Yin and Yang

[scripsi]

Title: Yin and Yang
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating: G
Genre: Angst
Word Count: 243
Characters: The Doctor (any)
Warnings: None
Summary: If it ever happens that the Doctor thinks about the Master.


If it ever happens that the Doctor thinks about the Master, which he will have to admit is more often than he would wish it was, he sometimes muses that they are like yin and yang. Forever the opposite of each other, but still unable to be apart. The universe is so vast and still they end up at the same place and time, over and over again.

True, it has often been of the Master’s machinations. No one was ever fooled when he just couldn’t stop coming back to Earth when the Doctor was stuck there, but it is not always because of the Master that they meet. Or himself. They just do, suddenly flinging their minds at each other so hard one would think that they would one day meld together and form a whole.

Always the mirror images of each other, never able to let the other one go. There is even, the Doctor knows, a touch of darkness in himself. Choices he regrets, those that did not spring from the will to do the best for everyone. The thing inside him that can be selfish and cruel and sometimes wins.

There is just one thing that doesn’t balance out, that the Doctor can’t grasp. He can confess to his darkness, but where, in that case, is the Master’s light? Try as he might, the Doctor can’t (or is it won’t?) see that there is anything in the Master that is good.

Comments

[dm12.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I think that, should the Doctor go dark, the Master will seem like a pussy cat. It's frightening to think how much he holds himself back, and that sometimes, he seems to be holding on by only a small thread. It is his companions that ground him to some degree. The Master, as I recall, doesn't have any...

We've gotten glimpses of the Doctor's dark side, and it's really scary. When he's all noisy, yelling and screaming, he will get over it. It's when he goes all quiet that you should be afraid, very afraid. What he did to the Family of Blood was a perfect example. He didn't yell, didn't scream... never raised his voice. He gave them each exactly what they wanted, eternal life. Twisted, tortured, eternal life. The expression on his face as he's doing so, in his eyes...firm determination, no compromise, no redemption. Truly frightening. Same with the Racnoss after she rejected his offer. I can see where Donna was scared away from him. And those are just brief moments. If he went totally dark, it would be everyone's worst nightmare, even the Master, I think.

In this, I think the Doctor refuses to see light in the Master. Yet, every time, he forgives him. He really is grieving when the Master decides not to regenerate after being shot. Later, he acknowledges the Master's brilliance and says that they should travel together to see the universe. So there must be something he does see. They save each other's lives at the end, and the Master does so even knowing he will go back into the Time Lock.

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I think that, should the Doctor go dark, the Master will seem like a pussy cat. It's frightening to think how much he holds himself back, and that sometimes, he seems to be holding on by only a small thread. It is his companions that ground him to some degree. The Master, as I recall, doesn't have any...

Yes, I think so too! Like in Family of Blood as you said and also when Ten becomes Time Lord Victorious. And definitly grounded by his companions, Ten only get to that point when he has become all alone. And in Old Who we have the Valeyard, so the Doctor would probably be a lot scarier than the Master if he really turned.

The Master seem to prefer minions, if he has any company.

In this, I think the Doctor refuses to see light in the Master

Yes. :) He knows, I think but don't want to acknowledge it because that would make things too complicated.

[dm12.livejournal.com]

Time Lord Victorious was also a good example at hinting how low he could go. He got immediate backlash from that one, though, didn't he? He definitely went off his rocker crazy after Donna, shattered completely. There was another example... after Rose, he cried, after Martha, Donna found him again. After Donna, the look on his face was dead, it was similar to the look when he took care of the Family of Blood. Something snapped totally at that point. He was too far gone to cry. That's when he spiraled out of control, resulting in "Waters of Mars" and TIme Lord Victorious.

Ahh... minions! I love that word, so much fun to say! Yes, the Master would prefer minions....

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, he did, but that he got that far to begin with... I Think Donna was the best companion he ever had because she both grounded and challenged him and after her he was just lost.

Yes, isn't minions the best Word! :D

http://giantgag.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/funny-i-requested-minions-of-darkness-and-you-send-me-fluffy-jellybeans-01.jpg

[dm12.livejournal.com]

I agree about Donna and could go on for hours about why she was his best companion. She encouraged his better nature and good habits. She did ground him and challenge him, but she also offered him her full support and partnership when needed. She shared in his burden (Pompeii and setting off Vesuvius) after asking the tough questions about how many people, why couldn't the Pyrovilians go home instead, and what the Pyrovilians were planning. She got the little details that made all the difference in resolving a problem.

She was perfectly prepared for the job. As a temp, she was dumped into a new situation, had to make quick assessments about the people and the problem to be solved, design and implement a solution, then get out and move on. Exactly what the Doctor does!

