Child Master (The Then and the Now)

For the Master's initial life as a child, see the Master's early life .

Child Master
Main aliases:	see list
Species:	Time Lord
Place of origin:	Gallifrey
First appearance:	The Then and the Now
Appearances:	see list

Incarnations of the Master+
Original regenerative cycle+
Interim+
Renewed regenerative cycle+
Ambiguous+
Other realities+

In the body of a child, the Master, having abandoned his name, formed an alliance with the War Doctor and the Squire during the Last Great Time War, until an attempt to flee the conflict resulted in him erasing himself in a paradox, forcing him into a retro-regeneration back into his previous incarnation.

Biography

Backstory

At some point, the War Master (COMIC: Fast Asleep) regenerated into a new incarnation. Now in the body of a small child, and still active in the Last Great Time War, he was said to have abandoned the name of "Master", as he simply operated with no name whatsoever. (COMIC: The Organ Grinder)

The child fought further along in the Last Great Time War than his predecessor. Despite this, he was able to manipulate events to write out many of his actions during the War, even though it was time-locked. One of these events was presenting himself as a messianic figure to a Sontaran colony world, creating a breakaway religion worshipping his pillar TARDIS and growing goatees, so that they would battle with the main faction of Sontarans' 17th Veteran Cohort. (COMIC: The Judas Goatee)

Alliance with the Doctor

During the Time War, the child and the Doctor make a pact to defeat the Cyclors. (COMIC: The Organ Grinder)

In the midst of the war, the Master made a deal with the War Doctor to end their old ways and become allies, fighting alongside each other. (COMIC: The Organ Grinder) At some point, they sat together on a barren planet strewn with destroyed Daleks and a ruined building resembling a destroyed Capitol. (COMIC: The Master Plan)

Mission against the Cyclord

Eventually, the Doctor was sent on a mission to find a way to stop the Cyclors, who had allied with the Daleks. (COMIC: Pull to Open) When fighting alongside the Thirteenth Vexillatio, the Doctor showed the Master evidence of the Cyclors' involvement when the entire troops were psychically wiped out, leading the Master to agree to join him. (COMIC: The Organ Grinder) At some point, the Squire also joined the Doctor's mission to stop the Cyclors. The group fought the Daleks and Cyclors on Veestrax, where they saw a broken wall with "Exterminhate" written on it. The Master told the Doctor that he hadn't written it, and the Doctor then asked for his help with destroying the planet. (COMIC: Outrun)

In order to infiltrate the centre of Golgauth, the home planet of the Overcaste to whom the Cyclors were bonded, they embarked on quests to acquire tools such as a megarhythmic anodizer from Chroleen, a mimetic whisperfield from the Terrorsmiths of Diwoon, and the Psilent Songbox of Karn. During the final preparations for their plan, the Doctor and the Master encountered the Volatix Cabal on Lujhimene, proving the rumours of their existence true. (COMIC: The Organ Grinder) Alice Obiefune, a companion of the Eleventh Doctor in the Post-Time War universe, crash-landed in The Master's TARDIS from after the Time War on Lujhimene, (COMIC: First Rule) where she encountered the Doctor and the Master, but was quickly captured by the Volatix Cabal. However, the Squire rescued her and brought her back to the Doctor and the Master, the latter of whom reclaimed his TARDIS from "some tangled tomorrow", which could still communicate mentally to him, and connected it to the Doctor's as they headed for Golgauth.

With both TARDISes in tow, they travelled beneath the surface of Golgauth, where an Overcaste rebel base was located. The Master enjoyed the idea of using the Psilent Songbox to wipe out the Overcaste and the Cyclors because it would mean the Doctor would commit genocide, but the Doctor claimed to have another possible way. Upon arriving, they met a group of Overcaste, but uncovered a Volatix spy in the group and neutralised him. The spy revealed that he had called for help and moments later a Cyclor tore off the roof of the base. (COMIC: The Organ Grinder)

The Master admires the Cyclors. (COMIC: Kill God)

