Author Feedback: Steve

[LadyTevar]

He is getting far too uppity, and I am worried that this will go horribly, explosively wrong.

[Steve]

Yes, he was a bit over the top, calling out Dukat like that.

It may, in the end, prove a good thing, as you'll see in the next update. Granted, not a good thing in the way he'd like.

[LadyTevar]

Does the Doctor's plans EVER go the way he likes? They usually wind up the way it should be, but....
Time Lord Triumphant needs to be shaken up, soon.

[LadyTevar]

Yep, he lost that bet, and now he's having to cover his arse. Nice touch with the Legate, I'd totally forgotten about him

[Steve]

It's interesting how people have different views of the Doctor's character. You felt the intervention in the Reaper War was him going too far "over the damn line" and dislike his handling of the Air Nomad and now Bajor situations. Meanwhile, this recent update caused a commentator on SB to refer to the SI Doctor as becoming a "flanderised version of the Doctor" even as another saw it as another indication that the SI's personality was being further overwritten by that of the Doctor.

I actually rather enjoy this variety, since it gives me alternative viewpoints to my own (for instance, I felt that the Air Nomad thing was the SI Doctor starting to go over the line, but the intervention to help Shepard against the Reapers was not), and your reaction to the things leading up to him giving Dukat the "IT IS DEFENDED" speech made me rethink the story and realize that I had to show consequences to the SI Doctor being so uppity.

I look forward to more feedback. This story should be done soon, I've only a few bits left. Then on to others, including a short (although it may end up a small episode) with a title that I figure you will feel worried over: "A Small Favor".

[LadyTevar]

It is nice to see him starting to see he can't go around as "Big Bad Timelord" and expect things to work out. But I think the real deathknell will be having his heart broken.

I don't want to see it. I like Jan and Cami. But no companion stays forever.

[Steve]

I think the thing about Jan and Cami, at this point, is that they're young, and like the young - and certainly the relatively recently liberated young - they feel, well, invincible, immortal, however you want to put it. That's why they've not really sat down to think about life after the Doctor; they don't feel any impulse for there to be one.

The SI Doctor knows better, and knows that he should be planning for that, but he doesn't want to be alone; Jan and Cami are, really, his last link to his stolen Humanity as they actually saw him as a Human first, know he was Human, etc. So what happens to him when they're gone? Or, sadly, if he does keep them around too long.... and one day they can't run fast enough to get away from one of those monsters the SI Doctor is always finding? Especially then, as the guilt he'll feel will go along with the deep yawning abyss of being alone.

[LadyTevar]

Very well done, Steve. Once again, you have Harry and the others spot on, and you gave The Doctor just the right bit of angst over what he should/could do to help Harry. Fantastic job.

[Steve]

Thank you.

How did you like the snowball fight, BTW? I admit I loved both the idea of a veiled Molly dumping snow down someone's collar, and Harry using his force magic to slam someone with a snow wall... so I did both.

And, of course, there was Mab's offer....

[LadyTevar]

Oh bloody hell indeed. However, he may get his quantum thingie he needs to give Kyubey an ass kicking now.

[Steve]

There's another update awaiting your attention....

[LadyTevar]

oh... oh jesus. That is worse than death, you bastard. that is unlife. Pardon me, I have to go cry now.

[Steve]

I admit, freely, that I had tears in my eyes as I wrote it, and I thought the "Rueful Fate of Donna Noble" had the right touch to be the background music for it, this horrible moment that we've all seen coming.

Edit: And something now occurs to me, on how fitting it is that this horrific defeat has been delivered to the Doctor by the Borg.

Because, well, the Borg have been employed to humble the successful before.

One might almost wonder if these words are being whispered into the SI Doctor's head:

"If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires, both subtle and gross. But it's not for the timid."

[LadyTevar]

Time Lord Triumphant.

And man is he pissed.

Nitram: Oh you poor buggers. He's gonna recode you, and if they're very **VERY** lucky, they might survive it

[Steve]

Oh, Nit's reading this now?

And, well... yeah, he's very pissed, and the Borg have no idea what they're in for.

I'll try not to keep you hanging for long but, well.... I'm gonna be reading Skin Game tonight instead of writing so.....

[LadyTevar]

That. That was worth all the wait.

It's hard to see the universe as an adventure after trauma like that. I hope they can be good Federation citizens.

[Steve]

Glad you liked it. And I'll finish the story today and we'll see how the Doctor settles them in.

[LadyTevar]

He's going to get the witches, isn't he. Un-timelock the Walpurnacht

[LadyTevar]

There are those - one Donar Vadderung among them - who argue that history has an inertia

Did you SERIOUSLY just go there?
yes, yes you did.

YAY! Katherine is a Companion! I am Happy!!

[LadyTevar]

I actually facepalmed at the "Building was on fire" bit. It was just So Dresden. Personally, I think Darth Wannabee needs to be beheaded for that kind of stupidity.

[Steve]

I actually facepalmed at the "Building was on fire" bit. It was just So Dresden. Personally, I think Darth Wannabee needs to be beheaded for that kind of stupidity.

The first concept for the ending was that he had already summoned another one, but the idiot would break the summoning circle or something similar and get killed by his own summoned demon before Harry and the SI Doctor could put it down. (I believe this was the fate of the TV show counterpart to Victor Sells).

But I decided it was more humorous to just have Harry deck the idiot.

I admit I wrote the entire short for two things: the back-to-back badasses moment and the banter and arguments during the car chase. I do feel slightly dissatisfied with it regardless... granted, that was probably because I had to rewrite parts of it three times because I kept losing the copy I made as a PM draft here on LA (that's how I write at work).

[LadyTevar]

DAMN YOU CLIFFHANGER!!!!

[LadyTevar]

Purrfect. That was a lesson well-taught.

[LadyTevar]

I love those two words "Everybody Lives!"

[LadyTevar]

YAY!!! You're BACK!!!

And that was an interesting little side mission. The Doctor's actions were all secondary to the fighting, and he lost the one fight he was winning. :(