Having survived his execution on Skaro by using a Deathworm Morphant, the renegade Time Lord known as the Master forced the Doctor's TARDIS to land in 1999 San Francisco, where, after the Seventh Doctor was critically injured, the Master possessed the body of paramedic Bruce Gerhardt.
Though he was ultimately sucked into the Eye of Harmony in his battle with the newly-regenerated Eighth Doctor, the Master persisted in this body, escaping into the Time Vortex where he encountered River Song and discovered Kolstan.
After a briefly successful escape attempt to 23rd century Earth through manipulating Lila Kreeg, this body ultimately succumbed to the Vortex and was broken down into atoms, leaving the Master only an essence.
Biography
A day to come
During the Master's trial, the Dalek Litigator judged the Master guilty, ordering him to be exterminated as his punishment. (AUDIO: Vengeance) Before he was executed by the Daleks on Skaro, he made a final request: for the Seventh Doctor to transport his remains back to Gallifrey. (TV: Doctor Who [+]Loading...["Doctor Who (TV story)"]) According to one account, he made this request via telepathic contact with the Seventh Doctor, even as he was about to be discorporated, and the Daleks never knew of his demands, which the Doctor fulfilled covertly by sneaking into the Dalek bastion. (PROSE: The Novel of the Film) According to other accounts, it was as part of a Time Lord-Dalek treaty (PROSE: Lungbarrow) called the "Act of Master Restitution" (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords, Meet the Doctor) that the Doctor was able to safely journey to and from Skaro to retrieve the Master's remains. (TV: Doctor Who [+]Loading...["Doctor Who (TV story)"])
Stealing Bruce's body
- Main article: Morphant Master's possession of Bruce Gerhardt
Unbeknownst to the Doctor, the Master's essence survived his physical death in a fluid-like form resembling a snake, described in some sources as bluish and translucent, (TV: Doctor Who [+]Loading...["Doctor Who (TV story)"]) and in others as "giant" and "green". (PROSE: Meet Missy!) Although the Eighth Doctor mentioned that he could do the same as the Master, but only when he died, (TV: Doctor Who [+]Loading...["Doctor Who (TV story)"]) other accounts stated that this ability to survive as a Deathworm Morphant was not inherent in Time Lords, but the product of the Master having purposefully ingested a Morphant in advance, already intending to then have his body destroyed by the Daleks so he could use the Morphant's form to find a new and better one. (PROSE: The Eight Doctors, AUDIO: Mastermind) The Master's survival broke the peace treaty President Romana started under the Act of Master Restitution and was one of the causes for the Last Great Time War. (PROSE; A Brief History of Time Lords)
The Doctor stored the Master's ashes in a casket and set his TARDIS on course for Gallifrey. However, en route, the Master's consciousness escaped from the casket and interfered with the TARDIS, causing a timing malfunction that resulted in an emergency landing in San Francisco during the final days of 1999. While the Doctor lay wounded after being caught in the crossfire of a gang war and was picked up by an ambulance, the Master exited the TARDIS via its keyhole and, (TV: Doctor Who [+]Loading...["Doctor Who (TV story)"]) deciding that the Doctor was too injured, and the nearby boy, Chang Lee, too young, (PROSE: The Novel of the Film) he hid inside a bag belonging to the ambulance driver, Bruce. (TV: Doctor Who [+]Loading...["Doctor Who (TV story)"])
After Bruce had gone to home and bed, the Master forced his way into Bruce's body through his mouth, killing him and taking over his body. The next morning, the Master awoke, now inhabiting Bruce's body, but realised that the American's body had started decaying and would not last long and launched his scheme to steal the Doctor's remaining regenerations, with his first act being the murder of Bruce's wife. (TV: Doctor Who [+]Loading...["Doctor Who (TV story)"]) He then used Bruce's memories to track the Doctor to Walker General Hospital, (PROSE: The Novel of the Film) beginning what he dubbed the "Regeneration Operation". (PROSE: The Secret Diary of the Master)
Battling the Eighth Doctor
- Main article: Regeneration Operation
