"The Master"
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"The Master" — known in female form as "Missy", short for "Mistress", and at times by various other aliases — was a renegade Time Lord, originally a friend and long an opponent of the Doctor.
Though they had been friends from childhood (TV: The End of Time, Death in Heaven) and schoolmates at the Academy (TV: The Sea Devils, The Time Monster, The Five Doctors) before falling out, the Master developed an intense hatred for and often sought to kill the Doctor, who came to regard the Master as his arch-enemy. (TV: The Deadly Assassin, Castrovalva, Time-Flight, Doctor Who) Despite this enmity, however, the Master and the Doctor would on occasion act as allies. (TV: The Claws of Axos, The Five Doctors, The End of Time, The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar)
The Master's diabolical madness was at least partially the result of a genuine malady in the form of a never-ending drumming sound that had been retroactively implanted inside his head by Rassilon and the High Council on the final day of the Last Great Time War to further their own goals. (TV: The End of Time)
Biography
Early life
The Master grew up on Gallifrey in the House of Oakdown, (PROSE: Divided Loyalties) though he would later comment to Wilfred Mott that growing up on Gallifrey was not something one could call childhood, but "more a life of duty". (TV: The End of Time)
Sharing the same heritage and upbringing, (AUDIO: UNIT: Dominion) the Master had a friendship with the First Doctor (TV: The Sea Devils, The Sound of Drums; GAME: Destiny of the Doctors) and his family, (AUDIO: The Toy) with UNIT scientist Osgood even describing the Master as the Doctor's "childhood friend". (TV: Death in Heaven) The Second Doctor recalled that he and the Master had everything in common, except that the Master enjoyed being scared of the dark "a little too much". (PROSE: The Menagerie)
The two youths would play in the fields near the Master's father's estates, with pastures of red grass near Mount Perdition. (TV: The End of Time) They would also sneak out of the Capitol and drink with the Shobogans, (PROSE: The Eight Doctors) with the young Master picking a fight with six drunken Shobogans one of these outings. (PROSE: UNIT Christmas Parties: Christmas Truce) The Master also taught his friend hypnotism. (PROSE: The Dark Path)
During their childhood, the young Master and the Doctor were mercilessly and viciously bullied by a boy called Torvic; the young Doctor was eventually forced to kill the bully to save his friend's life. He was later confronted by the personification of Death, who insisted he become her disciple, but the Doctor refused and suggested Death make the Master her champion instead. Death agreed, and the Doctor subsequently forgot about their deal. (AUDIO: Master)
Like all Time Lords, the Master was taken for his initiation at the age of eight. During the ceremony in which he gazed into the Time Vortex through the Untempered Schism, he went mad, (TV: The Sound of Drums) as the result of a rhythm of four beats being implanted into his head. (TV: The End of Time) This malady manifested itself as the constant drumming he heard ever after, worsening with time. (TV: Utopia, The Sound of Drums, Last of the Time Lords)
Academic career
The Doctor, the Master and the War Chief were friends from their first day at the Academy, (PROSE: Divided Loyalties) with both the Doctor and the Master tutored by Borusa. (AUDIO: Masterplan) While at the Academy, the Master went by the name "Koschei", (PROSE: Divided Loyalties) and was also in charge of organising end of term parties, although the Eighth Doctor later noted that they "weren't very good". (COMIC: The Glorious Dead)
At the Academy, the Master belonged to a clique of ten young Time Lords with the collective name of the Deca, (PROSE: Divided Loyalties) and was also part of the "Gallifrey Academy Hot Five" band, in which he played the drums. (PROSE: Deadly Reunion) He and the Doctor also enjoyed building "time flow analogues" to disrupt each other's experiments. (TV: The Time Monsters)
The Master would often hypnotise people as a joke, (PROSE: The Dark Path) and would go unpunished for it, as well as other misdemeanors, always finding a way to avoid his comeuppance. (PROSE: First Frontier)
Whilst at the Academy, the Doctor and the Master travelled into Gallifrey's past in search of Valdemar. They found nothing of the Old Ones except for warnings. The Master was fascinated by the power that Valdemar represented, while the Doctor was horrified. (PROSE: Tomb of Valdemar) The Master also showed a fascination with the Necronomicon. (PROSE: The Nameless City)
Koschei was on an Academy research project when the Doctor was expelled from the Academy. (PROSE: Divided Loyalties)
When the Time Lords created the Consolidator to conceal various dangerous historical secrets from the rest of the universe, unwilling to destroy the items or races in the ship in case they proved useful later, the Doctor and the Master were assigned to come up with a solution where their peers failed. The Master had the idea of using a black hole to tear a rift in time and send the Consolidator into the distant future, where the future Time Lords could deal with it. However, when the experiment was actually attempted, the Consolidator was apparently destroyed by a mistake in the calculations when it struck the edge of the black hole, leaving the Time Lords to hush the matter up. (PROSE: Harvest of Time)
The Master ultimately did not perform well at the Academy. (AUDIO: Masterplan) Although he did earn a higher degree in cosmic science than the Doctor, (TV: Terror of the Autons) the Doctor's grades were overall better. Because of this, the Doctor received the prizes and praise that the Master so desperately wanted. The Seventh Doctor theorised that this may have been the cause of his hatred towards the Doctor. (PROSE: Survival)
Family life
Missy claimed she had a daughter and that, while still on Gallifrey, the Doctor gifted the Master a brooch made of dark star alloy, after an event which involved his daughter occurred. (TV: The Witch's Familiar)
The Master attended a ritual in Arcadia where he gave Susan Foreman a communication node disguised as a toy, with the Master intending to use the node to locate the Doctor if he ever left Gallifrey. (AUDIO: The Toy) Susan remembered the Master as a highly regarded man, as a "stickler for the rules" with "meritorious conduct". He was a form of Truant Officer, and after the Doctor and Susan's escape would be tasked with capturing them. (PROSE: Time and Relative)
Fleeing Gallifrey
According to one source, during a period of civil unrest on Gallifrey, the Master led many students of the Time Lord Academy in a revolt against the corrupt Lord President, Pundat the Third, and attempted to recruit the Doctor and convince him to take the position as President, but he decided not to interfere with the current constitution. When Pundat died of stress soon after the revolt, his chosen successor was the evil Chancellor Slann. The students had found the last of Lord Rassilon's descendants, Lady Larn, a seven-year old child adopted by Councillor Brolin, who was being groomed as a future president. They decided on a second coup. Yet in trying to convert the Doctor, the students were overheard. Bloody reprisals against the students followed. The Doctor and Larn escaped from Gallifrey after this. Believing the students ready for the second coup, the Master assassinated Lord President Slann. However, the students weren't ready and he took this opportunity to steal a TARDIS and flee Gallifrey as a renegade. (PROSE: Birth of a Renegade)
Dealings with the Second Doctor
After the Doctor fled Gallifrey in a stolen TARDIS, the Master left Gallifrey on the same day (COMIC: The Glorious Dead) in a Type-45 TARDIS, (PROSE: The Dark Path) that he had also stolen. (COMIC: The Glorious Dead) However, his unstable obsession with order prompted the Time Lords to plant the Time Lady Ailla as a spy to monitor his actions. She posed as a human so Koschei (as the Master had now started calling himself) would take her on as his companion during a stopover in the 28th century.
