Here Come the Drums, Here Come the Drums

[jmatonak]

John Simm has quickly become my favorite incarnation of the Master.

It's hard to explain why. Part of it, of course, is that he is now, deliberately, much more of a mirror image for the Doctor than he has ever been before. He has companions. (He treated his first one rather shabbily, when he was Derek Jacobi, but he seems to be quite attached to the second one, and good on him, because he's not really going to be able to do much better.) He's funny. He's enjoying himself.

(The cheese has absolutely fallen off his cracker, what with the constant sound of drums in his head. There are pretty clearly tortured elements in the Master's psyche. I still believe the enjoyment is genuine.)

Millions upon millions of bonus points, by the way, for the correct use of the word "decimate." I can't really condone the act itself, being as it is the murder of hundreds of millions of people, but it is a cool word.

He's really scary. Every time the Doctor thinks he's outfoxed his enemy, it turns out he really hasn't. The Master is bad news. And I believe that whatever he's up to is ultimately going to make sense once you accept his premises, which is a problem some of the previous Masters have had.

He could still screw it up by pointlessly killing off Lucy Saxon just to demonstrate that he's eevil. I mean, really, I get that he's eevil. The decimation sort of made that point. I think one of the interesting things about truly wicked people is how solitary they usually aren't, and I'm tired of supervillains with no friends, who never learn. I suppose the clearest way to state this point is: the occasional good, positive elements the Master displays- his kindness to Lucy, his humor, and his vulnerability when he recalls running from the Time War- just throw his total bastardy into sharp relief.

You know the weirdest thing? This makes me want to see a new version of the Rani.

Today's Toclafane theories: They are all the humans Professor Yana sent to Utopia. They're the Time Lords. They're criminals imprisoned by the Time Lords. (If they're just a bunch of crazy aliens, why would it break the Doctor's hearts to know?)

On a personal note: years of gaming taught me a few lessons. One of them is, when someone calls you a wet, sniveling traitor and puts on a gas mask, you just run. If you stop to ask a bunch of fool questions, you're gonna die. But that scene was funny as hell.

Edited to add: if Lucy is just some sort of hypnotized lackey, I shall be cross.