Fandom: DOCTOR WHO
Pairing: Ninth Doctor, Rose, Jack Harkness
Length: 5k words
Author on LJ: azn_jack_fiend 
Author Website:  fic tag, AO3
Why this must be read:

The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances is possibly the best story of the Ninth Doctor.  It's also the story that introduces the fan-favorite Captain Jack Harkness, a conman from the fifty-first century scamming Time Agents in WWII London, posing as an American-volunteer RAF pilot during the Battle of the Bulge.  Despite a dark beginning due to the con having gone horribly wrong, it ends in happy triumphant ending: the Doctor saves the day, Jack goes off to travel with Rose and the Doctor, and "Everybody lives!  Just this once, everybody lives!"  One of the highpoints is Rose telling Nancy, a young Londoner, that no matter how dark things seem with Nazis bombing them every night, Britain will win--a stirring example of the British triumphalism of which Doctor Who is occasionally fond.

But what if Jack Harkness didn't fit 20th-Century definitions of "white"?  What if he looked Asian, instead, and chose to run his con as an American-volunteer pilot named Captain Jack Hark Lee in China in the 1930's?  azn_jack_fiend explores 1937 Shanghai in this moving, evocative AU.  Shanghai is a city on the verge of falling to the Japanese, battered by colonialism, torn apart from the inside by the division between imperialists and communists, and yet still proud and unbowed.  The characters (canon and original) are well-drawn and rounded, the details are chosen with care, and the dialogue is note-perfect.  Although the story focuses on events before and off-screen in the plot of EC/TDD, you don't need to be familiar with it to understand this story.  And the scene where Lin asks what's going to happen to Shanghai will break your heart.

( snippet of fic )

The Battle of Songhu

Okay, somehow I completely managed to miss the fact that yesterday was Crossover Day. It's still the 15th somewhere, right?

Fandom: DOCTOR WHO/STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION
Pairing: The Doctor (multiple incarnations), Guinan
Length: 5k
Author on LJ: selenak
Author Website:  Master Post, AO3
Why this must be read:

Because it's awesome to watch people try to handle things happening out of the right order due to time travel, and we rarely see that in the show except for the thing with River Song.  Because Guinan is awesome, and wise, and has a surprising amount in common with the Doctor.  Because selenak is a great author and her entry into the most recent multiverse5000 challenge doesn't disappoint.

The Doctor and Guinan keep meeting, not quite by accident, and never in the right order for either of them.  Along the way they deal with the destruction of their respective homeworlds, and tea, and home (or Stockholm Syndrome, whichever), and talking oneself into (or out of) things.  And a space wedding.

( snippet o' fic )

Tea and Sympathy

Fandom: STARSKY & HUTCH/ALIAS SMITH & JONES
Pairing: Starsky/Hutch
Length: approx 22,000 words
Author on LJ: dawnebeth
Author Website: http://meandthee.shahrazad.net/author.php?authorid=4
Why this must be read: I love Alias Smith and Jones, so to read a Dawnwind story crossing over with them is such a treat. She does an excellent job of giving a plausible story in spite of the two totally different programmes. Really a fun story.

There's an earthquake in Bay City. Starsky is knocked unconscious and when he wakes, he's being tended by none other than Heyes and Curry... in the old west of Bay City. Starsky remembers who he is but everybody else is 100 years in the past, including a fascinating man by the name of Kennet.

Note: Since the story wasn't rated by the author, I've chosen PG.

A little teaser:

Starsky pushed against the ground, and managed to rise up on his forearms. In the deepening twilight, he saw a blurry forest of horses' legs, restless hooves flashing sharp metal shoes, and scuttled back to avoid being stepped on by one thousand pounds of animal. Where had they come from?

Someone swung down from the saddle, but Starsky still wasn't focusing well.

"Hey, mister, you need some help?" This was a third voice, not as deep as the second, and far closer to the ground than the others. Must be the guy who dismounted.

"Guess I hit my head," Starsky mumbled, turning slowly to see his rescuer without jarring his already sizable headache. A young man was crouched next to him, close enough that Starsky could see his smooth cheeks in the darkness. A cowboy hat hid most of the rest of his face. The man looked vaguely familiar, but Starsky couldn't place him.

Once Upon A Time In The Old West

Fandom: LIFE ON MARS UK
Pairing: Gen
Length: 2,150 words.
Author on LJ: vermin_disciple
Author Website: Archive at AO3.
Why this must be read: I love stories about Sam when he was young. I'm not entirely sure why it fascinates me as much as it does, except that Sam's upbringing is an integral part of the show --- we even get to see him as a four year old (well, depending on your take on reality or unreality.) What I love more than stories about young Sam are stories that also involve Sam as we know him, and this is what we have here.

Sam, the one who may or may not have time travelled (this story suggests he did), goes to visit his younger self --- to give himself a birthday present. This is a poignant, moving story shown from the perspective of Sam Tyler, 10 years old, who couldn't possibly understand the implications behind the detective and his friend Annie's conversation, and doesn't know why he's seized by a feeling of intense vertigo in the detective's presence. In this story there's a note of finality, a sense that things aren't quite right, but the suggestion of a life full of promise too. vermin_disciple makes use of the time-travel aspect of Life on Mars and incorporates an insightful character study, not to mention writes beautifully, with perfect voices and a believable perspective.

( Excerpt )

You're On My Mind (Like a Song on the Radio)

Fandom: HEROES/THE WEST WING
Pairing: None
Length: 1,100 words
Author on LJ: tangleofthorns
Author Website: Fiction Tag on Livejournal
Why this must be read:

One of my favorite genres of Heroes crossovers is "Character X's powers are revealed to someone else," and because the Heroes verse is ostensibly set in the same universe as most other non sci-fi verses are, the chances of that happening is at the very least plausible. This story is a perfect example of that genre. Will Bailey from The West Wing meets Nathan Petrelli, Junior Congressman. It's funny, and the perfect length, and very charming. -cm

Incrementally: Will notices the way Rep. Petrelli looks one Tuesday morning in December, when the Armed Services committee is in session. He looks great, perfectly pressed and dressed and healthy and handsome, like a man who slept eight hours in a warm bed and ate a balanced breakfast. This isn't something Will would find objectionable, except that he happens to know that every airport on the East Coast was snowed under until two a.m., and Will and the other 400 members of Congress who had to fly in from their districts all look, feel, and smell what C.J. Cregg once called rode hard and put away wet.

No Flying in the House

Fandom: BATTLESTAR GALACTICA 2003
Pairing: Gaeta/Seelix
Length: 5000 words
Author on LJ: millari
Author Website: millarific
Why this must be read: There's one thing about Gaeta that makes him more special than any other character in the fandom. Apart from the fact that he has the capacity of pissing off both the Starbuck fans and the Roslin fans, I mean. That's pretty special, too. ;-) No, it's the fact that he's the only character in the fandom who has virtually been paired with every other character in fanfic, thanks to the Little Black Dress Challenge on the gaeta_squee comm, a community effort to reach just that goal, and one that cannot be pimped enough.

Awesome fic was written for this challenge, because excellent writers went and took pairings that made no sense whatsoever, making it look like it couldn't have happened any other way. "Absolution" is such a story. And millari didn't choose the easy way out with it. It is set in the aftermath of "Collaborators", the episode when Seelix took part in an attempt to murder Gaeta for a crime he didn't commit. In this rather dark story, they both have a hard time dealing with what happened, and they pick the worst possible way of trying to make it go away.

Absolution