Learning from Bruce's colleagues that the Doctor had died on the operating table and that his body had apparently been stolen, the Master was also informed by Nurse Curtis that the young gang member who had been present when the Doctor was shot, Chang Lee, had also stolen the Doctor's possessions, including the TARDIS key. (TV: Doctor Who [+]Loading...["Doctor Who (TV story)"]) Heading to the TARDIS, the Master found Lee already inside, (PROSE: The Novel of the Film) and regaled him with stories of the Doctor's supposed villainy, claiming that the Doctor had stolen his lives and home, and was several notorious villains in history including Genghis Khan. With Lee's help, the Master was able to open the Eye of Harmony, discovered that the Doctor had regenerated into a new body, and that the Doctor was apparently half-human. (TV: Doctor Who [+]Loading...["Doctor Who (TV story)"])
Stealing Bruce's ambulance by murdering his paramedic partner, the Master and Lee answered Dr. Grace Holloway's request for an ambulance to collect the Doctor, (PROSE: The Novel of the Film) and agreed to take them to Professor Wagg's atomic clock at the Institute for Technological Advancement and Research and repair the timing malfunction the Master caused with the clock's beryllium chip, when he was really planning to bring the Doctor back to the TARDIS. Realising the Master's true identity, the Doctor and Grace escaped, but before they could do so, the Master secretly possessed Grace's mind. When the Doctor got back to the TARDIS to fix the timing malfunction, the Master had Grace knock the Doctor out and put him in restraints.
Having donned more traditional Gallifreyan robes, the Master boasted of his plans to the restrained Doctor, accidentally letting it slip that he had lost his lives trying to destroy the Doctor, exposing his earlier lies to Lee. After killing Lee for refusing to follow his orders, the Master forcibly opened the Eye using Grace's retina so that he could steal the Doctor's regenerations. Although the Master was able to initiate the transfer process that would give him access to the Doctor's remaining regenerations, Grace was able to prevent this by rerouting the TARDIS' power and sending the ship into a temporal orbit. Grace released the Doctor from his restraints, but the Master threw Grace off of a balcony inside the Cloister Room, killing her. With the Master's body dying as the Doctor's regenerations were returned to him, the two Time Lords fought near the Eye of Harmony, culminating in the Master falling into it when he leapt at the Doctor and misjudged the angle. (TV: Doctor Who [+]Loading...["Doctor Who (TV story)"])
According to one account, when the Master stole a fraction of the Doctor's regeneration energy, he transcended Bruce's body and got stuck in an incomplete regenerative state as a Watcher. Grace Holloway perceived him as a brilliant white figure with a lumpy unformed face and a snarl which spoke with Bruce's voice. As in other accounts, this Watcher Master physically fought the Doctor and was trapped in the Eye of Harmony. (PROSE: The Novel of the Film)
- Main article: Resurrection of the Master
There were many rumours on Gallifrey concerning what happened to the Master after he was sucked into the Eye of Harmony in the Doctor's TARDIS. Some rumours stated that he was saved from inside the Time Vortex by the mythical Esterath; others said that he remained trapped in the TARDIS with his mind transferred into an android body to become the Doctor's "companion or pet"; still others claimed that this was the death that he would later be resurrected from by the Time Lords to fight in the Last Great Time War. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords) In one account from the Time War, the Master's resurrection by the Time Lords damaged the Doctor's TARDIS's control console, with the lingering trauma of the Master's extraction from the TARDIS causing it to adopt a new appearance shortly after the Doctor regenerated at the conclusion of the Time War. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Time War)
Initial escape attempts
As the Eye of Harmony tried to break him down into pure energy, the Master managed to ride the energy into a spare room, which the Doctor's TARDIS then ejected into the Time Vortex to protect the Doctor. The Master, having reconstituted his stolen body, would remain stranded in the Vortex for hundreds of years, rooting through the Doctor's possessions in search of something to help him escape. (AUDIO: The Lifeboat and the Deathboat) Nevertheless, the power of the Eye had re-energised the decaying body he had stolen from Bruce, enabling him to continue to use it. (AUDIO: Day of the Master)