Koschei caught up with the Second Doctor at the Darkheart colony in the early years of the Galactic Federation. The temptation posed by the Darkheart device proved too much for Koschei, and the revelation that Ailla was a spy killed the last traces of good in him, and he became the Master. After the Doctor trapped him in a black hole, the Master swore that he would take revenge. (PROSE: The Dark Path)
Escaping the black hole, the Master penetrated Gallifrey, and gained access to the Matrix via a console in the old Capitol. This gave him a back door into the Matrix, which he used to collect classified information for his many devious schemes, (PROSE: The Quantum Archangel) including the Time Lords' files on the Doomsday Weapon. (TV: Colony in Space) According to one account, the Master learnt about the Silurians through information stolen from the Time Lords' files. (TV: The Sea Devils) Another account stated he learnt about the Silurians from Liz Shaw while on Earth. (PROSE: Reconnaissance)
The Master then put his TARDIS in orbit of the homeworld of the Archons and made a deal with them that would result in the Archons acquiring the Doctor's TARDIS for themselves. Posing as a Professor Thascalos, the Master gave the Necronomicon to the Doctor's companion Jamie McCrimmon, so that Jamie would give the book to the Doctor and lure the TARDIS to the Archon homeworld. (PROSE: The Nameless City)
Nemesis of the Third Doctor
Early times on Earth
The Master was imprisoned on Shada by the Time Lords at the time when the Doctor was exiled to Earth. However, the Time Lords decided to keep the Doctor busy whilst he was trapped on Earth by releasing the Master. (PROSE: Prisoners of the Sun)
The Master was present at the first Auton invasion of Earth, and heard about Channing's attempt to capture the Third Doctor. He contacted journalist James Stevens by phone, whose article he had read in the Daily Chronicle, and told him about the near-kidnapping. He called Stevens again during the Silurian attacks on Wenley Moor, informing Stevens that Edward Masters had been the first to die from the plague sweeping London. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy)
Under the alias "Emil Keller", the Master captured a psychic parasite and trapped it within the Keller Machine, and spent many months establishing "Keller" and the machine's credentials. (TV: The Mind of Evil)
Shortly after the Inferno Project incident, the Master once more contacted James Stevens, this time to check up on his work on his UNIT article. He promptly hung up when Stevens mentioned C19 and the Glasshouse. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy)
According to one account, the Master first infiltrated the headquarters of UNIT while the Brigadier and the Doctor had gone to meet with government officials. He hypnotised the Doctor's assistant, Liz Shaw, and, through her, learnt of the failed Nestene invasion and the awakening of the Silurians. This inspired him to ally himself with the Nestene and to locate more Silurian colonies. (PROSE: Reconnaissance) Another account stated he learnt about the Silurians from the Time Lords' files. (TV: The Sea Devils)
Becoming a threat
The Master appeared at the International Circus, his TARDIS in the form of a horse box. He hypnotised the circus troupe and plastic factory manager Rex Farrel to obey his orders as part of his plan to assist the Nestenes in their latest bid to conquer Earth. A Time Lord emissary alerted the Doctor to his rival's presence on the planet, and before the radio telescope could be used to bring the Nestene invasion force to Earth, the Doctor convinced the Master that the Nestenes would not distinguish between the Master and anyone else in their takeover, and the two worked together to fling the Nestenes back into space by "chang[ing] the polarity" whilst the radio telescope's transfer shift was still open. Afterwards, the Master fled. The Doctor, however, had already taken his dematerialisation circuit, preventing the Master from leaving Earth in his TARDIS. (TV: Terror of the Autons)
The Master returned again, posing as the scientist who had "developed" the Keller Machine. He used prisoners as a plan to hijack the Thunderbolt, a missile containing nerve gas and use it to destroy the world peace conference, which would trigger a nuclear war. The Doctor stopped him and destroyed the missile, but later discovered he had lost the Master's dematerialisation circuit. Shortly after, the Master telephoned to let it be known that he had found the circuit and was free now to come and go as he pleased, while the Doctor had to remain in exile. (TV: The Mind of Evil)
Shortly after the Master regained control over his TARDIS, he tried to gain control of a cult so he could harness the power of the Immortals. He convinced the real cult leader, Hadley, that he could serve the cult loyally, by supplying them with sarg. Unfortunately for the Master, Hadley only intended to keep the Master alive while he was still useful. With no other options, the Master formed a temporary truce with the Doctor to stop Hades' plan. After the crisis was resolved, the Doctor allowed the Master to depart unmolested in the name of their temporary truce. (PROSE: Deadly Reunion)
The Master brought Axos to Earth, hoping to ally himself with them. Instead, he became the prisoner of Axos, and only escaped by saying that he would help it. The Doctor tricked the Master into thinking he was going to betray Earth. Instead, he trapped the Master with Axos in a time loop. (TV: The Claws of Axos)
Posing as an Adjudicator, the Master travelled to a human colony on the planet Uxarieus in the year 2472. There, the Time Lord records indicated he would find the Doomsday Weapon created by a near-extinct native species. Once again the Doctor defeated his plans and the weapon was destroyed. (TV: Colony in Space)
