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DW 9.01. The Magician's Apprentice

Would you believe it, but it's meta café time! Cobbled together in haste, but there's so much there to dig into that I couldn't leave it... Themes are touched on, and they light up past stories and events, creating new patterns, highlighting things previously dark.

First of all, some flailing over Missy...

As you all probably know, the only two people I ship the Doctor with are River & the Master/Missy. (I don’t ship the Doctor with Companions, as they’re not his equal. They just don't have the right dynamic.)

And this episode left me a very happy shipper. <3

The following exchange probably encapsulates things best:

DOCTOR: Gravity!
MISSY: I know! *eyeroll*

I loved how she wasn’t the bad guy this time round, that she was actually more-or-less on the good guys side, even though that didn’t make her 'good'. It’s a far more interesting dynamic, and they can do much more with her this way. Also it’s a terrible simple way of showcasing how Clara – despite being Super Competent Companion – is still only human and doesn’t know everything.

Together, they make quite a team – Missy has the Time Lord brains and knowledge and Clara has the moral compass and conviction. A shame that they dislike each other, but I do love them together. The Doctor’s pretty women…

There were so many things – hand mines, seeing The Shadow Proclamation again, the classic Dalek, Clara and Missy’s ‘space walk’, all the women (♥) - but for now I shall concentrate on a 'few' specific things that stood out for me... Because as Cultbox said:

This isn’t entry-level Who for beginner Whovians. It could never have made the screen in 2005. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine it existing before 2013, so much does it feel like the next logical progression in Steven Moffat’s evolution of the series.
(x)

Meta: The Magician’s Apprentice
FOURTH DOCTOR: If someone who knew the future pointed out a child to you, and told you that that child would grow up totally evil, to be a ruthless dictator who would destroy millions of lives, could you then kill that child?
Genesis of the Daleks

This quote is forty years old. But it is a tune we have heard many times since – it’s been picked up repeatedly in various guises.

MELS: A significant factor in Hitler’s rise to power was the fact that the Doctor didn’t stop him.
Let’s Kill Hitler

It cuts to the heart of a lot of the issues of a show that deals in time travel. How much to do interfere. How much can you interfere? What kind of obligation do you have to prevent suffering or meter out punishment? (The Tesselecta was one answer.)

(Everyone go read Everyone kills Hitler on their first trip if you have not done so before. Short and hilarious and perfectly illustrates time travel issues.)

In this case, the biggest question being the one the Doctor voices: Who created Davros?

This episode gives us an answer – or at least hints at one, buried beneath the general factor of Davros being a child of war.

Last season we had Clara meeting the very young Doctor, laying down foundations that would help him become who he is.

Here we have a similar situation, but negative – the Doctor plants the words ‘survival’ in young Davros’ mind, something which will take root and flourish. And then abandons him… So far, the answer to ‘Who created Davros?’ is, apparently, the Doctor.

And the repercussions are many. (No matter what happened or happens.)

The Doctor is dying (again)
DOCTOR: Well, a little while ago, a very long way from here, I was looking for a bookshop. Instead, I found a battlefield. Story of my life. I've seen many battlefields. But this one will be different. This one will be my last.
The Doctor’s Meditation

We have been here before, haven’t we? The Doctor has done a lot of dying.

Although this has a very different slant to it.

- It’s not a regeneration story.

- And it’s not someone (the Silence) trying to kill him ‘for the greater good’.

No… From Meditation:

DOCTOR: I have to prepare myself.
BORS: But why? You've never explained.
DOCTOR: I did something wrong. I let somebody down when I should have been brave enough and strong enough to do better. Tomorrow I pay the price. Tonight, I make myself ready.

This is the Doctor believing he deserves to die because of what he did. Or rather didn’t do. There’s no biological imperative, no one’s holding a gun to his head.

Well, OK, so Davros is looking for him everywhere, but the Doctor isn’t going to go find a Tesselecta to hide in. He accepts that the consequences of his actions merit his death, and does his best to prepare for the end.

MISSY: Ooo. Never seen that before. Doctor, the look on your face. What is that?
CLARA: Shame. You're ashamed. Doctor? What have you done?

Because what he did goes against everything he believes.

TENTH DOCTOR: Never cruel or cowardly.
WAR DOCTOR: Never give up, never give in.
Day of the Doctor

ELEVENTH DOCTOR: Look, three options. One, I let the Star Whale continue in unendurable agony for hundreds more years. Two, I kill everyone on this ship. Three, I murder a beautiful, innocent creature as painlessly as I can. And then I find a new name, because I won't be the Doctor any more.
The Beast Below

AMY: So is this how it works, Doctor? You never interfere in the affairs of other peoples or planets, unless there's children crying?
DOCTOR: Yes.
The Beast Below

This of course comes off the back of S8: his extended soul-searching and eventual epiphany. Shot to hell on a simple battlefield…

And all he wanted was a bookshop.

I wonder about that.

