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#but rtd was never going to save the show (it didn't need saving) and all this stuff he's done so far proves that for me
my-ghost-monument · 4 months
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while I've firmly decided I don't care about rtd's new era, I have to say the whole thing is really troubling me. The whole he's planning so far ahead. Whatever's happened with Millie Gibson (which, not up to date, but. Mmm.). The seemingly endless leaks, which in combo with the planning - how. how are you meant to be excited? it's running through all of that so fast. Which is what I liked with chibnall's era, that it felt like a slow release capsule of enjoyment, not spectacle after spectacle (and I don't mean spectale to mean amazing here. I mean it as over the top, stuffing it in your face). Even if you are a fan of the new rtd... this can't be fun, right? Seeing all these leaks, speedrunning the series, going into a season knowing the companion's going to leave (possibly with horrible feelings for the actress depending on how this has been handled?)
idk. I'm feeling tired by it all already, the same old rtd hits and worse (like please, please stop bringing up rose. she is one of many loved. chibs imo handled mentioning former loves so much better, like with Bill, River, and even Rose. Mentioning them, but not letting them overshadow the current era).
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kendrixtermina · 6 months
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Giving Doctor Who a New Chance, Part 1: The Star Beast
I like how in the opener the Doctor ends up running into Donna due to plain old Chronic Hero syndrome, rushing towards someone who looks like they needed help
I appreciate that we got a realtime example of Donna just missing a spaceship
her concern with stacking properly is a good establishing moment for viewers who maybe don't know her yet
It's interesting how Donna ended up giving away the money - not doing what he thought she would do
Making Donna's kid trans was a great move now that the UK is known as a rather trans-hostile place
sylvia is interesting - she seems like someone who feels guilty but is sort of going overboard with overcompensating for it rather than truly helping
badass protective - which is probably how Donna would be as a mom, some of the character development stuck despite the memory wipe, small-minded
Another Unit Scientific Advisor!
You can tell the Doctor is having a tough time with how he spills his problems to the Unit lady. Though you can also see 14 isn't quite like 10, not quite as emotionally constipated. 12 had this whole arc about spitting out the words though then chibnall didn't do anything with cause he couldn't write characters to save his life. I guess 13 was supposed to look like his (franky offensive, carricaturish) idea of a private person? At least this keeps the tendency of each incarnation being a contrast to their predecessor. Insofar as 13 had enough personality to be contrasted. Chibnalls characters are all emotionless planks of wood - and I'll better stop ranting now
i like the unit lady
It's a charming detail how Rose sells things on etsy. I betcha anything she has a tumblr
// war flashback to Ryan's increbliy generic youtube channel that was never used to characterize him in any way & then forgotten about //, & the detail is added in a kind of loving, relatable way whereas Chibnall kinda mocked the guy for listening to affirmations, for example
Ah it's so nice to have actual CHARACTERIZATION again
Like this just told us that Rose Noble is creative, but also feels responsibility to help her parents.
And her making little plush aliens is immediately lied to her feeling lonely & alienated because of how she's bullied
CONSISTENCY beyond just what is currently needed for the plot yes please. This should be the bare minimum but Chibnall went 8 episodes without giving Yasmin ANY defining traits or moments
So nice to have CHARACTERS with EMOTIONs and TRAITS
I just KNEW the Doctor was getting another Mom slap the moment the moment he showed up
the definite article XD I got that reference, esp in what looks like an Unit episode
oh noes theyre shooting up Donnas house
i love how he just naturally hands the sonic to Donna without thinking
It's extremly Donna-like to worry about her house during the alien attack
I like the resonating the wall trick coming on again - if you saw this straight after EoT, you'd still get the sense that the Doctor got more experienced.
Donna's neighbor missing everything cause he's listening to music is a mood
I love the impromptu judge wig XD
Been a while since I heard "shadow proclamtion". That was common the first time RTD was running the show
I LOVE how the twist & how the Doctor deduced it from the Unit soldier not being dead. The idea that you can know someone by their method
Also love the doctor trying to outfox the Meep but getting a tad too confident there
Also like how Donna absolutely picks up that Sylvia knows the Doctor & demands the truth, but also having a moment of vulnerability
the story's a bit over the top & cliche, though. I mean I can partially forgive it because the ep is really much more about Donna, but not a fan of the over the top cliched villain. though, this RTD is the guy who made the fart episode. he was good at concepts a lot of the time, but yeah...
