How Steven Moffat Redefined The Master | Video Essay

this video is sponsored by Squarespace whether you need a domain website or online store make it with Squarespace welcome to another installment of steven moffat wasn't a bad writer last time we covered how Moffat created the scariest Doctor Who monsters the weeping angels and you guys seem to like that it's always good to be positive isn't it watch the dogs transforming into a female incarnation set the internet ablaze last year it was of course the master that underwent a gender-bending regeneration first all the way back in 2014 series AIDS as a sort of anti doctor the master has always been a morally ambiguous character and nearly every incarnation has had at least one instance where they have seemingly put aside their differences with the doctor and helped them on their adventures will be often for selfish reasons as a result of their plans backfiring but Missy was different starting with her first full appearance in series 8 Missy gradually transforms from an outright antagonist to a reluctant companion of sorts constantly wrestling with her identity and the struggle to decide whether she falls between good or evil in choosing to turn the master into a more sympathetic morally gray character Moffat gave us one of the best arcs of anybody in the revived series and delved into the doctor in the masters relationship deeper than any previous showrunner had ever done before but how did all this happen how did Missy go from this how may I assist you with your death to this how did Steven Moffat redefine the master when Missy is first introduced in series 8 there is no doubt that she represents outright villainy looming large over the series as a mysterious force when she has finally revealed as an incarnation of the master in dark water the pure terror on the doctors face suggests that Missy presents as large of a threat as any of her predecessors this makes her such a perfect counterpart to the twelfth doctor capaldis interpretation of the character in series 8 is of a measured calculated man who prefers to keep conversation to a minimum so how perfect is it that the mastery gets to face is a motormouth who is all over the place someone who acts on impulse and follows their instincts with rumors and speculation actors like Charles dance might take on the role at the time it's clear fans were expecting a master that would mirror Capaldi's stoicism this is a problem I had with Johnson's interpretation of the character whilst Tennant and sim undoubtedly had incredible chemistry it never really felt like they complemented each other rather simchas felt like an exaggerated version of the tenth doctor who was just as fond of grand speeches camp Josh and of culture I would listen to the Masters hot naughties you kpop playlist though it works for the most parts but in contrast machine 12 feel like polar opposites where 12 is measured Macias sporadic where 12 ensures that he has every piece of the puzzle before proceeding Missy fives on unpredictability and whilst folk spends his first season unsure of who he is we see is very much sure of the type of person she wants to be at least to begin with in the series like finale we see that Missy's endgame in converting the dead into Cybermen is to offer them to the doctor as his own private army and most we've seen this kind of critique of the doctor before Missy's offer feels different to previous attempts that villains have made to character assassinate the Time Lords while Stan frost his claim is an aside as he executes his plan to create a reality bomb a way to further achieve debilitating and absolute victory over the doctor Missy's entire plan revolves around proving a point to the doctor and appealing to the truth that often keeps him from killing her for all their regeneration and quirks in history the doctrine the master are fundamentally two sides of the same coin a simple way to interpret this plan is that it is born out of a desire to humiliate the doctor or attempts to lead a seemingly morally unambiguous man into temptation but Missy's plan also demonstrates a level of self resentment if her plan is to bring a person down to her level then there is a fundamental acknowledgment that her level is somewhat lower in the first place No Missy's plan is borne out of the plea what great way to show the intricacies of the doctrine the Masters relationship in just a few words Moffat hints to us so much of what the Masters done previously is motivated by desire to gain the attention of their oldest friend this for grounding of the master and adaxes relationship as an adversarial friendship carries through to Series 9s two-part premiere across the Magician's apprentice and the witch's familiar I scratched my head wondering why they could camp with two terrible titles and let me see is something of a second foe companion helping Clara navigate Skaro and saving her from death at the start the second episode but interestingly is revealed in The Magician's apprentice that the Time Lord has entrusted Missy with his confessional dial the last will and testament of the Time Lords Missy shows genuine concern that the doctor her oldest friend may be near death and it's a great example of how Moffat is keen to place emphasis on how Missy and the doctor have more of a complex relationship than a mere rivalry in much the same way characters like Professor Xavier and Magneto can't bear to see the other in danger they find themselves coming to blows when their core values come into conflict team twisting we see with this confessional dial the doctor does kind of give her the trust that