The Master (First Frontier)
In one account, the Master, immediately after escaping the Cheetah Planet with his Kitling, Shadow, arranged a deal with the Tzun Confederacy. After aiding him in the retrieval of his TARDIS from the planet Antari Three, they provided him with nanites that cured him of the Cheetah virus and supposedly gave him a new regenerative cycle. Shortly after his body was repaired, the Master was shot by Ace and regenerated into a new body, which, according to one account, was eventually captured by the Daleks and executed after a trial, though the Master survived as a Deathworm Morphant and possessed the body of Bruce Gerhardt.
Biography
Post-regeneration
According to one account, the Tremas Master escaped the destruction of Cheetah World using a kitling named Shadow to transmigrate to 1957 Earth, where he made contact with the Tzun Canton, and volunteered to help assimilate Earth into the Tzun Confederacy in return for use of the Tzun's genetic engineering to give him a new regenerative cycle and cure the Cheetah virus. Shortly afterwards, he was shot in the back by Ace, causing him to regenerate. Following the regeneration, he was able to make his escape, summoning his TARDIS using a Stattenheim remote control built from Tzun technology. After leaving a booby-trap for the Doctor in a nuclear warhead, the Master fled, (PROSE: First Frontier) still desperate to ensure his own longevity, despite the promise of a wholly new regenerative cycle. (PROSE: Happy Endings)
A trap for the Doctor
The Master laid a trap for the Doctor in one of his homes using a device which would release the energy from a time fissure once the Doctor's TARDIS materialised, destroying it. The plan failed when Sarah Jane Smith, Mike Yates and K9 Mark III destroyed the device, causing the Master to flee. (PROSE: Housewarming)
Quest for invulnerability
The Master obtained the Loom of Rassilon's Mouse in order to make himself a sturdier and indestructible body. However, his plan failed when a Fortean Flicker caused Bernice Summerfield's wedding to occur in the same place, exposing his scheme to her guests, with the Doctor being amongst them. However, the Master managed to escape by hypnotising Kitai into posing as a decoy. (PROSE: Happy Endings)
As every attempt of prolonging his longevity eventually failed, the Master realised that the only way to stave off death was to place his life essence into another Time Lord's body. Recalling the knowledge he had obtained from within the Matrix during a previous incursion, the Master set out to obtain a Deathworm Morphant on which to experiment. (PROSE: The Novel of the Film) Upon procuring a source of Deathworm, the Master applied his knowledge of accelerated genetic engineering to reprogram and improve the morphant. While only one of the many he had worked upon had survived, that was enough for his scheme. (PROSE: The Eight Doctors)
Trial on Skaro
- Main article: The Master's trial (Doctor Who)
The Master arrived in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, (AUDIO: Mastermind) where he was captured by a Dalek scouting party (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) to be placed on trial (TV: Doctor Who) by the Dalek Prelature (AUDIO: Mastermind) for his attempts to destroy them and usurp their place as "the supreme creatures of the universe", (PROSE: The Novel of the Film) as well as for his failure in the plot behind the Human-Draconian War, (PROSE: The Runes of Fenric) as part of a Time Lord-Dalek treaty (PROSE: Lungbarrow) called the "Act of Master Restitution". (PROSE: Meet the Doctor) The Master was tried in the presence of the Dalek Emperor while encased in a painful column of light which prevented him from moving. (PROSE: The Novel of the Film) It was "said" that he stayed impassive as his long list of crimes were read out to him, (TV: Doctor Who) until the Dalek Litigator found him guilty and ordered his extermination, (AUDIO: Vengeance) not knowing it was all a part of his quest to find a new and better body. (AUDIO: Mastermind)
Before he was executed by the Daleks, the Master made a final request: for the Doctor to transport his remains back to Gallifrey. (TV: Doctor Who) According to one account, he made this request via telepathic contact with the Seventh Doctor, even as he was about to be discorporated, and the Daleks never knew of his demands, which the Doctor fulfilled covertly by sneaking into the Dalek bastion. (PROSE: The Novel of the Film) According to other accounts, it was as part of a Time Lord-Dalek treaty that the Doctor was able to safely journey to and from Skaro to retrieve the Master's remains. (PROSE: Lungbarrow)
Survival
The Doctor stored the Master's ashes in a casket and set his TARDIS on course for Gallifrey. However, en route, the Master's consciousness escaped from the casket and interfered with the TARDIS, causing a timing malfunction that resulted in an emergency landing in San Francisco during the final days of 1999. While the Doctor lay wounded after being caught in the crossfire of a gang war and was picked up by an ambulance, the Master exited the TARDIS via its keyhole, and, (TV: Doctor Who) deciding that the Doctor was too injured, and the nearby boy, Chang Lee, too young, (PROSE: The Novel of the Film) he hid inside a bag belonging to the ambulance driver, Bruce Gerhardt. After Bruce had gone home and to bed, the Master forced his way into Bruce's body through his mouth, killing him and taking over his body. (TV: Doctor Who) The Master's survival broke the peace treaty President Romana started, and was one of the causes for the Last Great Time War. (PROSE; A Brief History of Time Lords)
