- This article is about the renegade Time Lord known as "The Master." For other uses of the term "Master", see Master (disambiguation).
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. [The Dæmons [src]]
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!
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 occurred 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 a 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: The Face of the Enemy)
- In the reality created around Donna, it can be assumed that as a result of the Doctor and Martha Jones' deaths, the Master never found out who he really was and never travelled back to Earth, as the Doctor never lived to discover him on Malcassairo. (DW: Turn Left)
Personality
You are one of the most evil and corrupt beings our Time Lord race has ever produced. Your crimes are without number and your villainy without end.Lord President Borusa to the Master. [The Five Doctors [src]]
The Master is essentially the polar opposite of the Doctor in almost every respect. Though he retains a brilliant Time Lord mind and all of the Doctor's wit and cunning, he possesses two fatal character flaws - he is arrogant and exceptionally vain, which leads to his downfall on many occasions. By the time of his return on Utopia, he appears after his regeneration to have gone more insane than ever, regressing to an almost childlike state of spitefulness and obliviousness. It is implied by the Doctor that the Master's insanity has been present ever since he was eight years old. He instantaneously rejected a plea to listen by saying, "No. It's my turn. Revenge." (DW: Last of the Time Lords)
In this instance, the Doctor, being aware of how dangerous the Master was, attempted to take on the role of a kind of mentor in an attempt to save the Master from himself "I'm not here to kill him. I'm here to save him". He pleads with him on numerous occasions (DW: Utopia, The Sound of Drums, Last of the Time Lords) to calm down, stop what he is doing, listen and look at himself.
The Master absolutely refuses to listen to the Doctor on either occasion. He revealed his vanity when the Doctor confronts him with the words "I forgive you", which he had been terrified of hearing because it would have significantly dented his pride. (DW: Last of the Time Lords)
He also had an exceptionally heightened sense of his own brilliance which is far more pronounced and blatant than that of the Doctor. He refers to himself in the third person as "your Lord and Master" on numerous occasions and in reciting a Bible-style verse of his own making to the Doctor, "...and so it came to pass that the Human race fell. And I looked down, upon my new dominion as Master of All and I thought it good", reveals a penchant for fancying himself as a god. (DW: The Sound of Drums) He also holds Time Lords to be an absolutely superior race of life automatically assuming the privilege of altering history, on principle of this: "I'm a Time Lord. I have that right" (DW: Last of the Time Lords), also showing a sense of extreme entitlement. All these are traits of a Narcissistic personality disorder.
He was able to match the Doctor's keen wit and sense of humor, particularly in his sixth incarnation. He remarks to the President of the United States when reprimanded for his audacious conduct contravening established first contact policy with regards to the Toclafane with a casual "Oh, you know what it's like, new job, all that paperwork....I think I left it down the back of the settee. I did have a quick look...I found a pen, a sweet, a bus ticket...have you met the wife?" (DW: The Sound of Drums)
The Master also shared the Doctor's incredible technical know-how. He is able to construct his laser screwdriver from Earth components and miniaturize Professor Lazarus' genetic manipulation technology. He is also able to cannibalize the Doctor's TARDIS and turn it into the Paradox Machine both devices in and of themselves serving as marked and distinctive parallels of the Doctor's sonic screwdriver and ordinary his TARDIS.
It should also be noted that both devices, in contrast to the Doctor's tools, had a hostile purpose; the laser screwdriver is a weapon specifically created to offensively attack and kill others, unlike the Sonic Screwdriver which "doesn't kill, wound, or maim". (DW: Doomsday)
The Master also had a crippling fear of the Doctor, based around how his old enemy can always make him feel small and insignificant as he effortlessly defeats the Master's plans (DW: The Mind of Evil). When the Doctor harnessed the psychic energy of the entire human race and effectively became a god, the Master was reduced to sobbing against a wall. (DW: Last of the Time Lords).
The Master's relationship with the Doctor is one of the most complex in the series. He respects him as a worthy opponent but was also obsessed with proving his personal superiority, causing him to view the Doctor both as his greatest friend and his worst enemy. He expressed deep anger toward the Doctor, along with a desire for vengeance, saying "No, it's my turn, revenge, best served hot". (DW: Last of the Time Lords)
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)
Television movie and mini-episode (1996 and 1999)
New series (2007)
Other media
Animation
Audio
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
to be added
| The Master stories |
|---|
| | Early life |
| Television | | | | Prose | | | | Comic | | | | Audio | | | | Webcast | |
| | | "Inventor" |
| | | War Chief |
| | | UNIT era | | | The cycle
ending |
| | Reborn
Master | | | | "Merlin" |
| | | Pryce |
| | Child
Master |
| | | War Master | | | | Saxon Master | | | | Missy | | | | The Lumiat |
| | | Spy Master | | | Unclear
incarnation |
| | Other
realities |
| | From stories
considered
not part
of the DWU
by this Wiki |
| | | According to one account, the Master had the appearance of Roger Delgado while on Gallifrey. According to another, he had Anthony Ainley's likeness. According to another one, the one with James Dreyfus's appearance was the incarnation who ran away from Gallifrey.
Divided Loyalties, A Brief History of Time Lords and The Legions of Death feature, or otherwise acknowledge, the War Chief, but in the process contradicted the notion put forward by other stories that he was an incarnation of the Master.
One account suggests that the incarnation portrayed by Roger Delgado may be the same as the one portrayed by Peter Pratt while some others distinguish them.
According to one account, the incarnation portrayed by Gordon Tipple is the one portrayed by Anthony Ainley, while some others state that the Ainley one was already lost by then.
While fighting to extend his life at the end of his regeneration cycle, many bodies were possessed by the Beevers incarnation, but all kept somehow reverting to his real being until he finally regenerated into the MacQueen one. Hence, these sections cannot be strictly chronological |
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