The Master
- This article is about the renegade Time Lord known as "The Master." For other uses of the term "Master", see Master (disambiguation).
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.
The Master, formerly known as Koschei and by various temporary aliases and pseudonyms, was an evil renegade Time Lord who the Doctor, with whom he had grown up on Gallifrey, opposed many times. On at least one occasion, he threatened the existence of the universe itself.
Biography
Early life
Childhood
Ever since I was a child... I looked into the Vortex and that's when it chose me. The drumming. The call. To war.
Koschei, later known as the Master, grew up on Gallifrey, in the House of Oakdown. (PDA: Divided Loyalties)
The Master's true origins are surrounded in mystery and there are many conflicting theories about it. In his seventh incarnation, the Doctor related a story which explained the Master's origins. He said that both he and the Master had been mercilessly and viciously bullied as children. The young Doctor found himself forced to kill the bully in order to save his friend's life. He was later confronted by the personification of Death who insisted he become her disciple.
The Doctor refused and instead suggested Death make the Master her champion instead, to which she agreed. The Doctor said that ever since he had always felt partly responsible for the carnage the Master would later cause. (BFA: Master)
- It's not clear whether this event occurred before or after the event described below.
Like most Gallifreyans taken as Time Lords, Koschei would be taken at the age of eight for his training. During the ceremony where he gazed into the Time Vortex through the Untempered Schism, it is said that Koschei went insane. This manifested by the constant drumming he heard ever since the event, which appeared to worsen as time went on. (DW: Utopia / The Sound of Drums / Last of the Time Lords)
- Speculation that the drumming worsened over time is supported by the fact that incarnations of the Master prior to the "Saxon" and "Yana" incarnations made no reference to the drumming or being troubled by it. It is also possible that the mental effects of turning himself human to escape the Time War amplified the drumming until he became obsessed with it in his "Yana" incarnation.
Youth
At the Academy, Koschei belonged to a clique of young Time Lords with the collective name of the Deca. The Doctor and other future rivals Ushas (later known as the Rani) and Magnus (later known as the War Chief) also belonged to the Deca. (PDA: Divided Loyalties)
Vendetta against the Doctor
Origins of the vendetta
After the Doctor fled Gallifrey, Koschei was recruited to pursue and apprehend him. His unstable obsession with order however, prompted the Time Lords to plant the Time Lady Ailla as a spy to monitor Koschei's actions. Ailla posed as a Human so that Koschei would take her on as his companion during a stopover in the 28th century. Koschei caught up with the Doctor at the Darkheart colony in the early years of the Federation.
The temptation posed by the Darkheart device proved too much for Koschei, and the revelation that Ailla had been a spy killed the last traces of good in him. After the Doctor trapped him in a black hole Koschei, the Master, swore to take revenge on him. (MA: The Dark Path)
The vendetta continues
Doctor, you're my intellectual equal. Almost. I have too few worthy opponents. When they've gone I always miss them.
The Master then sought to defeat the newly regenerated Doctor on Earth and in doing so came up against him, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and the rest of UNIT.
- For details on this period of his life, see separate article.
Degeneration
You do not understand hatred as I understand it. Only hate keeps me alive. Why else should I endure this pain?
Susan Foreman triggered an explosion when the Master attempted to kidnap her. He exhausted his regenerative cycle recovering from the injuries sustained in the explosion on the planet Tersurus (EDA: Legacy of the Daleks), where Chancellor Goth found the Master, in a wasted condition. The Master had by this time reached the end of his regeneration cycle and had turned into an animate though rotting corpse. The Master, with the collaboration of Goth, lured the Doctor to Gallifrey in order to have him framed for the assassination of the Lord President.
The Master nearly succeeded in acquiring the Eye of Harmony and using its energy reserves to renew himself. (DW: The Deadly Assassin) On the planet Traken, the centre of the Traken Union, still in his degenerated form, the Master plotted to take over the Source, the power behind the Traken Union. (DW: The Keeper of Traken)
- For details on this incarnation, see separate article.
Usurpation
A new body at last.
The Master did manage to steal the body of Tremas, the father of the Doctor's future companion, Nyssa. (DW: The Keeper of Traken) He immediately set out on a new career of villainy in his new body. (DW: Logopolis) Eventually, he found himself taken over himself on the Cheetah World by a foreign influence and began to lose control. He ended up trapped there as it began to die. (DW: Survival)
- For more details on this incarnation, see separate article.
New Regenerative Cycle
The Master was able to teleport from the Cheetah World to 1953 Earth where he constructed himself an identity as Major Kreer. He made a deal with the Tzun to restore his corrupted Time Lord DNA, caused by his physical merger with the Trakenite, Tremas. This was a success, and he was able to regenerate into a new body. (NA: First Frontier)
The Master later attempted to seize control of a powerful artifact known as the Warp Core. This plan backfired and due to his exposure to the device the Master's body reverted to a state similar to his degenerated form. For a while he persisted in trying to acquire the Core. During that time he habitually wore a mask and adopted the alias Mr Seta. (BFA: Dust Breeding)
- From the perspective of the Doctor and Ace, this took place before, not after the Master's meeting with the Tzun.