Sidebar: Bookshop says ‘Ponds’ to me. The Ponds were defined by narratives, creating them wherever they went. River’s diary, Amy’s books, and the myths that sprang up around them – The Last Centurion, Demons Run, numerous pocket AUs wherever they went.

Clara’s associations are different – birds, eggs. (I’ll get back to this) Mostly though, I think Clara works with narratives in a different way. Rather than change the world, she changes herself. Now she used to be associated with books also - Amelia William's book, her mother's travel book, her leaf. However I think she lost this as she took centre stage, vying with the Doctor as the hero of the story.

The point is: Bookshops means stories. And the story of the Doctor and the Daleks is one of the oldest. The Doctor went looking for stories and found so much more than he expected.

And this is where it gets interesting…

(There are many themes resurfacing in this episode. It’s hard to tell which ones are the important ones, so I’ll just throw plenty out there.)

Eggs & survival & CLARA
(Clara is All The Things)
Now the worst thing the Doctor says to young Davros (as far as we can tell) is to focus on survival.

DOCTOR: Your chances of survival are one in a thousand… so here’s what you do… concentrate on the one… survival is just a choice.
The Magician’s Apprentice

And this is something that has consequences:

DOCTOR: Oh, that's it. That's your great victory? You leave?
DALEK: Extinction is not an option. We shall return to our own time and begin again.
Victory of the Daleks

The interesting part is that we are right back into our S7 themes: It’s all about eggs, and survival.

I used to wonder about all the egg imagery, but with hindsight it makes sense. (And I owe this insight to Promethia.)

Gallifrey is the egg.

Locked away, but containing a whole civilisation.

I may have to look at S7 again through the lens of this. Because we had an awful lot of instances that are now relevant to the situation with Gallifrey...

Although I think I will drill properly down into all the egg imagery in another post. For now, first of all I want to concentrate on the Dalek Asylum, which I’ve just realised is terribly relevant.

It’s a planet locked away and inaccessible. Because it was dangerous. We can see the direct parallels with Time of the Doctor and Gallifrey…. and now, Skaro.

- In Asylum it was Oswin’s music (‘Si je t'aime, prends garde à toi!’), terrifying the Daleks with the possibility that their deranged kin could escape. They then deployed the Doctor to destroy the Asylum.

- In Time of the Doctor it was the Church (and everyone else), wondering at the strange message, deploying the Doctor to investigate. The message frightened them (’Although no one understood the message, everyone who heard it found themselves afraid.’) and the translated message and its implications were even graver. The Church would not let Gallifrey return, would not let the Time War start again.

(There is even the utterly delightful touch that ‘Doctor Who’ is the phrase both episodes turn on. It’s what all the Daleks ask as the Doctor leaves, and it is of course the message that Gallifrey sends through the crack.)

But now we have Skaro as the other touchstone mirror. A planet ‘lost’ but now rebuilt, and hidden.

This is why Clara appeared so early – she was always tied to Gallifrey symbolically. And Gallifrey is tied to the Daleks, thanks to the Time War. (I’ll get back to Clara.)

Now in many of the stories of S7, the central issue is between survival of a species, and the impact this will have on the rest of the universe.

A few stories have just a simple ark of some kind (see Dinosaurs on a Spaceship), but mostly survival of one species will impact negatively on others.

Mind you, this isn’t just S7, it’s throughout Moffat’s era. In S5 The Beast Below dealt with this (Great Britain – minus Scotland): a whole civilisation travelling on another’s pain.

Of course it’s episode 3 of S5, Victory of the Daleks, that touches on this in depth, and it’s no surprise – looked at in context – why Moffat has finally decided to go all out and tackle this properly. It’s the flipside to saving Gallifrey: the dark consequences, the Time War casting dark shadows.

The Time War didn’t end. It was just paused. And the Doctor is still caught in the middle, having specifically defined himself in opposition to the Daleks:

DOCTOR: You are my enemy! And I am yours. You are everything I despise. The worst thing in all creation. I've defeated you time and time again. I've defeated you. I sent you back into the Void. I saved the whole of reality from you. I am the Doctor. And you are the Daleks.
Victory of the Daleks

DOCTOR: See, all those years ago, when I began. I was just running. I called myself the Doctor, but it was just a name. And then I went to Skaro. And then I met you lot and I understood who I was. The Doctor was not the Daleks.
Into the Dalek

Now Clara’s first impact upon the Doctor’s life, as Oswin, was to sever the link between himself and the Daleks, a link that goes right back to the second story, to 1963. At the time, we couldn’t help but wonder – who is she, that she has that kind of narrative power?

(And Clara was born on the show’s birthday. Could be seen as a metaphor for the show itself - see this post.)

Now was Oswin’s memory-wipe of the Daleks foreshadowing [this is what will happen - Clara is the key to solving the problem of the Daleks], or was it just there to indicate what kind of role she would play? [This is who Clara is]

The Ponds were about healing the Doctor, trying to put him back together, tackling the underlying issues left behind by his actions in the Time War. Clara is about looking forward; not by coming to terms with losing Gallifrey, but saving it; possibly bringing it back.

