Hey, everypony! I’m LT Tweak, the new guy around here. I’ll be reviewing pony fiction for you, so you know what’s cool and what’s crap.
First, a little about me. I’m a Drill Sergeant stationed on Sand Hill here in beautiful Fort Benning, GA. Thirty miles from water, two feet from Hell, Hooah! When I’m not using the Royal Canterlot Voice on privates, I like to write pony fiction. Yes, you read that right. I’m a screaming, cussing, private-smoking Drill that spends his free time writing about pastel-colored talking ponies. Laugh, and I’ll “Front, Back, Go” you until your heart explodes. I’ll start with one of my favorite stories in the fandom, Timelords and Terror, by my favorite Greek god turned pony fic writer, Hephestus.
Author: Hephestus
A series of unexplainable events get Twilight's mane in a twist. Suddenly she finds herself and her friends embroiled in a pan-dimensional conflict between two ancient races, one of which is planning to unleash an unspeakable horror from the Void in a desperate bid to conquer the multi-verse. The only hope for Equestria and the whole of creation seem to lie on the shoulders of a mysterious stallion and his impossible blue box.Timelords and Terror
Alt. Link
Now, since I’m a Drill Sergeant, I like things neat and organized. So, I’ll break down the review into four sections: Story, Characters, Style and Grammar, and Overall Awesomeness. So, let’s get to it!
Story: It’s a beautiful day in Ponyville. Celestia’s sun is shining, birds are chirping, extra-dimensional aliens are trying to kill everypony.
Wait, what?
Yes, this is a Doctor Who crossover, so alien hijinks ensue pretty early on. After a freak storm, Twilight and company see three strange crafts falling from the sky, including a small, wooden box. Upon inspecting the crash, they find an odd stallion with a brown coat and an hourglass cutie mark. From there the mares and the Doctor must stop the villains from unleashing an ancient evil with the intent of, you guessed it, taking over the world.
[overused Nostalgia Critic meme] OF COURSE! [/overused Nostalgia Critic meme]
Characters: What’s great about this story is that nearly every character is... well, in character. Twilight is a bookish nerd, Rainbow is brash and ready to kick some flank, and Pinkie Pie is... um, Pinkie Pie. My only gripe is a bit near the end. A pony, I will not say who, is killed, and the girls react by wanting to torture and kill the offender. Now, since this has happened in a lot of really good dark fics, I can’t really call OoC. The problem is this isn’t a dark fic, so it’s pretty jarring. Other than that, everypony reacts in much the way we think they would.
The author makes great use of established Whovian villains, with the exception of one race that was only mentioned in a novelization, not the main series. But from what I’ve read, they are accurate. The villains are the Carrionites, and they are fun to watch, striking a great balance between being diabolical and pitiable.
The highlight of the story, and what makes it so enjoyable to a fan of the series, is the Doctor. The author uses the Tenth Doctor, played in the show by David Tennant, which is another minor gripe. When this was written, we had moved on to the Eleventh, played by Matt Smith. I understand wanting to use a classic Doctor, but why always Tennant? Just once I want someone to throw in John Pertwee, or Sylvester McCoy. Heck, even Colin Baker! It’s okay though, because the Tenth is portrayed almost perfectly here; his mannerisms, his tone, even his speech patterns are in total form. Every Tennant trope is present: the way he draws out the word, “Well,” the rapid fire nerd-rants, and of course, the ever present, “ALLONS-Y!” I truly could hear Tennant’s voice every time I read his dialogue, and it really added to the immersion. That’s the biggest strength of this story, it really feels like you’re watching an episode of Doctor Who. This is also a slight hamper, but I’ll get into that in a minute.
Style and Grammar: Pretty clean, I think. There’s a couple of stylistic derps here and there, two characters speaking in the same paragraph, a few missing indentations, but nothing that draws from the overall readability. The best part of the style is the author stages it like an episode every chapter. You get a little hook, then he goes as far as to write, “DA-DA-DA-DA, DA-DA-DA-DA, DA-DA-DA-DA, DA-DA-DA-DA,” simulating the opening theme. I even recommend you YouTube the theme song and play it as you read that bit, it makes it fun!
However, there is one major problem. This poor fiction suffer from a dreaded disease that affects millions of fan fictions worldwide: Wall-o-Text Syndrome. That is where a paragraph will stretch to immense lengths, sometimes covering a whole page, with no breaks. As an amateur author myself, I can attest that learning where and why to put paragraph breaks can make or break a story. The human eye can only read a giant block of narration for so long before zoning out and skipping to dialogue. Basically, this story needed a good editor to catch this. This was posted to Equestria Daily back when the site was still wearing its training wheels, thus it didn't have to face the dreaded Pre-Reader process that newer stories do. But don't let that deter you; the overall quality of the story more than makes up for this. So please, call the number below, and donate a small amount to help these poor fics find a good editor. If you don't care, who will?
Overall Awesomeness: I loved this fic. The pace was great, the dialogue was crisp and funny, and the plot had me on the edge of my seat. This is the only story in the fandom that I have read multiple times and enjoyed it every time. But, I am a huge Doctor Who fan. As I said, the biggest draw is that Whovian flavor. So if you’re not a big fan of the show, you probably won’t enjoy it as much as I did.
I said before that this is one of my favorite stories in the fandom. Notice that I said favorite, not the best. There is a difference. The Houston Astros are my favorite baseball team, but I know that they kinda suck. Not that this story sucks, mind you. It has its flaws, but none of them really take away from the overall experience.
Final call? If you are a fan of Doctor Who, this is almost required reading. If you’re a fan of science fiction with great pacing and plot, you’ll love it. If you hate sci-fi in general, then you may want to avoid it. All in all, this story gets the “Brown Round Seal of Approval.”