The Master managed to capture a child of the Vormatoda. Inspired by a VHS he found in the TARDIS' spare room, the Master brainwashed and disguised it as his daughter "Alison". In the mean time the Vormatoda began attacking passing timeships in search of its child, leaving components which the Master could salvage. He eventually built a form of ship around the jettisoned TARDIS room but was still stuck in the Vortex. After her vortex manipulator stalled mid-transit, he rescued River Song via the tractor beam he'd acquired. With him posing as "Daniel", she began to help him retrieving bits of wreckage from victims of the Vormatoda, including a piece of a prison ship that had been transporting psychopath Kaliopi Mileska. During Mileska's rampage, his true identity was revealed and River discovered the truth about Alison. She managed to break Alison's brainwashing, allowing her to return to her natural form and reunite with her parent. With the Vormatoda now attacking his structure, the Master managed to escape the Vortex with Kaliopi in a stasis pod from the prison ship. (AUDIO: The Lifeboat and the Deathboat)
Still in Bruce's body, (COMIC: The Abominable Showmen) the 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 The Battle of the Bands Beyond the Stars. His decaying thirteenth incarnation, an incarnation possessing the body of Tremas and an incarnation going by the name "Saxon" all joined in the plan, and the team spent "decades" practising. (COMIC: The Five Masters) 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 Decayed Master joined in the struggle, followed rapidly by the "Deathworm" Master, and the group soon became involved in a full on brawl. The five were quickly disqualified, seemingly destroying them. (COMIC: The Five Masters)
The Master eventually found himself on Kolstan, where he met Artron, and posed as an assistant sent by the Time Lords. When the Eighth Doctor arrived in a future Master's TARDIS, the Master inflicted a fatal wound on the Doctor and used this to force Artron to operate a machine that would transfer the energy of the native Kolstani into him. However, Artron was able to adjust the machine so that he would absorb the power of the Kolstani instead, although this unintentionally turned them into the Ravenous. When Artron used the power of the Kolstani to disappear with the Doctor, the Master used his future TARDIS to escape to the Time Lord station that all his incarnations used as a base.
Meeting with the the "War" Master and Missy, the Master worked with them to stop the Ravenous's alliance with the Eleven. As a result of being the only one of his present selves occupying a non-Time Lord body, the Master could not be eaten by the Ravenous. Due to this, the Master served as the group's negotiator. The Master, having aided the "War" Master and Missy in granting his future self a new regenerative cycle, had his mind wiped by his successors and was thrown back into the Time Vortex in order to preserve their timeline. (AUDIO: Day of the Master)
Working with Lila Kreeg
Having been trapped in the Vortex for what felt like "an eternity", the Master, now noticeably older, managed to make psychic contact with Lila Kreeg on several occasions. Though at first he did little beyond the extension of teasing holiday greetings and wishing for his own freedom, (WC: Listen to the voice of your Master!, The Master wants to be your Santa Claus, Will you be the Master's valentine...?) he eventually began tempting Lila to aid in his escape.
Continuing to visit Lila in her dreams, the Master promised Lila power in return for her assistance. His efforts paid off and she freed him, though he had to kill her colleague Eddi Bhole in the process. He and Lila made an agreement whilst she had him trapped in a containment field, deciding to takeover Drake Interplanetary. The Master killed Magnus Drake, stole his identity and took over his company, appointing Lila as the lead scientist. (AUDIO: Faustian) The Master turned Drake Interplanetary into the most powerful company on Earth, (AUDIO: Prey) and built up an arsenal of weapons at a secret facility. He also confiscated the technology Lila had used to free him. (AUDIO: Vengeance)
While posing as Drake, he was hunted by Vienna Salvatori, who shot down the Master's airship with him and Lila inside during an assassination attempt. The Master and Lila landed in the slums, and after some encounters with the local gangs, managed to escape to the London Underground. The Master and Vienna fought, and he was knocked down by her into the path of a train. She thought him to be dead, however he actually survived and was retrieved by company security. (AUDIO: Prey) At this time, the Daleks invaded London, with the Dalek Litigator intending to carry out his death sentence on the Master.