Sidebar/c&p from my ‘Kill the Moon post’: There is a lot of bird imagery around Clara. Oswin is listening to ‘Carmen’ (‘Love is a rebellious bird’.) And when we first meet ‘real’ Clara, she wears a bird necklace. And not just any bird, but a symbol of Horus:

Horus was the ancient Egyptian sky god who was usually depicted as a falcon, most likely a lanner or peregrine falcon. His right eye was associated with the sun god, Ra. The eye symbol represents the marking around the eye of the falcon, including the "teardrop" marking sometimes found below the eye. The mirror image, or left eye, sometimes represented the moon and the god Djehuti (Thoth).

In one myth, when Set and Horus were fighting for the throne after Osiris's death, Set gouged out Horus's left eye. The majority of the eye was restored by either Hathor or Thoth (with the last portion possibly being supplied magically). When Horus's eye was recovered, he offered it to his father, Osiris, in hopes of restoring his life. Hence, the eye of Horus was often used to symbolise sacrifice, healing, restoration, and protection.
(Wiki)

So, will Moffat try to do for the Daleks what he did for Gallifrey? Somehow rewrite the narrative? He can’t tinker around with the fundamentals the way he now is without changing something major. But what? And how? We probably won’t see the full picture until the end of the season, but this could be fascinating. (And what role might Clara play? Is she the apprentice of the title?)

Under RTD the Daleks kept returning and then getting completely wiped out (S1 finale, S2 finale, S4 finale). Moffat’s first Dalek story brought them back, and he’s kept them hanging around on the fringes, using them relatively sparingly. But by rebuilding Skaro he’s upped the stakes, made them matter in a way they haven’t since RTD’s era. The only time they’ve been the major universe-destroying bad guy is in Day of the Doctor, and there it was more about re-writing the narrative of What The Doctor Did.

Actually, that’s probably what Moffat is doing. He’s (somehow) re-writing the Daleks. He has gone back to the very beginning – not just with Skaro and Daleks capable of destroying the universe, but with the young Davros.

To quote Phil Sandifer:

How do you save the world from its own intrinsic evil? By being amazing, breaking the rules, and, when the narrative points to something awful, telling a different sort of story.

And so the moral heart of the Moffat era stands, for a moment, revealed - an understanding and principle we can take forward in reading everything else that he does. It is an observation that stems inexorably from the history of alchemy within the series and from the underlying imagery of this story. “As above, so below,” the injunction goes - a declaration that manipulating symbols and manipulating objects is, in some sense, the same thing. That a symbol and a thing are in some sense interchangeable. What is the moral heart of the Moffat era? It is simple.

The secret of material social progress is alchemy.
The Alchemists of the Middle Ages Made Transmutation Their Main Aim in Life (The Beast Below)

But how to re-write the Daleks?

Because we have been here before – an old man and the young child he once was; the Doctor caught up in a life, trying to save his friends…

DOCTOR: There are four thousand and three people in a spaceship trapped in your cloud belt. Without your help, they're going to die.
SARDICK: Yes.
DOCTOR: You don't have to let that happen.
SARDICK: I know, but I'm going to. Bye, bye. Bored now, chuck.
A Christmas Carol

Will the Doctor try to re-write Davros, the way he did Kazran?

Except how can he? This is Hitler all over again, except universe-wide.

Of course back in the day the Time Lords authorised the Doctor to kill the Daleks before they ever started… Although this time the implications would be immeasurable. If there are such things as fixed points, surely Davros’ life would be one of them…

(OTOH could this be the key to everything? Save ~~the cheerleader~~ Davros, save ~~the world~~ Gallifrey?)

Remember, the tag-line for this season is ‘Born to save the universe’. What if it’s Davros? (Missy would also be quite acceptable by the way. But I feel that this is Davros’ moment to shine.)

Although Moffat has said that the Doctor starts out by making a mistake…

So basically – it’ll be interesting to see where we go from here.

The Doctor’s Mercy/Compassion
Another theme from S7 that’s returned with a vengeance is the Doctor as moral arbiter. He shied away from it throughout S8 (fallout from regeneration, or Trenzalore, or saving Gallifrey or his ‘Am I A Good Man’ dilemma or something else again – take your pick!), but it’s good to go back. Considering the choices he makes, it’s not something he can hide from.

DAVROS: Do you know why you came, Doctor? You have a sense of duty. Of guilt, perhaps. And certainly of shame.
DOCTOR: You flatter me.
DAVROS: Pity. I intended to accuse. I believe that for the ultimate good of the universe, I was right to create the Daleks.
DOCTOR: You were very wrong.
DAVROS: This is the argument we've had since we met.
DOCTOR: It ended in the Time War.
DAVROS: It survived the Time War. But it will end tonight. That is why you are here.
[…]
DOCTOR: Why have I ever let you live?
DAVROS: Compassion, Doctor. It has always been your greatest indulgence. Let this be my final victory. Let me hear you say it, just once. Compassion is wrong.

