I adored that the Master repeated this line. He cares about the Doctor, which you don’t know until right then. The Doctor has never forgotten the friendship they shared and it was glorious to see the Master remembering.
I recently saw a Doctor Who confession saying that the confessor didn’t believe the Doctor really loved Rose at all, because in “Journey’s End” when she asks how that sentence was supposed to end, he says, “Does it really need saying?” The confessor thinks if he really loved her he would tell her.
That made me really, really sad. He didn’t say it, that’s true, but not because he didn’t love her. He didn’t say it because he knew it would only make her sad. He couldn’t be with her, so he was giving her the next best thing, his double. TenToo loves her, of course he does, and he’s not so different from Ten at all, so it’s not a huge deal (despite the “But he’s not you” nonsense).
Telling her would only hurt all of them: the Doctor, Rose, and TenToo, who must have an inferiority complex by now. He was giving her up, letting TenToo take care of her. How could anyone think he doesn’t love her? He gave her the adventure of a lifetime, he saved her life so many times, he gave her a father and a husband. He gave her everything when all it did was kill him inside.
If that’s not love, I give up.
THE ANGSTER GAMES: Round Nine
Watching him lose the Master was much sadder than watching him lose Rose.