In the Wiltshire village of Devil's End, the Master summoned the ancient Dæmon Azal, but he failed to understand the power and control that was necessary following summoning him. Following Azal's confrontation with Jo Grant's selflessness, he was captured by UNIT following a failed attempt to escape in the Doctor's car, Bessie. (TV: The Dæmons)
In custody
Prior to his trial, the Master was sent to Stangmoor Prison. During his captivity, an army of hypnotised salespeople stormed the facility and attempted to rescue him, but the ploy failed and the Master was sent to another secure holding facility. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Jo were trapped in an extra-universal prison by the Freedom Corporation, so the Brigadier was forced to strike a deal with the Master to save them. But the Master double-crossed him and used time travel technology to regress the Earth backwards in time. However, with help from the Time Lords, the Doctor was freed and was able to stop the Master's plan and restore everything to normal. (PROSE: Freedom)
The government used the Master as a scapegoat for all the alien attacks which had recently occurred. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy)
The Master was held at Aylesbury Grange Detention Centre. Demanding the Doctor visit him, he engaged the Doctor in conversation, insisting he had changed. However, the Doctor refused to believe him, and the Master reluctantly revealed that he had drawn the Doctor to the facility as part of an escape attempt, and that the Doctor was speaking to a hologram. The Master nearly escaped, but was stopped by UNIT soldiers accompanying the Doctor, who revealed he had been a hologram as well. (COMIC: The Man in the Ion Mask)
In another escape attempt, the Master created a device that switched his mind with the Doctor's. He went to the Doctor's TARDIS, where he learned that the Time Lords had made the TARDIS ineffective to the Doctor's piloting. Before returning to his own body, the Master, as the Doctor, asked the Brigadier to move the Master to a new holding facility with a good view, and also encouraged Mike Yates to ask Jo Grant out on a date. (PROSE: The Switching)
While in custody, with the Doctor on Peladon, (TV: The Curse of Peladon) the Master collaborated with UNIT to prevent an invasion by a fascist version of Earth, travelling with the Brigadier, Ian and Barbara Chesterton to the alternate universe and encountering Koschei, the alternate version of himself. Koschei was imprisoned and tortured by order of the Leader of the Republic of Great Britain, the alternate version of the Doctor. The Master killed his other self, claiming it was an act of mercy. Before he was imprisoned by UNIT again, the Master hid his TARDIS back in the church crypt in Devil's End. (PROSE: The Face of the Enemy)
The Master was imprisoned inside a castle prison on Fortress Island as the only prisoner. The Doctor believed he would be in this prison "forever". The Master convinced his jailer, Colonel George Trenchard, to help him steal electronic parts from HMS Seaspite, telling Trenchard that this was intended as a lure for enemy agents. With these parts, the Master instead made contact with the reptilian Sea Devils, an aquatic species similar to the land-dwelling Silurians, and planned to cause a war between humans and Sea Devils, making the Sea Devils rulers of Earth again. Because the reactivation machinery of the Sea Devils' hibernation units deterirorated during millions of years of hibernation, the Master saw it necessary to construct a sonar device to awaken the remaining reptiles. The Master captured the Doctor, and forced him to help create this device, but to prevent the device from reactivating further Sea Devil bases and stop the war, the Doctor blew up the Sea Devil base by reversing the device's polarity, creating a massive reverse feedback. The Master escaped in a hovercraft when the officer guarding him, CPO Myers, was hypnotised and framed as the Master's corpse, (TV: The Sea Devils) and the Master returned to the church crypt in Devil's End to retrieve his TARDIS. (PROSE: The Eight Doctors)
At large again
Some time after his escape, the Master took control of the Glasshouse, a facility for traumatised UNIT soldiers, and in particular Private Francis Cleary. He planned to use a time ring to have Cleary go to 1963 to prevent the Kennedy assassination, thereby altering Earth's history to make it more vulnerable to invasion. The plan failed. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy)
Posing as "Professor Carl Thascalos", the Master constructed a machine known as TOMTIT at Cambridge's Newton Institute to summon the ancient chronovore Kronos, whom he wished to control. He hypnotised the institute's director, Dr Charles Percival, but accidentally killed him by releasing Kronos from the Crystal of Kronos. The Master summoned the Atlantean priest Krasis for instructions on how to control Kronos, while meddling with the flow of time to obstruct the Doctor from getting in his way.
After knocking out Sergeant Benton, the Master retreated to his TARDIS, but the Doctor tried to trap him in a time lock using his own TARDIS, accidentally creating a space loop when both TARDISes were materialised within the other. When the TARDISes were separated during their negotiations, the Master ejected the Doctor into space, but the Doctor survived by using the telepathic circuit of his TARDIS to help Jo return him to safety.
The Master travelled to ancient Atlantis and failed to hypnotise King Dalios, who easily resisted his influence. Confronting the Doctor there, the Master tried to manipulate Queen Galleia into betraying her husband, since she had taken a romantic liking in his charm compared to Dalios' often dull personality. Galleia, however, was enraged when the Master caused Dalios to die in the coup they staged in Atlantis. Before he was arrested, the Master commanded Krasis to use the Crystal of Kronos housed in Atlantis, and brought forth Kronos, who destroyed the entire civilisation.
