#(motw) Barbara

[quiddling]

yeah i think im funny making jeffrey combs and barbara crampton my face claims for my new motw oc and his wife

[onecharaaday]

Day 3: Barbara Jones: Head Chairwomen of OOPs.

Her photo wouldnt be black and white with this design but i was not feeling like doing colors AND i have no clue what her design would be for the past. So just thing ^_^

[incomingalbatross]

Classic companions you could pretty easily bring back into modern Doctor Who:

Susan. I know we'd have to address how she survived the Time War, but look! That could be a whole episode's plot in itself, with the Doctor coming upon the time/place she was hidden and unraveling its mystery or protecting it from a new threat! And as far as context... "She's my granddaughter." "You have a granddaughter??" "Yes." "Then... How...?" "Before I was the Doctor. A long time ago. By the time we left Gallifrey, it was just her and me." You can weave more explanation into the episode if you like, but you hardly need more.

Ian. This one is a little harder, partly because SJA said he and Barbara weren't aging and I'm cool with that, and partly because telling a story with Ian and no Barbara would be hard and/or sad. But... Ian's head of the Coal Hill School Board, right? Even with Clara gone, this one would be EASY. Meshing him with the new series might be less easy, but... Ian's adaptable. He can be exasperated with the Doctor under any circumstances.

Vicki. Give me Vicki as a matriarch of the Aeneids in pre-Roman Italy! Have her older and more settled, but still clever and mischievous and cheerfully disregarding history in the interests of her loved ones. Let her be deciding policy and taking care of her half-Trojan family. Give her a bunch of weird and dangerous pets. It's what she deserves.

Steven. Like...we know where he is. I'd love to revisit The Savages! How are they doing fifty years later! What has Steven helped to build? They had rudimentary time-engineering going on, as I recall--did the Time War hit them at all?

Dodo. I mean, personally I'm pretty committed to Dodo being a young Melody Pond, but I would sacrifice that if someone actually wanted to tell a good Dodo story. And, like... she's free real estate. Where did she come from? Where did she go? IT WAS UNCLEAR. 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

Polly. Like Ian's case, having her appear without Ben would be rough... But it wouldn't be hard to do a story with her. They're running an orphanage, according to SJA--let's see her protecting her kids from an alien threat! AND she already knows about regeneration, so I feel like she'd get up to speed pretty fast.

Zoe. Okay, War Games is a complication here. I don't like the thought of establishing she's lived without her memories all this time but I also wouldn't like to retcon them as having been given back offscreen... It's a puzzle. But I WOULD be up for seeing that she'd built a good life for herself, and kept the personal growth she found in the TARDIS even without the memories.

Benton. Come on, please, this would be so easy... You CANNOT tell me that he hasn't already been helping Kate offscreen. You can bring him into literally any story with a UNIT element--or without! If the TARDIS finds something interesting in his town you can bet he'd already be in the middle of it. And you would need so little explanation, because it's BENTON. He'd take a new Doctor in his stride. All we'd need is "oh yeah, we go way back" and that'd be that for Necessary Context.

Yates. I mean... It might end up feeling like a Planet of Spiders reprise, but it wouldn't be hard to bring him in. You could make his history part of the plot, but you could also just make him one of the people affected by the MotW. (If you brought back a UNIT villain, it would tie in especially well.)

Tegan. Okay, she REALLY deserves closure. Give us an Australian story with her in it! Let us see that she's doing okay, she got through her trauma and is leading a good life, and let her and the Doctor talk. If you want an angsty reunion episode, this is one where the angst would actually feel earned...but it could also end in healing for both of them.

Nyssa. ... Okay, I think Big Finish did stuff with her post-canon. But just looking at canon, it wouldn't be hard to go back to Terminus. Let's see leader-of-a-community Nyssa and the Doctor (hey, now they've both experienced genocide!! 🤦🏻‍♀️).

Turlough. The Trions exist in our time and have interstellar travel, this one would be super easy. And also you could have a stupidly complex interplanetary political drama, (with Turlough scheming and lying and generally Doing His Best in a good cause), and that would be a fun story just on its own merits. (I believe Mark Strickson said somewhere that if he came back, he would like Turlough to be pretending to be someone else, and I am HERE for that.) Give me cloak-and-dagger Turlough.

