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Spyfall meta
The meta café is BACK!
It’s not as shiny as it used to be (this ain’t Moffat), but (insert relieved sigh) it turns out that the dullness of S11 was a deliberate choice and Chibnall CAN write interesting stuff. It’s very RTD-like, but I like the RTD era (it was what first hooked me), so here I am.
(This is basically a combination of raw meta and flaily capslock.)
So, overall Spyfall (both parts) was fun and fast-paced, with great guest stars, the regulars got stuff to do, and there was even TIME TRAVEL (!!! It was like finally breathing after being oxygen starved for a year). I don’t have the time/energy to go into any detail, because that’s not really where my interest lies.
However, a small note before we start:
The ~problematic~ aspects
As others have remarked, it’s interesting how the Chibb’s era manages to piss off two opposing groups at the same time:
- The rightwing nutjobs are unhappy with the diverse cast & writers, and think it’s all pandering & ‘being too PC’
- The leftwing side are unhappy with how badly the writing treats said characters of colour/women etc.
Now Chibnall isn’t forever, which is nice to remember when it feels particularly exhausting to constantly navigate a minefield.
Right now I am here for the meta, but that doesn’t mean I don’t notice or care… So, if you want The Angry Take (and I mean ANGRY), make your way to DoWntime (all their points are good and worth your time):
BIT OF ADRENALINE, DASH OF OUTRAGE – Our Thoughts on "Spyfall: Part Two”
My post will be dealing with three things: Gallifrey, the Doctor and the Master. In that order.
1. The Fridging of Gallifrey
I am deliberately using the word ‘fridging’ because that’s what it is. The place has been destroyed simply to cause angst for our hero(s). Now I like the effects (well, I like what it’s done to the Master — see below. Am not really bothered about Doctor angst at this stage, although the mirroring is nice — again, see below), but I dislike the thing in and of itself.
It’s a bit like the attempted rape on Buffy? The outcome (Spike going to get his soul) was A Good Thing, something that I wholeheartedly supported, a story I love; but the thing itself was hugely problematic and dodgy storytelling.
I have similar issues here.
A reveal like that shouldn’t make you go ‘Again?’, like Forrest Gump going to the White House.
The weight of Gallifrey in New Who — the Doctor’s guilt, his reasons for destroying it, the monumental effort in first saving it and then finding it — it felt earned. It took years, and pain, and endeavours worthy of heroes, near-impossible feats of daring and determination.
And then poof, it’s gone again.
(Caveat: The whole Timeless Child may yet be a genius thing, who knows. I am willing to redact anything said here pending future developments, but as of right now it feels cheap.)
Perfect Tumblr illustration. ;)
What bothers me most (and why I refer to it as fridging) is because it removes Gallifrey’s agency. It turns the planet/the Time Lords into a singular thing, a tragic (or evil, blah blah Timeless Child) issue for the Doctor (and Master) to be upset about.
(Dear Master — the Time Lords were dicks? Where have you BEEN for the past… forever? It was the first thing we ever learned about them.)
The destruction removes the nuance of the place, the fact that it’s living, breathing world, with a history and a complex structure and different factions and groups. It is a player, something for the Doctor (and the Master) to push against. Something with god-like powers, and incredibly human flaws. Watching Classic Who is DELIGHTFUL (have watched all of Five, Six & Seven, and am 4/7 through Four), because Gallifrey is such a morass of political factions and idiocy and pointless rules and terrible sets (this, basically), and when the Doctor says the Time War changed them, he was more right than you can imagine. In short, it’s rich in every way, an untapped potential in New Who (the S9 finale apart) and something I guess I was looking forward to, the Doctor’s childhood and history and background and so on…
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
(x)
All that potential, just gone.
Well, for now. Because all you can do, is bring it back. And every time you destroy/re-create, it becomes less impactful. (See this sketch.)
So yeah, colour me unimpressed.
(Although I am amusing myself imagining the Sisterhood of Karn just sighing deeply when they hear the news. ‘The Enmity of Ages’ are clearly up to their old tricks once more…)
Disclaimer/other point of view: We don’t know what The Timeless Child is all about, and (if I were to hazard a guess) it’ll be something hugely problematic about Gallifrey’s past, which will obviously serve as a neat metaphor for Britain’s past history of colonisation and so on (Gallifrey being a very thinly veiled metaphor for Great Britain), and that’s all nice and good, and much as nuking the entirety of the UK would show up Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage and all the rest, I can’t help but think it’s a little… blunt. And does very little for all their previous colonies that they exploited.
All that said, if Chibnall is actually going to attempt some sort of reckoning with Britain’s colonial past (especially in this era of Brexit) then all the best to him. I will admire and cheer on the effort, even if it’s likely to be flawed.
~~
Sidebar: I am trying very hard not to mention the fact that apparently Chibnall didn’t watch the S9 finale, since Gallifrey is no longer in a pocket universe but right on the very edge of the universe. I am judging him SO HARD.
This would be a good point to bring up this brilliant Tumblr post:
Levels of Doctor Who Fan
I am somewhere along 5 or 6. And those further down the abyss the tell me that, actually, destroying Gallifrey is just one of those things and bring up references that I know the sound of, but have not yet become familiar with.
So maybe this is just Chibnall dragging us down into the wilds of the Whoniverse.
2. The Doctor
Twelve was complicated, introspective and over the years worked through all the issues. His dying words of advice to his next self are a thing of beauty. And… Thirteen didn’t listen.
Despite the daftness, the silly-ness, the Tigger-like bounciness, and all the other Eleven-y attributes, underneath the surface the previous Doctor she reminds me of the most is… Ten.
A different take, yes, no endless guilt chipping away, but oh, the issues. The unfounded belief that you are right. The breathtaking hypocrisy.
Now, I don’t mind as such, but it needs laying out.
A lot of people have complained that the Master seems to have gone straight back to his evil ways, as if Missy never was, which I will deal with below, because I think it all works rather beautifully if you just bother to look. It’s all in the performance and the final reveal. No, the Master is fine. More than fine.
But the Doctor?
After Twelve, after stripping back all the layers, after dealing with the pain, the lies, the loss, the anger, the everything — how is she this?
- Hiding the truth about herself from her friends, only telling them the very basics when forced to, through clenched teeth. And this after they have apparently been asking her for a long time. Why so secretive?
- Mindwiping people, as if Clara and Bill had never existed. Without even explaining. I can understand having to remove their memories, since she revealed FAR too much. But doing it without consent… bad look. Even Twelve at least explained to Bill when she questioned him.
- Jamming the perception filter. Now this is not about whether or not the Master deserves it (he probably does), it’s about what the act says about the Doctor — it’s a calculated act of cruelty. (‘Never cruel or cowardly.’ Really Doctor? Really? And you’re keeping the name? Mind you, it’s along the lines ‘Don’t you think she looks tired’ wrt. Harriet Jones. Hi Ten! I liiiiked you. I’m happy to see you again, despite all the griping.)
