The Master's first TARDIS

The Master's first TARDIS
Type:	TARDIS
Place of origin:	Gallifrey
Used by:	The Master, Susan Campbell
First appearance:	Terror of the Autons
Memorable moment
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The Master's TARDISes
Long-term use
Brief use
Parallel universes

The Master's first TARDIS was the TARDIS with which the Master originally left Gallifrey. It was one of the first two TARDISes ever stolen, alongside the Doctor's. Although they used this ship across several incarnations, the Master did not remain faithful to her the same way the Doctor did to their own TARDIS, and eventually began using several other TARDISes.

History

Acquisition

A depiction of the Master's TARDIS's first flight into the Time Vortex with him aboard, as seen in a book owned by the War Master himself during the Time War. (WC: The Legend of... the Master?)

Like the First Doctor, an early incarnation of the Master had stolen his TARDIS when he decided to leave Gallifrey. (AUDIO: The Destination Wars, PROSE: Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon) In fact, the Keeper, who remembered the Master's theft of his TARDIS, believed this theft and the Doctor's theft of his own TARDIS had been the only two such thefts in recorded Gallifreyan history. The War Chief, suggested in this account (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon) and others to have been an early incarnation of the Master, (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Terror of the Autons) likewise told the Second Doctor that he believed they were the only two Renegade Time Lords currently travelling the universe in TARDISes stolen from Gallifrey. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the War Games)

While the CIA's files suggested the TARDIS stolen by the War Chief when he left Gallifrey was a Type 42, (PROSE: CIA File Extracts) another account showed that the ship flown by the Master during his early Renegade days, prior to his taking on the name of "Master," was a Type 45. Either way, it was comparatively more advanced than the Doctor's own ship. (PROSE: The Dark Path) As he first flew it into the Time Vortex, the Master's TARDIS had the default cylindrical appearance of a TARDIS whose chameleon circuit had not activated, (WC: The Legend of... the Master?) just like the Doctor's. (TV: The Name of the Doctor)

Early exploits

At the time the renegade TIme Lord was travelling with Ailla under the name of Koschei, and when he felt he was betrayed by her, he simply jettisoned her room into the Time Vortex. He tried to connect the TARDIS to the Darkheart, so then he could manipulate and control space/time, but he was stopped by the Second Doctor. Shortly after these events, he first took on the name of "the Master". (PROSE: The Dark Path)

In another account, an early incarnation of the Master, already bearing the name of "Master", claimed to the First Doctor when they met that, as he had stolen his ship before it could be rehauled by the Quadriggers, it was broken and in even more poor shape than the Doctor's own ship. Still in his telling, it fell apart around him almost instantly, stranding the Master on the planet Destination on the furthest arm of a galaxy in the "earliest Segments of Time".

Using what few pieces of the TARDIS still functioned, the Master built himself a laboratory from which to control the planet's technological development towards nuclear fission so he could repair his ship. He briefly abandoned his TARDIS in favour of stealing the Doctor's only for his old friend to defeat him and trap the Master in the near-powerless remains of his ship. (AUDIO: The Destination Wars)

He later repaired his ship and made his way to a world colonised by humans, this one modelled after the English countryside during World War II. Using his hypnotic talents to assume control of the planet, the Master controlled his experiment from his ship. When the Second Doctor had discovered and sabotaged the experiment, the Master activated his contingencies and used his TARDIS to jump ahead to see the results. When he arrived, he fell victim to a trap of the Doctor's, his TARDIS being confiscated from him as the galactic authorities tried him for illegal use of mind control. (AUDIO: The Home Guard)

As the Second Doctor tried to guess the War Chief's plans in the events leading up to the Doctor's trial, he guessed that the War Chief still had his TARDIS, which was "stashed away somewhere". This account presented this as one of the only two stolen TARDISes in circulation by this point, (PROSE: Doctor Who and the War Games) the Master's TARDIS. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon) The Time Lord who would soon threaten the Third Doctor as "the Master" escaped from the Time Lords before his TARDIS "could be demagnetised", while the Doctor wasn't so lucky. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Terror of the Autons)