Doctor John Smith
The Doctor related a story of how he made a deal with Death whereby the Master would have ten years of peace and sanity, at the end of which the Doctor must kill him. The still-scarred Master had become a physician with no memory of his past, and took the name Doctor John Smith.
He was still somehow deeply aware of his dark nature and troubled by it. The Master had in the meantime become emotionally involved with a woman named Jaqueline Schaeffer during this time.
At the end of the ten years the Doctor duly 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 forgave him for it. Death herself was present then, disguised as the Master's maid. She manipulated events so that it would appear inevitable that the John Smith persona would crumble and the true Master become dominant once more. (BFA: Master)
Glory
Life is wasted on the living!
Eventually, he was tried and executed and physically destroyed by the Daleks on Skaro as part of a Time Lord-Dalek treaty. However, his essence survived in a fluid-like form called either a morphant (DWM: The Fallen) or a deathworm (EDA: The Eight Doctors). His "last wish" was for the Doctor to transport his remains to Gallifrey; during transport, the Master was able to sabotage the Doctor's TARDIS, forcing it to land on Earth in 1999. The Master subsequently took over the body of Bruce, an ambulance driver in San Francisco. This incarnation was only intended to be a temporary one -- indeed, "Bruce" began to decay almost immediately -- as the Master launched a scheme to steal the Doctor's remaining regenerations.
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At the end of a battle with the himself recently regenerated Doctor, the Master fell into the Eye of Harmony, and appeared to be destroyed. (DW: Doctor Who)
- For more on this incarnation, see separate article.
However, the Master was rescued from the Vortex by a being named Esterath, the then-controller of the Glory, the focal point of reality. It would soon be time for the Glory to gain another controller, but the power had to be fought for. Of course, the Master assumed the battle would be between himself and his greatest foe.
Given a new body, the Master trailed the Doctor for some time without his enemy suspecting - even after they had met face to face. He was present in London during the crisis resulting from Grace Holloway's attempt to merge Human and Time Lord DNA (the alien DNA was in fact that of a morphant from Skaro). He killed an MI6 agent with the TCE at this time, but fortunately the Doctor departed before the Master's trademark was discovered. (DWM: The Fallen)
The Master later made contact with Sato Katsura, a Japanese samurai unwillingly rendered immortal as a result of his involvement in the Doctor's adventures. The embittered warrior became the Master's follower. At his behest, Sato adopted the identity of Cardinal Morningstar and became leader of the Church of the Glorious Dead, instigator of a holy war that altered the history of Earth and led to it becoming known as Dhakan.
Passing through the Eye had given the Master the ability to influence the flight of the TARDIS, which he used to send the craft to times and places which would weaken the Doctor's self-belief and confidence. This done, the two fought for the Glory, with the Master apparently triumphant.
However, the Master was mistaken: the true battle was between his companion, Sato, and the Doctor's, the Cyberman Kroton. Kroton was the ultimate winner of this contest, and amongst his first acts as controller of the Glory were to cleanse the TARDIS of the Master's influence, and to banish the Master himself to parts unknown. The Master declared he would survive and return. (DWM: The Glorious Dead)
One account tells of how he later escaped from the Eye and possessed the body of a Human native of 1906. (ST: Forgotten)
Return
So it came to pass, that the human race fell... and the Earth was no more. And I looked down upon my new dominion, as Master of all, and I thought it... good.
In the Last Great Time War, the Time Lords themselves brought the Master back from oblivion in order to use him as a weapon in defense of Gallifrey. However, he deserted the instant the Dalek Emperor took control of the Cruciform (DW: The Sound of Drums) as the sheer scale of the conflict seemed to frighten even the Master. He fled to the end of the universe and used a Chameleon Arch to become Human, remaining in the guise of the elderly Professor Yana. Martha Jones, who had traveled to this time period with the Doctor, recognized Yana's fob watch as similar to or the same as the one carried by the Doctor after he experienced the Chameleon Arch and unintentionally prompted Yana to open the watch. The Master returned in his old identity and attacked his assistant, killing her even as she shot him in the stomach. (DW: Utopia)
- For more information on Yana, see separate article.
