drawn for a chinese thoschei zine, thanks for having me!

It’s official. The Doctor is taller than the Master again!

@ManningOfficial: Not only a superb actor charming man but wow what A Master ! Delgado would be well chuffed ❤️

As much as I love Whittaker and Dhawan, can you IMAGINE Dhawan meeting Fifteen!?

uhh. anyone else still not over how sacha dhawan absolutely devoured the role of the master

The History Between Us title reveals!

That’s right, there are FIFTEEN stories in THBU. All coming together to make one giant story. Some you might see coming, others not so much.

We can tell you the Doctors since they’ll be in order. The Masters however… you’ll have to see.

-

1st Doctor - @ichabodcranemills - On the Contrary Nature of Temporal Exobiology

2nd Doctor - @diaryofriversong - Come and Gone

3rd Doctor - Fennric - Doctor Who and the Vortex Bloom

4th Doctor - @sophistopheles - Taphonomia

5th Doctor - Sariane - The Wandering Mind

6th Doctor - @katseternity - Hipswitch and the Middlematchers

7th Doctor - @sunshinedaysforever - Electropolis

8th Doctor - @redwinterbloom - Nothing But Time

9th Doctor - @nynafterhours - Prometheus

10th Doctor - @timetakeover - Deep Sea Dissonance

11th Doctor - @fictionpenned - Gone Fishing

12th Doctor - Jay - Not a Vessel For Your Good Intent

13th Doctor - @thoscheitrashdhawan - Subconscious Desires

???? Doctor/Epilogue - @weirdpug - Off and On

Framing Story - @koschgay

-

What do you think about the stories based on the titles?

Are there any that catch your eye? 👁️

Why I love the Spymaster #108: His double entendres are a shorthand for excitement!

Find my full series under the HELP I WUVS HIM tag.

#108: His double entendres are a shorthand for excitement!

We have several examples of the Spymaster using sexualized language in times of great excitement and anticipation.

In Spyfall, he flirts with Yaz by playing a lovable loser [#36]. The excitement here is partly explicit because he really does like Yaz, but it's partly implicit too because he's enjoying the role of the innocent, bumbling O and looking forward to his big revelation.

In The Timeless Children, he tries to entice [?] the Cyberium to leave Ashad by addressing it in a flirtatious way: "Show us some leg."

Slightly later, in the same ep, when the Cyberium enters him, he manages to joke [even though he's apparently being electrocuted], "At least buy me dinner!"

In The Power of the Doctor, he invites the Doctor to learn more about his rubbish volcano plan and, in a painfully obvious pun, "Come feel the earth move."

Slightly later in the same ep, we have him bubbling over with apparently horny innuendo when he's under UNIT guard. "Anyone want to bunk up in the bunker?" he quips to the UNIT guards holding him.

We also have the entire Rasputin song and dance in the same ep, where the Spymaster uses a song all about Rasputin's sexual prowess to taunt Thirteen with his [momentary] mastery of the situation [#69: OMINOUS yet dweeby dancing!].

I theorize elsewhere that his sexualized remarks derive from his sexual interest in robots [#45], the fact that he gets off on performing villainy [#64], and general kinkiness [#65].

I'd like to extend my analysis of his use of sexual innuendo. He particularly likes being in control--or at least performing control. All of these situations illustrated above show him attempting to perform control. With Yaz, he controls his self-presentation as hapless O. With Ashad and the Cyberium, he's presenting himself as aggressive seducer. When the Cyberium enters him, he may not be in control, but he's pretending he is by blasting off a witticism. When he tells the Doctor, "Come feel the earth move," he's enjoying that he knows more than she does about how his plan will play out. Even when under UNIT guard, he's still playing the witty antagonist because they're basically frogmarching him into the next phase of his plan. His most favorite part of the role of villain is the control freakery.

Furthermore, I've been doubling down on my interpretation of the Spymaster as some variety of ace, mostly because of his performance in The Power of the Doctor to the Rasputin song [#90: He's an ACE at being a Russian love machine!]. To me, the fact that he uses the song about "Russia's greatest love machine" as a chance to show off his control freakery provides the clearest evidence that sexual desire is incidental, rather than integral, to his character. That's why I arrive at the following conclusion: The Spymaster uses the language of horniness not necessarily because he is horny, but because that's the idiom he uses to express excitement.