Relishing the chance for vengeance, the Master and Lila formed an alliance with Vienna, and fought off the invasion with his arsenal. He confronted the surviving Daleks alone, torturing and killing the Dalek Supreme and forcing the Litigator to flee by temporal shift. Taking their saucer for himself, he tried to tempt Lila to join him in leaving the planet and devastate it as they left. She refused and used her technology, which had been recreated by a Dalek duplicate of Drake, to send the saucer into the Time Vortex with him aboard. The Master grabbed hold of her, begging her to help him, but Lila gave him a final push to send him away. (AUDIO: Vengeance) In the Vortex the Master was broken down, lingering only as an essence in a patch of dark time. (AUDIO: Nemesis Express)
Infiltrating the Kairos
The Vortex drive of the Kairos reconstituted the Master as it passed through the patch of dark time and he began feeding on the life force of the crew to stabilise himself. He manipulated the people of the third class compartment, including Passion was a thief in hiding, so he could feed on them and lure Vienna to the ship for his revenge. After fully manifesting he revealed his manipulations to Passion and Vienna and challenged them to follow him as he escaped to a higher class. (AUDIO: Nemesis Express)
In the upper class the Master took over the running of a hunting party and politely greeted Passion and Vienna when they caught up with him, as they'd been stripped of their weaposn so were unable to harm him. He manipulated the hunting to target an infant Chronovore, which he captured to use as a weapon and lure its parent. The parent's arrival threw the ship into chaos, enabling him to reach the control deck. (AUDIO: Capture the Chronovore!)
Needing to leave the Vortex to fully stabilise his form, the Master captured Passion and Vienna when they caught up with him and hypnotised Passion so she would put the Kairos on a collision course with Earth. Passion tricked him however, being able to resist his hypnosis, and sent the ship back to the patch of dark time instead where the Master was pulled apart again. (AUDIO: Passion)
The Master's essence was eventually rescued from the Vortex by Esterath, who provided him with a new body in preparation for the battle for the Glory. (COMIC: The Glorious Dead)
Post-mortem
While his essence had eventually escaped through the Time Vortex, (COMIC: The Glorious Dead; PROSE: Forgotten) an "echo" of the Master remained imprisoned inside the Doctor's TARDIS. In the singularity of the Eye of Harmony, the Master commanded infinite power, but could only wield it from within the confines of the Eye. The Master became externally perceived as a Great Black Eye beyond time, which frightened the Time Lords of Ulysses' era, was worshipped as a god in the post-War Kingdom of Beasts, (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles) and poisoned the Eighth Doctor's second heart. (PROSE: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street)
Shortly after his defeat, the Master laid a final trap for the Doctor, leaving a crystalline structure on the Eye that would give the Doctor amnesia. However, the Doctor was subconsciously guided by Rassilon to recover his memories by visiting his previous seven selves. (PROSE: The Eight Doctors) Whilst exploring the Eighth Doctor's TARDIS, River Song thought she heard an American screaming from within the walls. (GAME: The Eternity Clock)
During his imprisonment, the Doctor came to speak to the Master where he dwelled in a room with his face on a screen. The Master spoke to the Doctor in the room on several occasions, telling him that he was an "old friend". After the defeat of the Council of Eight, the Doctor spoke to him about the death of Miranda Dawkins and if it was worth the cost of him saving the universe. (PROSE: Sometime Never...)
The Master later appeared to the Doctor within a mirror in the TARDIS, where he asked the Doctor what was going on inside his head. The Doctor was unable to answer the question before the image in the mirror returned to that of the Doctor's reflection. (PROSE: The Deadstone Memorial)
The Master had a longer conversation with the Doctor from within the Eye of Harmony. The Master showed the Doctor a vision of Marnal's investigation of the Shoal. When the Doctor pressed him about what happened to Gallifrey, the Master teased him with offers to bring it back and to return his memories. The Master then became angry over the circumstances of his imprisonment. He threatened to use all of his power to detonate a fusion device and have his revenge. The Doctor sealed up the Eye of Harmony before he had the chance to carry out his plan. (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles)
During the War in Heaven, Father Kreiner killed and decapitated either the original Master or a clone created as part of the Time Lords' War-time hatchling projects. (PROSE: Interference - Book One)
Other possibilities
- Main article: The Master (The Curse of Fatal Death)
A "listless-looking" Ninth Doctor who existed as a separate future for the Eighth Doctor from the "man with big ears" (PROSE: The Tomorrow Windows) was the contemporary of an incarnation of the Master who, far from being contained within the Doctor's TARDIS, was back to operating his own TARDIS. (TV: The Curse of Fatal Death)
Psychological profile
Personality
The "Bruce" Master was generally calm and sinisterly villainous, but was also capable of terrifying rage. After he took possession of Bruce Gerhardt's body, and, after finding out that his new body was not stable, he became determined to steal the remaining lives of the Doctor himself. When his attempt to take the Eighth Doctor's remaining regenerations was thwarted, the Master reverted to a more basic, brutal approach, attempting to smash the Doctor's head in with a staff positioned around the Eye, proclaiming that "life [was] wasted on the living" and rejecting the Doctor's aid when he was being pulled into the Eye.