Now, I always adored A Town Called Mercy, because it poked at all the Doctor’s issues and didn’t shy away from what it found:

And Clara put her finger on exactly the same issue in the S8 finale:

This is why one of my very first instincts was to watch Hurricane.

Tell me would you kill to save a life?
Tell me would you kill to prove you’re right?

(If you let the monster live out of compassion, or friendship, or mercy, and the monster kills again, on whose head is it?)

Time Lords are like Russian dolls, all the regenerations nesting inside. And Twelve has a long history, which is obviously coming into play here.

RORY: Who killed all the Daleks?
DOCTOR: Who do you think?
Asylum of the Daleks

I don’t think he’ll kill young Davros, no. That’s a very obvious fake-out.

Killing a child is not who he is, it’s not something he’d ever do.

(Someone else can write up a comparison to Children of Earth…)

Mostly this reminds me of the end of The Pandorica Opens – everyone is dead and the Doctor is helpless.

Or maybe more accurately – the very beginning of Day of the Moon, where everyone appears to get killed off, the Doctor is locked up AGAIN and everything is hopeless… Except the point isn’t ‘oh no everyone is dead’ (again). We know they’ll be back. The point is how do they get out of it. What is the Doctor going to do, how will he fix this? (Ask the right questions. If you start interrogating from the wrong perspective, you’ll be disappointed.)

(Besides he’s from ‘the future’. How did he get back to that field without a TARDIS? Also other parts might be timey-wimey – like, could rock star!Twelve on the tank be from the future? Could the reason he’s so emotional and huggy be because he’s already seen her die? I don't know how that would work, so I'm just going to leave that there. Hat tip to Tumblr for that last insight.)

But what CAN he do? Well… we are back to Kazran. But how much rewriting can the narrative take? Or, will he maybe just fill in what was already to come – it will happen because it has happened? Davros is doomed because he was always doomed. (Although that’s generally not how Moffat functions. But we’ll see. Another parallel might be Dr Simeon from 'The Snowmen' - a child corrupted and twisted and so very lost.)

And who exactly is the Magician’s apprentice? Who is the Witch's Familiar? Who-

TO BE CONTINUED...

ETA: SPOILERS FOR 'THE WITCH'S FAMILIAR' IN THE COMMENTS!!!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I have a question though, after watching "The Witch's Familiar". Great episode, don't get me wrong, but I'm a Watsonian, so EX-PLAIN!

OBVIOUSLY SPOILERS. IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED IT, READ NO FURTHER.

I want an in-universe opinion, no meta here.

In part one, Davros takes advantage of the Doctor's guilt about abandoning him when he was young, to easily capture him and rubs it in as well with the clip from "Genesis of the Daleks". And the Doctor has of course regretted his decision.

However, from Davros's point of view, he *knows* that the Doctor actually came back and rescued him later, while the Doctor doesn't, since he hasn't done it yet.

Now of course, this makes tremendous amounts of sense from a character standpoint, and it's ingeniously diabolical: Davros locates the Doctor at a point in his timeline *before* he goes back to save young Davros, but *after* he has abandoned him (how? Well, if he’s nowhere to be found and acting like a lunatic in medieval Essex, that’s the time, how does Clara do it?), and takes advantage of his morality and guilt-trips him (p.e the screwdriver) in order to succeed in his evil plan even though he knows that the Doctor will eventually save young!him. It is so evil.

But Davros *has* to find him at that exact point in his timeline, otherwise the Doctor won't feel ashamed and probably obligated to come. If it's earlier, he hasn't abandoned him yet. If it's later, he has rescued him, ergo no guilt to take advantage of.
(The Doctor might have come anyway because of his compassion for a dying man -he does suggest so in the episode- but he would have come on his own terms, he would be much less emotionally vulnerable and therefore less easy to manipulate, and anyway Davros wouldn't just rely on that, he wants to be sure. Plus, great opportunity to make him feel bad and destroy his entire philosophy anyway).

However, doesn't he intend to kill the Doctor? And if possible, trick him and steal his regeneration energy? Which would probably also kill him? And even *if* the process left him alive, he is still on Skaro with a bajillion Daleks and (apparently) no TARDIS. They are so going to kill him, how is survival a possibility here? The Doctor *himself* doesn't expect it (meditation, confession dial, parties, goodbyes, and all).

My point is, Davros's plan is brilliant, but how does he expect to be rescued in the past by future!Doc since the plan is probably going to kill him, and he therefore won't exist/be able to go back to child!Davros? He is jeopardising his existence or at least creating a paradox.

(to be continued, the Laws of Commenting are mine and they will obey me)

Oh, and in case my intense over-analysis didn't give it away, I'm BasiliskRules. Hi!

(I'll comment about all the amazing symbolic things in your probable future TWF meta post. But for now, allow me to indulge myself.)

My possible explanations, Cunning Planning 101 with Davros:

1) The Web of Time is a thing. He assumed the timeline would be maintained anyway, that he'd survive the Hand-Mines some other way. Nobody said it’s a fixed point. Time can be rewritten, he used the sonic, someone else came along, another incarnation of the Doctor appeared perhaps etc.

