Doctor Who: The Mind of Evil

[kerravonsen]

My viewing of this adventure was broken up into a few different sessions, so my impressions are probably disjointed.

Gee there was a lot of escaping and being recaptured. And also many nearly-getting-killed episode climaxes.

Jo was plenty resourceful. She escaped at least once without help, and held people at gunpoint! I usually just remember her being compassionate, which she was here too.

Ah, I love the Brigadier. Not just the snark he has with the Doctor, but his interactions with his staff, especially Benton. Just that slight smile, and the points where you know he is refraining from rolling his eyes. (♥ the Brig)

A bit of Race!Fail, though: "the Chinese girl! It must be the same person!" Not to mention referring to a Captain as a "girl" throughout. Well, it was the 70s. At least the Chinese weren't portrayed as villains.

This Doctor seems very fond of name-dropping. What I'm not sure about is whether he was lying or telling the truth about being on cosy terms with Lord so-and-so, and with Mao Tse Tung.
I liked how he was portrayed as being good at languages, though.

Someone made a comment to an earlier post that the Master keeps on coming to the Doctor for help "because my evil science experiment went wrong". This is certainly a case of that. Yet again we have an elaborate and complicated plan in which the Master's alien ally turns against him. I almost wonder if this plan was born of "oh, I've got this alien monster, what's the most elaborate plan I can come up with to use my toy to take over the world? Right, I'll set myself up as a Swiss scientist, take a year to build a reputation, get invited to install my 'machine' at Stangmoor prison, get invited to an embassy party, take over the mind of a Chinese aide, take her with me when I install the machine at Stangmoor, use her to kill a few delegates, put a wiretap in UNIT's phones, find out the plans for the destruction of the Thunderbolt missile, take over the prison, use the prisoners to steal the missile, fire the missile at the peace conference, sit back and watch the Earth destroy itself, and come back and rule over the rubble. Yes, that will do nicely."

The Doctor certainly seems to be better at fixing things that go wrong than the Master is; better at improvising, more imaginative. Not that the Master isn't clever, he's as clever as a Time Lord can be, and he does make fancy machines, but perhaps he isn't so good at thinking under pressure; he's more methodical.

Mortal fears:
The Doctor:
First, death by fire - referring back to "Inferno", of course. It seems ironic that the Doctor is going to have more run-ins with death-by-fire in his future: (a) probably the destruction of Gallifrey (b) destroyed by absorbing the Time Vortex when he went from Nine to Ten (c) Ten's run-in with the living sun.
The second and later times, we have fire again, but also Daleks ("Exterminate!") and Cybermen. I'm not sure what else.

The Master:
He sees the Doctor, laughing at him. I've heard someone describe this as "a god-like Doctor" but I'm not sure whether that was meant to be the case. Something else to ponder about this: if the Keller Machine takes memories as the source of the fear that it amplifies back, then is the Master remembering some event in the past when the Doctor laughed at him? Or just his fear of the Doctor laughing at him? It probably doesn't matter; in either case, it is a pretty telling fear. He cares enough about the Doctor's opinion to be terrified at the thought of the Doctor laughing at him; he wants the Doctor to take him seriously. He doesn't want the Doctor to admire him (far from it) but he does want the Doctor to respect him.

Then we have the question of whether the Master really wants the Doctor dead or not. Oh, sure, he keeps on threatening to kill him, but he keeps on finding excuses not to. Also - and maybe I was seeing things - I think there was a tinge of actual concern in his face when he came in and found the Doctor almost dead from the Keller Machine (when the Master had hooked the Doctor up to it).

These two things make me wonder, what kind of relationship did the Master and the Doctor have back when they knew each other on Gallifrey? To me, it looks like a younger-brother/older-brother relationship, with the Master as the younger brother. Not that they would have to be brothers, but some kind of relationship where the Master looked up the Doctor, whether because the Doctor was older, or some other reason. This is quite different to how I've seen it portrayed in fanfic, where they were usually equals, in the same classes, and that the Master was cleverer than the Doctor. Mind you, we know from multiple canonical sources that the Doctor did not do well academically in the Time Lord Academy, so it can't be academics which caught the Master's attention.

Okay, Master, what's with the cigars? Do we see him smoking them in any other adventure?

Comments

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

some kind of relationship where the Master looked up the Doctor, whether because the Doctor was older, or some other reason.