Fleeing Atlantis with Jo as his hostage, and with Kronos under his control, the Master was in a position to cast destruction unto the entire cosmos, however, the Doctor threatened to time ram the Master's TARDIS with his own, which would take everyone's lives in the process if he did not give up his plans for chaos. The Master did not believe the Doctor would earnestly carry out his warning, because he knew endangering Jo's life was not an option for him. In response to the Doctor's hesitation, Jo tried to complete the time ram before the Master could release Kronos again. Instead, Kronos spared everyone from death, and captured the Master for the crime of trying to control it, but allowed him to go free at the request of the Doctor. (TV: The Time Monster)
Having had enough of Earth, and other plans to set in motion on Skaro, the Master employed the assistance of a being called Verdigris to impersonate him. (PROSE: Verdigris) On Skaro, the Master forged an alliance with the Daleks, acting as their agent to provoke warfare between the Earth Empire and the Draconian Empire in the 26th century. To achieve this, he employed a force of Ogrons who, through the use of hypnosound, made themselves appear human or Draconian, thus provoking the other side. When the Doctor revealed the true perpetrators, the plot was abandoned. (TV: Frontier in Space)
Returning to Earth, the Master set up a talent show called Make a Star, based on the anagram AKA Master, which he used to disrupt the timeline by making the contestants cover songs that weren't yet written. He intended to use the relatively minor disruption caused to allow him to take control of Earth, but this plan was foiled by the Doctor. (PROSE: Hidden Talent)
On another occasion, the Master made a deal with the Odobenidans to help them invade Earth, but accidentally trapped both them and himself in a time loop whilst undertaking some temporal mechanics on their behalf. He was trapped in the time loop beneath Greece for months. The Doctor, sent to Greece by the Time Lords to deal with the time loop, released the Master and foiled his plan again. (PROSE: The Seismologist's Story)
The Master planned to release a fog in Tadcaster by using Sarkan mist-flowers to generate a fog that would spread engulf the Earth in a dense fog. Attempting to catch up with the Master, the Doctor commandeered a pier train that crashed into the Master and the mist-flowers, sending all of them into the ocean, where the flowers were destroyed and the Master disappeared. (COMIC: Fogbound)
Reappearing again, the Master took control of the Brigadier's mind, and instructed him to kill the Doctor. However, the Brigadier attacked the Master, but he escaped, restoring the Brigadier to his senses. (PROSE: Smash Hit)
The Master travelled to the Land of Fiction, where he intended to steal an advanced piece of technology from the Land, and defeated Professor Moriarty. (COMIC: Character Assassin)
The Master used time-displaced Scottish warriors to seize a nuclear submarine and threaten Britain with obliteration if he wasn't given the Doctor's TARDIS; he ended up temporarily trapped in the 18th century. (COMIC: The Glen of Sleeping) He also worked with the Gaderene race to conquer Earth. (PROSE: Last of the Gaderene)
For a short while, the Master adopted the identity of "Duke Dominus", a gangster on early 20th century Earth, but his plan on was foiled by the Fourth Doctor without either the Doctor or the Master realising the others' involvement. (PROSE: The Duke of Dominoes)
He attended Bonjaxx's birthday party at Maruthea. When a fight broke out, Ria threw a chair at him. (COMIC: Party Animals)
According to one account, the Master went under cover on Earth following the 22nd century Dalek invasion and killed David Campbell, the husband of the Doctor's granddaughter Susan. After being defeated by the Eighth Doctor, he fled in his TARDIS, taking Susan with him as a hostage, unaware of her Gallifreyan heritage. As his TARDIS materialised on Tersurus, she used his TARDIS's telepathic circuits to attack him, forcing him out onto the planet's surface. She used his own Tissue Compression Eliminator against him while he was holding the Dalek's matter transmuter. The blast severely deformed and nearly killed him. Susan departed in his TARDIS; this brief materialisation, however, alerted the Time Lords to the Master's presence on Tersurus.
Investigating the materialisation of an unauthorised TARDIS, the Time Lord Chancellor Goth arrived on Tersurus, where he found the Master in a wasted condition — that of a decaying animated corpse. The Master sensed that Goth wished for power and offered it to him, whilst Goth, seeing the Master as a dying "creature", thought he could control the Master for his own means. (PROSE: Legacy of the Daleks)
A body in decay
Meeting his future
Another account indicated that the Master regenerated before being wounded on Terserus, and, now in his final incarnation, arrived on a Time Lord base on Tersurus with the intention of infiltrating their database. There he encountered a future version of himself, who burned his body, leaving him a fraction above death. The future Master then signalled Gallifrey for Goth to arrive.
Before Goth could arrive, the Cult of the Heretic switched the Master's mind with that of his future self. (AUDIO: The Two Masters) While he remember being in great pain, the process left gaps in his memory. He proceeded to return to a site of former imprisonment to construct a plan to regain his memories. He returned to a prison in the south of England, where his former self had lured a mind leech. He set up the Dominus Institute in order to lure the Doctor to him, planning to absorb his intellect.
The Sixth Doctor made a deal with the mind leech, one which had the leech only take the Doctor's short term memory. This was enough to sustain the Master, but ruined his overall plans. The Master fled from the prison in his TARDIS. (AUDIO: Vampire of the Mind)
During this incarnation, the Master experienced pain which was almost unendurable. (AUDIO: The Two Masters)
Revenge on Gallifrey
The Master made Goth, in line for the position of Lord President of the High Council of Time Lords, into his slave, continuing to promise him power until Goth could no longer fight his mental dominance.
Whilst on Gallifrey, the Master also took over the Matrix, and realised that the Eye of Harmony resided beneath the Panopticon. He believed he could use the Sash of Rassilon to protect himself from the raw power of the Eye and channel that energy to renew himself.
With a telepathic summons and a vision of the future created by the Matrix, the Master lured the Fourth Doctor to Gallifrey, seemingly to prevent the murder of the then-serving Lord President. The Doctor failed and ended up on trial for the President's murder.
After Goth died, the Doctor defeated the Master in physical combat and, as a result, the Master fell into a crevice created by a localised earthquake. He gained access to his TARDIS in the confusion and escaped, (TV: The Deadly Assassin) having been able to convert the energy from the Eye of Harmony and partially heal himself. (AUDIO: Trail of the White Worm)
Beyond Gallifrey
