#whether 12 is talking about missy or clara

[soyboysace]

peter capaldi's era is literally just "she may be mentally unstable but she's MY mentally unstable person"

[riversofmars]

Chapter 12: Expectations

Skaro

“I think I would chose a more comfortable place to die, to be honest…“

Missy looked up to see the Emperor stepping out of his TARDIS that had materialised in the medical centre. He looked around slightly bemused and his eyes fell on the pair in front of him. Missy sat with Davros who was looking old and frail.

“And better company, too.“ He added as he pulled out the confessionary dial from his coat pocket.

“Is that why you’re here?“ Missy eyed the dial he was turning in his hand. She was surprised he’d actually bothered to come.

“I’m still your best and oldest friend is seems.“ He chuckled before chucking the dial at her dismissively.

“Well, this is… atmospheric.“ River stepped into the doorway of the TARDIS, seemingly bored of waiting inside. She looked around and wrinkled her nose.

“Don’t worry, dear, won’t be staying long.“ The Emperor turned to her, extending his hand, ever the gentleman, as she stepped out of the TARDIS as well.

“It seems congratulations are in order, Doctor, albeit a bit late.“ Davros’s voice was weak but the distaste was obvious.

“Ah yes, been a while Davros. How’s life. Thought I was here to watch Missy die, not you, but perhaps it’s my lucky day and it’s both of you.“ The Emperor smirked at him, ignoring the use of his old alias. Instead he turned to his wife. “River, Davros and Missy, Davros and Missy, my lovely wife Professor River Song.“ He introduced them with great amusement.

“I hear it was quite the wedding.“ Davros turned his chair to face them, doing his best to appear strong but the way he reached for Missy’s hand betrayed him. Missy stood, regarding the couple in front of them. She had not met the Emperor’s wife before, he had been alone when they had stood amongst the Cybermen. She had, however, heard all about their wedding day, the entire universe had.

“Yeah, lovely day, wasn’t it, dear.“ The Emperor smirked and River sighed:

“Why are we here?“

“Yes, why are we?“ He looked to Missy. “Are you quite certain you’re about to die or should we come back later?“

“I’m not, no.“ Missy replied curtly and as if on cue, all doors to the medical wing opened and Daleks rushed in, surrounding the TARDIS. The trap was sprung.

“Ohhh, would you look at that.“ The Emperor grinned and raised his impressive eyebrows, there was a sense of excitement about his expression.

“I’m about to die, Doctor, the last thing I wanted to see with my own eyes was the sun rising on a world that’s finally safe from you.“ Davros spoke, summoning his last ounce of strength. When he had taken this suggestion to the Master, she had not been keen, but he had had to try, so here they were.

“That’s low, Missy, setting a trap like this, I would have thought it beyond you.“ The Emperor looked to Missy with mild amusement.

“Someone has to stop you.“ She retorted calmly, trying her best to hide how uncomfortable the situation was making her.

“Did you think you were being clever? You know I would come if you sent me that dial, didn’t you.“ The Emperor stepped away from the TARDIS circling around the room as if the Daleks weren’t even there as he regarded the medical equipment. Davros really was the one dying here, not Missy. River watched her husband, Missy could tell she was feeling nervous about him leaving her side, but she remained quiet and watched.

“I knew it would get your attention.“ Missy focused on the Emperor again.

“And you, Davros, one last thing to do before you finally give up the ghost?“ The Emperor asked, his voice condescending. “Look at all this, keeping yourself alive, I know what you need…“ He returned his attention to the medical equipment and his hands turned golden with regenerative energy.

“Sweetie!“ River called out when she realised what he was doing but it was too late, he grabbed hold of the tubes connected to Davros.  

“You’re making us stronger. Why…“ Davros looked to the Emperor in shock. He felt his strength growing and with him, the Daleks all around.

“No, stop it.“ Missy called out as she realised what he was doing and pushed him away with some force. The Emperor stumbled and caught himself. He regarded her with a grin as he returned to his wife.

“Ah see, you’re not half as stupid as you look.“ He smirked as Davros turned to Missy looking for an explanation.

“The sewers, Davros.“ Missy said grimly and focused on the Emperor again who delighted in the sense of panic that spread amongst the Daleks.

“No.“ There was rumbling far below the city and realisation dawned on Davros’s drawn features.

“Never forget who you are dealing with.“ The Emperor grinned with wicked delight. “Now have a unpleasant death.“

“No!“ Missy called but he ignored her and pushed the door to the TARDIS open. He put his arm around River’s shoulder.

“Kill him!“ Davros shouted to the Daleks but they weren’t listening, desperately looking for a way out as rumble below their feet became louder.

“How can you just stand by and watch this, River, you were raised better than this!“ Missy burst out catching River’s eye as she turned to follow her husband. Madame Kovarian had told her and made her peace, before she went to the godforsaken wedding. And now, Missy could only look at the girl she had tried to protect with disbelief and hurt. River looked back and Missy hoped for a moment she sensed her stalling but then she just carried on into the TARDIS without looking back.

——

“I think they’re on to you.“ River perched on the bed when Clara opened the the door. The visitors had long left and River had gotten bored waiting by the door. She knew Clara would come back for her eventually.

“She’s always like that.“ Clara waved off her comment and chucked some clothes at River. “You might want to get changed, you stand out.“ She gestured to her environmental suit.

“Are we going for a candle light dinner?“ River raised her eyebrows at the silky gown Clara had given her as she held it up.

“Get changed, then we talk.“ Clara rolled her eyes at her and turned to leave again.

“Are you going to be honest with me now?“ River called after her but didn’t get a response.

When River emerged from the small bedroom, she found Clara had tidied up the mess she had made earlier and a meal had been laid out on the table. Clara was just pouring herself a glass of wine and looked up. The gown fit well, of course it did, it belonged to the other River after all. Clara made a mental note to see to some shoes as River was barefoot at the moment. Her sense of style probably didn’t allow her to wear the practical boots with a pretty dress.

“Candle light dinner after all?“ River questioned, noticing that Clara had got changed as well, though in her case it was probably just because her shirt had been blood stained. The cut up her arm appeared to be bandaged up now, at least so it seemed from the bulge under the sleeve of her cardigan.

“I don’t know which one of you I find more irritating.“ Clara sighed taking a sip of her wine as she waited for her to sit.

“Me or my twin from this universe you mean?“ River asked as she sat and poured herself a drink as well. The food looked delicious and she felt she needed a drink right about now. So why not take advantage of the opportunity? She didn’t have anything better to do.

“You’re quick.“ Clara observed as she helped herself to food.

“Wasn’t exactly hard to figure out listening to your conversation with them.“ River shrugged mirroring Clara’s actions. “Makes a whole lot more sense now why you need the Doctor’s help.“

“You’ve only just arrived, you haven’t seen the damage the Emperor has done.“ Clara started but River laughed:

“You can cut the crap, there is no need to pretend with me. You don’t care about the population or anything else.“ She took a sip of the wine and regarded Clara over the rim of the glass. “You just want the power, which is fair enough, I don’t like playing second fiddle either. But here is my question: She trusted you once, she doesn’t seem to be the sort of person that trusts people easily, so at some point you were loyal to her. What changed?“

“I don’t think I owe you an explanation.“ Clara retorted cooly as she cut a piece off the steak on her plate.

“You don’t but you will give me one.“ River replied leaning forward.

“Is that so?“ Clara chuckled, raising her eyebrows.

“Yes because you want something from me.“ River nodded skewering green beans with her fork.

“And what makes you say that?“ Clara asked tilting her head a little.

“You could have just left me in that room until tomorrow afternoon when everything is done. If you just needed me to be able to blackmail the Doctor, you wouldn’t have wasted your precious time on me. But here we are, having a meal together, wine is good too, so you want something from me.“ River took another sip of her wine. It actually was very nice.

“I did say you were quick.“ Clara smirked, she wasn’t sure whether to be impressed or unsettled by her quick deduction but she figured either way, it would make things easier.

“So before you tell me what it is you want from me, butter me up a little and let me in on why you’re doing this.“ River leaned forward. She couldn’t deny she was a little intrigued. It wasn’t every day one visited a parallel universe and met different version of themselves. “There was no small measure of animosity between you and my twin. Something happen between you?“

“Nothing springs to mind.“ Clara shrugged cutting another piece of meat.

“Oh so this isn’t about how you’re in love with the Emperor and want her all to yourself but can’t because she’s married and faithful and if you can’t have her, then no-one should?“ River mused nonchalantly. “I mean, that’s just the general vibe I’m getting, I could be wrong… I only listened in a little.“ She shrugged and took another bite as she watched with amusement as Clara’s expression went from surprised to angry to embarrassed. “I couldn’t care less, Clara, it’s not my wife you’re after.“ It had been Clara’s statement to the Doctor about how she wasn’t going to convince the Emperor that she was a more suitable match that had given her away.

“You have no idea what it’s like, you have her! You wouldn’t understand!“ Clara snapped, struggling to keep her emotions in check. She was starting to dislike this River as much as the one she knew, though for different reasons. She couldn’t stand how she acted like she could just see right through her.

“I think I understand far better than you know.“ River sighed. “So this place… it’s not just a parallel universe, it’s a mirror universe, isn’t that right?“ She looked over to the window, looking out over the Citadel. “We’re opposites of each other so to speak?“ She looked back to Clara. “Where the Doctor is kind, the Emperor is cruel?“ She had to be sure she was getting this right, a lot would depend on it.

“I suppose so.“ Clara replied reluctantly, she hadn’t given it too much thought but it certainly appeared that way. From what she had learned from the Doctor so far, their universe was as different to theirs as it could possibly be.

“What of my parents, Amy and Rory, are they here?“ River pressed on.

“They are.“

“Not trapped in Manhattan then, and I’m not dead. Different choices, due to different personality, different outcome.“ She was speaking to herself more than anything else as she worked through the information.

“What is your point?“ Clara carried on eating, trying not to get unnerved.

“Well, I’m just trying to understand. I don’t know you, Clara, not in my universe, I must have died before the Doctor travelled with you… So we never would have had competed for the Doctor’s affection.“ River tilted her head, looking Clara up and down. She was certainly pretty, she couldn’t deny that. She wondered what the Clara in their universe was like.

“If it makes you feel better, she said she never had romantic feelings for her Clara.“ Clara huffed.

“Wouldn’t have made a difference to me, I was dead. I would want them to be happy.“ River shrugged. “Believe me, we’re not that exclusive…“ She couldn’t help but chuckle.

“What?“ Clara looked at her utterly confused.

“You find that hard to believe, don’t you? Different personalities, remember?“ River pointed out.

“But you love the Doctor.“ Clara frowned.

“Of course I do. With all my hearts. And she loves me, I know she does. She just broke every rule in the universe to bring me back. I once broke time for her. It happens.“ River laughed a little, thinking about the lengths they had both gone to for each other.

“But…“ Clara didn’t know what to make of her statements, it made no sense to her.

“I guess what I’m trying to say is that your River and I have made different experiences with our spouses. River has always been with the Doctor, sorry, Emperor, since you’ve known them, right?“ River asked, noticing how Clara had stopped eating, she was clearly intrigued.

“Of course, they barely spend any time apart…“ Clara confirmed.

“So I imagine she’s scared about losing her. To the universe or to anyone else for that matter.“ River carried on, her suspicions confirmed.

“What do you mean by that?“ Clara asked.

“The Doctor and I have been all over each other’s timeline, out of order, bad timing, stolen moments, there was some time together, yes, one very long night… but our relationship was never what your Emperor and her wife seem to be enjoying.“ River explained, putting her cutlery down as well.

“That’s…“ Clara was surprised, she didn’t know what to say.

