"The Master"
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"The Master" — known in their first known female incarnation as "Missy" (short for "Mistress"), in their second as "the Lumiat", and at times by various other aliases — was a renegade Time Lord, a power-hungry "lover of chaos" who served as both a friend and an opponent of the Doctor.
Friends from childhood and schoolmates at the Time Lord Academy, the divide between the Master's lust for power and the Doctor's empathy for lesser species would eventually pull the two farther and farther apart — to the point that the Master often sought to kill the Doctor. Despite this enmity, however, the two would on occasion act as allies, and both continued to yearn for their old friendship.
Like the Doctor, the Master fled from Gallifrey in a TARDIS of his own, and, having fully embraced his darker nature, would go on to pit himself against the Third Doctor and UNIT during the Doctor's exile on Earth. Having expended his original regeneration cycle, the Master survived in the ghastly form of a living cadaver, in which form he fought the Fourth Doctor, before exploiting the powers of the Source on Traken to steal the body of Tremas. He would continue his crusade to submit the universe to his will in a variety of stolen or otherwise fraudulent bodies, from using Tzun nanites in order to gain new regenerations, to transferring his essence into a Deathworm Morphant, which allowed him to survive execution by the Dalek Prelature, and continue to survive by possessing a succession of human bodies.
Finally killed by the Ravenous, the Master was eventually restored to life for good, on the instructions of the Time Lords in preparation for a future conflict with the Daleks. After working with the War Doctor in the body of a child during the Time War, the Master regenerated into an older body that tried to manipulate the conflict to suit his own goals. However, after his failure to end the war using the Heavenly Paradigm, resulting in even more devastation across the timeline, the Master was driven to such a state of terror that he fled to the end of the universe and turned himself into a human baby with a Chameleon Arch. After spending many years living as a humble human scientist on Malcassairo, the Master's personality was reawakened by Martha Jones, and, fatally shot by Chantho, he regenerated into a younger body.
Using the alias "Harold Saxon", the Master engineered his election as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the 2008 elections, and then sought to use the Earth to create a new Gallifrey. When his plan was foiled, he was shot by his wife, Lucy, and decided not to regenerate and die to spite the Doctor. Following a faulty resurrection by the Disciples of Saxon, the Master used the Immortality Gate to create the Master Race and attempted to free Gallifrey from the time lock of the Last Great Time War, but instead entered the last day of the war to get revenge on Rassilon.
After Gallifrey returned to the universe, the Master left, and eventually ended up on a Mondasian colony ship, where he came face-to-face with a future female incarnation of himself, who stabbed him to ensure his regeneration into her. Now a woman, the Master began to call herself "Missy", the self-proclaimed "Queen of Evil". Missy went through many chaotic adventures of her own throughout the universe, but, although she loudly denied having "turned good", she demonstrated a willingness to rekindle her friendship with the Twelfth Doctor.
Eventually, Missy was captured and imprisoned inside a Quantum Fold Chamber, which was moved into a vault at St Luke's University by the Twelfth Doctor and Nardole. Although she claimed she could leave the Vault anytime she wanted to, she chose not to because she wanted to become a good person. So the Doctor tried to rehabilitate her and rekindle their friendship on his terms. On the verge of changing, Missy was sent on a trial adventure with Nardole and Bill Potts to the same colony ship her previous incarnation had regenerated on, later joining him upon realising that he had been responsible for Bill's cyber-conversion. In the end though, she betrayed and killed her past self in order to finally stand with the Doctor, but was then killed herself in retaliation before she could return to him, with both Masters believing that this had been their "perfect ending".
Although the Master believed that the blast had disabled Missy's ability to regenerate, Missy managed to use an Elysian field, forbidden technology that could break a Time Lord's body down into atoms and molecules then reform it anew, to grant herself a new regeneration cycle and kickstart her next regeneration. Using the field, she was also able to edit her personality, distilling all the goodness within her into a new benevolent incarnation who called herself "the Lumiat". The Lumiat, whose mission it was to go back and undo the damage her previous incarnation had caused, attempted several times to change Missy's ways before she was ultimately killed by her, having grown bored of her future self.
The Lumiat regenerated into a male incarnation who called himself "the Master" again, who looked down on Missy's attempts to better herself. The Master returned to Gallifrey and discovered in the Matrix that all of Time Lord history had been "built on the lie" of the Timeless Child, which involved the true origin of the Doctor. Embittered by his discoveries, and lashing out from the belief that the Doctor had always been more than he was, the Master took his revenge on Gallifrey, leaving it in ruin. He next turned to plague the Thirteenth Doctor and Team TARDIS, eventually revealing the truth about the Timeless Child and building an army of CyberMasters from the remains of the Time Lords he had killed, becoming the host of the Cyberium consciousness to make himself their commander. However, his plot was thwarted when Ko Sharmus detonated the death particle on Gallifrey, wiping out whatever organic life remained on the planet.
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) The name he was born with consisted of thirty-two letters; (PROSE: Lords and Masters) it was "mellifluous" and, as per the Gallifreyan custom, could never be revealed to a non-Time Lord. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Terror of the Autons)
Like all Time Lords, the Master was taken from his family at the age of eight for the selection process. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords) During the ceremony in which he gazed into the Time Vortex through the Untempered Schism, he went mad, (TV: The Sound of Drums) due to 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 Master and a young Doctor became friends on their first day at the Academy, (TV: World Enough and Time) with both being tutored by Borusa, (AUDIO: Masterplan) and the Doctor quickly developing a "man-crush" on his new friend. (TV: World Enough and Time) The Master later speculated that the Doctor had had an actual crush on them from the start. (AUDIO: The Bekdel Test) The duo also made a friend in the War Chief on their first day at the Academy. (PROSE: Divided Loyalties)
Sharing the same heritage and upbringing, (AUDIO: Dominion) the Master developed a strong bond with the Doctor, (TV: The Sea Devils, The Sound of Drums, World Enough and Time) 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) while the Third Doctor told Jo Grant that the two were "inseparable" due to their shared interests, such as a desire to break the non-interference policy. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Sea-Devils) The Twelfth Doctor recalled how he and the Master had a pact to explore every star in the universe together. (TV: World Enough and Time) The Master and the Doctor enjoyed building "time flow analogues" to disrupt each other's experiments. (TV: The Time Monster)
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 Master picking a fight with six drunken Shobogans during one of these outings. (PROSE: UNIT Christmas Parties: Christmas Truce) The Master also taught his friend hypnotism, and would often hypnotise people as a joke, (PROSE: The Dark Path) but would go unpunished for it, as well as other misdemeanours, always finding a way to avoid his comeuppance. (PROSE: First Frontier)
During their childhood, the Master and the Doctor were mercilessly and viciously bullied by a boy called Torvic; the Doctor was eventually forced to kill the bully to save his friend's life. The Doctor 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)
According to a dream the Fifth Doctor had under the control of the Celestial Toymaker, the Master went by the name "Koschei" at the Academy and belonged to a clique of ten young Time Lords with the collective name of the Deca. (PROSE: Divided Loyalties) He was also part of the "Gallifrey Academy Hot Five" band, in which he played the drums. (PROSE: Deadly Reunion) The Master was in charge of organising end of term parties, although the Eighth Doctor later noted that they weren't very good. (COMIC: The Glorious Dead)
Some accounts alleged that the Master chose his title while he was beginning to "hone his talents" at the Academy. (AUDIO: The Destination Wars) The Doctor chose his around the same time. The Master felt that the name the Doctor chose was "sanctimonious", (TV: The Sound of Drums) while the Doctor thought the Master's new name was a sign of his ambition and arrogance. (AUDIO: The Destination Wars) The Tenth Doctor once stated that it would be a "psychologist's field day" understanding why he chose to call himself "the Master", (TV: The Sound of Drums) with one account claiming he gained the nickname of "the Master" in his Academy days because he was a bully to less domineering students than himself. (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey) However, according to other accounts, the Master's early travels as a Renegade Time Lord were under the name of "Koschei"; it was only after swearing vengeance on the Second Doctor that he rejected that name and became "the Master". (PROSE: The Dark Path, The Face of the Enemy)
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)
At the Academy, the Master was a "teacher's pet" and won gold stars, while the Doctor was the class dunce, (PROSE: Time and Relative) though the Doctor was Borusa's favourite. Ultimately, the Master did not perform well at the Academy. Despite being better at metabolic control, (AUDIO: Masterplan) and earning a higher degree in cosmic science than the Doctor, (TV: Terror of the Autons) he was not skilled in practical matters, (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey) and the Doctor's grades were overall better than his. 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 the Master's hatred towards him, (PROSE: Survival) with Eighth Doctor believing that his jealousy over Borusa was the cause of the Master's hatred towards him. (AUDIO: Masterplan)
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 had 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, but the Doctor declined to have his name put down on the calculations as he questioned the ethics of the assignment. 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)
As the Doctor grew up, he came to understand that he and his friend were not the same. (TV: Death in Heaven) Following an incident at the Academy in which the Master did not keep his word, he and the Doctor had a falling out, (PROSE: Last of the Gaderene) eventually leading the Doctor to realise that the Master stood against everything he believed in. (AUDIO: The Destination Wars)
The Master was on an Academy research project when the Doctor was expelled from the Academy. (PROSE: Divided Loyalties)
In one of his earliest schemes at the Academy, the Master befriended one of his professors, Salyavin, to gain access to Gallifrey's most restricted libraries and find The Worshipful and Ancient Law of Gallifrey. The Master himself failed to find the book, and ended up letting the innocent Salyavin bear the consequences of his breach of Gallifrey's laws; Salyavin ended up stealing the book anyway, reasoning he might as well if he was to be blamed for it, (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey) and was imprisoned on Shada, from which he later escaped, renaming himself "Professor Chronotis". (TV: Shada)
Life on Gallifrey
After graduating, the Master was involved in "field work" studying historical interplay and temporal structures. However, he was reprimanded for various minor breaches of the non-interference policy. (PROSE: CIA File Extracts) Still maintaining a "friend[ship] of sorts", the Master and the Doctor were pioneers and inventors among their people, (AUDIO: The Destination Wars) agreeing that Gallifrey should be more interventionist, although the Master's theories in this regard seemed excessive even to the Doctor. (PROSE: CIA File Extracts) Missy claimed she had a daughter and that, while still on Gallifrey, the Doctor gifted the Master a dark star alloy brooch, after an event which involved his daughter occurred. (TV: The Witch's Familiar)
Following the Morbius Crisis, however, the Master was recalled to Gallifrey and assigned to the Prydonian Academy as a teacher of mathematics and computer science. (PROSE: CIA File Extracts)
Eventually, the Master had the job of truant officer, and he performed his job with punctuality, self-discipline, and meritorious conduct. (PROSE: Time and Relative) He once attended a ritual in Arcadia where he gave Susan a toy that was actually a disguised communication node that would locate the Doctor if he ever left Gallifrey. (AUDIO: The Toy) Susan was afraid of him. (PROSE: Time and Relative)
According to the writings of Postar the Perfidious, the War Chief, (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey) who according to some accounts would later became the Master, (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon) had once been on the High Council of Gallifrey alongside the Doctor. (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey)
Fleeing Gallifrey
On the day that the Doctor left Gallifrey, the Master was desperate to know where he went. (PROSE: Celestial Intervention - A Gallifreyan Noir) He used the node he gave Susan to locate the Doctor, but found that the node had established a connection with Nyssa, a companion of the Fifth Doctor. The Master tried to take control of Nyssa but was stopped by the intervention of the Doctor. (AUDIO: The Toy) When retired CIA agent Maris was hired to find the Doctor, the Master, helped by the Rani, used a chronal mine to kidnap her. They interrogated Maris on the whereabouts of the Doctor, and were displeased when she told them she didn't know. They were about to kill her when her employer extracted her from the area. (PROSE: Celestial Intervention - A Gallifreyan Noir)
The Master ultimately left Gallifrey on the same day the Doctor did, (COMIC: The Glorious Dead) in a Type-45 TARDIS, (PROSE: The Dark Path) that he had also stolen (COMIC: The Glorious Dead) when the Quadriggers were still working on it. (AUDIO: The Destination Wars) One Time Lord stated that the Master left Gallifrey because, like the Doctor, it was "too peaceful for [him], [with] not enough happening". (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon) The Fifth Doctor believed that the Master left Gallifrey because he was also leaving. (AUDIO: The Toy)
According to one account, when the Doctor escaped Gallifrey, the Master was in line for a promotion to Head Truant Officer, but his career depended on catching the Doctor and Susan and preventing any violations of the non-interference policy. (PROSE: Time and Relative) The Second Doctor was once nearly captured by a Time Lord "truant officer" going by the name of "Pavo" who used a small silver baton as a weapon and had hypnotic abilities. However, after Pavo's own law-abiding nature was compromised in the course of the mission, Pavo let the Doctor go, erasing his and his companions' memory of the encounter. (AUDIO: The Black Hole)
According to another 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, but were overheard by the authorities when trying to convert the Doctor again, and bloody reprisals against the students followed. The Doctor and Larn escaped from Gallifrey after this. Believing the students ready for another 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)
Early exploits
There existed largely irreconcilable accounts of the circumstances of the Master's first travels after leaving Gallifrey, down to the physical appearance of the Master and the name he used during these early exploits.
