- This article is about the renegade Time Lord known as "The Master." For other uses of the term "Master" in the Doctor Universe, see Master (disambiguation).':'
The Master, also sometimes known as Koschei, is a regenegade Time Lord, who the Doctor several times opposed. On at least one occasion, he threatened the existence of the universe itself.
Biography
Early life
The Master as "one of the most evil and corrupt beings the Time Lord race has ever produced (DW: The Five Doctors).
In his days before this pronouncement, the Master formed part of the Doctor's social circle. He belonged to a group of young Time Lords at the Academy on Gallifrey who called themselves the Deca. The Master's other later rival, the Rani, also belonged to this clique (MA: Divided Loyalties).
After the Doctor fled Gallifrey, Koschei was recruited to pursue and apprehend him. His unstable obsession with order however, prompted the Time Lords to plant the Time Lady Ailla as a spy to monitor Koschei's actions, posing as a Human that Koschei would tke on as his companion on a stopover in the 28th century. Koschei finally caught up with the the Doctor at the Darkheart colony in the early years of the Federation. However, the enormous temptation instilled by the Darkheart device proved too much for Koschei, and the realization that Ailla was a spy finally killed all last traces of good in him. Trapped in a black hole by the Doctor, Koschei, the Master, vowed that he would seek revenge revenge (MA: The Dark Path).
Vendetta against the Doctor
The Master appeared at a circus grounds on Earth in the 20th century, his TARDIS materializing in the form of a circus trailer or horse box. He promptly hypnotized the circus troupe to obey his orders, as part of his plan to assist the Nestenes in their latest bid to conquer Earth (DW:Terror of the Autons).
He returned again, using the Keller Machine (DW:The Claws of Axos), left Earth for an alien world in the future to steal a doomsday machine (DW: Colony in Space), returned to Earth with Axos, (DW: The Claws of Axos) and finally summoned the Dæmon Azal to no avail. At the conclusion of this event, UNIT captured him (DW: The Dæmons) and following a trial he found himself imprisoned on an island but escaped (DW: The Sea Devil").
With the Doctor gone temporarily, the Master collaborated with UNIT in preventing an invasion by a fascist parallel England. (PDA: Face of the Enemy)
Sometime during his battles with the Third Doctor and UNIT, the Master attempted to alter the events surrounding the assassination of American president John F. Kennedy, initiating events which would eliminate the existence of UNIT and possibly also the Third Doctor, leaving Earth vulnerable to conquest by the many alien races which threatened it during the later 20th century. ("Who Killed Kennedy")
The Master traveled back to early Atlantis, confronting the Doctor there, brought forth Kronos, king of the Chronovores, escaped the destruction that followed om Kronos' wake (DW: The Time Monster) and forged a short-lived alliance with the Daleks. (DW: Frontier in Space).
Degeneration
Susan Foreman triggered off an explosion when the Master attempted to kidnap her. The Master exhausted his regenerative cycle recovering from the injuries sustained by the explosion on te planet Tersurus. (EDA: Legacy of the Daleks).
Chancellor Goth found the Master, in a wasted condition on Tersurus. The Master's had by this time reached the end of his regeneration cycle and had turned into a living, rotting corpse. The Master lured the Doctor to Gallifrey in order to have him framed for the assasination of the Lord President. The Master nearly succeeded in acquiring the Eye of Harmony and using its energy reserves to renew himself. (DW: The Deadly Assasin).
- The motive of acquiring a new cycle of regenartions would occur again and again throughout the Master's later battles with the Doctor.
Usurpation
While on Traken and still in his degenerated form, the Master took over the body of Tremas, Nyssa's father. In this new form, he continued his efforts to conquer the Universe; but he was also focused on acquiring a new cycle of regenerations, rather than finding ways to take over new bodies. (DW: 'The Keeper of Traken)
Cheetah Madness - New Regenerative Cycle
Following his slight madness induced by the Cheetah power and his fight with the Doctor on the disintegrating Cheetah planet, the Master was able to teleport to 1953 Earth where he constructued himself an identity as Major Kreer. (NA: First Frontier]]) In this time zone he made a deal with the Tzun to restore his corrupted Time Lord DNA (corrupted by the Traken influence that merging with Tremas brought). This was a success, and he was able to regenerate into a new body. (NA: First Frontier]])
Resurrection
Eventually, he was tried and executed and physically destroyed by the Daleks on Skaro but he was able to take over the body of Bruce, an ambulance driver on Earth, in spite of having been reduced to a fluid-like essence.
At the end of his battle with the recently regenerated Doctor, the Master fell into the Eye of Harmony, and was presumably destroyed. The Doctor claimed that he had been eaten by the TARDIS. (DW: Doctor Who: The TV Movie)
Other versions of the Master
- Following graduation from the Time Lord Academy, the Master, using the name Koschei, pursued a career as Magistrate for the High Council. In this capacity, his devotion to justice and discipline in time devolved into an obsession with order which marked the beginning of his descent into darkness (PDA: The Infinity Doctors)
- We do not know if this event occured before the Master had left Gallifrey, in an alternative timeline or after he had reformed and returned to Gallifrey.
- While helping UNIT stop an invasion by the parallel Earth, the Master met that alternate reality's version of himself, still using the name Koschei, imprisoned and vivisected by order of that reality's version of the Doctor. The Master killed his other self, claiming this was an act of mercy. (PDA: Face of the Enemy)
Behind the Scenes
- When conceiving the character, the production team had originally considered the idea of the Doctor having a female, rather than male, arch-nemesis.
- Although they played antagonists onscreen, in real life Roger Delgado, who originated the role of the Master, and Jon Pertwee, the Third Doctor, were actually close friends. In interviews and convention Q&A sessions, Pertwee often cited the death of Delgado as one of the chief contributing factors in his decision to leave the role.
- Originally the Master would have died saving the Third Doctor's life in the last story for them both. The Doctor would have then regenerated. Rumors suggest that the story would have revealed the Master as the evil side of the Doctor's personality, which would explain why the Master never sought to actually kill the Doctor. A persistent rumor, not verified by the production team of that era, has said that story would have revealed the Doctor and the Master as brothers.
- The FASA Doctor Who Roleplaying Game identified the Monk and the War Chief as earlier incarnations of the Master, causing some fans to mis-identify this information as "official" or stated in the television series. Subsequent novels have completely disproved this theory.
- During Anthony Ainley's tenure as the Master, 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 "Castrovalva." Tremas is itself an anagram of Master.