“Sad? I guess so. But I’m grateful for the time we had. And I learned not to hold the Doctor too tightly. I learned to be grateful for those moments and that our bond is stronger than time itself. That’s why I’m not scared or worried about her devotion to me. What we have is bigger than that. So, what I’m guessing is whatever your River has been through, the life she has had with her Doctor… she’s clinging on to them because she’s scared of losing them. That’s why she’s jealous. That’s why she’s confrontational. She’s insecure about what they have. Mirror opposite to me.“ Of course River couldn’t be sure, she had never met the woman, but it made a lot of sense to her. She knew the feeling all too well. Before she had met the newly regenerated Doctor on their trip to Darillium, she had assumed he didn’t love her nearly as much as she loved him. He had spent twenty-four years showing her how wrong she had been. Then it had been time to part ways again, knowing it might well have been their last night together. River had only been able to do it because she had finally realised how strong their bond truly was. And now, she was here, after the Doctor had saved her from certain death, proving her right, yet again.  

Clara didn't know what to say, she just looked at River dumbfounded. In the same way as the Doctor was soft and kind in comparison to the Emperor’s roughness and cruelty, she had expected this River to also be a more mellow and sweet version of the tough and short-tempered empress she knew. But it seemed as though River was far more conflicted in her motivations than she had anticipated and her mirror image wasn’t as clear cut as the others.

Almost as if River had read her mind, she carried on:

“Did you think because she’s tough, I had to be weak? Some people are more complicated and I can only presume, this will be the case for her and me. We all carry both good and bad in us, some of us more than most.“ River swirled her wine. She was curious about the other River now. She knew herself to be someone who at any given time was able to go one way or the other. There was one determining force in her life, the same she presumed to be true for her counterpart: “She may be cruel and tough but she’s doing it for her. Just like I’m being good for the Doctor. We both just want to make them happy. Love can do that to you. Make you change everything about yourself so you can be the person they want and need you to be. I’m a psychopath, the Doctor will confirm it. I was born and raised to kill the Doctor. Of course, I fell in love with them instead but the damage is done. And she’s not here right now.“ River leaned forward setting her glass down. “I’m also a pragmatist. I’ll do what I can to help people, particularly when it aligns with my own interests, but we it’s a choice of me or them? Well.“

“You’re… not what I expected.“ Clara shook her head in disbelief, chuckling.

“No?“ River grinned amused. “Well, we’ve only just met.“

“Why are you telling me all this?“ Clara asked leaning forward as well.

“Because you’re about to ask me to help you and I want you to know what sort of a person you’re dealing with. I love the Doctor. I will do anything to keep her safe. So before you do something stupid like threaten to harm her in any way or put her in danger, just tell me what you want from me so we can get out of here. I have no interest in this place and your squabbles. The agreement you had with my wife stands. We help and you give us the TARDIS.“ River reached for the wine bottle to refill her glass.

“That was… far easier than I anticipated.“ Clara shook her head to herself unable to believe her luck.

“Why?“ River took a sip of her drink. This really was good wine. “Did you expect me to kick up a fuss?“

“Well, yes.“ Clara laughed and held out her glass to River who obliged and filled it. “I’m about to ask you to impersonate the Emperor’s wife, sneak into their quarters and kill the Emperor while I deal with her wife. Does that not bother you?“

“Is that all?“ River chuckled.

——

“Darling, you must know that she is playing you, you must!“ River burst out when they returned to their quarters and the door closed behind them.

“River…“ The Emperor sighed, then chuckled. She really was persistent, wasn’t she.

“No, don’t shot me down again, you already humiliated me by doing it back there, now you listen!“ River snapped, her emotions bubbling over. She couldn’t believe her wife refused to see it. For a long time her dislike of Clara had been with very little factual reason, she admitted it. It perhaps was a little childish and born out of an insecurity that she usually kept well hidden, but things were different now. This was not a time for wishful thinking or blind loyalty.

“No, you listen!“ The Emperor interrupted her. She reached for River’s hand but her wife pulled away, still angry. She was just about to go off on another rant but the Emperor pushed her index finger against her lips to shush her. “I know she’s up to something, River, I’m not blind! Of course she is.“ She smirked and River’s face fell, her continued protest dying on her lips. The Emperor reached out and took her face in her hands and reassured her. “There was no denying it now.“

“Then why…“ River looked at her perplexed and annoyed in equal measures. She was relieved of course but confused as to why she hadn’t said so before.

“What do we gain from putting her down now? If she is indeed in league with the Doctor or has somehow secured her cooperation, they will meet up again.“ The Emperor explained.

“You want to see what she’s up to?“ River huffed. It made sense of course but she would have preferred she didn’t take the risk.

“They have to be up to something. At first I thought it was just a matter of escape for the Doctor but she came back to talk to Clara… there must be more to it.“ The Emperor mused. She let go of River and strolled over to the drinks cabinet. They had gone from viewing the Doctor as a valuable asset of information, to having to worry about a treasonous plot in their midst. If this was really the case, she had underestimated the Doctor, the Emperor had to admit it. She felt River’s eyes on her and looked around to find genuine worry painted all over it. “She won’t outwit us.“ She sat down her glass without drinking and returned to her wife, more concerned with her wellbeing. She brushed River’s curls back and gave her a reassuring smile, something much softer than anything anyone outside of this room ever got to see. “We keep a close eye on her. When she has led us to the Doctor, and her disloyalty is proven, we can get rid of her.“ The Emperor leaned forward and kissed her wife softly to reassure her.

“I want to be the one to kill her.“ River said after brief contemplation.

“Why does that not surprise me?“ The Emperor chuckled. “You hated her all along.“

“I like her just fine. I hate the way she’s throwing herself at you.“ River huffed looping her arms around her wife’s neck.

“As I have told you many times, you don’t have to worry about my loyalty to you.“ The Emperor winked and carried on teasingly: “Talking of… so about the Doctor?“

“Yes, well, I hope you can forgive the little indiscretion.“ River sighed though somewhat amused. Of course she had told her wife about it straight away, they didn’t keep secrets.

“Oh, I don’t blame you.“ The Emperor chuckled. She hadn’t been wild about the whole thing when River had first told her, but she knew and trusted her like no-one else. There was a bigger picture to look at and she was starting to find the whole thing quite amusing. “I would have loved to have seen her face when she realised you played her.“

“She would have kept going as well… it’s quite sad really, she must miss her…“ River mused as she tenderly brushed her wife’s hair back. “I wonder what happened to her.“

“The Doctor’s fault, no doubt.“ The Emperor huffed, she couldn’t give two hoots about the Doctor’s state of mind. “So what was it like? When you were getting it on.“ She smirked and pressed her lips to the side of her wife’s throat.

“She tried, to be fair, to come across strong.“ River chuckled leaning into her.

“Hm… like this?“ The Emperor pulled River around and urged her over to the sofa.

“Something like that…“ River grinned when she pushed her onto it with some force.

“Let me remind you of how that’s done.“ The Emperor climbed on top of her and pushed up her dress.

——

“So where do we start?“ Missy asked, a sense of excitement and hope gripping her that she hadn’t felt in a long time. They had called on the Monk and Manton and restored Missy’s tent as best as they could. Now they sat gathered around a small fire waiting for a simple soup to cook.

“We need to find out what Clara is planning.“ The Doctor clapped her hands together jumping to her feet again. She didn’t do well sitting still. She thought better on her feet.

“I have contacts at the palace still, I’ll see what I can find out.“ The Monk said. “And Doctor? Thank you.“ He smiled at her. Missy had filled them in on what had happened at the palace and he couldn’t be more grateful.

“It’s the least I could do.“ The Doctor smiled. “I’m confident Clara wouldn’t harm River, not while she needs her to blackmail me, but we need to find out where she is keeping her and we need to think up a way to get her out of there.“ She carried on.

“She’ll likely keep her close in her quarters, she wouldn’t risk moving her around the palace and anyone see her.“ The Monk observed.

“What sort of tech have you got down here?“ The Doctor asked turning to Missy, she needed to figure out what sort of resources they had. She had a few bits and bops in her coat pockets but not a whole lot. “I managed to teleport into her quarters…“

“You can’t just teleport in, there is a suppression field, it was probably cause you were inside the field already.“ Manton mused.

“Or because it was because I used the TARDIS…“ The Doctor sighed. The TARDIS was obviously far more powerful than an average teleport. One idea off the list.

“Her TARDIS?“ Missy asked surprised.

“Yeah, but I couldn’t fly her, she revolted.“ The Doctor waved it off. “But the TARDIS must be the key, somehow surely I could…“ Her thoughts were running away with her again. From the moment she had laid eyes on the TARDIS, she’d been devising theories about how she could use it to take her back to her universe. “No, park that for now. Let’s focus on the problem at hand.“ She pushed her theories away and refocused on the group in front of her. “This celebration tomorrow, what will it look like?“

“Usually she receives guests from the significant civilisations she’s conquered… , Silurians, Zygons, Sletheen… It’s a show of strength… then there is usually a parade around the city…“ Missy explained.

“Plenty of opportunity for an assassination attempt out in the open…“ Manton mused.

“The security is impeccable. Also, if she wants the Doctor to take the Emperor’s place, it can’t happen in public.“ Missy shook her head. “If people realised she’s dead, there will be an uprising. It’s her they’re scared of. That’s why Clara needs you. The people need to believe the Emperor is still around to keep the Empire together. Clara may be powerful but nowhere near what she would have to be to stand in her place, that’s why she can’t just kill her.“ Missy turned her attention to the Doctor who was listening intently. “I very much doubt she will let you go when it’s done… she’s going to want you around to maintain the role play.“

“All the more reason to not let this succeed.“ The Doctor nodded feeling determined.

“It would have to be in private, where you can then take her place. But that would involve Clara getting past the Royal Guard and River.“ Missy carried on. “I can’t believe she’s stupid enough to try this… She’s going to get herself killed. There is no way she can pull it off, no matter what she’s planning…“ She shook her head to herself.

“What’s the ideal outcome here, Doctor?“ Manton asked. “Do we help Clara Oswald kill the Emperor and then we deal with her? What does winning look like?“

“I don’t want to kill anyone.“ The Doctor said softly but it was beginning to look like that was what they would have to do. Stand by while Clara carried out her little scheme, even ensure that she succeeded… and then find a way to get rid of Clara in turn… which would proof difficult while she controlled the Quantum Shade… with her, too, killing her might be the only option.

“You can’t save everyone, Doctor…“ The Monk mused. “And some people don’t deserve saving.“

“And we don’t get to decide who lives or dies.“ The Doctor retorted firmly and locked eyes with Missy who gave her a sad smile. She understood. “And there are Amy and Rory, Yaz, Ryan, Graham… would you kill them all?“

“If that’s what it took…“ Manton said gravely.

“Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it.“ Missy interrupted. “Why don’t we focus on saving your wife for now, Doctor?“

[wren-rambles]

No messy. No fussy. Just Missy.

Here it is, the long awaited character analysis of Missy a.k.a. ‘the Master’. For reference I will be using information from sources outside the show! Such as ‘The Missy Chronicles’ and detailing’s of the audio stories.

I know this has been a long time coming, but it's here now!

First off, it is impossible to isolate Missy from the Master because they are the same with some physical differences as well as some minor personality differences. So, I must start off with the fact that In general the Master (as a whole) only ever does things that suits their needs and their purposes, or that simply will entertain them. Therefore, there are no differences between Missy and other Master’s OTHER than 1. she identifies as she, 2. she is calmer, more poise if you will.

In the very beginning of Missy’s incarnation, she awoke on a Mondasian Cyber-ship with no recollection of why/how she got there.

What’s in a name?

