Excel's 5 Fanfic Reviews

DOCTOR WHO

The Return of Donna Noble

After her encounter with The Doctor at her almost-wedding, Donna Noble had been longing for the excitement and adventure that ensued when she was accidentally beamed up into the TARDIS. Since parting with the Doctor and knowing about the existence of aliens, she has been travelling the world and encountering aliens on her own, although unintentionally. In Ottawa, Canada, Donna gets caught in crossfire between an escaped alien prisoner and the law enforcement group attempting to retrieve him. It is there that she reunites with the Doctor and convinces him to take her on as his travelling companion.

I quite enjoyed this fanfic. Apparently there aren’t very many fanfics involving Donna Noble and mainly the reason why is perhaps because she has a sassy, outspoken attitude that is difficult to imitate. The author does a good job of ‘getting’ both Donna and the Doctor’s particular lexicon, and showing both the regular cheerful Donna and the more humane side of her that we are rarely privileged to see in the TV show.

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TORCHWOOD

Terms of Employment

Harriet Jones, prime minister of the UK, arranges a meeting with Captain Jack Harkness, whom the Doctor and Rose had left behind at Station 5 as they believed him to be dead. Now that it is calm after the Christmas Day attack on London, Harriet and Jack are able to discuss the appearance of the new Doctor and how he's changed from the Doctor that Harriet knew. They also discuss Harriet's post of Prime Minister, and instead of resigning like Harriet wants to, Jack convinces her otherwise, dropping her a hint that she serves three full terms in office. This gives Harriet the courage to continue her job as Prime Minister. She finally realises that Jack is not completely human and because of his knowledge of other life-forms and the supernatural, she offers him a job working with the Torchwood Institution.

Nothing to really complain about; it's written well - no grammar, spelling or punctuation errors to note, or, if there were any, there were unnoticeable. In-character dialogue is no problem, and this fanfiction creates a plausible reason as to how Jack came to work for the Torchwood Institution and how the now former Prime Minister came to know Jack Harkness.

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SUPERNATURAL

Baby, You Can Drive My Car

A childhood memory. Dad is out hunting, and Dean takes this opportunity to take Sam out for a driving lesson. Sam, like the good kid he is, is dead set against the idea of wanting to learn how to drive. Dean, like the older brother he’s so determined to be, forces Sam behind the wheel and forces him to drive. Unfortunately, Dean only gives Sam enough information to let the car start rolling forwards. Sam hits the accelerator instead of the brake and chaos ensues.

The idea for this fanfic is a sweet one as we rarely see much of the Winchester boys’ childhood that didn’t involve hunting monsters and other supernatural beings. At the beginning, the dialogue is typical and in-character but what irked me about the writing was that the further the story progressed, the further out-of-character they seemed. Sure, the characters were only in their teens, but the author made Dean a tad too aggressive to the younger brother he loves so much – a bit off from what flashbacks we do see on the TV show. Another gripe is the lack and/or incorrect use of punctuation where quotation marks are concerned, but overall, a decent read.

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 DEATH NOTE

Ghost in the Machine

A short fanfic from Near’s point of view set after L’s death. There seems to be a ghost in the room and he also hears L’s voice. Near seems to think it is L’s ghost, and it’s plausible it might be. After all, L believed in ghosts – he could have become one to watch over Near’s efforts to catch Kira.

Not much to say as it is a short fanfic, but it has been written well enough and explores, if not hint at, the platonic relationship that L shared with Near and the other children at Wammy’s House.

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CODE GEASS: LELOUCH OF THE REBELLION

A Crane's Wish

A post-Zero Requiem fanfic which starts off where Code Geass R2 ended, however, Lelouch is alive and has taken upon him C.C.'s Code. Lelouch is now the immortal being and he and C.C. are in a relationship. They reminisce, and it turns out that C.C. had been dreaming of the past.

In this fanfic, the dialogue is very much in-character, especially that of the snarky, cool and distant C.C. and the egotistical Lelouch. It started off well enough as a narrative but degraded into an almost script-style dialogue narration. It could have been written better, especially when it concerned the characters speaking and the punctuation was incorrectly used. Also, I wish that the author had focused more on writing about the dynamics between the two instead of just their dialogue. C.C. is a character that doesn't like to talk or divulge information very often, but considering that this is a post-show speculation, it is plausible that she had opened up her heart and allowed her more human side show. A decent read if you’re looking for something superficial.