Howling:The Master causing the cracks?

The Howling → The Master causing the cracks?

There be spoilers about un-released stories here.
Run back to the forums if you're scared.

This is my theory on what is causing the Cracks, and I welcome any discussionor debate over it. I'll start by telling you what I think happened to the Master after The End of Time. I think that the Master was transformed into a being of energy as an effect of his resurrection. Through some mechanism he escaped the Time War and ended up trapped on a planet deadly to any flesh and blood creature. A planet that would later be known as Midnight. (There is a seperate page, not started by me, which discusses the possibility of the Master as the Midnight Entity)

When the Doctor arrived on Midnight the Master was drawn to him by the sound of the drums (revealed in End of Time to be the hearbeat of a Time Lord) and tried to take over a real body again. When he failed he attempted to escape Midnight and travelled in the through time and space again (possibly using the same method he used to escape the Time War). Eventually he will end up on Earth on 26/6/10, in physical form or not, and causes the cracks.

Now, the evidence that has lead me to this conclusion, (I promise I am only mildly insane). First of all there was a quote about the nature of the season finale enemy, which I will copy out here in full

"There was a goblin. Or a trickster, or a warrior. A nameless, terrible thing, soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies. The most feared being in all the cosmos. Nothing could stop it, or hold it, or reason with it - one day it would just drop out of the sky and tear down your world."

Alright, lets take that piece by piece. Starting with 'There was a goblin'. Remembering that according to this theory the Master was the Midinght Entity, a quote from the episode in question states- "We must not look at goblin men". Coincedence? Second, "A trickster, or a warrior." Tricked the entire Earth into believing he was Harold Saxon, and was resurrected by the Time Lords for his skill as a warrior. Third, "A nameless, terrible thing." Well the Master is the name he chose for himself, so he is technically nameless, as his true name is never revealed. "The most feared being in the cosmos." The anti-Doctor, the rogue Time Lord. "Noting could stop it, or hold it, or reason with it." Imagine sacrificing yourself the way the Master did, only to lose your body, and be cast onto a barren lifeless planet such as Midnight for eons. What little sanity he has left is likely gone.Burnup15 12:08, May 21, 2010 (UTC)

And now we come to some more speculative evidence. A major theme in this series is obviously Silence, and who would want that more than the man with the neverending drumbeat in his head? Remember it is never stated that the drumming stopped when the Time Lords returned.

Wow. That was a lot of typing. So, what do people think? Am I a genius? Am I a madman? Am I both? A quick apology if I have done something incorrectly on this page, I am very new to this and still learning, thank you for your patience. Discuss.

You're quite intelligent. You're insane, and you have way too much time on your hands, but you are very smart. I have a slightly more simple idea; the Master is involuntarily causing the cracks. He was banished with Rassilon and the others, but he didn't go all the way back to the Time War with them. He's probably in some kind of limbo, with the instable energies in his body causing the cracks. If it is the Master, he'll probably still be dying, which will give Moffat a reason to regenerate him. That would make sense; new Doctor, new Master.

If not the Master, I suppose it could be another Time Lord trying to escape the time-lock, maybe the Rani or Rassilon. Personally, I'm hoping for Omega :) Sorryaboutthatchief 03:28, May 21, 2010 (UTC)

P.S. Where'd you get the goblin line? Sorryaboutthatchief 03:30, May 21, 2010 (UTC)

It's entirely possible that it's The Master from a storytelling perspective, but I doubt they'll want to bring The Master back so soon after The End of Time.

