Masterly musings

[kerravonsen]

So, flist of mine, I am wondering, and thinking. Perhaps a stupid question. What do you think it would take to redeem the Master? I don't think Ten could do it, really, he's too messed up himself. I liked the android!Master in "Scream of the Shalka"; nicely ambiguous (and someone wrote a believable series for a backstory for that, which I tend to take as personal canon). Then there was the Master in Now We Have A Map of the Stars, who was chilling and manipulative and still ended up sort of redeemed. He kind of reminds me of Draco Malfoy in A Year Like None Other: a spoiled brat who has good reasons for changing allegiance, but very bad habits to overcome.

I like redemption; but while I could imagine the Master being pragmatic about allegiances with Good Guys, I can't imagine him feeling remorse. And I don't think he could truly be redeemed if he didn't.

Comments

[ireactions.livejournal.com]

Hi! New to your blog.

The matter hasn't gone without consideration in some spin-off media. The apocryphal webcast, "Scream of the Shalka", showed the Master as a prisoner inside the TARDIS, an arrangement the tenth Doctor would have been willing to facilitate. And the audioplay, "Master", indicated that the Master is one personification of Death, and that the Doctor hopes to one day free his old friend from his curse.

The problem with redeeming the Master is that the character has never been particularly well defined; he's a killer with no motive, a malicious force with no real purpose beyond menacing the hero and being trounced every single time (which makes it hard to see him as an actual threat). So it's hard to imagine an actual persona beyond or without the villainy.

[kerravonsen]

Hi! I'm curious how you found me, since we don't seem to have any friends or comms in common.

The apocryphal webcast, "Scream of the Shalka", showed the Master as a prisoner inside the TARDIS, an arrangement the tenth Doctor would have been willing to facilitate.

Yes, I really liked "Scream of the Shalka".

The problem with redeeming the Master is that the character has never been particularly well defined; he's a killer with no motive, a malicious force with no real purpose beyond menacing the hero and being trounced every single time (which makes it hard to see him as an actual threat). So it's hard to imagine an actual persona beyond or without the villainy.

I'd disagree that he isn't well-defined; yes, the earlier Master (especially Ainley) seemed like an aimless megalomaniac, but I think there's always been a touch of rivalry with the Doctor, a desire to beat him, which was shown more explicitly with the Simm!Master.
And the advantage of a fuzzily defined character for fanfic, is that the fanfic writer can extrapolate and fill in the gaps.