ETA: I have zero problems with the Doctor messing around and turning the Master over to the Nazis as a double agent. That's par for the course. (Ditto using his own words to get the Kasaavin to turn on him.) But using his skin colour against him? That's low. What it says is 'Not only will I make sure you fall into your own trap (you deserve that), but I will make sure they hurt you more than they otherwise would. It's the opposite of kindness. What happened to Twelve's 'I'm not sure that any of that matters, friends, enemies. So long as there's mercy. Always mercy.'
I guess she is feeling betrayed and angry, but the wording is awful. 'Now they'll see the real you. Good luck.' What does 'the real you' mean in this context? The immediate answer is simply 'a man of colour'. Not 'an evil master-mind who kills people for fun'. (I have also just realised that she says 'good luck' to both the POCs in the story who will end up in concentration camps ('The places I've escaped from' <- it's subtext, but I'll take it.) It's hella ugly.) (I DIDN'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT THIS. But if the Doctor is written as problematic, that does factor into my analysis.)
The point is - it's unnecessary. Being a double agent is plenty to get him into trouble.
- Declaring herself a pacifist! This is up there with ‘the man who never would’. I am SPEECHLESS. Pacifist? Pacifist???
GLASS WOMAN: The Doctor has walked in blood through all of time and space. The Doctor has many names. The Destroyer of Worlds. The Imp of the Pandorica. The Shadow of the Valeyard. The Beast of Trenzalore. The Butcher of Skull Moon. The Last Tree of Garsennon. The Destroyer of Skaro. He is the Doctor of War.
Twice Upon a Time
As I have said before, it’s PERFECTLY understandable that Thirteen wants to leave all that baggage behind. Who wouldn’t? New face, new life, new start, erase the past. I’m also happy to have this theory confirmed. (Also, it means that Kerblam! is kinda redeemed...) I mean, it was the only thing that made sense, but I was wondering where the Doctor had, well, disappeared off to. She looked like the Doctor, but there was something missing. As Promethia said during S11:
’Back during Season Five I remember an old-timer saying that watch enough Who and inevitably your favorite character become the Doctor and your favorite Doctor becomes the Doctor. Which made enough intellectual sense to me to take note of, but man, I am feeling it this season. I get it now. Like, yes, your new friends seem lovely, but slightly in the middle of a 55-year old character arc here. Bit keen to get back.’
So, this is possibly my favourite thing Tumblr brought us from Episode 1:
I can literally see my carefully cultivated persona falling down around me in the space of one single minute, a Thirteenth Doctor Moodboard
There is also: This observation *g*
Now, I like myself a problematic doctor (and oh, it’s absolutely perfect for my fic, I am rather thrilled to have the show confirm my characterisation 100%) but some tiny indication of what’s going on in her head would be nice.
And that’s where I’ll leave it. I hope it’s correct. Either way, I shall take Thirteen as opaque, complex, problematic & better at lying (to everyone, including herself) than Ten. And minus the man!pain.
3. The Master
(This is only the first layer. Don’t you want to see how deep I go?)
My central idea is that the Master is acting throughout, and — as we progress through the episodes — layer after layer is peeled away, leaving something like the truth in the final scene.
So I shall try to go through the episodes and unravel what ‘O’/the Master is actually doing, and why he’s behaving the way he does, and will be going through the episodes, pulling out lines that stood out. :)
Top Layer: ‘O’
‘O’ is a fairly traditional Master trope. He’s disguised himself as someone the Doctor trusts, befriends her and plays her beautifully. He’s just the right amount of clever and friendly. The Master is a great actor and doesn’t mind waiting for years, building up his story. This layer is mostly lies, since he stole someone else’s face & life, but it can still tell us a lot.
O: Every time I came into a room C would go ‘Oh, god’.
This is hilarious. I’m sure part of him went ‘Feel free to worship me’.
~~
I love the Master’s organised chaos — we saw it when he was Razor, hiding out on Floor 1056 — and it’s deceptively cosy. And there’s an interesting contrast between the Doctor’s TARDIS and the Master’s.
O: Shut up! [Re. TARDIS, and then] Ridiculous.
Ridiculous is about right. I do not like Thirteen’s TARDIS. Sorry, but just no. And I say that as someone who likes Timelash (!) and the idea of time crystals. But they’re enormous, look like they’re made of plastic, and also vaguely phallic. The roundels & the blue/yellow is fine.
But generally — the interior of the Master’s TARDIS is interesting. When going undercover the Master goes for messy and comfortable. (Compare & contrast to the clinical look to his previous TARDISes. I rather wish we could have seen what Missy’s looked like.)
That said, the Doctor’s TARDIS is a nice reflection of who she is — there is the big central showpiece, surrounded by darkness. It’s not enough to make me like it (aesthetically I just can’t), but at least it’s metaphorically appropriate.
~~
O: Look at all the evidence I gathered. And they just mocked me.
He looks so genuinely sad/upset. I wondered at this, figuring that he was just really in character, even if surely he’d be angry, not sad. BUT. If this is coded, if this is actually him talking about what he uncovered wrt The Timeless Child…. If he’s momentarily losing sight of his role and just falling into the grief that he carries with him, it makes perfect sense. (Such big sad eyes. Ugh, I just want to hug him.)
~~
13: It’s like I can sense them.
O: I know what you mean.
SUBTLE!
And then he has a plan. The Master ALWAYS has a plan, and a back-up plan. And a back-up plan to the back-up plan. I LOVE HIM. And he & the Dr work so well together. <3
And asking Graham if he wants a look at his fanboy collection… Very nice touch. He’s being an absolute troll, but it’s adorable.
~~
O: No, it can't be. I've been through Barton's records. There are thousands of photos of him online at all ages. If he's not human, that's one very impressive legend he's put together.
Yeah, like you did as Saxon… (This was SO rewarding on re-watch.)
~~
Yas suggests steganography and O appreciates her being clever. There is definitely an undertone of O simply liking Yas. The flirting in the casino and then (at the end, after the reveal):
Master: Stick with me, Yas, cos I control... everything. Even these guys.
Who knows what his reasons are. Maybe he just likes her. Maybe he’s trying to distract himself with someone smart & pretty (I mean, that’s what the Doctor does…) It almost hearkens back to Delgado!Master & Jo — he was always flirting with her and half stealing her.
~~
DOCTOR: Oh. Why's it doing that? I don't understand. Multiple Earths? what does that even mean?
O (hand to forehead, obviously deciding that he needs to give her a push in the right direction): Okay, okay. If you really think they're spies, we should be asking who's the spymaster? Who's running the alien spies? Because that's the person who holds the answers.