@natalunasans @sclfmastery @timeladyjamie @rowanthestrange @whovianuncle

Why I love the Spymaster #107: Femininity and resistance in classic Western art!

Find my full series under the HELP I WUVS HIM tag.

#107: Femininity and resistance in classic Western art!

Nope, I'm still not done talking about the Spymaster and his takeover of classic Western art in The Power of the Doctor.

Inspired by some comments from @sclfmastery, An ACTUAL Art Historian, I'm noticing an interesting theme in the Spymaster's artworks where he takes on the woman's role: the Mona Lisa [#101], Girl with a Pearl Earring [#102], and American Gothic [#106].

@sclfmastery observes, "He is anything but the passive ingenue willing to be consumed by the viewer." In all three cases where the Spymaster adopts the woman's role, he does so in a way that resists his objectification as a pretty thing.

In these three cases, the Spymaster takes on a feminine identity, one traditionally associated with passivity [i.e., sitting still for a portrait], being consumed [i.e., being watched by the audience], and being judged [i.e., being interpreted by the audience]. He turns the tables, though, by posing in ways that make him look like the spectator and judge. He also turns the tables by pasting himself as Ra-Ra-Rasputin over the original subjects, making it very clear that each painting means THE SPYMASTER. His genderbending in these three paintings becomes a way for him to resist stereotypical strictures of gender, to assert his own identity, and to state his identity as an active creator of his own reality, not merely the Doctor's dupe.

@sclfmastery posits that the Spymaster's use of the feminine role in these paintings may tie back to his time as Missy in the Vault. "[I]t says a lot about how vulnerable he may have felt as Missy–who identified as a woman, and who was...locked in a vault for 70-odd years. Never again will he be passive and complacent," she writes. What do you think?

NOTE: My discussion of the Spymaster using femininity as a form of resistance does not discount the ways he objectifies the Doctor and other characters. See discussions about the nasty intersections of race, gender, and stereotypes in the portrayal of the Spymaster here.

@natalunasans @sclfmastery @timeladyjamie @rowanthestrange @whovianuncle

Why I love the Spymaster #102: He’s the girl with a pearl earring!

Find my full series under the HELP I WUVS HIM tag.

I talk about the Spymaster’s use of classic paintings of modern Western art in The Power of the Doctor elsewhere in my list. #61: Playing even more with gender! notes that he substitutes himself in three paintings into the position of women. #79: The Scream! 💔 points out that his use of the painting illustrates his struggles with mental health. #100: His art collection! examines why he turns to famous paintings that are considered classics. #101: He’s the Mona Lisa! talks about the reasons for his self-insertion in that painting.

Today we’re looking at the Spymaster sticking himself in the place of the subject of Girl with a Pearl Earring, a painting from about 1665, by Johannes Vermeer.

Here’s a reproduction of the original:

And here’s the Spymaster’s version:

Two things about this painting jump out at me:

First, the subject, a white European young woman, is dressed in a turban, which was a reference to Turkish dress and therefore considered intriguingly foreign. With his extremely bushy beard, the Spymaster enhances the symbols of “exoticism” and “foreignness.” He’s also brown-skinned and therefore more easily interpretable as “not from around here” and even “exotic” [in implicit juxtaposition with white people].

I’m frankly not sure how to read the use of signs of “exoticism” and racial difference. The show and the BBC have a long history of ignoring the races of the actors and characters, thus contributing to nasty racial stereotypes. [See #51 for an extended discussion of the BBC’s avoidance of Thirteen and the Spymaster’s race and gender in Spyfall and Spyfall I and how it reinforces racist and sexist assumptions.] Given the show’s refusal to significantly engage with the different lived experiences that people have based on their race, I highly doubt that the showrunners even thought about the fact that the Spymaster, who is not white, is putting himself in the role of a white woman. I’d love to read this as the Spymaster’s playful commentary on the constructed, artificial nature of “exoticism” and race, but, even though he clearly knows about identity politics [#14: He exploits a modern social justice activist perspective!], we have no indication that he applies them to himself. So idk.

Second, the subject has a very interesting expression. Her twisted neck and side glance indicate that she is looking over her shoulder, a gesture that is often associated with being startled or surprised. Her open mouth makes her look like she is gasping or about to speak. She’s responding to the observer, perhaps even in dialogue with them. She looks anxious, or, at the very least, uncertain.

