Time Out: Past Tense
| Bodie/Doyle Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Time Out: Past Tense |
| Author(s): | Pamela Rose |
| Date(s): | 1992 |
| Length: | |
| Genre: | slash |
| Fandom: | The Professionals |
| External Links: | online at the Circuit Archive; online at AO3 |
Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Time Out: Past Tense is a Bodie/Doyle story by Pamela Rose.
It was published in Nudge Nudge, Wink Wink #1 and is online.
Reactions and Reviews
Unknown Date
A giddy ride shuffling between if-the-world-ended fic, time travel, and leaving most of the practical issues raised rather charmingly undisturbed. it skips from point to point and ends a bit fuzzily, but on the way it hits a number of the good buttons. (perhaps she should've read a bit more sf first, but i won't hold it against her--too much.) [1]
2009
“Time Out” is not post-apocalypse, more eve-of-apocalypse. It moves from canon to science fiction, with a large dose of the historical AU thrown in – something for everyone, in fact, and no doubt something intensely annoying for everyone as well.After deciding to recc this, I realised we’ve already had a fic by Pamela Rose (“Fevers”), but the criticisms of pace and characterisation from “Fevers” just don’t apply here, imho – this fic is beautifully written and the characters and description are spot-on.
So, London, circa 1981, it’s all going up, Mutually Assured Destruction is about to happen, it can’t be stopped. It made me shiver to be taken back to that time, and Pamela Rose’s writing really brings out the full horror of the prospect, mainly through dialogue. Cowley has inside knowledge and breaks the bad news privately to his two top agents at CI5 HQ. Their reactions are a study in Bodie and Doyle characterisation. Bodie’s all for self-preservation, flying out while there’s still time...
Doyle is just as adamant in wanting to stay. First he frames it as wanting to go down with his country, perhaps with the people they’ve risked their lives for so often. More convincing though is the principle that it’s not fair to use the knowledge they have to run out on those who won’t have the same chance.
Trouble is, Bodie just can’t bring himself to go without Doyle...
Lovely, lovely introspection and dialogue and character stuff, with the lads angry, scared, snarky, vulnerable, tender by turns. Then Bodie decides to grant himself one last wish, to seduce Doyle, and it’s just like Ultravox’s video for “Dancing with Tears in my Eyes” – love in anticipation of being vapourised.
In a bit of a weak plot point, they decide to pay one last visit to Cowley, who now reveals his audacious plan that might just work…
Without wishing to spoil, the ending is ambiguous, but offers the possibility of Bodie and Doyle being the only people left alive. I’m sure they’d thrive together, but, for the future of humanity, let’s hope there’s one or two females left out there somewhere. [2]
I love this fic. Yeah, there are parts that I skip sometimes, mainly Cowley's, because they just don't hold my interest as much as how beautifully drawn Bodie and Doyle and the Bodie/Doyle dynamic are. "Honorary citizen" nearly makes me well up every time. Oh, Bodie. Number one has just got a number two entwined with it. One is not one without a two to make it. Now I'll move on before I break out with "One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do. One is the loneliest number, worse than two" because we don't need me singing that. *hums*You'd need a lot more than one or two women for a continued humanity. Well, a thriving humanity. You could continue, but they'd be awfully inbred.
It works, on an eery level, as a stand-alone, but it begs for a sequel and reads like there was going to be one. If there is one that somehow has escaped my scouring for it, pleeeeease let me know? Because I'd love to see them as possibly the last couple on earth. Don't make me write it for myself, it's not nearly the same. [3]
You'd need a lot more than one or two women for a continued humanity - good point (so what about Adam and Eve?), but you know what I mean, Bodie and Doyle would make a great couple post-civilisation, but it would end with them. And how sad and lonely that would be. I really don't want to dwell on the post-apocalypse aspect. In fact, for me it's good that there isn't a sequel and the ending is ambiguous - maybe things did work out and the apocalypse didn't happen after all. [4]
Adam and Eve are also written has having lived 900+ years. They're metaphorical unless you want to get into the whole literal-Bible Creationism debate.It is sad and lonely. Nothing we have made is permanent, no matter how much we believe they are. Without us our most timeless structures will fall within a few hundred years and even the pyramids will be lost in the sands again. My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair! We are a blip.
