The Master

This article is about the renegade Time Lord known as "The Master." For other uses of the term "Master", see Master (disambiguation).

	Full list of aliases
	Gallifrey
	Full List of Appearances
	[[actor:: Roger Delgado Peter Pratt Geoffrey Beevers Anthony Ainley Eric Roberts Derek Jacobi John Simm | Roger Delgado Peter Pratt Geoffrey Beevers Anthony Ainley Eric Roberts Derek Jacobi John Simm ]]

I am the Master and you will obey me.The Master

The Master, once known as Koschei and by various temporary aliases and pseudonyms, was a renegade Time Lord, who the Doctor opposed many times. On at least one occasion, he threatened the existence of the universe itself. Borusa called him, "one of the most evil and corrupt beings the Time Lord race ever produced." (DW: The Five Doctors)

cheese is nice

Other information

Companions

I only need two things. Your submission and your obedience to my will!!The Master.

Unlike the Doctor, the Master is most often encountered working and traveling alone. On rare occasions, he has been seen with companions. Examples include Chang Lee, a young Human who the Master met in San Francisco (DW: Doctor Who: The TV Movie); Chantho, a female assistant and companion to the Master during his Professor Yana identity (although both of them were unaware of "Yana"'s true nature for most of that time) (DW: Utopia); and Lucy Saxon, his wife, who is described as having traveled with the Master in the TARDIS in the same fashion as the Doctor and his companions. (DW: The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords) The Rani may have also traveled with the Master for a time, when they got trapped together. DW: The Mark of the Rani)

Imitators

The Master has at least one (rather pathetic) imitator in the form of the Mentor. (DWM: Death to the Doctor!

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Behind the Scenes

Conception and development of the character

When conceiving the character, the production team had originally considered the idea of the Doctor having a female, rather than male, arch-nemesis. Later, they thought of the Master as the evil half of a single personality.

In the final Third Doctor, the Master would have redeemed himself and given his life to have saved the Doctor, after which the Doctor would have regenerated. The accidental death of Roger Delgado, who had played the original version of the Master made it so that this development never happened.

In The Deadly Assassin, writer (and then Script Editor) Robert Holmes deliberately chose to show the Master in a "transitional" form in case future production teams wanted to bring back the character.

Actors who have portrayed the Master

Apart from the incarnations below, other incarnations of the Master have appeared in novels and comics.

Doctor Who television appearances (1971-1989)

• Roger Delgado (as the first version of the character to appear on Doctor Who. He first appeared in the role in 1971's Terror of the Autons.
• Peter Pratt and Geoffrey Beevers (as his next incarnation (both actors played the same incarnation of the character). They appeared in The Deadly Assassin and The Keeper of Traken, respectively.
• Anthony Ainley as The Master in the body of Tremas from the last moments of The Keeper of Traken through the last original series story Survival, making him the longest running actor to portray the Master up to the present day. Note that the character had several extended absences from the series.

Television movie and mini-episode (1996 and 1999)

• Eric Roberts played the Master in the body of Bruce, in Doctor Who: The TV Movie.
• In the same production, Gordon Tipple appeared in a non-speaking role as the Master's previous incarnation.
• Jonathan Pryce played "The 17th Master" in a non-canonical spoof mini-episode, The Curse of Fatal Death.

New series (2007)

• Derek Jacobi played Professor Yana, actually a Human version of the Master, as well as the Master himself once he turned back into a Time Lord.
• John Simm played the Master's next incarnation. Both actors debuted in Utopia, though only Simm appeared in the follow-up episodes The Sound of Drums and Last of the Time Lords.
• William Hughes had a non-speaking cameo as a child version of the Master during a flashback sequence in The Sound of Drums.

Other media

Animation

• Derek Jacobi also played another incarnation of the Master in the web-based animation Scream of the Shalka.

Audio

• Geoffrey Beevers reprised the role in the audio plays Dust Breeding and Master.
• Mark Gatiss played an alternative version of the character in Sympathy for the Devil.

Video game

• Anthony Ainley reprised the role in videotaped scenes included in the game Destiny of the Doctors. These sequences appear as extras on the DVD version of Survival, his last television story.

Continuity

• The Doctor Who Role Playing Game from the American gaming company FASA identified the Monk and the War Chief as earlier incarnations of the Master, causing a few fans to mistakenly believe that Doctor Who itself had stated a connection, when it had not done so. Novel and comic continuity specifically indicates otherwise.
• The Big Finish Productions audio play Master and the television episode The Sound of Drums have the Doctor telling two different and apparently contradictory explanations for how the Master turned evil (Although it may be that both the schism and the deal with Death were responsible, with the deal with Death making the Master's madness more powerful).
• Although novels have been written establishing the "first" Master's activities between the final televised appearance of Roger Delgado Frontier in Space and the character's return in The Deadly Assassin in a degenerated form, the latter adventure makes no direct link. Therefore it can't be said for certain (based upon on-screen evidence) whether this incarnation is the same one played by Delgado.
• In the 2009 Easter special of doctor who Planet of the Dead (TV story), the psychic character states at the end that the doctor's song will soon end, (a possible reference to the fact that the current doctor David Tennant would soon be leaving and regenerating into Matt Smith), and that "it is returning" (a reference to maybe a former enemy returning to the show), and that "he will knock 4 times". This appears to be a sign that the master may return as the last appearance of the master was in the series finally of the new series 3, where he was constantly seen tapping a rhythm of drums that had only four beats.

Anagrams

During Anthony Ainley's tenure as the Master, pseudonyms made from anagrams of the actor's name were often used in the credits for the Master's disguises, such as Neil Toynay for the Portreeve in DW: Castrovalva. Tremas is itself an anagram of Master.

At the same time, in Series 3 (season 29), the Master takes on two new identities: Professor Yana in DW: Utopia, and Mr. Harold Saxon in DW: The Sound of Drums and DW: Last of the Time Lords (as it happens, "Mister Saxon" is a (possibly unintentional) anagram of "Master No. Six" as "Sam Tyler" (John Simm's Life on Mars character) is an anagram of "masterly").

• The next Doctor Who Special, The Waters of Mars, is an anagram of "Wars of The Master" and "The Master of Wars" and "The War of Masters". It has been heavily hinted that the Master is returning in the last episodes to feature David Tennant as The Tenth Doctor. This may be another hint at his return.

External Links

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