stunt_muppet

Um, you know I'm not normally a big spoiler person - well, not for Doctor Who anyway - but I absolutely have to ask.






So, rhia_starsong and I were rewatching Hot Fuzz in lieu of being productive (as you do) and expressing our joy over Creepy Timothy Dalton. And I forget which one of us said it first (I think it was Sweet Bean), but we decided that Timothy Dalton needed to be the next Master. Opposite Nighy!Doctor, naturally.

Sweet Bean decided to go hunting for screencaps, so's we could make a "Master" icon of Dalton, and came across his Wikipeda page

You there? Good. Now scroll to the bottom, below "External Links".

Um, we may have screamed a little. One, because we so called it, and two because...well...Dalton!Master. Just saying the word makes me go all funny.

Of course, once I woke up in the morning and regained some sort of sense, I realized that it probably wasn't true, that someone on Wikipedia was just screwing with my head (as they do). After all, no mention is made of it on his actual page, and the Master's wiki page only goes up to Simm. Plus, he's listed as the Master for 2009, and so far as I know, Simm's coming back for 2009. Unless Simm!Master regenerates in one of the specials (unlikely, methinks), the earliest Dalton could step in would be 2010.

But...but...but I want this to happen, guys. Not that I'm in any hurry to get rid of Simm!Master, because hey, the interplay between him and Ten was what finally got me into Doctor Who period, let alone Old-School. But, when he does step down (and he'll have to, eventually; nature of the beast), Dalton would make an awesome Master.

I can't see him playing opposite Tennant, though. One of the reasons Dalton would be so good as the Master is that he recalls, I think, the sort of quiet, calculated charm that Delgado played. Which is all well and good, but Doctors and Masters have to be counterparts of one another, to a point. They have to be played in a complimentary fashion. Delgado!Master's suave deliberation worked with Pertwee's Doctor, but someone playing the same type of character opposite Tennant would look moribund by comparison. Simm!Master needed to be manic and wilder than his predecessors; otherwise he wouldn't have worked with his Doctor.

If Dalton did take the role, he'd have to be playing against a new Doctor - and seriously, I could imagine him playing opposite someone like Nighy. You'd need an older Doctor, one more measured, one...well, I hate to say it because it sounds fanwanky and I don't mean it to be, but one who's a touch more old-school.

That said, it would be very interesting seeing him play opposite Tennant, for the simple reason that I think it'd be the first time that the Master was actually substantially taller, bigger, and more physically imposing than the Doctor. In the past, the Master has either been smaller than the Doctor (Delgado and Pertwee, Ainley and Baker the First, Simm and Tennant) or about his size (Ainley and Davison or Baker the Second). Ainley was taller than McCoy, but I haven't seen Survival yet so I don't know if they play that up. But I'm pretty sure Dalton's taller than Tennant; even if he isn't, he's definitely broader-shouldered.

So. Um. What I'm trying to say is, any confirmation or absolute denial on this? I know it's unlikely, but now I'll be all sad when it doesn't happen.





I have a few more things to say, but I must run, since I'm sneaking this post in between classes.