As "the Inventor"
According to one account, an incarnation of the Master with brownish-grey hair and a short beard, who already went by the name of "Master", was the one who first ran away from Gallifrey. As his TARDIS was broken when he stole it, it fell apart around him almost instantly, stranding the Master on the furthest arm of a galaxy in the "earliest Segments of Time". He took charge of the planet Destination, assuming the title of "the Inventor", and developed the planet's technology for his own ends. He pitted the human colonists against the Dalmari, so that the colonists would develop the nuclear technology he planned to use to refuel his TARDIS's engines. When the First Doctor arrived, he changed his plans and tried to steal the Doctor's TARDIS to escape. He was able to trick Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright into leading him to the ship, but they were able to overpower him and use the fast return switch to take the TARDIS back to Destination. The Master ultimately became trapped in his own laboratory after the Doctor had rerouted its power to help Destination to rebuild. (AUDIO: The Destination Wars)
On arrival on a planet where human colonists had settled in a fictional recreation of an English village during the Second World War to live in peace away from Earth, the Master took control of the environment, organised a home guard and armed the original population of the planet to entice a conflict and demonstrate that an outgunned and outnumbered group of people could resist against a much greater enemy when properly motivated. When the Second Doctor arrived with Ben Jackson, Polly Wright and Jamie McCrimmon, the Master hypnotised them into joining his experiment. The Doctor, however, immersed himself too deep in his role of commander of the home guard and made contact with the aliens to reach a peaceful solution, resulting in the aliens attacking earlier than the Master had anticipated. In the ensuing battle, the Master escaped in his TARDIS, with the intent of returning to look on the results of the conflict. However, when he returned, the Doctor had already set a trap for him after persuading the fighters into a peace. The Master was captured and put on trial for illegal use of mind control, while his TARDIS was confiscated. (AUDIO: The Home Guard)
On Segonax, the Master allied himself with the Gods of Ragnarok, and used a pendant they gave him to contact a street artist on Zamyatin named Kingpin and use Kingpin's free spirited energy to cause a psychic storm, which caused a revolution on Zamyatin. The Master then persuaded Kingpin to organise a collective of various artists and bring them to Segonax to become the Psychic Circus. The Master then persuaded the Chief clown to organise a talent contest so that new energy could be acquired. When Kingpin managed to contact the Seventh Doctor, the Master used his abilities to stop him from reaching the Circus, first creating an illusion of him landing on Zamyatin, and then one of him returning to Paradise Towers. When the Doctor eventually came to the Circus, he and the Master confronted each other on a psychic plane, where the Doctor exploited the Gods' curiosity to buy time to steal the pendant from the Master and pass it to Kingpin. Kingpin then used the pendant to free the Circus from the Master and the Gods' influence, and the Master was left at the mercy of the Gods of Ragnarok. (AUDIO: The Psychic Circus)
As "Koschei"
According to other accounts, however, the Doctor's friend had yet to choose the name of "the Master" when he ran away from Gallifrey. Known only by the name "Koschei", he was of medium build with a high forehead and swept-back hair that was greying at the temples. He had a neatly trimmed dark beard with streaks of grey at the comers. Although he already had an "unstable obsession with order", he travelled in an intact TARDIS without any specific plans of conquest, instead taking on human companions like the Doctor. (PROSE: The Face of the Enemy)
As punishment for "a silly prank gone wrong", the Superiors locked Koschei and a friend of his in the bathroom of a bar on an underlevel of the Tower. During their captivity, his friend read him Earth poetry, including "Invictus" by William Ernest Henley. After an argument, the friend escaped, leaving Koschei behind. The Tower eventually came under the control of the Healer, leader of the Cwejen Uprising, though he never discovered Koschei.
Later, Chris Cwej and Frey became lost in the underlevels and encountered Koschei, who by this point had green eyes and a dark beard. Frey was dying because, as an Ephem, she needed regular infusions of Superior biodata to survive. Koschei offered to give her his own biodata and lead them out of the dungeon, on the condition that Cwej promise to listen to Koschei's words on a future date. Sensing that Cwej was "a friend of [his] friend", Koschei hypnotised him. Later, when Cwej was using the Tree of Life to undo the Uprising, Koschei spoke through Frey telepathically, distracting Cwej; as a result, only half the events of the Uprising were undone, resulting in an unstable new status quo. (PROSE: Rebel Rebel)
After he left Gallifrey, Koschei had a Time Lady named Ailla planted on him by the Celestial Intervention Agency to monitor his unstable obsession with order; Ailla posed as a human so Koschei 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, capable of altering timelines without causing paradoxes or attracting the attention of various "higher beings", proved too much for Koschei, and the revelation that Ailla was a spy killed the last traces of good in him, and he swore that the Doctor would one day call him "Master". After the Doctor left him to die in a black hole, Koschei swore that he would take revenge. (PROSE: The Dark Path) The Master later reflected that Koschei's death had been the end of Koschei as a person, with the Time Lord that existed afterwards being only "the Master". (PROSE: The Face of the Enemy)
First regeneration
Regardless of the Master's identity upon leaving Gallifrey, at some point in their early life, the Master regenerated for the first time. His new, male incarnation found himself at the Scoundrels Club during the Great Fire of London. Becoming a member of the club so that he could recover from the regeneration in comfort, the Master organised fireworks on the roof to celebrate the occasion. He would later go on to visit the Scoundrels Club after each regeneration to recover as a tradition. (PROSE: Dismemberment)
Sixth incarnation
According to the Celestial Intervention Agency's research, the Master's sixth incarnation had yet to take on the name of "the Master". He was a short, clean-shaven man, quite different from how the Master had looked on Gallifrey. He decided to begin experimenting with temporal nexuses in the hope of manipulating them to take control of all History, altering it for the better so as to favour civilisation. Calling himself a "Monk", the Master's first experiment had him aiming atomic bazookas at the Viking ships of Harald Hardrada to see if he could alter the history of England. However, the Doctor intervened and damaged the Master's TARDIS.
