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The grey man's race: Difference between revisions
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The Grey Man's race is never given a name, with him referring only to "[his] colleagues" and other such periphrases. One obvious interpretation is that they are the [[Guardian of Time|Guardians of Time]], as they are stated to be responsible for introducing manichaean duality to the universe; the ''Grey'' Man would thus be positioned as a midway point between the [[Black Guardian]] and [[White Guardian]], filling a part similar to the balance-bringing [[Red Guardian]] in [[Craig Hinton]]'s unrelated effort to expand the Guardians' ranks. Although the "grey man's race" and Guardians are discussed separately in {{cs|A History of the Universe (short story)}}, the latter are not brought up in {{cs|Falls the Shadow (novel)}}. Furthermore, the Grey Man is shown to have the same abilities of control over [[the Doctor's TARDIS]] that the White Guardian does in [[TV]]: {{cs|Enlightenment (TV story)}}. | The Grey Man's race is never given a name, with him referring only to "[his] colleagues" and other such periphrases. One obvious interpretation is that they are the [[Guardian of Time|Guardians of Time]], as they are stated to be responsible for introducing manichaean duality to the universe; the ''Grey'' Man would thus be positioned as a midway point between the [[Black Guardian]] and [[White Guardian]], filling a part similar to the balance-bringing [[Red Guardian]] in [[Craig Hinton]]'s unrelated effort to expand the Guardians' ranks. Although the "grey man's race" and Guardians are discussed separately in {{cs|A History of the Universe (short story)}}, the latter are not brought up in {{cs|Falls the Shadow (novel)}}. Furthermore, the Grey Man is shown to have the same abilities of control over [[the Doctor's TARDIS]] that the White Guardian does in [[TV]]: {{cs|Enlightenment (TV story)}}. | ||
As the first sapient race, who used their position to impose a metaphysical "structure" on reality in the [[early universe]], they also strongly recall the [[Time Lord]]s as they would go on to be reimagined in ''[[Faction Paradox (series)|Faction Paradox]]'' (for which [[Daniel O'Mahony]] would go on to write), as the [[archon]]s of the [[Great House]]s. {{cs|Crimes Against History (short story)}}, for example, opens on an explanation of the archons' origins which strongly recalls ''Falls the Shadow''{{'}}s account of the grey man's race, and brings caveats to their description as humanoid or a species at all, thus explaining their distinction from the [[first humanoid]]s in ''Falls the Shadow''. | As the first sapient race, who used their position to impose a metaphysical "structure" on reality in the [[early universe]], they also strongly recall the [[Time Lord]]s as they would go on to be reimagined in ''[[Faction Paradox (series)|Faction Paradox]]'' (for which [[Daniel O'Mahony]] would go on to write), as the [[archon]]s, or later [[Homeworlder]]s, of the [[Great House]]s. {{cs|Crimes Against History (short story)}}, for example, opens on an explanation of the archons' origins which strongly recalls ''Falls the Shadow''{{'}}s account of the grey man's race, and brings caveats to their description as humanoid or a species at all, thus explaining their distinction from the [[first humanoid]]s in ''Falls the Shadow''. | ||
{{quote|The first sentient life in the universe develops. The culture in question can ''reasonably'' be described as humanoid, and immediately begins to imprint its own ideas about how things should work on the universe around it, hence the proliferation of humanoid forms throughout the rest of history. As the first self-aware tenants of creation, this primal culture can't strictly be considered "alien", or even a species, as such: these are the ones who set the template for the rest of sentient life, and therefore can only be considered a force of nature, or at the very least a force of history.|[[PROSE]]: [[Crimes Against History (short story)|Crimes Against History]]}} | {{quote|The first sentient life in the universe develops. The culture in question can ''reasonably'' be described as humanoid, and immediately begins to imprint its own ideas about how things should work on the universe around it, hence the proliferation of humanoid forms throughout the rest of history. As the first self-aware tenants of creation, this primal culture can't strictly be considered "alien", or even a species, as such: these are the ones who set the template for the rest of sentient life, and therefore can only be considered a force of nature, or at the very least a force of history.|[[PROSE]]: [[Crimes Against History (short story)|Crimes Against History]]}} | ||
The discussion of the Grey Man longing to return "home", and being placed on [[trial]] when he did, is evocative of [[the Doctor]]'s own status relative to the Time Lords, particularly in the [[William Hartnell]] and [[Patrick Troughton]] eras. | The discussion of the Grey Man longing to return "home", and being placed on [[trial]] when he did, is evocative of [[the Doctor]]'s own status relative to the Time Lords, particularly in the [[William Hartnell]] and [[Patrick Troughton]] eras. | ||
