total war in season three of doctor who, revisited
quite a while back, i speculated (with spoilers) about the theme of total war in the third season of newdoctorwho.
the themes didn't play out quite the way i expected, so i thought i might revisit them.
(spoilers for like everything.)
i had thought the master would be in human form--that is, not a timelord, but his essence or whatnot in charge of a human body. i thought he would be doing whatever was going on in the finale simply to ensure his survival. i thought this mostly based on his interest in what lazarus was doing and because this was a typical way for the master to do things in the old series. waging total war in order to survive would therefore be a consistent theme across the series.
i'm sure there are reasons that this wasn't chosen as the way to go, but just on the face of it, i have to say i prefer that set-up to the master's not particularly well-defined plan in the finale. still. . . total war.
the master is threatening to create a total war in the finale. his servants, the toclafane, are on the verge of losing their war with entropy, and make the choice to kill and enslave their own ancestors in order to survive. perhaps because this is such a dark idea, not a whole lot of emphasis is put on it, but it does team the master, a survivor of a total war (who ran and hid in order to survive) with survivors of what, in a sense, is the root of all wars: a fight against entropy, one's own way of life coming to an end.
and it pits these survivors of total war against the doctor, also a survivor of a total war.
part of the reason that i thought there might be something to this theme, way back in the lazarus experiment, was that i remembered the novel human nature, set just before WWI, and saw the pictures of the scarecrows from the human nature episodes. this plus lazarus quoting "the hollow men" ("we are the hollow men / we are the straw men" if memory serves). these hints seemed to suggest that the themes of the coming episodes might mirror what eliot and other folks after WWI were saying: that the experience of total war was morally disorienting and pessimism-inducing. the sense was that doing all of *that* to survive made a mockery of what you were trying to survive *for*.
and that theme did continue. the toclafane are a mockery of what humanity wanted to survive for. the master's timelord empire would be a mockery of timelord society. mrs. saxon, having seen the future, has an existential crisis that leads to her conclusion that "nothing matters." she is a bit of a scarecrow herself, morally: a denizen of a moral wasteland.
in contrast, we have jack, who thought he might want to die (did they honestly have that discussion in a family show? they did, didn't they?) but decides he wants to live because of people trying to live a better life. we have martha, who walks among people telling them a story that gives them hope for a better life. and we have the doctor. . . who becomes jesus.
well, here's the thing: it's been pointed out that the doctor and martha's plan was optimistic at best (presumably the doctor was still trying other plans, just none of them worked). the trouble with total war is that, morally, responding with "more force" and just "more force" does not necessarily give one the moral high ground if one is merely fighting for one's survival just like the bad guy. and so, on a thematic level, it does make some sense that the doctor can only win by harvesting people's desire to live a better life (not just hang on doggedly to the life they have through whatever means). becoming all glowy is not the only way to do this, of course, but when the master has just insulted martha as being incapable of rose-style uberness, there'd better be some uberness coming. so, i get it: maybe there were too many themes to juggle.
in conclusion: the theme was still there, and i don't think it was entirely an accident. was it a successful part of the season? all the way up to the last episode, i'd say yes. i'm not so sure about the last one.
the themes didn't play out quite the way i expected, so i thought i might revisit them.
(spoilers for like everything.)
i had thought the master would be in human form--that is, not a timelord, but his essence or whatnot in charge of a human body. i thought he would be doing whatever was going on in the finale simply to ensure his survival. i thought this mostly based on his interest in what lazarus was doing and because this was a typical way for the master to do things in the old series. waging total war in order to survive would therefore be a consistent theme across the series.
i'm sure there are reasons that this wasn't chosen as the way to go, but just on the face of it, i have to say i prefer that set-up to the master's not particularly well-defined plan in the finale. still. . . total war.
the master is threatening to create a total war in the finale. his servants, the toclafane, are on the verge of losing their war with entropy, and make the choice to kill and enslave their own ancestors in order to survive. perhaps because this is such a dark idea, not a whole lot of emphasis is put on it, but it does team the master, a survivor of a total war (who ran and hid in order to survive) with survivors of what, in a sense, is the root of all wars: a fight against entropy, one's own way of life coming to an end.
and it pits these survivors of total war against the doctor, also a survivor of a total war.
part of the reason that i thought there might be something to this theme, way back in the lazarus experiment, was that i remembered the novel human nature, set just before WWI, and saw the pictures of the scarecrows from the human nature episodes. this plus lazarus quoting "the hollow men" ("we are the hollow men / we are the straw men" if memory serves). these hints seemed to suggest that the themes of the coming episodes might mirror what eliot and other folks after WWI were saying: that the experience of total war was morally disorienting and pessimism-inducing. the sense was that doing all of *that* to survive made a mockery of what you were trying to survive *for*.
and that theme did continue. the toclafane are a mockery of what humanity wanted to survive for. the master's timelord empire would be a mockery of timelord society. mrs. saxon, having seen the future, has an existential crisis that leads to her conclusion that "nothing matters." she is a bit of a scarecrow herself, morally: a denizen of a moral wasteland.
in contrast, we have jack, who thought he might want to die (did they honestly have that discussion in a family show? they did, didn't they?) but decides he wants to live because of people trying to live a better life. we have martha, who walks among people telling them a story that gives them hope for a better life. and we have the doctor. . . who becomes jesus.
well, here's the thing: it's been pointed out that the doctor and martha's plan was optimistic at best (presumably the doctor was still trying other plans, just none of them worked). the trouble with total war is that, morally, responding with "more force" and just "more force" does not necessarily give one the moral high ground if one is merely fighting for one's survival just like the bad guy. and so, on a thematic level, it does make some sense that the doctor can only win by harvesting people's desire to live a better life (not just hang on doggedly to the life they have through whatever means). becoming all glowy is not the only way to do this, of course, but when the master has just insulted martha as being incapable of rose-style uberness, there'd better be some uberness coming. so, i get it: maybe there were too many themes to juggle.
in conclusion: the theme was still there, and i don't think it was entirely an accident. was it a successful part of the season? all the way up to the last episode, i'd say yes. i'm not so sure about the last one.