The two again crossed paths after the Master had made his way to the planet Tigus, where he forged an uneasy alliance with the Daleks. Though the Master fulfilled his part of the bargain by leading the Doctor to the Daleks, the Daleks, having no further use for him, turned on him. The Master regenerated into a new incarnation with different features, who was more ruthless and began to use the name of "the Master". (PROSE: CIA File Extracts)
However, other accounts of the Doctor's early life treated "the Monk" as a different childhood associate of the Doctor's, previously known as Mortimus. According to these accounts, no known connection existed between the Monk's and the Master's respective incarnations. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords, Divided Loyalties, No Future)
Undated early events
Some accounts suggested that it was an incarnation of the Master, albeit not yet using that name, (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Terror of the Autons, Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon) who participated in the organisation of a warmongering species' War Games, acting as their War Chief (TV: The War Games) after regenerating in front of the War Lord in a Trastevarian jail. (PROSE: Save Yourself) Similar to "the Monk", however, other accounts treated "the War Chief" as yet another childhood associate of the Doctor's, previously known as Magnus. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords, Divided Loyalties)[1] Although rumours that the Master had been implicated in the "War Chief incident" existed on Gallifrey, Rowellanuraven believed them to be fanciful fabrications, much like the "obviously" false claim that Goth had been an associate of the Decayed Master. (PROSE: CIA File Extracts)
One way or another, the Master caused several interstellar wars. The Third Doctor was aware that the Time Lords had once almost captured him, but was told by the Time Lords' messenger that, unlike the Doctor, the Master had managed to slip away before his TARDIS could be de-energised. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Terror of the Autons)
Nemesis of the Third Doctor
Early escapades
The Master, by this point, had regenerated into an incarnation with a swarthy complexion, brown eyes, and a goatee beard with white skunk stripes. (TV: Terror of the Autons)
The Master penetrated Gallifrey, and gained access to the Matrix via a console in the old Capitol. This gave him a backdoor 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) the Sea Devils, (TV: The Sea Devils) the Chronovores, the Dæmons, (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords) and the Deathworm Morphants. (PROSE: The Quantum Archangel)
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 "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)
The Master forced Moses, a sculptor, to serve him. He brought him to the planet Djinn and kept him prisoner, forcing him to make masks for him. (PROSE: A Master of Disguise)
Early times on Earth
According to one account, the Master was imprisoned on Shada by the Time Lords at the time when the Doctor was exiled to Earth. However, the Celestial Intervention Agency arranged for the wardens of Shada to release him so as to keep the Doctor busy. Because they believed he would make short work of an unaware Doctor, they sent a messenger to forewarn the Doctor of the Master's arrival. (PROSE: Prisoners of the Sun) Having learned that the Doctor was exiled on Earth, the Master decided to invade it. (PROSE: The Secret Diary of the Master)
According to another account, by the same time the Master arrived on Earth, the Time Lords still hadn't managed to recapture him since the occasion when he had "slipped away" from them before his timeship could be de-energised. The Time Lords had picked up his trail on their monitor, but lost the signal due to a mysterious alien interference. In defeat, the Time Lords sent one of the High Council to Earth in person to warn the Third Doctor that the Master was coming. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Terror of the Autons)
Attempting to gauge the effectiveness of UNIT and Earth's defences against extraterrestrial invasion, the Master worked behind the scenes in the Unzal's attempted takeover of UNIT. While this plot was thwarted by the Third Doctor, Liz Shaw, and the Brigadier, it served as a stress test for the[statement unclear] (AUDIO: The Unzal Incursion)
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. 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)
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)
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)
Becoming a threat
Information from Doorway into Nowhere, & UNIT Christmas Parties: Christmas Truce needs to be added
The Master appeared at the International Circus, with 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, with the help of Barnham, stopped the Master with the Keller Machine, and the Doctor reactivated the missile's abort mechanism. UNIT also destroyed the missile along with the Keller Machine, but the Doctor later discovered he had lost the Master's dematerialisation circuit in his altercation with the Master. 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)
Posing as a vicar named "Victor Magister" in the village of Devil's End (TV: The Dæmons; PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy) after murdering the old vicar, Canon Smallwood, (PROSE: The Eight Doctors) 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, Azal destroyed himself through Jo's illogical actions. The Master was captured by UNIT following a failed attempt to escape in the Doctor's car, Bessie. (TV: The Dæmons)
In custody
Information from Harvest of Time, & The Unwanted Gift of Prophecy needs to be added
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)
At his trial, 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, he asked the Brigadier to move him 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 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 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 deteriorated 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
Information from Doctor Who Fights Masterplan "Q", The Spear of Destiny, Listen - The Stars, Out of the Green Mist, The Time Thief, & Last of the Gaderene needs to be added
Sometime after his escape, the Master took control of the Glasshouse, a facility for traumatised UNIT soldiers, taking particular control of Private Francis Cleary. He planned to use a Time Ring to have Cleary go to 1963 to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy, thereby altering Earth's history to make it more vulnerable to invasion. The plan failed. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy)
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. (PROSE: The Seismologist's Story)
The Master discovered the mind parasite known as the Nurazh on a desolate planet. Weakened, the creature failed to take control of him, and begged him to take it off the planet. The Master agreed, taking it to the UNIT hospital Kenstone Hall, where he planned to have it take control of the invalids, healing their injuries in the process, in order to give him an army of brainwashed slaves. The Nurazh, secretly planning to devour the Earth, eventually turned on the Master, who was last seen ducking into his TARDIS after releasing Jo Grant from the Nurazh's control. (PROSE: The Touch of the Nurazh)
After being double-crossed by the Voords, (PROSE: The Quantum Archangel) the Master posed as "Professor Carl Thascalos" and 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' 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)
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 Third Doctor and Jo Grant. (PROSE: Hidden Talent)
When a race of mechanical lifeforms invaded Earth, the Master, intrigued by a species he knew nothing about, and insulted that they hadn't requested his aid in their invasion, began investigating them. When the Second Doctor showed up, the Master discovered that he was in fact Ramón Salamander. After a few false starts, the Master allied with the Doctor and UNIT to thwart the human's scheme. After travelling back to 1868 with them, the Master took control of the micro machines, intending to use them for galactic conquest before the Doctor overrode the Master's command protocols. Accepting his defeat, the Master ran back to his TARDIS and escaped. (COMIC: The Heralds of Destruction)
Following the Doctor's TARDIS to 25 December 2006, the Master learnt that the Earth was being invaded by the Sycorax, whom he intended to ally with so he could enslave the planet himself. Arriving at 48 Bucknall House at the Powell Estate, the Master was trapped by tinsel controlled by the Roboforms after stepping out of his TARDIS. After an hour listening to The Twelve Days of Christmas played by a broken snowman ornament, the Master was found by the Doctor, Jo, Yates and Jackie Tyler. Deeming that the Master had suffered enough, the Doctor set him free to take his leave in his TARDIS. (PROSE: The Christmas Inversion)
The Master attempted to steal the Crown Jewels but was confronted by the Doctor, Jo and the Brigadier. (AUDIO: Masterful)
Distancing himself from UNIT
Information from Winning, Night Flight to Nowhere, & Anything You Can Do needs to be added
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) and became involved in "a galactic fracas" relating to "a number of large tortoises". The Doctor and Jo put a stop to this scheme. (AUDIO: The Last Fairy Tale) He attended Bonjaxx's birthday party at Maruthea. When a fight broke out, the Master was seen crouching to avoid the confrontation, evidently annoyed. (COMIC: Party Animals)
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)
For a short while, the Master adopted the identity of "Duke Dominus", a gangster on early 20th century Earth, but his plan was foiled by the Fourth Doctor without either realising the others' involvement. (PROSE: The Duke of Dominoes)
The Master travelled to a Sontaran-occupied planet and convinced several of the locals that he was a deity. This would form a new sect of proud, beard-toting column-worshipping Sontarans, which would decades later lead to the destruction of the entire planet by Sontaran command. The Master left decades before this, delighted simply by the idea of the chaos he had created. (COMIC: The Judas Goatee)
The Master tracked down a fellow Time Lord renegade, the Minister, on the planet Samael, where she was one of the most eminent political figures. Taking advantage of her post-regenerative weakness, the Master attacked her psychically and caused her amnesia; then, he brainwashed her and tried to convince her to give him power over the planet. His plan was foiled by Jo, who helped the Minister remember who she was. (AUDIO: The Same Face)
The Master tried to rob the Repository on a water planet to retrieve from his Vault a map to the Boneyard of Knives. In doing so, he used a de-evolutionary gun he took from a jungle planet to kill the guards, by reducing them to a previous state in evolution; however, the new forms of life proved to be personality leeches, and started to feed on him. The Master barely managed to get back to his TARDIS and leave a message to himself to recover from his memory loss and instructed himself to use the map to find the Boneyard, before collapsing to the ground and losing consciousness. (AUDIO: Master Thief)
Final exploits
Information from The One Second Hour needs to be added
The Master planned to release a fog in Tadcaster by using Sarkan mist-flowers to generate a fog that would 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)
Having had enough of Earth, and having 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)
The Master brought a Skaross to Earth, and with its help disguised himself as "Professor Derek Drake", a scientist pretending to have found a way to solve the Earth's energy crisis and pollution problem. The telepathic power of the Skaross allowed the Master to gain the support of the public opinion, appearing numerous times on television, and even managed to confuse the Doctor for a while; the creature, however, proved to be very reluctant to obey the Master, and more than capable of resisting against his own psychic power. When it became evident that the Doctor had caught up to the ruse, the Master went to UNIT HQ and he and the creature offered to help humanity, but the Doctor refused, and instead gathered the Master had come to ask for his help against the Skaross. Eventually, the Master gained access to the main reactor of a nuclear station, intending to blackmail the world by using the Skaross' ability to control carbon dioxide, but the Skaross instead tried to convert Earth into a world it could live in. The Doctor and the Master then fought against it together, and won, connecting themselves with a telepathic link, which allowed them to see each other's thoughts. The Master then escaped in his TARDIS. (AUDIO: Terror of the Master)
The Master tried to take control of the Hyrrokin dimension, but his plan failed and he was imprisoned for three years and two months. A Hyrrokin judgment biomechanoid, Loge, made a deal with him: he would give him back his TARDIS, if he helped him to retrieve three outlawed Hyrrokin warlords, Narvi, Siarnaq and Karta, who escaped to Earth and lived there disguising as human beings, so they could face justice. The Master agreed, and together with Loge tracked down the three warlords, awakened their memories and brought them on a spaceship. There, he found out Loge deceived him: he was not bringing the warlords to justice; he was returning them to their dimension so they could conquer it. Loge and the warlords tried to dispose of the Master, but he managed to kill Loge with the Tissue Compression Eliminator and used a psychic transporter to get the warlords off their ship, thus killing them. He then used Hyrrokin technology to retrieve his TARDIS and leave. (PROSE: Anger Management)
Meeting his end
According to one account, the Master used files he uncovered from the Daleks to go undercover on Earth following the 22nd century Dalek invasion, seeking a matter transmuter the Daleks built. As his scheme took a while to mature, the Master decided to stave off boredom by meddling in local politics under the name of "Estro", and schemed to create a war between Haldoran's forces and Lord London's. As he finally prepared to seize the matter transmuter, he found that Susan Foreman had gotten there before him. Though he failed to recognise her as the Doctor's granddaughter, he got the impression that she was at least one of the Doctor's former companions, and took her with him as a hostage back to his TARDIS. During a confrontation with the Eighth Doctor, who discovered his presence, he shot at him, but instead killed David Campbell, Susan's husband. The Master fled in his TARDIS together with Susan. As his TARDIS materialised on Tersurus, Susan awoke from her shock-induced torpor and, with her mental abilities amplified by the telepathic circuits of the Master's TARDIS, focused all of her hatred and grief into a force that "burned away" the Master. Believing she had weakened him into harmlessness, Susan forced the Master out onto Tersurus's surface, planning to strand him there. She also planned to use the Time Compressor Eliminator to destroy the matter transmuter; the Master furiously clung to the device, refusing to let go even when she warned him that she would shoot it. The blast that resulted from the TCE hitting the matter transmuter nearly killed the Master and left his body as deformed as his mind. Believing him dead, Susan departed in his TARDIS, but her use of it 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. (PROSE: Legacy of the Daleks)
According to another account, the Master detected a massive discharge of temporal energy. He watched as the Twelfth Doctor's TARDIS exploded in 1972 (COMIC: The Pestilent Heart), and wrongly speculated this was the cause of the Doctor's third regeneration. (COMIC: Doorway to Hell) When the Doctor moved in with Jess Collins' family in Brixton and brought the TARDIS into the back garden to repair itself, (COMIC: Moving In) the Master plotted to use the artron energy given off by the regenerating TARDIS to create a portal to a time locked dimension he learnt about in the Dalek databanks. When the TARDIS had healed in 1973, the Master utilised the efforts of Katya Dabrowski to bring the Collins family to an apartment in central London, while creating a diversion for the Twelfth Doctor in Barking with glass mosquito creatures. The Master tricked the Collins family into being scanned for damage, when he actually used them to create a portal to the dimension which they were also sent through, while stealing the Doctor's TARDIS and linking it to his own, in order to aid the Doctor through the time lock. Travelling to the locked dimension, the Master met Kiadine, a being who once split the chronon, and was locked away by the Time Lords for this. He gave the Master his powers so that he would conquer Gallifrey on his behalf: his exposure to the chronon storm gave him god-like powers, and he began to fight with the Doctor for mastery of them. The Master fired one final attack as the Doctor stood arm in arm with the Collins family, and found that his attack had been repelled back at him with the artron energy in the bodies of the Collins family. Though battered from the attack, the Master was able to escape in his TARDIS and regenerated while declaring his intent of revenge on the Doctor. (COMIC: Doorway to Hell) Shortly after his regeneration, the new Master visited the Scoundrels Club to recover. (PROSE: Dismemberment)