Psychological profile
In contrast to his previous incarnation, the Old Master was calmer, less emotional and flustered, with a proud bearing and an inscrutable demeanour, (PROSE: First Frontier) though he would resort to a panicked state upon confronting the unexpected. (PROSE: Happy Endings) Highly manipulative, the Master would maintain control of a situation, while making others around him think he was not, (PROSE: First Frontier) though would lose this advantage when he knew he was overpowered, such as when at Bernice Summerfield and Jason Kane's wedding. Unlike the Tremas Master, the Old Master was aware that his theatrical plotting could be his undoing, but found amusement in the irony rather than bitterness. (PROSE: Happy Endings)
He thought very highly of his hypnotic skills, finding it amusing when he made two guards believe he was Major Kreer. He looked down at humanity, treating them like children, and believed the concept of regeneration to be beyond them, (PROSE: First Frontier) and showed a disdain for explaining things he did not have interest in. (PROSE: Happy Endings) However, he showed some respect towards Ace, who had killed his previous incarnation, believing she would make a good enforcer and admiring her willpower. (PROSE: First Frontier) He also enjoyed fencing with Mike Yates and Sarah Jane Smith. (PROSE: Housewarming)
While he agreed with the Ice Lord Savaar that he lacked a degree of honour, the Master would only resort to harming others if he found an advantage in the act, opting to perform with "a considerable degree of leniency" when sabotaging Bernice and Jason's wedding until he was forced to take Bernice hostage at gunpoint during the ceremony. (PROSE: Happy Endings)
The Old Master was just as adept at winding the Doctor up as his predecessor was, claiming that the Seventh Doctor's pacifism was pure hypocrisy, (PROSE: First Frontier) and taking delight in his apparent inability to protect his friends from Bloom. (PROSE: Happy Endings) However, he did hold the Doctor in some regard, believing the Tzun incapable of overpowering him on their own, and insisting he was a threat to be eliminated, though he felt bittersweet about it, admitting to himself that the Doctor was an inspiring adversary, (PROSE: First Frontier) though reacted with horror when four variants of the Seventh Doctor confronted him at once. (PROSE: Happy Endings)
Nonetheless, the Master pointed out that the Doctor preferred to kill and destroy from a distance, such as with the Sea Devils. To prove his point, the Master handed the Doctor a blaster and baited him to shoot him at close range, which the Doctor refused to do. (PROSE: First Frontier)
Appearance
The Master had a high forehead, neat and glossy Van Dyke beard, an aristocratic nose, and a lean face. His voice came across as rich and cultured. (PROSE: First Frontier)
By the time of his trial, the Master's appearance had turned saturnine. (PROSE: The Novel of the Film) His eyes were reptilian in appearance and, as a result of the Deathworm Morphant, seemed to glow in speckles of gold and blue. (TV: Doctor Who)
Clothing
The Master wore a dark Italian-designed tailcoat with wide, silver-edged lapels and a high collar. Underneath, he wore a black silk shirt, a midnight-blue waistcoat, and a jade cravat with a silver bird-of-prey tiepin. (PROSE: Housewarming) When put on trial by the Daleks, the Master wore a high collared black tunic with crimson lining. (TV: Doctor Who)
Behind the scenes
- According to David A. McIntee, the regenerated Master's appearance was based on actor Basil Rathbone's portrayal of the Guy of Gisbourne in in The Adventures of Robin Hood[1]. After Gordon Tipple was cast as an ambiguous incarnation of the Master in the 1996 TV Movie, credited as "the Old Master", the film's official novelisation confirmed the Master on trial as the version introduced in First Frontier. This was, however, contradicted by The Eight Doctors, which presented an immediately post-Survival version of Anthony Ainley's Tremas Master as the Master executed by the Daleks.
- The Master's apparel in First Frontier and Housewarming were, according to McIntee, inspired by "the best opera-going clothes in [his] wardrobe at the time" of writing.[2] Presented with it in 2023, McIntee endorsed an unofficial concept piece by Paul Hanley depicting this Master as "look[ing] like what was in [his] head".[3]
- Gordon Tipple's role in the television movie was originally a bit larger, with him delivering the prologue voice-over. It was eventually decided to have Paul McGann do the introduction from the point-of-view of the Eighth Doctor.
Footnotes
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