Saxon Master
To be added.
Biography
A day to come
To be added.
Young and strong
The newly-regenerated Master left the Doctor, Martha and Jack on the planet Malcassairo with the Futurekind about to burst in the laboratory door, taking the TARDIS and the Doctor's DNA template via the Doctor's hand, which Jack had taken with him to Malcassairo. (TV: Utopia) Because of the Doctor's last-minute intervention, the TARDIS would only take the Master to Earth in the 2000s, (TV: The Sound of Drums) with his first stop being to the Scoundrels Club to recover from the regeneration process. (PROSE: Dismemberment)
Life on Earth
The Master took on the alias "Harold Saxon" and set about fabricating "Saxon's" past to gain political support, making his first public appearance shortly after the downfall of Harriet Jones on Christmas Day 2006. "Harold Saxon" released his autobiography, Kiss Me, Kill Me, and, while writing the book, met the Honourable Lucy Cole, who was working in publishing; they were married in 2007. He also cannibalised and converted the Doctor's TARDIS into a paradox machine to change history, and took Lucy to see the universe. (TV: The Sound of Drums)
Travelling back to the end of the universe, the Master contacted the Toclafane, the childlike, vicious cyborg remnants of the humans who had never found Utopia. He made an agreement to allow the Toclafane to escape extinction and live anew in the past, with the paradox machine preventing them from changing their own history. (TV: The Sound of Drums, Last of the Time Lords)
Under the guise of "Harold Saxon", the Master entered the government as Minister for Communications, an office under which he designed the Archangel Network which was hailed as a telecommunications breakthrough. This telecommunications network, tied to mobile phones, carried a mind control signal which made humans trust him. The network affected the Doctor so he had no suspicions as to the Master's presence as "Harold Saxon", as he would have normally noticed the presence of another Time Lord. To those few humans conscious of it, the signal was a persistent drumbeat, the constant drumbeat the Master always heard, that only they could hear.
By 2007, "Saxon" had become Minister of Defence of Great Britain, and had been a driving force in designing the Valiant, UNIT's air carrier. (TV: The Sound of Drums) He went on to campaign for the general election as Prime Minister of Great Britain (TV: Love & Monsters) with the slogan "Vote Saxon". (TV: Captain Jack Harkness) On Christmas Eve, he gave orders for British Army tanks to destroy the Empress of the Racnoss's webstar, (TV: The Runaway Bride) an action which outgoing Prime Minister Harriet Jones publicly praised. (PROSE: Judge, Jury and Executioner)
The Master visited "Saxon's" old high school during the campaign, using the Archangel Network to brainwash the staff into having false memories of "Saxon" to gain political support. One teacher, James Curtis, was resistant to the Network, so the Master used his laser screwdriver to implant the appropriate memories into his mind. (PROSE: Speech Day)
"Saxon" asserted that extraterrestrial life did exist and Britain had to do something about it. This made him popular in early 2008, after the Judoon had taken the Royal Hope Hospital to the Moon. (TV: Smith and Jones) On the same day, he was asked to appear on Big Celebrity Dance Mania, but he declined. (PROSE: The Secret Lives of Monsters)
"Saxon" also funded the rejuvenation experiments of Richard Lazarus, presumably revealing at least in part the biological processes involved in a Time Lord's physical regeneration; its similarities were noted by the Doctor on observing the process. (TV: The Lazarus Experiment) With the results from this and the Doctor's DNA, the Master could use the laser screwdriver to age the Doctor. (TV: The Sound of Drums) After Martha had left with the Doctor, "Saxon" had a mysterious man meet with Martha's mother, Francine, (TV: The Lazarus Experiment) and then had an agent tap into a conversation between Francine and Martha through the superphone. (TV: 42)
Before the Doctor, Martha and Captain Jack arrived back from the end of the universe, the Master had sent Torchwood Three on a wild-goose chase to the Himalayas, (TV: The Sound of Drums) and, along with all other incarnations of the Master, was kidnapped by the Sild. (PROSE: Harvest of Time)
Prime Minister Saxon
With his election a sure thing, politicians from other parties flocked to his side. Harold Saxon was elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in May 2008, and visited Buckingham Palace soon after to give a victory speech.