A body in decay
All accounts concur that, having regenerated into his thirteenth incarnation at an accelerated rate due to living a life "more rackety than the Doctor's", (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords) that had constant pressure and danger, in addition to using some incarnations as disguises, (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Deadly Assassin) the Master found himself trapped as a wraith-like living cadaver, "horribly emaciated", for whom "no regeneration was possible". (TV: The Deadly Assassin)
According to one account, the "Decayed" Master emerged as a result of Susan Foreman forcing the "UNIT enemy" Master out onto Tersurus and attacking him with the Tissue Compression Eliminator while he was holding the Dalek's matter transmuter. (PROSE: Legacy of the Daleks) According to Missy and the Thirteenth Doctor, the Master ended up in his rotting, lich-like state when he attempted to regenerate "one time too many" past the twelve-regeneration limit. (PROSE: Meet Missy!, The Doctor vs the Master)
At war with his future
According to another account, when the Master arrived on a Time Lord base on Tersurus with the intention of infiltrating their database, 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, but before he could arrive, the Cult of the Heretic switched the Master's mind with that of his future self. (AUDIO: The Two Masters) While he remembered being in great pain, the process left gaps in the Master's memory. He returned to a prison in the south of England, where a former incarnation had lured a Carmentine Mind Leach, and 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, which agreed to take only the Doctor's short term memory. This was enough to sustain the Master (AUDIO: Vampire of the Mind) and allowed him to regain his memory of what had happened to him. The "Decayed" Master then hired the Transhuman Sisters of the Unholy Protocol and the Dragonhunters to kill his future self. (AUDIO: And You Will Obey Me)
The act of having a Time Lord inhabiting the body of his past self led to the universe beginning to break down. Realising this, the Seventh Doctor encountered both of the Masters and persuaded them to return to their rightful bodies. Abandoning the Doctor on a ship that was set to crash into a hypergate, the two Masters stole his TARDIS and returned to the Cult's headquarters, where they killed all of the members and plotted to use the anomaly cage to remake reality in their image. They were stopped by the Doctor, who had escaped the crash in the Master's TARDIS: he used the cage to restore the universe, leaving it practically unchanged, apart from erasing the Masters' memories of the events and sending them back to their proper points in history. Goth then collected the "Decayed" Master and took him to Gallifrey. (AUDIO: The Two Masters)
Revenge on Gallifrey
Whilst 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. 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)
Targeting Jago and Litefoot
The Master followed the Doctor's TARDIS from Gallifrey, but was knocked off course passing through the transduction barrier. (AUDIO: Masterpiece) Losing control of his TARDIS, he crashed on Earth, 1890, on the shore of Whitby. Bram Stoker saved him from drowning and retrieved his TARDIS. The Master then hypnotized Stoker and forced him first to carry the TARDIS in the ruins of the nearby Whitby Abbey, and then to hunt down for him little animals, whose life energy he sucked dry to sustain himself. Stoker however succeeded in resisting the Master's influence when he ordered him to bring to him a human life, and walked away. He then returned to stop the Master from taking the life of a young girl, and fought with him inside his TARDIS. During the fight, Stoker accidentally activated the dematerialization circuits, sending the ship away. (PROSE: The Dead Travel Fast)
The Master landed once again on Earth, London, in the 1890s. He asked the locals if he could speak to someone in authority, and 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)
As he became more frail, the Master 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, and reverted her metabolism to its natural state, causing her to lose control of her vampiric hunger. 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. (AUDIO: Masterpiece)
Surviving in the universe
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 "decayed" 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 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" practicing. (COMIC: The Five Masters) He played the electric guitar. 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 "decayed" Master joined in the struggle, declaring that his future selves were idiots. The five were quickly disqualified, seemingly destroying them. (COMIC: The Five Masters)
First meeting with River Song
Posing as a Sun God, the Master forced the Therians to build a solar relais to prevent night from falling on Jaska Minor. After finding their worship boring, he ordered them to build him a tomb and seal him in it, as he entered a stasis chamber to await the Doctor. As he slept in the chamber, his tomb was removed from Jaska Minor and placed inside a museum on Jaska Major, where the Master was awakened by River Song and Luke Sullieman. Realising what had happened, the Master persuaded River to return him to Jaska Minor and retrieve his TARDIS in exchange for a chance to investigate the local ziqqurat.
Once they arrived on Jaska Minor, the Master began killing River's companions in order to both distract the Therians and pass the booby traps in the ziqqurat. Once the solar relais was deactivated, allowing night to fall, the Master still needed his solar capacitor to power his TARDIS, so agreed to help River escape from the planet in exchange for her help. However, River left the capacitor with the Therians, allowing them to revert their evolution and become people again, and abandoned the Master to their mercy. (AUDIO: Animal Instinct)
Fighting the Fourth Doctor
The Master plotted to capture the Z-battery that the Third 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. In Derbyshire, he spent his time living underneath Hugh Spindleton's house. He offered Leela to the worm, but the worm didn't want to eat her. Knowing that the Doctor was near, he advanced his plans and wanted to capture him. He mused why the worm wanted the Doctor. He activated the worm by generating a lightning storm. (AUDIO: Trail of the White Worm)
The Master wanted to kill the Doctor with his TCE. He was arrested by Grimnal, but rescued by Leela, and they both went to Oseidon. The duplicate that stayed on Oseidon destroyed the one from Earth. The Doctor defeated the Master by using a Master android duplicate that 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)
Charming the participants' owners with fine dining, the Master became the huntmaster of the Death Match, and used Leela as his champion. The Master said all that he was doing was reviving an old Gallifreyan past-time and sent the Doctor into the Game. He then set the endgame protocols which meant every contestant had an hour to live. Kastrella worked out that his plan was to wipe out the heads of major armies using his game to do this. He indulged her in killing all her rivals. After the Doctor reversed the command Matrix, he was to be killed as part of the endgame and would only live if he killed Kastrella. (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: Special Occasions: 1. 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)
Final gambits
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 was able to merge with Tremas, (TV: The Keeper of Traken) regenerating himself into a new body. (AUDIO: The Light at the End)
In Tremas' body
First exploits
Information from The Unwanted Gift of Prophecy, & Toy needs to be added
After he visited the Scoundrels Club to recover from changing bodies in comfort, (PROSE: Dismemberment), the Master came back to Djinn, visited Moses and admired his job. Moses told the Master he was dying, unless he could provide him with a special fluid made out of Carophil, manufactured on the planet Restovan. The Master disguised himself as the Fourth Doctor, gained access to the place where the fluid was kept and brought it to Djinn. But Moses had deceived the Master; the liquid he brought him was poison to him. He drank with no hesitation, thus releasing himself from the Master's grip. (PROSE: A Master of Disguise)
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 Fourth 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)
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, 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 in 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 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 managed to travel 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 Gilles 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, Tegan and Vislor Turlough caused interference with his plans. After the Doctor defeated him in, first, a sword-fight and then a mental battle of wits over the command of Kamelion, the Master fled in his TARDIS. (TV: The King's Demons)
The Game of Rassilon
When the High Council of the Time Lords discovered that the first five incarnations of the Doctor had been time scooped and 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 pretense that he would return the "stolen property" to the High Council.
The Master soon after encountered the Fifth Doctor, who also had trouble believing him, especially when he claimed that the Third Doctor had taken his only proof. 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, still angry at the Third Doctor for refusing his help when he was genuinely there to lend assistance. 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 [would] find their punishment in due time". (TV: The Five Doctors)
Without a body
One account stated that the Celestial Intervention Agency believed Rassilon had allowed the Master to escape Gallifrey unscathed, an act which mystified the CIA. (PROSE: CIA File Extracts)
However, according to another account, for failing to help the Doctor in the Death Zone, the Time Lords destroyed the Master's Trakenite body, reducing him to little more than a helpless phantom as they exiled him to the depths of a forest. The Master was found by his TARDIS after it managed to resist the Time Lords attempt to reprogram it, and it helped him to attain physicality in the form of a shadowy figure in dark robes. In an attempt to trap the Doctor and steal one of 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.
His plan was to force a regeneration out of the Doctor and steal this one life to revive himself using an arcane ritual involving twelve mirrors — but the Doctor was saved by Vislor Turlough, and the Master's plan was foiled yet again. Instead, the Master found himself confronting mental projections of all his past regenerations. In a prowess of will that impressed even the Doctor, the Master was able to overpower the shades of his past selves and steal a bit of life energy from each of them, allowing him to regenerate back into his Trakenite body. (PROSE: The Velvet Dark)
Damaging his body
Information from A Town Called Eternity needs to be added
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 boost 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)
Interfering with regeneration
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)
Interfering in history
Information from Master Faustus, & Crossing the Rubicon needs to be added
The Master allied with his old Academy classmate, 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) The Doctor sent a message to Gallifrey warning them of the Master and Rani's survival, but the Celestial Intervention Agency did not believe it, alleging that the "unstable mind" of the Doctor's new incarnation must have made the whole thing up. (PROSE: CIA File Extracts)
Forging alliances
Information from The Fellowship of Quan needs to be added
The Master materialised in the Matrix and observed the Sixth 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 was a bigger threat 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 by a limbo atrophier with Glitz. (TV: The Ultimate Foe)
One account claimed the Time Lords released the Master and Glitz 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)
According to another account, the Master was exiled to the planet Alexis by the Time Lords. In his exile, the Master observed the life forms of the planet, the Mogellans, and saw how they were all connected in one great environment, and how they used special crystals to communicate. When a Kotturuh woman arrived on the planet, the Master pretended to intercede for the Mogellans' salvation, and they gave him one of the crystals as a a token of good faith. The crystal, however, revealed them that the Master was lying in order to exploit the crystals in the future, and they allowed the Kotturuh to end their lives to stop him. (AUDIO: Lesser Evils)
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 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) He played the bass guitar. 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 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)
Haunted by the past
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. 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 on 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 Sixth 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)
Further schemes
Information from The Time Savers, & A Handful of Stardust needs to be added
Distancing himself from the Doctor
At some point, the Master discovered the Parallel Sect, where he possessed the body of Keith Potter, wanting to dominate the dimensional nexus. He found the Valeyard, and encountered the Sixth Doctor and Constance Clarke. 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)
Alliance with Adam Mitchell
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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. (COMIC: The Choice) 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 Peri. (COMIC: Façades)
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, encountering the Eleventh Doctor. Discouraging Adam from listening to the Doctor, the Master watched in satisfaction as Adam prepared to kill the captured companions, (COMIC: The Choice) but was prevented when the Doctor summoned his earlier incarnations and revealed that he had arranged for Frobisher to infiltrate the plan by allowing himself to be captured while posing as Peri.
The Master and Adam released an Auton army, but the Doctors were able to keep them occupied long enough for Frobisher to release the other companions as reinforcements. However, unbeknownst to Adam, the Master planned to destroy reality itself, using the merged TARDIS that brought the Doctors there to channel chronon energy in a massive backlash that would unmake history. 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)
Deadlier campaigns
Information from Doctor Who and the Mines of Terror, Birth of a Renegade, & Dr. Fifth needs to be added
The Cheetah World gambit
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. (TV: Survival)
The Master used the Cheetah People to ambush the Seventh Doctor and Ace by kidnapping some friends of the Doctor, but he was entombed in an avalanche caused by the Doctor when he came to save his friends. (PROSE: Dr. Seventh)
As exposure to the planet began changing the Master into a Cheetah Person, he sent the kitlings to Ace's home in the London suburb of Perivale to hunt for human recruits. Eventually, 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 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)
After Cheetah World
The Master was seen multiple times after somehow escaping the Cheetah World, still in Tremas's body and infected by the Cheetah Virus. (PROSE: Stop the Pigeon, Prime Time) However, the Master himself contradictorily claimed that he was immediately stranded on Earth after escaping, and was then cured by Tzun nanites and regenerated into a new body. (PROSE: First Frontier) In even more contradictory accounts, the Master was either taken to Skaro for trial and execution in his stolen Trakenite body, and still infected by the virus, (PROSE: The Eight Doctors) or, no longer infected by the virus, lost Tremas's body and reverted to his previous cadaverous form. (AUDIO: Dust Breeding) Missy herself admitted that her memory of what happened to the Master after being left stranded on Cheetah World was vague at best, to the extent that she was unsure said event had even taken place. (PROSE: Meet Missy!)
