I Am Not Writing A Doctor Who High School AU

[andraste]

Because it would be silly! If surprisingly popular, going by the number of people who claim they would read it.

Also because I would have to work out things like:

- What kind of British school would have a student body broad enough to encompass Victoria Waterfield and Charley Pollard at one end and Ace at the other? (Dorothy McShane is certainly bright enough to qualify for a scholarship to the kind of school that would cater to the likes of Turlough and Nyssa, but I have trouble imagining her applying herself enough to score one.)

- What kind of dog is K9, anyway? I'm thinking fox terrier, just going by the ears and the little waggy tail. Also, what is he doing on school grounds? Does the teacher formerly known as the Fourth Doctor get in trouble for bringing him to work? Does he chase Wolsey, the school cat?

- What kind of school would let Jack 'I'm A Sexual Harassement Suit Waiting To Happen!' Harkness onto their grounds, let alone hire him? I am so tempted to make him the Biology teacher, just for the bad jokes.

- What on earth does one do with Leela in a scenario like this? Erimem (and even C'Rizz and Destrii) can be exchange students from foreign lands, but Leela's warrior schtick is so much at the core of the character I'm not sure what she'd be like in a 21st century setting.

- Any way you look at it, the story seems over-supplied with school nurses. Harry Sullivan and Hex and Martha Jones seems like a bit much. (At least I cannot wrap my brain around Grace Holloway doing that job.)

- Do Deputy Heads in British schools take classes, or is it purely an admin position? (In Australia, the principal doesn't usually take classes him/herself. But it's not unheard of for the deputy - or deputies, if the school has more than one - squeeze a couple into their busy schedules.)

- Do they play cricket in Scotland? No, honestly, I don't know these things.

- I do not know what Fey Truscott-Sade (obscure comics character, for those who've never heard of her) would teacher, other than Being A Fabulous Lesbian. Which is not taught formally in any school I've heard of.

Comments

[wychwood]

If I were you, I'd think about making it a grammar school; if you don't have them, they are selective state schools, you have to pass an exam. Most of them were abolished in the 1980s, but there are some areas where they still exist (I went to one, which is still a grammar school today). Also, is this contemporary or, you know, Seven-era? Because if you do set it twenty years back, you would probably have more luck making the older companions plausible.

Jack would totally be a games teacher; he'd fit right in *g*

Deputy Heads do sometimes take classes; we had two, one who taught English and one who taught Science (to the lower years, before they started dividing it into Biology, Chemistry, and Physics). Obviously they didn't teach as much as other staff, but you did see them in the classroom.

Cricket is played in Scotland (see: their team in the World Cup) but I don't think it's terribly popular (see: their lack of success in the World Cup *g*). I don't know if they'd play it in school, though.

(and to qualify jhall1's comment about schools mostly being mixed - this is true, but there definitely are still single-sex schools, particularly among the grammars; in my city we have one mixed, two all-girl and two all-boy (although my particular school had an all-girl and an all-boy school on the same site, with a joint sixth-form block, orchestra, drama club and so on). So you can deal with that however you want, all the options are available :))