she seemingly wanted in death in heaven and what she's still capable of acts of evil she's definitely not an antagonist in this story much like a Rory or a Captain Jack or River she rounds up the TARDIS team this is similar to the behavior of visual Turlough in the black Guardian trilogy but whilst her lows arc was a simple transition from untrustworthy to trustworthy missy spends her time sat on the fence she clearly has the sadistic impulses of her predecessors but her motives are always anchored by the doctor she commits evil as a means to be noticed she wants the doctor's attention and she's willing to resort to anything to get it which brings me to series 10 where missus arc takes center stage starting with extremists in which the doctor saves her life and acknowledges her as a friend because she's not dead she's a friend of mine Missy's featured across the remainder of series 10 as one of the doctors companions seriously there's a little argument to be had here that she's anything but a bona fide companion the doctor literally comes to her for help in live the land and she sticks around for the remainder of the season even if she does spend most of it TARDIS bound Missy struggles with her sense of self across these episodes and seems to express genuine remorse for mistakes in the past 12 seems genuinely committed to seeing Missy change and for the first time we see an incarnation of the master who comes close to announcing their evil ways she is pivotal in Empress of Mars his final sequence and successfully aids the TARDIS team in their escape at the end of the eaters of light she comes close to tears as she reflects on her past and her relationship with the doctor I don't even know why I'm crying this is full fat milk in the space of free series we've seen a character go from doing this I'm going to kill you in a minute to showing genuine remorse over her actions she clearly wants to make peace with a doctor and his offer a friendship seems to genuinely strike a chord with her this sets her up perfectly for the series 10 finale which she's Missy's arc takes center stage the episode opens with Missy having a trial run as leader of the TARDIS team and what she manages to do a fairly convincing impression of the doctor within a few minutes things go horribly horribly wrong no no not because of the dad because of this the doctor puts his faith in Missy here and it's not exactly misplaced she doesn't betray him in this sequence as one might have expected she's just not quite ready to try her hand at being the doctor and easy cop-out would have been to have this all go rights for Missy to understand that selflessness was better than being self-serving and for her to embrace her new life and help the doctor across the board as a force for goods but having her first attempt at reform go awry so quickly Moffat clearly shows us why Missy is fundamentally a different character she isn't just able to change herself instantly and be perfect once again to happen is the easy part doing is the challenge here she's fallible she's got a lot to learn and because of this she will have course make mistakes what happens to Bill is the doctor's responsibility in having Missy lead the team he is almost like a parent trying to have their child run before they can walk he is arrogant veeam to believe that his conversations with Missy have allowed her to undergo this magical transformation the doctor fundamentally miscalculates the situation what happens to bill is his fault at the same time it's also this unyielding optimism in thinking he can bring his oldest friend back to the light that tenacity that allows him to lay to get through to the Time Lord when John seems master does show up is the perfect way to demonstrate both how pharmacies come and how far removed she is from still being like the doctor Sims Master is outright evil in this story manipulating bill into becoming a Cyberman and leading humanity to their doom again like he did in last of the Timelords his camp he's outlandish and he's over-the-top it's a joy to watch if a little one-dimensional boy it's to misy that is surely the point having sims marshals it acts as a sort of devil on the shoulder to the doctor's angel is a great touch my mother because through this we are able to see how different the two characters are and in many ways it demonstrates how much work Moffat put into establishing the dynamic between the doctor and his renegade Time Lord best friend sin doesn't quite sit right in this story and I don't mean that as a criticism it's just after watching Missy it's weird to see the master being so single-minded where is Missy Missy has grown so much across the show that he feels shocking that we swallowed such a one-dimensional iteration for character previously now I understand that Sims master could be argued as having a similar moment of change in the end of time when he catapults Rosalyn and the Time Lords back into the time war but I wouldn't say that this was the same thing exactly Sims masters actions are motivated by revenge revenge for what the Time Lords had done to him forcing the neverending drumbeat inside his head for nothing but their own benefits whereas Missy's development comes from an actual desire to change to do decent things in the same vein as the doctor himself this is a master with a conscience it's new it's fresh and you genuinely believe that Missy is at least trying to be Goods having the master wrestle with her sense of self is a great way to transition the character away from the sometimes pantomime villainy of Sims character and it allows for a deeper better understanding