One of the first things the Master does after a regeneration is go the the Scoundrels (a gentlemen’s club for evil doers such as them-self). At this point Missy hasn’t picked a name for herself, so she is nameless). Upon going to and taking her usual seat, she is met with sexism and thrown out of the club. Of course this makes her angry, so she goes on a journey of revenge. On this journey she meets a woman called Saffron (a freed slave from Southern America during the 1700s); it is here in which Missy picks her name. In conversation with Saffron, Missy mentions she was called ‘Master’ and Saffron says “You’re all masters here [...] even the mistresses,” which piques Missy’s interest and gives rise to her calling herself ‘Missy’ (short for Mistress). Missy recruits Saffron and uses her to help aid her in her revenge à la Master style. She goes on to kill every member of the club. The members she didn’t kill she brought back in time and sold into slavery after releasing some slaves so that she could replace them. (So, yes she freed slaves but we aren’t sure what she actually did with them and there’s almost no way they would have been safe if simply released).

Missy commits the acts of revenge against those who have wronged her. Nothing that could be considered ‘good’ can be equated as good due to her malicious motivations behind them.

Dealings with Gallifrey

Missy’s TARDIS is broken! the Eye of Harmony (EoH) has been shut down, locked by Gallifrey, only to be turned on if she does their bidding. So, Missy is recruited by the General and accompanied by Yayani to sneak into the Kyme institute to stop them from using a creature that has been engineered with “time-and-space-travel capability” and with this type of creature it could cause problems throughout time and space. Disrupt the balance, paradoxes, etc. This creature was also born/created to be pregnant so it had the instinct to survive. After some manipulation of Yayani based on her past and hatred for Rassilon (she tried to kill him -> forced to work for him) she is coerced into killing the Doctor who created this creature. Then as expected Missy releases the creature (not for good reason, sorry) and replaces the Eye of Harmony in her TARDIS with it. She imprisons the creature to power her TARDIS, she is no longer reliant on Gallifrey, and to send a message she kills Yayani via Tissue Compression Eliminator and sending her body to Gallifrey and a message ‘Not your puppet’

The many complexities of Missy

Clara: Initially she manipulated her into calling the 11th Doctor and caused them to meet. Then she places an ad in the paper to keep them together after 11s regeneration into 12. She does this to create the Gallifreyan Hybrid of myth out of the both of them. Missy kills Danny Pink by running him over with a milk float.

Lucy Saxon: Missy tells her that she must shoot Harold Saxon, but keeps the information that Lucy will die to herself. She also requests that the matrix slices Harold had acquired be given to her now for her purposes. 

With these slices she creates the Nether sphere where the undying minds go. (3W) The reality altered the minds and removed emotions. Missy uses these to fill Cyber coverted bodies. She creates her army of cyber men and plans on converting all the soon to be dead humans into Cybermen. To prove a point she turns control over the army to the Doctor, she wanted him to take control and use the army to prove that their similarities. Much to her dismay he turns control over to Danny who orders the Cybermen to destroy themselves. Plan foiled, Missy fakes her death in order to escape.

Missy even tries to manipulate children into furthering her causes and schemes to gain power. (’Teddy Sparkles Must Die’) This doesn’t go to plan.

Bottom line is that Missy is very smart calculated and complicated. She manipulates things through time to suit her needs or future needs. There is a constant struggle for power. 

Moving on, Missy is put on trial for her crimes and sentenced to death. The Doctor was chosen to carry out the execution, but he faked her execution and decided to put her in a vault instead to guard her body. His goal was for her to realize her wrongdoings and become good. After a long time Missy ends up shedding a tear for all those she had killed/hurt, she also claims that she regrets her actions.

As a test the Doctor has Missy perform maintenance on the TARDIS while he is away. She waits for him. This is 12s cause to free her from the vault. He decides he can trust her. They each contemplate whether or not they can be friends again.

The thing is, the Master and even Missy are no strangers to playing the long game. It’s questionable whether or not her change is really genuine.

Then we come to Missy’s end. 

As a test, 12 sends Missy on a test mission to see if she really has changed. She is ill prepared and under her watch Bill is shot and carried off to floor 1056. Missy and 12 went to said floor together. 12 leaves Missy to gather information and she learns the ship is Mondasian. Missy ends up going along with ‘Razor’ (Simm!master) only to eventually claim she was playing him. She quickly admits that she is unsure of her allegiance. 

The Doctor tries to convince Simm!master to help him save the people because it is the right thing to do but he doesn’t then in private with Missy, she reveals that she wanted to stand with him and help him but couldn’t. The she leaves with Simm! As they were about to leave Missy stabs Simm! forcing his regeneration into her. Missy reveals to him that she planned on siding with the Doctor which angers him.

By now it’s apparent that she has changed. She leaves to help the Doctor, but it ends up killing her. Simm! shoots Missy. Thus Missy dies. She dies and the Doctor believes she always went back on her change, but really she was just too late.

Missy tries to change for the better. She ultimately wants to stand with the Doctor, finally they end up on par with each other. level ground, standing side by side finally. But she’s too late. 

The Master is just to disgusted with the idea of standing with the Doctor on his moral high ground. It’s about bringing him down, not climbing them-self up.

Sidenote: Missy through a complicated event become the Lumiat! Another incarnation who claims to be good as a result of the Doctor’s teaching/influence. She herself tries to be a good influence on Missy. This version foils may of Missy’s plans but ends up having to regenerate because Missy got bored of her. It is after this that we assume that Dhawan!Master comes about.

So, what does this all mean? Is Missy good? Well, no, she is still at the core the Master who is inherently bad. Is the Master capable of change? That really depends on which Master you are talking about. Missy, yes. Simm! no. Dhawan, I also believe no. A calmer more poise Master, yes.

The most tragic of all, is that Missy (and the Lumiat) is a moot point. The Master always goes back to being evil. Dhawan is proof of this, regardless of Missy’s learned lessons or changes they are always meant to go back, their need for power is too strong not to.

This is NOT an ultimate conclusion, this is based on the information we have been given thus far in the Master’s/Missy's history!

[twelvetm]

What plots/interactions leave you feeling protective of your muse?

meme || closed

i think i feel protective of 12 in every almost every thread in some capacity or the other. but unfortunately i haven’t been able to explore more of the vulnerable points of his character, and this is for several reasons. the doctor often establishes himself as the character in the room that almost every single other character looks up to and respects in some way. so when he says that he’s fine most characters dismiss this and don’t push it. they don’t generally push him to consider that maybe he’s not. 

exploring the doctors more vulnerable side is reserved for mainly characters/companions that have travelled with the doctor many times before, such as clara, bill, charlotte, missy && river. but there hasn’t been much opportunity to really delve into some of the more nuanced moments with the 12th doctor. which i wish there was more of an availability to do.

i have been most protective of the doctor during threads where he’s lost out. whether that be with charlotte and he’s talking about how he misses but also doesn’t remember clara, but unfortunately i’ve never been able to write further than that.

[yeonchi]

Doctor Who Series 12 Review: Epilogue

It’s time to wrap up another series of reviews. Thanks to the Series 12 finale, I’ve got quite a bit to talk about. I’m also going to cover a few topics related to the production of the series.

Final series rating and verdict

Episode 1: 8/10

Episode 2: 8/10

Episode 3: 5/10

Episode 4: 9/10

Episode 5: 8/10

Episode 6: 8/10

Episode 7: 8/10

Episode 8: 7/10

Episode 9: 9/10

Episode 10: 7/10

First half mid-series total: 38/50 (76%)

Second half mid-series total: 39/50 (78%)

Final series total: 77/100 (77%)

Compared to Series 11′s total of 73%, I can agree that Series 12 is better than Series 11 - but not by much. I can’t help but feel I’m giving this series too much credit given how it’s being handled under Chris Chibnall. I found less SJW red flags in this series, but they were major ones that reflected current affairs or absolutely broke the lore of the series.

In turn, there were more episodes where I was unable to find tokusatsu references - there was one such episode in Series 11, but in Series 12, there were three such episodes. It’s easier for me to count how many episodes don’t have tokusatsu references than those that do.

The elephant in the room that will never get solved

Unfortunately, before the premiere of the series finale, Sacha Dhawan and Steven Moffat have stated that the origin of O as the Master should be left to the fans and that it is unlikely that it will be answered in the series anytime soon. I mean, we almost saw that happen with John Simm as Harold Saxon, but then he came back for the Series 10 finale.

It's so amazing how this series started off with me denying that O was the Master to me begrudgingly accepting that O is the Master with contrived theories and opinions. Again, I wouldn't have had much of a problem with this if Missy wasn't (seemingly) killed off. If it weren’t for O admitting that he has no better nature, I could have locked in my theory, but I guess we’ll just leave it up in the air, shall we?

On one hand, if O's incarnation of the Master definitely came after Missy, then Saxon didn't give her the full blast because as I said in my review of the second episode, there is no reason why the Master would rob himself of opportunities to spite the Doctor, knowing that he would continue to live on. On the other hand, having O be set between Saxon and Missy, while it would fit him not having the character development of the latter, would be unnecessary because it would jumble the Master's timeline in relation to the Doctor's. I still think the Rani should have been brought back, though.

The Timeless Child and the Cartmel Masterplan

In case you haven’t seen the review of the Series 12 finale (which you should), I don’t have a very high opinion of the Timeless Child arc because it overcomplicates the Doctor’s past (and diversifies it in the form of pre-Hartnell incarnations) and puts the Doctor on a higher pedestal above the Time Lords, like a godly figure (as if the Time Lords weren’t “godly” enough). It also raises a lot of plot holes and issues that I can’t be bothered getting into because I’m so distraught about this episode; other people can probably sum them up better than I can (UPDATE - 13 March 2020: Screen Rant listed a few of them in this article).

In researching for this topic, I was reminded of this line in the Series 9 premiere, The Magician’s Apprentice, in which Missy states that she has cared about the Doctor “since always, since the Cloister Wars, since the night he stole the moon and the President’s wife and since he was a little girl” before saying that one of those was a lie. In Hell Bent, it was revealed that the third statement was a lie perpetuated by the Shobogans; the Doctor lost the moon and he actually stole the President’s daughter.

I would have been happy to leave this as a throwaway line and one of Missy’s lies (ala the honest and dishonest guards) if it weren’t for this episode. If that last statement is actually true, then there are only two possibilities: either the Timeless Child’s “friend” that she was seen playing with is actually a young Master or O’s incarnation is between the Saxon and Missy incarnations.

While doing the same research, I was also reminded of the Cartmel Masterplan. During the Seventh Doctor era, a group of writers led by Andrew Cartmel defined a vision that would reintroduce mystery into the Doctor’s character. It would reveal that the Doctor was a reincarnation of the Other, one of the Founding Fathers of Gallifrey. Due to producer John Nathan-Turner’s meddling with the scripts, only references to the Masterplan were kept in Seasons 25 and 26. The Masterplan would be explored in the Virgin New Adventures novels (of which Lungbarrow would be the final entry to feature the Seventh Doctor).

I wouldn’t have had such a problem with it if it was done before Series 7 (or the Moffat era) because Clara’s storyline basically locked in the definition of the Doctor and his lives as we knew him. And yet this was the storyline that Chris Chibnall wanted to write since he was young, essentially bringing a modified form of the Cartmel Masterplan to Doctor Who, which connects to my next bit.

Chris Chibnall, 1986

One of the well-known things about Chris Chibnall from before the revival was that in 1986, he (age 16) appeared on a BBC daytime show, Open Air, representing the Doctor Who Appreciation Society in Liverpool. Writers Pip and Jane Baker were also present. In that program, he criticised one of their stories, namely Terror of the Vervoids, stating that it was very clichéd and boring. Years later, in 2018, Chibnall would dismiss those words as nonsense, but in my opinion, to reflect those words on his time as showrunner so far would be an understatement. Maybe it’s why he couldn’t bring back the Rani in this series...

