I haven't posted about this so much lately. But recently I read a bit about upcoming companion Ruby Sunday, and jokingly said to Russel T Davies in an Instagram comment, that it sounded suspiciously like my fanfiction and that he must be the mysterious person reading my blog. After which I got a few visitors to my blog through Instagram and realised that, even though my account is private, the link to my blog isn't. And that a few people had probably come to this blog expecting to read a few bits of Doctor Who things and instead got a load of book reviews.
If they had found the Fanfiction tab, they'd have found a lot of the Doctor Who fanfiction things, but some of the more recent stuff actually isn't there, possibly because the posts weren't exclusively about Fanfiction so I left them out (something I will change soon).
As there are a few celebrations ongoing about the 60th, I decided to post a bit about the main ideas I've worked on for fanfiction and how it has changed in 2023. A bit late, as most of the celebrations are now over.
First off, I should note that the very first ideas for this, I started way way back when Matt Smith was the Doctor and early on in his tenure. I was a bit surprised when tiny elements started appearing in the show, such as Capaldi's refused regeneration. I should also note that the ideas have constantly been developing and changing, both as I've matured and grown older and become a better writer as well as more knowledgeable about the shows history, and as the show has changed. There are, essentially, three main version which I wrote.
Version one: The Doctor refuses to regenerate, but someone comes into the Tardis and forces it to happen anyway. After regeneration, he ends up on a planet where humans are being "3D printed" and programmed a certain way to create a new race of humans that will take over. The Doctor (or is it the Doctor?) creates a human baby girl, who he leaves on Earth with the name Sophia Lily Donner. For 21 years, Sophia grows up curiously alone. She's never adopted or fostered for long. Everyone seems to leave her. She is a genius, becoming a Doctor of Astrophysics at 21 years old. A man who calls himself the Doctor arrives and takes her on adventures. Sophia displays characteristics of all Doctors along the way, including similar outfits. All of a sudden, the man Sophia knows as the Doctor turns on her, drugging her and locking her in a room in the Tardis. He reveals he is in fact the Valeyard, and the Doctor is dead. He attempts to copy the way Sophia thinks in order to alter the human race. Sophia fights back during the Valeyard's psychic attack and sees all the memories of the Doctor. The Valeyard finally confesses the full truth. That the Doctor did not want to regenerate but someone forced him, allowing the consciousness of the Valeyard, which had always been there, to take over. He created Sophia as part of a plot, a human who could think like him. He planned for her to grow up alone and to hate humans, making her loyal to him. But discovered, when Sophia was travelling with him, that because he had still been in the first few hours of regeneration when she was created, Sophia had ended up too much like the Doctor. What was left of the Doctor gave Sophia her name. He also reveals it is Sophia, somewhere in her future, who causes the regeneration that kills the Doctor and creates the Valeyard. I had vague ideas for how the Valeyard then effectively abandons Sophia again, deciding she is worthless to him. Sophia struggles with holding the information she does and knows she has a choice to create the Valeyard. If she doesn't, she could rip a hole in time. She will eventually choose to do this, knowing she is also keeping alive any chance of the Doctor's return. I never fully concluded what happens next in this version.
Version 2: After the casting Jodie Whittaker, where I could tell we were about to get the least dark Doctor and was bored of writing about the Valeyard, I changed a huge aspect of the fanfiction. Sophia was not a creation of the Valeyard, nor did she play a part in the Doctor's regeneration. She was accidentally created by the Doctor and subsequently raised by a companion. Initially, this was Ace, later it was the Lethbridge Stewarts, then Ace fostered her when Kate had to go into hiding. As in the first version, she is a genius who becomes a doctor of Astrophysics and then travels with the Doctor. This idea was perfected a bit more with the revelation of the Timeless Child. The Doctor doesn't understand what she is, and so doesn't understand what Sophia is. Leaving her with companions so that Sophia could understand the best of the Doctor. She doesn't tell Sophia the truth of her creation, because she is afraid to and Sophia finds out when accidentally linked to the Doctor's mind. In some scenes she is sympathetic and in others she walks away for a while. At one time, Sophia played a major part in getting the Doctor free of the Judoon Prison. This was slightly going back to the early idea that Sophia plays a part in ensuring her own future. There was never really any conclusion to this line of the story. A vague idea that Sophia simply walked away from the Doctor, saying there was too much genius for one Tardis and she then became a recurring a character. I did write regeneration scenes in which Sophia, instead of forcing the Doctor to regenerate, encourages her to keep going in memory of all her old friends.
