be able to quickly figure out that it was the Doctor, and once she had figured it out, I thought she would shrug off the change and move on. (And yes, I confess that it made me very happy when the scene in "Death of the Doctor" where Sarah first sees Eleven played out pretty much exactly that way. RTD and I have some very similar views on Sarah!)
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"Regenerating," he answered. A wisp of golden energy escaped his mouth, then he smiled again.
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Here I'm introducing where we are in the Doctor's timeline. He's regenerating, with golden energy coming out of him, and I intended that to be a big sign: "This takes place during 'Eleventh Hour!'"
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"Oh no," he responded, "I’m not here to visit. I'm only here to ask you a question." He paused, as if he had forgotten his train of thought, then, "Aunts!" he proclaimed suddenly, and she took a startled step backwards. "I need to know more about aunts. You have an aunt, right?"
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This fic was my first attempt to write Eleven, and I really tried to make him as "Eleven-ish" as I could. The pausing and the sudden, startling non-sequitur was my attempt to portray him as he was during "Eleventh Hour."
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"I have an ant?" she asked. "I don't have any ants that I’m aware of. What sort of ants did you have in mind?"
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A bit of a silly misunderstanding. It made sense to me that Sarah would jump to the "ant" meaning over the "aunt" meaning with no other context to go on, but it also underscores how she's having trouble following him.
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"The human sort," he replied. "You have no aunt? I thought you had an Aunt Lavinia."
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And of course the Doctor learned about Aunt Lavinia way back in "Time Warrior." You can easily argue that she must have told the Doctor all about her aunt and her upbringing during some off-screen moment in the TARDIS, but I really like that his knowledge here is also canon.
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The Doctor swayed a little on his feet, then steadied. "She raised you, correct? Because you have no parents?"
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The swaying is a reminder that the Doctor is regenerating and still mentally "off" because of it.
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"Yes," Sarah answered. She took a deep breath and reminded herself that he was regenerating, so it wasn't his fault that he was being tactless. Then she remembered that he was often tactless even when he wasn't regenerating, but reminded herself that he was her friend anyway.
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But, as Sarah knows, that doesn't mean he wouldn't have just blurted out what he was thinking anyway. ; )
[tbc in the comment below . . .]
(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-19 02:01 am (UTC)The Doctor leaned forward and peered at her. "What was that like -- being orphaned?"
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The leaning forward and peering was another attempt to make him seem like Eleven.
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He didn't seem to notice. "Four more questions, then. Did your aunt leave you on your own when you were a child? Did she ignore you when you spoke about terrifying cracks in your wall? Would she have noticed if you'd suddenly disappeared one night? And would she have missed you after you left?" He held up a finger for each question, counting them off.
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And the holding up his fingers as he counted off his questions was also me trying to be Eleven-ish. I have a really strong mental picture of Matt Smith doing this.
As for the questions themselves, this is where I finally explain just why the Doctor has shown up at Sarah's door. The reader instantly understands the point of these questions, of course, although Sarah's left a little confused.
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Sarah sighed. "Yes, no -- but I had no cracks in my wall, or no terrifying ones -- yes, and I certainly hope so. Doctor, what is this about?"
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But a confused Sarah always makes the Doctor explain himself.
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"I just thought I should check," he answered vaguely. "One more question. Just the one," and he held up a single finger. He stared at it for a moment, then dropped it and looked straight at her. "If I had met you when you were a child, and you had then traveled with me, would you have regretted it later?"