2) It's implied that he only recently remembered the whole encounter, maybe the details are fuzzy. He might not actually consciously remember that the Doctor came back and rescued him in the first place.

3) He's quite sick and on the brink of death. He's like "fuck the paradox, fuck the universe, it might work; *I* have nothing to lose. Pfff, Doctor dead, what a change. I'll send the rejuvenated Daleks to pick young!me up, if the universe can't take it, not my problem.”

4) This is Davros we are talking about, so let’s get dark(er). Let’s assume that the Doctor survives the whole energy drain thing, not that far-fetched. So Davros is like “You and these Daleks will take your totally-not-destroyed Tardis, (I know you), and go back and you’ll rescue young me, *or* I *really* destroy it, you, the Earth, and 20 other random planets with my awesome Time Lord/Dalek hybrids, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me in your condition. And oh no, I've given you no word to keep. In my judgment, you simply have no alternative”.

5) Same as 4, only he doesn’t know about the TARDIS surviving, but the Daleks can time travel quite well on their own. No strange blue box this time when the Doctor goes back, but that’s a minor change, and I bet he hardly noticed it being there anyway, so no paradox at all.

6) Let’s assume that he dies. Well, I’m terribly sorry, this is horrible, but Dalek puppets are a thing you know, and conversion works on recently dead individuals too, even resurrecting those whose brains have not yet decayed (otherwise, the subject’s just reanimated, essentially a zombie). “But he’s a Time Lord!” Yes, and the only piece of evidence we have that suggests they are immune to it is Amy’s speculation in AOTD. It is entirely possible that Rule 1 was in order, 11 was in his chivalrous mode, the nanogenes were affecting him, only slower than they were affecting Amy, and he decided to protect her instead, taking a gamble that he'd be able to get business sorted out and get off the planet quickly enough. So there, you get the point.

7) Davros just didn't think it through, Silence style. Hey, genius or not, he did forget about the sewers. And he's probably not good at thinking fourth-dimensionally. Especially about something that happened when he was 10.

Any thoughts? Am I missing something? Do correct me/add things if you like.

Now, bear in mind that I’ve only watched the episode once (with a [just] 10 year old next to me – this was distracting). But there doesn’t seem to be anything to suggest that Davros is ‘between’ events, as it were. If you take it as given that he remembers all of it (abandonment & rescue) it doesn’t change anything… Esp since this is the main arrow in his quiver:

DOCTOR: Why have I ever let you live?
DAVROS: Compassion, Doctor. It has always been your greatest indulgence. Let this be my final victory. Let me hear you say it, just once. Compassion is wrong.

This is actually far more potent if Davros remembers being rescued. His greatest enemy saved him, as a child, had compassion for the young boy he once was, even though the Doctor knew what he would become. As far as Davros knows the Doctor had a wobble, but came back for him, out of compassion. From his POV, that’s where the Doctor fell.

From the Doctor’s POV, however, he saves bb!Davros in order to save Clara, later (timey-wimey and all that), teaching him about mercy. From Davros’ POV it has already happened, that’s clear:

DAVROS: My Daleks are afflicted with a genetic defect.
TWELVE: What defect?
DAVROS: Respect. Mercy for their father. Design flaws I was unable to eliminate.

I’ll get back to you again once I’ve re-watched, but for now (and unless anything directly contradicts it) I think this is by far the simplest explanation. Esp. as Davros intends to steal his regeneration energy and let him watch as the Daleks become even more powerful.

‘If you hadn't saved me, none of this would have happened… On your head be it, Doctor.’

But that is exactly my point, re-read it: Davros isn't "between" events, from his point of view, he *knows* that the Doctor actually came back and rescued him later, while the Doctor doesn't, since he hasn't done it yet in his personal timeline. (Which makes Davros guilt-tripping him -since he knows how the Doctor thinks, even though he disagrees and now wants to prove it to him- all the more diabolical).

However, I'm just saying that Davros's whole plan, even *if* it doesn't include directly killing him, puts the Doctor's life in extreme danger. If the Doctor dies, from Davros's point of view, he creates a paradox, since 12 now can't go back and save child!him from the Hand-Mines. It seems a bit reckless, that's all.

That's why I offer the several possible explanations/Davros thought processes (and you know, they are satisfying even for overanalysing me, I'll even post them on Deviantart)

However, since you answered, I will not contain all of my inner squeeing until your future meta (the Doctor rectifies his mistake and he's a saint and he doesn't have to feel bad anymore, and compassion is *right* -CAMELOT!- and it prevails, and it's done SO BEAUTIFULLY), and I will also mention here that the symbolism in the last scene was AMAZING.
The Doctor is walking hand in hand with his greatest enemy: the boy who will become a monster is still holding the sonic screwdriver, the simple tool of peace that fixes things, and his saviour, the man who abhors violence, is holding the Dalek gunstick, the ultimate destructive weapon of war (which he just used for good).