This fits in with my theory that their nicknames have been misunderstood, and there's a third Time Lord somewhere, called the Bachelor.

This is quite different to how I've seen it portrayed in fanfic, where they were usually equals, in the same classes, and that the Master was cleverer than the Doctor.

Which suddenly reminds me of a bizarre play I read once, which was sort of historical-theological fanfic, about Jesus and Judas as schoolboys, and Judas is the teacher's pet, who spouts terribly clever speeches, and then the teacher asks Jesus what he's learned and he says "A". And the teacher says "Just A?" and Jesus says something to the effect that he wants to understand all the possibilities of A before advancing to B. I can't for the life of me remember where I read this, or who wrote it, or when. I think it was old, but from the language not mediaeval.

That is not terribly relevant.

I have always seen them (Master and Doctor) as contemporaries, though I suppose it's not explicitly stated. That conversation in Terror of the Autons which I keep going back to:
TIME LORD: The Master has learned a great deal since you last met him.
DOCTOR: I refuse to be worried by a renegade like the Master. He's a...(Struggles to think.) He's an unimaginative plodder.
TIME LORD: His degree in cosmic science was of a higher class than yours.
DOCTOR: (Abashed.) Yes, well, er, yes, well I... I was a late developer.

So you're probably right that the Master was very good at working things out methodically, whereas the Doctor liked to wing it. Maybe that's what the Master envies, the Doctor's imagination? And his elaborate plans are an attempt to match that imagination, but he has to work them out in advance and isn't as good at improvising when they go wrong?

Except that the methodical thing doesn't quite fit in with the "jackanapes" tag, which I see as central to the Doctor's image of the Master when they first knew each other. Incidentally, that would be the Hartnell Doctor, wouldn't it, but an unknown earlier version of the Master, who's running short of regenerations when we meet him. (Is "jackanapes" a First Doctorish sort of word?)

[persephone-kore.livejournal.com]

This fits in with my theory that their nicknames have been misunderstood, and there's a third Time Lord somewhere, called the Bachelor.

*dissolves in giggles*

[scarfman]

I have always seen them (Master and Doctor) as contemporaries, though I suppose it's not explicitly stated.

It isn't explicitly stated, except Nick Courtney once asserted or speculated that they were brothers. On the other hand, Billy Hartnell thought there ought to be a spinoff series Son of Doctor Who about the Doctor's son traveling space and time doing evil. Our having learned from Romana that the Doctor went through the Time Lord academy twice, and given Time Lord longevity and the kind of time it must take to get through even once to grasp all the theory, perhaps the Master could have been the Doctor's son and still his classmate.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

It's an intriguing idea, but I don't think actors' speculation really counts! And I certainly don't get a paternal/filial vibe. I know some fans think the brothers theory was ruled out by The Sound of Drums, when the Doctor responded to Martha's query about the possibility of their being brothers with "You've been watching too much TV", but that sounded such a classic bit of misdirection that if anything I thought it made it more likely. But I don't think it's necessary.

It occurs to me that the Third Doctor may recall the Master as a "jackanapes" and "an unimaginative plodder" because he's remembering more than one version of the Master. In fact, I've now come up with my own back story in which the First Master, a mostly good-humoured trickster, "dies" in childhood and goes through an unusually early regeneration. Traumatised by having to deal with this before he's been properly prepared, the Second Master is more cautious and develops his methodical traits. But despite denying his instincts he too meets an early end. The later versions revert to the trickster, with an increasingly bitter twist as he broods on the unfairness of losing those potential lives so soon, while contemporaries like the Doctor are still carelessly enjoying their first.

[scarfman]

the Doctor responded to Martha's query about the possibility of their being brothers with "You've been watching too much TV", but that sounded such a classic bit of misdirection

I've observed before that what the Doctor answered Martha about the Master being his brother in Utopia was not semantically responsive, and - particularly in this personality - the Doctor is rarely semantically unresponsive unless he's hiding something.

I've now come up with my own back story [for the] Master

It seems obvious to me that the Master we saw during the UNIT years, then saw all decayed on Gallifrey and Traken, then saw subsuming the bodies and lifeforce of Tremas and of Bruce the ambulance driver (among, no doubt, others) - all that was one personality, his thirteenth. By whatever means the Master managed on the occasion of the Time War to acquire another regenerative cycle, Professor Yana was only the second incarnation of the Master we'd ever seen, and Harold Saxon only the third. Except, really the fourth and fifth, because the Monk and the War Chief also were the Master. Everyone who argues that the Monk and/or the War Chief can't've been the Master because their personalities were too different from his can thank Davies and Simm for tanking their argument.