Everyone is clutching at straws now, the cracks were caused by an explaoion that occured on June 26th 2010, the day of Amy's wedding. Discussion over. Delton Menace 07:43, May 21, 2010 (UTC)

Well it could be the master I dont think they will link it up to midnight it's an interesting theory but still I don't think steven moffat will go back to a two year old story that someone else wrote, he's keen to do his own thing. Still he is gonna have to find a way to bring the master back and it's gonna be difficult what with the master having gone to hell still, maybe with the master back in the time war he killed rassilon and has taken his place and has helped a few time lords survive the war and thus caused a change in history which has led to the other cracks in time. When you think about if the time war happened differently then all those other events would too, like the reality bomb , though I suppose this dosent explain the whole silence and planets being eaten thing like in vampires of venice. winehousefan, 12:26, May 21, 2010 [UTC]

What about that other renegade Rani? They might be bringing her back. GeneralOwnage55 The Message Box 11:32, May 21, 2010 (UTC)

In answer to Sorryaboutthatchief's question the goblin line was recited by Dee Dee just after they moved to the back of the ship. In regards to the two year thing, well the Weeping Angels were meant to be a one-off as well, but they proved to be so popular they were brought back for this series. And the Midnight Entity has been widely discussed among fans ever since the episode aired.Burnup15 12:08, May 21, 2010 (UTC)

No, I meant the first thing, about the season finale enemy. Is that from Amy's Choice? Because I haven't seen that one yet, what with BBC's "America stays two weeks behind" policy that I hate so much. Sorryaboutthatchief 06:08, May 22, 2010 (UTC)

Just adding another piece of evidence I just thought of. According to the Doctor the Pandorica is a fairytale. Well we've already met a Time Lord fairytale, namely the Toclofane. And who gave them their name? Uh-huh. I've got that much time on my hands.Burnup15 12:08, May 21, 2010 (UTC)

So then it does look like it could be the master, maybe moffat will do a surprise like army of ghosts and have the master pop out like the daleks, he already said no returning monsters but the daleks showed up and the cybermen are set for anothr comeback. He might not replace John Simm though because Anthony Ainley was the master for 4 doctors, then again Simms master is in a dying body, but he's back on Gallifrey when he went into the time war so he might get something there to help him. Winehousefan, 14:08, May 21, 2010 [UTC]

Yeah, I'm sure they were happy to help the Master survive after he went "Shoop da Whoop" on Rassilon and doomed them to hell for all eternity, lol. Sorryaboutthatchief 06:11, May 22, 2010 (UTC)

I know a lot of people probably haven't heard them, but if we're talking about Gallifreyan fairy tales, then maybe I should the legend of Zagreus from the Big Finish audios. There are a lot of parallels between this current arc and the early Eighth Doctor audios. The cracks have the same effect as the oubliette of eternity (the device that sent people to the anti-time universe), in that they erase people from history. Anti-time itself could also do that. The cracks have something to do with Amy, while the web of time splitting (which in turn opened the anti-time universe) was caused by the Doctor saving Charley Pollard. And the doctor mentioned an explosion in Flesh and Stone, and the Divergence would supposedly return to our universe after an explosion. Has anyone else noticed this? TemporalSpleen 17:37, May 21, 2010 (UTC)

I bet Steven Moffat or some other writer or member of the DW team reads this and cracks up because of how wholly ridiculous our ideas are. bless us. we must look like such mugs.

Winehousefan: I really like that theory about the master returning to the time war with them and changing the time war though i do not think that that will come back so soon. Brilliant idea though, did not even consider that as a possibility that the master ended up back in the time war and changed it. Hell, that may be a way to possibly bring back the time lords as a whole if done correctly. V00D00M0NKY 08:13, May 22, 2010 (UTC)

Although I definitely don't think the Master is the Midnight entity, and I don't think the Midnight entity will be returning (remember, the Weeping Angels were the Moff's creation, while Midnight was RTD's), the idea of the Master being near death and desperately seeking a physical form isn't bad. That gets us back to (more or less) the classic-series Master, just as VotD got us back to (more or less) the classic Daleks.

Also, the Zagreus plotline connection is interesting. The Moff, like RTD, is a big Doctor Who fanboy, and hangs out with other fanboys like Paul Cornell, and I wouldn't put it past him to take elements from the novels that he enjoyed and rework them into something different (as RTD reworked the Time War against The Enemy into the LGTW against the Daleks, and had Paul Cornell rework Human Nature even more directly). And the fact that the later BFAs contradicted the early ones in their belated attempt to fit in with the EDA continuity means it's even easier to throw away and rework the early ones.