“The friend inside the enemy, the enemy inside the friend. Everyone's a bit of both. Everyone's a hybrid.”
“I'm not sure that any of that matters. Friends, enemies. So long as there's mercy. Always mercy.”

V. quickly - I was not explaining it well. I don't think Davros knows there's a gap, nor is he trying to fit into it. From his POV the Doctor came to help, disappeared and then reappeared closer, to destroy the hand mines. Unless my re-watch proves this wrong, I'd say that he presumes he's dealing with the Doctor that came back to save him.

Well, if that is the case, then why does he presume that the Doctor feels *guilty* and exploits it?

The screwdriver, "Davros remembers", "Do you know why you came, Doctor? You have a sense of *duty*. Of guilt, perhaps. And certainly of *shame*", he shows the clip from Genesis of the Daleks ("could you then kill that child?"), "Is this the conscience of the Doctor, or his shame? The shame that brought you here." while he tempts him to kill the Daleks. ---> (Are you not doing this because of your morality, or because you think that abandonment helped my Start of Darkness?)

And in case you mention it, no, I don't think he presumes at all that the Doctor feels guilty for not killing/abandoning him (although that is the point he wants to prove, that's his worldview), because he knows the way the Doctor thinks, he knows his moral code (and wants to destroy it). And anyway, if that wasn't the case with the Doctor's mindset, why would he expect the Doctor to choose to go there and probably die instead of continuing to battle the Daleks and make up for it, why would he offer "shame" as a possible justification for the Doctor's refusal to kill the Daleks since he would essentially be correcting his "mistake" in saving the child if he did so?
If he feels ashamed for what he did, he would want to do the opposite now, the Doctor wouldn't feel "the shame that brought [him] here" and choose not to kill them.

I think the only way this works is if Davros *knows* that the Doctor believes he never went back at that point.

I'll get back to you once I've re-watched it all.

Okay :) But don't worry, it's not impossible to have more than one interpetation of something (especially in Doctor Who). This just seems the more logical version to me.

Three different versions of Atlantis... ;)

But mostly then my head is all full of Clara, and fanwanking Davros' timeline is on the backburner. But I'll see if I can get there eventually. ETA: And seriously, brilliant job in laying out all the possibilities. *applauds*

Edited 2015-09-28 19:08 (UTC)

I think that's an inside joke, at least I read it somewhere :)

So you are basically 12 then! <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v> =Ux9NeXTqjD4/
(Open a new tab and combine the incomplete link above with the rest, copy-paste-enter, no gaps; it's the only way I could get it through, sorry).

Understood. When one likes a character...Plus, "SHE'S SO META, I'M GONNA DIE!"

Overanalysing things, exploring all possibilities, and organising them in a nice, take-your-pick-or-combine-if-you-want mini-essay that offers many alternatives, is very much my speciality ;) Often useless, but fun (bows to the applause).

I think that's an inside joke, at least I read it somewhere :)

So you are basically 12 then!
(Search: "Twelfth Doctor's Catchphrase (Clara Compilation)")

Understood. When one likes a character...Plus, "SHE'S SO META, I'M GONNA DIE!"

Overanalysing things, exploring all possibilities, and organising them in a nice, take-your-pick-or-combine-if-you-want mini-essay that offers many alternatives, is very much my speciality ;) Often useless, but fun (bows to the applause).

Understood. When one likes a character...Plus, "SHE'S SO META, I'M GONNA DIE!"
Basically this.(Also - ha! I'm right! I've been right all along!)

Overanalysing things, exploring all possibilities, and organising them in a nice, take-your-pick-or-combine-if-you-want mini-essay that offers many alternatives, is very much my speciality ;)
And a very useful speciality it is. :)

Hello, I have a thing. Help? I'M FROM THE FUTURE, YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE ME.

Forget Davros. Thing equals "questions about the confession dial, after watching all of the episodes".

So, I was doing fic-notes (aka, this is what happens and what the context is but I don't have time to write it properly, random sentences and keywords, later), concerning what the Doctor knew about Missy between series 8 and 9 and his feelings. I think I managed to get inside his head, we have a very nice progression, but I encountered a problem in the end, which doesn't have to do with that but is connected to it.

After the screw up with kid!Davros, he sends her the confession dial -which I interpret as a "screw this, who the fuck am I to judge anyone?”, it has to be delivered to a Time Lord friend (and there’s no way in hell he’s letting Clara know what he did) gesture.
But after what we get to know about those during the series, what is in it, did he use it (and how, how would it normally work)?

It can't have to do with the Hybrid, because that wasn't a pressing factor yet like it gradually became during the season (with him going, "oh fuck, it will come true, I was right to be afraid"), he just knows the vague things that he learned in the Cloisters by that point, Gallifrey's in another dimension as far as he knows anyway so who cares, Missy throws a hint in TWF and seems to know about what happened so why tell her something she already knows too, and anyway, he'd have a much more limited number of available information to give away in Heaven Sent if that had happened, because the Time Lords would learn about it and *only* accept the very specifics about it, they wouldn't go for "just confess everything in general, it's in there somewhere".

