Bruce Gerhardt
The character's full name is Bruce Gerhardt, as revealed by The Novel of the Film.
Talk about it here.
Bruce Gerhardt was an ambulance EMT in San Francisco in 1999 whom the Old Master possessed and, in effect, killed. He was described by his wife as "a career, someone who would inconvenience himself without a thought if it would help someone else." (PROSE: The Novel of the Film)
Biography
In 1985, Bruce became a paramedic. In 1994, he married Miranda. (PROSE: The Novel of the Film)
On 30 December 1999, Bruce helped transport the Seventh Doctor and Chang Lee to Walker General Hospital after the Doctor's gunshot injury. He also unknowingly took the Old Master — in the form of a Deathworm Morphant — home with him. (TV: Doctor Who)
That night, while Bruce lay in bed snoring, much to the annoyance of Miranda, the Master possessed his body, presumably destroying Bruce's consciousness in the process. One of the Master-possessed Bruce's first actions was to kill Miranda, after which he set off in pursuit of the Doctor's TARDIS and the Eye of Harmony within it. After a shaky start, the Master soon mastered Bruce's body, which eventually began to decay. He also adopted Bruce's American accent.
Body's fate
Bruce's body was eventually sucked into the Eye of Harmony in the Doctor's TARDIS and, presumably, destroyed. (TV: Doctor Who) While exploring the Eighth Doctor's TARDIS, River Song believed she heard an American screaming from within the walls. (GAME: The Eternity Clock)
According to one account, after the Master was sucked into the Eye of Harmony, Bruce's body was slowly destroyed, and the Master was only saved by the intervention of Esterath, who deposited him into the body of a deceased vagabond. (TV: The Glorious Dead)
According to another account, as the Eye of Harmony tried to break him down into pure energy, the Master managed to ride the energy into a spare room, which the Doctor's TARDIS then ejected into the Time Vortex to protect the Doctor. The Master would remain stranded in the vortex in Bruce's body for so many years that he had lost count. As a result of inhabiting Bruce's body, the Master found that he now lacked the mental defences he possessed prior, and so he was susceptible to Kaliopi Mileska's ability to read minds. (AUDIO: The Lifeboat and the Deathboat)
Behind the scenes
- Bruce and Miranda were played by real-life husband and wife Eric Roberts and Eliza Roberts.