Vendetta with the Third Doctor

The Master's TARDIS on Earth. (TV: Terror of the Autons)

During his Earth-based vendetta against the Third Doctor and UNIT, the Master used a TARDIS with a Mark II dematerialisation circuit, which the Doctor stole to replace his own, though the attempt failed. Unlike the Doctor's TARDIS, the Master's had a fully functioning chameleon circuit. (TV: Terror of the Autons) The Master was stranded on Earth for a time, but eventually retrieved his dematerialisation circuit, leaving him free to travel in time and space once more, while the Doctor had to remain in exile. (TV: The Mind of Evil) The Master harvested material from the TARDIS to make the ultra-realistic masks for his various diguises. (COMIC: The Heralds of Destruction)

When the Master helped the Doctor thwart Ramón Salamander's scheme in 1868, he had his TARDIS follow them and conceal itself in the River Thames, escaping to it once his own plan had been thwarted. (COMIC: The Heralds of Destruction)

Using his TARDIS, the Master followed the Doctor to 25 December 2006, while the Earth was being invaded by the Sycorax, whom the Master intended to ally with. Taking the form of a fridge, the TARDIS materialised within 48 Bucknall House, a flat on Powell Estate and residence of Jackie Tyler. However, shortly after disembarking, the Master was captured by animate tinsel which had been left behind by the Roboforms. After an hour spent in captivity, the Master was found by the Doctor, Jo, Mike Yates and Jackie. Deeming that the Master had suffered enough, the Doctor set him free to take his leave in his TARDIS. (PROSE: The Christmas Inversion)

The TARDIS sustained significant damage after being time rammed by Straxus in an attempt to erase the Master from existence. Its heart was exposed and the Master was eventually able to use the heart's energies to return to the universe. (AUDIO: The Threshold)

Theft by Susan

According to one account, after Susan Foreman mutilated the Master's mind with his own rebellious TARDIS's help, and left him nearly dead on Tersurus, she took his TARDIS to escape, believing him to be dead, and took off to a random location, returning to a life of adventure akin to that enjoyed by her grandfather in his TARDIS, although she immediately noted that this ship was much easier to steer than the Doctor's had been. The Decayed Master, who was not actually dead but merely deformed, was found on Tersurus by Chancellor Goth, who brought him back to Gallifrey. (PROSE: Legacy of the Daleks) The Celestial Intervention Agency believed this TARDIS to have remained stranded, pilot-less, on Tersurus. (PROSE: CIA File Extracts)

However, there existed a starkly different account of how the Master became disfigured on Tersurus, which made no mention of him having lost his TARDIS in the process, suggesting this TARDIS was still the same (AUDIO: The Two Masters) as the TARDIS used by later incarnations of the Master up to the Time War, and which often took the shape of a grandfather clock. (TV: The Deadly Assassin, AUDIO, Mastermind) However, another account suggested this TARDIS was Goth's TARDIS. (AUDIO: Dominion)

During the Time War

At some point in the Last Great Time War, (COMIC: Fast Asleep) the Master recovered his Type 45 TARDIS. He operated on its brain, growing a chronal tumour which extruded from a side of the control console. (COMIC: The One) Although painful for the ship, this process would allow it to break through Vortex obstacles such as time locks. However, this was only an experiment; the process was not completed, with the tumour remaining benign, and the Master never actually tested it. (COMIC: Running to Stay Still)

Imprisonment

The Master's Type 45 TARDIS, with the tumour, was ultimately incarcerated in Shada at some point before the end of the Last Great Time War. The Eleventh Doctor broke into Shada with the help of River Song and Abslom Daak while running from the Overcaste's accusations of genocide. He wanted to check the Master's TARDIS's records to see if a posthumous scheme from her pilot, to blame the Doctor for a crime the Master had committed, was at play. (COMIC: The One)