The wheelchair stun darts are cliche, too, but I DO like the general twist of the unit lady realizing the guards have been mind-controlled & saving the team. She seemed competent earlier. Makes me miss Osgood a bit. One hopes wheelchair lady will keep showing up in UNIT episodes.
I love Donna taking the initiative here to run off. (characters NOT being planks of wood & making self-motivated decisions! Oh im so glad we're rid of Chibnal's trash writing)
Do like the moment. Donna still having her unimportance complex, the Doctor's response that she isn't not just because he doesn't think anyone's unimportant but because she is so important to him, "why does it have to be you" Yeah David Tennant is still good at pulling ppl's heartstrings, his resigned tone when he begins reciting the 'password'
The password being similar to that time Amy had to unlock it!
Donna's first concern upon "waking up" being that she gave away the money is soo her.
Catherine Tate really shines here how she instantly retrieves the... the fast talking thing from Journey's end??
She gets so excited at getting to blow up the alien tech XD
Again praise be to Catherine cause you can tell how the hole of self-doubt that was there (though not as much pre series 4) is just FILLED with confidence.
He just doesn't give a fuck if they shoot him when he thought Donna was dead
The thing where it's less lethal now because some of the energy passed down to her kid is neat, but I don't like the idea that the personality traits of Donna's kid are attributed to the metacrisis thing. Although I suppose it could be seen as more of a nudge or inspiration
I really like the touch that the Doctor remembered the names of the alien soldiers & spoke of them to their superiors, and that he neutralized the meep non-lethally. He's an actual pacifist again with lika a worldview, not just regurgitating lines about "not liking guns" out of context
I HATE the women's intuition thing. I get that they were trying to like affirm Rose's gender as real here but I hate it. It's essentialist and I hate it. I'm gonna treat it as just a joke Donna & Rose did cause they would.
Though I DO like, & find it very appropriate that Donna & Rose themselves are the ones to think up the solution & having it sort of come from Donna's grounded, down to earthsy nature. As a counterpoint to how the Doctor kind of over-ruled Donna's will to sort of unilaterally save her against her will & taking the burden onto himself. (Not that one can blame him too much for what he did while panicking, trying to save his besties' life. )
I love the Doctor fanboying over the new "desktop theme" & praising the TARDIS for the design choices
Such a nice touch that both the Doctor & the TARDIS remember Donna's coffee preferences. It's all about the little things.
David still got it with the "it killed me" line
I do notice that his delivery, while similar, in some aspects, is still markedly different. 14 is more emotionally honest than 10, but also less hyper, he carries himself a bit 'heavier'.
Like I feel some of that subtle distinction in nuance comes down to that when the Dr. turned into 10 it was "for" Rose (so the charme & energy etc were dialed to max), but 14 is "for" Donna, in a way, though he didn't know it at the start.
AAAAnd Donna immediately returns to being a supplier of grounding common-sense advice. Cause she is right about the big goodbye thing
that's a lot of pyrotechnics for just one coffee. Donna must've spilled it into the worst possible spot. That would be the sort of luck they'd have.
Soo. it was an episode without Chibnal's terrible, flavorless writing. I liked some of the story beats though not over the top wowed but I feel like this is the first act of a longer play & the emotional penny is probably still to drop.
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the--highlanders · 7 months
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thoughts on the star beast!! under a cut bc spoilers
first of all just. as someone who really did not vibe with the chibnall era at all. dear god it feels good to be excited about doctor who again
it was FUN. it was great bouncy silly charming fun and that is exactly what the show needed at this point I think. I can really imagine kids tomorrow running around pretending to be the meep
also the meep was great and I'm SO glad it was practical effects, it looked so good
setting aside the doctor-donna plotline, the callbacks to the rtd era were fairly low-key (resonating concrete!) and fitted in with the episode but they were fun if they meant something to you
on the other hand the glass divider between the doctor and donna and him raging at having to kill her really felt like a kind of. reverse of ten and wilf and the radiation chamber. which HURT. ten raging over having to save wilf vs not-ten raging over not being able to save donna.
