Howling:The Dream Lord = The Master?

Rule No. 1: The Doctor Lies

Amy's Choice being a personal favorite of mine, I've spent a lot of time watching it. And the more I watch it, the more the Dream Lord intrigues me. By the end of the episode, it's explained the Dream Lord is only a manifestation of the Doctors deepest evil brought on by the psychic pollen. But that all seems far too simple a deflection to put Amy and Rory at ease to the whole situation.

"Drop it! Drop all of it. I know who you are."

"Of course you don't."

"Of course I do. No idea how you can be here, but there's only one person in the universe who hates me as much as you do."

-Amy's Choice

Namely, The Master. Personally, I've never felt the Doctor has displayed a hatred for himself, quite the opposite, really. True, he displays guilt, sadness, and sometimes regret at the unfortunate effects of his time traveling escapades on the worlds and people around him, but never hatred for himself.

"But those things he said about you..You don't think any of that's true?"

(The Doctor pauses, and deflects attention to something Rory has to say)

-Amy's Choice

Whereas one person has hated him with passion all his days. The Master has made a point of mucking in the Doctor's business and causing trouble for him wherever he can. It seems just the sort of the Master's trickery to cause a rift between the Doctor and his companions by forcing them to essentially pick sides. While there is a sense of mortal peril for all involved, a staple of the Master's hijinks, perhaps he's finally found the Doctor's true weakness not in death, but his friends.

Now, the main problem is how The Master could still exist. According the the wikia for The End of Time, when the Rassilon, the Time Lords and Gallifrey are cast back into the Time War, the Master is taken with them. Except, in the film itself, nothing is stated to imply such. Gallifrey and the Time Lords vanish and when it cuts back to the Doctor, the Master is simply gone, and no one ever mentions what may have happened to him, not even the Doctor. Is it not possible that in the midst of it all The Master may have made an escape?

"This body was born out of death, all it can do is die." -The End of Time

Which is a problem with the theory. Since his resurrection, the Master had been dying slowly, and not even the Immortality Gate was enough to save him. But, would that not only lead to another regeneration? Allowing the Master to take the form we know as the Dream Lord? And would it not be within the Master's abilities and great mind to find a way to appear as a hologram within the TARDiS and use psychic pollen to induce a dream state for all involved? And in reality, the Doctor, Amy and Rory were never in danger, only sleeping on the TARDiS the whole time being forced to choose between two dreams where they thought they were in danger. Is it possible the Master isn't hell bent on the Doctor's death since he spared his life before Rassilon? Perhaps he's only interested in being a thorn in the foot, the ever present antagonist to the Doctor? A cold star and senile killers? Sounds like the Master's madness to me.

Point of fact, the Master is the Doctor's greatest rival. It is nonsense to think he might simply vanish unnoticed as his final goodbye. The Master must still be alive somewhere. The Doctor was clearly shaken by the presence of the Dream Lord, and had very little trouble deciphering who he truly was. Who, if not the Master could the Doctor recognize so easily?

It's a theory. And I'd love to hear what others have to say, whether reinforcing or punching holes in it.

The Shepherd ☎  16:53, August 8, 2012 (UTC)