You can SEE O sighing internally and deciding to throw the Doctor a bone. ‘Stop being so slow, look it’s quite simple really…’
2nd Layer: Classic Master
O: Mmm. Got me. Well done.
He twirls just like Eleven <3
Now it seemed strange, how nice O was, and then the burst of manic OTTness as he revealed who he was. But I think the Master persona — the whole cackling super villain shtick — is as much of an act as ‘O’ was.
MASTER: Yeah. A man very close to my heart. Well, in my pocket, actually. Do you want to see him? It's always good to keep a backup of one's work. Tissue compression, it's a classic. Oh.
(He slowly pushes open a matchbox to reveal a tiny figure. That's a lot smaller than they used to be.)
As Promethia put it ‘It’s like he backslid so far he lost five regenerations.’ This is his early 80s’ behaviour, completely classic Ainley!Master (I love Ainley to PIECES, I might have actually clapped for joy at this point).
It’s a role he can play in his sleep though: Laugh like a maniac, throw out threats, have a perfect plan to destroy the Doctor. And there is an extent to which he buys into it himself:
MASTER: Yah! One last thing. Something you should know in the seconds before you die. Everything that you think you know... is a lie. Got you, finally.
Because it’s a much, much easier thing to do, than to face up to the truth and reveal himself.
I think my favourite thing is the WAY the Master appeared? As in, the fact that this is how the Master ALWAYS operates. Hiding, making plans, turning up and no one knowing who he is, then going 'AHA! It is ME!' Because for a while fans of New Who had the idea that the Master Had To Be Insane or whatever, but by now we're on New Who Master #3, and we can see the pattern of behaviour much more clearly. (And despite the early cackling, Dhawan!Master is not insane or ‘bananas’.)
This — this — is what the Master always does:
DOCTOR: You, Barton, and a race you barely know? That's one uneasy alliance. Trust each other, do you?
It’s so textbook that the Doctor doesn’t even blink. They’ve danced this dance a thousand times over.
And there is this sense that the Master is doing all these things [building alliances with random aliens wanting to take over the world] because what else is he going to do? He wraps murder and Master Plans around himself like an old coat, but it doesn't keep out the cold. The despair is there, so near the surface that he can't contain it.
~~
DOCTOR: Let them go, and you can have me.
MASTER: I've got you anyway.
This is… a fascinating line. Sure on a surface level it’s about the Master thinking he has the upper hand, but below that. Below that is Twelve begging Simm!Master and Missy to stay with him. Ten begging Simm!Master to travel the stars together. The Master knows that the Doctor is his, that he can dictate how things develop. (Well, to a certain extent.) But they both know that there is nothing the Master can do that will stop the Doctor caring about him.
The Doctor’s love is unconditional (and vice versa). It’s the fact of stating it outright that’s so delicious.
~~
MASTER: When I kill them, Doctor, it gives me a little buzz, right here, in the hearts. It's like... How, how would I describe it... It's like... It's like knowing I'm in the right place, doing what I was made for.
Since when has the Master needed to justify himself in that way? He is claiming that being evil is ‘what he was made for’, that he is quite simply following his nature. It’s a far cry from:
MISSY: You know, back in the day, I'd burn an entire city to the ground just to see the pretty shapes the smoke made.
Evil as a casual, careless choice, as an end in itself. But now Missy’s self-assurance is completely gone, replaced by defensive statements.
~~
DOCTOR: What do you want?
[The Master looks completely lost — as if he’s forgotten the script and who he’s supposed to be. Then, eventually]
MASTER: Kneel
[Beat]
MASTER: Kneel! Or they all die!
[The Doctor rolls her eyes, and kneels]
MASTER: Call me by my name!
[At this point he is almost crying]
DOCTOR: Master.
And so it goes, three times (very Biblical, that).
What this does, I think, is something akin to Eleven and 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.
DALEK: Correct. Review testimony.
The Master wants the Doctor to name him, to acknowledge him, to put him back in the place where he feels he belongs; good and bad, light and dark, Doctor and Master. He wants the universe to make sense again. And being bad is the place he is familiar with.
3rd Layer: Look I’m a Nazi now! I’m evil, see? TOTALLY EVIL.
DOCTOR: He's masquerading as a German soldier. That's a low, even for him.
I am, somewhat, reminded of Faith (from S1 of Angel, ‘Five by Five’):
Faith keeps hitting and kicking Angel, but he’s not fighting back.
Faith: "You hear me? - You don't know what evil is! - I'm bad! - Fight back!"
The Master has always revelled in his badness, laughed and grinned and seen it all as a joke. After that initial confrontation in the plane Dhawan!Master is painfully subdued. He poses, but there’s very little energy.
There is also this…
(Quote from Angel. WW2 ep and Spike is wearing a Nazi coat. With many thanks to Promethia for the image.)
Admittedly very different political climate on the Doylist level, but the last person who dressed up as a Nazi for you, you married, Doctor. (Although River, at that point, was quite Missy-like? If you want a contrast. Happily blasting her way through whoever was in her way, she didn't much care.) Also, the Master has teamed up with Daleks (metaphorical Nazis) on several occasions, so why would actual Nazis be a surprise?
~~
(The Doctor is repeatedly tapping four dots on Noor's morse key.)
NOOR: That's not a code.
DOCTOR: Not to you. If this works, I'm going to need you to find something for me. This is a very personal code. The rhythm of two hearts.
I love EVERYTHING about this. The telepathy. The four beats. EVERYTHING.
~~
MASTER: And, I mean, you know me. I can't help myself. I have to stick my oar in.
MASTER: And of course, the best thing is everyone loses except me. Barton and those creatures do the dirty work, and once they're done, I get rid of them, having destroyed your precious human race in the process. Win-win-win.
Look, I haven’t changed! (He says, having changed.) Which I think ties in with this:
MASTER: Tiny Teutonic psychic perception filter. Learned it at school. Lets people see what they want to see.
Not the perception filter as such, but this:
‘Lets people see what they want to see.’
He’s doing it throughout (he’s been doing it his whole lives). He’s brilliant at playing people, whatever part he’s currently inhabiting. What’s changed is the truth beneath the surface. Yes, he used to be that maniac who was only in it for power, but that has now simply become another persona that he can project back at people. It’s a persona he’s very comfortable with, having been that person for so long, but…
4th Layer: Cracks appear, truth peeks out
DOCTOR: When does all this stop? The games. The betrayal. The killing.
MASTER: Why would it stop? I mean, how else would I get your attention?
I can’t even. *hands* Just stating his millennia MO up front, no holds barred: ‘I do evil shit & hack elaborate plans try to destroy the world just so you’ll pay attention to me.’
Because right now he NEEDS the Doctor’s attention:
MASTER: When did you last go home?
DOCTOR: What do you mean?