Version 3: This is the most recent and slightly combines the other two ideas. I never imagined that this would be either Tennant's Fourteenth Doctor, nor Ncuti Gatwa's Fifteenth. But probably an incarnation after Gatwa, so it's a long way ahead. As in the first version, the Doctor doesn't want to regenerate, someone forces him to. The new man lands on a planet that creates humans and it's clear something about the regeneration isn't normal as he appears to fighting something within himself. Stopping a plot to attack Earth, he creates his own human, names her and leaves her with the Lethbridge-Stewarts. 21 years later, he returns for Sophia. Throughout, his behaviour is strange and the audience see what Sophia doesn't. That he's testing her, letting her work things out and save the day instead of him. Also that he appears to be doing other tests, secretly drugging her, as well as gathering some sinister equipment they find on their travels from a barbaric prison. Sophia receives a warning from Elizabeth of York (wife of Henry VII of England) not to trust the man she calls the Doctor. Shortly after this, after drinking something in the TARDIS, she realises something is wrong and it's revealed she has been travelling with the Valeyard, not the Doctor before she succumbs to the sedative. What happens next is some of the darkest I've ever written in the context of Doctor Who fanfiction. It might even be something that would never even be allowed on the program. Part of it anyway.
Whilst the original version only had the Valeyard attempting to access Sophia's mind and it's established he never really meant her serious harm, even cared for her, this version does not. Here, he actually tortures Sophia, first with a kind of electrocution designed to test her pain threshold and so he could use a certain restraining device against her, explaining how Sophia can move about but not escape. He does psychically attack her mind, but he also tests her under the influence of certain drugs and even illnesses in order to test her immune system (she is supposed to have perfect immunity against common viruses). Sophia generally fights back and it even turns out that she knows how to trick the machinery that has been monitoring her, so despite being a bit of a wreck and in serious pain, Sophia is able to punch the Valeyard and briefly escape. But she does not try to seek anyone's help, she attempts to end her own life in order to stop the Valeyard's plot. He stops her and shortly after this, his attitude towards her changes for a few moments, becoming briefly sympathetic. When he next tries to psychically attack her, she sees into the memories of the Doctor, and realises he is still there within the Valeyard. Sophia gradually sees everything the Doctor wants her to. The last thing she sees is the memories of the Valeyard and her own creation, as well as her part in the regeneration. She manages to fight the Valeyard and release the consciousness of the Doctor long enough that he frees her. Back to being the Valeyard, he catches up with her in the control room and tries to persuade Sophia to turn her back on humans, but Sophia is this time able to use her self defence techniques on him and knock him out. She then takes the Tardis to the former companions and seeks their help.
Along with the other companions, Sophia concludes they have to find a way to make the Valeyard regenerate back into the Doctor. Several of them go to the sisterhood of Karn (Sophia has the memories of the Doctor and the ability to pilot the Tardis) and secure an elixir to trigger a controlled regeneration but they warn Sophia that she must first go back into the mind of the Valeyard and evoke the Doctor once more so that he will take the elixir. This is risky, as now the Valeyard will know what she is doing and he will fight back and the effort could kill her. Despite the risks, Sophia goes through with the plan, but instead of telling the Doctor that he has to take the elixir, she promises that if he really doesn't want to continue they will find another way forward and this time it is his choice. Smiling, the Doctor chooses to keep living and takes the elixir. Meaning, Sophia triggers two regenerations, but it's the later one she is involved in first in her own personal timeline.
I have vague ideas that we see the Doctor become a woman again, that Sophia will travel with the Doctor once after this. Though she knows the difference between the Doctor and the Valeyard and that they have the Doctor back, she struggles to be in the Tardis and realises she needs to leave and find out who she is without the Doctor, but ensures that there is someone else to take her place. Vague plans for Sophia's future involve her going abroad for a while and actually suffering with PTSD. Although she knows the Doctor does not hate her, she is still scarred by the Valeyard's actions and is vaguely aware that she can choose not to enable his creation in the first place, ending her own suffering. I also ideas about she'd get kidnapped with a lot of other former companions and six versions of the Tardis from different times. They all help to save the day of course. A brief conversation with the Doctor reveals Sophia has not yet triggered the regeneration of the fifteenth Doctor, but the date is coming up soon. She will, of course, choose to go through with it.
A few notes about Sophia. She has her own sense of style. She wears leggings and dresses and sometimes a leather jacket, sometimes a zip up hoodie. She also wears hiking boots most of the time. She looks like she is always ready to run. Whilst travelling with the Doctor she wears dresses in a certain colour scheme, similar to various Doctors and once wears trainers like Ten (and Fourteen) as well as quoting various Doctors. Her hair is longish and she styles it practically, most of the time. She alters her appearance after leaving, cutting her hair and is seen wearing smarter clothes and even high heels.
I don't think the show will follow this plot exactly. I don't think Ruby will really be a creation of the Doctor or that Gatwa will be the Valeyard. But the way Ruby was left is a bit like some versions of Sophia's story.
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