He gathered his Cabinet for a meeting in the re-built 10 Downing Street and accused them of being traitors for abandoning their political parties to jump on his political ticket. He rigged the desk phone speakers on the Cabinet Room table to release a lethal gas that killed the Cabinet ministers while using a gas mask to protect himself and mock his victims. He later unleashed the Toclafane on Sunday Mirror reporter Vivien Rook, who threatened to expose his fabricated past to the public.
"Saxon" told the public that the Cabinet had gone into seclusion, and soon afterwards announced first contact with the "friendly" Toclafane who could protect Earth against alien threats. The Master then had Francine, Tish and Clive Jones arrested and taken to the Valiant; Leo Jones, however, had received a warning from Martha and gotten away in time. During a telephone conversation with the Doctor, the Master had the Doctor, Martha and Jack framed as terrorists responsible for the Cabinet's murder and forced them into hiding. (TV: The Sound of Drums)
The Year That Never Was
Information from The Unwanted Gift of Prophecy needs to be added
The Master moved to the Valiant, which the governments of Earth considered neutral territory and therefore fitting for formal first contact with alien life. The Master had the Toclafane murder the American President Arthur Winters and captured the Doctor, Martha and Jack, who had come to the Valiant earlier that day — the Master had seen past the perception filter and knew he and the others were there all along. Using the results from Professor Lazarus's experiment, along with the DNA in the Doctor's hand, the Master used his laser screwdriver to age the Doctor into an old man, and then ordered the Toclafane to kill one tenth of humanity and commence their invasion as Martha escaped. (TV: The Sound of Drums)
While ruling the world for a year, the Master discovered that the Drast had secretly invaded before he arrived. Furious, he ordered the Toclafane to burn Japan, where the Drast were situated. (PROSE: The Story of Martha) By 2009, the Master had converted Earth into a slave camp which he ruled from the Valiant. The Master aged the Doctor even further and planned to expand his New Time Lord Empire into space. He built an army of warships to take his war across the universe.
Martha used the legend of the Doctor, which she had spread, and the thoughts of Earth thinking "Doctor" at the same time. Their psychic energy was channelled through the Archangel Network, which the Doctor had spent the year infiltrating telepathically. The psychic energy restored the Doctor and gave him telekinetic powers, with which he removed the Master's laser screwdriver from his hand. After cowering from the Doctor's forgiveness, the Master used Jack's vortex manipulator to teleport him and the Doctor to Earth, where he threatened to use the black hole converter to detonate the rockets, but was foiled by the Doctor's knowledge that the Master could not kill himself. The two then teleported back to the Valiant just as Jack destroyed the paradox machine.
Time reversed to the moment of the paradox machine's activation, just after the US President was killed and just before the Toclafane arrived. Although this did not affect anyone aboard the Valiant due to being at "the eye of the storm," nobody else would know of the Master's reign of terror in "the year that never was". The Master then tried to escape but ended up running straight into Jack, who handcuffed him. The Doctor announced that, since the Master was a Time Lord, he was the Doctor's responsibility and would be imprisoned on board the TARDIS. However, the Master was shot by Lucy and refused to regenerate, dying in the Doctor's arms. The Doctor cremated the Master's body on a pyre, (TV: Last of the Time Lords) but, long after he had left, Miss Trefusis, one of the warders of Broadfell Prison, (TV: The End of Time) retrieved the Master's ring from his funeral pyre. (TV: Last of the Time Lords)
As far as the general public were aware, Harold Saxon "went mad" and disappeared, along with President Winters. (TV: The End of Time) Among all ex-Prime Ministers, Saxon was on file by UNIT, who noted him as one of the Master's incarnations. (TV: Death in Heaven) By the year 2119, Saxon was well-remembered enough that Alice O'Donnell referred to 1980 as "pre-Harold Saxon". (TV: Before the Flood)
Rassilon's Final Solution
On Christmas Eve 2009, the Disciples of Saxon, led by the governor of Broadfell Prison, resurrected the Master using his ring and a biometric imprint taken from Lucy. However, Lucy had been prepared for this and hurled a Potion of Death at him, causing an explosion that killed herself, her accomplice and the disciples whilst the Master's life force was left in a state of constant depletion. In a state fluctuating between fleshy and skeletal, he was forced to consume huge quantities of food and drain the vitality of humans to survive, also gaining enhanced agility and the power to send bolts of energy from his hands.
