The Drums

[unfeathered]

I just watched Utopia for the first time in quite a while (along with its commentary, for the first time) and something struck me.

Yana tells Doctor he has the sound of drums in his head. The Doctor, without blinking or any reaction whatsoever just asks him when it started.

Now, if the Master had had drums in his head BEFORE (his resurrection and/or the destruction of Gallifrey, whichever you choose as the point when they started) wouldn't the Doctor react at least a bit to this? Shouldn't we be given at least one little glimpse of him wondering? Yes, he thinks the Master is dead so he's really not expecting Yana to be the Master and I wouldn't really expect him to leap up and go, "Hey, I used to know someone who heard drums - OMG, you're the Master!" but if it meant anything to him at all, surely there should have been a bit of a reaction, however small?

Comments

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

ah, trying to apply logic to an RTD episode. You silly, silly, girl you.

Actually thats a damn good point. There should have been some sort of reaction, it's not like hearing drums is all that common, or I'd assume it wasn't.

[unfeathered]

Yeah, I know, silly of me! *g*

And thank you. The 'did the Master have the drums BEFORE?' question has been bothering me ever since I started playing him in Whoville, because up till then I'd just assumed they were a new thing since the Time War - and this may be part of the reason why.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

deconstruction RTD episodes always gives me a headache. aka no clue. It makes most sense if the Master had the drums from the moment he went mad looking into the whatnot on Gallifrey

[unfeathered]

Yeah, in new canon. But then why were they never mentioned in old canon? (At least I assume they weren't. I haven't exactly watched any to check.)

God, RTD annoys me.

(Ah well, I'm getting a chance to air some of my new collection of Master icons! *g*)

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

God, RTD annoys me.

Absolutely. You and me both

[smithy161.livejournal.com]

*Thirds the above*

Babbles

[skipthedemon.livejournal.com]

I agree this your analysis. I'm pretty sure there's no reference to the drums in Old School Canon. Like 98% sure. Staring into the Schism may have made the Master crazy, but I don't think it had anything to do with drums in his head. Also, the Master's reaction to the Cheetah Planet's influence in "Survival" makes it pretty clear to me that the Master is unused to anything cluttering his thoughts or subverting his self control.

When I started my Alt!Verse as fanfiction which never got finished, I assumed the drums were a flaw in the resurrection process and or a trigger that was deliberately placed in him for some purpose when he was brought back. They may have made him extra erratic, but the evil intent? Entirely the Master's free will, in Old School Canon. The change in the Master during the war was going to more a major existential crisis, then "OMG, the drums are fixed, yay." It was supposed to start with the Master worrying if they brought him back exactly the same. Whether his will is his own or something constructed.

But, I adjusted the concept to fit Whoville fanon to RP. I hope the heart of the existential crisis still come across.

Re: Babbles

[becky-h.livejournal.com]

I thought he said they were drums driving him to war in those last few episodes - or referrenced them that way. Which to me kinda means they were put there to drive him into the Time War. Instead they made him crazier and sent him running the other way.

*throws my two bits too*

Re: Babbles

[skipthedemon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, really, that was what I was planning on writing it as. Something put in him to make fight the War. Only it went really wrong. (Hence my Romana wondering outloud if she'd *caused* the Master being extra crazy. *g*)

Cue Alt!Nine rolling on the High Council in the middle of the war and going all Oncoming Storm, until they gave him what he needed to fix what they had done. And the High Council, going -oh, fuck there was a reason we wanted to keep them apart.

ETA: Actually, he does say "ever since I was a child" he heard the drums. However! One way to take that is that his memories/fundamental nature have been tampered with, so he remembers always hearing them, even if didn't. Or, he could be lying, of course.

Re: Babbles

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Good point about "survival" I'd say it means there were no drums then/there

[smithy161.livejournal.com]

Assuming the Master would have told the Doctor about them before. If they were quieter before the Time War, he may not have felt the need to mention it. Or, perhaps, he was less batshit insane back then and made the rational decision to keep it from the Doctor so that maybe a)he wouldn't seem weak, b) the Doctor wouldn't feel the urge to try and 'save' him. Since it doesn't appear at all in old Who canon, and yet new Who canon insists the drums have always been there, it's probably fair to assume the Master kept quiet until now.

[unfeathered]

That also makes a lot of sense. :-)

I'm sort of going with the Doctor always having known about them now for Whoville and Master Plan (since they're the same version of the Master) but I think anything else I write might have a different interpretation.

[smithy161.livejournal.com]

That's a good idea.

Also, my last comment was more of an attempt to balance the two canons, but the Master keeping huge great secrets from the Doctor, who thinks he knows him so well, really appeals to me.

[unfeathered]

Yes, I really like the idea too! Not one that would have occurred to me, since I'm crap at keeping secrets and therefore don't tend to think of things like that, but it's a really cool idea.

[mad-jaks.livejournal.com]

This should have been a new comment really *apologises*

Okay and I've had sort of had this converstaion with someone before, somewhere...

When you are a small child and something happens to you/goes on happening to you, you tend to assume that that is the norm. Somewhere in those last two episodes the Master asks the Doctor if he hears the drums too.
I think the Master assumed that all Time Lords heard them and that (sideways steps into fanon) if he complained about them he'd somehow be showing weakness.

Er basically this is me saying fanon says Koschei/Theta had an intimate relationship. Classic canon doesn't have the Master suffering from 'the drums' (I'm sure one of us would have remembered) so there's no reason for the Doctor to have known...