(in case you didn’t know, Pip and Jane Baker wrote The Mark of the Rani and Time and the Rani)

Expecting a full run every year

I covered this in the prelude of this series’ reviews, but I’ve learned a bit more about it since then.

Given how the first five series of the revived Doctor Who had a "full run", which I define to be exactly 13 episodes broadcast consistently at the same time each year without any splits, it's easy for people to assume at this point that the BBC aren't keeping to that standard. However, given the split seasons, the changing schedules and reducing episode numbers, the underlying causes are not as simple as we think.

I took a look at an overview of the Doctor Who series on Wikipedia and I found that the classic series has had more and less episodes per season when compared to the revived series. I know it may seem like that because the episodes are generally equivalent to half the length of a revived series episode, but things will be put to perspective when you halve those episode counts (with the exception of Season 22, which had 45-minute long episodes), so the numbers I quote will be taken with that in mind.

During the First and Second Doctor's eras, an equivalent average of 21 episodes were broadcast each season. In the Third, Fourth and Fifth Doctor's eras, that was reduced to 12.4 episodes. Finally, with the exception of Season 22, the Sixth and Seventh Doctor's eras had an average of 7 episodes per season. In a Radio Times interview, Chris Chibnall has stated that every episode is essentially a "big movie" with new guest casts, new sets and new monsters. In the same article, it stated that Russell T Davies was put under a lot of pressure during his time on Doctor Who, particularly given the fact that he was also overseeing Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures at the same time. Each Chibnall era series took 10 months to film, so that will presumably be the case when Series 13 starts pre-production in June 2020 with filming to start in September 2020.

As for Steven Moffat, the split of Series 6 was his idea, however the split of Series 7 wasn't necessarily his, but the BBC's idea to reduce the gap between the end of Series 7 and The Day of the Doctor. He also stated that he wanted to make Doctor Who an "event piece" by being open to "shaking up the transmission pattern", claiming that "the more Doctor Who becomes a perennial, the faster it starts to die". In short, if each new series of Doctor Who premiered at different times each year, then fans would be anticipating it for longer.

Following Series 11, there was only about a month to wait until the New Year’s special. Following that, there was a year until the start of Series 12. Now with Series 12 over, we have nine more months to wait until the festive special (whether it’ll be broadcast on Christmas or New Year’s Day is not confirmed yet) and then after that, we will potentially have another 9-10 months of waiting until Series 13 starts again in autumn 2021. This is one of the factors that are contributing to my decision to eventually move on from Doctor Who once I’m done with it.

About licence fees

I was going to do a bit about the ratings of the show, but the patterns are too erratic to infer anything specific. There are some general observations I can see; there was a downward trend in the average ratings during Steven Moffat’s time as showrunner while Series 11 had the biggest rate of viewer change by season (see the charts linked in this Reddit comment).

In the middle of February, it was suggested that Prime Minister Boris Johnson could order a reform of the BBC, scrapping the licence fee and changing it to a subscription model. This, combined with some of the fan reaction to Series 12, seems to be leading to a rise in calls for the licence fee to be scrapped.

In Britain, the TV licence increases with inflation each year. From April 2020, the cost of the TV licence will rise by £3 to £157.50 for colour licences, while the monochrome licence will stay at £52 (as if anyone still has monochrome TVs in the current year). Until the end of May 2020, TV licences are funded by the government and as such, are free for people over 75, but from June onwards, licences will be funded by the BBC and will only be free to anyone aged 75 or over who receives Pension Credit (which is apparently different from the State Pension, or so I’ve read), meaning that others will now have to pay the full licence fee (way to exploit old people, huh).

My other favourite country, Japan, also has a TV licence fee, which is used to fund the NHK. There are three types of licence, namely a satellite licence which also covers terrestrial broadcasts, a terrestrial licence which only covers said broadcasts and a special licence which covers satellite broadcasts for people who are having difficulty receiving terrestrial broadcasts due to trains or the terrain. As at October 2019, the annual (direct debit) cost of the three licences (which are cheaper than paying monthly or bi-monthly) are at 24,770 yen, 13,990 yen and 10,940 yen respectively. There are discounts if you live in Okinawa, near an airport or an air base, or if you are paying for multiple licences, through your cable company or as a family (with more than one licence).

Basically, you will need a TV licence if you watch any channel on free or pay TV (or any TV program on an online service if you’re in the UK) and the licence merely funds the national broadcaster. There have been calls for governments to stop funding public broadcasters with taxpayer money for various reasons. Some people also believe that the funding of those broadcasters are being jeopardised by their governments as well.

I consider myself to be lucky here in Australia as the licence fee was scrapped in 1974 and the ABC was funded by government grants ever since. Back in 1964, a TV licence would have cost £6 (A$12), which equates to A$171.08 in 2019 dollars.

The enforcement of the licence fee has made paying it in the first place a hassle for some people. If you do some searching on Google, then you might find stories from people, particularly in the UK and Japan, who have been harassed by these so-called licence fee collectors.

In my ideal world, I would prefer that public TV stations are funded like they do in the United States - partially from the government and partially through voluntary donations from the general public (and foundations and corporations as well). I can see how this would make them look like any ordinary charity, but it’s better than nothing and it makes everyone happy.

The fall of Western entertainment and everything I ever loved

Over the past two series of doing these reviews, I’ve been trying to convince myself that Doctor Who won’t take a big dive into the SJW agenda. Now having seen the Series 12 finale, I’m finally ready to take the red pill and fully accept that the show is no longer how I remembered it to be.

I hear a lot of people saying about how some series and franchises used to be good, but then got worse and worse as time went on due to the SJW agenda takeover. I don’t follow those other franchises, so maybe that’s why I’ve been sceptical for so long.

In terms of my personal life, I’ve lost interest in many things I used to like over the past decade due to various factors. New animes became too sexist for me (in terms of marketing and gender ratios). Video games are more focused on money than entertainment. Koei Tecmo barely dubbed their Warriors games fully and recently, they recast the entire English cast for Dynasty Warriors 9. While I was too busy to keep following My Little Pony, the main highlight I got from reading comments about the Friendship is Magic finale was that among other things, some things in the epilogue were not left to audience interpretation. And of course, Doctor Who retconned its past in ways no other person would have even dared to think.

With the exception of the English dub thing, it would be easy to blame SJWs for ruining the things I used to love and appreciate. It would be too optimistic, however, to consider that there were other factors besides SJWs, considering the way the world seems to be thinking at the moment.

Over the past few years, I’ve been unable to find any new significant things to love and appreciate. It almost feels like I’m Stan Marsh in those two South Park episodes where he turns 10 and starts seeing the world as shit. Maybe it might be time for me to grow up and accept the truth. Oh well, for the time being, at least I still have Japanese tokusatsu - my last bastion of sanity in this turbulent world.

UPDATE - 13 March 2020: Speaking of which, Power Rangers Super Megaforce disrespected 21 years of continuity and barely anyone was complaining about or defending it because of SJW reasons, yet when Doctor Who disrespected over 56 years of extended continuity, everyone was complaining about or defending it because of SJW reasons. I honestly hate to see where these observations go from here.

Regarding the festive special

As I stated, the next episode, Revolution of the Daleks, will be broadcast at the end of 2020. Interestingly, the episode (or at least parts of it) were filmed together with Series 12 as there were reports that Daleks were involved in filming at the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol around the end of October last year. This means that the footage would be held for at least a year before it would premiere on our screens, leaving a bigger risk for leaks than normal.

There is a rumour that John Barrowman will reprise his role as Jack Harkness again in this special. If so, then I hope it complements his appearance in Episode 5.

Recently, it was reported that Tosin Cole and Bradley Walsh would be leaving the series as they were casted in US courtroom drama 61st Street and a remake of UK comedy drama The Darling Buds of May respectively. Funnily enough, it was also stated that they could continue to make occasional appearances, so we’ll have to see it to believe it.

Obviously, this means that out of Graham, Ryan and Yaz, Yaz will be staying with the Doctor after the festive special. Talk about Yaz favouritism, eh? Speaking of which, I don’t think I saw as much Yaz favouritism in Series 12 than I did in Series 11. At the same time, Ryan’s dyspraxia was touched on as frequently in Series 12 than it was in Series 11.

Hopefully, this change means that we’ll be seeing more Yaz character development, though with the mystery of the Timeless Child still looming, I somehow doubt it.

Negotiating DWexit

So now, having watched the Series 12 finale, I’ve decided to take the red pill on this series falling to the SJW agenda. If it weren’t for my obligation to write these reviews, I would have decided to stop following the series, but seeing that Series 13 would be Jodie Whittaker’s third and possibly final series (based on how many series previous Doctors have done), I’m going to take one final chance and review Series 13 when it premieres late-2021. Remember that the series finale would set up some new plot threads that would be answered in the next series, so I’m looking forward to seeing how the Timeless Child arc concludes.

I was hoping to maintain a casual interest in the show after this entire review series is done, but there may come a time when I have to put my foot down and move on. Even if we find out later that the Master was in fact lying about the Timeless Child being the Doctor or that the Doctor’s pre-Hartnell incarnations weren’t canon, it doesn’t excuse the fact that Chibnall tried to diversify the Doctor’s past or contradict established canon. If casting the Thirteenth Doctor as a woman was strike one (which I’m teetering on), then this would be strike two. What it would take for a strike three would be another female for the Fourteenth Doctor or something even worse than the Series 12 finale.

In the meantime

Regardless of whether I will be reviewing Series 13, the fact is that there is still a lot of time to kill, so I’m going to share some of what I am planning to post on Tumblr for the rest of 2020. Aside from the sporadic random and content introduction posts, I have a couple of posts sitting in my drafts (hoping to make another one or two as well) about some obscure memes I’ve been appreciating.

I low-key mentioned this in the review for Episode 6 and on the Sea Princesses Wiki, but I’m planning to buy Fabio Yabu’s Princesas do Mar books and translate them so I can do reviews on them and put info from them on the wiki as my final project for it. I aim to start this by the end of this year when I earn enough money from work to buy the books, but if there are any Brazillian fans out there who wouldn’t mind sharing scans, snapshots or transcripts of the books, then please feel free to contact me and maybe we can work something out.

I’ve never thought about pointing this out for the past few years, but the truth is that my Facebook and Tumblr pages (along with my anime pages on Facebook) haven’t grown much over the past few years (whereas the Yui Hirasawa Waifu Network is seeing new followers almost every few days). As for this Tumblr blog in particular (my main page), I suspect that I may have been shadowbanned since at least 2015 while I was writing the Koei Warriors Rant Series, which is why I barely see any new followers or activity on here. Only one user liked one of my reviews during Series 12 and only one user liked a couple of my reviews during Series 11.

So if you happen to see this, feel free to follow me and look forward to my future content. And if you happen to see my past posts and you have a problem with them, then maybe you should have thought twice about following me or making a scene about it.

Otherwise, thank you for reading this series of reviews again. I’ll be back at the end of the year to review the festive special, Revolution of the Daleks.

[beccaland]

Twelve Days of Twelve | Day 8 | Character Development

July 23: Character Development. “Am I a good man?” From the uncertain, cue-card needing 12 that we started with to the man he is now, this is a day to appreciate the character development that 12’s had during his run.  

I thought I ought to post my own meta for Day 8 before reading anybody else’s, because otherwise I might be tempted to just reblog and say “yeah, this.” As I’m sure others will discuss at greater length, the Twelfth Doctor’s character development has been among the strongest (the strongest, in my judgment) of any Doctor with the possible exception of the First. So instead of writing about that, and because it’s my birthday, I want to give a little twist to my Day 8 post, and talk about how the Twelfth Doctor has influenced my character development. 

