Rare Ships Month: Susan/Master
Hi! Welcome to a rant Babble Insane fangirl introduction to one of my favourite pairings… the one of Susan/The Master!
This pairing is actually a quite probable pairing and makes a lot of sense… except for one thing.
Susan and The Master have never met on screen.
But that blocking point is easily gotten over by the fact that we know The Master fought for at least a while in the Time war… and if we take the book canon of “Legacy of the Daleks” at face value we can also assume that Susan escaped earth and might have also fought in the Time war.
Thus it is reasonable to expect that they might have met.
So let us take a look at their characters…
Susan
Susan is the originally unearthly child, when we first meet her in “the unearthly child” she is a strange girl, often mocked by her classmates and far more intelligent then the norm.
And then we meet her Grandfather.
Susan is a young time lady, a granddaughter of the Doctor and an independent character in her own right.
Later on in the series she starts to rebel, starts to grow out of herself and eventually leaves to get married to a man she barely knew (after being locked out of the TARDIS.
A very interesting fact about Susan is that she is telepathic to a extent, she can hear telepathy and can even respond to it a little.
This also probably means that she can block attempts at mind control… Attempts which one Time Lord Called the Master might make…
The Master
What Doctor Who fan hasn't heard of The Master?
The ultimate Time Lord nemesis of the Doctor he has been portrayed by several actors (Anthony Ainsley, Roger Delgado, Derek Jacobi and most recently John Simm) and has been shown to be a cunning foe who gives the Doctor a fight to make sure that good wins.
He knows how to hypnotise others and has managed to take over the world fully once for an entire year (even if he was dethroned)
In short he is one of the Doctors most famous foes… and an often beloved icon of the Doctor Who fandom.
Which leads me nicely onto the pairing, the pairing of the Doctor's greatest foe and the Doctor's granddaughter…
The pairing
I would be the first the claim that this pairing is probably the most twisted up pairing that you can find out there.
It’s really not a nice pairing, to ship it requires a lot of acceptance of angst, more angst and… you probably get it.
But yet given time and a little work it could blossom into something truly special.
For one it has been shown that Susan can sometimes match The Master for ruthlessness value, both are physic, both have connections to the Doctor.
It is not a far leap to imagine Susan becoming bitter at her grandfather leaving her behind, to start to see humans with just a little contempt…
And that’s where the Master comes in, sweeping her away.
Or not, it could be set in the Time war, where two people completely opposite cling to each other to try and forget the pain and the fear.
It is easy to see how many ways this pairing could occur, and that is what I love about it.
It’s flexibility.
Fic
Sadly there does not appear to be that much fanfiction or art for this pairing…
To get a truly comprehensive list you’d have to include my own work and I don’t really like to self pimp.
But I have found some fic with the pairing featured:
http://rodlox.livejournal.com/114541.html?view=192365#t192365
http://community.livejournal.com/unearthy_child/7155.html?view=16115#t16115
Overall Susan/Master is a very angsty, very nasty and one of those pairings where a happy ending requires a lot of work… But it can turn out to be brilliant.
I certainly think it is.
This pairing is actually a quite probable pairing and makes a lot of sense… except for one thing.
Susan and The Master have never met on screen.
But that blocking point is easily gotten over by the fact that we know The Master fought for at least a while in the Time war… and if we take the book canon of “Legacy of the Daleks” at face value we can also assume that Susan escaped earth and might have also fought in the Time war.
Thus it is reasonable to expect that they might have met.
So let us take a look at their characters…
Susan
Susan is the originally unearthly child, when we first meet her in “the unearthly child” she is a strange girl, often mocked by her classmates and far more intelligent then the norm.
And then we meet her Grandfather.
Susan is a young time lady, a granddaughter of the Doctor and an independent character in her own right.
Later on in the series she starts to rebel, starts to grow out of herself and eventually leaves to get married to a man she barely knew (after being locked out of the TARDIS.
A very interesting fact about Susan is that she is telepathic to a extent, she can hear telepathy and can even respond to it a little.
This also probably means that she can block attempts at mind control… Attempts which one Time Lord Called the Master might make…
The Master
What Doctor Who fan hasn't heard of The Master?
The ultimate Time Lord nemesis of the Doctor he has been portrayed by several actors (Anthony Ainsley, Roger Delgado, Derek Jacobi and most recently John Simm) and has been shown to be a cunning foe who gives the Doctor a fight to make sure that good wins.
He knows how to hypnotise others and has managed to take over the world fully once for an entire year (even if he was dethroned)
In short he is one of the Doctors most famous foes… and an often beloved icon of the Doctor Who fandom.
Which leads me nicely onto the pairing, the pairing of the Doctor's greatest foe and the Doctor's granddaughter…
The pairing
I would be the first the claim that this pairing is probably the most twisted up pairing that you can find out there.
It’s really not a nice pairing, to ship it requires a lot of acceptance of angst, more angst and… you probably get it.
But yet given time and a little work it could blossom into something truly special.
For one it has been shown that Susan can sometimes match The Master for ruthlessness value, both are physic, both have connections to the Doctor.
It is not a far leap to imagine Susan becoming bitter at her grandfather leaving her behind, to start to see humans with just a little contempt…
And that’s where the Master comes in, sweeping her away.
Or not, it could be set in the Time war, where two people completely opposite cling to each other to try and forget the pain and the fear.
It is easy to see how many ways this pairing could occur, and that is what I love about it.
It’s flexibility.
Fic
Sadly there does not appear to be that much fanfiction or art for this pairing…
To get a truly comprehensive list you’d have to include my own work and I don’t really like to self pimp.
But I have found some fic with the pairing featured:
http://rodlox.livejournal.com/114541.html?view=192365#t192365
http://community.livejournal.com/unearthy_child/7155.html?view=16115#t16115
Overall Susan/Master is a very angsty, very nasty and one of those pairings where a happy ending requires a lot of work… But it can turn out to be brilliant.
I certainly think it is.