[licenseartistic] February 2009 - Truth and Consequences
Title: "Truth and Consequences"
Prompt: "Those that set in motion the forces of evil cannot always control them afterwards." --Charles W. Chestnutt
Character: The Tenth Doctor
Warnings: None
Pairings: None
Fandom: Doctor Who
Word count: 488
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: The Doctor and all other mentioned characters are property of the BBC, and are used without permission.
They say-- that would be the usual metaphysical, allegorical and occasionally controversial "they" that say just about anything that people don't want to give or take direct credit for-- that upon watching the planet Earth's very first successful detonation of a nuclear device, Dr. Robert Oppenheimer quoted the religious text known as the Bhagavad-Gita, saying, "now I am become Death, destroyer of worlds".
Apocryphal or not, the story of Dr. Oppenheimer's sudden urge to spout quotations originated half a world and thousand years before is meant to illustrate that even the individuals who were responsible for the human race's creation of one of the most powerful and destructive weapons imaginable were capable of understanding and perhaps being frightened of what they had unleashed.
Power itself, of course, is not evil. It's not good, either. It's just power. It's just a knife. It's just a sonic screwdriver. It's just a nuclear fission reaction. Intent and use make these tools, these abilities into something good or evil. A knife can cut a cake, or slash a throat. A sonic screwdriver can... well, it can do just about anything, so I suppose it depends on why you're doing that anything.
And a fission reaction can be a spectacularly bountiful source of energy. Or it can be a bomb.
Like anything else, it's all about choices. The choice to heal or to do harm. The choice to help or to stand aside.
Unfortunately, not every choice is quite so clearly for good or ill. Mercy and compassion are attributes that most civilised cultures consider to be positive and helpful. But what happens if the person you treat with mercy, to whom you show compassion, goes on to be a mass murderer? Are you responsible, then, for every death that happens afterward? Are their lives on your head?
I can't begin to count how many lives the Master has taken, across space and time. Without a doubt, he is one of the most dangerous, unstable and unpredictable individuals in creation. And yet, after he was defeated on Earth and the Toclafane invasion thwarted, I couldn't bring myself to end his life. Perhaps he deserved it, perhaps it was the only way to make sure, but I couldn't. I couldn't.
Given his track record, I'm sure the Master will somehow make me regret the choice.
I learned from it, though. Things with a nature of violence and destruction need to be controlled and contained. That's why I gave the other me-- Handy, let's call him-- to Rose. As I said, he was born in battle and combat. He was tinged with it, all the way through. That's what made him destroy the Daleks. He didn't have to, but he made the choice to end the threat.
And so, I had to make the choice to end his.
Be careful, I suppose, is the moral of the story. Pandora's Box is deep, dark and very, very hard to close.
Prompt: "Those that set in motion the forces of evil cannot always control them afterwards." --Charles W. Chestnutt
Character: The Tenth Doctor
Warnings: None
Pairings: None
Fandom: Doctor Who
Word count: 488
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: The Doctor and all other mentioned characters are property of the BBC, and are used without permission.
They say-- that would be the usual metaphysical, allegorical and occasionally controversial "they" that say just about anything that people don't want to give or take direct credit for-- that upon watching the planet Earth's very first successful detonation of a nuclear device, Dr. Robert Oppenheimer quoted the religious text known as the Bhagavad-Gita, saying, "now I am become Death, destroyer of worlds".
Apocryphal or not, the story of Dr. Oppenheimer's sudden urge to spout quotations originated half a world and thousand years before is meant to illustrate that even the individuals who were responsible for the human race's creation of one of the most powerful and destructive weapons imaginable were capable of understanding and perhaps being frightened of what they had unleashed.
Power itself, of course, is not evil. It's not good, either. It's just power. It's just a knife. It's just a sonic screwdriver. It's just a nuclear fission reaction. Intent and use make these tools, these abilities into something good or evil. A knife can cut a cake, or slash a throat. A sonic screwdriver can... well, it can do just about anything, so I suppose it depends on why you're doing that anything.
And a fission reaction can be a spectacularly bountiful source of energy. Or it can be a bomb.
Like anything else, it's all about choices. The choice to heal or to do harm. The choice to help or to stand aside.
Unfortunately, not every choice is quite so clearly for good or ill. Mercy and compassion are attributes that most civilised cultures consider to be positive and helpful. But what happens if the person you treat with mercy, to whom you show compassion, goes on to be a mass murderer? Are you responsible, then, for every death that happens afterward? Are their lives on your head?
I can't begin to count how many lives the Master has taken, across space and time. Without a doubt, he is one of the most dangerous, unstable and unpredictable individuals in creation. And yet, after he was defeated on Earth and the Toclafane invasion thwarted, I couldn't bring myself to end his life. Perhaps he deserved it, perhaps it was the only way to make sure, but I couldn't. I couldn't.
Given his track record, I'm sure the Master will somehow make me regret the choice.
I learned from it, though. Things with a nature of violence and destruction need to be controlled and contained. That's why I gave the other me-- Handy, let's call him-- to Rose. As I said, he was born in battle and combat. He was tinged with it, all the way through. That's what made him destroy the Daleks. He didn't have to, but he made the choice to end the threat.
And so, I had to make the choice to end his.
Be careful, I suppose, is the moral of the story. Pandora's Box is deep, dark and very, very hard to close.