Are you trying to get yourself banned, or what, with these polls?
I voted for River simply because I respect @shauny too much and I donāt dare vote otherwise (real reason: Iāve only come across a couple of stories with Benny, so I canāt really form an opinion of her yet).
Literally the only piece of fanfic Iāve ever written was of River giving Benny her sonic trowel before going to the Library And thereās definitely a reason as to why Iāve not written anything else⦠Iāll stick with academia.
Honestly I would just start where I started in the first place, her first appearance in the VNA āLove and Warā by Paul Cornell, just about half a year away in the Book Club - Big Finish has also done a brilliant adaptation of that novel (Sophie Aldred absolutely kills it in that one)
This is a tough one. Iāve loved Benny since long before River existed. On the other hand, the central conceit of River being created to both love and kill the Doctor, and the whole ānever in the right orderā thing are both so charming.
For this poll, though, I have voted for Benny because the title says āTime traveling archeologistsā While River has at, one time or another, been an archaeologist, sheās also been an assassin, a pulp detective, and a general adventurer. Love for study and history are written through Benny like a stick of rock. River is more ātime travelingā and Benny is more āarcheologistā.
On the one hand, you have River, who breaks out of a childhood of abuse and brainwashing to become so passionate and full of love, who adventures around the universe doing her best to help out where she can and being wonderful.
And on the other you have Benny, who is constantly letting herself get into trouble by being slightly too tipsy and slightly too horny (not a negative), but who has a razor sharp sense of humour and would throw herself in the line of fire for anyone she loved, or for anything she believed to be right.
I literally cannot pick, I adore them both. I choose Legacy of Time: Lies in Ruins. I want both
I basically abstained both because I havenāt heard anything of Bennyās, and also because I kinda wanted to vote for Jericho. Or, you know, Amelia Rumford, who was an archeologist and should have gotten a chance to time travelā¦