By contrast, the Spymaster’s version of this painting shows him in profile. He makes no eye contact with the viewer, and his facial expression seems neutral. Focused on something else that we cannot see, he appears indifferent to the fact that he’s being watched.

The Spymaster would like to present himself as in his version of Girl with a Pearl Earring: the beautiful, brilliant center of attention who’s not preoccupied with whether he’s being looked at. The original Girl…, however, portrays his emotional state more accurately: one of heightened self-awareness, tension, and worry.

@sclfmastery @natalunasans @rowanthestrange @timeladyjamie @whovianuncle

Oh boy, here comes a ramble. I apologize in advance, but your visual analysis has my brain going “brrr” in a very happy way.  

YES. Okay, for the benefit of anyone reading this that maybe familiar with less of this type of  content than @modernwizard​: 

The subject of viewing Asian peoples and cultures through an appropriative European lens is called “Orientalism” and is closely tied to two larger fields of study,  which I’m sure you’ve encountered if you’ve spent even a moment in academia, “Imperialism” and  “Colonialism.” Imperialism covers the manifold interactions between white, black and brown peoples, in many dimensions (social, economic, cultural, militaristic, material, political, theological, etc).  Colonialism covers the almost inevitable consequence of an imperialist (essentially, conquering) frame of mind: the invasion and control of one culture by another. 

 In art history, we borrow these analytic frameworks to see how they are employed to either consciously or unconsciously represent black and brown peoples in a distorted manner, as inherently “exotic” and “mysterious,” enviable and also up for grabs by white conquerers.  There are several sub-genres of study re this phenomenon ( for instance, “Japonisme” and “Chinoiserie” ), which has existed as long as there have been advanced and enlightened Asian civilizations for white Europeans to envy. Vermeer’s work is a little earlier; the real high point of Orientalist visual art and material culture was from the 1730s to the late 1800s.  The main issue with Orientalism (like any form of cultural appropriation) is that Asian subjects (like your Vermeer) are portrayed in a displaced way–the way that European artists, in fact, extremely high-profile, successful ones, who have a huge impact on their own culture, WANT to see them.  This view is very formulaic: the Asian subject is a passive object of voyeuristic male pleasure.  Vermeer is in the 1600s–after his time, in the time frame I mentioned above, she is usually naked or in a state of partial undress, looking out at the viewer in a deferent but seductive manner.  She is obviously white (even though she’s supposedly from a region of Asia) and the European male viewer–the same consumer/audience as those who have literally, violently, militaristically conquered the civilization she is purported to represent–suspends his disbelief because the painter, draftsman, or sculptor has represented her in an artificially exotic “Asian” environment (peacock feathers, vases, turbans, hookahs, etc….yes, really).  He can do this because he wants to: this woman is exciting, a novelty, just foreign enough to be so without scaring him and arousing his xenophobia. 

A good example is Grand Odalisque by Ingres, a white French painter who, lol,  never even visited Asia, finished 1814.

See what I mean? Lol, yikes. See why Asian people got so upset when, for instance, Scarlett Johansson was cast as the (originally Asian) female lead in Ghost in the Shell, or Tilda Swinton as the (originally Asian) ancient mystic in Dr. Strange, or, hey, let’s even look in Sacha’s filmography, Finn Jones was cast as the (originally Asian) male lead in Iron Fist? That’s all an echo of the same self-soothing European imperialist ideology. 

A great place to start to read more about this LONG and problematic phenomenon is the counter-movement that started roughly in the 1970s: Post-Colonialism. Warning, it’s not a flawless ideology, and also a pretty challenging read.  In particular, I would recommend reading up on the Theory of the Subaltern, and Homi K. Bhabha’s work. He challenges ideas of binary identity (for instance, Asian vs. European) and suggests instead that most human civilizations and markers of identity are hybridized (he discusses SO much more than this, btw, I’m summarizing and simplifying to the extreme because of how much I’ve already typed at you, lol).  Post-Colonial Theory is also a sub-category of what is called “Post-Structuralism,” which you may have also heard of.  