When the Doctor found the Master, the pair discovered that the drumming in the Master's head was real and not just a symptom of insanity. The Doctor also told him of the prophecy told to him by the Ood, but the Master quickly dismissed it, assuming that it was referring to him. Billionaire Joshua Naismith then captured the Master and enlisted his assistance to mend the malfunctioning Immortality Gate. The Master co-operated for his own purposes and used the Gate to transform every human on Earth, except Wilf and Donna Noble, into the Master Race — identical copies of the Master subservient to him.
After the Doctor and Wilf were rescued by two Vinvocci, the Master used the combined mental powers of the Master Race and a White-Point Star that had fallen on Earth to trace the origin of the drumbeat in his head. Receiving contact from the Time Lord High Council on the last day of the Time War, the Master tore open the time lock on the war, bringing back the Time Lords into whom he intended to transplant himself. However, Rassilon used his gauntlet to restore the human race and prepared to execute him before the Doctor got in the way with a pistol, eventually shooting the White-Point Star. As the Time Lords returned to the Time War, the Master attacked him, angered by the revelation that the Time Lords had caused the drumbeat, and disappeared with them. (TV: The End of Time)
While the Moment foresaw the battle as ending with the Master and Rassilon both regenerating, (PROSE: Pandoric's Box) the Master was able to survive his encounter with Rassilon, though Rassilon still regenerated after the Master choked him with several White-Point Stars. (PROSE: Lords and Masters) After his "condition" was cured by the Time Lords, (TV: The Doctor Falls) the Master escaped Gomer's Asylum, blowing up the War Room in the process, (PROSE: Lords and Masters) and left Gallifrey in his TARDIS, seeing his departure as "a mutual kicking [him] out". (TV: The Doctor Falls)
After leaving Gallifrey
Still possessing blond hair and stubble, (COMIC: The Abominable Showmen) the Master decided to take control of the production of the drug sold by a dealer called "the Breeder". On the planet where the drug was produced, he came across a young woman, Tala, who gave him a transmitter so he could see the nearby village. The next evening, he revealed to her how the Elders of her tribe made a deal with a mysterious "Breeder" to enhance the drug by having the plants feed directly on some of the strongest members of the tribe. The Master then proceeded to kill the Elders and took control of the production, keeping Tala as his partner. (PROSE: The Night Harvest)
The "Saxon" Master was greeted by a female incarnation of himself known as "Missy," who had developed a plan to form a band to hypnotise viewers of Battle of the Bands Beyond the Stars. His decaying thirteenth incarnation, the incarnation possessing the body of Tremas and the incarnation possessing the body of "Bruce" all joined in the plan, and the team spent "decades" practising. (COMIC: The Five Masters) Much to his appreciation, he was allowed to play the drums. After unveiling their presence to the Twelfth Doctor and Clara Oswald, (COMIC: The Abominable Showmen) the Masters prepared for their performance. However, the "Tremas" Master began to fight with Missy over the control of her device, believing that he alone could hold the universe in his grasp. The other Masters soon joined in the fight for power as well, while the "Saxon" Master joined seemingly for the fun of it. The five were quickly disqualified, seemingly destroying them. (COMIC: The Five Masters)
The Mondasian colony ship
Eventually, the Master landed on a Mondasian colony ship which was experiencing time dilation due to pulling itself away from a black hole, and took over the city on Floor 1056, where he "lived like a king until [the people] rebelled against [his] cruelty". Attempting to escape, but being "too close to the event horizon", the Master burned out his TARDIS's dematerialisation circuit, stranding him on the colony ship. (TV: The Doctor Falls) Disguising himself as "Razor", the Master oversaw the "genesis of the Cybermen" via Operation Exodus.