MASTER: I took a trip home, to Gallifrey, hiding in its little bubble universe. Not sure how to describe what I found. Pulverised? Burned? Nuked? All of the above. Someone destroyed it. Our home, razed to the ground. Everyone killed. Everything burned.
DOCTOR: You're lying.
MASTER: You should really take a look. Oh, wait, you won't be able to. I just thought I'd let you know before I...
He’s on the edge of confessing, giving the Doctor breadcrumbs to follow, because it’s a painful, difficult process. He’s stripping away layers, baring himself to the only person who understands, and yet, at the same time, angry with her.
Because — as people have said (I think I first came across this on Nostalgia’s DW) the Master blames the Doctor for caring. He can’t turn it off. He feels things now:
MISSY: I don't even know why I'm crying. Why? Why do I keep doing that now?
DOCTOR: I don't know. Maybe you're trying to impress me.
MISSY: Yes. Probably some devious plan. That sounds about right.
DOCTOR: The alternative would be much worse.
MISSY: Really?
DOCTOR: The alternative is that this is for real, and it's time for us to become friends again.
(S10.10 The Eaters of Light)
Pain and guilt and empathy are horrible things to be burdened with. And (as the Master probably sees it) the Doctor was the one who made him feel things. Locked him up for years, forced the shell open, dug around inside for emotions that should have been dead millennia ago and brought them back to life… And now he can’t turn them off!
5th Layer: Ruins (of a good man)
And finally we get to the truth:
MASTER: If you’re seeing this, you’ve been to Gallifrey. When I say someone did that, obviously I meant... I did it. I had to make them pay for what I discovered. They lied to us. The Founding Father of Gallifrey… Everything we were told was a lie. We’re not who we think. You or I. The whole existence of our species. Built on the lie of the Timeless Child. It’s buried deep in all our memories. In our identity. I’d tell you more, but… [stands, sneers] But why would I make it easy for you? It wasn’t for me.
We know how destroying Gallifrey affected the Doctor, but [s]he is (after all) used to guilt. The Master… isn’t. Is it any wonder that he reacts badly, retreating to the one thing he knows? He is angry and hurting and lashing out at the Doctor, and there is an implicit ‘Why didn’t you warn me?’
Because oh, look at all the mirroring we can now do! *claps* I guess it makes sense that Thirteen in Ten-like, since we are RIGHT back into Lonely God/Last of the Time Lords territory, just flipped:
MASTER: What did it feel like, though? Two almighty civilisations burning. Oh, tell me, how did that feel?
DOCTOR: Stop it!
MASTER: You must have been like God.
DOCTOR: I've been alone ever since. But not anymore. Don't you see? All we've got is each other.
AND NOW THE MASTER KNOOOOOOOOWS. (And all they have is each other.)
Sidebar: Much as I hate the destruction of Gallifrey — props to the Master for being a one-man atom bomb. He does have that destructive streak down to perfection (hence, I guess, the shout-out to Logopolis, even if there was a bit of a continuity error).
Now, it’s not like the Master hasn’t destroyed planets (or chunks of the universe) previously, and he even tried to destroy Gallifrey before...
I’m going to pull out a few quotes from The Deadly Assassin (Fourth Doctor — Classic Who S14, 3rd story, from 1976 — the year I was born!), and yes, this does spoil the plot somewhat, but all the same you should still watch it, it’s a hoot! You get to see Gallifreyan TV for one thing. :D
First a nice little intro to the (Classic) Master:
DOCTOR: The Master's consumed with hatred. It's his one great weakness.
MASTER: Ha. Weakness, Doctor? Hate is strength.
DOCTOR: Not in your case. You'd delay an execution to pull the wings off a fly.
And then the Doctor (ah, he was SO YOUNG and innocent. I mean, he was Four, so he was sort of ageless, but he dashes about and saves the day and has very few hang-ups and gets bossed around by the Time Lords and (later) the White Guardian etc.) as seen through the Master’s eyes:
DOCTOR: Why have you brought me here?
MASTER: As a scapegoat for the killing of the President. Who else but you, Doctor? So despicably good, so insufferably compassionate. I wanted you to die in ignominious shame and disgrace.
And then, the Master doing his best Evil Overlord cackle as he is about to destroy Gallifrey and steal all their power:
MASTER: They're not dead. Stunned. They'll live long enough to see the end of this accursed planet, and for the Doctor to taste the full bitterness of his defeat!
[…]
MASTER: Rassilon's discovery, all mine. I shall have supreme power over the universe. Master of all matter! Bwhahahaha!
Come New Who, the characters have become more-or-less god-like in their powers, and the Master envies the Doctor his feats of destruction.
But no longer.
Because — and this is something that didn’t strike me until I began to delve deeper and thinking it all over, and then struck me so forcefully (one night, when falling asleep) that I literally had to sit up, turn on the light, and make a note of it:
The Master made a moral decision!
He destroyed Gallifrey because what they had done was wrong.
Let that sit for a bit.
The character who has for the entirety of their lives been motivated by nothing except survival and dominance and attaining power did something for moral reasons.
Remember the S8 finale?
DOCTOR: All of this. All of it, just to give me an army?
MISSY: Well, I don't need one, do I? Armies are for people who think they're right. And nobody thinks they're righter than you. Give a good man firepower, and he'll never run out of people to kill.
The Master is now… that ‘good man’.
Missy made a choice. A choice to stand with the Doctor, to stand up for good. To do what’s right.
But I don’t know that she ever quite understood how it works.
The Master has a moral framework of sorts now. He cares (and can’t stop), but all he knows how to do is be… is destructive. (If Missy was on a 12 Step Programme, she was only half way through.)
The Master in his actions sought no power, no glory, no alliance, no throne. Did not swan about in the Sash of Rassilon, crowing over the foolishness of his fellow Time Lords.
No. The Time Lords did something wrong, and lied about it; the Master judged them and dispensed justice. Made them pay for their lies.
The result is their home, razed to the ground, and a Master who doesn’t know how to live with himself.
Conclusion
So.
My final thought.
We have the Doctor, who declares herself The Hero, the good guy, the one with the (very changeable) morals (that you can’t argue with, or you get booted out of the TARDIS), even as she lies and does incredibly questionable things like letting Bad Guys go, and leaving harmful structures intact and mind wiping people ‘for their own good’ and only tells her friends the bare minimum about herself when forced.
And we have the Master, who declares himself The Villain, who kills people ‘because that’s what he does, that’s what he’s meant to do’, but who is unravelling before our eyes, unable to live with himself or his conscience. Who dispenses justice now, a judge between right and wrong.
To summarise, what does Chibnall Who bring us?
A Doctor who is pretending to be uncomplicated/straightforward Good and a Master who is pretending to be uncomplicated/straightforward Bad.
Both are lying.
The Master cares far more than he lets on, he's broken, but does his best to keep the mask in place.