Now, aha….our real question here, which you’ve lol already brought up, is, are the DW writers  perceptive enough to overcome their (often historically insensitive portrayal of race relations, to consciously make a commentary as smart as your visual analysis, about a brown Asian Master in the role of a white female “Oriental” servant girl?  I doubt it. But if they WERE doing it on purpose, it’s interesting that the Master is REFUSING the voyeuristic gaze of the Doctor by standing in profile,  and upending the typical trope of the “exotic Asian harem girl” by wearing a marker of aged, learned, and mature masculine identity (the beard).

 Just as you said, he is anything but the passive ingenue willing to be consumed by the viewer.  And it says a lot about how vulnerable he may have felt as Missy–who identified as a woman, and who was (officially, formally, at least) locked in a vault for 70-odd years. Never again will he be passive and complacent. ‘Come “feel the earth shake,” Doctor, but don’t think I’ll be playing nice in our power dynamic ever again.’  I DO think this much of the message WAS intentional. 

@sclfmastery extends the analysis of the Spymaster in Girl with a Pearl Earring. Here’s the key remark, in my view:

Why I love the Spymaster #103: He's in The Hay Wain!

Find my full series under the HELP I WUVS HIM tag.

I talk about the Spymaster's use of classic paintings of modern Western art in The Power of the Doctor elsewhere in my list. #61: Playing even more with gender! notes that he substitutes himself in three paintings into the position of women. #79: The Scream! 💔 points out that his use of the painting illustrates his struggles with mental health. #100: His art collection! examines why he turns to famous paintings that are considered classics. #101: He's the Mona Lisa! talks about the reasons for his self-insertion in that painting. #102: He's the girl with a pearl earring! discusses his use of that Vermeer portrait.

The mini essay addresses The Hay Wain: Landscape at Noon, an 1821 landscape painting by English painter John Constable. It shows a person driving a wooden wain [or wagon] pulled by three horses across the Stour River between Suffolk and Essex counties. The massive work is considered the artist's most recognizable image and one of the best and most popular English paintings. The site in Suffolk depicted in the painting is now a tourist attraction.

Here is a reproduction:

Of all the paintings that the Spymaster inserts himself into, The Hay Wain stands out for two reasons. First, it's much more familiar to English viewers in particular than the other paintings, which are internationally popular. Second, all the other paintings are closeups of recognizable individuals whose replacement with the Spymaster as Ra-Ra-Rasputin can be easily identified. In contrast, The Hay Wain depicts a large landscape in which the wagon driver is a very small part, not even facing the camera. The driver is an important piece of the painting, but not the focus.

Why might the Spymaster co-opt The Hay Wain, then, especially since, unlike the other paintings he puts himself in, the picture does not showcase his beautiful, attention-getting visage? I think the answer lies in the painting as a peculiarly English [that is, from England] icon. The painting illustrates an English scene--a picturesque, tranquil scene of an idealized, preindustrial, agricultural past. The painting is familiar to English viewers and considered a significant piece of early modern English culture. While The Hay Wain is not as old a picture as the Mona Lisa or Girl with a Pearl Earring, it's specifically English in a way that the other paintings are not.

Doctor Who is a British show created in an era [the late 1960s] when English colonial, economic, and cultural dominance was on the decline. In response to this perceived loss of power, new English cultural heroes developed for the post-WWII, post-imperial period. One such was Ian Fleming's James Bond [inspired by Jon Pertwee's miltary shenanigans, apparently!], an MI6 agent, who showcased British superiority by being the best spy in his fictional universe, owning and deploying the most innovative gadgets, and possessing heterosexuality so irresistible that it could even win over lesbians like Pussy Galore. [No, seriously, go read the novels. They're fascinating.] James Bond re-established British empire, one hot heterosexual encounter at a time.

Another new hero for England's post-imperial age was the Doctor. Though nominally an extraterrestrial from another planet, the Doctor is a very English alien. They belong to a caste-ridden society of great intellectual and scientific achievement that mirror's England's past as a great source of scientific and technological influence. Their status as Time Lord marks them as part of England's noble class, also termed lords. Their role as quasi-scientific explorer and inventor, bringing hope, goodness, and moral insight to the universe, reflects the way in which imperial Britons envisioned themselves as intrepid bearers of enlightenment to the ignorant masses around the world. The Doctor reinterprets English imperialism for a post-imperial age by focusing less on all those objectionable aspects of colonialism [intertwined racism, sexism, and classism] and more on the [supposed] positives: the excitement of space exploration, the intellectual possibilities offered by new nuclear and computing technology, the ways in which a representative of a "more developed" society [i.e., the Time Dorks] could help and improve those of a "less developed" society [i.e., humans].