Tremas persists
According to one account, the Master was freed from the effects of the Cheetah virus as soon as the Cheetah Planet ceased to exist. Since he "had to go somewhere" but did not call any place home, the last effects of the virus responded to his desire to travel in Time freely by depositing him inside the Doctor's TARDIS, which he hijacked by stealing the Identity Recognition Module; he then set time coordinates and damaged the controls to prevent the Doctor from interfering, essentially shanghaiing Ace and the Doctor to an unknown destination aboard their own ship. (PROSE: How did this creep get in here, Professor?)
However, other accounts showed the Master as still having suffered from the effect of the virus even though he escaped the Planet's destruction unscathed. According to one such account, in the year 2067, the Master tried to stave off the effects of the Cheetah virus by posing as a "Dr Howard Chithros" and draining the life from his elderly patients. The Seventh Doctor discovered the scheme and the nursing home was destroyed in the ensuing battle between the two Time Lords. The Master escaped in the confusion, leaving the Doctor to pick up the pieces. (PROSE: Stop the Pigeon)
The Master attempted to gain a new body from a legendary race known as the Fleshsmiths, claiming that the Cheetah virus would kill his Trakenite body within a year, but his plan was stopped by the Doctor, who ejected the new body from the Fleshsmith vessel into space. (PROSE: Prime Time)
No longer affected by the Cheetah virus, and wanting to find a way to survive beyond his final regeneration, the Master tried to steal the body of a mouse-turned-boy named Callum, but his plan was foiled by the Doctor. (PROSE: Omegamorphosis)
Looking much older with greying hair, the Master captured the first seven incarnations of the Doctor 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)
On a desert planet on the fringes of Mutter's Spiral, the Master obtained and swallowed a Deathworm Morphant from the Morgs. He then surrendered himself to the Daleks. (PROSE: The Eight Doctors) According to this account, the Master was then tried and executed by the Daleks, making a request for the Doctor to return his remains to Gallifrey, only to use the Deathworm Morphant to take the Doctor's TARDIS to 1999 San Francisco, where he possessed the body of an ambulance driver. (TV: Doctor Who)
Finding a new regenerative cycle in the past
According to one account, the Master became trapped on Earth without his TARDIS in the year 1957 after escaping the destruction of the Cheetah Planet by using a kitling named Shadow to transmigrate just as the planet exploded.
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 was meant to restore the Master to being a "full" Time Lord, giving him a new regenerative cycle and curing the Cheetah virus. Shortly after being restored to his full Time Lord heritage, he was shot in the back by Ace to avenge his murder of Joe Manco, 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) to the Scoundrels Club to recover from his regeneration. (PROSE: Dismemberment)
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 Mark III destroyed the device, causing the Master to flee. (PROSE: Housewarming)
The Master later obtained the Loom of Rassilon's Mouse in order to make himself a sturdier and indestructible body. However, his plan failed when a Fortean Flicker caused Bernice Summerfield's wedding to occur in the same place, exposing his scheme to her guests, with the Doctor being amongst them. However, the Master managed to escape by hypnotising Kitai into posing as a decoy. (PROSE: Happy Endings)
Like all of his other attempts at extending his life, the Master's Tzun-made body eventually reverted back to a decayed husk. (AUDIO: Planet of Dust)
Reduced to an old body
In another account, the Master, still in Tremas's body, 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, which stripped his Trakenite body from him and reduced him to his previous decaying form. Afterwards, the Master 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, the Master 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 Seventh Doctor. When the Core arrived, the Master tried to ally with it, but it dismissed him, leading him 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 TARDIS 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 for the Master to have ten years of peace and sanity, at the end of which the Doctor had to kill him. To this end, Death transformed the Master into "John Smith", an ordinary physician on the colony world of Perfugium with no memory of his past. Smith was taken in by Wolstonecroft, and inherited his house when Wolstonecroft died, and became emotionally involved with Jacqueline Schaeffer. The Master remained active in Smith's subconscious, but was unable to influence the world around him.
At the end of the allotted time, the Doctor arrived to kill Smith, but strove to avoid fulfilling his side of the bargain. Death herself was present at these events, disguised as Smith's maid, and manipulated events so that the Master would become dominant once more. Her endgame was for Smith to make a decision that would ensure he remained in control; to kill Victor Schaeffer or allow Jacqueline to die by her husband's hand, but Smith was unable to kill Victor, (AUDIO: Master) and became the Master again as a result. (PROSE: The Tramp's Story)
The Master on trial
In his "final" incarnation, (TV: Doctor Who) the Master was known by the Seventh Doctor to have once more "extended his life" by adding alien genes to his biomass, becoming a man with "saturnine features". (PROSE: The Novel of the Film) The Master eventually arrived in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt and was captured to be placed on trial (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. (PROSE: The Eight Doctors)
At any rate, the Master was indeed tried in the presence of the Dalek Emperor (PROSE: The Novel of the Film) and the whole Parliament of the Daleks, (PROSE: The Runes of Fenric) for his attempts to destroy them and usurp their place as "the supreme creatures of the universe", (PROSE: The Novel of the Film) specifically with regard to his failure in their mutual plot behind the Human-Draconian War, (PROSE: The Runes of Fenric) while 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)
Post-mortem
The Dalek Litigator judged the Master guilty, ordering him to be exterminated as his punishment. (AUDIO: Vengeance) After he was tried and executed by the Daleks on Skaro, he 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)
Fighting the Eighth Doctor
The Deathworm Morphant
Unbeknownst to the Doctor, the Master's essence survived his physical death in a fluid-like form resembling a snake, described in some sources as bluish and translucent, (TV: Doctor Who) and in others as "giant" and "green". (PROSE: Meet Missy!) Although the Eighth Doctor mentioned that he could do the same as the Master, but only when he died, (TV: Doctor Who) other accounts stated that this ability to survive as a Deathworm Morphant was not inherent in Time Lords, but the product of the Master having purposefully ingested a Morphant in advance, already intending to then have his body destroyed by the Daleks so he could use the Morphant's form to find a new and better one. (PROSE: The Eight Doctors, AUDIO: Mastermind) The Master's survival broke the peace treaty President Romana started under the Act of Master Restitution and was one of the causes for the Last Great Time War. (PROSE; A Brief History of Time Lords)
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 emergency 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. (TV: Doctor Who)
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)
Stealing Bruce's body
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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.
Having donned more traditional Gallifreyan robes, the Master boasted his plans to the restrained 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)
There were many rumours on Gallifrey concerning what happened to the Master after he was sucked into the Eye of Harmony in the Doctor's TARDIS. Some rumours stated that he was saved from inside the Time Vortex by the mythical Esterath; others said that he remained trapped in the TARDIS with his mind transferred into an android body to become the Doctor's "companion or pet"; still others claimed that this was the death that he would later be resurrected from by the Time Lords to fight in the Last Great Time War. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords) In one account from the Time War, the Master's resurrection by the Time Lords damaged the Doctor's TARDIS's control console, with the lingering trauma of the Master's extraction from the TARDIS causing it to adopt a new appearance shortly after the Doctor regenerated at the conclusion of the Time War. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Time War)
Escape into the Vortex
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 for hundreds of years, rooting through the Doctor's possessions in search of something to help him escape.
The Master managed to capture a child of the Vormatoda. Inspired by a VHS he found in the TARDIS' spare room, the Master brainwashed and disguised it as his daughter "Alison". In the mean time the Vormatoda began attacking passing timeships in search of its child, leaving components which the Master could salvage. He eventually built a form of ship around the jettisoned TARDIS room but was still stuck in the Vortex. After her vortex manipulator stalled mid-transit, he rescued River Song via the tractor beam he'd acquired. With him posing as "Daniel", she began to help him retrieving bits of wreckage from victims of the Vormatoda, including a piece of a prison ship that had been transporting psychopath Kaliopi Mileska. During Mileska's rampage, his true identity was revealed and River discovered the truth about Alison. She managed to break Alison's brainwashing, allowing her to return to her natural form and reunite with her parent. With the Vormatoda now attacking his structure, the Master managed to escape the Vortex with Kaliopi in a stasis pod from the prison ship. (AUDIO: The Lifeboat and the Deathboat)
Still in Bruce's body, (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 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) He played the keyboard. 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 "Decayed" Master joined in the struggle, followed rapidly by the "Deathworm" Master, and the group soon became involved in a full on brawl. The five were quickly disqualified, seemingly destroying them. (COMIC: The Five Masters)
The Master eventually found himself on Kolstan, where he met Artron, and posed as an assistant sent by the Time Lords. When the Eighth Doctor arrived in a future Master's TARDIS, the Master inflicted a fatal wound on the Doctor and used this to force Artron to operate a machine that would transfer the energy of the native Kolstani into him. However, Artron was able to adjust the machine so that he would absorb the power of the Kolstani instead, although this unintentionally turned them into the Ravenous. When Artron used the power of the Kolstani to disappear with the Doctor, the Master used his future TARDIS to escape to the Time Lord station that all his incarnations used as a base.
Meeting with the "War" Master and Missy, the "Bruce" Master worked with them to stop the Ravenous's alliance with the Eleven, the "Bruce" Master acting as the group's negotiator due to the Ravenous' inability to eat him in his current state. After undoing the Eleven's scheme, the "Bruce" Master witnessed the regeneration of his future self and then had his memory of the events that had occurred wiped. He was thrown back into the Vortex by his future selves to preserve their timeline. (AUDIO: Day of the Master)
Having been trapped in the Vortex for what felt like "an eternity", the Master once managed to make psychic contact with Earth on Halloween. Teasing the humans about the holiday and his wishes for freedom, he vowed to be free soon. (WC: Listen to the voice of your Master!) He later psychically contacted Earth again near Christmas, which he noted was "halfway out of the dark". He offered whoever was listening a bargain for his freedom. (WC: The Master wants to be your Santa Claus) The Master made contact again on Valentine's Day, having deduced he was talking to one particular human, Lila. He claimed he could to make her so much more than if she just helped him escape. (WC: Will you be the Master's valentine...?)