The "Bruce" Master was also very petty, snapping Chang Lee's neck when he refused to follow an order, (TV: Doctor Who [+]Loading...["Doctor Who (TV story)"]) sabotaging his "Decaying" incarnation's happiness out of spite, (AUDIO: Masterful) opening fire on creatures in the London Underground to vent frustration, (AUDIO: Prey) and torturing a Dalek Supreme for fun. He also enjoyed taking vengeance on those who had inconvienced him, relishing the opportunity to kill Daleks due to their execution of him. (AUDIO: Vengeance)
Unlike previous incarnations, the "Bruce" Master was extremely serious when there was work to be done, more focused on getting the task at hand completed than engaging in small talk and humour, (TV: Doctor Who [+]Loading...["Doctor Who (TV story)"]) though would enjoy the company of a like-minded individual if he was not in an immediate hurry. (AUDIO: The Lifeboat and the Deathboat) As head of Drake Interplanetary, he adopted a blunt approach during negotiations. (AUDIO: Prey)
In this rendition, the Master felt a pedantic need to correct people on bad grammar, such as when he corrected Grace Holloway's "kiss as good as me" to "[kiss] as well as [me]". He was also quite literal, not understanding expressions such as killing someone to mean making them laugh. (TV: Doctor Who [+]Loading...["Doctor Who (TV story)"])
As with his previous selves, he enjoyed being recognised as "evil", (AUDIO: Masterful) thanking Nurse Curtis for playfully calling him "sick" (TV: Doctor Who [+]Loading...["Doctor Who (TV story)"]) and calling Jo Grant "too kind" when she called the Master the "absolute worst". (AUDIO: Masterful)
He was critical of people's trust towards the Doctor, (AUDIO: The Lifeboat and the Deathboat) but was quick to betray his own allies when it became convenient, such as Chang Lee, (TV: Doctor Who [+]Loading...["Doctor Who (TV story)"]) and Lila Kreeg. (AUDIO: Prey)
He found the idea of a peaceful and mundane existence to be "unbearable". (AUDIO: Masterful)
Skills
He was still capable of manipulating people into following his will, winning Chang Lee's loyalty through deception, (TV: Doctor Who [+]Loading...["Doctor Who (TV story)"]) and tempting Lila into freeing from the Time Vortex. (AUDIO: Faustian)
Appearance
While within Bruce's body, the Master looked like a young American man, but his eyes appeared reptilian, forcing him to wear black sunglasses to remain inconspicuous. (TV: Doctor Who [+]Loading...["Doctor Who (TV story)"]) He decided to have his new hair gelled (PROSE: The Novel of the Film) into a slick backcomb style, (TV: Doctor Who [+]Loading...["Doctor Who (TV story)"]) as opposed to Bruce's messy style. (PROSE: The Novel of the Film) While searching for the Doctor, the Master wore denim jeans and a check shirt with Bruce's duster coat of black leather and light boots. When his plan neared completion, the Master changed into a black high collared tunic with crimson lining, similar to the one he wore during his Dalek extermination, with an extravagant Gallifreyan robes, citing that he "always dress[ed] for the occasion". (TV: Doctor Who [+]Loading...["Doctor Who (TV story)"])
Bruce's body was breaking down, starting by losing his fingernails, (TV: Doctor Who [+]Loading...["Doctor Who (TV story)"]) but was reinvigorated by the Eye of Harmony when he passed through it. (AUDIO: Day of the Master) Despite this, Bruce's body did visibly age during his confinement in the Vortex. (WC: Listen to the voice of your Master!, The Master wants to be your Santa Claus) After the Master was forced back into the Vortex again after successfully reaching 23rd century Earth, (AUDIO: Vengeance) Bruce's body finally did disintegrate in a patch of dark time, however was later reconstituted as an accidental sideeffect of the vortex drive of the Kairos. (AUDIO: Nemesis Express) The body's molecules remained unstable so long as he was in the Vortex however and it was pulled apart again when the Kairos flew back through the dark time. (AUDIO: Passion)
