Warning: Fandom and political ranting in the Same Post! may be dangerous to sanity...

[capri0mni]

Okay, this line is roundly and soundly ridiculed in Doctor Who fandom:

"There's nothing you can do to prevent the catharsis of spurious morality!"

But the more I think about it, the more I think it might be not-so-bad, you know?

(Waits for the scattered rhubarb on the dangers of over-thinking to die down)

yeah, yeah. I know... it's just that when I think of "spurious morality," I can't help thinking of Pat Robertson and his ilk playing shell games with "moral values" to get George Bush elected ... For once, I hope the Valeyard was right. I wouldn't mind seeing those dudes flushed from power, ya know?

But that's got me curious: What's the context for this line? What was the prompt? And what was the response?

Anyone? 'cause right now, the line is running in my head, and some context would be nice.

Comments

[abates.livejournal.com]

The Doctor's trying to stop the Valeyard's deathray which is about to kill everyone in the trial room. The Valeyard gloats "There's nothing you can do to prevent the catharsis of spurious morality!", to which the Doctor replies that if the Valeyard built it, he should be able to destroy it.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

The Valeyard gloats ...

Okay. For that, it's a bad line. More fitting for a dissertation on the evolution of politics and social change than it is for gloating...

[pedanther]

It's not the sentiment people object to, so much as his choice of wording: "cartharsis of spurious morality" is too much vocabulary in too small a space. (It's also a bit of the old straw-and-camel, because that particular writing team has a reputation for showing off their vocabulary.)

The context: He's just revealed his plan for reforming the corrupt High Council of the Time Lords, and is responding to the Doctor's objection to the minor detail that it basically involves killing the lot of them.

(Someone on radw once advanced the theory that the Valeyard isn't actually evil, he's just on his last life and determined to fix the High Council before he goes, and subtlety be damned. He never really wanted the Doctor's lives, that was just something he told the High Council so they'd feel safe putting him in charge of their plan to stiff the Doctor.)

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

(. . . He never really wanted the Doctor's lives, that was just something he told the High Council so they'd feel safe putting him in charge of their plan to stiff the Doctor.)


So maybe that's why TPTB decided that blowing up Gallifrey made sense? It was something he wanted all along?

hmmm... if that's the case, maybe the Valeyard should have succeeded. There would have more survivors in that scenerio, in the long run.

It all comes back to the old Dalek dilemma, doesn't it?