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This Villain was Headlined on November, 2023. | ||
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This Article Contains Spoilers -
WARNING: This article contains major spoilers. If you do not wish to know vital information on plot / character elements in a story, you may not wish to read beyond this warning: We hold no responsibility for any negative effects these facts may have on your enjoyment of said media should you continue. That is all. |
| “ | I am the Master and you will obey me. I am the Master and you will obey me. I am the Master and you will obey me. I am the Master and you will obey me. I am the Master and you will obey me. I am the Master and you will obey me. I am the Master and you will obey me. You, beardy. No, other beardy. Yes, that one. Do the laugh. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! |
„ |
| ~ The Masters in Doctor Who: Masterful. |
| “ | And so it came to pass… that the human race fell… and the Earth was no more. And I looked down upon my new dominion as Master of all… and I thought it… good. | „ |
| ~ The Master after conquering Earth. |
The Master is one of the main antagonists (alongside The Daleks) of the Doctor Who franchise.
He is a member of the Time Lord race along with being the childhood friend turned archenemy of the Doctor. An insane megalomaniac, the Master's choice of name comes from his ultimate ambition, to conquer and reign supreme over the universe and to topple his adversary.
The Master has been portrayed by various actors, originally by the late Roger Delgado, followed by the late Peter Pratt, Geoffrey Beevers (in the same incarnation), the late Anthony Ainley, Gordon Tipple (in the same incarnation), Eric Roberts, Derek Jacobi, John Simm, Michelle Gomez in a female incarnation known as Missy (short for the Mistress), and most recently, Sacha Dhawan.
The late William Hughes also played a child version of the Master in flashbacks shown in the third series. Many voice actors have also voiced the Master in the Big Finish audio stories (i.e Alex Maqueen, Derek Jacobi and others).
Variations[]
- Classic Who Master - The Master from the 1963-1989; 1996 series.
- The incarnations of the Master from the 2005 revival show.
- "Child" Incarnation - The 16th incarnation of the Master who appears in the Eleventh Doctor's comic story, and temporary ally to the War Doctor.
- Yana Incarnation - The 17th incarnation of the Master, serving as the main antagonist of the episode Utopia and a villainous protagonist in Big Finish's audio dramas. He was portrayed by Sir Derek Jacobi.
- "Saxon" Incarnation - The Master from the revival show portrayed by John Simm; the 18th incarnation.
- Missy incarnation - The Master from the revival show played by Michelle Gomez.
- "O" Incarnation - The Master from the revival show portrayed by Sacha Dhawan.
Personality[]
| “ | Who is the Master? He's my sworn archenemy. A fiend who glories in chaos and destruction. | „ |
| ~ The Doctor on the Master. |
The Master could be seen as the villainous opposite of the Doctor: Cruel, arrogant, vain, manipulative, and lusting for power.
The Master is deeply megalomaniacal, misanthropic, and shows signs of psychopathic behaviour as his greatest fear in the universe is being outdone by the Doctor, leading him to becoming obsessed with ruining everything the Doctor stands for. This has served to make the Master one of the Doctor's greatest and most recurring opponents and also the one that has caused the most emotional pain to the Doctor during the millennia-long feud between the two characters. The Master is obsessed with getting the Doctor's attention, revelling in their role as the Doctor's archenemy, to the point of rejecting any forgiveness of sympathy their old friend could show them.
The Master is also extremely narcissistic. He seldom, if at all, did anything for others but himself, heralding himself constantly, and will ruin the lives/manipulate anyone in his way for personal amusement. All of this has made the Master become known throughout the cosmos as the "personification of evil". It has been noted that while the Doctor is time-traveling elsewhere, the Master is orchestrating the conquest and/or destruction of whole worlds and the rest of the universe.
Like every Time Lord, the Master changes his looks and personality slightly every time he undergoes regeneration, with many of the Master`s incarnations being noted to have an uncanny ability to escape certain-death. He is described to be an "evil genius", being extremely intelligent in terms of science, manipulation, technology, strategy, and many other fields: his only intellectual rival being the Doctor.