Other references
Whilst trapped in the Matrix by the Spy Master, the Thirteenth Doctor remembered, amongst many others, the Bruce Master in order to break out of the computer system. (TV: The Timeless Children, TV: Doctor Who [+]Loading...["Doctor Who (TV story)"])
Behind the scenes
- Christopher Lloyd was the first choice for the role of the Master in the Doctor Who TV movie, but was deemed too expensive by Universal executives. In addition to Lloyd, offers were extended to Kyle MacLachlan, Malcolm McDowell, Tom Selleck and Sting. Other actors considered included F. Murray Abraham, Richard Dean Anderson, Armand Assante, Dan Aykroyd, Scott Bakula, James Belushi, Tom Berenger, David Bowie, Steve Buscemi, Dana Carvey, Chevy Chase, Phil Collins, Brian Cox, Tim Curry, Timothy Dalton, Robert Duvall, Robert Englund, Matt Frewer, Jeff Goldblum, Rutger Hauer, Gregory Hines, Dennis Hopper, William Hurt, Timothy Hutton, Chris Isaak, Mick Jagger, Ben Kingsley, Christopher Lee, John Lithgow, Ray Liotta, Kyle MacLachlan, Ian McKellen, John Malkovich, Rick Moranis, Bill Murray, Leonard Nimoy, Judd Nelson, Oliver Platt, Bill Pullman, Jonathan Pryce (who later played the Master in The Curse of Fatal Death), Randy Quaid, Judge Reinhold, Tom Selleck, Martin Sheen, Kevin Spacey, Sting, Jon Voight, Tom Waits, Damon Wayans, Keenan Ivory Wayans, Peter Weller, Henry Winkler, Michael York and no fewer than four actors from Star Trek: The Next Generation: Michael Dorn (Worf), Jonathan Frakes (William Riker), Brent Spiner (Data) and Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard).[1]
- Amongst the names used by the Master in the parallel universe of Exile are Eric and Robert, a reference to Eric Roberts.
- The Bruce Master, "[dressed] for the occasion", is among the incarnations of the Master whom appear in Doctor Who: Legacy.
- The Bruce Master led his own audio spin-off series in Master! by Big Finish Productions.
- "The Movie Master" was the internal name used to distinguish the incarnation of the Master portrayed by Eric Roberts in Masterful, as revealed in the behind-the-scenes track for its release.
- The Master's continued imprisonment in the TARDIS in the Eighth Doctor Adventures was intended by range editor Justin Richards to connect the Eighth Doctor's continuity to that of the "Shalka" Doctor. As Richards confirmed in DWM 338, the novel Sometime Never... tied in to Scream of the Shalka with a scene in "the room in the TARDIS where the Doctor never goes," wherein the Eighth Doctor encounters the Master's essence trapped in the Doctor's TARDIS since TV: Doctor Who [+]Loading...["Doctor Who (TV story)"]. The Master's face appears on a screen and is described as "wise and whimsical with hard eyes and a beard flecked with grey," a more concise version of Paul Cornell's description of the android Master in PROSE: Scream of the Shalka. The "Ghost Master" reappears in The Deadstone Memorial and The Gallifrey Chronicles. The link between him and the "Android Master" was later clarified by PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords, which stated that "some rumours" said that after the events of TV: Doctor Who [+]Loading...["Doctor Who (TV story)"] "[the Master] remained trapped in the Doctor's TARDIS, his mental resources transferred into an android, acting as the Doctor's companion or pet."