Anyway, the Doctor is a peculiarly English alien, and The Hay Wain is a quintessentially English painting that talks about English identity: a rural, agrarian, self-sufficient, specifically masculine identity that was formed in an idealized past. The Hay Wain's nostalgic and idealized masculinity, independent and powerful, appeals to the Spymaster, who dislikes his dependence on the Doctor and who's always hearkening back to the "classics." Additionally, the painting's Englishness confers Englishness upon the Spymaster when he puts himself in it; he thus represents himself as just as English, just as legitimate, and just as important, as the Doctor. It's another attempt for him to assert his equality with the Doctor when he's feeling inferior.

@natalunasans @sclfmastery @whovianuncle @timeladyjamie @rowanthestrange

Why I love the Spymaster #105: He's a dancer!

Find my full series under the HELP I WUVS HIM tag.

The Spymaster is a notoriously unrestrained character. His repetitions [#31] show how use does not seem to think before he speaks, but in the very process of speaking. He seems to think by acting out his thoughts and emotions [#11: You can SEE his mind at work!]. Additionally, his gestures provide insight into his preoccupations [#12: His brainfingers!]. He involuntarily vibrates when he's angry [#2] and when he's happy [#104]. He rocks from side to side unselfconsciously when anticipating something [#14], flaps when happy [#78], and exhibits lots of movements associated with autistic stimming and ticcing [see #78 for an extensive list].

The Spymaster is also notorious for dancing, i.e., moving purposefully with rhythm and choreography. We have him intentionally twirling in Spyfall I, right after he says he controls everything:

We have another twirl in The Power of the Doctor when he explains to Thirteen that the CyberMasters and Daleks are his "fam:"

And then, of course, there's his actual dance party to Rasputin shortly afterward.

Saying that the Spymaster is a dancer is different from celebrating his nerdy dancing [#3] or his OMINOUS yet dweeby dancing [#69]. Both of those mini essays focus on instances of dancing, but this mini essay speaks more generally. "He's a dancer!" = The Spymaster likes dancing, and he's a dancer, insofar as a dancer is someone who makes art out of the body in motion.

I call him a dancer for the following reasons:

He already emanates his emotions through facial expression, hand gestures, and bodily movements, so dancing, an art about one's body in motion, has an understandable appeal to him.

Dance, like theater, is a performance art, calling on an audience to admire the dancer's beauty and physical prowess. This appeals to the Spymaster because he's an over-the-top performer who needs an audience and also because he considers himself beautiful.

We know he likes club music [#96: Further implications of the Rasputin song!], so Rasputin [Majestic remix] is probably not the only tune he likes to groove to.

While expressive, dancing is not the same as the Spymaster's sometimes involuntary physical expression of emotion that the Spymaster frequently has. Dancing involves intentional control of one's body, which speaks deeply to the Spymaster, who's constantly worrying that he has lost control.

Another reason for the Spymaster's fondness for dancing connects to his neurodeviance or neurodivergence [#47]. I imagine that the Spymaster may be frustrated on occasion with his involuntary or unconscious stimming/ticcing. The planned choreography of dancing may help him to feel more at home with himself and grounded. In fact, his overall serious expression and relatively restrained body language during the Rasputin dance indirectly suggest that his dance of intimidation may be successfully quieting his impulses of nervous energy.

And on that note, folks, I am taking a break. I have been inflicting HELP I WUVS HIM mini essays about the Spymaster onto a hapless public for two solid months now. I haven't run out of mini essays. I've just run out of motivation.

Possible future topics include American Gothic, the Spymaster's gender, the Spymaster in the short story "The Master and Margarita," detailed analysis of the seismology professor costume, "Did you know she used to be a man?", and more!

Also, if all three of my readers have any things that you love about the Spymaster, feel free to send them to me. Or if you notice interesting things about the character and you have your own interpretations, send them along too. I don't guarantee that I will use what you send, but I will credit and tag you if I do.

P.S. If you like the kind of Masterful humor abounding in these essays, check out my parody self-help book Your Villain & You. It features a LOT of characters who look suspiciously like the Spymaster!