Many of yesterday’s #thankyou12 posts about our favorite scenes focused on the many instances in which the Doctor demonstrates his fundamental kindness, but what sets Twelve apart from prior incarnations in this regard is not just that he is deeply committed to being kind, but that he’s also deeply committed to teaching kindness to others. He doesn’t just offer us an example of how to be kind, he talks about what it means to be kind, and why it’s important to strive to be kind, even though it’s hard, even though it “hardly ever works,” even though it might kill you in the end.

Like many Whovians (and like the Doctor himself), I’ve been aware from an early age that I was cleverer than a lot of people and that this had a tendency to isolate me from my peers to some degree. Cleverness can be easily squandered, but because I had parents who valued learning, I cultivated my intelligence and prided myself on it. I got very good at knowing stuff and winning arguments. Every once in a while I had to use physical force to defend myself or people I cared about from bullies, but fortunately only very rarely, because frankly I’m not very physically impressive. Instead, I usually outwitted people who wanted to hurt or take advantage of me--just like the Doctor. And I admired the Doctor a lot--probably more than any other fictional character. In fact, I have joked that if I were not a Christian, Doctor Who would serve much the same moral function for me that my faith does. In truth, it sort of does anyway. 

But in my younger days, I got so wrapped up in being smart and clever and righteous that I sometimes forgot to be kind. I was rarely ever cruel, but despite all my intelligence and education, I have often been thoughtless. Fortunately I had some wise mentors and friends who taught me, both by example and by counsel, that being kind is even more important than being right, and that the two are not at all antithetical.

So along comes the Twelfth Doctor era. Here is a Doctor who is deeply concerned with being good, because he isn’t sure that he is good, and he knows he wants to be. He’s brilliant but often impatient and downright rude with people who can’t keep up with him intellectually; even when he’s not being impatient or rude he’s sometimes thoughtless. But he still cares, deeply, even about the pudding brains. And Clara teaches him--she doesn’t reassure him at all about whether or not he’s good, but she reminds him how to be kind, and teaches him to value trying to be good. He teaches her, too. If they weren’t exactly equals to begin with, they are in the end. And he teaches other people, even the worst of the worst, people like Davros and Missy who are so terribly clever, certainly his intellectual equals, but who somehow never understood about kindness, and maybe never will. He tries to teach them anyway because that is what kindness demands. He teaches would-be villains not quite so bright nor so bad about kindness and mercy, too, and some of them become heroes. He teaches mediocre people and good people to be better. He does all this by trying to see what is most good in all of them--even in Davros and Missy. He tries to show them what it means to be good and what it means to be kind, and why it’s important to try, and he doesn’t just hope they’ll get the picture, he talks about it openly and at length. He teaches. He doesn’t just want to beat his opponents. He wants to change them, to make them better. 

Does that sound condescending? Honestly, sometimes it does. But here’s another thing about Twelve--for all his cleverness and impatience and rudeness, he’s also deeply humble. When he gives these speeches about kindness and mercy and goodness, he’s not just trying to teach other people. He’s reminding himself, because he knows he’s still learning and needs reminding. Because he often doesn’t succeed at living up to his own ideals. He surrounds himself with kind and clever people who can help him keep learning what it means to be the Doctor, and why he must never stop trying.  He believes that the struggle to be good and to fight for goodness and to teach it has the power to make him better, too.

So by the end of this regeneration, he’s so much more patient, so much softer, so much warmer, so much overtly kinder, and his cleverness is all the more powerful because of it.

As for me? I’m not there yet, but I’m working on it.

[prat-central]

Got a theory about the Bill being the doctors kid thing? Any reason you think that?

Okay, theory time! -cracks knuckles.-  I’ve been waiting for someone to ask me this…

So, one: The Doctor gave her literally a WHOLE box of pictures of her mother. Where the hell did he get all of those pictures? I mean look at this: 

This to me doesn’t look like someone who is friends with the other person and just taking pictures of their ‘bestie.’  And according to Bill her mother hated pictures of herself, (which honestly can’t be confirmed at any time, because Bill might not have gotten that info from a reliable source.) Believing that Bill’s mother did in fact hate getting her picture taken, why would she agree to take so many pictures for/with the Doctor? 

I know I hate my picture taken, and no matter what my friend said I would be like fuck you, it’s not happening, (this would not happen for me personally, I would still say fuck you,) but if you’re in love or like someone you are more likely to do the thing you hate, like feel pretty enough to take pictures of yourself. 

Two: The Doctor seems to know who Bill is before Bill really knows who the Doctor is. Why is this? Because he knew her mother, and Bill knows this…after he gives her the pictures. My basic problem with this whole thing is why didn’t Bill ever ask the Doctor about her mother? 

He never says anything to her about her mother, other than that one time they were trying to defeat the monks, and it really has nothing to do with anything. 

Yet, he knows who she is and picks her out of the crowd to ‘pick on her,’ according to Bill herself. He then offers to be her tutor thing, with literally nothing to go on. He doesn’t know how bright Bill is, he doesn’t know if she would even want to be tutored….

But maybe he does, because he knew her mother, (and it wasn’t strictly stated, but strongly implied that her mother went to that school as well, which would have been how they met obviously,) so he knows Bill would have a strong connection to the school, and whether or not she was smart enough….well, if she is his child, he would be pretty confident that she is indeed smart enough. (I’m not saying he even knows she’s his child though, he might, he might not.) 

Three: The timelines match up, Bill says the Doctor had been a professor at the school for fifty years, that is PLENTY of time for him to meet Bill’s mother, (which would have obviously been one of his students,) dated her, her to get pregnant with Bill and sadly die. 

The problem with this part is, is if the Doctor is Bill’s father and her mother died, why the hell wouldn’t the Doctor have raised Bill? Well, I have theories for that, too. 1:  He could have thought it was too dangerous, he was guarding Missy for all of that time, both him and Nardole would probably be freaked out that Missy might catch wind and do something to the child. 2: He might not know she is his child. 3: It’s pretty…against moral code to knock up a student, so, to protect his job, (which is selfish as fuck,) he might not have claimed Bill as his child, for various I need to stay here and protect the vault reasons.  (I also don’t believe Nardole would have any idea about any of this, really…no one should tell Nardole anything…ever.) 

Four: There is literally not one tiny mention of Bill’s father, not even the tiniest of mentions of her dad.  She only ever talks about her mother and the Doctor never asks about her father either. He did sort of ask about her mother in the Pilot, but you would think he would ask about her father too…like, there was nothing. So, this leads me to believe that Bill was obviously raised to know literally nothing about her dad at all, nothing. In fact, no one probably knows who it is. 

Because, if there was a man in question, it wouldn’t make sense for the Doctor to not know who it is, because Bill’s mother looked pretty young when she died, there is a very limited time space for this all to have happened, she would have had to meet the Doctor, know him for a very short time, loose touch with him, meet the man that is Bill’s father, get pregnant, and then die.  (Which is do-able, but kind of unrealistic.) 

With all those pictures, it is implied that Bill’s mother and the Doctor knew each other for a pretty long time, no one can take a whole box of pictures of a person in a day, and besides, she looks different in some of them. I know, we only saw a few, but it looks like a few of them could be from different times. ( Different times in her life. Not times like time and space, I don’t believe the Doctor traveled with Bill’s mother, I do believe she probably knew what he was though.) 

And as Bill still lives in the same town with that woman who clearly knew her mother, it is implied that her mother obviously stayed and lived there and most likely died there, so the idea of her going off and meeting some mystery man that the Doctor doesn’t/ nobody know/s is very unlikely. 

Five: Playing into this same convo from up above, and just a small thing,the woman Bill lives with, forgive me for not knowing her name or even caring, (she was useless,) She was clearly an idiot, but she was pretty quick to jump to the idea that the Doctor was being inappropriate by being Bill’s tutor. Which, I assume most people would, honestly, and it’s not much of a theory reasoning, but she could have been thinking “Oh my god, like mother like daughter,” because obviously she knew Bill’s mother and obviously she would have heard stories of a professor Bill’s mother might have been seeing at the time. Obviously, she wouldn’t realize it was all the same dude. (This one is all very loose, it’s not the most sound example, but just think about it…) 

Six: Why the hell was Bill still alive as a cyberman? 

In all normal situations, wouldn’t that have killed her? I am under the very strong impression from watching other episodes of this show that once you a cyberman, you dead. Like, you so dead…so why was she able to fight being one for so long? Why was she able to cry as one and why wasn’t she dead? 

Well, obviously, Timelords can die, and she wouldn’t be full Timelord, but her life state would be upgraded, her dna would be stronger, more able to handle stuff, like the Doctor is. 

In that alternate universe she is able to remember who she is and who the Doctor is, which also implies that her brain is slightly advanced also. 

And lastly, I know this is just a TV show, but there is such a thing called makeup, she said she had been waiting for the Doctor for ten years, yet she didn’t look a day older than when she left him….janked aging genes because she’s part Timelord? I think yes… 

Seven: Just the way the Doctor acted toward her, there was nothing to suggest romantic feeling at all, it felt very fatherly to me, like he was her mother effing Space dad! It was very different from his last companion (Clara) and that is EXTREMELY apparent. I felt at some points he was also like super excited and proud and always wanting to teach her stuff, which can be argued that he acts toward other ppl too, but it felt more parental/teachery with Bill. And also, he was perfectly fine with her calling him her dad (which he never normally is when anyone else says this,) in the episode Knock Knock, yet was offended she called him her granddad…which can be a running joke for the show, but it seems to be slightly different in this case. 

Overall, I feel like there is some very strong evidence that this could be true, I mean…it probably isn’t, and we still have one more episode of 12 and Bill, but I doubt we’ll get any answers with that one. There is also a chance that she could travel with 13, but I am again doubting it. I overall am happy not knowing, because it gives my theory fire, but I mean….it’s definitely worth knowing if I turn out to be right. I would be so happy if I was. (Still, probably not though, just a  theory for fun….maybe.) 

[tardisgirlepic]

Ch. 2: “Extremis” Analysis Doctor Who S10.6: 3 Masters & Is the Doctor Hurt Worse than We Think?

More Oddities

There are plenty more oddities in “Extremis” whether it’s the Vault, Missy, the Doctor, the Master, the Veritas, etc.  Because time is short to post a second chapter, you’ll have to excuse the flow of things.  “Extremis” has so much to talk about, and I want to get at least some of this out.

The 2 Liars

Moffat has a sense of humor in the subtext.  I forgot to mention something in my previous chapter that I find really amusing, which supports my hypothesis that this Doctor is real.  In the Oval Office, there are 2 chairs, one on either side of the president’s desk.  Check out the patterns in the backs of the chairs.  They are lyres, most likely a play on liars.  There also happens to be 2 Doctors, 2 crosses, and 2 images when he sends the email, too.  This Doctor is lying about whom he is.  Not only that, his faint inverse reflection shows up on the desk.  He is opposite to how he appears.

He would have to lie, so as not to give away any plans he has.

BTW, at the end of “Oxygen,” when the Doctor is talking to Bill, we see a stoppered liquor decanter (red arrow) near the window and Beethoven.  It looks empty, but it may not be.  If it’s not, he has strong fears about what has happened, especially with his blindness.  However, emptiness represents loss of hope, which seems very likely.  He is literally running on empty, feeling like he has nothing left to give.  This certainly goes along with taking one’s life, and the suicides in “Extremis,” including the president’s.  The other thing here is the chess set (white arrow).  This is war, which is tied up with potential fears and his loss of hope.

