User:BananaClownMan/Sandbox/The Master (Early)
- You may be looking for other, similarly-named pages or this wiki's guidelines on how to best link to this article.
The first incarnation of the Master was the Doctor's friend and schoolmate at the Academy on Gallifrey, until a falling out occurred between them.
Like the Doctor, the Master would also flee from Gallifrey in a TARDIS of his own, but the poor condition of his craft resulted in his first trip being a crash-landing on Destination.
Biography
Early life
The Master grew up on Gallifrey in the House of Oakdown, (PROSE: Divided Loyalties) though he would later comment to Wilfred Mott that growing up on Gallifrey was not something one could call childhood, but "more a life of duty". (TV: The End of Time) The name he was born with was unknown and apparently consisted of thirty-two letters. (PROSE: Lords and Masters)
Like all Time Lords, the Master was taken from his family at the age of eight for the selection process. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords) During the ceremony in which he gazed into the Time Vortex through the Untempered Schism, he went mad, (TV: The Sound of Drums) due to a rhythm of four beats being implanted into his head. (TV: The End of Time) This malady manifested itself as the constant drumming he heard ever after, worsening with time. (TV: Utopia, The Sound of Drums, Last of the Time Lords)
Academic career
The Master and the First Doctor became friends on their first day at the Academy, (TV: World Enough and Time) with both being tutored by Borusa, (AUDIO: Masterplan) and the Doctor quickly developing a crush on his new friend, (TV: World Enough and Time) which the Master was partially aware of. (AUDIO: The Bekdel Test) The duo also made a friend in the War Chief on their first day at the Academy. (PROSE: Divided Loyalties)
Sharing the same heritage and upbringing, (AUDIO: Dominion) the Master developed a strong bond with the Doctor, (TV: The Sea Devils, The Sound of Drums, World Enough and Time) with UNIT scientist Osgood even describing the Master as the Doctor's "childhood friend". (TV: Death in Heaven) The Second Doctor recalled that he and the Master had everything in common, except that the Master enjoyed being scared of the dark "a little too much", (PROSE: The Menagerie) while the Third Doctor told Jo Grant that the two were "inseparable" due to their shared interests, such as a desire to break the non-interference policy. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Sea Devils) The Twelfth Doctor recalled how he and the Master had a pact to explore every star in the universe together. (TV: World Enough and Time) The Master and the Doctor enjoyed building "time flow analogues" to disrupt each other's experiments. (TV: The Time Monster)
The two youths would play in the fields near the Master's father's estates, with pastures of red grass near Mount Perdition. (TV: The End of Time) They would also sneak out of the Capitol and drink with the Shobogans, (PROSE: The Eight Doctors) with the Master picking a fight with six drunken Shobogans during one of these outings. (PROSE: UNIT Christmas Parties: Christmas Truce) The Master also taught his friend hypnotism, and would often hypnotise people as a joke, (PROSE: The Dark Path) but would go unpunished for it, as well as other misdemeanours, always finding a way to avoid his comeuppance. (PROSE: First Frontier)
During their childhood, the Master and the Doctor were mercilessly and viciously bullied by a boy called Torvic; the Doctor was eventually forced to kill the bully to save his friend's life. The Doctor was later confronted by the personification of Death, who insisted he become her disciple, but the Doctor refused and suggested Death make the Master her champion instead. Death agreed, and the Doctor subsequently forgot about their deal. (AUDIO: Master)
According to a dream the Fifth Doctor had under the control of the Celestial Toymaker, the Master went by the name "Koschei" at the Academy and belonged to a clique of ten young Time Lords with the collective name of the Deca. (PROSE: Divided Loyalties) He was also part of the "Gallifrey Academy Hot Five" band, in which he played the drums. (PROSE: Deadly Reunion) The Master was in charge of organising end of term parties, although the Eighth Doctor later noted that they weren't very good. (COMIC: The Glorious Dead)
The Master chose his title while he was beginning to "hone his talents" at the Academy. (AUDIO: The Destination Wars) The Doctor chose his around the same time. The Master felt that the name the Doctor chose was "sanctimonious", (TV: The Sound of Drums) while the Doctor thought the Master's new name was a sign of his ambition and arrogance. (AUDIO: The Destination Wars) The Tenth Doctor once stated that it would be a "psychologist's field day" understanding why he chose to call himself "the Master", (TV: The Sound of Drums) with one account claiming he gained the nickname of "the Master" in his Academy days because he was a bully to less domineering students than himself. (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey) However, according to other accounts, the Master's early travels as a Renegade Time Lord were under the name of "Koschei"; it was only after swearing vengeance on the Second Doctor that he rejected that name and became "the Master". (PROSE: The Dark Path, The Face of the Enemy)