The Doctor cares far less than she should, and lives behind a happy-go-lucky carefree facade.
And that? Is interesting.
(And the Master whispers: Everything that you think you know... is a lie.)
It’s not as shiny as it used to be (this ain’t Moffat), but (insert relieved sigh) it turns out that the dullness of S11 was a deliberate choice and Chibnall CAN write interesting stuff. It’s very RTD-like, but I like the RTD era (it was what first hooked me), so here I am.
(This is basically a combination of raw meta and flaily capslock.)
So, overall Spyfall (both parts) was fun and fast-paced, with great guest stars, the regulars got stuff to do, and there was even TIME TRAVEL (!!! It was like finally breathing after being oxygen starved for a year). I don’t have the time/energy to go into any detail, because that’s not really where my interest lies.
However, a small note before we start:
As others have remarked, it’s interesting how the Chibb’s era manages to piss off two opposing groups at the same time:
- The rightwing nutjobs are unhappy with the diverse cast & writers, and think it’s all pandering & ‘being too PC’
- The leftwing side are unhappy with how badly the writing treats said characters of colour/women etc.
Now Chibnall isn’t forever, which is nice to remember when it feels particularly exhausting to constantly navigate a minefield.
Right now I am here for the meta, but that doesn’t mean I don’t notice or care… So, if you want The Angry Take (and I mean ANGRY), make your way to DoWntime (all their points are good and worth your time):
BIT OF ADRENALINE, DASH OF OUTRAGE – Our Thoughts on "Spyfall: Part Two”
My post will be dealing with three things: Gallifrey, the Doctor and the Master. In that order.
I am deliberately using the word ‘fridging’ because that’s what it is. The place has been destroyed simply to cause angst for our hero(s). Now I like the effects (well, I like what it’s done to the Master — see below. Am not really bothered about Doctor angst at this stage, although the mirroring is nice — again, see below), but I dislike the thing in and of itself.
It’s a bit like the attempted rape on Buffy? The outcome (Spike going to get his soul) was A Good Thing, something that I wholeheartedly supported, a story I love; but the thing itself was hugely problematic and dodgy storytelling.
I have similar issues here.
A reveal like that shouldn’t make you go ‘Again?’, like Forrest Gump going to the White House.
The weight of Gallifrey in New Who — the Doctor’s guilt, his reasons for destroying it, the monumental effort in first saving it and then finding it — it felt earned. It took years, and pain, and endeavours worthy of heroes, near-impossible feats of daring and determination.
And then poof, it’s gone again.
(Caveat: The whole Timeless Child may yet be a genius thing, who knows. I am willing to redact anything said here pending future developments, but as of right now it feels cheap.)
Perfect Tumblr illustration. ;)
What bothers me most (and why I refer to it as fridging) is because it removes Gallifrey’s agency. It turns the planet/the Time Lords into a singular thing, a tragic (or evil, blah blah Timeless Child) issue for the Doctor (and Master) to be upset about.
(Dear Master — the Time Lords were dicks? Where have you BEEN for the past… forever? It was the first thing we ever learned about them.)
The destruction removes the nuance of the place, the fact that it’s living, breathing world, with a history and a complex structure and different factions and groups. It is a player, something for the Doctor (and the Master) to push against. Something with god-like powers, and incredibly human flaws. Watching Classic Who is DELIGHTFUL (have watched all of Five, Six & Seven, and am 4/7 through Four), because Gallifrey is such a morass of political factions and idiocy and pointless rules and terrible sets (this, basically), and when the Doctor says the Time War changed them, he was more right than you can imagine. In short, it’s rich in every way, an untapped potential in New Who (the S9 finale apart) and something I guess I was looking forward to, the Doctor’s childhood and history and background and so on…
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
(x)
All that potential, just gone.
Well, for now. Because all you can do, is bring it back. And every time you destroy/re-create, it becomes less impactful. (See this sketch.)
So yeah, colour me unimpressed.
(Although I am amusing myself imagining the Sisterhood of Karn just sighing deeply when they hear the news. ‘The Enmity of Ages’ are clearly up to their old tricks once more…)
Disclaimer/other point of view: We don’t know what The Timeless Child is all about, and (if I were to hazard a guess) it’ll be something hugely problematic about Gallifrey’s past, which will obviously serve as a neat metaphor for Britain’s past history of colonisation and so on (Gallifrey being a very thinly veiled metaphor for Great Britain), and that’s all nice and good, and much as nuking the entirety of the UK would show up Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage and all the rest, I can’t help but think it’s a little… blunt. And does very little for all their previous colonies that they exploited.
All that said, if Chibnall is actually going to attempt some sort of reckoning with Britain’s colonial past (especially in this era of Brexit) then all the best to him. I will admire and cheer on the effort, even if it’s likely to be flawed.
~~
Sidebar: I am trying very hard not to mention the fact that apparently Chibnall didn’t watch the S9 finale, since Gallifrey is no longer in a pocket universe but right on the very edge of the universe. I am judging him SO HARD.
This would be a good point to bring up this brilliant Tumblr post:
Levels of Doctor Who Fan
I am somewhere along 5 or 6. And those further down the abyss the tell me that, actually, destroying Gallifrey is just one of those things and bring up references that I know the sound of, but have not yet become familiar with.
So maybe this is just Chibnall dragging us down into the wilds of the Whoniverse.
Twelve was complicated, introspective and over the years worked through all the issues. His dying words of advice to his next self are a thing of beauty. And… Thirteen didn’t listen.
Despite the daftness, the silly-ness, the Tigger-like bounciness, and all the other Eleven-y attributes, underneath the surface the previous Doctor she reminds me of the most is… Ten.
A different take, yes, no endless guilt chipping away, but oh, the issues. The unfounded belief that you are right. The breathtaking hypocrisy.
Now, I don’t mind as such, but it needs laying out.
A lot of people have complained that the Master seems to have gone straight back to his evil ways, as if Missy never was, which I will deal with below, because I think it all works rather beautifully if you just bother to look. It’s all in the performance and the final reveal. No, the Master is fine. More than fine.
But the Doctor?
After Twelve, after stripping back all the layers, after dealing with the pain, the lies, the loss, the anger, the everything — how is she this?
- Hiding the truth about herself from her friends, only telling them the very basics when forced to, through clenched teeth. And this after they have apparently been asking her for a long time. Why so secretive?
- Mindwiping people, as if Clara and Bill had never existed. Without even explaining. I can understand having to remove their memories, since she revealed FAR too much. But doing it without consent… bad look. Even Twelve at least explained to Bill when she questioned him.