The Master followed the Doctor's TARDIS from Gallifrey, but was knocked off course passing through the transduction barrier and landed in London during the 1890s. (AUDIO: Masterpiece) He asked the locals if he could speak to someone in authority. Inspector Quick was the first on the scene. The Master wasted no time in hypnotising Quick for his goals, (AUDIO: The Museum of Curiosities) giving him several tasks to carry out on his behalf. (AUDIO: Jago & Son)
The Master walked the streets of London, concealing himself with a mask and walking with a cane. He spoke to Maurice Ravel, interested in a watch he carried with the Prydonian Seal on it. The Master later learned that Jago and Litefoot were the Doctor's contacts in the time period, and intended to visit them. (AUDIO: Maurice) The Master had Quick bring him a sample of Jago and Litefoot's DNA, planning to poison them so that they would summon the Doctor to help them. (AUDIO: The Woman in White)
The Master became frail, barely able to stand. He planned to use the Doctor's artron energy in order to heal his form. He travelled to the Red Tavern and spoke to Ellie Higson, hypnotising her so that he could learn of Jago and Litefoot. Jago and Litefoot learned of the location of the Master's lair with the help of Madame Sosostris, and encountered the Master there. Sosostris' assistant revealed himself to be the Sixth Doctor. The Master activated a machine to drain the life energy of Jago and Litefoot, before absorbing the Doctor's artron energy. The Doctor reversed the flow of the machine and the Master's life began to be drained. After the Doctor smashed his equipment, the Master slipped into his TARDIS and escaped. However, he left behind some trouble for Jago and Litefoot to deal with; he reverted Ellie Higson's metabolism to its natural state, causing her to lose control of her vampiric hunger. (AUDIO: Masterpiece)
With his TARDIS still in the form of a clock, the Master attempted to steal Iris Wildthyme's body, (PROSE: The Scarlet Shadow) and was captured by the Sild. (PROSE: Harvest of Time)
Still looking a little "putrescent", (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 next incarnation, an incarnation possessing the body of a man named Bruce 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 decaying Master joined in the struggle, declaring that his future selves were idiots. The five were quickly disqualified, seemingly destroying them. (COMIC: The Five Masters)
Discovering that the Celestial Intervention Agency were gathering illegal Vess weapons, the Master blackmailed their agent, Straxus, into handing over a conceptual bomb. The Master then visited Bob Dovie and, after killing his family, planned the device into his head. When Dovie saw the inside of the Doctor's TARDIS, his refusal to believe in it caused the Doctor's TARDIS to explode, causing its timeline to begin to collapse. With the Doctor's timeline collapsing along with the TARDIS's, the Doctor's first eight incarnations joined forces to avert the detonation of the bomb, before the First Doctor erased the events from history. (AUDIO: The Light at the End)
Fighting the Fourth Doctor
The Master plotted to capture the Z-battery that the Doctor left on Earth to repair his TARDIS during his exile. The Master's plan was to use the Z-radiation within the battery, combined with the O-radiation which permeated Oseidon, to create powerful ZO-radiation which the Master could use to renew himself. For his plot, the Master entered into an alliance with the Kraals, and created two robot duplicates; one to pose as Kraal Chief Scientist Tyngworg, (AUDIO: The Oseidon Adventure) and a second to search for genetically engineered alien worm in Derbyshire. (AUDIO: Trail of the White Worm) The Doctor defeated the Master by using a Master android duplicate he had constructed to kidnap the real Master, and take him away in his own TARDIS, before his plan could be fulfilled. (AUDIO: The Oseidon Adventure)
The Master then posed as Inspector Efendi of the Intergalactic insurance agency so that he could find spaceships full of gold bullion. He then employed the Salonu to steal this gold, which attracted the attention of the Doctor and Leela to investigate. The Master then used the telepathic abilities of the Salonu to influence Leela into thinking that she was the Master's assassin, and that he was the great Xoanon who desired the death of the Doctor. The Salonu Prime, with the help of the Doctor, noticed the Master's influence and undid the conditioning. (AUDIO: The Evil One)
Shandar of the Rocket Men invited the Master on his ship the Asteroid, where the Master saw the Doctor was Shandar's prisoner. When he confronted the Doctor, the Master used his Tissue Compression Eliminator on him, and apparently killed him, but he realised he had only destroyed a duplicate. The real Doctor was in fact pretending to be Oskin, and used that guise to bring down the force field around the ship, and used K9 Mark I to stall the Master's TARDIS once it had passed the force field so that the slaves on board the Asteroid could be freed. The Master overrode K9's tampering and kidnapped Leela after she had left the Doctor. (AUDIO: Requiem for the Rocket Men) The Master then used Leela to be his champion at the death match, where she used her skills to win. The Doctor tracked her down to the death match and managed to destroy it. (AUDIO: Death Match)
The Master attempted to rend asunder the constellation of Mandus using a segment of the Key to Time, but was defeated by the Doctor. (PROSE: Cold Fusion)
On Kendrax, the Master attempted to ally himself with the Daleks and the Cybermen, but his plan was foiled by Romana II. (PROSE: The Not-So-Sinister Sponge) He also entered a pact with the Embodiment of Gris, but found himself again bested by the Doctor. (PROSE: Cold Fusion)
The Master was drawn to and became stranded on the planet Traken, the centre of the Traken Union, in a TARDIS configured into the sculpture-shaped Melkur. He plotted to take over the Source also located on the planet Traken, the power behind the Traken Union, and use it to restore himself. To this end, over a period of years, he won over Kassia, who later married Tremas and became a stepmother to Nyssa. His plans were thwarted by the Doctor and Adric when the Keeper of Traken summoned them, having sensed something of his machinations. With the help of Tremas and Nyssa, the Doctor removed the Master from the Source.
However, with some of the Keeper's powers lingering, the Master merged with Tremas, stealing his body. (TV: The Keeper of Traken)
In Tremas' body
Besting the Fourth Doctor
In his new body, the Master went to Earth, where he trapped the Doctor's TARDIS in a gravity bubble. He killed Tegan Jovanka's aunt Vanessa and a police constable with his Tissue Compression Eliminator. He then went to Logopolis, where he pretended to be Tremas to gain Nyssa's cooperation, giving her a bracelet that allowed him to control her arm. Using her as a hostage, he perverted the Block Transfer Computations and held the planet for ransom until its secret was revealed. This made the causal nexus unravel and also broke the Logopolitans' blockade of entropy, allowing it to swallow several galaxies, including the entire Traken Union.