rose was lovely!! I really hope we get some more substantial stuff with her, I think she'd be a great companion
seeing unit again was fun, and I really liked shirley actually!! I hope she's a recurring character, I thought she worked well with the doctor and her gadget-y wheelchair was fun
also kate sorting out a place for wilf to live 😭😭😭😭😭😭
I did think the solution to donna being able to keep her memories was pretty creative, and the acknowledgement of the doctor being outside the gender binary made me yell
that being said I really didn't like the line about a 'male-presenting time lord never thinking of [letting go of power]. I feel like that was rtd trying to be too hip-with-the-kids progressive, which like. obviously I want the show to be progressive!!! but it's the sort of thing I hate
like, first of all, we've just established that the doctor is more or less nonbinary - and the show has been very obviously referencing time lord society as genderless since like, twelve's era. time lords feel that they are /genetically/ superior - it's a species thing, not a gender thing. a 'male' /or/ 'female' time lord is going to have a tough time giving up power. and this felt especially incongruous when we've just had thirteen, a doctor who used her white privilege to hand the master over to the nazis. doesn't seem like she was very interested in giving up her power there.
imo one of the doctor's whole character tensions across the whole show is them trying to break away from time lord superiority, and again that's species-based, not gender based. and it was literally established in journey's end that the doctordonna could think of things the doctor couldn't because of her human part! there was already a solid logical grounding for donna and rose to give up their time lord powers /because they were still part human/
there were a few thematic things I would have liked the episode to dwell on a bit more, like the whole cute-appearing vs frightening-appearing thing with the meep and the wrarth warriors, and how appearances are sometimes deceiving; or the stuff with the doctor and gender; or even just rose's character as a whole
that being said, this was an episode with an awful lot to do, and also an episode which was there to be a fun romp. it HAD to be a romp. so from a sort of metatextual point of view I can understand and forgive
overall I really liked it!! it really recaptured the magic of doctor who for me after so long not feeling it and I think it's going to do a good job of its most important task, which is getting the show afloat again in terms of casual viewers.
also SO glad they've gone back to a confidential-style program, unleashed was so fun
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cipher-fresh · 6 months
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Idr if you’ve mentioned before, but what was your opinion on the whole “bi-generation” thing in the new dr who specials? Ive heard alot of differing opinions on it
I'm split- ha, ha- on how I feel. I don't like it from a Doylist perspective, but I can appreciate it Watsonianly, if that makes sense? I'll go with my negative feelings first.
One one hand, it feels like a very obvious "Bring David Tennant Back" button that RTD can press at any time. A generous interpretation would be that it feels like RTD got too attatched to David Tennant as the Doctor and is too afraid to kill his darling, and only killed him last time because someone was going to showrun after him. Bi-generation denies Ncuti being the focus of his own introduction- (while I do think he stole every scene he was in, its the principle of not having to share his introduction with anyone else, you know?). It's also left semi-unexplained why this even happened, how did the Doctor's body decide the regeneration after 13 was the one where it was official he needed to settle down, and then bi-generate so he could live with Donna and her family? I hate that Fourteen didn't really even "die", and while it seems like he will at some point in the future and merge back into 15, and then become 15- it breaks your immersion and feels super obvious that RTD did this so David Tennant didn't have to die. I'm also not a fan of RTD saying that there are bi-generated versions of every Doctor out there somewhere, all existing at the same time. I like how regeneration acts as death, and that the Doctor has to face that, but here we never get the catharsis of death and rebirth. A less kind interpretation of this decision could say that this might have happened because Disney didn't want RTD killing off the most profitable and popular version of the Doctor from the 21st century, so they can keep using him in spin-offs like that UNIT one that appears to be confirmed.
But in terms of in-universe storytelling, it's really sweet? 14 and 15 are overjoyed by each other's presence and go for that hug immediately, and are wonderfully in sync. David and Ncuti interacting was the absolute highlight of the episode, they bounce off each other perfectly and seeing 15 assure 14 that he'll be okay was very touching. 14 settling down and living with Donna is really nice in a fanfictiony way, you know? I'd love to write about 14 starting to live a human life while still being himself, becoming a part of the Noble family and working on healing from all of his scars, the dead companions and all the people he's failed to save. 14 healing from his trauma and taking a break also gives 15 a blank slate for the show's narrative to get new viewers, and face new threats.