Whilst at the Academy, the Doctor and the Master travelled into Gallifrey's past in search of Valdemar. They found nothing of the Old Ones except for warnings. The Master was fascinated by the power that Valdemar represented, while the Doctor was horrified. (PROSE: Tomb of Valdemar) The Master also showed a fascination with the Necronomicon. (PROSE: The Nameless City)
At the Academy, the Master was a "teacher's pet" and won gold stars, while the Doctor was the class dunce, (PROSE: Time and Relative) though the Doctor was Borusa's favourite. Ultimately, the Master did not perform well at the Academy. (AUDIO: Masterplan) Although he did earn a higher degree in cosmic science than the Doctor, (TV: Terror of the Autons) the Doctor's grades were overall better. Because of this, the Doctor received the prizes and praise that the Master so desperately wanted. The Seventh Doctor theorised that this may have been the cause of the Master's hatred towards him, (PROSE: Survival) with Eighth Doctor believing that his jealousy over Borusa was the cause of the Master's hatred towards him. (AUDIO: Masterplan)
When the Time Lords created the Consolidator to conceal various dangerous historical secrets from the rest of the universe, unwilling to destroy the items or races in the ship in case they proved useful later, the Doctor and the Master were assigned to come up with a solution where their peers had failed. The Master had the idea of using a black hole to tear a rift in time and send the Consolidator into the distant future, where the future Time Lords could deal with it, but the Doctor declined to have his name put down on the calculations as he questioned the ethics of the assignment. However, when the experiment was actually attempted, the Consolidator was apparently destroyed by a mistake in the calculations when it struck the edge of the black hole, leaving the Time Lords to hush the matter up. (PROSE: Harvest of Time)
As the Doctor grew up, he came to understand that he and the Master were not the same. (TV: Death in Heaven) Following an incident at the Academy in which the Master did not keep his word, he and the Doctor had a falling out, (PROSE: Last of the Gaderene) eventually leading the Doctor to realise that the Master stood against everything he believed in. (AUDIO: The Destination Wars)
The Master was on an Academy research project when the Doctor was expelled from the Academy. (PROSE: Divided Loyalties)
In one of his earliest schemes at the Academy, the Master befriended one of his professors, Salyavin, to gain access to Gallifrey's most restricted libraries and find The Worshipful and Ancient Law of Gallifrey. The Master himself failed to find the book, and ended up letting the innocent Salyavin bear the consequences of his breach of Gallifrey's laws; Salyavin ended up stealing the book anyway, reasoning he might as well if he was to be blamed for it, (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey) and was imprisoned on Shada, from which he later escaped, renaming himself "Professor Chronotis". (TV: Shada)
Life on Gallifrey
Still maintaining a "friend[ship] of sorts", the Master and the Doctor were pioneers and inventors among their people. (AUDIO: The Destination Wars)
Missy claimed she had a daughter and that, while still on Gallifrey, the Doctor gifted the Master a dark star alloy brooch, after an event which involved his daughter occurred. (TV: The Witch's Familiar)
On Gallifrey, the Master had the job of truant officer, and he performed his job with punctuality, self-discipline, and meritorious conduct. (PROSE: Time and Relative) He once attended a ritual in Arcadia where he gave Susan a toy that was actually a disguised communication node that would locate the Doctor if he ever left Gallifrey. (AUDIO: The Toy)
Fleeing Gallifrey
.jpg)
On the day that the Doctor left Gallifrey, the Master was desperate to know where he went. (PROSE: Celestial Intervention — A Gallifreyan Noir) He used the node he gave Susan to locate the Doctor, but found that the node had established a connection with Nyssa, a companion of the Fifth Doctor. The Master tried to take control of Nyssa but was stopped by the intervention of the Doctor. (AUDIO: The Toy) When retired CIA agent Maris was hired to find the Doctor, the Master, helped by the the Rani, used a chronal mine to kidnap her. They interrogated Maris on the whereabouts of the Doctor, and were displeased when she told them she didn't know. They were about to kill her when her employer extracted her from the area. (PROSE: Celestial Intervention — A Gallifreyan Noir)
The Master ultimately left Gallifrey on the same day the Doctor did, (COMIC: The Glorious Dead) in a Type-45 TARDIS, (PROSE: The Dark Path) that he had also stolen (COMIC: The Glorious Dead) when the Quadriggers were still working on it. (AUDIO: The Destination Wars) One Time Lord stated that the Master left Gallifrey because, like the Doctor, it was "too peaceful for [him], [with] not enough happening". (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon) The Fifth Doctor believed that the Master left Gallifrey because he was also leaving. (AUDIO: The Toy)