The entropy wave was so threatening that the Master agreed to work with the Doctor to stop it. They travelled to the Pharos Project on Earth to do so, using the last theorem of Logopolis to reopen Charged Vacuum Emboitments. His true plan was revealed however, when he sent a message to the peoples of the universe that he would stop the entropy only if they submitted to his rule. While the Doctor stopped the Master's signal to shut down the CVE that would halt the entropy wave, the Master caused him to fall off the Pharos Project's radio telescope and regenerate, allowing the Master to escape. (TV: Logopolis)
Battling the Fifth Doctor
As the Fifth Doctor made his leave in the TARDIS, the Master reappeared and kidnapped Adric and held him in a hadron web to make him a part of his TARDIS. Using a projection of Adric on board the TARDIS, the Master sent the Doctor's TARDIS hurtling to destruction at Event One, but the Doctor saved his TARDIS through the Architectural Configuration. The Master used Adric's block transfer computations to create Castrovalva in the Andromeda Galaxy, where the Doctor would recover from his regeneration. He escaped from the recursion trap and tried to kill the Doctor, but was attacked by the enraged citizens with the city itself due to collapse. (TV: Castrovalva)
The Master remained trapped Castrovalva for some time, but was able to find a way to project himself in England in the 1920s. In an attempt to capture and kill the Doctor and his companions and escape Castrovalva, the Master manipulated Harry Houdini to send a psionic distress call to his old friend. When the Doctor answered the call, Houdini claimed that he needed help to stop a fortune teller. However, when the Master's plan was uncovered, the Doctor managed to stop his enemy's revenge plan. (AUDIO: Smoke and Mirrors)
The Master eventually escaped from Castrovalva, (TV: Time-Flight) but in the attempt, it caused damage to the dynamorphic generators, making it difficult to continue piloting his TARDIS. (PROSE: The Quantum Archangel) He travelled to Earth in 140,000,000 BC, where he disguised himself as the magician Kalid, hoping to use the Xeraphin gestalt to replace his dynamorphic generators. He brought two Concordes to his Citadel via a time contour. The second held the Doctor, his TARDIS and companions. He originally planned to use the captured passengers to break into the Sanctum and take control of the Xeraphin and add him to his TARDIS, but then he acquired the Doctor's TARDIS in a trade with him for a part the Doctor needed for his own TARDIS. The Xeraphin contacted Nyssa and let Tegan and her enter the Citadel, where the Master revealed his true form. The Master held the passengers hostage for parts from the Doctor's TARDIS. The second Concorde was returned to its own time and the Master ended up on Xeriphas with the freed and angry Xeraphin. (TV: Time-Flight)
On Xeriphas, the Master found and acquired Kamelion, a shape-changing android that could be easily controlled by a strong mind. Managing to elude Xeraphin, the Master escaped to England in 1215. (TV: The King's Demons) Killing the French knight "Sir Giles Estram" to assume his identity, (PROSE: Sanctuary) the Master made Kamelion impersonate John of England to prevent the signing of Magna Carta. However, the arrival of the Doctor caused interference with his plans. After the Doctor defeated him in a joust, the Master fled in his TARDIS after the still-disguised Kamelion offered the Doctor the choice of saving him or another captive. (TV: The King's Demons)
When the High Council of the Time Lords discovered that various incarnations of the Doctor had been taken into the Death Zone on Gallifrey, they asked the Master for help and offered him a new cycle of regenerations as a bargaining tool. He agreed and was given a copy of the Seal of the High Council by the Castellan to prove his credentials. However, the Third Doctor did not believe the Master and blamed him for their being there, taking the seal from him on the pretence that he would return the "stolen property" to the High Council.
He soon after encountered the Fifth Doctor, who also had trouble believing him, especially now he no longer had the seal. Before he could further attempt to gain his trust, however, a group of Cybermen ambushed them, the Doctor using the Master's recall device to escape and meet with the High Council when the Master was knocked out. Upon waking up, he formed a temporary alliance with the Cybermen to guide them to the Dark Tower, although it was clear they would kill him once he was no further use. After he let the Tower's traps slaughter the Cybermen, he hinted to the First Doctor how to get past security, but then grew power-hungry at the mention of immortality, and prepared to kill the first three incarnations of the Doctor, angry at the Doctors for refusing his help when he was genuinely there to assist them. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart knocked him unconscious and Sarah Jane Smith and Tegan Jovanka bound him with rope. After Borusa was encased in Rassilon's tomb, Rassilon sent the Master back to his own time, promising that "his sins will find their punishment in due time". (TV: The Five Doctors)
As an attempt to trap the Doctor, and steal his remaining regenerations, the Master faked his own death, ensuring the Doctor would attend the funeral at the nursing home where he supposedly spent his final days. But the Doctor was saved by Turlough, and the Master's plan was foiled yet again. (PROSE: The Velvet Dark)
The Master arrived in Camelot just after the coronation of King Arthur, and became the new Merlin after the old one died. He planned to make Arthur believe Mordred was dead so Mordred would grow up to kill Arthur at the battle of Camlan. When the Master saw that the Doctor and Tegan had arrived, he left the court and hurried to his TARDIS to retreat, while the Doctor suggested Arthur create the Knights of the Round Table to prepare for when Mordred came. (PROSE: The Creation of Camelot)
The Master developed a more powerful version of the Tissue Compression Eliminator and accidentally shrank himself and his lab, without the ill effect of death. Using a device to boast his telepathy, the Master made contact with Kamelion once more, directing him to use the Doctor's TARDIS to land on Sarn. With Kamelion acting as his physical proxy, the Master had him pretend to be the locals' god and order the Doctor's death. When this failed, he had Kamelion take the small box his lab had become and take it to the lab on Sarn that used Numismaton Gas, hoping it could restore him.
As the Master stood in a gas vent and returned to normal size, the Doctor used the gas to apparently burn him to death. (TV: Planet of Fire) However, the Numismaton Gas increased the power of the Source of Traken still remaining in the Master's body, enabling the Master to survive. (PROSE: The Quantum Archangel) Horrifically burned, the Master went in search of the Fountain of Youth to restore himself. (PROSE: A Town Called Eternity)
Using his link to Kamelion, the Master attempted to psychically interfere with the Doctor's fifth regeneration, (AUDIO: Winter) urging the Doctor to die from the spectrox toxaemia poisoning in the TARDIS, (TV: The Caves of Androzani) but was foiled by Nyssa. (AUDIO: Winter)
Encountering the Sixth Doctor
The Master allied with his old Academy pupil the Rani in Killingworth against the Sixth Doctor and Peri Brown; the Master hoped to hasten the advancement of Earth's technology for his own nefarious reasons, while the Rani wanted the brain chemical that induced sleep in humans. The Doctor trapped the Master and the Rani in the Rani's TARDIS, which the Doctor had sabotaged, with the time spillage putting them in danger of being eaten by a tyrannosaurus rex. (TV: The Mark of the Rani) The Master separated the Rani's console room from the rest of her TARDIS, freeing himself while leaving the Rani to drift aimlessly through the vortex. (PROSE: State of Change)
Recovering his own TARDIS and learning of the Valeyard, the Master materialised in the Matrix and observed the Doctor's trial on Space Station Zenobia while examining the Matrix footage himself to see what was tampered with. Learning that the Valeyard was an "amalgamation of the darker side of the Doctor's nature", the Master decided that the Valeyard a threat to himself and rescued the Doctor by supplying the Doctor with witnesses in the form of Melanie Bush and Sabalom Glitz, and revealing himself to the court as a surprise witness. Using Glitz as a tool, the Master tried to steal secrets from the Matrix, but was beaten by the Valeyard, and imprisoned in the Matrix with a limbo atrophier. (TV: The Ultimate Foe) The Time Lords released the Master from the Matrix, whereupon the Master killed the technicians and fled in his TARDIS. (PROSE: Mission: Impractical) After escaping, the Master could regenerate his body because the Source of Traken still existed within him. (PROSE: The Quantum Archangel)
After escaping from an unsuccessful alliance with the Krotons, the Master was attacked by the Chronovores looking for revenge for his torture of Kronos, and discovered that the last remnants of the Source of Traken were fading, reducing him to his previous cadaverous form would return. The Master devised a plan to destroy the Chronovores and achieve omnipotence by trying to access the Lux Aeterna using the son of TOMTIT, the TITAN Array. He stole the equipment and used it upon a woman he hypnotised, Anjeliqua Whitefriar, expecting it to destroy her before he used it. However, she absorbed the Lux Aeterna, achieved omnipotence and became the Quantum Archangel.
