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modernwizard · 2 years

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Why I love Dhawan Master #55: He's a mess as the Doctor!

The list is BAAAAAACK, folks! Now that gifs of The Power of the Doctor are appearing, it’s time to continue my illustrated list of reasons I love the Spymaster!

In no particular order, here is an illustrated list of reasons I love Sacha Dhawan’s Master, most of which boil down to the way that Sacha Dhawan so expertly embodies the Master to such a degree that we can look into this character’s mind as we never have before.

Find my full series under the HELP I WUVS HIM tag or at the why I love Dhawan Master tag.

#55: He's kind of a mess as a Doctor!

Let's check out some of his other looks from The Power of the Doctor.

As the seismologist, he has perfect hair, from his smoothly shaven cheeks to his artfully tousled curls. His glasses frames coordinate with his button-down shirt, and he seems subdued, academic, official. The only testaments to his eccentricity are the pumpkin [not a common color] shirt and the volcano spewing lava out of his head in the background -- a sign of explosions to come.

As for the Spymaster's guise as Rasputin [color pic], it follows actual Grigori Rasputin's appearance [black and white pic] faithfully. The long, straight hair, the luxurious crinkly beard, and the dark cassock can be confirmed in contemporary photos of Rasputin himself.

While this is a perfect disguise on the Spymaster's part, we should not equate it with his perfectly put together seismologist outfit. The Rasputin 'do and facial hair, not as well kept as the seismologist hair, mark him as purposely and drastically out of step with the fashion of the times.

That's weird in and of itself, and the effect increases with the vivid deep blue contacts. Such a bright color isn't that common, and its mirroring of the color of his cassock suggests that the blueness might symbolize Rasputin's storied religious fervency and charisma. Or the Spymaster could just be using the color for its unusual and possibly magical associations.

Sacha Dhawan's makeup changes when the Spymaster is playing Rasputin. While the seismologist looks fresh and well moisturized, without shadows around his eyes, the Rasputin character appears underslept. The makeup artists, who were clearly having fun in The Power of the Doctor with the Spymaster's looks, have shadowed Sacha Dhawan's eye sockets all around to a) increase the striking contrast between the VERY BLUE EYES and his darker skin and b) make him look tired.

Now let's take a look at the Spymaster as the Doctor.

Our first clue that something is off is the hair. In the first pic, he looks...well...disheveled. His bangs seem stuck to his forehead as if by sweat, while the rest of his hair has that flat, swept-forward look of a 'do that has been slept on, unwashed, for a bit too long. The hilarious cowlicks at the crown of his head in the second pic reinforce the messy picture. Also his beard is growing back in, and he doesn't care. We even glimpse some chest hair [!!] in the first pic.

The Spymaster's Doctor outfit also reveals that he's not doing so well. In the second pic, he has loaded himself with Doctor signifiers, including Four's scarf, Five's celery, Seven's sweater vest, and Thirteen's trench coat. The sheer amount of sartorial callbacks suggests that he's trying to make himself feel like the Doctor by wearing as many of the Doctor's looks as possible. He may also be trying to convince his audience that he's the Doctor as well. The excessive number of layers and the sloppy way in which they're stacked suggest great anxiety with this whole performance. The Spymaster isn't fooling anyone: not himself, not his audience.

The Spymaster's makeup highlights his desperation. Instead of the dark, intense shadows around his eyes that he has as Rasputin, the Spymaster as the Doctor shows paler shadows with a distinct red tinge. By contrasting with and highlighting the Spymaster's blue contacts, his eyebags as Rasputin emphasize his character's strength, energy, and ferocity of character. Meanwhile, the Spymaster's eyebags as the Doctor recall the reddish circles around his eyes in The Timeless Children.

These two stills from The Timeless Children show the Spymaster watching Thirteen in the immobilization field [top] and then fighting with her in the Matrix [bottom]. In The Timeless Children, the Spymaster's eyebags turn red when he's around the Doctor, signaling tears [which he sheds a lot of in The Timeless Children], anger, and exhaustion. In The Power of the Doctor, the Spymaster has the same eyebags, meaning that the same emotions are swirling within him.

From beginning to end, the Spymaster's experience as the Doctor is one of misery.

Here he is after achieving the body swap. With raised eyebrows and wide eyes, as well as a slight frown on his face, he feels no glory, power, or satisfaction. He looks scared and overwhelmed.

Here he is, exploding some shit. Gone are the excited, exultant vibrations and little dances that he shows on the plane in Spyfall when he's blowing shit up. With fixed glance and momentary snarl, the Spymaster seems contemptuous in this moment. The lurid light accentuates his tiredness too.

With Vinder holding him at gunpoint, the Spymaster predicts that Vinder won't shoot. One might expect him to make this pronouncement with excessive confidence, but that's not the case. His restrained body language lacks the involuntary vibes that we associate with his moments of greatest glee, and he even gulps and heaves a quiet, full-body sigh at the end of his line. The Spymaster appears subdued, flattened, full of regret, and quite frankly kind of sick of this whole charade.

At the end of his brief time as the Doctor, the Spymaster turns back to himself. He ends his exhausting, miserable time as the Doctor with an exhausted, miserable plea. He's had no fun as the Doctor, but the alternative -- being himself again -- appears equally painful to him. Being someone else didn't fix his unhappiness, as he thought it might, because he brought the unhappiness along with him.

@natalunasans @sclfmastery @queen-of-meows @spoonietimelordy @whovianuncle

#dhawan master #the master #sacha dhawan #spymaster #the spymaster #HELP I WUVS HIM #dw meta #why I love Dhawan Master #the power of the doctor

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