The Master continued tempting Lila from within the vortex, visiting her in her dreams and promising her power. His efforts paid off and he was freed, killing Lila's colleague Eddi Bhole in the process. He later killed Magnus Drake, stole his identity and took over his company, appointing Lila as the lead scientist. (AUDIO: Faustian) While posing as Drake, he was hunted by Vienna Salvatori, who shot down the Master's airship with him and Lila inside during an assassination attempt. The Master and Lila landed in the slums, and after some encounters with the local gangs, managed to escape to a railway. The Master and Vienna fought, and he was knocked down by her and was thought to be dead, though he actually survived. (AUDIO: Prey) Some time later, Daleks invaded London, with the Dalek Litigator intending to carry out the death sentence on the Master. The Master and Lila formed an alliance with Vienna, and fought off the invasion. He was later sucked back into the Time Vortex alongside the Dalek Saucer he was in. (AUDIO: Vengeance)
The Master was eventually drawn back into the Eye of Harmony. (AUDIO: Planet of Dust)
An echo in the Eye of Harmony
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. The Master became externally perceived as a Great Black Eye beyond time, which frightened the Time Lords of Ulysses' era, was worshipped as a god in the post-War Kingdom of Beasts, (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles) and poisoned the Eighth Doctor's second heart. (PROSE: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street)
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 worth 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)
During the War in Heaven, Father Kreiner killed and decapitated either the original Master or a clone created as part of the Time Lords' War-time hatchling projects. (PROSE: Interference - Book One)
Beyond the Eye of Harmony
According to one account, while still in the form of the snake-like Morphant, the Master visited the Scoundrels Club, as he always did when having gained a new physical form, and he sat in his favourite chair, taking notice how his snake form went unnoticed. (PROSE: Dismemberment)
Fight for the Glory
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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 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, due to a symbiotic link he had formed with the Doctor's TARDIS when it consumed part of his essence after he passed through the Eye of Harmony, the Master was transported onto the Moon during one of the Doctor's adventures. The symbiotic link between the Doctor's TARDIS and the Master had also given the latter 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. The Master subsequently used this link to trail the Doctor for some time without his enemy suspecting. (COMIC: The Glorious Dead)
He was present in London during the crisis resulting from Grace Holloway's attempt to merge human and Time Lord DNA but was using the alien DNA of a Morphant by mistake. He killed Duncan, an MI6 agent, with his TCE. (COMIC: 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 the leader of the Church of the Glorious Dead, instigator of a holy war that altered the history of Earth, a planet now renamed "Dhakan". After revealing his plot to the Doctor, the Master won a sword fight with the Doctor by stabbing him, but then learned that the true battle for the Glory was between Sato and the Doctor's companion, the Cyberman Kroton, of which Kroton was the victor. Amongst his first acts as the controller of the Glory were to cleanse Earth's history and the TARDIS of the Master's influence. Kroton sent the Master away to parts unknown, who declared he would survive and return. (COMIC: The Glorious Dead)
Edward Grainger's dreams
Trapped in the Eye of Harmony, the Master eventually escaped by influencing the dreams of Edward Grainger to unravel the Doctor's timeline, by killing Edward Grainger whilst he was an infant in 1906. (PROSE: Forgotten) Though his Morphant form had sublimated to a gaseous state, the Master was still capable of using its powers to possess new bodies. (AUDIO: Mastermind) However, while in the body of Sir George Steer, he was stopped by an older Edward Grainger from 2006 and Violet after being hit with a rolling pin and being removed from George. (PROSE: Prologue) The Master then managed to evade the Doctor's detection, and possessed the body of a human named Richard. (PROSE: Forgotten)
After possessing Richard, the Master killed Violet out of revenge. However, the Master discovered his possession had caused the host body to decay at an accelerated rate, so he was forced to steal more bodies to prolong his survival. Realising that the First World War was rapidly approaching, the Master decided to migrate to America to avoid the conflict and boarded a ship to go there in 1912. Ironically, he had boarded the RMS Titanic, unaware of its eventual fate, and escaped in a lifeboat when it sank.
Arriving in New York City, the Master took possession of a member of the Hudson Dusters, quickly becoming the leader of the gang and calling himself "Don Maestro". After twenty years of living in his current body, he occupied the body of his host's son, Michael, and moved to Las Vegas where he owned a casino. He accumulated money to fund experiments towards the elongation of the lifespan of his host body. Fearing the eventual decay of his body, the Master used his money to buy a penthouse to isolate himself from infection. After years living in isolation, his host's son confronted him with the knowledge that he had possessed both his father and his grandfather in some way. He then trapped the Master in the penthouse.
After UNIT were alerted to the presence of penthouse, they discovered the Master in a comatose state. He was imprisoned in the UNIT Vault, awakening every five years for one hour, before returning to a coma. After fifteen years living in the Vault, the Master awoke for a third time and was interrogated by UNIT officers Ruth Matheson and Charlie Sato. However, he managed to hypnotise both of them and escape his imprisonment. Discovering that UNIT had recovered his TARDIS from a sealed tomb in the Valley of the Kings, he used it to escape from the Vault. (AUDIO: Mastermind)
Reaching the end
The Master contacted Earth from the planet Glox from his TARDIS, disguised as a sound studio. As he told humans about how he brought Glox's civilisation to its ruin, he implanted into the listener a telepathic order. When the Doctor discovered his hideout, the Master ordered one of the listeners to connect telepathically to his TARDIS and become a replica of him; he then sent him out to face the security of the place and be killed in his place, while he escaped. (AUDIO: I Am The Master)
After arriving on the planet Parrak in search of the tomb of one of Rassilon's leading engineers named Artron, the Master used his TARDIS to extract all water on the planet's surface throughout its history to use as an incentive for his workforce to keep obeying his rule. His overall plan was to use the Tomb of Artron to revive himself, using the unlimited regenerative energy Artron had discovered on Kolstan.
Nearing the end of his life and getting increasingly more desperate, the Master allied himself with the Eleven, with the intention of betraying him once the tomb was opened. However, the Eleven had used the Master to gain access to Artron's matrix brain, which he used to lead the Ravenous to the Doctor. Upon the Ravenous' arrival, they took great interest in the Master, believing that the flavour of all of his lives was superior to that of the Doctor's. The Ravenous feasted on him and the Master finally died, his body being left on Parrak. (AUDIO: Planet of Dust)
However, when the Celestial Intervention Agency requested the "Bruce" Master, the "War" Master and Missy to return Artron's brain print to Parrak to help fuel the technology to grant new regenerative cycles to Time Lords, the Masters used the technology for themselves as part of the deal, and resurrected the corpse of the dead Master, giving him a new body and regeneration cycle in the process. (AUDIO: Day of the Master) With his new body, the Master visited the Scoundrels Club. (PROSE: Dismemberment)
A new lease of life
Impersonating the Doctor
Working against the Time Lords, the Master infiltrated a Time Lord base which contained two dimensional nodes, products of technology developed by "the Dimensioneers", and stole them. Attempting to control the dimensional energies of the entire universe, the Master planted one on the planet of the Tolians, allowing it to drain all the energy that was available before giving the Tolians a communicator as a way of drawing the Seventh Doctor to their planet, enabling the Master to steal the only node activator still intact from the Doctor's TARDIS. Having successfully tricked the Doctor into restoring the Tolians' source of dimensional energy for them using his Node by manipulating him and using a form of reverse psychology, he allowed the Tolians to force him to open a dimensional rift, causing a catastrophic imbalance to the flow of dimensional energy in the process so great that it threatened the structure of reality itself.
Aiming to infiltrate UNIT, the Master assumed the guise of the Doctor, modelling his TARDIS' exterior on the form of a police box. Successful in his deceit, he began to work alongside UNIT's current scientific advisor, Elizabeth Klein, under the command of Colonel Lafayette and Major Wyland-Jones. He assisted UNIT in defeating a number of interdimensional alien incursions, including attacks by Mind Leeches, Lava Spiders, Skyheads and the Nexus.
Rescuing the Doctor and his companion Raine Creevy from becoming trapped on the other side of a dimensional rift caused by the dimensional instability, the Master stole the Doctor's node activator and sent all the alien invaders back to their own dimensions, fleeing Earth with the Doctor in his TARDIS. Revealing his true identity to the Doctor, he detailed his plan: he intended to use the activator in conjunction with the two nodes to add even more dimensional energy to the Tolians so he could use them to conquer the Earth and other planets and dimensions beyond. However, the Doctor managed to convince the Tolian leader Arunzell that the Master would betray the Tolians, giving him the opportunity to capture the Master in return for recalling the rest of the Tolians. However, the Master revealed that he had locked the dimensional doorway, prompting him to abandon him to Arunzell. However, the restoration of the dimensional energies reduced Arunzell to his regular size, enabling the Master to kill him with his TCE and escape, intending to try his scheme all over again. (AUDIO: Dominion)
At war with his past
The Master made a deal with the Cult of the Heretic to regenerate the universe using their anomaly cage. The Cult manipulated the Master into coming into contact with his thirteenth incarnation, whom he disfigured with a staser. The Cult then betrayed the Master by switching the minds of the "Decayed" Master and the "Bald" Master. The paradox of having a Time Lord inhabiting the body of his past self led to the universe beginning to break down. The Cult intended to execute the "Bald" Master to make the paradox unbreakable, but the "Bald" Master was able to escape. The Cult hired the Transhuman Sisters of the Unholy Protocol and the Dragonhunters to kill the "Bald" Master and make the paradox permanent, but the Master was able to drive the assassins off with the "aid" of the Fifth Doctor. (AUDIO: And You Will Obey Me)
The Seventh Doctor encountered both of the Masters and helped them get back into the right bodies. The two Masters then returned to the Cult's headquarters and killed all of the members. They then plotted to use the anomaly cage but were stopped by the Seventh Doctor, who made sure that the universe remained practically unchanged by its regeneration. (AUDIO: The Two Masters)
The Eminence experiments
Eventually, the Master was recruited by Coordinator Narvin to fight against the Daleks in a possible war, (AUDIO: The Devil You Know) due to the belief that he would be the perfect warrior due to his savagery. (TV: The Sound of Drums) The Master was instructed to use the Eminence, which posed the greater threat, to fight the Daleks. The Celestial Intervention Agency gave the Master all the information he needed for his mission, (AUDIO: Eyes of the Master) such as an update on the Doctor's activities. (AUDIO: Masterplan)
The Master travelled to the Nixyce system and stole a teleportation casket of the Eminence, integrating it into his TARDIS console. He then tried to use the casket to gain influence over the Eminence, and take control of its Infinite Warriors, calling them his "finite warriors". (AUDIO: Eyes of the Master) After saving Sally Armstrong from being hit by a taxi, he recruited her and began to work for the Ides Scientific Institute in the 1970s. (AUDIO: Time's Horizon) He tried to discover why some humans were immune to the Eminence's influence, experimenting on them in an attempt to eliminate it so that the Daleks could not exploit it.
Encountering the Eighth Doctor in London, the Doctor managed to defeat the Master by reopening the link to the Eminence located in his mind, teaching it how to pilot a TARDIS. The Eminence then used the teleportation casket located in the Master's TARDIS to pilot it, taking the Master and Sally with it. The Master managed to isolate the Eminence inside his TARDIS through the telepathic circuits, enabling Sally to expel it into the Time Vortex.