Using her power, she filled the universe with too many alternate timelines, leading the Chronovores to feast upon them, eventually leading to the end of the universe. The Master and the Doctor teamed up to rectify the Master's mistake by defeating the Quantum Archangel. They discovered that the Quantum Archangel had allied itself with the Mad Mind of Bophemeral so it could have infinite knowledge of the Universe. The Doctor and the Master encountered Kronos, who claimed to have been the one who attacked the Master's TARDIS, so he would come up with his plan, and would eventually lead to the Master's destruction as well as allowing Anjeliqua to survive, causing Kronos' plan for revenge to go wrong. They succeeded by draining the Lux Aeterna out of her, although not before the Master escaped using the TITAN equipment to harness the Lux Aeterna to restore his Trakenite body. (PROSE: The Quantum Archangel)
At some point he discovered the Parallel Sect, where he discovered the Valeyard. He possessed the body of Keith Potter. He encountered the Sixth Doctor and Constance Clarke. He wanted to use the dimensional nexus to dominate them all. After the Doctor defeated him, the Master was confronted by the Valeyard, who threatened him, forcing the Master to both leave the nexus and never return and to leave the Doctor alone, as the Valeyard had a plan to deal with him. (AUDIO: The End of the Line)
Further exploits
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 previous incarnation, an incarnation possessing the body of a man known as Bruce and an incarnation who went 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, this Master began to fight with Missy over the possession of her device, believing that he alone could hold the universe in his grasp. The other incarnations joined in the fight, and the five were eventually disqualified, seemingly destroying them. (COMIC: The Five Masters)
Confronting multiple Doctors
The Master captured the first seven of the Doctor's incarnations and put them into a void called the Determinant. However, the Graak successfully freed the Doctors and the Master was captured and imprisoned by one of the races involved in his game. (GAME: Destiny of the Doctors)
After meeting Adam Mitchell, a companion who had betrayed the Ninth Doctor, the Master began working to help him take revenge on their common enemy. Together, they set up an asylum in 7214 with Autons as staff as a trap for the Sixth Doctor, Peri and Frobisher. The Doctor broke out of his cell thanks to Peri and Frobisher and melted the Autons. The Master escaped by tripping up the Doctor, leaving Adam to capture Frobisher, who was disguised as Peri. (COMIC: Facades)
Using a group of Aeroliths to further his alliance, the Master syphoned their life force, to transmit to Adam, using a Gulwort. However, when they were freed by the Seventh Doctor, they chased after him. (COMIC: Cat and Mouse) After being tortured by the Aeroliths, the Master escaped, and, reunited with Adam, encountered the Eleventh Doctor. Preventing Adam from listening to the Doctor, the Master elected to kill the captured companions, (COMIC: The Choice) but was prevented when the Doctor summoned his earlier incarnations.
The Master and Adam released an Auton army, but the Doctors defeated them and released their companions. However, unbeknownst to Adam, the Master planned to destroy reality itself, using the merged TARDIS that brought the Doctors there. Convinced by the Doctors, Adam stunned him, but the Master stabbed him with a hidden knife. The injured Adam managed to foil the Master's plan, but died in the attempt. The Master, still pleased by his role within all the chaos, teleported away. (COMIC: Endgame)
Facing the Seventh Doctor
After trying to start a war between Antari Two and Antari Three, (PROSE: First Frontier) the Master went to the Cheetah World, where he took control of the Cheetah People and the kitlings. He sent them to Ace's home in the London suburb of Perivale and hunted for human recruits. At the same time, exposure to the planet was changing the Master himself into a Cheetah Person. He found a pliable young man called Midge and used him to escape.
Using Midge as his "hunting dog", the Master recruited a gang of Perivale youths to defeat the Seventh Doctor and Ace. The Master killed Midge and teleported the Doctor to the Cheetah World, which had begun to break up. The Doctor escaped, but the Master was trapped on the dying world. (TV: Survival)
The Master was later the subject of a television report by Shaw Taylor on "Police 5" during the early nineties. He was remarked as a "dangerous criminal" by Shaw.
The television report displayed events from his time on Earth during the Third Doctor's exile and other Earth battles with the incarnations of the Doctor.
Segments were from events that occurred on other planets, the tapes were sent to the production crew of "Police 5" by an "unknown source".
The television report was no longer than ten minutes. This was the show's first crime file on a supposed "alien". (TV: Police 5: The Master)
The Seventh Doctor once described this incarnation of the Master as having a taste for melodrama. (AUDIO: The Two Masters)
After Cheetah World
- How exactly the Master escaped the Cheetah World and what occurred next was a matter of debate.
Many accounts held that the Master, still in Tremas's body, somehow escaped the Cheetah World, and that he either remained infected by the Cheetah Virus for quite some time, (PROSE: Stop the Pigeon, Prime Time) was cured by Tzun nanites, which restored his Gallifreyan physiognomy, (PROSE: First Frontier) or took on that of a Deathworm Morphant. (PROSE: The Eight Doctors)
No longer infected by the virus, the Master either lost Tremas's body and reverted to his previous cadaverous form, (AUDIO: Dust Breeding) or regenerated into a new body. (PROSE: First Frontier) Ultimately, however, he was once again in a stolen body by the time of his execution on Skaro. (PROSE: Omegamorphosis)
Tremas persists
One account had it that, having somehow escaped Cheetah World, the Master spent a short time on Earth attempting to cure the virus by extracting nutrients from dying humans, but was once again defeated by the Doctor. (PROSE: Stop the Pigeon) Now attempting to gain a new body from the legendary race known as the Fleshsmiths, his plan was yet again stopped by the Doctor, who ejected the new body from the Fleshsmith vessel into space. (PROSE: Prime Time)
Tremas lost
The Master learned of a device known as the Warp Core, a sentient powerhouse of mental energy designed as a weapon to safeguard the planet Duchamp 331. He tracked the Warp Core to Earth, intending to use it to power his TARDIS. Unprepared for its power and underestimating its outside awareness, he was attacked by the Warp Core, having the body he stole from Tremas stripped from him and reducing him to his previous decaying form. He then collected four Krill eggs with the intention of awakening the Warp Core from its slumber and exhausting it, so that he could draw it into his TARDIS to be his slave. The Master then used a mask to disguise his deformity and followed the Warp Core as it arrived on Duchamp 331. Under the alias Mr Seta, the Master funded Madame Salvadori's trip to Duchamp 331.
