Master (Doctor Who)

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

Other appearances

:This section concerns the appearances of the Master in various spin-offs, which are of unclear canonicity.

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The Master has also featured in spin-offs of the series, most notably David A. McIntee's "Master trilogy" of novels comprising The Dark Path and First Frontier in the Virgin Publishing lines and The Face of the Enemy for BBC Books, and the Doctor Who audio dramas produced by Big Finish Productions, in which Geoffrey Beevers has reprised the role.

Related Topics:
Spin-offs - David A. McIntee - Virgin Publishing - BBC Books - Audio drama - Big Finish Productions

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Novels

The Master's past with the Doctor was explored somewhat in The Dark Path, which revealed that his name prior to taking the alias of the Master was Koschei. He turned evil and became the Master after he discovered that his companion and lover, Ailla, was an undercover agent of the Celestial Intervention Agency sent to spy on him.

Related Topics:
Koschei - Celestial Intervention Agency

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During the course of the novel, Ailla had been shot and killed. Not knowing she was a Time Lord and that she would simply regenerate, Koschei completed a time-based weapon in an attempt to bring her back and the weapon was used to destroy the planet Teriliptus and its inhabitants. When Ailla turned up alive, the knowledge that he had destroyed a planet for nothing, coupled with the revelation of Ailla's betrayal, proved too much. Koschei resolved to bring his own order to the universe at the expense of free will and becoming its Master. Trapped in a black hole at the end of the novel, Koschei used up all of his regenerations trying to escape from it, establishing that the Delgado Master was his thirteenth and final incarnation had he not been able to artificially prolong his life.

Related Topics:
Free will - Black hole

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The Face of the Enemy centred around the regular Delgado Master, but included a cameo from a Koschei from an alternate timeline (originally featured in Inferno) who never became the Master. This version of Koschei was still a loyal Time Lord who became stranded on Earth after an alien attack. He was subsequently captured and forced to work for the fascist rulers of this Earth, who kept him alive, in agony, using life support systems. When the Master, crossing over from the other universe, learned of this, he ended his counterpart's life in a show of compassion.

Related Topics:
Inferno - Fascist - Life support

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The reason the Master was so emaciated when he appeared in The Deadly Assassin was explored in John Peel's novel Legacy of the Daleks, in which he attempted to capture the Doctor's granddaughter Susan Foreman, but was badly burned when she attacked him in self-defence and took possession of his TARDIS. After Susan escaped, the dying Master was eventually found by Chancellor Goth on the planet Tersurus, which led directly into the events of The Deadly Assassin.

Related Topics:
John Peel - Susan Foreman

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First Frontier showed the Master (apparently the Anthony Ainley version) finally acquiring a new body, who according to McIntee is based on the cinema persona of Basil Rathbone. This incarnation reappeared in Happy Endings by Paul Cornell, Virgin Publishing's celebratory fiftieth Virgin New Adventures novel. After the broadcast of the television movie, some fans suggested that this was the incarnation briefly played by Gordon Tipple in the prologue.

Related Topics:
Basil Rathbone - Paul Cornell - Virgin New Adventures

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Gallifrey and the Time Lords were destroyed in the Eighth Doctor Adventures novel The Ancestor Cell, but in The Adventuress of Henrietta Street a mysterious stranger wearing a rosette appeared who could have been the Master, somehow surviving the cataclysm. Gallifrey's destruction here is not related to its subsequent destruction just prior to the new series (see Time Lord - Recent history). In The Gallifrey Chronicles, a surviving Time Lord named Marnal appears, and it is implied in dialogue that he may have been the Master's father.

Related Topics:
Eighth Doctor Adventures - Rosette - Time Lord - Recent history

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Another version of the Master appeared in Lance Parkin's novel The Infinity Doctors, where he was known as the Magistrate and was, once again, the Doctor's friend, although when this takes place in continuity is unclear. Parkin has stated that this incarnation of the Master is based on Richard E. Grant.

Related Topics:
Lance Parkin - Richard E. Grant

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Comic strips

The Master returned in a new body and guise, that of a street preacher, in the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip story The Fallen (DWM #273-#276), although the Doctor did not recognise him. The Master revealed himself a few stories later, in The Glorious Dead (DWM #287-#296). The Master had survived the events of the television movie by encountering a cosmic being named Esterath in the time vortex. Esterath controlled the Glory, the focal point of the Omniversal spectrum which underlies all existence. The Master's attempt to take control of the Glory failed, and he was banished to parts unknown (see Kroton).

Related Topics:
Doctor Who Magazine - Kroton

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This incarnation of the Master resembled a middle-aged black human. (No Time Lord in the television series was ever played by a black actor, although a black Time Lord appeared in the spin-off novel The Shadows of Avalon by Paul Cornell, and Time Lord founder Rassilon was portrayed in several audio plays by black actor Don Warrington.)

Related Topics:
Black - Paul Cornell - Rassilon - Don Warrington

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An article in the Doctor Who Annual 2006, describing the Time War and written by new series producer Russell T. Davies, stated that Time Lord President Romana tried to make peace with the Daleks through something known as the "Act of Master Restitution". While this is not elaborated on, the Act may be how the Master came to be put on trial by the Daleks at the start of the 1996 television movie.

Related Topics:
Russell T. Davies - Romana

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Audio plays

The Master appeared in the Big Finish Productions audio play, Dust Breeding, where Geoffrey Beevers reprised the role. The story reveals that, at some point after Survival, The Master's Trakenite body was damaged and he became a walking corpse again, using the alias Mr Seta, another, another anagram of Master.

Related Topics:
Dust Breeding - Geoffrey Beevers - Survival

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In the later Master, it was revealed that while the Seventh Doctor was Time's Champion, the Master was Death's. This was a result of an incident in their youth, where the Doctor gave his childhood friend over to Death (personified as a woman) rather than become its slave himself, creating the Master. The Master forgives the Doctor for this, but the end of the play implies that the Master will once again become Death's servant.

Related Topics:
Master - Seventh Doctor

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In 2003, an android version of the character (resembling the Delgado Master and voiced by Derek Jacobi) appeared in the animated webcast, Scream of the Shalka. While this last Master is not part of official continuity, he has also appeared, with the "Shalka Doctor" (Richard E. Grant in the webcast), in a follow-up short story by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright, The Feast of the Stone. This Master was created by the Doctor and was apparently once again his friend — albeit a slightly sinister one. Exactly why the Doctor created an android duplicate of the Master was not revealed, but it is suggested that the Doctor somehow extended the Master's own life by doing so. The android was also able to pilot the Doctor's TARDIS, but was physically unable to leave the ship, perhaps as a safeguard. It could also be switched off.

Related Topics:
2003 - Derek Jacobi - Animated - Scream of the Shalka - Continuity - Shalka Doctor - Richard E. Grant - Cavan Scott - Mark Wright

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Others

The Master was also played by Jonathan Pryce in the Comic Relief skit Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death.

Related Topics:
Jonathan Pryce - Comic Relief - Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death

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