Date: 2007-07-18 10:34 pm (UTC)
That's it! That's the heart of the problem.

The antidote I see - the ray of hope - is that we are not getting Jack's point of view in "Last of the Time Lords" at all. We're seeing the face he wants to show, and not even his private face. So what he says and does doesn't necessarily directly reflect what he thinks and feels. He is a con man, and a soldier, whose strategy is often aimed psychologically. We've seen him use even passion as a tactical weapon - I'm thinking here of his threats against Ianto in "Cyberwoman" - which is not to say that his anger was feigned, just to say that he was using for a purpose: to get Ianto to relent.

And Jack has been known to play a long game. We just saw him wait 138 years for the Doctor - not entirely patiently, maybe, but with great determination. I'm sure he can wait longer. As long as it takes.

he must be the shippiest TV writer I've ever seen, who always jettisoned one ship for another.

Absolutely true. Or even when true to the spirit of a ship - I'm thinking of Vince and Stuart here - he puts the characters through a wringer or two.

The radiation room scene is excellent.

Yes, I loved that. The interplay was so nicely set up - then we didn't get a payoff because it was all derailed by the Master.

It's much more a Time War issue than an archenemy issue or a childhood friend one. The Doctor wants forgiveness for the double genocide, more than he wants anything, and it's pure irony that now only a professional genocidist can give him that.

Yes. We aren't presented with an easy psychological game. The Doctor gives forgiveness to the Master because it's what he most wants and can't give himself. Redemption. Jack can't help there because Jack is human and therefore can't participate in the Gallifreyan myth-arc, he can only watch, and maybe take the opportunity to help in certain practical ways - like shooting the whatsit to pieces and resetting the timeline.

So the Doctor's love for the Master is all tied up with his relationship with himself, his own past, and his origins. And a good dollop, I suppose of the 'there but for the grace of god go I', since he too might have gone mad at the sight of the timesteam. In fact, one might argue that he did, since his behaviour is not 'typical Time Lord' and never has been. That brings me to an interesting thought - the Doctor said that some children went mad, some were inspired, and some ran away. He ran away. It implies that other Time Lords ran away - I wonder where they ran, and what happened to them.

can even see these two dare each other to say goodbye to the Doctor first...

My interpretation is that, from beginning to end there, they see each other as allies, not rivals. Two humans in the same situation, who will never doubt the Doctor, who will support him through all, even if he never notices them.

they really need to be with some other people than the Doctor(or in a more normal life) to put the nightmare behind.

After the isolation, I can see that the love of family and friends would be all the more precious and desperately needed. Neither Martha nor Jack cut ties with the Doctor, or blamed him for anything; they just backed off.


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