 The Master from Old

Long before Season 10 started, I said a lot of old cast members had to come back.  I’m not surprised at all that John Simm would come back as the Master.  In fact, I expected it from the subtext, which shows some surprising things.

“The Sound of Drums”

This image below is from “The Sound of Drums,” John Simm’s first episode as the Master.  I’m not counting his previous one, “Utopia,” where he regenerated at the end.  

Anyway, check out his inverse reflection (yellow arrow).  He and the others are not as they appear.  However, something is even more curious.  Notice the little Roman columns (white arrows) above the fireplace. This ties him to “The Fires of Pompeii” and the 12th Doctor.  It also ties him to the Library because there are 4 columns in each set. Four is associated with the Library, I believe, because the 4th Doctor integrated with Morbius, which, I also believe, comes back to the Eye of Harmony.

We’ve seen how the Master is associated with CAL and the drums in the Library.  However, there’s a much more surprising thing, which I’ll show you in a few minutes.

This image below is another example of something not being the way it looks in this episode.  In fact, the 10th Doctor, Martha, and Captain Jack Harkness are in many skewed scenes.  This image with Jack comes from Martha’s apartment.  Here, Jack is associated with a sea turtle (yellow arrow), a 12th Doctor symbol.  He’s also associated with the 3 legs, the triskelion (white arrow), which is a symbol of the Isle of Man.  It also has more connections tied to the 12th Doctor, which I’ll explain in a few minutes. Additionally, the red arrow points to a statue of a dancer.  The surprising thing is whom these items are associated with, besides the 12th Doctor.

In “The Impossible Astronaut,” Amy has the same symbols associated with her on her refrigerator, except the dancer.  For that, Amy has a print of a dancer on her wall in another scene.  She also dances in “Asylum of the Daleks” when she is under the illusion that the Daleks are people dancing.

I won’t be surprised if Amy and Jack show up.  I am expecting Amy for multiple reasons.  For similar reasons, I believe we will see other characters, like River, Clara, Rose, and Donna.  I’m expecting Susan to make an appearance.  This would be great if it happens, don’t you think?

“The End of Time” Parts 1 & 2

In “The End of Time” parts 1 & 2, the Master turns everyone into himself, except the 10th Doctor, Donna, and her grandfather Wilfred.  In these last 2 episodes of the 10th Doctor, the Master has more ties to the 12th Doctor.

Most of the scenes play out in the Library metaphor.

But there are other similarities.  For example, in this image below, one version of the Master is associated with the number 3, symbolizing The Ghost.  Other versions of the Master come out of other doors in this apartment building, but those numbers are dull, or the numbers have fallen off, leaving a faint print of the former number.  This number stands out.

 Here’s a close up of another version of the Master.  There were several, versions of him, like the one below, who are associated with Santa. In “Last Christmas,” Santa is associated with the 12th Doctor.  In fact, Santa represents the Doctor’s psyche, which suggests the Master is part of the Doctor’s Vault metaphor, his mind.

Here are several clones in the image below.  By turning every human into himself, he is like the Empty Child going around spreading the plague of physical changes from a template, like little Jamie did.  We’ve seen this in the subtext with the 12th Doctor, too.

Here’s the really shocking part.  Well, it’s not so shocking since “The Deadly Assassin” is so heavily referenced, but still… The Master is associated with the horse and rider from “The Beast Below.”  He is an architect of what is going on with the 12th Doctor. We know Missy is an architect, too, because she was using Clara to manipulate the Doctor.  However, this image below, along with the other things I mentioned above, suggests the Master, himself, has something to do with the 12th Doctor. Notice, too, that the horse is behind bars, like the Master.

Here’s the President of the United States below, who now is another version of the Master.  In “Extremis,” we see the 12th Doctor at the president’s desk.  In many ways, the 12th Doctor is mirroring the Master.  This begs the question of whether the Master, Valeyard, or someone has usurped the Doctor or his body.  I am sure something has been usurped because that theme keeps coming up in the subtext of several episodes.  For one, we saw it with Shakespeare’s As You Like It.  I’ll show you more in a few minutes.

In yet another example of mirroring, the Master was always wanting to eat a lot because he was running an energy deficit.  The 12th Doctor is mirroring the Master by also eating a lot.

BTW, Bill in “The Pilot” says something that connects to the Master.  She is trying to talk the Doctor out of a mind wipe and says

BILL: Okay, let me remember just for a week. Just a week. Okay, well, just for tonight. Just one night. Come on, let me have some good dreams for once. Okay. Do what you've got to do. But imagine, just imagine how it would feel if someone did this to you.

I found this to be really interesting because in “The End of Time” episodes, people were having bad dreams, signaling the return of the Master.  I took Bill’s statement to be a signal that the Master is returning.

In “The Pilot,” they also travel to a planet that reminds me of the Ood’s planet, which is where “The End of Time” started.

The Sicilian Legend of the Triskelion & Medusa

While the triskelion that we saw with Jack and Amy is different from the image below, there is an important connection in the subtext of multiple episodes to an associated legend. This image from thatsarte.com is a symbol of Sicily and of the story of Colapesce, which has a connection to the 12th Doctor.  Not only does it contain the 3 legs, but also it has the head of Medusa.

A Sicilian boy named Nicola, nicknamed Cola, loved the sea and spent his days swimming and diving.  Because of this, everyone called him “Colapesce,” where pesce means fish.  He lived in Messina, a beautiful city in the east coast of Sicily, with his mother.  She didn’t like Cola’s habits and told him that he would change into a fish sooner or later. 

Because of the enormous amount of time in the water, his body started changing. He became more like a fish, diving at greater depths without any effort and staying underwater for many hours.

The boy was very popular because he helped the sailors to avoid the dangers at sea and he always came back to shore with a great story to tell about the treasures lying on the bottom of the sea.

When King Frederick II learnt about Colapesce’s extraordinary skills, he sailed to Messina to meet him off the coast. The sovereign threw overboard a golden goblet and asked the kid to dive and bring it back. Colapesce did not waste any time: he plunged, came back promptly with the precious goblet and narrated the wonderful submarine landscape he had just admired.

Impressed, the King asked the crew to sail where the water was much deeper and threw overboard his crown. It took Colapesce two days and two nights to find the crown and when he came back he told Frederick II that he’d discovered that the island of Sicily rested on three columns: the first was intact, the second was chipped and the third was about to break.

Frederick II was now even more intrigued and decided to throw into the water one of his rings. This time Colapesce hesitated because he sensed that he would not come back. At last he decided to go and said: “Give me a handful of lentils. If you see them surface, you’ll know I am not coming back”. A few days went by without any news, then the King saw some lentils and his ring return to the surface. That’s how he learned that Colapesce had decided to stay under the sea and take on his shoulders the broken column.

Ever since, whenever an earthquake shakes the island the Sicilians know that it’s the poor Colapesce being tired and moving the broken column on his other shoulder.

By the way, this ending adds support to my hypothesis that the Doctor will stay in the Library metaphor, which most likely is Gallifrey, with River and Clara helping to be the protector of Gallifrey.  He really doesn’t have to regenerate.  Just print a copy of the original.  We’ve seen how Gallifrey keep biodata on each Time Lord.

Theme: People Turning Human

One theme running through DW is that people who have turned human, like the 10th Doctor in “Human Nature” and “The Family of Blood,” end up doing cruel things that they normally wouldn’t do as a Time Lord.  So this legend very much speaks to this theme of spending too much time on Earth and turning human.

In another example out of so many, we see this in “Planet of the Ood.”  Halpen, the man in charge of Ood Operations, was an Ood in the subtext who had become human. Ood Sigma turned him back into an Ood, his original form.

The Connection to Medusa

The symbol above also contains the head of Medusa, who has an important place in DW. We examined how the Daleks stole the Doctor and The Ghost before and took him to the Medusa Cascade.  The Doctor has ended up there twice that we know of like he said in “The Stolen Earth” and “Journey’s End.”

Also, there is a very important connection to what is going on in “Vincent and the Doctor.”  In the image below, Vincent Van Gogh (blue arrow) is standing in front of the statue of Perseus with the head of the slain Medusa (red arrow).  Vincent is Perseus.    The monster he defeated represents the monster Medusa, who could turn people to stone.

Of course, Medusa’s head is the symbolism of a beheading, which we’ve been seeing over and over again.  Right from the 1st episode of the 12th Doctor, “Deep Breath,” beheading was a theme.  The hot air balloon the half-faced man had was the SS Marie Antoinette, referring to the beheaded French queen.

However, Vincent’s Medusa is represented by the blind, invisible Krafayis, who, because he was afraid, lashed out and killed people.  The Krafayis is a metaphor for the Doctor along with Vincent, and both represent the 12th Doctor.

The episode shows Amy, who in the subtext is the Doctor’s Mother of God consciousness, uniting with Vincent, like the landlord’s mother united with the landlord. The idea here is that the plague of deaths stopped in both cases.  This is another reason why I believe Amy needs to show up.  Lucy in TRODM is also a mirror of Amy, which is more subtext showing this will happen.

All of this symbolism and more going back to something in a 9th Doctor episode is why I have believed for many years that the 12th Doctor had to be blind physically at some point.  Then, when “The Return of Doctor Mysterio” showed us the red-tipped, white cane in the subtext, a symbol of physical blindness, I was pretty sure DW was going to make the Doctor physically blind.  Still, I couldn’t rule out metaphorical blindness.

How does this relate to what we are seeing in Season 10?  The subtext suggests that the blind Doctor, being the blind Krafayis, is afraid and will lash out, killing innocent people.  So the seemingly empty liquor bottle that we saw above, would seem, in this case, to also symbolize the Doctor’s strong fears.

He’s personally under assault in so many ways that we’ve never seen before in DW.

The usurpation I spoke of, most likely, is related to the blind Krafayis Doctor mirror looking like the Doctor.  The Krafayis is a ghost and is related to the Sun stage of the Great Work and the plague.

In fact, “The Time of the Doctor,” the last 11th Doctor episode, gives us more information. The Doctor mirrors Tasha Lem in this scene, where both show the same significant painting behind them.  Sadly, I haven’t gotten this chapter posted, either, on Religious metaphors.  So this is a small part of that chapter.

Here’s a better image below, showing more of the painting.  It illustrates a biblical passage.  There’s a Dalek in front of The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple, a popular biblical topic among several master painters.  Francesco Solimena painted this version, circa 1725.

This scene illustrates the biblical episode from 2 Maccabees (3:21-28), which is about God punishing the wicked and restoring the Temple to his people. (Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox regard 2 Maccabees as canonical.  However, Jews and Protestants do not.) 

The king of Syria sent Heliodorus to seize the treasury in the Temple in Jerusalem, so the priests prayed to God for help.  God sent 3 spirits in human form.  The main spirit was a horseman, which The Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, called “the Sovereign of spirits and of all authority.”  He and the 2 younger men easily overpowered the terrified Heliodorus and his men, who all came to recognize the sovereign power of God. http://biblia.com/bible/rsvce/2Mac3.21-28

Heliodorus is a significant name in that it means “Gift of the Sun.”

The Sun has to die alchemically, which we’ve examined before, to stop the plague and move to the next stage of the Great Work.  This painting confirms the Sun as the usurper.  That’s not surprising, but who all is controlling the Doctor?  In the case of the Empty Child, the Chula nanogenes were controlling the plague.

The Woman in the Shop

In the Library episodes, the 10th Doctor and Donna made a big deal of the Library’s gift shop.  In fact, there’s a spot in an episode where River’s reflection shows up on the shop’s window.

“The woman in the shop” is a metaphor for Missy.  Because of the association, I have been wondering for a long time about this.  This may suggest that River is related to Missy.