[kerravonsen]

and there's a third Time Lord somewhere, called the Bachelor.
(chortle)
Yes, there was, but she found that people were rather confused by a woman Bachelor, so she then chose to go by "Iris Wildthyme". 8-P

but an unknown earlier version of the Master, who's running short of regenerations when we meet him.
Is he? I don't think that's necessarily the case. Sure, he's run out of regenerations by the time of "The Deadly Assassin", but I always assumed that it was his evil lifestyle which made him run out of regenerations quicker than the Doctor. Not that he was running short of them when we first meet him, nor that he ran through an unusual number of regenerations when he was still on Gallifrey.

I need a Master icon.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I don't think that's necessarily the case.

It's not necessarily the case, but if Delgado is the First Master, then he'd get through 12 off-screen while the Doctor casually goes from Three to Four. Which is possible but, given his best-known incarnations' tendency to follow the Doctor around, a bit unlikely. I can come up with arguments whereby some of the middle Masters aren't that interested in the Doctor, or there's a catastrophic incident where another supervillain kills him repeatedly for fun (as the latest Master does with Jack), but it seems simpler to posit that he was already running short when he first arrived.

I know you can argue that this story means that he ignores the Doctor for several earlier lifetimes - but he could have had several encounters with the First Doctor, in which case he'd miss only the Second and the Ninth... I think...

Anyway, I think it's easiest to assume he used most of his regenerations before encountering the Third Doctor, and maybe one or two post-Delgado.

[scarfman]

In a comment above I posit, and extrapolate from the postulate, that the Delgado through Roberts Masters were all the Master's thirteenth personality.

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

(Is "jackanapes" a First Doctorish sort of word?)

Very much so IMO.

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

I almost wonder if this plan was born of "oh, I've got this alien monster, what's the most elaborate plan I can come up with to use my toy to take over the world?

I suspect that actually is exactly what he's thinking, because his real concern here isn't taking over the world, it's attracting the Doctor's attention. The more ridiculously complex the plan, the harder it will be for the Doctor to resist, and the more non-obvious it will be that the whole thing's a ploy for the Master to get his hands on the dematerialization circuit. Plus, you know, the Master's stuck on Earth, and he's bored. :)

Also - and maybe I was seeing things - I think there was a tinge of actual concern in his face when he came in and found the Doctor almost dead from the Keller Machine

I don't remotely think you were seeing things.

[kerravonsen]

and the more non-obvious it will be that the whole thing's a ploy for the Master to get his hands on the dematerialization circuit
Good point.

I don't remotely think you were seeing things.
Oh good.

[neuralclone.livejournal.com]

I almost wonder if this plan was born of "oh, I've got this alien monster, what's the most elaborate plan I can come up with to use my toy to take over the world?

I was going to sit down and compose a reply to this, then I realised I'd written it all eighteen months before on my own LJ. So, if you don't mind me quoting myself:

My Doctor Who: The Television Companion complained that the Master's plan was over-elaborate and relied too much on coincidence and improvisation. That would be true if the point of the Master's plotting was really to start a world war... but it wasn't. Plainly the point of all his schemes was to get the Doctor involved in his games.

You can see it all the way through - from the fact that he chooses to disrupt a peace conference where the security is handled by UNIT (way to go, Master, baiting the Doctor's closest human associates!) and steals a missile being transported by UNIT. Then he takes the Doctor hostage, and insists that he (and he alone) is essential to the Master's plan to control the Keller Machine. (Why the Keller Machine was necessary to the Master's plans, or even why he involved it in the first place is never explained.)

And the Master's worst fear, as brought out by the Keller Machine, is being laughed at by the Doctor. %-}

Then when things go pear-shaped, the Master conscripts the Doctor to fix things.

And lastly, instead of making a clean getaway with his newly re-acquired dematerialisation circuit, the Master choose to ring the Doctor up and gloat instead. He threatens to annhilate the Doctor and Earth, but somehow I don't think he means it. He already had his chance to do the former earlier in the episode, and instead took a great deal of trouble to revive the Doctor.