Biography[]
Beginning[]
The Master as a child.
The Master grew up on his home planet of Gallifrey and became close childhood friends with the Doctor. His madness begun at the age of eight when he was taken before Untempered Schism, a gap in the fabric of space and time, as part of a Time Lord initiation ceremony. Since then, the Master has been plagued by the four-beat sound of drums, believing them to be the "drums of war", and motivating him to become a would-be universal conqueror. Other accounts in the Doctor Who Expanded Universe say the Master during his childhood was secretly made the champion of Death itself, influencing his later identity. Like the Doctor, he stole a TARDIS when older and continued doing evil until he met the Doctor again when he was already in his Twelfth incarnation.
Past[]
- Main article: The Master (Classic Who)
War Master[]
- Main article: The Master (Yana)
"Harold Saxon"[]
- Main article: The Master (Harold Saxon)
Shortly after returning to his original identity after disguising himself as Professor Yana, the Master was forced to regenerate into a younger body. In 21st century England, the Master got himself elected as Prime Minister under the identity of Harold Saxon. He conquered Earth with the aid of the alien Toclafane, ruling it for a year, although his reign would be undone and erased from history. After seemingly dying, the Master would be resurrected into a damaged body and would take over the human race by turning them into his clones. However, interference caused by Rassilon from the Time War-era caused his defeat. In a healed body, the Master would travel the universe before becoming trapped on a Mondasian Colony Ship to confront the Twelfth Doctor, and his future self named Missy.
Missy[]
- Main article: Missy (Doctor Who)
"O"[]
- Main article: The Master (O)
Imprisonment by the Toymaker[]
In The Giggle the Toymaker mentioned that when the Master was dying, he played a game with the Toymaker for his life, which he lost, and was thus sealed within the Toymaker's gold tooth. After the Toymaker's defeat and imprisonment, his gold tooth was left behind, and was picked up by an unknown woman's hand, much like the Saxon Master's ring at the end of the episode Last of the Time Lords, implying they escaped once more.
Is "Koschei" their true name?[]
The 1997 novel The Dark Path of the Doctor Who Expanded Universe shows the Second Doctor in one of his first encounters with the Master since leaving Gallifrey. Throughout the story, the Master is only called by the pseudonym "Koschei". In Russian folklore, Koschei (rus.Коще́й or Коще́й Бессме́ртный, "Koschei The Deathless") is a villain who hides his soul in an obscure location under many layers of protection so that he can never die.
Though the Second Doctor does not recognize Koschei by that name in The Dark Path, and the novel even goes so far as to state that the Master has only just begun calling himself Koschei, later stories like Divided Loyalties and The Face of the Enemy reuse the name in ways that suggest it is the true name of the Master. The 2018 short story Lords and Masters casts this theory into doubt, however, as Missy states that her real name contains thirty-two letters.
The comic Flashback was written with the intent that Magnus, an old friend of Theta Sigma who seems to be growing more and more corrupted, was an early incarnation of the Master. However, the comic did not explicitly confirm Magnus's identity, and later sources went on to use "Magnus" as a name for the War Chief, although the Master and War Chief are sometimes thought to be one and the same.
Trivia[]
- The Master has caused the regenerations of the Fourth, Seventh, Tenth and Thirteenth Doctors in some manner.
- The Master's relationship with the Doctor is comparable to that of James Moriarty and Sherlock Holmes, according to many Doctor Who writers.
- The Master's name is a dark counter to the Doctor's, both being academic titles meant to hide their true names.
- Russel T Davies doesn't plan to bring the Master back early in his Disney+ era of the show. He states that he felt the Master had been overused during Steven Moffat and Chris Chibnall`s eras; Missy and O ended up integral to why the Doctor got more regenerations as the Eleventh and chose to retire as the Fourteenth.
- Possibly Russel will break the unofficial running gag of the Master killing the Doctor ever third regeneration.
External Links[]
- The Master on the Doctor Who Wiki
- The Master on Wikipedia