As the Cyclors approached, the Master taunted Alice about how the Doctor had committed genocide in the Time War, as the Doctor revealed his plan to use the Psilent Songbox to affect the Overcaste's collective unconscious such that the Cyclors would ascend. As Alice stole the Songbox in an attempt to avoid the history she knew, the Master used a device to summon a squadron of Gallifreyan ships to attack the Cyclors. He used this chaos of the Cyclor attack to flee, sneaking into his future self's TARDIS to escape the Time War. (COMIC: Kill God)

Fate

Main article: Child Master's degeneration

The Master's escaping TARDIS burns due to the chronal meltdown. (COMIC: Fast Asleep)

As the Master began to take off in his reclaimed TARDIS, he realised that it was his future self who had implanted the chronal tumour on his TARDIS console in the first place. At some point in his now aborted future, he was to operate on the brain of his TARDIS, which would result in the chronal tumour that protruded from one side of the console. (COMIC: The One) But since escaping the Time War in his TARDIS would preclude him from implanting the tumour in the first place, the resulting paradox shattered reality in "a cascade of temporal possibility." Subsequently, the chronal tumour began to react to the Psilent Songbox, creating a chronal meltdown. While the Master attempted to disarm the device, it was too late, and the resulting temporal bomb left his TARDIS spiralling out of control. With the Master's timeline collapsing as a result of the paradox, reverted him back into the War Master. The Squire would later note he had been flung "who knows when." (COMIC: Fast Asleep)

Due to the paradox, all parties present would lose their memories of the events, though the exact extent of this was not clear. (COMIC: Fast Asleep) When revisiting her timeline and seeing the Child Master alongside the War Doctor, Missy claimed to not remember which was her and which was the Doctor, implying she may have forgotten her child incarnation entirely. (COMIC: The Master Plan) Alice did recall the Master being present as a small boy, and at least the fact that the Master was present in the Cyclor event surprised the Eleventh Doctor; Alice's memories of her time in the Time War seemed to soon fade from her. (COMIC: Gently Pulls the Strings) Before she had gone back to the war, the Master's TARDIS had also printed an image of the Master alongside Alice, which the Doctor kept secret. (COMIC: The One, First Rule)

Psychological profile

The Master's fright in the heart of the paradox, moments before his retro-regeneration. (COMIC: Fast Asleep)

While fighting in the Last Great Time War, the Master ceased using his former title, whih the War Doctor stated was the nature of war. (COMIC: The Organ Grinder) However, others, such as Alice Obiefune and the Squire, still referred to him by his title. (COMIC: Gently Pulls the Strings)

The Child Master delighted in the prospect of committing genocide, and more specifically the War Doctor's loosening morality. He saw people as resources, and that teaming up with the Doctor was a worthwhile option during wartime. He also had a fondness for paradoxes.(COMIC: The Organ Grinder) The Master wanted to put up a fight for good, but, seeing the hopelessness of his efforts with the Doctor, he fled from their fight with the Cyclors. He concluded that he enjoyed death and chaos only when it was fun for him. (COMIC: Kill God)

At the moment of his retro-regeneration, the Child Master held contempt for the Doctor and Alice Obiefune, declaring that he would have his revenge on them. (COMIC: Fast Asleep)

Appearance

The Master's white shirt and black coat. (COMIC: Outrun)

Child Master was a young lad with black hair and blue eyes. (COMIC: The Organ Grinder) On Veestrax, he had short hair, and wore a white shirt with a black jacket. (COMIC: Outrun) By the time he and the Doctor had arrived on Golgauth, the boy's hair was longer, and he sported a scarlet shirt under his jacket. (COMIC: The Organ Grinder)

Behind the scenes

• The Child Master's final moments in Fast Asleep, where he turns into the likeness of Derek Jacobi, was initially interpreted as a usual regeneration, likely due to the visual appearance of fire on his body, which resembles the golden regeneration energy seen in post-2005 stories, and Alice's narration that "it [was] impossible to survive the energies in the heart of a paradox." However, Rob Williams, who wrote the comic, clarified that the "Child Master" was intended to be the successor of Jacobi's War Master, rather than his predecessor or a younger version of him.
• Although he does not use the name "the Master" and never indicates a preferred title in-universe, the recap page of the twelfth issue refers to him as "the Child Master" in a similar fashion to "War Doctor".