The Master's trial (The TV Movie)
On the planet Skaro, an incarnation of the Master was put on trial, which ended in his apparent execution by the Daleks.
History
Capture
The Old Master, in a body with "saturnine features" which he had obtained as yet another way to extend his life, (PROSE: The Novel of the Film) eventually arrived in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt and was captured (AUDIO: Mastermind) by a Dalek scouting party. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe)
Another account claimed that the Master's trial by the Daleks took place immediately after his experience on the Cheetah World, with him still in his stolen Trakenite body and maddened by the cheetah virus, coming to the Daleks of his own accord after consuming a deathworm. (PROSE: The Eight Doctors)
The trial
At any rate, the Master was indeed tried in the presence of the Dalek Emperor (PROSE: The Novel of the Film) by the whole Parliament of the Daleks. According to A Short Treatise on Dalek Justice, the Master was being tried for his failure in the plot behind the Human-Draconian War, (PROSE: The Runes of Fenric) crimes dating back to one of his previous incarnations, (TV: Frontier in Space) although the Emperor made it clear that the Daleks were more generally punishing him for his repeated attempts to destroy them and usurp their place as "the supreme creatures of the universe".
While the Emperor delivered his verdict, the Master was encased in a painful column of light which prevented him from moving; (PROSE: The Novel of the Film) it was "said" that he stayed oddly impassive as his long list of crimes was read out to him. In truth, this was all a ruse to get inside the Doctor's TARDIS and further extend his precarious existence. (TV: Doctor Who)
The Master's execution
After he was tried and executed by the Dalek Prelature, (AUDIO: Mastermind) the Master made a final request: for the Seventh Doctor to transport his remains back to Gallifrey. (TV: Doctor Who) According to one account, he made this request via telepathic contact with the Seventh Doctor, even as he was about to be discorporated, and the Daleks never knew of his demands, which the Doctor fulfilled covertly by sneaking into the Dalek bastion. (PROSE: The Novel of the Film) According to other accounts, it was as part of a Time Lord-Dalek treaty (PROSE: Lungbarrow) called the "Act of Master Restitution" (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords, Meet the Doctor) that the Doctor was able to safely journey to and from Skaro to retrieve the Master's remains. (TV: Doctor Who)
Yet another account had historians speculated that both the Daleks' giving the Master a fair trial in the first place and their carrying out his last will and testament were evidence that the Daleks harboured some amount of respect for their one-time ally. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe)
Behind the scenes
- An illustration of the Master's execution is depicted in the Flashbacks feature in the sixty-first issue of the Doctor Who DVD Files magazine. The Dalek executioners are depicted as hovering Imperial Daleks as originally seen in Remembrance of the Daleks.
- In The Dalek Handbook, the Master's trial on Skaro is said to have been eventually followed by the Tenth Dalek Occupation, after which the Daleks vanished from time and space to fight the Last Great Time War.