There, he unleashed the Krill upon the passengers, hypnotising Salvadori's aide, Klemp, in the process. Revealing his true identity, the Master kept Salvadori alive, before encountering the Doctor. When the Core arrived, the Master tried to ally with it, but it dismissed him, leading his to ordering Klemp to kill Salvadori, but Klemp's loyalty was too strong, so the Master killed him. The Doctor escaped to his TARDIS, and attempted to gain control of the Warp Core through his TARDIS's telepathic circuits, while the Master used his own to fight of the Doctor's influence, and gain control of it. After it and the planet was destroyed, the Master was flung through time and space. (AUDIO: Dust Breeding)
The Doctor later made a deal with Death whereby the Master would have ten years of peace and sanity, at the end of which the Doctor had to kill him.
During his ten years, the Master had become a physician on the colony world of Perfugium with no memory of his past, and took the name John Smith. He was taken in by Wolstonecroft, and inherited his house when Wolstonecroft died. During his time as John Smith, the Master had become emotionally involved with Jacqueline Schaeffer.
At the end of the allotted time, the Doctor arrived, but strove to avoid fulfilling his side of the bargain. The Master became aware of the Doctor's role in pledging him to Death as her servant, but while restored to John Smith, Smith forgave the Doctor for it, understanding that the adult couldn't be blamed for the actions of a child who didn't understand what was being offered. Death herself was present at these events, disguised as the Master's maid, and manipulated events so that the John Smith persona would crumble and the true Master would become dominant once more. (AUDIO: Master)
Finding a new regenerative cycle in the past
Another account claimed that, escaping from Cheetah World with the aid of a Kitling just as the planet exploded, the Master was flung back in time to Earth in 1957.
Trapped on Earth at the dawn of the Space Age, the Master interrupted the first Soviet satellite launch and sent a distress signal to the Tzun Canton on Zeta Reticuli Four. He offered to help assimilate Earth into the Tzun Confederacy. In return, the Master asked for passage off Earth and the use of the Tzun's genetic engineering to cure his Cheetah Virus infection. The Tzun accepted and prepared nanites for him that broke down the corrupted Trakenite DNA in his cells and restructured it. This restored the Master to being a "full" Time Lord, which gave him a new regenerative cycle. While assisting the Tzun, the Master used the alias "Major Kreer". Shortly after being restored to his full Time Lord heritage he was shot in the back by Ace, causing him to regenerate.
Following the regeneration he was able to make his escape, summoning his TARDIS using a Stattenheim remote control built from Tzun technology. After leaving a booby-trap for the Doctor in a nuclear warhead, the Master fled. (PROSE: First Frontier)
Later, the Master laid a trap for the Doctor in one of the Doctor's homes using a device which would release the energy from a time fissure once the Doctor's TARDIS materialised, destroying it. The plan failed when Sarah Jane Smith, Mike Yates and K9 destroyed the device, causing the Master to flee. (PROSE: Housewarming)
The nanites the Tzun gave the Master eventually began to fail, causing him to seek the Loom of Rassilon's Mouse in order to make himself a new body. His plan failed when a Fortean Flicker caused Bernice Summerfield's wedding to occur in the same place, exposing his scheme to her guests. However, the Master managed to escape by hypnotising Kitai into posing as a decoy. (PROSE: Happy Endings)
Tremas retained
Another account indicated that, immediately after his experience on Cheetah World, and still in Tremas' body, the Master travelled to the planet of the Morgs in search of a way to cheat death, and obtained the form of a Deathworm. (PROSE: The Eight Doctors)
A new body again
Once again in a stolen body, the Master tried to steal the body of a boy named Callum, but his plan was foiled by the Doctor. (PROSE: Omegamorphosis)
Fighting the Eighth Doctor
Now in his "final incarnation", (TV: Doctor Who) the Master arrived in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt and was captured by the Daleks to be placed on trial, (AUDIO: Mastermind) for his attempts to destroy them and usurp their place as "the supreme creatures of the universe." (PROSE: The Novel of the Film) After he was tried and executed by the Daleks on Skaro as part of a Time Lord-Dalek treaty, (PROSE: Lungbarrow) he made a final request: for the Doctor to transport his remains back to Gallifrey. However, his essence survived his physical death in the fluid-like form (TV: Doctor Who) of a Deathworm Morphant. (AUDIO: Mastermind)
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 emercancy 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) 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. 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) and then used Bruce's memories to track the Doctor to Walker General Hospital. (PROSE: The Novel of the Film)
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) 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 also Genghis Khan. With Lee's help, the Master was able to open the Eye of Harmony, and discovered that the Doctor had regenerated into a new body, and that the Doctor was apparently half-human. (TV: Doctor Who)
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. (TV: Doctor Who)
Still wearing Bruce's clothes, (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 decaying Master joined in the struggle, followed rapidly by the "Bruce" Master, and the group soon became involved in a full on brawl. The five were quickly disqualified, seemingly destroying them. (COMIC: The Five Masters)
Having donned more traditional Gallifreyan robes, the Master boasted his plans to the retrained 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)
Imprisonment
While his essence was left wandering the Time Vortex, (COMIC: The Glorious Dead) 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. (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles)
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 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)
Beyond the Eye of Harmony
Fight for the Glory
One account claimed that after the Master passed through the Eye of Harmony, his essence was left wandering the Time Vortex. Nearing his ultimate destruction, he was rescued from the Vortex by a being named Esterath, the controller of the Glory, the focal point of the Omniverse. The Master was told that it was time for the Glory to gain another controller, but the power had to be fought for. The Master assumed that the battle would be between himself and his greatest foe, the Doctor.
After gliding over the many realities throughout the Omniversal Spectrum for what he described as seeming like centuries, the Master was resurrected into the body of a recently deceased vagrant on the streets of 2001 Brixton. Some weeks afterwards,