Beyond the Roundels

I've been not posting again, sorry. There wasn't even any particular reason, for the most part.

I was talking about Image of Fendahl in passing, which reminded me of the ridiculous wordage I wrote after watching it the first time, back in the day, which in turn led me to reassessing UNIT: Transition. Aside from the fact that it does need the reader to have some idea of what went down in Image, it isn't actually bad. Nothing a little tidying wouldn't at least make passable, and that led me back to the question of whether or not to put my 1980s UNIT series that followed on AO3.

Anyway, after losing a lot of time to reading my old stuff, I am now in progress of making the whole series available there, with a little tidying, but no major alterations. I'm not sure how to handle the exact order once I do get everything across, but I'll post them in original posting order as far as I can (Transition aside), and worry about where to put the extras and the Christmas prequel with the puns and the mince pies later.

So, if you want to know how the hell Colonel Crichton managed to get on without the Doctor, or just enjoy the same old UNIT cliches* with a new team, and actual plot(s) (even if some of my other writing tics of the era leave room for improvement), and Torchwood being villainous, plus one stranded Victorian housemaid who isn't important at all, installment #1 (fully standalone) is here:

UNIT: Strange Weapons (34661 words) by thisbluespirit, vvj5
Chapters: 9/9
Fandom: Doctor Who (1963)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Charles Crichton & Sarah Jane Smith, K9 & Sarah Jane Smith
Characters: K-9, Sarah Jane Smith, Charles Crichton, Original Characters, Winifred Bambera
Additional Tags: United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (Doctor Who), Torchwood One, 1980s, 1980s UNIT, 1980s Torchwood, Original Character-centric, Original Character Death(s), Case Fic, Action/Adventure, Military, Aliens, Plot, Cliffhangers, Angst, Zombies (sort of), Infection, Peril, Explosions, Period Typical Attitudes, (here and there anyway), and one lost victorian housemaid
Series: Part 1 of 1980s UNIT
Summary: April 1985: Good scientific advisors are hard to find. Dr Webber discovers why when he's expected to deal with zombies, aliens and Torchwood on his second day, and his only help is a tin dog and a ghost. Colonel Crichton and Sarah Jane are planning an exit strategy of sorts, while Captain Bambera is trying to keep her men from joining the opposing forces. They'll all be lucky to stay alive.

The other thing I've been doing is a lot of hunting down radio plays using the BBC's Genome, which was part of what led to discussing Image of the Fendahl but I have now typed too much about 1980s UNIT again, so I shall go and have lunch and say things about that another time.


* Sergeants don't have first names, green slime is never good (or any shade of good, all of which is available), etc. etc.

Title: Chance Encounter
Author: lost_spook
Rating: All ages/PG
Word Count: 2859
Characters/Pairings: Nat Webber, Tilly Holmes, Brigadier Winifred Bambera, Ancelyn (Nat/Tilly, Bambera/Ancelyn)
Notes/Warnings: A coda of sorts for 1980s UNIT. 1997
Summary: Why is it, when UNIT is involved, lunch always means something trying to eat you rather than the other way round?

For jjpor in the 500 Prompts Meme - Prompt 397: It was many and many a year ago – Nat/Tilly (1980s UNIT, DW). Also very belated (or just possibly very very early) birthday fic!

Plus, it fits the trope_bingo “Reunion” square.

( Chance Encounter )

Another prompt ficlet (or actual fic, I suppose, flimsy as it is).

From belantana: Nat and Tilly are stuck in a closet (up to you whether this is before or after they're married!) I assumed from this that at least some mild Nat/Tillyness was required… (Nat and Tilly being my 1980s UNIT OCs from a scarily epic series of Doctor Who fanfics I did a while back. There aren't any particular spoilers here, but I'm not sure it would make sense to anyone who hasn't read at least one of those. Sorry.)

Title: Circles
Author: lost_spook
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 1261
Characters/Pairings: Nat Webber, Tilly Holmes, Sergeant Kennedy (1980s UNIT Ocs).
Notes/Warnings: None.

Summary: It’s just another day at UNIT HQ. There’s an alien visitor and Nat and Tilly find themselves locked in the cupboard – over and over again.

( UNIT: Circles )

Yet more - Fourteen:

In which UNIT is UNIT and Torchwood is Torchwood, and Anna Taylor discovers the difference.

(Still waiting to be okayed onto Teaspoon.)

(Going on the theory that Torchwood at this time must have been underhand, callous, bureaucratic and completely incompetent, OTT government spies / conspiracists, of course. And that UNIT were still being just a bit too unbelievably cosy for a top secret, international, military organisation that battles aliens. Hmm. Now I've made the chapter sound much more fun that it actually is... :lol:)

There may be some more later, as well. Or there may not. I disincline to commit myself at this stage.

