The Doctor and the Master: Enemies Or Friends?
Guest contributor Michael Distefano looks at the relationship between the Doctor and Master.
The finale of Doctor Who’s eighth series hit our screens last November and immediately proved a divisive episode, regarding its conclusion. What seems to make or break this episode for people is whether or not you find the resolution to be an anticlimax. Some love it; others abhor it, considering Missy’s scheme to be nonsensical. Regardless of that, though, what I find most interesting about it is that it seems to be a continuation of a dynamic that has been at play between these two characters since 2007.
In the Series 3 finale, the Master cooks up a huge doomsday scenario that threatens to destroy the entire universe. What’s striking about the Master’s whole plan in this story is how deeply personal it is against the Doctor. First, it’s worth noting that the Master does not think highly of humanity, calling us ‘degenerate’. And he finds the Doctor’s affection for us perturbing and disgusting. So using Professor Lazarus’ technology, he effectively renounces the Doctor’s Time Lord status by suspending his ability to regenerate, ageing him considerably, and then locking him in a cage while the Toclafane devastate the population below. In essence, he is saying to the Doctor, “Since you love them so much, why don’t you join their ranks and then sit and watch while they are destroyed”. In the end, the Master intends to conquer the entire universe, creating what he dubs the New Time Lord Empire with the Toclafane as his subjects. He plans to ruin the two things the Doctor holds most dear: travelling the universe, and the human race. The universe will be destroyed, and the only thing left of humanity will be the most hateful and deformed version of them. And the Doctor will be powerless to stop it.
Of course his plan fails, but what makes the Master curl up in fear and anguish is the Doctor telling him that he forgives him. It seems like a bizarre moment until you consider that the Master’s plan ran much deeper than simply punishing the Doctor alongside conquering the universe. The Master wanted to destroy the Doctor’s character by bringing him to a point of such anger and resentment that he would be compelled to exact revenge upon him out of pure hatred; in other words, to show the Doctor that they are not so different. Thus we see that the true insanity of the Master is not in his sadism or megalomania, but in his obsessive need to validate himself to the Doctor by bringing him down to his level. The utter foiling of his typically grandiose plan is nowhere near as devastating to him as his failure to break the Doctor.
This is only one side of the coin though. The other side is the Doctor and his stake in the conflict. In The Sound of Drums the Doctor states that he doesn’t simply want to stop the Master, but save him. Thus when the Master’s plan is foiled in The Last of the Time Lords, the Doctor doesn’t allow Jack to kill him, instead opting to keep the Master in the TARDIS indefinitely and “care for” him. As much as the Master wants to make the Doctor like him, the Doctor wants to do the opposite: he wants to redeem the Master. This prospect is so horrific to the Master that when Lucy Saxon fatally shoots him, he actually withholds his own regeneration to prevent it. In the Master’s mind, he “wins” in this instance because now the Doctor will have no sway over him. The Doctor will not enjoy the vindication of saving him either physically or morally, and he makes a real show of enjoying the Doctor’s anguish just to drive the point home. The Doctor holds the Master and mourns the loss of his friend, and the last chance he had to get him back.
The Doctor and the Master are both equally obsessed with swaying each other as they are terrified of being swayed by the other. In Family of Blood, the Doctor says to Joan Redfern that everything that John Smith was is inside of him. The question then arises of what this means about Professor Yana. It would seem to suggest that the Master deep down is capable of the unwavering altruism and extreme humility that defined Professor Yana in Utopia. So it is indeed possible for the Master to be redeemed. Contrariwise, while John Smith was certainly caring and gentle, he also demonstrated a cold acceptance – even tacit participation in the injustices occurring in the society he had made himself a part of. Even outside of John Smith, the Doctor, although never straightforwardly or deliberately evil, is on occasion capable of extreme cruelty. This is demonstrated in The Family of Blood in the way that he punishes the family, not to mention any number of examples one could list of similar moments in New and Classic Who.
While the Doctor ultimately strives for good, he is much closer to becoming like the Master than the other way around. The Doctor knows this and it frightens him. This is explicated in The End of Time when the Doctor refuses Wilf’s gun stating “That’s how the Master got started”, right before sadly remembering the cruel ways that he has killed in the past. The Doctor knows that the Master can be redeemed, but he also knows that he can be ruined by the Master. And between the two of them he’s the one with the uphill battle. The Master is a nihilist. Seeing that existence has no objective meaning and that in the end all will come to rot, he’s made it his purpose to help it along. The Doctor, meanwhile, is an optimist, seeing existence as a thing to be enjoyed and appreciated and, to that end, maintained. Unfortunately, his ethical stance must itself be maintained. It would be easier to slide down to the Master’s level. The Master has nothing to lose. The Doctor has everything to lose.
Coming back to Death in Heaven, Missy’s behavior in that episode compared to The Last of the Time Lords differs in two key respects. She is much more single-minded now in her goal. Everything she has done up to this point has been about trying to win the Doctor rather than conquering anything. And her methods are obviously more direct than before but much more devious. She offers the Doctor a Faustian bargain: an offer for something the Doctor wants in exchange for his soul. In order to end atrocity, the Doctor must accept and be complicit in atrocity. What’s interesting is that the Doctor does not immediately refuse, seeming to teeter. In the end, all the Doctor has to do is say no, and that is of course what he does; even going as far as giving control over to Cyberdanny, giving the dead final say over their ultimate fate. Again, the Doctor will not pull the trigger.
That is, until Clara threatens to do it. Initially, the Doctor seems to want to do with Missy what he wanted to at the end of The Last of the Time Lords, but when Clara raises the proverbial gun, the Doctor eschews a peaceful recourse and does the deed himself to keep Clara’s hands unstained like his and the Master’s. In this way, though Missy’s plan with the Cybermen is foiled, she still claims victory in the end, because the Doctor, tired and out of options, morally lapses just to protect Clara. No second chances. Not even a first chance. (Of course, we know now that Missy will return. So neither of them are out of chances yet.)
The Doctor and the Master have always respected and admired each other. In the classic show their conflicts had an underlying friendly vibe to them. The modern era has introduced a slightly deeper dimension to their relationship. Though they care for each other, their opposing ideologies put them at odds with each other until one of them caves. The Doctor is haunted by the fact that he can slide into the chaotic mindset that drives the Master. The Master is haunted by the idea of having to face the guilt of past deeds if conceding to the Doctor. Paradoxically, I think that they live for these meetings. It gives them a purpose outside of their usual respective M.O.s. The Doctor is an idiot with a screwdriver helping where he can. The Master is an agent of chaos. Their mutually conflicting interests give them some sort of singular purpose and something specific to strive for in their otherwise frivolous lives. In The Five Doctors, the Master says “A universe without the Doctor scarcely bears thinking about.” In The End of Time, the Doctor asks the Master “What would I be without you?”
What are the Doctor and the Master: Enemies? Friends? To say the least, it’s complicated.
