#and here i am torn between ted neeley and ian fucking gillan sth sth the doctor as a christ figure

[roxannepolice]

This is so true, but I think there is also a level at which the declared non-interference (and I think the non-interference is a major thing, even the fact they keep their interferences hidden already says a lot) of the Time Lords just... rubs both the Master and the Doctor the wrong way, except in different ways.

I ranted about the power issue at the heart of Doctor-Master dialectic some time ago and I guess I'm still stuck on it. The good ol'd sentence of Knowledge is power (France is bacon!) is usually taken in the sense of how through knowledge a human acheives control of the rest of the world (harnessing the power of Sun to charge my phone so I can watch gay aliens) or how through manipulating what other people know one can control their beliefs (Foucalt speaking). But there's more. This is more of a theoretical situation for humans, bot precisely the kind of thing scifi should explore. There is the point where it is impossible to escape power if enough knowledge is gained. Suppose if you know everything that ever was or ever could be - doesn't all of this become your resposibility? My OCD aside, but if I know there's a volcano about to explode, don't I also express my power in NOT acting to prevent it or at least save everyone in its vicinity? There is a pilatism to the TL non-interference (something something The Master and Margarita and Pilate as the metaphor of everyone who just wants a normal life in abnormal circumstances). And yet could it be any other way? Can I, a random TL, a being of near perfect knowledge of past and future but still a slave to my opinions and passions, decide how to shape all histories?

Something something me being an actual random human being shaped by ethics tacitly or not relying on the existence of an Entity which is omnipowerful omnipresent omniscient and omniLOVING that lets all of human atrocities take place something something the same limitation applies to BBC writers.

But that's precisely the moral dilemma of the character of the Doctor - they do have deep compassion for every being, yet they still have to decide to act - or not - to shape capital H history. Seeing the universe, not ruling it, but you are always confronted with the knowledge not just of the events, but of the FEELINGS of everyone involved in them, is bound to lead to this thought experiment omniLOVE of compassion. Yet is this not a defiance of individual will? Is this not the whole point of Adelaide Brooke killing herself to defy the Time Lord Victorious, who thought he can just save one very historically important life (purely out of compassion!) and harness a civilization's future (purely because he knows his actions' consequences)?

The Master is once again the reverse of the Doctor's stance, not its negation. Yes, they are more incultured into the TL society (sth sth John Smith being a conformist and Yana being a helpful genius), yet is not the very rejection of the power inherent in near omniscience a hipocrisy (the price the Doctor keeps paying for avoiding the pilatism)? If one is raised in the ongoing awareness of all pasts and futures is not the rejection of control of it an abomination against nature (keep in mind the Master watched the TL try to end all of the universe and was like let me ascend into harmony of the spheres or wtv)?

The answer is: NO! It IS possible to help people without superimposing yoru will on them, even if you do have the knowledge of all of these very peoples' histories. But that would require viewing the universe as composed of so much more than just power relations. Which is so so hard when your counterpoint follows the compassionate route. Or when you do follow the compassionate route but your conterpoint is gone.

do love stuff that demonstrates that the master is waaay more in line with the whole gallifreyan ethos than the doctor. he like, just fits on gallifrey, you know? even his desire for control, his love of pomp and ceremony, his ambivalence edging to cruelty towards the suffering of lesser species, his conviction that things are owed to him through birthright — aren't those all just aspects of a good time lord? i like to think he could've easily stayed on gallifrey, had a truly successful and lauded life there, if something hadn't happened. and, yes, as a child, he dreamed of escape with the doctor, of seeing every star in the universe together — but was that really about leaving gallifrey to him, or being by the doctor's side? in a reality where the doctor never left gallifrey, the master wouldn't have. in a way, he sacrificed his whole rightful life for the doctor.