- Jamming the perception filter. Now this is not about whether or not the Master deserves it (he probably does), it’s about what the act says about the Doctor — it’s a calculated act of cruelty. (‘Never cruel or cowardly.’ Really Doctor? Really? And you’re keeping the name? Mind you, it’s along the lines ‘Don’t you think she looks tired’ wrt. Harriet Jones. Hi Ten! I liiiiked you. I’m happy to see you again, despite all the griping.)
ETA: I have zero problems with the Doctor messing around and turning the Master over to the Nazis as a double agent. That's par for the course. (Ditto using his own words to get the Kasaavin to turn on him.) But using his skin colour against him? That's low. What it says is 'Not only will I make sure you fall into your own trap (you deserve that), but I will make sure they hurt you more than they otherwise would. It's the opposite of kindness. What happened to Twelve's 'I'm not sure that any of that matters, friends, enemies. So long as there's mercy. Always mercy.'
I guess she is feeling betrayed and angry, but the wording is awful. 'Now they'll see the real you. Good luck.' What does 'the real you' mean in this context? The immediate answer is simply 'a man of colour'. Not 'an evil master-mind who kills people for fun'. (I have also just realised that she says 'good luck' to both the POCs in the story who will end up in concentration camps ('The places I've escaped from' <- it's subtext, but I'll take it.) It's hella ugly.) (I DIDN'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT THIS. But if the Doctor is written as problematic, that does factor into my analysis.)
The point is - it's unnecessary. Being a double agent is plenty to get him into trouble.
- Declaring herself a pacifist! This is up there with ‘the man who never would’. I am SPEECHLESS. Pacifist? Pacifist???
GLASS WOMAN: The Doctor has walked in blood through all of time and space. The Doctor has many names. The Destroyer of Worlds. The Imp of the Pandorica. The Shadow of the Valeyard. The Beast of Trenzalore. The Butcher of Skull Moon. The Last Tree of Garsennon. The Destroyer of Skaro. He is the Doctor of War.
Twice Upon a Time
As I have said before, it’s PERFECTLY understandable that Thirteen wants to leave all that baggage behind. Who wouldn’t? New face, new life, new start, erase the past. I’m also happy to have this theory confirmed. (Also, it means that Kerblam! is kinda redeemed...) I mean, it was the only thing that made sense, but I was wondering where the Doctor had, well, disappeared off to. She looked like the Doctor, but there was something missing. As Promethia said during S11:
’Back during Season Five I remember an old-timer saying that watch enough Who and inevitably your favorite character become the Doctor and your favorite Doctor becomes the Doctor. Which made enough intellectual sense to me to take note of, but man, I am feeling it this season. I get it now. Like, yes, your new friends seem lovely, but slightly in the middle of a 55-year old character arc here. Bit keen to get back.’
So, this is possibly my favourite thing Tumblr brought us from Episode 1:
I can literally see my carefully cultivated persona falling down around me in the space of one single minute, a Thirteenth Doctor Moodboard
There is also: This observation *g*
Now, I like myself a problematic doctor (and oh, it’s absolutely perfect for my fic, I am rather thrilled to have the show confirm my characterisation 100%) but some tiny indication of what’s going on in her head would be nice.
And that’s where I’ll leave it. I hope it’s correct. Either way, I shall take Thirteen as opaque, complex, problematic & better at lying (to everyone, including herself) than Ten. And minus the man!pain.
(This is only the first layer. Don’t you want to see how deep I go?)
My central idea is that the Master is acting throughout, and — as we progress through the episodes — layer after layer is peeled away, leaving something like the truth in the final scene.
So I shall try to go through the episodes and unravel what ‘O’/the Master is actually doing, and why he’s behaving the way he does, and will be going through the episodes, pulling out lines that stood out. :)
‘O’ is a fairly traditional Master trope. He’s disguised himself as someone the Doctor trusts, befriends her and plays her beautifully. He’s just the right amount of clever and friendly. The Master is a great actor and doesn’t mind waiting for years, building up his story. This layer is mostly lies, since he stole someone else’s face & life, but it can still tell us a lot.
O: Every time I came into a room C would go ‘Oh, god’.
This is hilarious. I’m sure part of him went ‘Feel free to worship me’.
~~
I love the Master’s organised chaos — we saw it when he was Razor, hiding out on Floor 1056 — and it’s deceptively cosy. And there’s an interesting contrast between the Doctor’s TARDIS and the Master’s.
O: Shut up! [Re. TARDIS, and then] Ridiculous.
Ridiculous is about right. I do not like Thirteen’s TARDIS. Sorry, but just no. And I say that as someone who likes Timelash (!) and the idea of time crystals. But they’re enormous, look like they’re made of plastic, and also vaguely phallic. The roundels & the blue/yellow is fine.
But generally — the interior of the Master’s TARDIS is interesting. When going undercover the Master goes for messy and comfortable. (Compare & contrast to the clinical look to his previous TARDISes. I rather wish we could have seen what Missy’s looked like.)
That said, the Doctor’s TARDIS is a nice reflection of who she is — there is the big central showpiece, surrounded by darkness. It’s not enough to make me like it (aesthetically I just can’t), but at least it’s metaphorically appropriate.
~~
O: Look at all the evidence I gathered. And they just mocked me.
He looks so genuinely sad/upset. I wondered at this, figuring that he was just really in character, even if surely he’d be angry, not sad. BUT. If this is coded, if this is actually him talking about what he uncovered wrt The Timeless Child…. If he’s momentarily losing sight of his role and just falling into the grief that he carries with him, it makes perfect sense. (Such big sad eyes. Ugh, I just want to hug him.)
~~
13: It’s like I can sense them.
O: I know what you mean.
SUBTLE!
And then he has a plan. The Master ALWAYS has a plan, and a back-up plan. And a back-up plan to the back-up plan. I LOVE HIM. And he & the Dr work so well together. <3
And asking Graham if he wants a look at his fanboy collection… Very nice touch. He’s being an absolute troll, but it’s adorable.
~~
O: No, it can't be. I've been through Barton's records. There are thousands of photos of him online at all ages. If he's not human, that's one very impressive legend he's put together.
Yeah, like you did as Saxon… (This was SO rewarding on re-watch.)
~~
Yas suggests steganography and O appreciates her being clever. There is definitely an undertone of O simply liking Yas. The flirting in the casino and then (at the end, after the reveal):
Master: Stick with me, Yas, cos I control... everything. Even these guys.
Who knows what his reasons are. Maybe he just likes her. Maybe he’s trying to distract himself with someone smart & pretty (I mean, that’s what the Doctor does…) It almost hearkens back to Delgado!Master & Jo — he was always flirting with her and half stealing her.
~~
DOCTOR: Oh. Why's it doing that? I don't understand. Multiple Earths? what does that even mean?
O (hand to forehead, obviously deciding that he needs to give her a push in the right direction): Okay, okay. If you really think they're spies, we should be asking who's the spymaster? Who's running the alien spies? Because that's the person who holds the answers.