What is clear from “Silence in the Library” and “The Forest of the Dead” is that River has a hidden face. One of River’s hidden faces is Amy, another is the Doctor, himself. Does she have another?

The Vault & 3 Masters

The Vault is not as it seems.  In fact, if you look closely at the image below, there’s an inverse reflection (yellow arrow) of the Vault in the water.  Therefore, things are opposite with how they appear with the Vault.

Several chapters back, I mistakenly said there were 44 Circles in the Squares on the front of the Vault because none of the images actually showed the top row of the Vault. There are 46 Circles in the Squares. That’s worth three 12th Doctors and one 10th Doctor.  However, it also looks like there are 54 Circles in the Squares on the side of the Vault.  That’s a lot of Doctors.

All of these Circles in the Squares represent alchemical integrations, like what we saw with the Doctor and Clara when they went into the Vault of the Bank of Karabraxos.  The Circles in the Squares also may indicate power. Whatever is in there, is very powerful.

3 Brainstems

At the beginning of “Extremis,” Rafando explains how the weird setup of the technology in the image above works.

RAFANDO: This technology is precisely calibrated. As you can see, it will stop both hearts, all three brain stems, and deliver a cellular shock wave that will permanently disable regenerative ability.

What I didn’t expect was 3 brainstems.  According to Wikipedia, “The brainstem (or brain stem) is the posterior part of the brain, adjoining and structurally continuous with the spinal cord. In the human brain the brainstem includes the midbrain, the pons, and the medulla oblongata. Sometimes the diencephalon, the caudal part of the forebrain, is included.”

The image below from Wikipedia shows the 3 parts of the human brainstem.  Of course, Time Lords could be different.  

However, in “The Magician’s Apprentice,” Missy made a comment about brainstems.

MISSY [on monitor]: Okay, cutting to the chase. Not dead, back, big surprise, never mind. I'm in a lovely little square in one of your, oh, I don't know, hot countries. There's a light breeze coming from the east, this coffee is a buzz-monster in my brain, and I'm going to need eight snipers.

KATE: Eight what?

MISSY [on monitor]: Three for each heart, and two for my brain stem. You'll have to switch me off fast, before I can regenerate. How fast can you get here? Ooo, I'll need to arrange you a flight corridor.

She, of course, could be lying about having only one.  However, she may not have been at the time because there’s another possibility we’ll examine shortly.  Also, no one actually said Missy had 3 brainstems in “Extremis,” just that the equipment could handle 3.  It does leave me wondering because this is new information.

However, let’s assume that she has 3 brainstems.  For a human, that would suggest that she has 3 brains and 3 heads.  If most everything we are watching is an illusion, then it’s possible. 

In “Vincent and the Doctor,” the 11th Doctor talked about his godmother with two heads and bad breath.  It’s come up in the text before that Time Lords could end up with multiple heads.

3 Masters & CAL’s Library

However, I’ll propose something else, using the symbolic aspect of this.  Three is an important number, symbolizing The Ghost.  Interestingly, there are 3 panels on the door that Missy comes out of (red, white, and yellow arrows), so they lend support to the notion that she really does have 3 brainstems, which can also equal 3 integrations or 3 alchemical marriages, just like the Doctor.

Are Missy and the Master faces of The Ghost?

Back in Chapter 18 of Fairytales and Romance in Doctor Who, we examined how Rassilon places the incessant drumbeat in the Master’s head.  And how CAL in the Library experiences toy drums beating incessantly when she’s having a meltdown.  This makes CAL a mirror of Missy and the Master, as well as the Doctor, whom we also examined as being connected to the symbolic Drum earworm in “Under the Lake” and “Before the Flood.”

For several years, when I have thought of the ghost in the 12th Doctor’s subtext, I have pictured him in the Library, just like CAL.  And the subtext says the Master is there, too, along with Missy.  CAL represents all 3 of them.  CAL is the metaphor of The Ghost.

Therefore, 3 brainstems are not a stretch at all, although the terminology is surprising to me. This is the idea of the Holy Trinity where 3 people are One.  The Holy Trinity is very much being referenced in DW.

The War Doctor & the Master

In Chapter 19 of Fairytales and Romance in Doctor Who, we examined some surprising things about the War Doctor and the Master.

In “The Sound of Drums,” the Master says something surprising about the war:

MASTER: The Time Lords only resurrected me because they knew I'd be the perfect warrior for a Time War. I was there when the Dalek Emperor took control of the Cruciform. I saw it. I ran. I ran so far. Made myself human so they would never find me, because I was so scared. DOCTOR: I know.

This suggests the Master is the War Doctor.

And TRODM supports this. The Master’s wife, Lucy, was in prison for killing him, just like River was in prison for killing the Doctor.  Lucy is in TRODM because she is the Doctor’s alchemical wife = Mother of God consciousness = Amy => River.  The subtext suggests Amy is a Time Lord, living as a human.  Therefore, River represents Amy’s regeneration. Rory is a mirror of the 12th Doctor, so this all makes sense.

In fact, I need to make a post that shows you how Grant and Lucy’s relationship in TRODM mirrors Rory and Amy’s.  I’ll show you in that post how what we think we see about Amy and Rory doesn’t always happen the way we think.

The Master & Missy

Going by all of this, the Master and Missy are faces of the Doctor.  In fact, Missy says something very curious in “Dark Water” when the Doctor is trying to figure out who she is.

DOCTOR: How did you get hold of Time Lord technology?  Who are you?

MISSY: You know who I am. I told you. You felt it. Surely you did.

DOCTOR: Two hearts.

MISSY: And both of them yours.

Both of her hearts are the Doctor’s.  How is that possible?  I don’t believe she is lying.  This supports her being a face of the Doctor.  She also could be an identical twin.

Earlier in the episode when he first meets her, we learn something interesting.

DOCTOR: Who are you?

MISSY: I am Missy.

CLARA: Missy?

MISSY: Mobile Intelligent Systems Interface. I am a multi-function, interactive welcome-droid. Helping you to help me to help you.

After we learn who Missy really is, her droid comment looks like a joke.  It may be.  However, since Rory is a droid, the Doctor and Missy could very well be, too.

As you can see, what and where the Doctor is is very perplexing and intentionally so.  Putting all the pieces together is the fun of all of this.

Here’s another possibility that has plenty of support, which is further supported by the notion of 3 brainstems.  The Master and Missy are all in the Doctor’s head, like Doctor Moon is in CAL’s.  Like with CAL, we see virtual reality versions of the Master, Missy, and the Doctor.  We see something similar to the idea of nesting when Amy and Rory are in the Teselecta version of Amy in “Let’s Kill Hitler.”

The nesting of one being within another is already a fact in DW.  We see it  (possession) with the Scottish young man in “Tooth and Claw,” and we see it again in TRODM when Harmony Shoal takes over a body. 

In fact, much more is going on with this type of thing.  Not only does Amy have a Russian doll (nested dolls) in her house, but also Amy and Rory show up in the most bizarre set of reflections that I’ve ever seen.  They support the nesting concept.

In the 11th Doctor episode “Asylum of the Daleks,” where we first see Jenna Coleman, Rory has 3 reflections, 3 faces.  The center one is a ghost.  However, the really bizarre thing is where Amy’s hair is (yellow arrow).  This is saying that Amy and Rory are, in one of the faces, nested.  One being inside another.

And nested beings come up over and over in the subtext and the text, just like CAL in the Library. It happens when there is an integration, when people are absorbed into the system, like how CAL uploads them to her hard drive.

I don’t want to belabor the point here.  I actually could write a lot about other bizarre things in this scene, as well as the entire episode, but that’s for another post.

However, nested beings are already canon with CAL, so this could very well be the case of what we are watching with Missy and the Master.  This has already been posited in “The Impossible Planet,” where the Master is a personality inside the Doctor.

Nested beings could be physical, like in CAL’s case, or personalities of an individual, like in the Doctor’s case with the other Doctors.  We sometimes see the Doctors manifest as separate beings in a single episode.

The 3 Masters

Given how the subtext in multiple ways is saying that the Doctor, Missy, and the Master are related, it is suggesting that the Master is actually another version of the Doctor.  That was part of Chapter 19 of Fairytales and Romance in Doctor Who.  The subtext suggests that Prisoner Zero is the Master, who would be Doctor Zero. 

Here’s the kicker:

On a 24-hour clock, midnight is both 0:00 and 24:00, so the 12th Doctor is automatically ambiguous.  And we’ve already examined how the 10th Doctor at times was playing the 12th and 24th Doctors, which is also shown, for example, by the episode titled “Midnight.”

Therefore, this all suggests that the Doctor is another versions of the Master and Missy. 

How’s that for mistaken identity, if true?

And this goes along with the Doctor fighting himself.

This is why I said in a previous chapter that I wouldn’t be surprised if a face of the Doctor was in the Vault.  After all, the Vault metaphor represents the Doctor’s mind, and all the Doctor’s are within it.

It could be any of his faces, including people like River or Clara, who have integrated with him.

Or will DW give us someone from the past who played a previous version of the Master? 

Regardless, I am convinced from the 3-brainstem statement that there will be 3 Masters.  Will one have the 12th Doctor’s face?

The Ghost & the Triad: Achieving Unity

The Ghost is a part of a triad, a trinity, which links into the Trinity (we’ll examine that in a few minutes).  This triad shows up in “Time Heist.”  The Bank of Karabraxos is an interesting name because it has early Christian ties to the Gnostics with the concept of Abraxas. 

Carl Jung in 1916 wrote about the concept of Abraxas in The Seven Sermons to the Dead Septem Sermones ad Mortuos (Translation by H. G. Baynes)

God and devil are distinguished by the qualities fullness and emptiness, generation and destruction. Effectiveness is common to both. Effectiveness joineth them. Effectiveness, therefore, standeth above both; is a god above god, since in its effect it uniteth fullness and emptiness.

This is a god whom ye knew not, for mankind forgot it. We name it by its name Abraxas. It is more indefinite still than god and devil.

That god may be distinguished from it, we name god Helios or Sun. Abraxas is effect. Nothing standeth opposed to it but the ineffective; hence its effective nature freely unfoldeth itself. The ineffective is not, therefore resisteth not. Abraxas standeth above the sun and above the devil. It is improbable probability, unreal reality. Had the pleroma a being, Abraxas would be its manifestation. It is the effective itself, not any particular effect, but effect in general.

I prefer to explain this visually with the taijitu, which some people refer to as the yin-yang circle, shown below.  It contains more parts than it might seem. Not only are there 2 large light and dark areas, along with 2 small circles of opposite colors, there is the black outline of the circle that contains everything.

The concepts here mirror what Carl Jung is saying, although the taijitu goes beyond what he is saying above.

When Jung speaks of God and the devil, he is speaking of duality, along with the qualities of opposites suggested by fullness and emptiness, generation and destruction.  Interestingly, he names god Helios or Sun in opposition to the devil.  Abraxas stands above them both, as both are joined together by effectiveness.

The Sun relates to the Doctor being the Sun metaphor.  However, Abraxas stands above him.  This all relates back on a certain level to the Doctor being at the 3rd stage of the Great Work, when he needs to be at the 4th stage.  Right now, he is caught in a duality within himself.

This concept of duality matches the light and dark patterns of the Doctor’s calling card, as well as many other patterns we’ve seen. 

On the taijitu, the large light (yang) and dark (yin) areas represent duality (male/female, light/dark, fullness/emptiness, generation/destruction, etc.).  The small circles within the opposite colors say that there is a little bit of the opposite within.  For example, in light there is a little bit of darkness and vice versa.  As another example, within male, there is a little bit of female and vice versa. 

The small circles could correspond to Carl Jung’s anima and animus, with the unconscious of a man being female and vice versa.  Missy, in “The Witch’s Familiar,” alluded to the meaning in a different way once the Doctor realized Clara was in the Dalek. 

