khaosworks | (Reply)

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Brwosing your doctor who-tagged entries after autographedcat here recommended your canon flexibility essay.

I read the Dalek's use of "coward" differently. It's implying that the Doctor survived the Time War because he ran; it's trying to get in a dig at the Doctor, whether or not it actually believes the Doctor ran. As we find out in the rest of Dalek, the Doctor survived because he was the one who was outside pressing the button. You and I know (and so does the Doctor, if only intellectually) that that must have taken more courage than not doing it - to, with a necessary action, leave yourself the only one. I think the Dalek's sequence of revelations throughout the rest of Dalek bear my interpretation out as a literary parallel.

I also think the Doctor was correct by his moral code not to commit genocide at the command of the Time Lords in Genesis of the Daleks, though I think what the Doctor thinks about it swings back and forth all the time. If he had done it of his own decision (as he has at times committed genocide in defense of himself, his companions, other people, a planet, or the universe), it'd've been different. But with the Time Lords' intereference it's a much dodgier, more clouded matter - which of course is why it's a fascinating thing to write stories about.

Now I suppose I ought to read the story.