Back into the Time War

Dragged back into the Time War, the Master's TARDIS is damaged by the paradox. (COMIC: Fast Asleep)

Alice Obiefune used a Rassilonian Timefly to activate the tumour and fly the Master's TARDIS back into the Time War. (COMIC: Running to Stay Still) There, it was stolen back by the Master in an incarnation predating the one who had originally created the chronal tumour. He attempted to use it to break out of the time lock and escape the Time War, only to realise that this meant he was erasing the period of his life in the late War when he'd originally recovered this TARDIS and grown the tumour.

The paradoxical backfire killed the Master, causing him to regenerate into a new incarnation who swore revenge on the Doctor for tricking him into this predicament. As the Master completed his regeneration, the ship tumbled through the Vortex, its own outer plasmic shell set ablaze. (COMIC: Fast Asleep)

Personality

The Master's original TARDIS was mistreated by her pilot, who occasionally experimented on her for his own gain in ways the Doctor found abhorrent. (COMIC: Running to Stay Still) This drove the TARDIS to eventually rebel against the Master, aiding Susan Foreman's psychic attack on him by bonding with her through the telepathic circuits. (PROSE: Legacy of the Daleks) Howevery, towards the end of the Last Great Time War, the Time Lords apparently deemed the TARDIS to be a dangerous criminal in her own right, trapping her in Shada, their highest-security prison, originally designed to contain power-hungry Time Lords who had lost their minds. (COMIC: The One)

Appearance

Interior

Upon entering the Master's TARDIS, the Squire remarks on its resemblance to the Doctor's old control room. (COMIC: The One)

The design of the interior of the Master's TARDIS often bore a resemblance to that of the Doctor's around the same time, but with some differences — for example, the control console had a flashing chrome central column instead of an illuminated transparent one. (TV: The Time Monster) Upon entering it for the first time, the Squire remarked on its resemblance to "her" Doctor's old control room, although some stark differences were also evident. (COMIC: The One)

Exterior

Unlike the Doctor's, the TARDIS the Master originally stole from Gallifrey was in perfect condition, albeit on the older side. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon) This entaield that it had a working chameleon circuit. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon, COMIC: The One) Thus, although often reverting to the appearance of a marble column, (COMIC: The One, Fast Asleep) a form also taken by the Master's next TARDIS on occasions, (TV: Logopolis) the Type 45 TARDIS retained the ability to transform its outer plasmic shell to suit its environment. (COMIC: The One)

Some of the disguises adopted by this TARDIS thusly included an Adjudication flyer, an out-of-date space locker, (PROSE: The Dark Path) a TARDIS blue horsebox, (TV: Terror of the Autons) a white cube, (TV: The Claws of Axos) a spaceship, (TV: Colony in Space) a black Rolls-Royce limousine with darkened windows, a bulkhead door aboard the HMS Redoubt, (PROSE: The Face of the Enemy) the Stone of Sacrifice in the cavern of the church at Devil's End, (PROSE: The Face of the Enemy, The Eight Doctors) a computer bank, (TV: The Time Monster) a fridge, (PROSE: The Christmas Inversion) a filing cabinet, (PROSE: The Touch of the Nurazh) a control panel, and a wardrobe. (PROSE: Legacy of the Daleks)

The Master's original TARDIS was, by several accounts, a Type 45. (PROSE: The Dark Path, COMIC: The One) Maris had heard rumours that Type 45s had the ability to take humanoid form, (PROSE: Celestial Intervention - A Gallifreyan Noir) a trait notably displayed by Lolita, a TARDIS who chose her "dangerous-looking" pilot at the same time as her sister "the Ship" chose hers. (PROSE: Toy Story)

Behind the scenes

• Lolita is strongly hinted in various stories to have been this TARDIS before she gained humanoid form, although this has never been explicitly confirmed.