Backup w/ Time Machine via Target Disk Mode?

So here's my situation, my computer is stuck on the grey screen of death, but it mounts fine in Target Disk Mode. Its been about 2 weeks since my last Time Machine backup, so I would like to recover the last two weeks of files. If I can do that, then I'll just wipe the HD and start with a fresh install, however, since I can't get it to start up, is it possible to backup my computer to my Time Machine backup using Target Disk Mode through my wife's computer? Any help is appreciated.
(If not, then is it possible to run a time machine backup from single user mode?)
Here's basically what I'm talking about:
MBP (Target Disk Mode) > Wife's MacBook > External HD (Time Machine Backup)

That may work, but you'll get a whole new, full backup, identified as belonging to the MacBook (since that's where TM would run, and the MBP would look like an external HD.)  Unless you exclude it, you'd also get the internal HD on the MacBook. So it will require a lot of space and time.
There's no way to fool it into making an incremental backup.
Or, use the same setup, but make a "clone" on a separate HD or partition, via the Restore tab of DIsk Utility, or one of the "cloning" apps: CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper. 

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