Heh heh. Maybe I will [write a sequel]. So many possibilities... [5]
I really enjoyed the fic which I hadn't rea[d] before. I liked this Bodie and Doyle a lot. I think the idea of the time rift was done well, and I liked the part when Bodie sort of bonded with the injured soldier. Doyle couldn't kill the mark and Bodie wouldn't let him kill the soldier. They both left with their humanity intact. I had a feeling that whatever errand they'd been sent on wouldn't pan out, and I was right. I like this author in general and this one was well worth the read. [6]
'Also, post-apocalyptic sex, please? ;)' Yay that Pamela Rose even manages to work in a 'first time' along with WWIII, time travel, etc. - what a time to discover your true feelings! Still, moments of crisis can have that effect, especially in movies. [8]
I was really amazed by this fic, because it is something totally different from all others (for me).An ‘end of world’ scenario plus a time travel is surely no easy challenge for a writer, but PR did a very good job IMO. The way our three heroes handle the news is just great. Cowley desperate and alone, killing one bottle of Whisky after another – and he is still manipulating and triple thinking... Bodie and Doyle in shock, not believing – who would? Bodie decides very quickly what to do: leave together with Doyle! And I think if Doyle would have time to think, he would come to the same decision – but now he is stubborn... And the seduction afterwards is another highlight of the story! Time travel.... Yes! It works for me! And I’m happy that the author didn’t lose herself in stupid details! Just a: “He rambled on for a couple of minutes, none of them understanding more than one word in five.”
There are good talks, good 'together moments', the scene at the roof, the young soldier – so many favourite moments!
And then the end... Wow...
Everybody is dead... [9]
[Written in response to two posted short epilogues]: I am speechless (nearly) at the impression this fic has made on you - to inspire you so much. Such imagination! What a breathtaking vision of the future, of civilisation rebuilt by the care and attention of Bodie and Doyle. Very nice to see those women taking charge too. I especially like the revelation at the end that, instead of living out their lives in one distant time period, they have been constantly travelling back and forth. And LOL at the 'madmaxs', can just imagine the lads enjoying the irony of real life turning out like the films. When you first mentioned they had disappeared, I assumed they had returned to their own time, but reading on, it was as though they had a sense of responsibility because Doyle had 'failed', as well as being unable to control the time travel.[10]
I kinda like this text... I remember reading it a long time ago... but I don't think I ever really liked this text...But I love the bits in the beginning with Bodie trying to convince Doyle to leave and all that... :D
When it gets to be sci-fi my interest goes away... not that I don't like sci-fi... it's just that all that about assassinating and meeting Cowley at a young age... *shakes head*
It just got to be too much for me... But I love the end and how they ended up in a new world... all alone as far as they can see... It would have been nice with an sequel, but I don't think this text really needs one... [11]
I'm with you on not really needing a sequel, although most people who've commented seem to want a sequel very much. I like the ambiguity of the ending. One possibility is that they've travelled backwards in time, because the time machine can't be controlled properly, maybe 200-300 years, hence there is no cottage. Or that they have returned to the present but because they changed the course of history slightly there are some differences, like no cottage. [12]
yeah... it's not confusing exactly... but kinda... irritating. For me at least. I like the part with the time machine and stuff, but it kinda got too much for me... and then all that in the 30's and the gay stuff because of the hair... *shaked head*Sorry, but this story is really nothing for me. I like "Twist of Fate" By Dee more... :)
I like filling in gaps and stuff for my self sometimes... and this ending is good enough for me to do that. *happy sigh*
There's a lot of possibilities... *nods* [13]
2010
The appeal in this story is mostly in the unusual situation rather than the relationship dynamic, which is straightforward and pretty much uncomplicated. I do totally love the way the relationship begins, though, with the events acting as the catalyst. And, as she's so good at, Pam Rose threads nice personal moments throughout the narrative. I mean, really, who can resist this kind of pillow-talk that follows their first fuck?:Bodie took Doyle's face in his hands. "Ray, I'm glad you came with me."
Doyle felt a soft warmth inside him. "Yeah?"
"Yeah. This way you have to get up in the cold and switch off the radio. You're nearest to it."
Ah, now that's the lads I know and love!
Also, young Cowley! We get few glimpses in fiction of him as a young man. I much enjoy this particular brief and subtle visit with him and the sense of interwoven destinies.
The frustrating thing about this story, of course, is that it ends with a set up for a sequel that (after all these years, it seems a safe bet to say) will never materialise. Argh! Impossible not to wonder what the author had in mind for the other two possible stories (Present Tense and Future Tense, presumably?). Still, I always enjoy reading this story for its own sake even knowing it ends without resolution. [14]
An interesting time travel adventure which, while holding my attention, never really convinced me. [15]
References
- ^ The Pros recs; archived link
- ^ 2009 comments at CI5hq, Archived version
- ^ 2009 comments at CI5hq
- ^ 2009 comments at CI5hq
- ^ 2009 comments at CI5hq
- ^ 2009 comments at CI5hq
- ^ 2009 comments at CI5hq
- ^ 2009 comments at CI5hq
- ^ 2009 comments at CI5hq
- ^ 2009 comments at CI5hq
- ^ 2009 comments at CI5hq
- ^ 2009 comments at CI5hq
- ^ 2009 comments at CI5hq
- ^ 2010 comments by istia, prosrecs, Archived version
- ^ alicambs Professional Recs, Archived version, dated March 19, 2010.