The Daemons

September 21st, 2008 2:30am by rusty-halo | 22 Comments »

I’m burning through these old Three/Delgado serials. I really do enjoy their dynamic.

However, the sexist attitudes in this one made me want to throw things. If Ten had treated Martha with half the dismissive contempt Three shows toward Jo, I’d totally be on the side of the bitter Marthafen. (And Three clearly likes Jo; I don’t even think the guys writing this had any idea how offensive it is.)

But if we were going to talk about sexism in old Who we’d be here all day, so let’s skip straight to the slash.

The tragedy of this serial is that the Doctor and the Master don’t end up together until the final episode. Up until then it’s mostly just an excuse for Roger Delgado to make orgasm faces.

I suppose in these you can fanwank that he’s communing with Azal:

But there’s really no explanation for this one. “Still alive, are you, Doctor? Very well.” And then he… comes? Seriously, I can’t fathom what the in-text reason is for this:

(Can anyone recommend a better way to turn an avi into an animated gif? This was a pain in the ass to make. I hope it works!)

Also he’s disguised as a vicar. LOLOL.

It goes about as well as you’d expect: “A rationalist, existentialist priest, indeed!”

There’s some very silly faux-Satanism:

Some cracktastic technobabble gets papered on top of it, but basically he’s summoning a demon and begging it to give him power. (Clearly new Who didn’t invent the whole fantasy-thinly-disguised-as-sci-fi thing with its zombies, werewolves, and witches–but lol they’re really alien!) The Master comes across as fairly pathetic here; he must be getting really desperate for devious schemes to take over the world excuses to play with the Doctor. Also worth noting is that the Master seems to have the patience of a three year old; he keeps screwing up his own plans by throwing hissy fits at both his human followers and the demon he’s trying to sweet talk.

Anyway, so the serial meanders along and then in the last episode, the Doctor and the Master finally meet up. Thankfully the ho!yay does not disappoint.

The Doctor compares the Master’s megalomaniacal designs to those of Hitler or Ghengis Khan. He tone is one of disappointment in his former friend rather than the vitriol you’d expect if the Master was nothing but an enemy. It’s also a nice insight into their differences and into the reason the Doctor consistently flees from power.

Azal decides to give his power to the Doctor instead of the Master. I’m not sure which of them is more upset.

Pertwee’s expression here reminds me of Ten when the Shadow Proclamation tries to make him lead their army.

This has got to be the most hilarious method of escape ever:

Don’t you dare shoot my boyfriend!

Oh gee, he looks so sad to be captured:

At this point, all I have to do is transcribe the actual dialogue:

“Look after him! I want to deal with him later.”

“Do you, Doctor? You always were an optimist, weren’t you.”

“Thank you for the complement.”

The whole ride away, he has eyes only for the Doctor:

And then the Doctor visits him in prison and they have lots of sex. (Which, based on what I’ve seen so far of the “The Sea Devils,” actually is what happens next.)

Also nifty: when Yana begins to recover his Time Lord memories in “Utopia,” the two audio clips that play are Delgado!Master’s lines from the last episode of this serial. You can imagine my squee when I heard them!

Overall conclusion: this serial actually does have an interesting theme, which is a contrast between rationality and irrationality, “science” and “magic.” The Doctor argues for rationality and is quite contemptuous toward the other side, but the serial itself is pretty nuanced. Both are necessary: the woman who believes in magic is right about the danger of opening the burial mound, we see the Doctor’s lack of rationality when he freaks out about being given power, and it’s Jo’s irrational self-sacrifice that saves the day.

Just, y’know, next time Three gives Jo a condescending lecture or ignores something important that she’s discovered in favor of ordering her to bring him tea, I want her to stop politely simpering and dump the damn tea over his head.

Current Mood: silly