According to one account, when the Doctor escaped Gallifrey, the Master was in line for a promotion to Head Truant Officer, but his career depended on catching the Doctor and Susan and preventing any violations of the non-interference policy. (PROSE: Time and Relative)
According to another source, during a period of civil unrest on Gallifrey, the Master led many students of the Time Lord Academy in a revolt against the corrupt Lord President, Pundat the Third, and attempted to recruit the Doctor and convince him to take the position as President, but he decided not to interfere with the current constitution. When Pundat died of stress soon after the revolt, his chosen successor was the evil Chancellor Slann. The students had found the last of Lord Rassilon's descendants, Lady Larn, a seven-year old child adopted by Councillor Brolin, who was being groomed as a future president. They decided on a second coup, but were overheard by the authorities when trying to convert the Doctor again, and bloody reprisals against the students followed. The Doctor and Larn escaped from Gallifrey after this. Believing the students ready for another coup, the Master assassinated Lord President Slann. However, the students weren't ready and he took this opportunity to steal a TARDIS and flee Gallifrey as a renegade. (PROSE: Birth of a Renegade)
Early exploits
Because his TARDIS was broken when he stole it, it fell apart around him almost instantly, stranding the Master on the furthest arm of a galaxy in the "earliest Segments of Time". He took charge of the planet Destination, assuming the title of "the Inventor", and developed the planet's technology for his own ends. He pitted the human colonists against the Dalmari, so that the colonists would develop the nuclear technology he planned to use to refuel his TARDIS's engines. When the First Doctor arrived, he changed his plans and tried to steal the Doctor's TARDIS to escape. He was able to trick Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright into leading him to the ship, but they were able to overpower him and use the fast return switch to take the TARDIS back to Destination. The Master ultimately became trapped in his own laboratory after the Doctor had rerouted its power to help Destination to rebuild. (AUDIO: The Destination Wars)
On Segonax, the Master allied himself with the Gods of Ragnarok, and used a pendant they gave him to contact a street artist on Zamyatin named Kingpin and use Kingpin's free spirited energy to cause a psychic storm, which caused a revolution on Zamyatin. The Master then persuaded Kingpin to organise a collective of various artists and bring them to Segonax to become the Psychic Circus. The Master then persuaded the Chief clown to organise a talent contest so that new energy could be acquired. When Kingpin managed to contact the Seventh Doctor, the Master used his abilities to stop him from reaching the Circus, first creating an illusion of him landing on Zamyatin, and then one of him returning to Paradise Towers. When the Doctor eventually came to the Circus, he and the Master confronted each other on a psychic plane, where the Doctor exploited the Gods' curiosity to buy time to steal the pendant from the Master and pass it to Kingpin. Kingpin then used the pendant to free the Circus from the Master and the Gods' influence, and the Master was left at the mercy of the Gods of Ragnarok. (AUDIO: The Psychic Circus)
Later deeds
After arriving on a planet where human colonists had settled in a fictional recreation of an English village during the Second World War to live in peace away from Earth, the Master took control of the environment, organised a home guard and armed the original population of the planet to entice a conflict and demonstrate that an outgunned and outnumbered group of people could resist against a much greater enemy when properly motivated. When the Second Doctor arrived with Ben Jackson, Polly Wright and Jamie McCrimmon, the Master hypnotised them into joining his experiment. The Doctor, however, immersed himself too deep in his role of commander of the home guard and made contact with the aliens to reach a peaceful solution, resulting in the aliens attacking earlier than the Master had anticipated. In the ensuing battle, the Master escaped in his TARDIS, with the intent of returning to look on the results of the conflict. However, when he returned, the Doctor had already set a trap for him after persuading the fighters into a peace. The Master was captured and put on trial for illegal use of mind control, while his TARDIS was confiscated. (AUDIO: The Home Guard)
Death
At some point, the Master regenerated for the first time and his new incarnation found himself at the Scoundrels Club during the Great Fire of London. Becoming a member of the club so that he could recover from the regeneration in comfort, the Master organised fireworks on the roof to celebrate the occasion. He visited the Scoundrels Club after each regeneration to recover as a tradition. (PROSE: Dismemberment)
Post-mortem