Mel. Mel decided to be, like, a roving space pirate, right? Easy. I mean, given all the Trial weirdness around her, I like the idea of her being Not What She Seemed (though benign), but it wouldn't be hard to bring her in, canonically speaking. And she'd be fun to see again

Companions that would be harder/I'm more torn about, but you could still manage:

Jamie. Okay, this one is complicated because... you'd have to address not only War Games but also Season 6B, and anything you established for his life since (memories or no memories, ended up in Scotland or elsewhere, happy or sad or whatever else) would probably contradict somebody's cherished headcanons. On the other hand... The thought of Frazer Hines back on screen, and Jamie interacting with a new Doctor, makes me happy.

Leela. She's a lot more complicated because A) Gallifrey, and B) Big Finish has done so much with her and Gallifrey... I honestly can't speak to how hard this would be.

Romana: see above. But gosh, I'd love to see Romana get an actual part in a Gallifrey episode...

Peri. ...OOF. Okay, yeah, using Peri would require picking one of her many semi-canon fates. Could be rough. But...she DOES also deserve closure.

Ace. ...Yeah, Ace problems are Peri problems but WORSE, because she doesn't have a canon fate AT ALL. But... Pick something from the EU. You could manage it.

In conclusion: I would really love to see more interconnectedness in DW. And it could be done.

(on a scale of angst to non-angst, it definitely ranges from Tegan to Benton, but most of them don't need the story to be taken over by angst. Their history with the Doctor would be part of the story, but it could just be a grounding or enriching factor rather than dominating the plot. Just, "we're fighting evil like usual, but this time the Local Fighter is an old friend!" So there's room for more trust and an added investment on the Doctor's part, but their past doesn't have to be the plot.)

[shirtlesssammy]

14x16: Don’t Go in the Woods

Then:

Jack is FINE.

Now:

In a deserted rest stop at a park, two teens are enjoying some alone time in the back seat of their car. The girlfriend, Barbara, hears a noise that doesn’t seem like it came from nature. The boyfriend, Thomas, shrugs her off at first but then agrees to go check out the noise. He’s confronted by his sheriff father just as he opens the door. AWKWARD.

They fight about what he’s up to and Barbara heads to the bathrooms to give them some space. The bathroom is …the picture of perfection. She heads to the least disgusting stall. Once inside, she hears noises and sees a shadow in the room, and then a creepy monster hand curl itself around the top of the stall door.

Cue the screaming! Sheriff Dad rushes in to a now empty bathroom. He runs into the forest, briefly sees a Bigfoot-like creature in the shadows of the trees. Thomas cries out and the sheriff finds his son bereft over the dead body of Barbara. (Honestly, I thought we were only going to kill off white men for the rest of this show. This seems regressive.)

At the bunker, Sam is sitting alone in the dark kitchen. He’s clearly not doing well by pouring himself into finding another case to work. Dean wanders in and I enter a fugue state where I can’t remember what happens for the next couple of minutes. (I actually agree with this post 100%. Dean knows Sam’s state of mind. He’s always willing to fit that role that will help Sam feel better, more confident, and distract him with antics they both know aren’t real.)

Anyway, Sam has a case of missing people through the years in Iowa. Dean agrees, and Sam says he’ll grab Cas. Dean admits that Cas left earlier in the morning.

Dean also thinks that Jack should sit out hunting for now. He’s a bit of a wild card and it might be better to keep him close to home for a bit.

They find Jack in the library reading about zombies. Dean tasks him with restocking the bunker with beer and beer. (Um, I guess those driving lessons paid off. Now Jack can drive to the store alone and buy liquor he’s totally old enough to buy. Good parenting, Dean!)

Once in Iowa, at the sheriff’s station, the brothers are told the murder was actually a coyote attack, nothing more.

They still insist on viewing the body. They see the claw marks, and the burns around them, and know this isn’t a coyote attack.

Jack, meanwhile, is on his shopping excursion in Lebanon. It pains me how friggin’ cute he is. He’s awkwardly waiting for the store to reopen when Eliot, Max, and Stacy arrive. Eliot is garbed up in a cute brown and plaid jacket (such a hunter in training!) and watching videos of the Ghostfacers (what a blast from the past!) They notice “Bambi” just chillin and talk with him.