of what the master means for the doctor you buy that these two wants friends and watch the return of the Masters struck fear in the doctors heart in dark water you can tell that he genuinely cares about her here just look at this speech because right above all its kind this is a doctor who is desperate to show his friend how far they have come and how they can move beyond their past literally whilst the Tenth Doctor made a similar plea to the mastering last of the Timelords regenerate just regenerate this comes just as much out of the doctors desire to ensure that his own race survives it's also something that he has to do out of obligation having been the Masters friend for so long and being unwilling to give up on him in contrast the twelfth doctor is fully aware the tunnels are alive his speech is motivated purely out of respect and love for his oldest friend and who's just this one the idea of the master changing is more than just a pipe dream I think this might be the single best moment in Capaldi's tenure well it's certainly a contender anyway without witness without reward that's the only way to truly do good things or it's the only way to paradoxically prove to others that what you're doing is for good and not for your own self-interest so how perfect is it that when the sim master elects to leave she decides no it's time to stand with the doctor and save the innocence she dies trying to do that without witness and certainly without rewards and the idea that the master the character synonymous in the universe for his obsession without lasting death itself decides he would rather die the last future incarnation do anything other than seek to help himself Moffat gave us one of the greatest master moments of all time period across her run Missy went from being sure of who she was and only when to show others how ugly they were to to realizing something far stronger and more courageous lies within which is what makes Missy such a great presence across twelve sten yer because as Missy grows to understand herself so too does this incarnation of the doctor is Missy's actions across series eight which ultimately allow the twelfth doctor to learn who he is in later seasons he is sure of himself triumphantly declaring the doctor but this isn't something he could have learnt without first understanding this what makes Missy so great as a counterpart for Capaldi's doctor is that she feels like a real presence across his tenure always pushing him and making him question himself if twelves run is defined by single villain it's of course missing it's just a shame that her arc his sequence so strangely across Capaldi's three seasons we have the big reveal of Missy in the series 8 finale followed by her reappearance in the series line premiere and then she doesn't crop up again for another series and a half the latter half of series 10 is laser focused on Missy however and it's a testament to Moffitt's talent that even with this huge gap Missy's story feels like it evolved subtly and naturally rather than being rushed out of the gates or wrapped up in a slapdash nonsensical fashion like some of his weaker stories yeah that was a choice really my only only major gripe with Missy across her entire run is the fact that she's called Missy she's the [ __ ] master just call her the master we didn't stop calling Jody worker doc he did we know because that'll be [ __ ] stupid wouldn't it as I said mother allowed us to see sides to both the master and the doctor that we had never seen before and hopefully if Missy returns whoever is running the show will be able to do this seismic development justice the doctor may travel to the past and the future but there's no time like the present for you to start building a beautiful website with Squarespace there are so many great templates to get started with even the TARDIS would struggle to fit them all in and each template has been crafted by squarespace's world-class design team and employ the latest HTML CSS and JavaScript techniques you can also present your YouTube and Vimeo videos on your website without breaking from your template using the video blocks which allows for a custom image overlay if you're confident that your website looks great you can purchase third-party domains directly from Squarespace slaving loads of hassle and each domain comes with a beautiful parking page and free who is privacy but the good news doesn't stop there because if you follow the link in our description you can get a 10% discount meaning there's never been a better time to sign up just head over to Squarespace comm for a free trial and when you set everything up go to Squarespace comm slash full-fat to save 10% of your first purchase and remember stay milkie so we don't think we're in this but someone has actually donated $100 which is incredible thank you very much dr. cheek' yeah yeah honestly that's awesome you are as we said our patreon video that you're keeping the lights on so no basicially thank you very much and yeah I just saw a joke you

Channel: Full Fat Videos

Views: 276,543

Keywords: Video, Essay, Discussion, Review, Problem, Debate, Analysis, Full Fat Videos, The Master, Missy, Michelle Gomez, John Simm, Series 8, Series 9, Doctor Who, Series 10, Bill Potts, Twelfth Doctor, Peter Capaldi, moffat, doctor who thirteenth doctor, doctor who video essay, classic doctor who, steven moffat era, russell t davies era, chris chibnall 5 year plan, steven moffat ruined doctor who, steven moffat is bad, steven moffat plot holes, writing, breakdown, the doctor falls

Id: uwU5qMf01IM

Length: 15min 7sec (907 seconds)

Published: Fri May 10 2019