CLARA: Oh, Doctor  

(The Doctor starts to disconnect Clara from the Dalek casing.)

MISSY: In a way, this is why I gave her to you in the first place. To make you see. The friend inside the enemy, the enemy inside the friend.

DOCTOR: I'm sorry, Clara. I'm so sorry!

MISSY: Everyone's a bit of both. Everyone's a hybrid.

Certainly, “the friend inside the enemy, the enemy inside the friend” could be applied to what we are seeing in Season 10.  If, for example, the Doctor does need to die to set things straight, people trying to save him is not a good thing.

Abraxas, in some ways, is akin to the outline of the taijitu, which represents the Chinese word wuji.  This is the monist concept of limitless, infinity, the ultimate beinglessness.  The latter can be a difficult concept for Westerners.  It is the concept of Dao (a.k.a. Tao) from which duality springs. In Daoist philosophy, wuji refers to returning to one’s original nature, which is exactly what the Doctor has been doing through the Great Work.  The Ghost still needs to achieve unity and unite with the Mother of God consciousness.

Interestingly, wu means nothing, nothingness, void.  If we combine the ideas of wuji and Abraxas, we get an additional possible meaning of what the Doctor is saying about the void in the opening of “Oxygen.”

DOCTOR [OC]: Space, the final frontier. Final because it wants to kill us. Sometimes we forget that, start taking it all for granted. The suits, the ships, the little bubbles of safety, as they protect us from the void. But the void is always waiting.

The Doctor has personified the void here, saying it is always waiting.  Given the concept of Abraxas set it above the Sun, I see this as more foreshadowing saying that the Doctor is not above receiving consequences as long as he remains the Sun.  It suggests that we may see the Doctor take on even more damage.  Or has he already that we don’t know about?

Is the Doctor Hurt Worse than We Think?

Missy and the Master may have a field day with the blind Doctor.  However, is he hurt worse than we think?  It would be just like him to conceal all injuries, unless he requires some type of help, like with Nardole. 

This does come back to Donna in “Turn Left” where alternate-Donna had to sacrifice herself to set the universe right.  Mirroring Donna, the Doctor would have to sacrifice himself, but which one is the original? And which one is the alternate-Doctor. Have we even seen the original one in Season 10?

Anyway, in “Extremis,” Bill followed the trail of blood, shown below, that led from the Vatican projection to the White House projection.  Since this room is part of the projection, we can’t tell how real it is. Someone is bleeding fairly badly because there are a lot of big drops, and they are fairly close together.  The person stopped at the entranceway because there are several drops there.  It’s possible the bleeding was stopped because there are a few small drops at the entranceway, not lots of big ones.

Where did the blood come from?  Obviously, it’s not from the cut (red arrow) above the Doctor’s eye.  There is no blood on his face.  Did he get wounded somewhere else?

Bill did find the Doctor, but curiously, there was no blood on the eagle carpet in the Oval Office. It’s possible the Doctor did stop the bleeding before he walked across the carpet.  It’s also possible the blood is from another version of him or someone else.

At a minimum, we have subtext proof that emotionally he is hurting a lot worse than it looks.  This doesn’t bode well because the Doctor becomes the most dangerous when he loses hope.  He’ll be the Krafayis lashing out, which is similar to how he was in “Hell Bent.”

On top of emotional wounds, the blood could be metaphorical, which, given the virtual reality, would also make sense.  It could be that the Doctor is hurt physically worse than we think.  He may not be bleeding, but instead dying slowly, which actually makes a lot of sense. 

There are more things in space that can kill besides lack of oxygen.  Radiation bombardment, for example, is a huge problem.  While we’ve seen that he can handle X-rays, the 10th Doctor took on a lethal dose of another type of radiation.

In “Extremis,” what about that reading device he used?  (This is another reason why I think this Doctor is real.)  What payment will it exact if he is real?

The Real Pope Benedict IX

Pope Benedict IX in DW has had a gender change.  The real Pope was a very controversial figure.  Coming from a powerful family, he gained the papacy with few qualifications at the age of 20 in his 1st of 3 elections.  According to Wikipedia,

He is the only man to have been Pope on more than one occasion and the only man ever to have sold the papacy.

His life was incredibly scandalous, and factional strife continued.  The anti-papal historian Ferdinand Gregorovius wrote that in Benedict, "It seemed as if a demon from hell, in the disguise of a priest, occupied the chair of Peter and profaned the sacred mysteries of religion by his insolent courses." The Catholic Encyclopedia calls him "a disgrace to the Chair of Peter."  He was the first pope rumoured to have been primarily homosexual.  Pope Victor III, in his third book of Dialogues, referred to "his rapes, murders and other unspeakable acts of violence and sodomy. His life as a pope was so vile, so foul, so execrable, that I shudder to think of it."

The Cage & Vault Are Mirrors

The Veritas’ cage and the Vault are mirroring each other in certain ways.  The Vault supposedly contains Missy, and the cage contains the Veritas.  Both are under lock and key, so to speak. 

The Haereticum, where the cage is, has been home of the Veritas for over a thousand years.  In comparison, the Doctor is supposed to guard Missy’s body for at least a thousand years.

Missy is in the Vault, while the Doctor is in the cage.  He is strapped in at one point.

The priest had a bunch of food in the cage, while the Doctor took a lot of Mexican into the Vault.

It is very interesting that we’ve been examining the Great Work and seeing the Doctor move from prisoner toward the truth of what’s happened, and now we have a major plot point that translates as “The Truth.”

Interesting Symbols on the Veritas’ Cover

Why does the Veritas have a Latin title when the rest of the book is in an obscure language?  We can certainly make up a reason, but the point really is that it’s odd.  It suggests right away that something might be wrong.

The Veritas’ cover, shown below, is a curiosity for 2 other reasons.  First, there are leaves or perhaps, as my daughter pointed out, stitches on the cover. Second, the red arrow points to a fleur-de-lis.  Both stiches and fleur-de-lis bring in a bunch of subtext.

Stitches on the Cover

I love the stiches idea because those, such as the ones on the cover, are reminiscent of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.  The novel very easily has a place in DW, especially when talking about the resurrected Morbius from “The Brain of Morbius.”  Or even the scar-faced people in TRODM. 

Closer to home, the Doctor keeps talking about putting Nardole’s head back on.  This suggests that the Doctor is taking on a role in a way that is similar to Victor Frankenstein, the young scientist who performs an experiment and creates a creature, which most find grotesque. While Nardole isn’t the grotesque one, as far as we see, it’s the symbolism that’s important.  In another example, the Doctor in THORS was pretending to be the surgeon, who, most likely, was supposed to be Solon, the Victor Frankenstein mirror, from “The Brain of Morbius.”  Then, in another example, the half-faced man, a dark mirror of the Doctor, from “Deep Breath” was also going around taking body parts. It’s a theme.

However, it’s the grotesque Monks, who also are performing experiments.  Yet we see that there is more to them than it seems.

The stiches, then, may very well be a metaphor for elaborate experiments, and it also may refer to real body parts.

Fleur-de-lis & Nardole

The fleur-de-lis is a well-known symbol of not only France, but also of heraldry, suggesting royalty. The most interesting part is that Nardole in THORS, as shown below, is associated with fleur-de-lis.  Therefore, Nardole is associated with the Veritas.  We know Nardole is a mirror of the Doctor, who is of a royal bloodline, if we go by Merlin’s pedigree, and the Prydonian Chapter is a very high-ranking class.  Also, we know Nardole is a proxy in “Extremis” for River, as he reads her words to the Doctor.  By the associations, the fleur-de-lis could represent them all.

Fleur-de-lis & the Trinity

Not only does the fleur-de-lis suggest royalty, it is found in Christian art until about 1300.  After that, according to Wikipedia, it takes on a Marian symbolism in reference to Mary and the Trinity.  The Fleur-de-lis is used to mark the bloodline. 

Interestingly, the Doctor, near the portrait of the pope, is associated with 2 different statues of Mary. One of them is shown below (white arrow).  I really have little doubt this goes along with the Fleur-de-lis and the Trinity.  It is said that one cannot achieve the Holy Trinity without the Mother of God because she bore the Son, so this is another reason why this is signaling that this Doctor is real.

However, it could also mean a couple of other things.  Several chapters ago, because of the gender change, I posed the question of whether The Ghost was part of the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost or it could be Mother, Daughter, and the Holy Ghost.  This particular face of the Doctor would seem to be the Mother part of the Trinity, at least that’s my hypothesis.  That would go along with Jackson Lake, looking for his son, except with a gender change probably for both.

The other question I posed was about how to classify in Jungian terms the Doctor with a gender change – being female inside and male outside.  Would he be the Mother of God consciousness from the Great Work or the male equivalent of the Christ or Buddha Consciousness?  I said I’d stick with him being the Christ or Buddha Consciousness until I saw proof that this should change.  This may be the proof.  It would mean that instead of looking for his Mother of God Consciousness, he would be looking for the male counterpart.  That’s at least another hypothesis, although I don’t weight this highly without more information.  I’m still evaluating what the gender change means.

One thing seems very likely. The fleur-de-lis on the cover of the Veritas refers to the Doctor and his bloodline. It’s highly likely because the one big obstacle to any invasion of Earth would be the Doctor. 

Why CERN?

CERN seems like a strange place to send the Veritas, at least to me.  CERN does research into various things, like creating particles, plasma, and mini black holes. The detection of mini black holes could indicate parallel universes in extra dimensions.  Certainly, particle physics has a lot to do with DW and time travel.  But the importance of the reference pertaining to the actual function of CERN doesn’t seem important to me.  However,…

The answer is probably that the novel Angels & Demons, by Dan Brown, involves antimatter created at the LHC to be used in a weapon against the Vatican.  Dan Brown also wrote The Da Vinci Code.

However, in “Extremis,” being things are backwards, a weapon of mass destruction is sent from the Vatican to CERN.  Where would CERN employees get their hands on explosives like those in the image below?

Explosives like these are a metaphor for the 7th Doctor’s companion, Ace.  I also believe she might show up.  In fact, this very much reminds me of “The Curse of Fenric.”

ACE: Oh, thanks. I don't know why he used a chemical grenade. If I was him, I've have stuck a few sticks of explosives under the table.

(They look under the table and sure enough - there are the sticks of dynamite and a dangling detonator pin. The Doctor grabs Ace's arm and they run out of building 48, throwing themselves over some sandbags just as the whole building goes KaBOOM!)

This is also a metaphor for Fenric and the curse that we saw was part of Clara and the Doctor’s relationship.  We examined that in Chapter 16 of Fairytales and Romance in Doctor Who.

Crime Scene Images Not Right

When the Cardinal and Pope (the actor was the Italian father in “Turn Left”) are talking about the suicides, images flash by.  Some of them show us there is something wrong.  Here’s an image of the Italian police, which I would expect.

However, there are 2 images out of about 11 that don’t make sense interspersed in the Italian images. One of these is below.  The police tape is in English.  Later, we also see another image of a gun in an evidence bag that is also in English.  We know that something isn’t right here, and it says that we can’t trust what we see.

The Doctor’s Desk

Oddly, the Doctor’s desk got turned.  We can see the inverse reflection of the light on the TARDIS, so things aren’t as they seem.  Interestingly, we haven’t really seen River’s and Susan’s photos since “The Pilot.”  We don’t even get hints of them here.

I’m wondering if that’s because River and the Doctor are now integrated.  Back in “Smile,” there was a reference to “The Wedding of River Song.” Therefore, following the conventions of integrations, River’s image should now be in a Circle in the Square type of frame, not the square-ish frame that we saw.