@natalunasans @sclfmastery @timeladyjamie @whovianuncle @rowanthestrange

Why I love the Spymaster #101: He's the Mona Lisa!

Find my full series under the HELP I WUVS HIM tag.

#101: He's the Mona Lisa!

This is it, folks: my 100th entry in the list of reasons I love the Spymaster! [It's coming as #101 because I listed his hair as two separate reasons accidentally. Whoops!]

I talk about the Spymaster's use of classic paintings of modern Western art elsewhere in my list. #61: Playing even more with gender! notes that he substitutes himself in three paintings into the position of women. #79: The Scream! 💔 points out that his use of the painting illustrates his struggles with mental health. #100: His art collection! examines why he turns to famous paintings that are considered classics.

This mini essay looks specifically at why he puts himself in the place of the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci.

I can think of a few reasons:

@sclfmastery @natalunasans @whovianuncle @timeladyjamie @rowanthestrange

it is a VERY pretty painting ….

Dhawan!Master in a suit, send post

Why I love the Spymaster #98: "Call me by my name!"

Find my full series under the HELP I WUVS HIM tag.

#98: "Call me by my name!"

Check out this moment in Spyfall II, where the Spymaster, having just killed two people with his incredible shrinking device and thus intimidated an entire auditorium of people at a science fair, makes the Doctor kneel and call him by his name.

The Spymaster's eye contact -- or lack thereof here -- is fascinating. For his first two requests, the Spymaster glances in the Doctor's general direction, but also flicks his eyes to the side. His face remains still, largely devoid of expression. He seems distracted or disconnected. It takes him until request #3 to stick the eye contact, along with a sarcastic wince. Not until response #3 does he seem to have an emotional response to his name: a response of apparent distress, with unhappy eyebrows and a hand pressed over the mouth. Of course, he's just smirking underneath.

This little clip supports my interpretation that the Spymaster feels his sense of control, thus his Masterfulness, his very self, disintegrating--hence the somewhat vacant stare and blank expression in the beginning. That's why he's so fixated on his past greatness [#81] and why he's so obsessed with the "classics," particularly his TCE [#75]. We know that he's in love with his own stupid name [#37]. He's also always on a search for the right word [#57]. And he thinks in repetitions because he's always replaying the past to himself, evaluating his performances [#18 and #54]. It thus makes perfect sense that he thinks that his favorite enemy repeating to him his favorite word might bring him back to himself. He's also, of course, hearkening back to Simm Master's demand to Ten in Utopia: "Say my name."

Do you think that he says, "Can't hear you," because it's so loud in his head, full of conflicting dialogues and self-doubt, that he can barely hear himself think? Is that sarcastic wince a sneer at the Doctor AND a moment of contempt for himself because he feels like a failure? Do those distressed eyebrows indicate any frustration that his elaborately staged performance isn't working for him?

@natalunasans @rowanthestrange @timeladyjamie @whovianuncle @sclfmastery

wtf doctor?! that’s not supposed to happen until LATER in the story. not until AFTER i’ve been betrayed by my alien allies… how dare you alter the time-honoured way the game is played…

Why I love the Spymaster #97: His emotional support doomsday device!

Find my full series under the HELP I WUVS HIM tag.

#97: His emotional support doomsday device!

The Spymaster really, really, really loves his tissue compression eliminator. He has expanded it to do more than just shrink people [#75: He uses the TCE as his sonic screwdriver!]. His affinity for the TCE seems to be part of his stylizing of the role of the Master, taking past traits of the performance and dialing them up to 11 to make himself feel Masterful and in control again [#93: Most Masterful Master ever!].

Once the Spymaster retrieves his TCE from UNIT prison, he literally does not let it go. Whenever it appears, he's clutching it tightly.

He clings to it during his Ra-Ra-Rasputin dance. You can see how he has it clamped in his grip in the still below.

Even after being knocked out and partly crushed by debris on the Cyberplanet, he still hangs onto the TCE.

Conclusion: It's his emotional support doomsday device. No, seriously -- by making it his universal remote control/shrinking machine/dance party trigger, the Spymaster turns the TCE into a repository and symbol of his power. Having it in his hand makes him feel Masterful.

@natalunasans @sclfmastery @rowanthestrange @whovianuncle @timeladyjamie