-------
More Eleven-ish quirks, and then the sudden switch from vagueness to staring straight at her is meant to convey that the next question is very, very important to him. He's asking about Amelia, of course -- and the implication that he values Sarah's opinion on that is very deliberate -- but he's also asking about Sarah here, asking whether she regrets traveling with him and hiding the question under a hypothetical scenario. In my head, this is the Doctor's real motivation for showing up at Sarah's door: it's not just that he's unsure about the advisability of taking Amelia as a companion; he's unsure about the advisability of having any companion along at all. He just went through a big period of being alone, and although his regeneration has re-kindled his interest in companionship, he needs some reassurance before he's ready to take the plunge. I think he went to Sarah for that reassurance because of the parallels between her and Amy (orphans who were brought up by aunts -- okay, so Amy didn't turn out to be an orphan in the end but go with me here), and also because Sarah's old enough to have some perspective on her life, and she can tell him if it was worth it. Finally, I think he knows that Sarah would tell him the truth. Which she does. :D
So that's my first DVD commentary, and wow, for a fic that's been well and truly jossed, I sure did ramble on! It was fun though, and I hope this was at least
(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-23 07:01 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-19 05:54 pm (UTC)Let us see. For your fic, I would choose from Subtext:
SCENE 4: The Cafe
"Did I do something wrong? Because you never came back for me, you just dumped me."
Dumped you? What are you talking about? Watching you walk out of the TARDIS was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. But I couldn't take you to Gallifrey. It wasn't safe.
"I told you. I was called back home, and in those days humans weren't allowed."
The Time Lords might have erased our time together. And I could risk your life, but I couldn't risk that, Sarah Jane.
"I waited for you. I missed you."
I missed you, too. You were my best friend. Remember how I used to go around introducing you that way? I meant it, Sarah. You really were. But you always teased me about wanting to go back home. Once you were there, you were better off without me.
"Oh, you didn't need me. You were getting on with your life. "
"You were my life."
Sarah . . . is that true?
"You know what the most difficult thing was? Coping with what happens next; no, what doesn't happen next. You took me to the furthest reaches of the galaxy, you showed me supernovas, intergalactic battles and then you just dropped me back on Earth. How could anything compare to that?"
I don't understand. What do you want from me?
"All those things you saw, you . . . you want me to apologize for that?"
"No. But we get a taste of that splendor, and then we have to go back!"
"But look at you, you're investigating. You found that school. You're doing what we always did!"
Isn't it great? Doesn't that make you happy?
"You could have come back."
"I couldn't."
"Why not?"
Because . . . I just couldn't. As I told you once, Sarah, I walk in eternity. And in the end, I have to take the walk alone. You would have left me, eventually. You would have had no choice. And so once you were gone, I couldn't return and go through losing you again. Because otherwise, it hurts too much. I'm sorry.
*
Shall I also try the second part of the meme? Erm... that bit you quoted for my meme post :D
(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-22 07:19 am (UTC)"Subtext" was the first Doctor Who fic I ever completed and posted, and it was very much a response to "School Reunion." I wanted to take the canon -- the actual dialogue of the script, as written by Toby Whithouse -- and "fill in" the Doctor's thoughts according to my own personal fanon and, let's face it, wish-fulfillment. So it's a pretty self-indulgent fic in that way, as I basically went through and interpreted the dialogue in order to have it mean what I wanted it to mean. (That's not meant to criticize Whithouse's dialogue, by the way -- I absolutely loved the episode back then, and I still do.)
This section that you've picked has an excellent example:
Dumped you? What are you talking about? Watching you walk out of the TARDIS was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. But I couldn't take you to Gallifrey. It wasn't safe.
"I told you. I was called back home, and in those days humans weren't allowed."
The Time Lords might have erased our time together. And I could risk your life, but I couldn't risk that, Sarah Jane.
Here I took one line of Whithouse's dialogue -- "I told you. I was called back home, and in those days humans weren't allowed" -- and filled in the following personal fanon around it:
-- It was hard for the Doctor to watch Sarah leave.
-- The reason he didn't take Sarah to Gallifrey wasn't that it was forbidden, but that it wasn't safe.
-- What made it not safe was not the risk to her life (we know the Doctor takes companions to risky places all the time), but the risk that the Time Lords would erase their time together, and this was something he couldn't face.