The Master and Sally then kidnapped Molly O'Sullivan from her home in 107 Baker Street, (AUDIO: Eyes of the Master) and took her to a world on the edge of humanity's war with the Eminence. There, the Master ran an experiment, using the retro-genitor particles in Molly to fight the Eminence's breath of forever. (AUDIO: The Death of Hope) The Master then destroyed Ramosa, kidnapping all of the planet's human colonists on board his TARDIS. (AUDIO: The Reviled) The Master infected the human colonists of Ramosa with retro-genitor particles, planning to expose them to the Eminence, and gain control of all of them using the fragment of the Eminence contained in his mind. (AUDIO: Masterplan)
The Master unleashed his plans for humanity on Earth. He allied himself with the Eminence and allowed them to conquer Earth. He subsequently activated the retro-genitor particles in the humans and asserted his psychic influence over them. The Doctor escaped the Master's clutches and helped a group of humans overcome the Master's influence and stop his plans. Whilst the Celestial Intervention Agency erased his work from history, the Master escaped in his TARDIS, which was disguised as a palm tree. (AUDIO: Rule of the Eminence)
Creating a new Dalek army
In an alternate timeline, forming an alliance with the Dalek Time Controller, the Master aided him in creating a new Dalek army in return for control over a number of conquered worlds. Setting the Controller up in Montmartre within the Red Pagoda, he returned to the future and aided the Daleks in their occupation of Earth. (AUDIO: Master of the Daleks)
When the Doctor absconded in time, the Master returned to the Pagoda to help repair it. (AUDIO: The Monster of Montmartre) With the amount of convertible humans still available dwindling, he decided to start converting Sontarans into Daleks. Liv stole his Tissue Compression Eliminator, and then travelled with him to Moscow. He created a mutiny with the Daleks, knowing that the Time Controller would betray him. The Doctor stole his TARDIS, leaving the Master stranded in the midst of a Dalek-Sontaran war. (AUDIO: Master of the Daleks)
Finding purpose in the Time War
Recruitment
The "Saxon" Master recounted to the Tenth Doctor that he had been resurrected by the Time Lords to fight in the Time War, as they foresaw he would be the "perfect warrior" for such a conflict. (TV: The Sound of Drums) Although one account showed that this resurrection was actually performed by an assembly of the Master's other incarnations, and some time before the War, having resulted in the creation of his "Bald" incarnation, (AUDIO: Day of the Master) there was historical doubt about how the Master had been resurrected, and from which death, (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords) with one account suggesting that the Master had actually been extracted by the Time Lords from the Doctor's TARDIS. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Time War)
Working alone
At some point, the Master regenerated into a new incarnation. (PROSE: Girl Power!) This incarnation was then present in events before (AUDIO: Sins of the Father) and during the early phases of the Time War. (AUDIO: The Devil You Know) At some point, the Master designed a laser screwdriver for his own personal use. (AUDIO: The Heavenly Paradigm)
Scheming on Callous
The Master was employed by Narvin to go to the planet Callous to find the rare metal Swenyo. The Master went to Callous and began manipulating Elliot King, and eventually his daughter Cassandra, to mine the Swenyo. Eventually, due to his extreme guilt and the effects of the Swenyo, Elliot committed suicide. (AUDIO: Call for the Dead) Cassandra King and her wife, Martine King, went to Callous to rebirth the mining process, with aid from Ood miners and the Master in disguise. Due to the Master's aid, the mining process was a success, and Cassandra found an extremely concentrated amount of Swenyo, which the Master managed to acquire for himself by contacting the Teremon, the people that the King family worked for. (AUDIO: The Glittering Prize)
With Martine, the Master took the Swenyo to an asteroid, but Martine was driven mad by the physic properties of the Swenyo, and jumped off the asteroid to her death. (AUDIO: The Persistence of Dreams) After being captured by the Teremon, the Master escaped and weaponized the Ood to prevent the further mining of Swenyo. The Master then collected his Swenyo and gave it to Narvin, who gave the Master a Chameleon Arch in exchange. (AUDIO: Sins of the Father)
Escaping the Cybermen
While "exploring possibilities", the Master became stranded in a parallel dimension; when this dimension was invaded by the Cybermen of the Cyber-Mainframe, who originated from an alternate universe and sought to upgrade the multiverse, the Master used the opportunity to obtain Cyber-Technology to repair his TARDIS and followed the Cybermen back into N-Space. The Master landed his TARDIS, urgently in need of repairs, on Fortress Island on Earth during the 2010s, where the Cybermen, who had begun an invasion of Earth, attempted to cyber-convert him and Kate Stewart, but the two escaped with Josh Carter.
With his TARDIS stolen by the Cybermen, the Master reluctantly collaborated with Kate, Josh, Vikram Shindi and Sam Bishop. After he killed the Auctioneers, whose technology had enabled the Cyber invasion, they returned to Fortress Island. At the base, the Master was seemingly converted into the "Cyber-Master" by the virtually-converted Osgood, although this granted him the opportunity to destroy the Cybermen by expanding their dimension gate to draw power from all the parallel Earths the Cybermen had failed to commence full dimension seeding in. After removing his upgrades, the Master used the remaining contaminated energy to return in his TARDIS to "the fray" of the Time War, (AUDIO: Master of Worlds) leaving behind a Wirrn egg as a parting gift to UNIT. (AUDIO: Hosts of the Wirrn)
Escapades in the Time War
During the Time War, the Master fought the Supreme Dalek on the slopes of the Never Vault, (TV: The Witch's Familiar) and considered it a worthy opponent, even showing disappointment when the Dalek Emperor didn't send it to locate him on Arcking. (AUDIO: The Good Master)
On the Time Lords' orders, the Master spent years creating the ultimate biological weapon. He set up a facility on Xenotopia and personally recruited scientists. (AUDIO: Darkness and Light) His first subject was Alice Pritchard, a chronopsycho who had been adopted on Earth. (AUDIO: The Survivor) He next captured Giuseppe Sabatani from 1890s America. (AUDIO: The Coney Island Chameleon) He implanted a crew member of River Song's expedition on the Utorpy with an ancient alien egg, with the cooperation of her partner. As it reached gestation, the Master picked off the crew however River prevented him obtaining control of the creature and set the ship to self-destruct. Together they escaped in an escape pod and upon crashing, the Master hypnotised her to forget he'd been there. (AUDIO: Concealed Weapon) For the final element, the Master lured the Doctor by tricking Alice into summoning him telepathically. Alice inadvertently drained the Doctor psychically, leading to him collapsing whilst he confronted the Master. He killed Alice, having served her purpose. The Master had tissue extracted from the Doctor (AUDIO: The Missing Link) and implanted a device in his head. The Master's work culminated in the creation of the Rage; the ultimate biological weapon. A CIA agent implanted within the Master's staff attempted to seize the creature, accidentally unleashing it in the process. The Master arranged the Doctor's escape, believing he would be able to tame with the creature. The Rage pursued and eventually absorbed them both, with the Doctor proving insufficient to tame it. Together the Doctor and the Master were able to overwhelm the creature, resulting in it perishing and releasing them both. The Master fled, using the device in the Doctor's head to wipe his memories of their encounter. (AUDIO: Darkness and Light)
Responding to a distress call from his secret base, the Master encountered Liv Chenka, posing as a Time Lord agent while she told him about the alliance between the Eleven and the Ravenous. Investigating events at the Crucible of Souls, the Master realised that the Eleven had used the Crucible and the Matrix print of the Gallifreyan scientist Artron to give the entire universe the ability to regenerate, making them all potential food for the Ravenous. Working with Missy and their "Deathworm" incarnation, the "War" Master was able to give the Eighth Doctor the opportunity to "heal" the Ravenous while the Masters used the Crucible to restore the rest of the universe to mortality. Although the Time Lords requested Artron's Matrix print to give them the ability to grant new regeneration cycles to Time Lords, the Masters first used this to restore a past version of themselves to life with a new regeneration cycle. (AUDIO: Day of the Master)
Creator of the Daleks
After he found out that Crazlus was in a position of power in the CIA, the Master constructed a plan to interfere in the creation of the Daleks with the Anti-Genesis code. After poisoning himself with the blood of a Dolthradian Dragon, the dying Master returned to Gallifrey and requested a Time Lord funeral, though Narvin denied him and ordered Crazlus to have the Master's body burnt with the Infernal Toxicant, but Crazlus instead used the Toxicant to cure the Master from the poison. The Master then took control of Crazlus' body and went to Narvin, pretending that "Crazlus" had found the Anti-Genesis code in the Master's TARDIS computer, and tricked Narvin into leading him in to the Matrix to find the real code. Once he was in possession of the code, the Master travelled to Skaro during the Thousand Year War, and arranged for Davros to be killed during the bombardment where he was originally crippled. (AUDIO: From the Flames)
Infiltrating the Kaled scientific elite by pretending to be Davros' uncle "Sovrad", the Master became the new head of scientific development, and tricked Davros's former assistant, Elrond, into giving him Davros's last discoveries, allowing the Master to modify the Mark III travel machine into a proper Dalek casing with a biogenetic accelerator, which he used on Elrond to speed his biological evolution into a Kaled mutant, creating his first Dalek, which he sent against the rest of the Kaled elite, transforming them all into Daleks. In the midst of his work, the Master was reached by Lamarius, a Time Lord agent sent to kill him, but he captured and interrogate her, learning that she was also a renegade for using a time torpedo to avoid the destruction of a planet where her family lived, and, after infecting her with the same mutant radiation the Kaleds were affected from, sent Lamarius back to Gallifrey to mock Narvin and President Livia about her failure. (AUDIO: The Master's Dalek Plan)
After sealing the bunker by blowing up the entrance and promoting Elrond to Dalek Supreme, the Master gave him the order to build five thousands Mark III travel machine as he used his TARDIS to move forwards in time to the moment the Time Lords sent the Fourth Doctor to interfere in the creation of Daleks. The Master set up an ambush for the Doctor and his companions and had his Daleks kill them. He then ordered the Daleks to deliver a genetic bomb to the Thals, so that they could use them against the remaining Kaleds and turn them into mutants, to be put inside the newly-built Dalek cases and form an army. (AUDIO: Shockwave)
The Master then led the Daleks into a military campaign which eventuated in his total victory over the universe. However, immediately after this victory, the Master began to have visions of another man warning him against the treason of his Daleks by showing him a vision of his extermination for behaving too much like an "inferior" being. He then revealed himself as Template:Kisgart from a parallel universe, brought to N-Space by the Dalek Time Strategist in an attempt to avert the "War" Master's changes. The "Exiled" Master convinced the "War" Master that the Daleks would rebel against him as they did with Davros, and the "War" Master agreed to help him and the Dalek Time Strategist avert his victory. He led them to Mussafa, when he originally connected Crazlus to his TARDIS, and contacted his past self to trick him into bringing Crazlus to them so that he could be killed. As a result of Crazlus's death, the Master's plan was made impossible, and the timeline resulting from his success was erased: the present Master dissolved, the Daleks from the original timeline came back into existence, and the connection between the "Exiled" Master and N-Space became tenuous.
