Tuesday, January 1, 2019

FANFICCERS' FRIEND - AN ANGEL FOR GOOD?




It may have started earlier in the history of pop culture, but it could be that Barnabas Collins was the vanguard for the new perspective on vampires – that of being the heroes of their tale.  As my FB friend Matt Hickman pointed out, it really came into its own by the 1980s – ‘Forever Knight’, ‘Moonlight’, among others. (Although I think most of the vampiric protagonists are still considered anti-heroes, like Bill in ‘True Blood’ and the Salvatore brothers in ‘The Vampire Diaries’.)


One of the problems I’ve found with ‘Doctor Who’ is the unanimous mindset of the villainous alien races who all seem to be in lockstep in their determination to conquer the human race.  Aren’t there any “Peaceniks” back home on their planets who object to the hive-mind hatred of those who are not like them?

I can understand the Daleks, the Cybermen, and the Sontarans.  It’s almost a religious doctrine for the Daleks to hate everything that is not like them.  Even humans “pulped” to become Daleks are treated with disdain (and then destroyed) by “Pure” Daleks.  As for Sontarans and the Cybermen, it could be a matter of programming.  For the Sontarans, it could be ingrained into them via their enforced indoctrination of all things Sontaran as soon as their clone batch is “hatched”.  And it’s probably all in the wiring and circuitry for the Cybermen, hotwired into their minds with the added emotion dampener to keep them in line.

There were exceptions of course.  There was Van Statton’s prized possession in his underground Utah warehouse and “Rusty”, last seen in “Twice Upon A Time”.  But they went against their inherent programming reluctantly, each blocked by inhibitions on their systems.  As for Dalek Caan with his manipulations of Davros’ plans for the reality bomb, well, Caan was just batshit crazy.

Among the Sontarans, Strax was the exception.  I don’t know if that was supposed to be Strax seen during the “reward” lap made by the Tenth Incarnation of the Doctor at the end of “The End of Time”.  But if not, they were from the same clone batch.  And Strax was honorably serving penance - if not for attempting to kill Martha and Mickey than for some other altercation versus the Doctor.  And he served Madame Vastra because she and Jenny probably saved his life after the battle of Demon’s Run.

Then there are Danny Pink and Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart who were both transformed into Cybermen after death and were able to fight that encoded programming of the Cybermen.  In fact, in a separate Fanficcers’ Friend file, I like to think that the Cyber-Brigadier is still out there somewhere in the galaxy.  I hope he’s out there at least in fan fiction.

That’s twice I’ve mentioned fan fiction.  And that’s what this post is – one of my Fanficcers’ Friends blog posts.  And I’m turning my attention to another group of alien villains who are of a monolithic mindset….




The Weeping Angels.



From the TARDIS Data Core wiki:

The Weeping Angels were an extremely powerful species of quantum-locked humanoids (sufficient observation changes the thing being observed), so called because their unique nature necessitated that they often covered their faces with their hands to prevent trapping each other in petrified form for eternity by looking at one another. This gave the Weeping Angels their distinct "weeping" appearance. They were known for being "kind" murderous psychopaths, eradicating their victims "mercifully" by dropping them into the past and letting them live out their full lives, just in a different time period. This, in turn, allowed them to live off the remaining time energy of the victim's life. However, when this potential energy paled in comparison to an alternative power source to feed on, the Angels were known to kill by other means, such as snapping their victims' necks.  

‘DOCTOR WHO’
“BLINK”


The Doctor:
Fascinating race, the Weeping Angels. The only psychopaths in the universe to kill you nicely. No mess, no fuss, they just zap you into the past and let you live to death. The rest of your life used up and blown away in the blink of an eye. You die in the past, and in the present they consume the energy of all the days you might have had. All your stolen moments. They're creatures of the abstract. They live off potential energy.   



The lonely assassins, they used to be called. No one quite knows where they came from, but they're as old as the universe, or very nearly, and they have survived this long because they have the most perfect defence system ever evolved. They are quantum-locked. They don't exist when they're being observed. The moment they are seen by any other living creature, they freeze into rock. No choice. It's a fact of their biology. In the sight of any living thing, they literally turn to stone. And you can't kill a stone. Of course, a stone can't kill you either. But then you turn your head away, then you blink, and oh yes it can.


O’Bservation – I think the Angels appeared with the “Big Bang”, survivors of the previous universe.  And being called “assassins”….  I don’t think their attacks on certain individuals were just to satisfy their hunger pangs.  I think some of them actually worked for others.  (This was hinted at in the final episode of ‘Class’.)  And I bet their first employers in the new universe were fellow “Big Bang” survivors – the Shadows, seen in ‘Bablyon 5’.

“The Lonely Assassins” appear to be in lockstep when it comes to attacking humans, but it’s due to their need to feed on that untapped energy potential concept.  But what if there was a Weeping Angel who had a conscience?


And that would be the crux of some fan fiction.  What if there was an Angel who, like some current vampires, felt guilty about the taking of innocent lives?  But feeding off the untapped energy of wild animals sent back in Time would not be sustaining due to their shortened lifespans.  However, in a way it would be a boon to those animals if the Angel was able to send them back to a time when there were only natural predators, no humans.  (I could see that Angel back in the Old West, using the power to send bison back in Time to before humans crossed the North American continent.)

I think it might be at the turn of the 20th Century that this Angel had its consciousness raised by the ascent of Mankind’s depravity against each other.  Perhaps the Angel finally saw its* feeding on anyone when it needed such sustenance as being a continuation of such a depraved indifference to humans.


But there were people out there on Earth who deserved such a fate.  And maybe like Dexter Morgan, the Angel decided to focus its hunt for prey on such vile, murderous scum like serial killers, murderers, child molesters, etc,

It appears that each Angel would have a locked location and time to which each victim was transported.  For example – Billy Shipton was sent back to 1969 just as the Doctor and Martha Jones were.  Had he been touched by the Angel who sent Cathy Nightingale back, he would have ended up in 1920 Hull just as she was.

I’d like to think that this particular Angel had strengthened his power with a steady diet of that untapped energy potential to expand the range of his powers.  For instance, he could send his victims back to the deep Arctic, ages before humans were able to reach there.

And so there’s the basics for fanfic – a Weeping Angel serving as a bounty hunter on Earth, tracking down the scum of the Earth and dispatching them to a quick death in the past. 



This Angel would spend his days quantum-locked, frozen in place as a stone statue, preferably at an outdoor yard for garden equipment.  But then at night, when the employees and the customers had left and it wasn’t very visible in the darkness, the Angel would continue its hunt for its prey.

As you can see, I’ve festooned this post with pictures of the type of statue which that Angel might assume.  Whether it still actually had wings or not would be up to you if you wrote up a story following my fanfic template.

Interested in tackling such an idea?  If you do write one and post it somewhere, let me know.  I’d like to read it!

Allonsy!


* I like to think this Weeping Angel was male…..


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