I filled in my own fanon like that throughout the fic, and then in other places I just filled in what seemed to be going through the Doctor's head. Ultimately the fic is my personal slant on the Doctor, on Sarah and on the Doctor/Sarah relationship, and I'm actually surprised it got as many reviews and favorites as it did, but happy that people enjoyed it.
reader's commentary for "Dear Mike"
Date: 2010-11-23 06:51 am (UTC)------------
14th June, 1975
Dearest Michael,
I know this came on as a surprise. I can't really explain.
I still care about you deeply. But me and Robert… we decided to give it another go. I can't really explain what happened to make us change our minds, you would never believe me. Suffice to say it's in memory of our Sam… sometimes I think it was our fault. She was so stressed out with our behaviour, we never really noticed. And I'm tired of feeling guilty because of Helen. Your Bradley is four years old now, he needs two parents who love each other and love him.
So I'm going with Robert this year.
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One of the things that's amazing about this fic is how you manage to impart so much information in these notes without losing any of their realism. In this section, I was saddened to learn that Kate and Rob had broken up, and that fact was more important to me than the fact that they were trying to get back together again. I wa also surprised to learn that Kate had an affair with Mike. The first thing I thought was that it must have been a reaction to Kate and Rob losing their daughter, and all the stress with the Doctor. The second thing I thought was that it's a very realistic reaction. But then you hit me with the words "in memory of our Sam" and at once it's OH NO -- Sam is now dead, too? Total shock, and also a surprising amount of grief considering that I never got to directly know Sam at all. But you gave enough of a picture of her in these notes to make me very sorry that she was gone. I also felt very sorry for Kate and Rob, and thought that losing both their daughters must have been horrfic.
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I do appreciate it you agreed to take care of the garden and the dog. It's funny how attached I grew to Nelly. And she looks so much like our old dog, Lily, do you remember her? And of course, the memorial garden. We planted some roses, in memory of Sam, she did like them so very much. They still need to be watered every day.
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The description of the dog and the comparison to Lily reminded me of how much time is passing in these notes -- very well done. The mention of the memorial garden and Sam was very sad.
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And Michael, if you see a police box — please tell him we're sorry. We didn't realise what it really was the Master wanted.
Thank you.
Kate.
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Oh, this was a punch to the gut! After all those notes blaming the Doctor, Kate now wants to apologize to him? After she's lost both her daughters? There's so much raw emotion in that, and with the mention of the Master? It's just heartbreaking. I really want to know what happened, and yet I also really don't want to know what happened. It must have been very tragic all the way around.
tbc in the comment below:
Re: reader's commentary for "Dear Mike"
Date: 2010-11-23 06:55 am (UTC)10th June, 1980
Dear Mike,
Thanks for agreeing to take care of our house while we're gone. You should let Bradley in that wooden house in the back garden — he likes it there. Just make sure he doesn't step on the roses, please.
Other than that there's not a lot to do. We've taken Nelly with us, so there's no need to walk or feed her, just water the garden and the plants inside the house.
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This section does a nice job of conveying a big change in attitude towards dog care, garden care and rose care. (Nothing about watering the roses every day; only a brief admonition to avoid stepping on them.) It feels like Kate and Rob have moved on, at least a little bit.
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If you see a blue box, just let him in. He usually just takes care of the memorial gardens and leaves within an hour. Don't ask him too many questions, he probably wouldn't answer anyway.
Cheers,
Kate and Rob.
------------
Now the Doctor has become a regular visitor, and seeing him is no big deal anymore. He's welcome to just come in and putter around. What a huge change in attitude from the earlier notes! It's also sad that he comes back to take care of the memorial gardens (plural). I almost get the impression that the Doctor is missing the two sisters more than their parents are. Or maybe it's just that they've moved on (at least somewhat), and he seems to not have. It's also interesting that Kate and Rob seem to now know the Doctor fairly well, or at least well enough to know that he's not going to answer questions.