Intro Digest 4: "the Gallifreyan government is... Byzantine Empire (meets) a university bureaucracy"

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blackletter

So in my usual backasswards way, I first leap into the comm, post fic, join discussions and *then* I introduce myself.

Hello, my name is Blackletter and I’m addicted to school. (25 years of school and counting! As of this year I am ABD. As soon as I complete my PhD dissertation defense, I intend to run around the entire day introducing myself as “The Doctor.”) Because of this love of school, I adore Academy fics whether they are Academy-as-boarding-school or Academy-as-university. I also like Valeyard/Master. I suppose that means I like beginnings and endings and the grey areas hinted at the edges of canon. Three/Delgado, Five/Ainley, REG!Nine/BOT!Master, and Ten/Simm are also a few of my favourites, although I love all Doctors and all Masters in any combination.

As for personal fanon, it’s very flexible. But I pretty consistently think that the Gallifreyan government is a bit like a cross between the Byzantine Empire and a university bureaucracy.

More Doctor/Master specific personal fanon: I think Theta (being young One, after all) was a curious dreamer but also a complete manipulative bastard. Not malicious or intentionally cruel, but a manipulative bastard all the same, who encouraged Koschei’s obsession with him, much to the dismay of some of the later incarnations of the Doctor. I also think that the Doctor isn’t just more heroic/nicer than the Master by nature; rather, he makes a choice to be good, and puts effort into being a good person. And sometimes he slips, but the Master is (among other things) a living example of why he has to try to keep himself on the moral high ground and not fall into total narcissistic arrogance as so many Time Lords do. Water of Mars would not have turned out as it did if the Doctor had been having regular sex run-ins with the Master.

I like other people’s fanon, too. Including fanon that’s inconsistent with my own. In Doctor Who infinite possibilities exist.

(I also have a Brit Dad and American Mum so my spelling is a horrible, inconsistent mix of the two for which I apologize. And apologise.)


allaroughdraft

*sneaks aboard and waves quietly*

I've been lurking here for ages and I'm only delurking now because I can't resist the urge to post what I am off to post when I finish this. So hello good comm people, or whoever still checks this thing!

I'm Alex. I'm 19 (almost twenty), American (Florida specifically), and I started watching Who about two years ago. I've seen about three-quarters of the new series and, unfortunately, none of the old -- for ages I was stuck with an awful computer and worse internet access, now that I'm not I never manage to sit down and watch anything -- but I've read enough of the summaries on just about everything to have some idea of what happens? Despite my lack of canon knowledge I've managed to get myself really into Academy-era fic, and still read fic from non-New eras, I just don't pretend to know if the characterization is on or not. ^^

Personal fanon is... complicated and there's a couple of them, really. XD I enjoy theories, I enjoy theorizing, and I enjoy taking ambiguous canon or alternate universe in as many directions as I can think of. So personal fanon really depends on the question, the moments, and qualifying for verse/theory.

I... think that's all I've got.


digitalada

Hi I'm digitalada and I ship Doctor/Master because, well, basically every episode that they're in together is one big gay innuendo fest. So it's hard not to ship it. My personal canon involves the Master somehow escaping the time lock after the End of Time part two and him and the Doctor getting gay married in space. There's a ton of other scenarios that I like too.


phinnia

hello? is this thing on?
i'm phin. (echoes - 'hi phin') and i'm in the obsessive reading stage that comes before i dare writing anything in any new fandom *laughs* i like simm!/ten!, am enchanted by eleven (even with the floppy hair) but i have to say theta/koschei is my OTP. <3 the rest are mainly gaps due to lack of knowledge and a currently mislaid postal parcel.


stargazy

Hello everyone! Another long-time lurker here, finally inspired to step up to the introductory podium by a) the big gay slashfic extravaganza that was the End of Time and b) a video of Three/Delgado moments that I found on YouTube.

I'm a New Who fan really - started watching with Christopher Eccleston - but since then have been trying to get my hands on as much of the old series as possible. So far, this has amounted to Inferno, Planet of the Spiders, a smattering of Four (City of Death, the Pyramids of Mars, the Ark in Space, the Robots of Death, Logopolis), the Five Doctors, the Caves of Androzani, and the 1996 film (which I actually rather enjoyed, although I'm not sure why - possibly because I adore Eight), as well as a few of the Eighth Doctor books and Scream of the Shalka, which deserves a mention despite being cruelly cast aside by the BBC. Wow, that was a long sentence.

My personal canon says that the Doctor and the Master talk in the now-extinct Gallifreyan language when they are alone, because dead and dying languages are sexy (*is an Irish-language student*), and that Classic!Master couldn't hear the drums because the Time Lords had not retconned him at the point when those episodes were aired, or something timey-wimey like that (because you'd think he would have mentioned it). It says that most of Theta and Koschei's interaction at the Academy was friendly rivalry between the two brightest students in their year, with each trying to out-nerd the other at cosmic engineering and so on. It also says that the Master listens to Miley Cyrus.

Also, I have a theory brewing that the Doctor is indeed half-human, and that his father, shamed by society for 'getting involved', left him to be looked after by the Master's family to spare him the shame of knowing his birthright... But I'm going to have to think a little longer about that. :)

From what I've seen, this community seems really fun and welcoming. Looking forward to taking part!