#sixth master

[wordswithkittywitch]

The uncomfortable thing about the drums being used to explain the Master's insanity is that Simm is arguably the sanest Master (and arguably the least Doctor-sexual). His reasoning was coldly rational and was based on him successfully exploiting existing systems. So "he's doing this because he's insane" is just very ableist. Now, Ainley? Ainley's bonkers.

A lot of people, quite wrongly, think “sane people think killing people is wrong, therefore, any murderer is insane”. This is ableist as well as bullshit, sane people kill each other. The very fact that insanity is a plea in murder cases shows that it’s assumed most murderers are sane.

Now, the Master? If we don’t assume anyone who commits a murder is insane, what evidence do we have that they are? Mostly what we have to go off is “how rationally do they behave” (which is most of my basis for mentally ill Doctor headcanons) and “do the characters who describe them as insane have any basis for it?” I’m not even going to ask for any background in mental health care, although I do headcanon that as being one of the many things the Doctor has studied. 

Usually, when someone is calling the Master insane it’s either based off of “I hurt people for fun, so I’m probably a sadist”, or “I don’t see other people’s lives as important”. Look, I can’t diagnose the Master and I’m going to stop trying. Do I think he’s mentally ill? In any of his incarnations? I don’t get that off him as much of I get it off the Doctor, because the Master seems to know what he’s doing and be in control of it. It’s just more destructive.

I frankly would believe that the sixth master is claiming mental illness so he doesn’t have to consider why he’s actually doing things. 

[wordswithkittywitch]

I swear that 90% of Best Enemies art would disappear if the artists weren’t allowed to draw David Tennent and John Simm.

[wordswithkittywitch]

You ever just... wish Derek Jacobi stayed the Master until the end of the season? I don’t mean John Simm could never play the Master, World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls was his best work on the show. And he could keep End of Time, too. Not even Jacobi could save that sack of script.

[wordswithkittywitch]

I choose to interpret, “Don’t even try to regenerate.” as Missy not regenerating because she was not injured enough to regenerate, and we’re going to see her again. This isn’t the first time that any regeneration of the Master has appeared to die on screen and then show up later, uninjured, with little to no explanation as to how they survived. This is practically one of the things the Master must do to prove they are the Master at this point.

That said, if that’s the case the next time we see Missy she’s going to be more set against the Doctor than ever, probably saying something like, “I remember what happened last time I tried to be nice to you.”

[wordswithkittywitch]

Beards and disguises! 

In having those two things, he is more of a Master than he was in all of ten’s run. I might actually learn to stand the sixth Master at this rate. 

[wordswithkittywitch]

If the Master turned all humans into himself in End of Time, does that mean that there was a bunch of full-grown Masters sitting in nappies in cribs or bursting out of toddler-sized clothes? Or did they just stay babies with the Master’s grown man face, because both options are pretty terrifying. 

I suspect the first, because the Doctor noticed that one person wasn’t the Master’s height.

[wordswithkittywitch]

What if the child Master we took to be his first form wasn’t? We know timelords can regenerate into younger bodies, and we know that the first, second, third, and fourth Masters never complained of drumming.

Yes, the Doctor said he was seven years old at the time, but seven years of what planet? They can vary drastically, even if we don’t get into the fact that both the person talking and the person they’re talking about are from a planet which has been removed from time at the point of history the conversation is taking place.

What I am suggesting it’s that the “seven year old” Master was in a later regeneration than “American Accent” Master. Or, a later body-hop. Because I don’t see why the Master wouldn’t steal a child’s body if it suited them.

This doesn’t really work into the “Rassilon messed with the Master’s timeline, thus giving them a different past and driving them insane” theory I posted before, but I think they both bear consideration.

[wordswithkittywitch]

I would have liked it if it was more clear how Harry Saxon came to power. Namely, how a psychotic despot that wasn't even from Earth immediately filled a vacuum of power that was left by what history had described as one of England's greatest leaders: Harriet Jones.

This has gone beyond headcanon. I truly believe that this was the textual cause; but because it was not directly stated (also directly stating it would have hopefully prompted some emotional growth on ten's part, which he could have used) there is a possibility that I am incorrect about the writers' intents. I believe that the Master's rise to power was directly caused by the Doctor meddling with history, deposed what history called a great leader, and then flying off to have fun in the universe, leaving no one in charge and no one to clean up the mess the Doctor caused. Enter the Master. Harry Saxon can fix those terrible problems we had with Harriet Jones, he's not going to say how but we believe him. (also he's a peppy upbeat man replacing a serious woman) And then Earth was conquered by an alien and everything went to hell. I wanted the Doctor to face the consequences of having a tantrum right after he regenerated.

I want the Monk to show up and try to keep Harriet Jones in power (because, after all, he knows best about who should rule England) and get confused about how this Saxon fellow got to power. And then find out that the Doctor meddled in exactly the way he told the Monk not to.