Theory:Timeline - Decayed Master

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This page lists appearances of the Decayed Master played by Geoffrey Beevers and Peter Pratt in the order in which he experienced them. It relies on much speculation to fit semi-contradictory sources together, and should absolutely not be seen as representative of this wiki's general policy.

The last incarnation of the Master in his first regeneration cycle, this incarnation spent much of his life in a decaying state, before finding various ways to steal bodies from various sources, including the Source and Deathworm Morphant. Each body he steals appears to come with a new set of personality traits and so are often considered to be separate incarnations.

Timeline

Previous known page: "UNIT enemy" Master

Body decayed

According to this account, the "Decayed" Master is, in fact, the "UNIT enemy" Master, his body damaged beyond the point of regeneration after being shot with the TCE by Susan Foreman while under a psychic attack.
(NOTE)
According to a second account, the "Decayed" Master was the result of the Thirteenth Master attempting to regenerate beyond the twelve-regeneration limit. (PROSE: Meet Missy!, The Doctor vs the Master)
Having experienced a failed regeneration, (COMIC: Doorway to Hell) the Master is dying from Artron decay. He is stealing the life force of other living creatures in order to sustain himself.
According to a third account, the Thirteenth Master is attacked by the "Bald" Master on Tersurus, and left in a decaying state by an energy net. The Cult of the Heretic then switch the Masters' bodies, and the "Decayed" Master hires the Transhuman Sisters of the Unholy Protocol and the Dragonhunters to kill the "Bald" Master. After the Seventh Doctor switches the Masters back, the "Decayed" Master is put back on his path to The Deadly Assassin.
Set during The Two Masters, with the Master in the body of his future incarnation.
Having recently become a decayed husk, the Master allies with Goth to use the Eye of Harmony and the Sash of Rassilon to restore his body, but he is defeated by the Fourth Doctor.

Targeting Jago and Litefoot

(REFERENCE)
Fleeing from Gallifrey after his plot with Goth is foiled, the Master attempts to follow the Doctor's TARDIS through the transduction barrier, but this results in him being stuck in London during the 1890s. (AUDIO: Masterpiece)
The Master successfully hypnotises Inspector Quick.
The Master's plot to drain Jago and Litefoot's energies are thwarted by the Sixth Doctor, and he is forced to flee.

Surviving in the universe

Ending leads directly into The Oseidon Adventure.
The Master is captured by the Sild.
The Master has not yet met Nyssa, setting this before The Keeper of Traken.
Follows directly on from Legacy.
Follows on directly from Requiem for the Rocket Men.
Follows on directly from The Abominable Showmen.
The Master's plan to ally himself with the Daleks and the Cybermen is foiled by Romana II.
The Master spends several hundred years in stasis. He has set a trap for the Doctor and is surprised when River Song turns up instead. He meets River for the first time, setting this before The Lifeboat and the Deathboat.
After failing to become the Keeper of Traken due to the interference of the Fourth Doctor, Adric, and Nyssa, the Master regenerates himself by stealing the body of Tremas.

In the body of Tremas

Main article: Theory:Timeline - The Master (Tremas)

Restored by the Tzun

After escaping Cheetah World to 1957 America, the "Tremas" Master makes contact with the Tzun Confederacy and arranges a deal between them that allows him to use their technology to give him a new regeneration cycle. After he is shot by Ace, the Master is able to regenerate into a new body and escapes by leaving a booby-trap for the Seventh Doctor in a nuclear warhead.
The Master steals the Loom of Rassilon's Mouse to experiment with flesh looming as part of his attempt to create an indestructible clone body from the remains of Anthony Rupert Hemmings.
(NOTE)
The Master is eventually reduced to his decayed state once again. (AUDIO: Planet of Dust)

Reduced to an old body

The Master has been stripped of his Trakenite body by the Warp Core, and is reduced back to his decaying form. After the Seventh Doctor destroys the Warp Core, the Master is flung into time and space.
After living a peaceful life for ten years, the Master is offered a choice by Death.
The Master is recruited by Ace McShane to help stop the Doctor from taking control of the universe. However the Master betrays Ace and instead decides to join with the Doctor. Intended to lead into Doctor Who.