While working for a hospital hosting the Conversion Theatre, the Master found Bill Potts, who had been given a cybernetic chestpiece after being shot on Floor 0000. (TV: World Enough and Time) The two of them spent ten years on the lower decks, (TV: The Doctor Falls) where the Master learned that the Twelfth Doctor was at the front of the ship. Studying the woman travelling with the Doctor, Missy, the Master eventually deduced that she was a future incarnation of himself trying to turn good. Becoming "concerned about [his] future", the Master lured Bill into surgery for full cyber-conversion, knowing that the Doctor would never forgive him for it. Watching as the Doctor, Nardole, and Missy arrived, the Master revealed his identity to Missy, and the two of them gloated to the Doctor about the fate of his companion. (TV: World Enough and Time)
Restraining the Doctor before taking him to the hospital roof, the Master flirted and danced with Missy until the Cybermen turned on them due to the Doctor expanding the Cybermen's definition of humanity to register lifeforms with two hearts as human. Just as Nardole arrived with a stolen shuttlecraft, the Doctor was attacked by one of the Cybermen. The Master and Missy attempted to convince Nardole to leave without him, but their shuttle was stopped by the cyber-converted Bill, who still retained her humanity. Crashing through 549 floors of the colony ship, the shuttlecraft gave out at one of the solar farms. (TV: The Doctor Falls)
That night, while the Doctor recovered from their escape, the Master, accompanied by Missy, ventured to Floor 0508 to revert the Doctor's edits to the Cybermen back on Floor 1056 and regain control of the Cybermen, though they were followed by Alit and a patient that Missy named "Topknot". However, after an encounter with a patrol of CyberNeomorphs, the Master abandoned his plans in favour of being rescued by Missy and Alit before destroying the Cyberman patrol, eager to return to Floor 0507 before any other Cybermen arrived. (PROSE: Alit in Underland)
After two weeks of searching, the Master and Missy found disguised lifts, but Missy accidentally summoned the Cybermen in her attempt to escape. Unable to return to the Doctor's TARDIS due to how quickly time was moving on the floor of the Cybermen, the Doctor insisted that they had to prepare for a confrontation.
As the Doctor prepared to fight, the Master explained to Missy how he had blown the dematerialisation circuit in his TARDIS, which was surrounded by Cybermen on the bottom floor. Missy, recalling an instance where a very scary woman had pushed him up against a wall and insisted that he always keep a spare dematerialisation circuit, pushed the Master against the wall and insisted that he always keep a spare dematerialisation circuit, revealing the spare dematerialisation circuit she kept on her person. Before departing, however, the pair asked what the Doctor's plan was, knowing that he wouldn't be able to save everyone on the ship. As the Doctor explained that he wanted to save these people simply because it was the right thing to do and tried to implore the Master to stand with him in the battle, the Master made his refusal of the offer known, and he left with Missy. (TV: The Doctor Falls)
Death
As they prepared to depart, Missy offered to hug the Master and, after stating her enjoyment for being him, she stabbed the Master in the back, mortally wounding him in order to force his regeneration into her. However, Missy made the wound precise so that the Master would have time to reach his TARDIS before the regeneration occurred. As he was helped into the lift, the Master asked Missy to explain herself, and she told him she planned to stand with the Doctor, believing they had been leading towards it their entire lives. Furious, the Master declared that he would never stand with the Doctor, and shot Missy in the back with his laser screwdriver at full blast, mortally wounding his future incarnation in a way he claimed had put her past the point of regeneration. Laughing, the Master declared that their perfect ending was always going to be "shoot[ing] [them]selves in the back." Still laughing and in pain, the Master returned to Floor 1056 in the lift, leaving Missy to allegedly die alone. (TV: The Doctor Falls) In an aborted timeline, the Master attempted to avoid his regeneration into Missy by healing himself, first with the energies of Kiameth, releasing a sentient entropy wave on the universe in the process, and then by feeding on his own past incarnations who he time-scooped to the ruins of Kiameth, coming into conflict with Missy. These events were undone when the "War" Master created a paradox by poisoning all their past selves including himself and letting the wave consume Missy, having deduced the wave was actually the Master's own future form. (AUDIO: Masterful)
Psychological profile
In contrast to his previous incarnation, this incarnation of the 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. (PROSE: Happy Endings)
Unlike his immediate predecessor, this incarnation of the 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 "Tzun" 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 this 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; as if lit by some kind of fire behind them. (TV: Doctor Who, PROSE: The Novel of the Film)
Clothing
He wore a dark Italian-designed suit, a silk shirt, and a 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 (DWM 222).
- 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.
- Tipple appeared on-screen for only a few moments and retained a billing on the closing credits despite no longer having any lines, as well as his face being obscured in the finished film — leaving it unclear what his version of the Master is meant to look like without consulting promotional stills for the film.