My most probably incredibly wrong and needlessly complicated theory goes thus:

He probably didn't make it himself, he finds or happens to have one. And he says in FTR that he doesn't know how it really works, although he knows its purpose. The thing is, he's in no mood to work it out, he’s not very traditional anyway (= party time), and he *can’t* “face his demons” after what happened –though he does try unsuccessfully to meditate later in the castle (but that doesn’t involve any complicated technology, and it is something he has absolute control over).
He might have just sent it unused, in a "yo, I'll die, sorry" sign. Or maybe, he basically just uses it as a message carrier, he can manipulate an outer layer let's say: dying, explain why he is dying, try to make amends, and like, maybe ask her to try and help the Time Lords.
(Plus, one has to take into account that even though the original purpose is what he describes in HB, the person who gets it is still the bloody Master, so it's not like he can give away potentially dangerous secrets, or ask for a favour, or "go all out" in general let's say).
However, said Time Lords and Rasillon don’t care about his personal problems, relationships and the like so when they interfere and reconstruct the thing as a torture chamber, that information is lost, or nobody gives a fuck about it because HYBRID!!!

Thoughts?

He probably didn't make it himself, he finds or happens to have one.
Yes, it's the sort of thing he's bound to have lying about in the TARDIS.

This is what he says in Hell Bent:

DOCTOR: Do you know what they did to me? A confession dial is a ritual act of purification. It allows a dying Time Lord to face his demons and make his peace, before his mind is uploaded to the Matrix.

I'm divided by your rather compelling "yo, I'll die, sorry" & sending it unused to Missy (to give her a heads up), and having actually used it before going off to party in the middle ages. Or maybe he partied and sent it off somewhere in the middle? He DID try to meditate.

Mostly, then I think he worked out that Missy must know where Gallifrey is, and be a link. So she'd make sure that if he died (as he presumed he would) she'd get his mind uploaded to the Matrix like it ought to.

I don't think it contains secrets in and of itself, which is why they imprisoned him.

Does that help?

I'm divided by your rather compelling "yo, I'll die, sorry" & sending it unused to Missy (to give her a heads up), and having actually used it before going off to party in the middle ages.
Well, I’ll decide then, whatever fits. Glad you think both make sense!

Or maybe he partied and sent it off somewhere in the middle?
I think we can dismiss this particular theory because the “Prologue” where he gives it to Ohila himself (and the bit where Colony Sarff drops by in TMA) is confirmed to take place before “The Doctor’s Meditation”.

Mostly, then I think he worked out that Missy must know where Gallifrey is, and be a link. So she'd make sure that if he died (as he presumed he would) she'd get his mind uploaded to the Matrix like it ought to.
Well, from his perspective, yeah; I mean she lied about the coordinates, but she did escape from there. Unless it keeps moving about for some reason.

Although, like I put it and if we go with the second version, I think he’d be more concerned with personal matters and Gallifrey actually being found/safe and trying to help in that. Now about his mind being uploaded to the Matrix, I think he has expressed a rather “meh/oh, well” attitude in the show when it comes to his personal wishes on the subject –like I said, not traditional, renegade and all that- so I don’t think it’d be his first priority. (Although, okay, if one Time Lord’s experiences, memories and knowledge would be of great help to their society, that’d be his, not a random guy’s who has never even left the Capitol, so he may see it that way).
Plus, he may believe that Missy knows where Gallifrey is, but that still leaves things tremendously vague: where, when, in the universe to begin with? (because it wasn’t). I mean, the way the APC Net works, is a Time Lord dies, a brain scan is made at the moment of death and the impulses are transferred to the Matrix and stored in a framework of electrochemical cells because it is a storehouse of knowledge (although a “print” let’s say, of every Time Lord already exists there and they are all connected to the Matrix on a basic level blah, blah, blah, Who “canon”). What *range* does that bloody thing have? Time, space, a different dimension? I mean most Time Lords die on Gallifrey anyway. What I'm trying to say is, I think we’d have a technical problem regardless of the protocol or what he wants.

(Irrelevant, but by the way, since we are talking about technology/computer things, I'll quote the Fourth Doctor because I'm unfortunately facing some problems in this department these days: "The trouble with computers, of course, is that they're very sophisticated idiots.")

I don't think it contains secrets in and of itself, which is why they imprisoned him.
Yeah, that’s what I’m saying, nothing OMG, IMPORTANT.

I think we can dismiss this particular theory because the “Prologue” where he gives it to Ohila himself (and the bit where Colony Sarff drops by in TMA) is confirmed to take place before “The Doctor’s Meditation”.
You know, I had completely forgotten that!