Trial on Skaro

According to one account, the "Tremas" Master traveled to Skaro in order to goad the Daleks into killing him, as part of his plan to steal the Doctor's body using a Deathworm Morphant.
(NOTE)
According to another account, a different incarnation of the Master was captured by the Daleks in the Valley of the Kings to be placed on trial on Skaro. (AUDIO: Mastermind)
The Master, in a healthy body, sends a psychic message to the Seventh Doctor before he is executed by the Dalek Prelature, asking him to retrieve his remains and return them to Gallifrey.

In Bruce's body

Main article: Theory:Timeline - The Master (Bruce)

Fight for the Glory

(FLASHBACK)
As his essence is left wandering the Time Vortex after passing through the Eye of Harmony, the Master is saved by Esterath to take part in the fight for the Glory, and is resurrected into the body of a deceased vagrant after Bruce's body decays beyond recovery. The Master's connection to the TARDIS brings him to Wormwood, where he witnesses the Doctor's fight against the Threshold. (COMIC: The Glorious Dead)
The Master observes the Doctor combat Donald Stark.
Forming an alliance with Sato Katsura, the Master turns Earth into a dystopia to anger the Doctor into fighting him for the Glory. After besting the Doctor, the Master learns that the real contest was between Sato and the Doctor's companion, Kroton. When Kroton wins, he removes the Master's influence from the TARDIS and places the Master somewhere that he cannot escape.
(CONJECTURE)
Wherever Kroton placed him, the Master would eventually be drawn back into the Eye of Harmony. (AUDIO: Planet of Dust)

Trapped in the Eye of Harmony

The Master speaks to an amnesiac Eighth Doctor through a screen in his TARDIS. The Master's face is described as "wise and whimsical, with hard eyes and a beard flecked with grey", with the authorial intent being for the Master to appear as he did in Scream of the Shalka. (DWM 338)
The Master once again speaks with an amnesiac Eighth Doctor, this time through a mirror in the TARDIS.
The Master is still trapped inside the Eye of Harmony, and claims to be an "echo" of his original self.

Escaping the Eye of Harmony

The Master escapes the Eye of Harmony by influencing the dreams of Edward Grainger. His Deathworm Morphant has lost its serpentine appearance, and is now an "unearthly green glow". After he is prevented from killing the infant Edward by the Doctor, Violet and the adult Edward, the Master escapes into the night.
Having possessed the body of Violet's fiancée, Richard, the Master visits the White Rabbit with Violet, who recounts the events of Forgotten, which took place the day before, to him. After she finishes the story, the Master reveals himself before he kills her.
Following on from Prologue, the Master survives by possessing various bodies until he is imprisoned in the UNIT Vault. Upon hypnotising UNIT officers Ruth Matheson and Charlie Sato, the Master retrieves his TARDIS and escapes from the Vault.

Reaching the end

Set after The Keeper of Traken.[1] The Master has his TARDIS and recalls stealing multiple bodies, setting this after Mastermind. The Master spends several centuries ruling the Gloxian Empire.
The "Decayed" Master recognises the "Bruce" incarnation as one of his past bodies, setting this after Mastermind, and claims to have spent "millennia" in his decayed body.
Dying and at the end of his life, the Master recalls his time trapped in the Eye of Harmony and how he was drawn back in after his escape in Bruce's body, until he found a way to escape permanently, setting this after Mastermind. He is killed by the Ravenous, leading directly into Day of the Master.
The "Deathworm" Master is resurrected by the "Bruce" Master, the "War" Master and Missy, posing as CIA agents, who use CIA technology to grant him a whole new regeneration cycle. He regenerates into a new body, implied to the "Bald" Master.

Next page: Fourteenth Master

Currently unplaced

These entries are placed here due to being part of ongoing storylines that have yet to offer sufficient enough evidence to be placed in a specific part of this Master's timeline, unless further evidence arises in the stories to come.

Awaiting placement

These entries are placed here until a suitable position in the timeline can be determined based on the available evidence.

Footnotes