To summarize- bi-generation so 14 can live a domestic life is nice fanfiction, I kind of wish it wasn't canon, but also this is the single most joyous hug I've ever seen in my life
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[ID: Four screenshots of 14 and 15 hugging immiediatwly after the bi-generation, then holding each other's faces. 15 says "So good to see you. Oh, so good!" as Mel looks delighted.
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Two screenshots of 15 comforting 14 after the defeat of the Toymaker, 15 puts an arm around 14's shoulders as 14 puts his head on 15's shoulder. 15 then kisses him on the forehead.
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The two final screenshots are of 14's disappointed face after 15 stops hugging him, then smiling when he hugs 15 again. /End ID]
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returnofismasm · 6 months
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Some speculation regarding the UNIT spinoff, given what we've seen of UNIT in the anniversary specials:
I think it's fairly safe to assume that Shirley and Mel and the Vlekth are all going to have roles in the show. A lot of time was spent establishing them.
Donna seems a fairly likely addition, given that she has a salary negotiation with Kate in the episode
As far as the Doctor's (either Fourteen or Fifteen) involvement, we might be able to guess based on the spinoffs from RTD's prior tenure:
Torchwood starred Captain Jack and had Martha guest for a couple of episodes, but the Doctor never directly appeared and the Torchwood cast didn't crossover with the parent show until the end of Doctor Who's fourth season.
The Sarah Jane Adventures starred Sarah Jane Smith (go figure) and Ten and Eleven were in a handful of episodes between the two of them across the show's five seasons. It also featured the Brigadier and Jo Grant in a couple of episodes.
So RTD's prior spinoffs have treated a crossover with the Doctor as a Thing, not to be squandered. Granted, Donna has a Doctor living in her yard, so he's more immediately available than is usual for the Doctor, but it's not like it takes that much more effort to justify a traveling Doctor showing up. And the real-life circumstances, like filming schedules, that made it difficult for the actor playing the Doctor to crossover are still a thing. Ncuti's obviously busy with Doctor Who itself, and will presumably take other roles during DW's filming breaks. David's a busy a guy who will hopefully be filming Good Omens 3 sooner rather than later.
So--and this is assuming Donna is even part of the cast--I think it's very likely we'll see a tension between Donna and the rest of UNIT.
UNIT doesn't know where he's gone off to. They know that Donna knows (at least where Fourteen is). Donna herself told her own daughter not to bug the Doctor about going places, she's definitely not going to let UNIT drag him into things. And it doesn't seem like Fifteen left any way to contact him. They may or may not also be aware that Mel knows where he is (but they'll probably suspect she does regardless). This saves the appearance of the Doctor for Big Events, like a season finale.
This serves a few purposes. One, it lets the UNIT show stand on its own feet without needing to be propped up by the parent show, which is always important in crossovers. Second, internal to the narrative, it lets the cast prove their capabilities without needing the Doctor around, which might be extra important in UNIT's case because we so frequently see them either asking the Doctor for help or being THEIR backup (if the Doctor isn't outright suspicious of them). Finally, it gives enough space from one of THE most popular actors to play the character so that Ncuti Gatwa can be in the role without people going "Well what's going on with Fourteen."
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variousqueerthings · 8 months
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so we're at the final double-episode of the rtd run *wipes brow*
look I'm biased. I'm sure we're all biased in terms of which era we started in, whether it was nu!who or classic!who pre-post rtd... but it's just such a good run. it just is:
obviously brought doctor who successfully back to life and returned it to its status of one of the most iconic pieces of television of all time
updated it to a 21st century storytelling format and audience, with a focus on the companion as the lens through which the show was introduced and the fact that the doctor needs them on a deep, fundamental level that echoes back and gives depth to some classic companions that maybe never got their proper dues within the show, and ripples forwards right into 13's run with bringing classic companions back!
