"He's back from the dead, and ready to party. He's just been rescued from the Eye of Harmony, newly troubled by a mysterious drumming. He's come back from Sarn and hell bent on revenge - for something the Doctor hasn't even done yet. And he’s just along for the ride...
The Doctor’s a little puzzled by the Master’s behaviour – random murders and freak disasters all over planet Earth. But he’s happy to keep cleaning up the aftermath as long as Nyssa’s safe – studying a valuable tourist drug on [insert planet name]. When war breaks out there 10 years too soon, he discovers something threatening the whole universe. So what's new? But why has the Doctor just met a different version of the Master who the Doctor knows to be dead? And who is the suited man who sees to be manipulating events on a rival planet?"
So here’s the blurb, which I’ve been working on instead of doing any real work towards the story.
Obviously you’ll have to imagine better clarity with the first paragraph when accompanied by pictures – in order, its meant to be SM, RM, AM then DM. The most lingering gripe that Caves has left me with is that my plot is, how shall we put this, in principle exactly the same. Two planets, an argument over a luxury drug – and I put DelgadoMaster in the Morgus role, manipulating both sides for maximum chaos.
I’m hoping this won’t matter – factional rivalry is nothing new to Who, and what makes Caves such a darn good episode is the way it doesn’t do the obvious thing. The Doctor doesn’t get involved in the war – its just a background to a personal story. I have gone down the simple route – stopping the conflict is his main priority. Combined with the difference in atmosphere – I’m all space ports and open spaces – I hope it won’t make too big a difference. As I noted in the previous post, Five Doctors and Journey’s End has taught me fan indulgence will make up for any deficiencies in plot or plagiarism.
And also glorious continuity errors. Will a casual reader be annoyed, or even notice the fact that a sequence relying on SM’s hands being free takes place at a time when he is canonically handcuffed? The end of series 3 is responsible for my DW obsession; I’ve seen it far more times than can be healthy, and so surely few people would notice this minor detail from Last of the Timelords when I forgot it? Neither did the Portreve, my Master-obsessed friend, who’s been correcting me on all sorts of minor points as I go. So here I am, trying to reproduce all the crying and hugging which occurred on the Valiant, which is a hard enough job, and now I’ve got a whole page of it to redraw. It’s not just a case of adding handcuffs. I’ve got to move shoulders, arms, elbows, shadows, angles – its starting from scratch.
I’ve now got something that will pass as an acceptable 5, from some angles or for some emotions. I’ve also got sick of trying to make AM any better – I’ve got something OK, and I’m sticking to it. Only now to find out my DMs have gone down the shoot. Ultimately, I may have to draw them on separate days.
Other problems? Well, my 5th Doctor is just splendid - I'm starting to worry his lines have been taken verbatim from existing scripts, he's such a joy to write for. I know why companions were criminally underwritten in the old series - its really hard. So far, Tegan has just stood around and asked questions. I feel guilty - she's one of my faves - and the lines I have do all have her individual twist. But she's still just walking exposition. And I need to see some more DM quick - I feel his character is becoming unfairly reasonable. With SM jumping about all over the place, RM unintentionally speaking in double entendres and AM going overboard with the chuckles, I worry he's uncharacteristically sane in comparison. He comes across very well balanced in Claws of Axos - is that always the case?
And I'm still plotless. The main problem I've identified with Torchwood is a tendency to write for character not story. A DW example is Journey's End - all set up, a plot wrapped up without ingenuity but because it has to be, and the climax is Davros taunting the Doc. What does he do in the episode? He gets kidnapped. He stands around. He feels bad. He doesn't defeat the invasion, he doesn't do anything. Maybe you're now thinking "interesting observation, Fifth Doctor fan", but that's different, Resurrection of the Daleks does brilliantly, and it really doesn't work outside of his era anyway. Think Pyramids of Mars - the Doctor spends the whole thing finding ways to defeat Sutekh. Things happen. Its easy to lurch from character incident to character incident - lets face it, its easier to write and more fun too. The best bits of Pyramids is him facing off Sutekh, him dealing with Scarman jnr's grief, every aside to Sarah-Jane. So far, I've only done the confrontations - the exact details of what will be going on in the mean time I've left for now, and will probably never will square out.
I don't want to be left with a Journey's End - I don't want my terrific setup spoilt by a lazy ending, the Doc brushing it off with a bit of technobabble. I want it to be the ultimate Master adventure - all four of the sneaky bastards quadruple crossing everyone on set, and setting up a slick smart plot which befits five timelords all trying to outthink one another. In short, an impossible task. But a girl can dream. And Lucy Saxon looks awesome.
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