You can SEE O sighing internally and deciding to throw the Doctor a bone. ‘Stop being so slow, look it’s quite simple really…’
O: Mmm. Got me. Well done.
He twirls just like Eleven <3
Now it seemed strange, how nice O was, and then the burst of manic OTTness as he revealed who he was. But I think the Master persona — the whole cackling super villain shtick — is as much of an act as ‘O’ was.
MASTER: Yeah. A man very close to my heart. Well, in my pocket, actually. Do you want to see him? It's always good to keep a backup of one's work. Tissue compression, it's a classic. Oh.
(He slowly pushes open a matchbox to reveal a tiny figure. That's a lot smaller than they used to be.)
As Promethia put it ‘It’s like he backslid so far he lost five regenerations.’ This is his early 80s’ behaviour, completely classic Ainley!Master (I love Ainley to PIECES, I might have actually clapped for joy at this point).
It’s a role he can play in his sleep though: Laugh like a maniac, throw out threats, have a perfect plan to destroy the Doctor. And there is an extent to which he buys into it himself:
MASTER: Yah! One last thing. Something you should know in the seconds before you die. Everything that you think you know... is a lie. Got you, finally.
Because it’s a much, much easier thing to do, than to face up to the truth and reveal himself.
I think my favourite thing is the WAY the Master appeared? As in, the fact that this is how the Master ALWAYS operates. Hiding, making plans, turning up and no one knowing who he is, then going 'AHA! It is ME!' Because for a while fans of New Who had the idea that the Master Had To Be Insane or whatever, but by now we're on New Who Master #3, and we can see the pattern of behaviour much more clearly. (And despite the early cackling, Dhawan!Master is not insane or ‘bananas’.)
This — this — is what the Master always does:
DOCTOR: You, Barton, and a race you barely know? That's one uneasy alliance. Trust each other, do you?
It’s so textbook that the Doctor doesn’t even blink. They’ve danced this dance a thousand times over.
And there is this sense that the Master is doing all these things [building alliances with random aliens wanting to take over the world] because what else is he going to do? He wraps murder and Master Plans around himself like an old coat, but it doesn't keep out the cold. The despair is there, so near the surface that he can't contain it.
~~
DOCTOR: Let them go, and you can have me.
MASTER: I've got you anyway.
This is… a fascinating line. Sure on a surface level it’s about the Master thinking he has the upper hand, but below that. Below that is Twelve begging Simm!Master and Missy to stay with him. Ten begging Simm!Master to travel the stars together. The Master knows that the Doctor is his, that he can dictate how things develop. (Well, to a certain extent.) But they both know that there is nothing the Master can do that will stop the Doctor caring about him.
The Doctor’s love is unconditional (and vice versa). It’s the fact of stating it outright that’s so delicious.
~~
MASTER: When I kill them, Doctor, it gives me a little buzz, right here, in the hearts. It's like... How, how would I describe it... It's like... It's like knowing I'm in the right place, doing what I was made for.
Since when has the Master needed to justify himself in that way? He is claiming that being evil is ‘what he was made for’, that he is quite simply following his nature. It’s a far cry from:
MISSY: You know, back in the day, I'd burn an entire city to the ground just to see the pretty shapes the smoke made.
Evil as a casual, careless choice, as an end in itself. But now Missy’s self-assurance is completely gone, replaced by defensive statements.
~~
DOCTOR: What do you want?
[The Master looks completely lost — as if he’s forgotten the script and who he’s supposed to be. Then, eventually]
MASTER: Kneel
[Beat]
MASTER: Kneel! Or they all die!
[The Doctor rolls her eyes, and kneels]
MASTER: Call me by my name!
[At this point he is almost crying]
DOCTOR: Master.
And so it goes, three times (very Biblical, that).
What this does, I think, is something akin to Eleven and 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.
DALEK: Correct. Review testimony.
The Master wants the Doctor to name him, to acknowledge him, to put him back in the place where he feels he belongs; good and bad, light and dark, Doctor and Master. He wants the universe to make sense again. And being bad is the place he is familiar with.
DOCTOR: He's masquerading as a German soldier. That's a low, even for him.
I am, somewhat, reminded of Faith (from S1 of Angel, ‘Five by Five’):
Faith keeps hitting and kicking Angel, but he’s not fighting back.
Faith: "You hear me? - You don't know what evil is! - I'm bad! - Fight back!"
The Master has always revelled in his badness, laughed and grinned and seen it all as a joke. After that initial confrontation in the plane Dhawan!Master is painfully subdued. He poses, but there’s very little energy.
There is also this…
(Quote from Angel. WW2 ep and Spike is wearing a Nazi coat. With many thanks to Promethia for the image.)
Admittedly very different political climate on the Doylist level, but the last person who dressed up as a Nazi for you, you married, Doctor. (Although River, at that point, was quite Missy-like? If you want a contrast. Happily blasting her way through whoever was in her way, she didn't much care.) Also, the Master has teamed up with Daleks (metaphorical Nazis) on several occasions, so why would actual Nazis be a surprise?
~~
(The Doctor is repeatedly tapping four dots on Noor's morse key.)
NOOR: That's not a code.
DOCTOR: Not to you. If this works, I'm going to need you to find something for me. This is a very personal code. The rhythm of two hearts.
I love EVERYTHING about this. The telepathy. The four beats. EVERYTHING.
~~
MASTER: And, I mean, you know me. I can't help myself. I have to stick my oar in.
MASTER: And of course, the best thing is everyone loses except me. Barton and those creatures do the dirty work, and once they're done, I get rid of them, having destroyed your precious human race in the process. Win-win-win.
Look, I haven’t changed! (He says, having changed.) Which I think ties in with this:
MASTER: Tiny Teutonic psychic perception filter. Learned it at school. Lets people see what they want to see.
Not the perception filter as such, but this:
‘Lets people see what they want to see.’
He’s doing it throughout (he’s been doing it his whole lives). He’s brilliant at playing people, whatever part he’s currently inhabiting. What’s changed is the truth beneath the surface. Yes, he used to be that maniac who was only in it for power, but that has now simply become another persona that he can project back at people. It’s a persona he’s very comfortable with, having been that person for so long, but…
DOCTOR: When does all this stop? The games. The betrayal. The killing.
MASTER: Why would it stop? I mean, how else would I get your attention?
I can’t even. *hands* Just stating his millennia MO up front, no holds barred: ‘I do evil shit & hack elaborate plans try to destroy the world just so you’ll pay attention to me.’
Because right now he NEEDS the Doctor’s attention:
MASTER: When did you last go home?
DOCTOR: What do you mean?
MASTER: I took a trip home, to Gallifrey, hiding in its little bubble universe. Not sure how to describe what I found. Pulverised? Burned? Nuked? All of the above. Someone destroyed it. Our home, razed to the ground. Everyone killed. Everything burned.