emotional follow-through, with one long arc spanning from season 1 until the next regeneration. I've heard/seen some people think that ten near the end, and especially in the last episode, is self-indulgent and whiny, but I just... idk that is incorrect imo. this iteration of the doctor is a survivor of war and genocide, and clings desperately to people who eventually leave, and they tend to react very strongly to the continued death around them until they decide to literally test time to see if they can beat it and save someone who Shouldn't Be Saved, and then, just when they maybe have found a measure of peace with it all, they have to knowingly go and die. it's a lot for the character to emotionally compute, I think ten is allowed a little tantrum before going through with it, because so much of that regeneration is the universe using ten as a punching bag (after nine was so excited to see what came next too...)
like yeah, it's angsty writing, but that's kind of the point. emotional follow-through on concepts (immortality, transience, alienness, etc) that previously were a tad brushed over, with an added specific survivor's guilt + PTSD thrown in for good measure
speaking of all the people who leave for whatever reason -- companions with families and high stakes at home and individual personal reasons for travelling with the doctor, and for having to move on from that travelling. no longer mostly stumbling into the tardis and then sticking around until suddenly back home (or um... a couple of times dying), and reeeelatively comparably easy goodbyes (for the most part) -- being left over and over, or making the decision to go on alone, or seeing people die, hurts. and on the flipside of that, seeing all that splendor and then having to go on with life... what does that do to a person?
although chris eccleston unfortunately didn't have a great time and deserved better, the atmosphere once behind-the-scenes found its footing was clearly so supportive and friendly. people were coming back year after year (and so many of them have come back for rtd's new run, which I think says a lot too)
I know the music isn't technically underrated, but I think the music is kind of underrated actually, especially individual episode scores. the companion scores, the gallifrey score, the ood choir, the action score that was introduced in s3, and so many more, all perfection and show up wonderfully as various motifs in different places, but individual episodes had perfectly tailor-made scores (some personal favourites are dalek, father's day, impossible planet/the satan pit, gridlock, human nature/family of blood, midnight, and waters of mars)
similarly to the doctor being self-indulgent, I've also heard that dtennant is overrated, which, again, I get it. I don't agree, but I do think that some people don't engage enough with other iterations of the doctor, and so aren't really giving "the doctor as a whole character" their due shake, but sticking only with ten's narrative. that being said there's nothing about dtennant's performance that I think is anything less than amazing. and there's a reason that ten is so beloved, and it's that the main themes of the nu!who soft reboot rtd era stories that people weren't sure would last beyond a season or two, are carried on ten's slender slender shoulders and dtennant does it perfectly (see, I do think there could be less romance in ten's run, because it never works for me, and that's partly that the writers themselves seem to be shy about it/not quite sure what to do with it (because it shouldn't be there in the first place) but that's not the performance, that's unfortunately dtennant's jessica rabbit-ness). the point being, this was for a new generation that was coming from a different television background, and it was done pretty perfectly. and also dtennant loves doctor who, absolutely loves it to bits, and that shines through... the fucking nerd
rtd's main flaws (there are none I'm kidding!!) are that things can get unwieldy once they get too big, and there are times where one can see the cracks badly covered by duct tape in the format and pacing of some of the bigger adventures. that being said, every single rtd finale (from the flawless bad wolf/parting of the ways to the messy bitch that is the end of time pt1+2) is always at the end about something incredibly (for lack of better word) human. it's always about the relationships between the companions and the doctor (and also the doctor and the master, but that makes sense). the doctor and rose, the doctor and martha, the doctor and donna, the doctor and wilf (honorary companion). and the pretty big cast of characters that make them feel real -- rtd may at times be messy but he is hardly ever boring or emotionally vacant. the story itself might become untethered, but the emotions are firmly understandable
(that being said, fingers crossed that 13 years of post-doctor who have given him more sense of what to keep and what to scrap, so that the specials can be both silly and serious, without the seesaw completely ripping out of the ground -- I mean, mainly I hope it won't be wanky and self-congratulatory, but I have faith on that front! we'll see in one month)
this era of television did something that has barely ever (has it ever?) been done before. brought a story back and made it not only work, but near-perfectly balance respect for the classic, with leaps and bounds into the new. it created a brand new generation of fans, and brought along the older ones too
as a kid I didn't think any of these things, because I was just watching doctor who through the gaps of my fingers (I was a very frightened child overall). and like I said, bias ahoy, because nostalgia will do that to you, but you know what? it's still good. it's really really good. I'm so glad that it's part of my DNA
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roxannepolice · 8 months
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This is one of those "ranting so maybe I'll sleep and stop spilling salt on other people's posts" post, and I'm also setting out on a dean hunt tomorrow which is unnerving, but I guess I have thoughts about episodes that are 1-16 years old.
