maybe he punishes Jack by destroying his vortex manipulator is because he wants to punish himself, to punish this eternal wanderer in his heart.
That make perfect sense to me. Just as it makes sense that controlling Jack is a way of controlling parts of himself. (Including libido.) I argued that it's a way of keeping Jack where he can find him - and it is - but it's also a way of keeping himself away from Jack, since he knows where Jack is and he can avoid him - cutting himself off from those aspects of life or himself that he wants to deny himself, or fears, or resents.
And the Master is his dark and irrational side waken by the Time War. So he tries to become reconciled and coexist with it.
One of my favourite moments in the whole Master trilogy - and forgive me that I can't directly quote - is when the Master is asking the Doctor about the destruction of Gallifrey, and says how maginficent it must have been to have all that power, destroying two great civilizations. I think the Doctor is afraid of that side of himself, too - the decision-making that effects multitudes and that changes the future. The satisfaction in winning has to be balanced by a certianty of being 'right' in all circumstances, and that's an intimidating prospect - conceputally untenable. We've seen the Doctor having trouble with this on various occasions - "The Parting of the Ways" may be the most significant, but there have been lots of such occasions.
So with the Master he had to deal with the irrational and immoral side of himself, and (literally) embrace it. With the loss of the Master he's thrown back on the old self with the old self-correcting aids who keep him balanced, his Companions. It strikes me as interesting here - and I'll have to think through the implications - that though they both love him still at the end of "The Last of the Time Lords" (and make it clear) they both leave him - their choices, not his. Put aside the idea that this is convenient for Russell T. Davies and the plots they have coming up - it puts the Doctor in another frame of mind, a clear start, a chance to recover his own emotional equilibrium without the past loves/influences of whatever Martha, Jack and the Master represent. Which, I would guess, is as follows:
Martha - reason (concern for others?) the Master - irrationality (ego?) Jack - emotion (heroism?)
maybe something will even get retconned in the next series...
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timeasmymeasure
Re: The Doctor: Transformation or Stasis? (2)
Date: 2007-07-27 01:01 pm (UTC)That make perfect sense to me. Just as it makes sense that controlling Jack is a way of controlling parts of himself. (Including libido.) I argued that it's a way of keeping Jack where he can find him - and it is - but it's also a way of keeping himself away from Jack, since he knows where Jack is and he can avoid him - cutting himself off from those aspects of life or himself that he wants to deny himself, or fears, or resents.
And the Master is his dark and irrational side waken by the Time War. So he tries to become reconciled and coexist with it.
One of my favourite moments in the whole Master trilogy - and forgive me that I can't directly quote - is when the Master is asking the Doctor about the destruction of Gallifrey, and says how maginficent it must have been to have all that power, destroying two great civilizations. I think the Doctor is afraid of that side of himself, too - the decision-making that effects multitudes and that changes the future. The satisfaction in winning has to be balanced by a certianty of being 'right' in all circumstances, and that's an intimidating prospect - conceputally untenable. We've seen the Doctor having trouble with this on various occasions - "The Parting of the Ways" may be the most significant, but there have been lots of such occasions.
So with the Master he had to deal with the irrational and immoral side of himself, and (literally) embrace it. With the loss of the Master he's thrown back on the old self with the old self-correcting aids who keep him balanced, his Companions. It strikes me as interesting here - and I'll have to think through the implications - that though they both love him still at the end of "The Last of the Time Lords" (and make it clear) they both leave him - their choices, not his. Put aside the idea that this is convenient for Russell T. Davies and the plots they have coming up - it puts the Doctor in another frame of mind, a clear start, a chance to recover his own emotional equilibrium without the past loves/influences of whatever Martha, Jack and the Master represent. Which, I would guess, is as follows:
Martha - reason (concern for others?)
the Master - irrationality (ego?)
Jack - emotion (heroism?)
maybe something will even get retconned in the next series...
There's an intriguing degree of unpredictability.