DOCTOR: You're lying.
MASTER: You should really take a look. Oh, wait, you won't be able to. I just thought I'd let you know before I...
He’s on the edge of confessing, giving the Doctor breadcrumbs to follow, because it’s a painful, difficult process. He’s stripping away layers, baring himself to the only person who understands, and yet, at the same time, angry with her.
Because — as people have said (I think I first came across this on Nostalgia’s DW) the Master blames the Doctor for caring. He can’t turn it off. He feels things now:
MISSY: I don't even know why I'm crying. Why? Why do I keep doing that now?
DOCTOR: I don't know. Maybe you're trying to impress me.
MISSY: Yes. Probably some devious plan. That sounds about right.
DOCTOR: The alternative would be much worse.
MISSY: Really?
DOCTOR: The alternative is that this is for real, and it's time for us to become friends again.
(S10.10 The Eaters of Light)
Pain and guilt and empathy are horrible things to be burdened with. And (as the Master probably sees it) the Doctor was the one who made him feel things. Locked him up for years, forced the shell open, dug around inside for emotions that should have been dead millennia ago and brought them back to life… And now he can’t turn them off!
And finally we get to the truth:
MASTER: If you’re seeing this, you’ve been to Gallifrey. When I say someone did that, obviously I meant... I did it. I had to make them pay for what I discovered. They lied to us. The Founding Father of Gallifrey… Everything we were told was a lie. We’re not who we think. You or I. The whole existence of our species. Built on the lie of the Timeless Child. It’s buried deep in all our memories. In our identity. I’d tell you more, but… [stands, sneers] But why would I make it easy for you? It wasn’t for me.
We know how destroying Gallifrey affected the Doctor, but [s]he is (after all) used to guilt. The Master… isn’t. Is it any wonder that he reacts badly, retreating to the one thing he knows? He is angry and hurting and lashing out at the Doctor, and there is an implicit ‘Why didn’t you warn me?’
Because oh, look at all the mirroring we can now do! *claps* I guess it makes sense that Thirteen in Ten-like, since we are RIGHT back into Lonely God/Last of the Time Lords territory, just flipped:
MASTER: What did it feel like, though? Two almighty civilisations burning. Oh, tell me, how did that feel?
DOCTOR: Stop it!
MASTER: You must have been like God.
DOCTOR: I've been alone ever since. But not anymore. Don't you see? All we've got is each other.
AND NOW THE MASTER KNOOOOOOOOWS. (And all they have is each other.)
Sidebar: Much as I hate the destruction of Gallifrey — props to the Master for being a one-man atom bomb. He does have that destructive streak down to perfection (hence, I guess, the shout-out to Logopolis, even if there was a bit of a continuity error).
Now, it’s not like the Master hasn’t destroyed planets (or chunks of the universe) previously, and he even tried to destroy Gallifrey before...
I’m going to pull out a few quotes from The Deadly Assassin (Fourth Doctor — Classic Who S14, 3rd story, from 1976 — the year I was born!), and yes, this does spoil the plot somewhat, but all the same you should still watch it, it’s a hoot! You get to see Gallifreyan TV for one thing. :D
First a nice little intro to the (Classic) Master:
DOCTOR: The Master's consumed with hatred. It's his one great weakness.
MASTER: Ha. Weakness, Doctor? Hate is strength.
DOCTOR: Not in your case. You'd delay an execution to pull the wings off a fly.
And then the Doctor (ah, he was SO YOUNG and innocent. I mean, he was Four, so he was sort of ageless, but he dashes about and saves the day and has very few hang-ups and gets bossed around by the Time Lords and (later) the White Guardian etc.) as seen through the Master’s eyes:
DOCTOR: Why have you brought me here?
MASTER: As a scapegoat for the killing of the President. Who else but you, Doctor? So despicably good, so insufferably compassionate. I wanted you to die in ignominious shame and disgrace.
And then, the Master doing his best Evil Overlord cackle as he is about to destroy Gallifrey and steal all their power:
MASTER: They're not dead. Stunned. They'll live long enough to see the end of this accursed planet, and for the Doctor to taste the full bitterness of his defeat!
[…]
MASTER: Rassilon's discovery, all mine. I shall have supreme power over the universe. Master of all matter! Bwhahahaha!
Come New Who, the characters have become more-or-less god-like in their powers, and the Master envies the Doctor his feats of destruction.
But no longer.
Because — and this is something that didn’t strike me until I began to delve deeper and thinking it all over, and then struck me so forcefully (one night, when falling asleep) that I literally had to sit up, turn on the light, and make a note of it:
The Master made a moral decision!
He destroyed Gallifrey because what they had done was wrong.
Let that sit for a bit.
The character who has for the entirety of their lives been motivated by nothing except survival and dominance and attaining power did something for moral reasons.
Remember the S8 finale?
DOCTOR: All of this. All of it, just to give me an army?
MISSY: Well, I don't need one, do I? Armies are for people who think they're right. And nobody thinks they're righter than you. Give a good man firepower, and he'll never run out of people to kill.
The Master is now… that ‘good man’.
Missy made a choice. A choice to stand with the Doctor, to stand up for good. To do what’s right.
But I don’t know that she ever quite understood how it works.
The Master has a moral framework of sorts now. He cares (and can’t stop), but all he knows how to do is be… is destructive. (If Missy was on a 12 Step Programme, she was only half way through.)
The Master in his actions sought no power, no glory, no alliance, no throne. Did not swan about in the Sash of Rassilon, crowing over the foolishness of his fellow Time Lords.
No. The Time Lords did something wrong, and lied about it; the Master judged them and dispensed justice. Made them pay for their lies.
The result is their home, razed to the ground, and a Master who doesn’t know how to live with himself.
So.
My final thought.
We have the Doctor, who declares herself The Hero, the good guy, the one with the (very changeable) morals (that you can’t argue with, or you get booted out of the TARDIS), even as she lies and does incredibly questionable things like letting Bad Guys go, and leaving harmful structures intact and mind wiping people ‘for their own good’ and only tells her friends the bare minimum about herself when forced.
And we have the Master, who declares himself The Villain, who kills people ‘because that’s what he does, that’s what he’s meant to do’, but who is unravelling before our eyes, unable to live with himself or his conscience. Who dispenses justice now, a judge between right and wrong.
To summarise, what does Chibnall Who bring us?
A Doctor who is pretending to be uncomplicated/straightforward Good and a Master who is pretending to be uncomplicated/straightforward Bad.
Both are lying.
The Master cares far more than he lets on, he's broken, but does his best to keep the mask in place.
The Doctor cares far less than she should, and lives behind a happy-go-lucky carefree facade.
And that? Is interesting.
(And the Master whispers: Everything that you think you know... is a lie.)
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