I'm not going to link that lovely gifset of the Masters talking about being a/the Doctor because I don't like to associate my negativity with other people's hard work, but damn if that didn't leave me gritting my teeth. Not the gifset, of course, just the idea that this is somehow a logical development.
I have ranted way too many times about how there's nothing logical whatsoever about POTD, but really, this isn't the case of a good idea poorly executed, this is the case of the author not understanding what his idea even is. This wasn't supposed to be just a body swap (which would have been SO GOOD, just imagine Whittaker and Dhawan having an occasion for acting tour de forces, imagine Yaz having to say all that sanctimonious stuff about the Doctor having people who love her in the face of the woman she loves rather than a guy who left her on a crashing plane, imagine Whittaker!Master exposing all of Yaz's feelings and mocking her with infos about all the previous companions left behind, something the Master explicitly plays at in the episode, but it wasn't pulled to its full potential, damn it's like Chibs was actively avoiding good ideas!), this was supposed to be the Master somehow becoming everything the Doctor is. And the effect is so so so bloody empty? Like, my first thought was, huh, so will this be about how the same experiences do not shape the same people? As in, now that the Master knows all the pain the Doctor went through, but also the wonder and the beauty, and yes, also their ongoing affection for him, he'll still choose to be evil? Kinda pessimistic, but interesting. Then the episode started pushing the idea that the companions make the Doctor who they are, and my interpretation... could still work, but there the message becomes somewhat messier - again, if the love of people around the Doctor made them who they are, then shouldn't those experiences affect or at least be acknowledged by the Master?
And then I had an oh. right. moment as I realised none of this was thought of - the Master simply doesn't have the Doctor's memories or else he would know who Fugitive!Doctor is. So, what exactly happened in that episode? Genuine question, because the episode sure acts like there was some subjective difference for the Master? Damn, it's just so empty.
I don't think there's much to say about Missy's scene, because it oozes irony, which is great and badly needed, but I might as well commit sacrilege and say I never understood the Doctor's logic in putting the have you thought about the fact that you'll die into his speech, like which one is it: be kind without witness or reward, to thy own self be true or remember thou art mortal?
Which leaves me with the Saxon introduction. And look, I understand it's tiresome when people pander to RTD and I'm not saying his era is flawless but it does do one thing later eras avoid: it doesn't tell you what to think. With his writing, I feel like interpretation is really an act of communication, rather than explanation of a thesis. There just plain is no preaching. And the Master isn't there to tell me stuff about the Doctor, he's there on his own terms. He's not trying to aggrevate the Doctor when he uses the title, he doesn't even know he's there for his election speech. No, he's there to act as proper dark mirror, to show how all of that genius can be used for evil, to be the baddie Doctor. He doesn't aspire to be the Doctor, he's already in the process of "saving" humanity by bringing the Toclafane over with a paradox. This is a gortesque parody of the whole concept of sustaining life! The Toclafane are humanity cannibalising itself, just as the Master will in EoT, exposing the darkness of maintaininig existence at all costs. At this point in the writing the Master isn't just defined by the Doctor, he defines him in return in a beautiful dialectic dalliance, keep in mind this trilogy is when we find up just how fucked up changing history is, this is what the Doctor holds against the Master, it's not "but you're killing people :(", it's "but you're changing history"! I know the tempation of reading the Wonder what I'd be without you in a purely shippy way, but ffs let it not cloud the fact that this is post-TLV Doctor talking, he knows the villain he could have been IF HE DIDN'T HAVE SOMEONE TO DEFINE HIMSELF AGAINST ALL THIS TIME.
Since I'm venting I might as well say this: this "development" is why I would really prefer the show to take a break from the Master for a while. Yes, a cameo in the 60th would be great, but until the show has a need for THE MASTER rather than A DIFFERENT TIME LORD TO EXPLAIN WHY THE DOCTOR IS AWESOME, idk, just resurrect the War Chief or sth.
This isn't just about sentiments, this is about two completely different perspectives on the universe. Let that ring out again.
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