gallifreyan-gallimaufry:

kranskaktus:

thinkingingallifreyan said: That makes sense. The way I’ve always seen the drums is simply the thing that makes Simm’s Master madder than all the previous ones. The drums got louder the nearer he got to the End of Time, so maybe it had an effect on Roberts, but not Delgado?

I think my favourite fan theory is that the reason Yana hears the drums and Simm!Master is so badly affected by them is because before the destruction of Gallifrey, there was always a sort of telepathic white noise present to block them out. After the Time War, that presence is gone— hence, drums.

(Personally I think a lot of fanwank could’ve been avoided if the drumbeat had simply been placed in Jacobi!Master’s head after his body had been re-loomed during the War, which makes more sense imo. Alas, that is not the hand canon dealt us…)

I tend to see Roberts batshittery as a result of being, you know, a snake made of goo. If a human brain can’t house a Time Lord consciousness, I think goosnake!Master can be forgiven for getting his own brain scrambled.

(But that opens up another question; while the drums are a telepathic feature, don’t they have to have a physical fixture? How does that make sense considering the Master’s habit of bodysnatching?)