She wasn't "in love with" him, but she did love him deeply, and he did her. I was watching David Tennant answering questions at the Raleigh Wizard Con, and someone asked him which companion was harder to leave, Rose or Donna. Aside from all the peripherals, he said that both were loves, albeit different kinds of loves, so it was difficult to answer. He said the worst was having to wipe out who Donna was, all the joy; it was truly tragic.

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, me too! She is one of my favourite companions ever! I agree with everything you say! I'm still angry that she was let go in the way she was. So unfair to be so glorious and then just have your mind wiped.

[dm12.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think the term he used was "love stories" to describe them both. It was extremely unfair. She finally recognized the brilliance she had all along, and he had to wipe that out.

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

Ohhh, this is lovely!! So, so deep and yet, it opens up the Doctor's thoughts in a way that seems so easy. Like all one had to do was notice...

*HUGS*

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

Thank you! It was written very fast, I woke up at night at the thought started to niggle me, so I just had to write it down.

But we do know that the Master's nice to cats. :)

[dm12.livejournal.com]

That's kind of amusing about the cats; it does seem that evil people love cats. There's always an image of them while they are making their evil plans, sitting there, planning their no good plans, and petting their cats!

Even more amusing is that the cats sit there and take it. Usually they are very independent creatures and wander off... (That's why they have cat-flaps in doors, so cats can come and go as they please.)

*snort*

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

Well, cat's have traditionally always been seen as opposites as dogs, who is "man's best friend". :) With that said, I have both cats and dogs and though I own the dogs, the cats certainly own me...

[dm12.livejournal.com]

Well, we own neither.. you can see why we don't own cats, because we have a bird. I think she owns us, actually. Birds are incredibly messy, throwing their seed everywhere and doing their business wherever they are sitting. She's pretty smart and cuddly, though. She loves her neck rubs!

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

Birds make good pets. :) But they do make things messy.

[dm12.livejournal.com]

They are worse than small children! But they have such personality!

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

LOL, yes. I have a friend who has an African Grey and he is such a clown. And he is close friend with their dog, he sits on the collar and take rides. :)

[dm12.livejournal.com]

Ours is a cockatiel; just the right size for us, but with plenty of personality. When she molts, though.... it's a mess!

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

They are very cute too. :) Except, perhaps, when they molt. ;)

[flowsoffire.livejournal.com]

Very nice piece :D I love your portrayal of them and their dynamic here!

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

Thank you! It was in "itchy" fic, one of those that turns up in the middle of the night and has to be written down Before any sleep will be had. :)

[flowsoffire.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know those! :D

[nenya_kanadka]

I think this is why I often enjoy stories set back on Gallifrey or at the Academy when they were both young and still friends...it's easier perhaps to see the good or kind side of the Master back then, when he still allowed himself those "weaknesses." (Though I imagine he was arrogant as hell even as a young man!)

I do agree it must be harder for the Doctor to admit the Master's small good side than to admit his own dark side. And yet he can never give up on him--all those Ten/Simm!Master things everyone else has mentioned here, and also I've just finished watching the Three serial with Atlantis, and how his final request to Kronos is that (s)he spares the Master's life and sends him back with the Doctor, instead of condemning him. And this is literally mere minutes after the Master has tried to murder him for the second time in two days! Clearly he cares.

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think he was arrogant back them too. :)

I don't think either one of them can give up on the other, though they would be hard-pressed to admit it. Well, they do admit it from time to time. Atlantis is a great example and in The Mind of Evil when the Master has no problems with torturing the Doctor with the Keller machine, but then seems genuinley worried when the Doctor almost dies. In facr, he looks pretty heart-broken. :)

[nenya_kanadka]

The Keller machine was hella slashy, man, and gives us the canonical fact that what the Master is most afraid of is the Doctor laughing at him!

They're so clearly intertwined, for all the Doctor calls the Master inherently evil and the Master tries to torture or kill the Doctor every now and then. Even managed it once or twice, and yet...still.

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

Goodness yes! And you almost feel sorry for the Master when he looks so devastated, at least until you remember that it was he who put the Doctor through the torture in the firt Place. And I really love the scene were they are working together to neutralise the machine and they just do it so well.

[nenya_kanadka]

Yes, the Master is really of the "No one but me is allowed to kill my best enemy!" school of thought!

I love when they work together. You can clearly see that they know each other's minds from long acquaintance, and it's really fun to watch. Makes me tempted by Master redemption arc stories, even though I can almost never really believe in them. ("Cafestrovalva" by x_los is one of the few that does work for me.)

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

I have to check that fic out. But no, redemption stories rarely work. I think that's because what makes someone dark or evil often are so much of a character that if you remove it, what is left becomes unbalanced and toothless. You need some skill to make a redemption work without robbing a character of what makes him/her special.

When I first started to write fanfic it was in Peter Pan and I got so fed up with all the redemption stories where Captain Hook find true love and instantly stop killing off children and fairies that I wrote a patody on it. I'm still amazed that no one flamed me. XD