Fatally wounded, though now aware of his identity, the Master regenerated and escaped to 2000s Earth in the Doctor's TARDIS. (DW: Utopia) There he assumed the identity of Harold Saxon and successfully ran for the position of Prime Minister. He then proceeded to take the Doctor prisoner and take over the Earth with the help of the Toclafane and a paradox machine he had made from the TARDIS. This timeline was reverted, however, when Jack Harkness destroyed the paradox machine. As the Doctor took him into custody, the Master was shot by Lucy Saxon, and collapsed in the Doctor's arms. Knowing that he and the Doctor were the last two remaining Time Lords, and knowing how badly the Doctor wanted to not be alone, he refused to regenerate, telling the Doctor, "I win." The Doctor burned his body on a funeral pyre, but a mysterious figure retrieved the Master's ring from the ashes.(DW: The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords)
However, somehow the master managed to survive, and returned yet again. How he returned and why will be revealed at Christmas.
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- For more details on this incarnation see Harold Saxon. See The Year That Never Was for details of the timeline in which he ruled Earth.
Other information
Companions
I only need two things. Your submission and your obedience to my will!!
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 whom the Master met in San Francisco (DW: Doctor Who); 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. This is 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 an apparent alternate timeline, a version of the Master exists as an android companion to the Doctor. (WC: Scream of the Shalka)
- 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. Presumably "Professor Yana" continued working with Chantho to preserve remainder of the human race (DW: Turn Left).
Personality
The Master was 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 was arrogant and exceptionally vain, which leads to his downfall on many occasions. By the time of his return from his Yana persona, he appeared 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 refused 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).
He was able to match the Doctor's keen wit and sense of humour, 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 Richard 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 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 an all-powerful, God-like Doctor probably based around the Doctor's habit of challenging his old foe's grandiose self-image by constantly derailing his 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
Name
The name "Koschei" has been developed in various novels and other media. Like the Doctor the Master's real name has yet to be revealed on-screen.
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 episode, 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.
Television appearances (1971-1989)
- Roger Delgado as the first version of the character to appear on Doctor Who. He first appeared in the role in 1971's Terror of the Autons.
- Peter Pratt and Geoffrey Beevers as his next incarnation (both actors played the same incarnation of the character). They appeared in The Deadly Assassin and The Keeper of Traken, respectively.
- Anthony Ainley as The Master in the body of Tremas from the last moments of The Keeper of Traken through the last original series story Survival, making him the longest running actor to portray the Master up to the present day. Note that the character had several extended absences from the series.
Television movie and mini-episode (1996 and 1999)
- Eric Roberts played the Master in the body of Bruce, in Doctor Who.
- In the same production, Gordon Tipple appeared in a non-speaking role as the Master's previous incarnation.
- Jonathan Pryce played "The 17th Master" in a non-canonical spoof mini-episode, The Curse of Fatal Death.
New series (2007)
- Derek Jacobi played Professor Yana, a Human version of the Master, as well as the Master himself once he was reverted back to a Time Lord.
- John Simm played the Master's next incarnation. Both actors debuted in Utopia, though only Simm appeared in the following episodes The Sound of Drums and Last of the Time Lords. He is set to return in The End of Time, where the Doctor will regenerate into his eleventh incarnation.
- John Sandilands had a non-speaking cameo as the young Master during a flashback sequence in The Sound of Drums.
Other media
Animation
- Derek Jacobi also played another incarnation of the Master in the web-based animation Scream of the Shalka.
Audio
- Geoffrey Beevers reprised the role in the audio plays Dust Breeding and Master.
- Mark Gatiss played an alternative version of the character in Sympathy for the Devil.
Video game
- Anthony Ainley reprised the role in videotaped scenes included in the game Destiny of the Doctors. These sequences appear as extras on the DVD version of Survival, his last television story.
Continuity
- The Doctor Who Role Playing Game from the American gaming company FASA identified the Monk and the War Chief as earlier incarnations of the Master, causing a few fans to mistakenly believe that Doctor Who itself had stated a connection, when it had not done so. Novel and comic continuity specifically indicates otherwise.
- The Big Finish Productions audio play Master and the television episode The Sound of Drums have the Doctor telling two different and apparently contradictory explanations for how the Master turned evil (Although it may be that both the schism and the deal with Death were responsible, with the deal with Death making the Master's madness more powerful).
- Although novels have been written establishing the "first" Master's activities between the final televised appearance of Roger Delgado Frontier in Space and the character's return in The Deadly Assassin in a degenerated form, the latter adventure makes no direct link. Therefore it can't be said for certain (based upon on-screen evidence) whether this incarnation is the same one played by Delgado.
- In the 2009 Easter special of Doctor Who Planet of the Dead (TV story), the psychic character states at the end that the Doctor's "song will soon end", (a possible reference to the fact that the current Doctor, David Tennant, will soon be leaving and regenerating into Matt Smith), 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 the first sign of the Master's return, as the last appearance of the Master was in the series finale of 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 possible, albeit an unintentional anagram of "Master No. Six" as "Sam Tyler" (John Simm's Life on Mars character) is an anagram of "masterly".
External Links
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