Well, from his perspective, yeah; I mean she lied about the coordinates, but she did escape from there. Unless it keeps moving about for some reason.
No, I think it's just hiding at the end/edge of the universe. And Missy is pretty good at escaping.

like I said, not traditional, renegade and all that- so I don’t think it’d be his first priority.
Well, yes and no. He's a renegade, but I'm sure he'd still prefer 'the family crypt'. After all, his whole story has - since the reboot - been about his loneliness. He would not want to be alone in death. (DOCTOR: People always get it wrong with Time Lords. We take forever to die. Even if we're too injured to regenerate, every cell in our bodies keeps trying. Dying properly can take days. That's why we like to die among our own kind. They know not to bury us early.)

What I'm trying to say is, I think we’d have a technical problem regardless of the protocol or what he wants.
True.

Yeah, that’s what I’m saying, nothing OMG, IMPORTANT.
So they try to get at it by force. Poor Doctor.

Sorry about the long absence. I lost the chance for a whole bunch of “beware the Ides of March” jokes, too late now, damn. (Favourite Shakespeare play!)

Well, yes and no. He's a renegade, but I'm sure he'd still prefer 'the family crypt'. After all, his whole story has - since the reboot - been about his loneliness. He would not want to be alone in death.
Well, I see your point, it would be consistent with his expressed desires and loneliness, and his being often emotional when it comes to his planet and family, one can make it fit if s/he wants to see it that way. I mean, if *he* can’t make it to Gallifrey after all, well…at least give him that last comfort- distant, not of any real help to him, and sentimental as it is :(
And this gradually got really dark and depressing, didn’t it? Well, we *are* talking about wills and last requests, what did we expect?

Anyway, your hypothesis, my hypothesis, overlapping similar ones...it's all good, we can't exactly go and ask him. That's what theories are for! (And literal versions of "À la recherche du temps perdu" unfortunately, since we poor fans usually don't own a TARDIS).

People always get it wrong with Time Lords. We take forever to die. Even if we're too injured to regenerate, every cell in our bodies keeps trying. Dying properly can take days. That's why we like to die among our own kind. They know not to bury us early.
That whole speech and especially Capaldi’s delivery was heartbreaking. Although I think this particular bit was mostly exposition (aka “explaining and reminding you why I am ‘only mostly dead’ for the time being”), and a bit of a reminder that the Doctor has one more reason to worry about while he’s travelling; because:
a) As we have seen repeatedly he can and does take A LOT of damage, which would kill a human but which often just leaves him in unimaginable agony, so “superior alien biology” is a slightly mixed blessing when it comes to that part, durability comes with a price. I mean, EVERYTHING that has happened to poor Eight. Two once got shot in the head! (Okay, that can be non-fatal for a human too, but why would you do that?!?) And now this episode is like “Behold! You’ve seen him get beaten up, shot, tortured, electrocuted, drowned, irradiated, exsanguinated, possessed, poisoned, Mind Raped, strangled, and don’t even make us go into the EU, alright? Now, ladies and gentlemen, the crowning achievement in this department! Yes, we are proud; and colossal sadists.”
b) Our general ignorance about his alien biology can be quite dangerous. That’s how you end up with the “let’s drug and probe and operate on him and almost totally kill him and poor Paul gets to wake up in the morgue and wander around in a shroud” kind of material. Like, yeah, “bury me alive too next time, why don’t you?”

What I'm trying to say is, I think we’d have a technical problem regardless of the protocol or what he wants.
True.
Story of his life, really. Half the time, when he wants/needs to find the Time Lords, they are dead/hostile and dangerous/not around/interested but inaccessible/not interested/busy/somewhere else. When he just wants to go about his business and be left alone on the other hand, the Time Lords (okay, the government, not everyone) are like “GET HIM! Hunt the bastard down, he offends our boring, close-minded idiocy!”
(Or alternatively: “Let’s put him on trial! And kill him! Or shoot him on the spot without a trial, that’s even better!”, “let’s mind-wipe/threaten/kill his companions and imprison him”, "hey, could you commit genocide for us, pretty please", "we need you for president" ,"we are gonna torture you with this mind probe because we are complete dolts, and maybe execute you, and go fight what's-his-face in the Matrix, 'kay?" etc).

Sorry about the long absence. I lost the chance for a whole bunch of “beware the Ides of March” jokes, too late now, damn. (Favourite Shakespeare play!)
Well, I'm slow too, so there! (Am also not very familiar with Shakespeare, so most of it would probably have gone over my head...)

I mean, if *he* can’t make it to Gallifrey after all, well…at least give him that last comfort- distant, not of any real help to him, and sentimental as it is :(
Something like that, yes. Although now I'm wondering about Trenzalore and his sort of 'essence' that's left behind, and so forth.

Although I think this particular bit was mostly exposition (aka “explaining and reminding you why I am ‘only mostly dead’ for the time being”), and a bit of a reminder that the Doctor has one more reason to worry about while he’s travelling
Oh yes, very true.

Story of his life, really.
Indeed. Am terribly pleased (I'm sure you know what I mean) that as soon as he found Gallifrey he nicked another TARDIS and ran away again. Like - he was never going to settle down.

Anyway, I'm working on Hell Bent meta (trying to at least), so there might be something new for you to sink your teeth into soon...

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DW 9.01. The Magician's Apprentice

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