Master (Doctor Who)

: This is about the Master from Doctor Who. For alternate meanings, see The Master (disambiguation)

History within the show

Origins

The producers conceived the Master as a recurring villain, a "Professor Moriarty to the Doctor's Sherlock Holmes". He first appeared in Terror of the Autons (1971). A would-be universal conqueror, the Master's stated goal is to control the universe (at one time his ambitions were described as becoming, "the master of all matter."), with a secondary objective of eliminating the Doctor. Unlike the Doctor, the Master's TARDIS has a functioning chameleon circuit, allowing it to change its external appearance to better fit in with its environment. The Master's favoured weapon is his Tissue Compression Eliminator, which reduced its targets to doll-size, usually killing them in the process.

Related Topics:
Villain - Professor Moriarty - Sherlock Holmes - Terror of the Autons - 1971 - TARDIS - Chameleon circuit - Tissue Compression Eliminator

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In the three seasons following Terror of the Autons, the Master (as played by Roger Delgado) appeared in eight out of the fifteen serials. Indeed, in his first season the Master was involved in every adventure of the Doctor's, always getting away at the last minute before he was finally captured in The Daemons. Delgado's portrayal of the Master was as a suave, charming and somewhat sociopathic individual, able to be simultaneously polite and yet murderous almost at the same time.

Related Topics:
Terror of the Autons - Roger Delgado - The Daemons - Sociopath

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Delgado's last on-screen appearance as the Master was in Frontier in Space. The Master's story arc was to have ended in The Final Game which was planned as the final story for Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor. The Master was to have sacrificed his life to save his old rival but the story was scrapped following Delgado's sudden death in a car crash in Turkey in 1973. The story was replaced by Planet of the Spiders (1974).

Related Topics:
Frontier in Space - Jon Pertwee - Third Doctor - Turkey - 1973 - Planet of the Spiders - 1974

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Quest for new life

With Delgado's death, the Master disappeared from the series for several years. In his next appearance, in The Deadly Assassin (1976), the Master appeared as an emaciated, decaying wreck (played by Peter Pratt under heavy make-up). Although Time Lords have the potential to postpone death by completely renewing their bodies, the ability can only be used twelve times. The Master had used up all twelve of his regenerations, and was nearing the end of his thirteenth and final life. It is not clear if the Master had any regenerations between the Delgado incarnation and the Pratt one, or which incarnation the Delgado Master was.

Related Topics:
The Deadly Assassin - 1976 - Peter Pratt - Regenerations

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Given the severity of his situation, this Master was much darker than Delgado's version. No longer considering his clashes with the Doctor a game, his goal was survival at all costs, manipulating people from behind the scenes. He attempted to seize control of the Eye of Harmony, an artificial black hole maintained on the Time Lords' home planet Gallifrey, in an attempt to give himself a new cycle of regenerations. After being defeated by the Doctor, the Master disappeared from the series once more.

Related Topics:
Eye of Harmony - Black hole - Gallifrey

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In 1981, the Master became a recurring villain again. In The Keeper of Traken, the Master (Geoffrey Beevers under different heavy make-up) briefly gained control of another ancient power source, using it to transplant himself into the body of a Trakenite named Tremas, overwriting Tremas's original mind in the process. Now played by Anthony Ainley, the Master appeared on and off for the rest of the series. Apart from his regular goals, extending his life — preferably with a new set of regenerations — was an extra prize he was determined to get. Ainley's portrayal was closer to Delgado's, but his Master's tendency to burst out into peals of malicious laughter was criticised by some fans as being too over-the-top. However, this was more a function of the scripts and direction that Ainley received than of his own interpretation of the character. Visitors to the recording of the story Planet of Fire recall Ainley giving a serious, understated performance in an initial take only to be overruled and asked to go more "over the top" for the final one.

Related Topics:
1981 - The Keeper of Traken - Geoffrey Beevers - Anthony Ainley - Planet of Fire

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Life after death

The Master also appeared in the 1996 Doctor Who telemovie that starred Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor. In the prologue, the Master's current body (played for mere seconds in the final edit by Gordon Tipple) was exterminated by the Daleks. The reason for this action is not explained in the film, nor the reason why the Daleks would grant the Master's request that the Doctor retrieve his remains and return them to Gallifrey. In the Virgin New Adventures novel Lungbarrow by Marc Platt, the Doctor is given this task by the High Council of Time Lords.

Related Topics:
1996 - ''Doctor Who'' telemovie - Paul McGann - Eighth Doctor - Gordon Tipple - Dalek - Gallifrey - Virgin New Adventures - Marc Platt

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The Master, however, managed to survive (through means unexplained in the finished film) his consciousness embodied in the form of a small, snake-like, amorphous entity. This entity escaped the TARDIS after either a chance malfunction, or a trick of the Master's, forced the vessel to crash land on Earth in 1999.

Related Topics:
TARDIS - 1999

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The novelisation of the film by Gary Russell posits that the modifications and alterations that the Master has made to his body over the years in attempts to extend his lifespan had allowed this continued existence, and the implication is that the "morphant" creature is actually another lifeform that the Master's consciousness possesses. (This interpretation was made explicit in the first of the Eighth Doctor Adventures novels, The Eight Doctors by Terrance Dicks.) The morphant form was unsustainable and required a human host, and it possessed the body of Bruce, a paramedic (played by Eric Roberts). However, Bruce's body was also unsustainable. The Master once again attempted to access the Eye of Harmony (this time by means of a link in the Doctor's TARDIS) to steal the Doctor's remaining regenerations, but was sucked into the Eye and apparently destroyed. Roberts' Master was easily the most flamboyantly (critics use the word "campy") evil of all the Masters, to the extent of dressing in ceremonial Time Lord robes.

Related Topics:
Gary Russell - Eighth Doctor Adventures - Terrance Dicks - Eric Roberts - TARDIS - Campy

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The future

It is not known if the character will reappear in the Doctor Who series revival. The Master did not appear in the 2005 series, and the Ninth Doctor said in the second episode, The End of the World, that all the other Time Lords had been destroyed in a Time War. It remains to be seen if the Master is in fact among the dead. Russell T. Davies has said that he thinks the Master may return, but it would take a writer who can do it properly.

Related Topics:
Series revival - 2005 - Ninth Doctor - The End of the World - Time War - Russell T. Davies

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Recently, it was announced that Anthony Stewart Head will be appearing as the "Headmaster" (also credited as Mr Finch) for an upcoming episode of the 2006 series. This led to fan speculation that the Master might be making a return, but Doctor Who Magazine subsequently confirmed that the rumour was unfounded.

Related Topics:
Anthony Stewart Head - 2006 - Doctor Who Magazine

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