The Master (Scream of the Shalka)
An incarnation of the Master travelled with the Ninth Doctor in an android body.
Biography
At one point, the Master and the Doctor crossed paths. It was during this encounter that the Master lost his physical form, and he was forced to occupy an android body, the appearance of which he had personally selected. (NOTVALID: Scream of the Shalka) He noted that he was less than happy with this arrangement, saying that it was "an offer I was foolish enough to accept". He also said that he "was of aid to the Doctor during the events that damaged him". He could not leave the TARDIS because his android body was limited to functioning inside it. (NOTVALID: Scream of the Shalka)
He assisted the Doctor and Alison Cheney in fighting the Shalka. (NOTVALID: Scream of the Shalka, Scream of the Shalka)
The Master was later connected to the TARDIS' telepathic circuits by the Doctor in order to destroy a psychic vampire by feeding it with the Master's pure evil memories and personality. (NOTVALID: The Feast of the Stone)
Personality
This Master retained his charm and his wit, together with his hypnotic abilities. He attempted without success to hypnotise the Doctor's latest companion Alison Cheney, but was interrupted by the Doctor. (NOTVALID: Scream of the Shalka)
Behind the scenes
- With the Eighth Doctor Adventures being an ongoing series at the time of Scream of the Shalka's release, range editor Justin Richards connected the Eighth Doctor's continuity to that of the Ninth Doctor's via the Master. As Richards confirmed in DWM 338, the novel Sometime Never... tied in to Scream of the Shalka with a scene in "the room in the TARDIS where the Doctor never goes," wherein the Eighth Doctor encounters the Master's essence trapped in the Doctor's TARDIS since TV: Doctor Who. The Master's face appears on a screen and is described as "wise and whimsical with hard eyes and a beard flecked with grey," a more concise version of Paul Cornell's description of the android Master in PROSE: Scream of the Shalka. This "ghost in the machine" Master reappears in The Deadstone Memorial and The Gallifrey Chronicles. The link between this trapped Master and the android Master was later clarified by PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords, which stated that "some rumours" said that after the events of TV: Doctor Who "some say that he remained trapped in the Doctor’s TARDIS, his mental resources transferred into an android, acting as the Doctor’s companion or pet."
- Derek Jacobi, who voiced this version of the Master, would go on to play a new version of the War Master in TV: Utopia, and later star in his own audio series, The War Master.
- According to the production information text on the Scream of the Shalka DVD, in original drafts of the script, instead of an android of the Master being the TARDIS Defence System, it was going to be a hologram of the Fifth Doctor. This was later changed so that it would be the Master instead.