When the "Tremas" Master was stripped of his Trakenite body by the the Time Lords, and after his plot to steal the Fifth Doctor's regenerations failed, he found himself confronting mental projections of all his past incarnations, and was able to steal a bit of life energy from each of them, allowing him to regenerate back into his Trakenite body. (PROSE: The Velvet Dark)
Undated events
- The Master claimed to have met Harry Houdini at some point before his exploits on Destination. (AUDIO: The Destination Wars)
Alternate timelines
As punishment for "a silly prank gone wrong", the Superiors locked "Koschei" and the Doctor in the bathroom of a bar on an underlevel of the Tower. After an argument, the Doctor escaped, leaving "Koschei" behind. The Tower eventually came under the control of the Healer, leader of the Cwejen Uprising, though he never discovered "Koschei". When Chris Cwej and Frey became lost in the underlevels, they encountered "Koschei". Frey was dying because, as an Ephem, she needed regular infusions of Superior biodata to survive. "Koschei" offered to give her his own biodata and lead them out of the dungeon, on the condition that Cwej promise to listen to "Koschei's" words on a future date. Sensing that Cwej was "a friend of [his] friend", "Koschei" hypnotised him. Later, when Cwej was using the Tree of Life to undo the Uprising, "Koschei" spoke through Frey telepathically, distracting Cwej; as a result, only half the events of the Uprising were undone, resulting in an unstable new status quo. (PROSE: Rebel Rebel)
Psychological profile
Personality
According to a dream the Fifth Doctor had under the control of the Celestial Toymaker, Koschei admired Magnus' ability to command people, and wished that he could one day learn to do the same. (PROSE: Divided Loyalties)
The Master was good friends with the First Doctor at the Time Lord Academy, and the two bonded over a mutual promise to someday explore the universe together. The Twelfth Doctor later recalled that he was "always so brilliant" from the first day at the Academy. The Doctor developed a "man-crush" on him during this time. (TV: World Enough and Time)
In his youth, the Master was disturbed by the concept of killing for amusement, believing that killing should only be done when necessary. (AUDIO, Masterful)
The Master was very self-centred, willing to influence a whole planet's development to refuel his craft, and equally willing to abandon his plans just to steal the Doctor's ship. He found amusement in shaping a culture to his benefit. He looked down on others as his inferiors, claiming to have "longed for a mind equal to [his] own" when confronting the Doctor on Destination. He particular disregard humans as "ape descended primitives". (AUDIO: The Destination Wars)
Susan Foreman remembered the Master as a highly regarded man, as a "stickler for the rules" with "meritorious conduct". (PROSE: Time and Relative) The Fifth Doctor believed that his obsession with him was the driving force for him leaving Gallifrey. (AUDIO: The Toy)
Skills
He used his hypnotic abilities regularly, subjugating even adepts such as Susan Foreman with ease. (AUDIO: The Destination Wars)
Appearance and clothing
As an eight-year-old boy, the Master had dark hair and bright blue eyes. (TV: The Sound of Drums) While imprisoned beneath the Tower, "Koschei" had a long dark beard and "piercing" green eyes. He gave off an aura of menace to all who came near him, and, in his emaciated state, came across as a "creature" more than a man. (PROSE: Rebel Rebel)
As he matured, the Master swept his black hair back, and also grew a greying beard. (AUDIO: The Toy) When he met the Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara on Destination, the Master had short hair and a beard, both of which were almost completely grey, save for some dark patches. His eyes were brown in colour. He wore an asymetrical black coat with a large white lined collar on the left-hand side. (AUDIO: The Destination Wars)
He later adopted a black Nehru jacket. (AUDIO: The Home Guard)
The Master was described by Maris as "pewter, [having] washed-out skin, and the beginnings of a goatee". (PROSE: Celestial Intervention — A Gallifreyan Noir)
Behind the scenes
The Doctor Who Fun Book
A glimpse into the Master's life on Gallifrey is provided by the short story NOTVALID: TARDIS Stolen! from 1987's The Doctor Who Fun Book, which is not considered a valid source by this Wiki due to its parodical nature, such as revealing that the Master's true name is "Cuthbert Windbottom", though he is already going by "the Master", a choice of identity the author of the Gallifreyan Gazette article finds unsurprising.
Following the First Doctor's theft of the TARDIS and flight from Gallifrey, the Master is interviewed by the Gallifrey Gazette to give his opinion on the probable motives of his old classmate's crimes; the Master claims that the Doctor had been very excited in the last month over a phone call from "the BB Corporation" and attempts to convince the interviewer that these were surely some of Gallifrey's oldest enemies in whose league the Doctor had entered.
Is "Koschei" his true name?
The 1997 novel The Dark Path 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 recognise 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.
Footnotes
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
