Using the alias Harold Saxon, the Master passed himself off as a human, engineered his election as British Prime Minister in 2008 and then sought to use the Earth to create a new Gallifrey. He later used the Immortality Gate to create the Master Race and attempted to free Gallifrey from the time-lock.
Biography
Regeneration
Recently liberated from the human form of Professor Yana, The Master fatally wounded his assistant, Chantho, who in her final moments shot him. The wounded Master got into the Doctor's TARDIS. He decided that since the Tenth Doctor had a youthful new body, he should, too and so regenerated. He left the Doctor on the planet Malcassairo with Futurekind about to burst in the laboratory door. The Master now had the TARDIS and the Doctor's hand (which Jack Harkness had taken with him to Malcassairo) that contained the Doctor's DNA. (DW: Utopia) He went to Earth in the 2000s. (DW: The Sound of Drums)
Arriving on Earth
The Master arrived a few months after the events of The Christmas Invasion; when speaking to the world about the Toclafane in "The Sound of Drums", the Master spoke of the destruction of Big Ben. He had very much established himself on Earth by the time of the events of "Love & Monsters".
He set about fabricating Harold Saxon's past to gain political support. He made his first public appearance about eighteen months before the Doctor met his companion Martha Jones, shortly after the downfall of Harriet Jones. The Master unveiled the Archangel Network, which was hailed as a telecommunications breakthrough. By this point he had taken the identity of Harold Saxon, complete with a fabricated past. The Master also presumably observed the Doctor when he was arriving on Earth at various times during the next year until the Doctor arrived in Cardiff to refuel and make his way to the end of the universe.(DW: The Sound of Drums)
Life on Earth
Harold Saxon released his autobiography, Kiss Me, Kill Me, a year before his first meeting with the Doctor. While writing the book, Saxon met the Honourable Lucy Cole, who was working in publishing; they were married in 2007.
Political Career
By December 2007, he had become Minister of Defence of Great Britain. On Christmas Eve, he came to real prominence for the first time, ordering British Army tanks to destroy the Empress of the Racnoss's webstar. (DW: The Runaway Bride, The Sound of Drums)
In 2007, he campaigned for the general election as Prime Minister of Great Britain (DW: Love & Monsters) with the slogan "Vote Saxon". (TW: Captain Jack Harkness) He visited his old high school during the campaign, and as Harold Saxon did not exist, he used the Archangel Network to brainwash staff to gain political support. One teacher was resistant to the Network. The Master killed him with his laser screwdriver. (DWF: Speech Day)
"Saxon" asserted that extraterrestrial life did exist and Britain must do something about it. This made him popular in early 2008, after the Judoon had taken the Royal Hope Hospital to the Moon (DW: Smith and Jones)
With his election a sure thing, politicians from other parties flocked to his side. Harold Saxon was elected prime minister in May 2008, and visited the royal palace soon after. (DW: The Sound of Drums)
According to the 2012 doctor who annual , the Master was the shortest ever prime minister of Great Britain.
- British Prime Minister
- May 2008
- Preceded by: Harriet Jones
- Succeeded by: Aubrey Fairchild
Technological Innovations
The Master started the Archangel Network. 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 "Saxon", though 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 the constant drumbeat the Master always heard, that only they could hear.
He also designed the Valiant, UNIT's air carrier and a laser screwdriver which he reserved for his own use. (DW: The Sound of Drums) "Saxon" 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. (DW: The Lazarus Experiment) With the results from this and the Doctor's DNA, the Master could use the laser screwdriver to age the Tenth Doctor.
Other Activities
The Master contacted the Toclafane, the child-like, vicious cyborg remnants of the future humans who had never found Utopia. (DW: The Sound of Drums) He cannibalised and converted the Doctor's TARDIS into a paradox machine to change history. (DW: The Sound of Drums / Last of the Time Lords) At some point he also took a devoted human wife, Lucy. (DW: The Sound of Drums) After Martha had left with the Tenth Doctor, he had an agent meet with Martha's mother, Francine, who tapped into a conversation between Francine and Martha via the superphone, which could contact Martha through space and time. (DW: 42)
As Prime Minister
In 2008, he was elected Prime Minister. He gassed to death his cabinet in the recently rebuilt 10 Downing Street, telling the public they had gone into seclusion, and soon afterward announced first contact with the "friendly" Toclafane who could protect Earth against alien threats. He sent Torchwood 3 on a futile trip to the Himalayas and branded the Doctor, Jack and Martha as criminals.
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 Coleman Winters. He captured the Tenth Doctor and Jack Harkness, who had come to The Valiant earlier that day and had Francine Jones, Martha's sister Tish and her father Clive arrested and taken to the Valiant; Martha's brother Leo had received a warning from her and gotten away in time. (DW: The Sound of Drums)
During The Year That Never Was
The Master used his laser screwdriver to kill Jack and age the Doctor nine hundred years. Martha escaped. The Master ordered the Toclafane to kill one tenth of humanity and commence their invasion. One year later, in 2009, the Master had converted Earth into a slave camp which he ruled from The Valiant. Here he kept Martha's family, the Doctor and Jack imprisoned. The Master 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 a year infiltrating telepathically. The psychic energy restored the Doctor and gave him telekinetic powers.
Jack destroyed the Paradox Machine and reversed time one year; although this did not affect anyone aboard The Valiant. Lucy shot the Master. Defeated, he refused to regenerate, rather than receive the Doctor's mercy. He died in the Doctor's arms. (DW: Last of the Time Lords)
Aftermath
- It is not known if the general public, or indeed the UK government or UN, were ever made aware of Saxon's true identity.