Eliot wants to know if Sam and Dean are ghost hunting, and Jack asks, “What’s a ghost?”, followed instantly with, “I have to go.” Boy, that line delivery was so perfect. In any event, Jack’s making friends, guys!

Jack and Eliot bond over reading about monsters. I just want to squish them, they’re so cute.

Also, how can Alex Calvert seem so young? Jesus, he does a good job playing baby Jack. We learn that the bunker has movie night every Tuesday, and that Dean really likes The Lost Boys. The kids learn that Jack is two, er, um, twenty-two. Whew, good save there, buddy! They still invite him to the abandoned house to hang out. Then they ask for ID to buy the beer (and I’m all like? Hello, you now have someone old enough to buy beer for you? What kind of narc kids are you?) Jack agrees to hang with his new friends.

At the sheriff’s office, Sam and Dean get free reign of the joint after hours (my how things have changed for them.) Sam thinks they’re dealing with a Kohonta, a local and ancient forest monster (in the great Northwest forests of Iowa —the X-Files often explored these forests as well.)

At the park a couple are hiking, in the dark.

They hear a weird whistling, and then see a figure in the trees. They call out to him. It’s the forest monster! All twigs and stomach acid! (And once more not a dead white guy in sight. Sigh. —I don’t know what I’m focused on this this week?)

At the crime scene, Dean and Sam interview the other hiker. She gives them a location on where to look. The sheriff arrives and wants to shut down operations. Dean insists that because they’re the feds, they can still search the forest. He tells them they can’t, and the brothers are totally going to follow those orders.

Jack shows up at the house laden with books from the bunker’s library. Jack! Did you fill out a borrowing slip for those? Jack wanders the room with his signature awkwardness. In the space of minutes, he reveals that he likes Dean’s music, has never heard of the SATs, and that demons are made of smoke and totally real.

The Local Teens ™ are intrigued by Jack’s purported hunting prowess and, encouraged, he brings them outside to demonstrate an angel blade. It goes poorly at first… Poor Jack. It’s hard to impress older kids.

In the woods, Sam and Dean hunt the kohunta. As they’re stalking through the woods, the Sheriff sneaks up behind Dean with his shotgun and orders them to drop their weapons. Yikes, but also mad props to the Sheriff for sneaking up on Dean. He doesn’t get the drop on them for long, though.

Cut to night… Jack’s apparently been trying to throw his blade all afternoon and the Local Teens ™ are bored. They goad Jack into defending his skills and he activates his newly restored nephilim power to finally hit the target. Hooray! Cool! Also, whatever.

Until…Jack uses his power to mind-mojo the blade back through the air and into his hand. Jack’s ecstatic about this, Eliot’s excited, and the two girls (who are clearly more sensible) are majorly weirded out. (Max is intrigued, at least.) Jack, encouraged by the sudden interest, levitates the blade in the air and then begins to swirl it around. It zips around in ever-increasing complex patterns. “I can control it,” Jack chirps while whipping the blade feet away from the teens, who are getting freaked out. Stacy tries to run and Jack’s blade cuts right into her, buried up to the hilt. Jack pulls out the blade and light glows from his hand as he tries to heal her. We’re left to wonder for just a moment if Jack failed…but Stacy sits up. She’s healed!

Jack moves towards them, encouraged by being able to heal Stacy and thinking he’s back in the teens’ good graces. They turn him away and Eliot orders Jack to stay away.

Dean and Sam talk to the Sheriff about the kohunta and we get a quick info dump on the MoTW. It’s an old tribal legend about the Parker family - some of the first white settlers in the area. One winter was particularly hard and the boy went crazy and ate the rest of the family. He developed a taste for people and started going after the people of the tribe. Instead of killing the crazed cannibal, they transformed him into the kohunta - a starving creature cursed to roam the woods and either eat people or slowly die of starvation. Legends being legends, this was forgotten and the woods they trapped him in were eventually invaded by interlopers a.k.a. tasty snacks.

Phew. Okay. Plot continues…. Sam and Dean totes kill monsters and they’re ready to help the Sheriff. The Sheriff asks them about going to YouTube to tell the world how to fight monsters but Sam’s against it.

The Sheriff’s son, Tom, interrupts their narrative wheel-spinning by calling and telling his father that he’s going after his girlfriend’s killer himself. The Winchesters and the Sheriff race to save him, silver blades at the ready (because it turns out that is what will kill them).