As for the Moff laughing at the fans with their crazy, stupid ideas--well, yeah, that's probably half of what he loves about his job. :) --Falcotron 12:15, May 22, 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, I'd love to be a writer, sitting in my office (with comfy chairs, lol), laughing as audiences around the world dangle precariously on everything my imagination pumps out. On topic, can the Master still possess people? I mean, forgive me, I haven't seen the last half of Keeper of Traken yet, but how did he possess Tremas in the first place? Is there any reason for us to think he could still evict his concioussness from his Time Lord body? He did it in the TV Movie (Possessing the Morphant/Deathworm), but he still wasn't a Time Lord then, he was a Trakenite, or...well, whatever he was. Sorry, I'm ranting.

Point is, is he still capable of leaving his body and taking over another? Sorryaboutthatchief 05:56, May 23, 2010 (UTC)

P.S. I like how everyone calls him "The Moff".Sorryaboutthatchief 05:57, May 23, 2010 (UTC)

Good question on the possession thing. But he's always needed some kind of body to do the possessing from. Was there anyone around that he could have successfully "jumped into" at the end of TEoT at the last second? I suppose Wilf, but somehow I don't see that happening.

P.S., you probably got this, but not everyone does, so: "The Moff" (or "The Grand Moff") is a reference to Moffat's seeming obsession with Star Wars. Grand Moff Tarkin was of course, among other things, commander of the Death Star and one of the two big bads of the original movie, played by Peter "Dr. Who" Cushing. Rumor has it that Moffat has heard this nickname, gets the reference, and finds it funny.

P.P.S., according to spinoff media, the position of Grand Moff was invented (or, in some later stuff, revived from ancient times) by then-Governor Tarkin himself, as a sort of coordinator of anti-treason activities across multiple regions and multiple branches of government (shades of Homeland Security Director). For some reason, Palpatine didn't laugh at the name and insist he come up with something less silly, and even started using terms like "Mofference" to refer to the Moff-based administration system (which presumably replaced an older system based on something called RTDs:)). --Falcotron 06:36, May 23, 2010 (UTC)

Okay, two thoughts here: 1) If the Master did possess someone, I suppose he could have jumped into Rassilon. Timothy Dalton as the new Master? Doubtful. 2) As I said above, the Time Lords wouldn't want to help him survive, BUT I was wrong! There were two Time Lords who stood againts the final sanction, they would have supported the Master's actions, and may have been willing to save him. And one of them was, drumroll please...the Woman! That means that if the Master does return, he may be accompanied by Claire Bloom's character, and we may find out who she is. Sorryaboutthatchief 20:32, May 23, 2010 (UTC)

Sure, anyone who stood against Rassilon and the Final Sanction was an "enemy-of-my-enemy" type ally to them. And I can imagine them feeling sorry for the Master. But it seems to me that the last thing they'd want to do is weaken the time lock by helping anyone escape.

As for escaping themselves, while leaving the other Time Lords behind, that seems even worse. If their characters are that selfish, they're not really the characters we want to see more of, are they?

Also, I don't think the Moff would want to bring the Time Lords back just to bring the Master back.

But I can imagine that he's got a bunch of ways for the Master to return floating around in his head, and he won't really pick one unless/until he decides to bring the Master back. --Falcotron 02:45, May 24, 2010 (UTC)

I was wrong. Oh well. I shal take the blow to my ego with good grace...and immediately post another insane theory :) Burnup15 19:41, June 19, 2010 (UTC)

Don't feel too bad Burnup15 I just read [I am sure everyone has] that Jason Isaacs is rumoured to take over the role of the Master. He was spotted with John Simm and Mark gattis and Moffat.he could be Omega or the Master. Though it hasn't been long since the end of time Moff seems eager to restablish the old villains with the new doc. So he may want a new master too. you could be half right about it being the master. Winehousefan. 11:37 June 24, 2010 [UTC]