As far as the general knew, Harold Saxon simply disappeared along with President Winters. (The Torchwood Archives)
Resurrection
The Master was resurrected when his wife Lucy Saxon was imprisoned at Broadfell Prison, London. One of the warders, Miss Trefusis, was the woman who retrieved the Master's ring. On Christmas Eve night, the prison governor brought Lucy to a chamber where most of the staff were members of the Disciples of Saxon, who had been working ever since his apparent death to bring about his resurrection.
With the help of the ring and a biometric imprint taken from Lucy, the Master reappeared in a swirl of energy, but Lucy and one other warder had prepared for this. To stop his resurrection, Lucy hurled a Potion of Death at the Master. His followers and Lucy were all killed in the resulting explosion
The Master Race
The Master survived the blast, but his life force was left in a state of constant depletion. His physiological deterioration was evidenced by his skeletal system occasionally flashing out from behind the flesh. He consumed huge quantities of food and drained the vitality of humans to stay alive. As a side effect of the failed resurrection, he could expend his life force for enhanced agility and send bolts of energy from his hands. His earlier refined, witty and charming persona was replaced by feral mood swings. He led the Doctor on a wild goose chase after banging the beat of the drums in his mind to lure the Doctor to him and escaped when Wilf interrupted the chase. Encountering the Master soon after, the Tenth Doctor discovered the drumming in his head was not a symptom of insanity, but real.
Billionaire Joshua Naismith kidnapped the Master, and enlisted his assistance to mend the malfunctioning Vinvocci medical machine, the Immortality Gate. The Master cooperated for his own purposes. He broke out of a straitjacket and flew into the gateway, which he had working a billion fold on the human template. The gateway sent out an energy pulse that transformed every human on Earth, except Wilfred and Donna into the Master Race - identical copies of the Master subservient to him.
The Last Act of the Time War
The High Council of Time Lords made contact with the Master using the rhythm of the drumbeats in his head - the same rhythm as the Time Lord's heartbeat - and sent him a White-Point Star, found only on Gallifrey, to boost the signal. Fitting the diamond to a nuclear bolt to boost the signal, the Master tore open the time lock on the war, bringing back the Time Lords.
As the Lord President Rassilon and his council arrived through the Immortality Gate, the Master announced he intended to transplant himself into the entire Time Lord race, just as he had done to the human race. Rassilon, using his gauntlet, reversed the effects of the Master's transplantation, and watched as Gallifrey returned to the universe on a collision course with Earth.
The President revealed his plans from the final days of the Time War, but the Doctor stepped in with Wilfred Mott's pistol. He could kill Rassilon or the Master, and sever the link. As the Master mocked him, calling him a coward and Rassilon taunted him that the last act of his life would be murder, the Doctor saw a familiar Time Lady among Rassilon's entourage. He turned to face the Master and told him to step out of the way. The Master jumped to the side as the Doctor shot the nuclear bolt holding the White-Point Star, destroying the link.
Rassilon prepared to kill the Doctor, but the Master told the Doctor to step out of the way. He unleashed his bio-electric blasts at the President, roaring that the Time Lords had made him the monster he had become, counting the beat of the rhythm that had resounded in his head and tormenting him all his life. Using the last of his life-force in a burst of white light The Master vanished whilst Gallifrey and the Time Lords were sent back to the eternal hell of the Time War to die there. (DW: The End of Time)
Personality
This incarnation of the Master was charming, charismatic, manipulative and sadistic. He had a childish demeanour and an eccentric sense of humour, traits he shared with the Tenth Doctor. He was extremely vain and self-centred; the Doctor noted that if he destroyed the Earth, he'd destroy himself, and that was something he would never do. His vanity was so vast that when the Doctor confronted him with the simple words "I forgive you," the Master collapsed. Just before his apparent death, the Master refused to regenerate because he did not want to spend the rest of his life trapped in the TARDIS with the Doctor.
After his resurrection was sabotaged by Lucy Saxon, his madness grew dramatically. His earlier urbane sophistication was replaced by a feral mania and blood lust. He was sometimes quite contemplative, reflecting on his childhood days, and wondering about the kind of person he would have been without the drumming in his head, musing that his childhood was one of duty, and how he was taken to the Untempered Schism in the dark. Nevertheless, he retained a touch of his old vanity, transforming everyone on the planet into identical copies of himself after taking control of the Immortality Gate and renaming them "The Master Race".
This incarnation also showed a different side to the Master, suggesting he wasn't completely evil, but scared and alone. He pleaded with the Doctor to hear the drumming in his head and was devastated when the Doctor said he couldn't. He also clearly respected the Doctor and remembered the friendship they had shared in their childhood. This might have been part of the reason why he chose to protect the Doctor from Rassilon, though he also did it because he possessed a vengeful nature. He attacked Rassilon mercilessly before the Time Lords and Gallifrey were returned to the Time Lock and sacrificed himself to save the Doctor.
Behind the scenes
- The first, very minor reference to Harold Saxon, occurs in Love & Monsters when the Abzorbaloff reads a paper which mentions a Saxon election victory on its cover. The second (and first direct) reference happened in a dialogue reference at the end of The Runaway Bride. Saxon also crossed over into the Torchwood spinoff with "Vote Saxon" posters visible in Captain Jack Harkness.
- 'Mister Saxon' is an anagram for 'Master No. Six'.
- The BBC created an official in-universe campaign website for the election as well. In 2007, a popular online meme among Doctor Who fans made popular the "Vote Saxon!" slogan.
- John Simm stated that after David Tennant (Tenth Doctor) left the series his association with the programme would end. However in a recent One Show interview he said he would love to return as the Master, and recent comments from Steven Moffat suggest he could return in a future series.http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s7/doctor-who/news/a314843/doctor-who-exec-john-simm-could-return.html