Tom reaches an old cabin, stalked by the monster, only to be attacked! It’s not looking good for Tom, who is about a second away from getting a giant acid lugey to the face. The Sheriff and Winchesters break in and they fight off the kohunta. One punchy kicky fight scene later and the monster gets a knife to the heart and dies. (Query: if this beast was around for long enough that the tribe forgot it existed, then how does cloth survive on its back? Magical curse blah blah, I guess.)

Tom’s alive. The Sheriff’s alive! Everybody wins. Sam and the Sheriff discuss the truth of the monster. Sam counsels him to tell the truth to his son; it’s the right thing to do.

Later, in the Impala of Feelings, Dean asks why Sam wanted to tell the truth. Lying’s the best way out of anything. Sam reminds him of lying to Jack…and all the times they lied to their dad about being “fine just to make him happy.”

Dean and Sam arrive back at the bunker. Jack got all the groceries except for the beer. (He only has fake IDs!) The Winchesters tell him they’re worried about Jack’s powers and they want him to not use them for a while. They’re telling him how they feel because they care. Feelings!

Jack mulls this over, and then fails to tell them about how terribly his powers just went wrong. Yeah. This is great. (Side note: he has learned one thing from Local Teens ™: subterfuge.)

Let’s Have a Quote Saber Fight!

Dean says that any music made after 1979 sucks ass

Well, there are standard hand to hand moves…like a light saber

Are you like a Jedi or something?

Whoa, that’s like full on Raiders!

Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive!

[mulderscreek]

The Nursery Files Choose Your Own Christmas and/or Hanukkah fic Challenge (2004)

Since it’s plausible that the Mulders celebrated Hanukkah, that’s an alternative to Christmas in this challenge.

For fun, let’s make this challenge a little more open-ended than usual. It’ll be up to you to pick one of the following from each lettered category and base a fic around it – sort of like those “chose your own adventure” books when we were young.

A – Holiday (pick one)

1 Christmas 2 Hanukkah 3 Both

B- Timeline (pick one)

1 A Christmas between 1960 and 1984 (pre-series characters’ childhood(s) 2 A Christmas between 1992 and 2002 (seasons 1-9 AU or missing scene) 3 A Christmas between 2002 and 2015 (post-series and/or post-IWTB) 4 A Christmas between 2016 and 2018 (seasons 10-11 and beyond)

C – Premise (pick one or more)

1 Someone looks for or meets Santa 2A letter from one character to another 3 A reunion (at any time) or thus unrevealed pre-series meeting 4 A miracle, by a character’s definition, occurs on the 24th or 25th/during Hanukkah 5 Someone unexpected spends the holidays 6 Holiday shopping isn’t easy 7 William, who isn’t an only child, has an interesting day 8 A strange child teaches a character something about the meaning of the holiday 9 A holiday haunting/ MOTW 10 It *wasn’t* a dream [author defines “it”]

D – Required elements (use all)

1 A juvenile character (one or more) aged 0-19 2 A Christmas tree, stocking or menorah must be mentioned 3 Snow, or the dismay that there isn’t any 4 A holiday treat or tradition

E – Allowable characters (use any)

1 Mulders: Fox Mulder, Samantha, Bill and Teena 2 Scullys: Dana Scully, Maggie, Bill, Bill Jr, Missy, Charlie and any siblings’ offspring 3 Doggetts: John Doggett, Barbara and Luke 4 Reyes: Monica Reyes, any family you wish to invent for her 5 The Spenders: CSM, Cassandra, Jeffery 6 Others: Skinner, Krycek, Maritia, Gibson Praise, Emily Sims, William, any minor character who appeared in an episode 7 Original characters of your invention

There you have it. Pick one from A, one from B, as many as you want from C and E, and use all of D.

Rating (even NC-17 for this challenge), Genre, length, spoilers etc up to the author.

Challenge fics

Lost Spirits   by Pattie The Case of The Jolly Fatmen by NeoX  Holiday Party or "Isn’t we supposed to be having a fiesta?!" by Sita  

Please submit your story or the link to it to nurseryfiles@mulderscreek.com or post here on our submissions Tumblr - or send me a message with your fic on Tumblr to reblog - by New Years Eve

[quiddling]

mmm 1980s jeffrey combs werewolf...