See here, once it's okayed onto Teaspoon. The first two sections of Part Two. And while not all of this happens yet, in Part Two, UNIT receive a visit from a Torchwood agent, and suddenly Dr Webber's losing his temper, the Captain's giving unlikely orders, Tilly's a canary, and Sergeant Kennedy is a murderer. It's no wonder the Colonel's confused.

(The rest of this section shouldn't be too long in coming, so I may as well say that now...)

Edit: The chapters posted so far are up on Teaspoon (but the rest of Pt Two is yet to come. I did say that...)

I was planning to write more of my final UNIT 1980s story (so I can get on and write other things), but spent Sunday writing a 1980s UNIT fic sparked off by belantana and then yesterday writing the following fic, when jjpor threw yet another plot bunny at me, and this one bit. He suggested Jack should meet my UNIT OCs. And also that this was of course the sort of thing that would make the universe implode and could never happen... Obviously, I had to write it.

Story: Knave of Hearts
Author: lost_spook
Rating: All Ages / PG
Word Count: 4400
Characters/Pairings: Captain Jack Harkness, Colonel Crichton, & my OCs; Tilly Holmes, Nat Webber, Sergeant Kennedy.
Warnings: None, unless anyone is remotely worried about spoilers for my fic UNIT: Strange Weapons. Oh, and I'm not that great at writing Jack, either.

Summary:
April 1986: There’s a Torchwood agent loose in Colonel Crichton’s UNIT HQ, trying to steal an alien artefact, and nobody knows what he’s really after, but he might settle for chatting up the Sergeant in the meantime...

Parts Two and Three of UNIT: Wraiths now up at Teaspoon. (Or more correctly, Pt 2 is up, pt 3 is awaiting the okay. And, yes, they both have Sergeant Kennedy in them.)

And in rl, my housemate is trapped in Crete... 8-o

No ficlets this week - just UNIT fic!

Okay, take two. My misgivings about putting this on Teaspoon, given its OC focus, overtook me, so I whipped it out of the queue and am posting it here instead.

Story: UNIT: Happy Endings
Author: lost_spook
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 4,450
Characters/Pairings: Tenth Doctor, Colonel Crichton, Nat, Tilly, Sergeant Kennedy, Captain Evered etc.
Warnings: None. (Very OC. Some fluff, even?)

Summary: June 1987: UNIT are having a wedding, but there are some troublesome uninvited guests – none more so than the Doctor.

( Story under here )

Story: UNIT: Double Cross
Author:lost_spook
Rating: All ages
Characters/Pairings: Dr Webber, Tilly Holmes, Sergeant Kennedy, Captain Evered, (plus a Special Guest Appearance in the Epilogue)
Warnings: Absence of DW characters? Some possible cuteness in the Epilogue? None, really.

Summary: May 1987: Colonel Crichton has retired, his replacement’s impressing no one, and now UNIT’s scientific advisor has gone AWOL. What’s a UFO-investigating top secret military outfit to do?

( Oh yes yet more UNIT fic )

It isn't okayed onto Teaspoon yet, so please be patient as usual. (It's probably not the best day to post something, either!)

After going from one extreme to another (1 being: "I don't think I can straighten this one into anything I can actually post!" and 2: "Hey, what if I added in an extra Missing Scene where..." *rolls eyes*), here's the last Missing Scene from Lonely House.

It's very daft but oddly pivotal. (And please take it as read that everyone looks very pretty in their best.)

Summary: UNIT are just no good at social occasions that don’t include monsters. And Nat is trying his best to be sensible, but nobody else is helping, not even the Colonel.

( February 1986 )

The Cute Coda from Strange Weapons!

( Cute Coda! )

Title UNIT: Stardust
Author: lost_spook
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: WIP
Characters: Sixth Doctor, Evelyn Smythe, the Master, Colonel Crichton, various OC 80s UNIT members.
Summary: October 1986: The Doctor and Evelyn arrive at UNIT just as the Colonel and his team are investigating the arrival of some mysterious aliens. Worse, the Doctor suspects a very familiar foe may be to blame.

Well, here we go again... I hope this works, what with juggling all these characters, but look! I wroted something with the Doctor actually in it. ;-)

Six and Evelyn, too, who are rather fun by themselves anyway. No Evil Torchwood this time, but the Master is nasty enough all by himself.

As usual, you'll need to patient until it appears on Teaspoon. (Well, you know, assuming everyone's not rolling their eyes and going "Not another of those UNIT fics...")