The Daleks attempted to capture the Masters, but they escaped into the "War" Master's TARDIS. The Daleks went into pursuit and attacked, with their first blow causing the "Exiled" Master to fall into a wormhole in the fabric of reality. Their next strike heavily damaged the TARDIS, sending it on a crash course, while the Master was retrieved by the Daleks, who blackmailed him into serving them in exchange for the location of his lost TARDIS. (AUDIO: He Who Wins)
The Daleks sent the Master to Gardezza, where he posed as the Doctor, using his reputation to gain the trust of the Gardezzans. The Master located his TARDIS on the planet and betrayed both the Daleks and the Gardezzans to retrieve it. Inside, he received a call to return to Gallifrey and left to answer it. (AUDIO: Beneath the Viscoid)
A mission from Gallifrey
After he was captured upon arriving on Gallifrey, Celestial Intervention Agency Coordinator Romana sent the Master alongside Leela to interrogate Finnian Valentine for information on a power source for a temporal weapon he'd deployed, promising that he would be pardoned for his crimes in return. On the planet, he and Leela found Finnian had been duplicated when the temporal weapon had torn his timeline in two and used his laser screwdriver to stun both of the Finnians. He and Leela interrogated them, to no avail, so eventually he simply threatened to kill the two Finnians until he learnt that Arcking had the power source, and then killed them both anyway. On the way back to Gallifrey, the Master expelled Leela into the Time Vortex and headed to Arcking to seize the power source for himself. (AUDIO: The Devil You Know)
Exploits with Cole Jarnish
Travelling to hospital planet Arcking multiple times, the Master, under the alias "Dr Keller", attempted to possess an ancient power, known as the Heart, that had resisted the ravages of the Time War, and even prevented unnatural death. On Arcking, the Master met Cole Jarnish, a pilot who suffered from survivor's guilt as he was the sole survivor of an incident that had killed the rest of his crew. Intrigued by his desire to help the innocent people affected by the Time War, the Master hinted to Cole that he would be able to help him realise this idea. When Arcking was eventually overrun by a Dalek invasion force, the Master saved Cole's life by bringing him along in his TARDIS as he made his escape. (AUDIO: The Good Master)
After travelling with him for a while, the Master was accused of being too disengaged towards the Time War by Cole, and was challenged to play a more active role in assisting the people suffering under the destructive effects of the war. While the Master deflected this accusation by referring to his status as a Time Lord, and how it forbade him from interfering directly, he in turn offered Cole a challenge; he would allow Cole pick out a planet in peril and take him there, so he could try and save its people from destruction with whatever means he saw fit. Cole's choice fell on a primitive farming planet. Upon landing on the planet, the Master reminded Cole that he was not allowed to meddle directly, and so decided to take some time off to build his own vineyard and try his hand at cultivating grapes while he left Cole to his own devices.
As several months passed, the Master met with Cole to hear about his progress on several occasions, and, though he mostly kept to himself inside his vineyard, he would "accidentally" leave various supplies and tools to covertly help Cole in his endeavours. However, Cole's attempt to save the peaceful population of the planet backfired when he inadvertently turned them into a race of warlike semi-robotic creatures. The Master and Cole escaped the planet, with the Master assuring Cole that he would help him to undo his mistake. (AUDIO: The Sky Man)
The Master and Cole travelled to Stamford Bridge in the 1970s, where they located a Time Lord repository, and the Master revealed the reason he saved Cole's life and supported his attempt to save the people of the farming planet was to turn him into a paradox powering a paradox, with the resulting temporal energy collected in Cole to be used to power the Heavenly Paradigm. Despite Cole's pleas, the Master sacrificed him to the machine, wanting to use it to create a new and better timeline, and thus end the War. The plan backfired, however, when the Master's direction to make a "better" timeline, simply proved both far too big and far too vague for the Paradigm to handle, and the changes soon spun out of control. The Master watched in horror as his meddling unintentionally resulted in both the Time Lords and Daleks to win several battles they had once lost, and vice versa, completely altering the state of the Time War to one that was ultimately more favourable to the Daleks. Because of this, he then saw the Dalek Emperor take control of the Time Lords' Cruciform, which frightened him into fleeing from the war, which he now considered "lost".
For a time, the Master corrected and observed changes made to the Time War by the Paradigm. But, still scared and tired of the fighting, he fled to the far end of time and sent his TARDIS away to Gallifrey without him and used a Chameleon Arch to turn himself into a human baby, intending to eventually resume control of his body once the Time War had ended. (AUDIO: The Heavenly Paradigm) The baby would come to be known as Yana, growing into a benevolent absent-minded scientist who attempted to help humanity stave off its impending doom on Malcassairo via the Utopia Project. (TV: Utopia)
According to another account, however, the Master instead decided to flee from the Time War when he foresaw himself being killed by the Dalek Emperor during its takeover of the Cruciform. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe)
Returning from the Chameleon Arch
As the Project neared completion, Yana met the Tenth Doctor, Jack Harkness and Martha Jones when they were rescued from the Futurekind. Overhearing conversation between the Doctor and Jack about things such as time travel, Daleks, and regeneration, Yana became visibly upset. Martha, recognising the fob watch Yana had in his possession as a chameleon arc, inadvertently drew his attention to it, breaking the perception filter placed on it. Hearing the voice of one of his Time Lord self's past incarnations up to the War Master himself, commanding and entreating him to remember who he really was, a mesmerised Yana opened the watch and turned back into the Master. (TV: Utopia)
Death
The Master then locked the Doctor out of Yana's lab, and opened the gate keeping the Futurekind at bay to keep the Doctor occupied as he ravaged Yana's lab. After Chantho threatened him with a gun to stop him destroying their work, the Master electrocuted her with a loose set of power cables, angered that she was never curious of the fob watch during their decades of working together, and left her for dead. However, Chantho used the last of her strength to pull a laser gun on the Master while his back was turned, and shot him in the chest before she died.
Fatally wounded, the Master slithered into the Doctor's TARDIS while the Doctor watched on and deadlock sealed the door shut to keep the Doctor out. Finding the idea of dying by the hand of "an insect and a girl" undignified, the Master decided to regenerate into a form that was as young and strong as the Doctor was. (TV: Utopia)
As Harold Saxon
The newly-regenerated Master left the Doctor, Martha and Jack on the planet Malcassairo with the Futurekind about to burst in the laboratory door, taking the TARDIS and the Doctor's DNA template via the Doctor's hand, which Jack had taken with him to Malcassairo. (TV: Utopia) Because of the Doctor's last-minute intervention, the TARDIS would only take the Master to Earth in the 2000s, (TV: The Sound of Drums) with his first stop being to the Scoundrels Club to recover from the regeneration process. (PROSE: Dismemberment)
Life on Earth
The Master took on the alias "Harold Saxon" and set about fabricating "Saxon's" past to gain political support, making his first public appearance shortly after the downfall of Harriet Jones on Christmas Day 2006. "Harold Saxon" released his autobiography, Kiss Me, Kill Me, and, while writing the book, met the Honourable Lucy Cole, who was working in publishing; they were married in 2007. He also cannibalised and converted the Doctor's TARDIS into a paradox machine to change history, and took Lucy to see the universe. (TV: The Sound of Drums)
Travelling back to the end of the universe, the Master contacted the Toclafane, the childlike, vicious cyborg remnants of the humans who had never found Utopia. He made an agreement to allow the Toclafane to escape extinction and live anew in the past, with the paradox machine preventing them from changing their own history. (TV: The Sound of Drums, Last of the Time Lords)
Under the guise of "Harold Saxon", the Master entered the government as Minister for Communications, an office under which he designed the Archangel Network which was hailed as a telecommunications breakthrough. This telecommunications network, tied to mobile phones, carried a mind control signal which made humans trust him. The network affected the Doctor so he had no suspicions as to the Master's presence as "Harold Saxon", as he would have normally noticed the presence of another Time Lord. To those few humans conscious of it, the signal was a persistent drumbeat, the constant drumbeat the Master always heard, that only they could hear.
By 2007, "Saxon" had become Minister of Defence of Great Britain, and had been a driving force in designing the Valiant, UNIT's air carrier. (TV: The Sound of Drums) He went on to campaign for the general election as Prime Minister of Great Britain (TV: Love & Monsters) with the slogan "Vote Saxon". (TV: Captain Jack Harkness) On Christmas Eve, he gave orders for British Army tanks to destroy the Empress of the Racnoss's webstar, (TV: The Runaway Bride) an action which outgoing Prime Minister Harriet Jones publicly praised. (PROSE: Judge, Jury and Executioner)
The Master visited "Saxon's" old high school during the campaign, using the Archangel Network to brainwash the staff into having false memories of "Saxon" to gain political support. One teacher, James Curtis, was resistant to the Network, so the Master used his laser screwdriver to implant the appropriate memories into his mind. (PROSE: Speech Day)
"Saxon" asserted that extraterrestrial life did exist and Britain had to do something about it. This made him popular in early 2008, after the Judoon had taken the Royal Hope Hospital to the Moon. (TV: Smith and Jones) On the same day, he was asked to appear on Big Celebrity Dance Mania, but he declined. (PROSE: The Secret Lives of Monsters)
"Saxon" also funded the rejuvenation experiments of Richard Lazarus, presumably revealing at least in part the biological processes involved in a Time Lord's physical regeneration; its similarities were noted by the Doctor on observing the process. (TV: The Lazarus Experiment) With the results from this and the Doctor's DNA, the Master could use the laser screwdriver to age the Doctor. (TV: The Sound of Drums) After Martha had left with the Doctor, "Saxon" had a mysterious man meet with Martha's mother, Francine, (TV: The Lazarus Experiment) and then had an agent tap into a conversation between Francine and Martha through the superphone. (TV: 42)
Before the Doctor, Martha and Captain Jack arrived back from the end of the universe, the Master had sent Torchwood Three on a wild-goose chase to the Himalayas, (TV: The Sound of Drums) and, along with all other incarnations of the Master, was kidnapped by the Sild. (PROSE: Harvest of Time)
Prime Minister Saxon
With his election a sure thing, politicians from other parties flocked to his side. Harold Saxon was elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in May 2008, and visited Buckingham Palace soon after to give a victory speech.
He gathered his Cabinet for a meeting in the re-built 10 Downing Street and accused them of being traitors for abandoning their political parties to jump on his political ticket. He rigged the desk phone speakers on the Cabinet Room table to release a lethal gas that killed the Cabinet ministers while using a gas mask to protect himself and mock his victims. He later unleashed the Toclafane on Sunday Mirror reporter Vivien Rook, who threatened to expose his fabricated past to the public.
"Saxon" told the public that the Cabinet had gone into seclusion, and soon afterwards announced first contact with the "friendly" Toclafane who could protect Earth against alien threats. The Master then had Francine, Tish and Clive Jones arrested and taken to the Valiant; Leo Jones, however, had received a warning from Martha and gotten away in time. During a telephone conversation with the Doctor, the Master had the Doctor, Martha and Jack framed as terrorists responsible for the Cabinet's murder and forced them into hiding. (TV: The Sound of Drums)
The Year That Never Was
Information from The Unwanted Gift of Prophecy needs to be added
The Master moved to the Valiant, which the governments of Earth considered neutral territory and therefore fitting for formal first contact with alien life. The Master had the Toclafane murder the American President Arthur Winters and captured the Doctor, Martha and Jack, who had come to the Valiant earlier that day — the Master had seen past the perception filter and knew he and the others were there all along. Using the results from Professor Lazarus's experiment, along with the DNA in the Doctor's hand, the Master used his laser screwdriver to age the Doctor into an old man, and then ordered the Toclafane to kill one tenth of humanity and commence their invasion as Martha escaped. (TV: The Sound of Drums)
While ruling the world for a year, the Master discovered that the Drast had secretly invaded before he arrived. Furious, he ordered the Toclafane to burn Japan, where the Drast were situated. (PROSE: The Story of Martha) By 2009, the Master had converted Earth into a slave camp which he ruled from the Valiant. The Master aged the Doctor even further and planned to expand his New Time Lord Empire into space. He built an army of warships to take his war across the universe.
Martha used the legend of the Doctor, which she had spread, and the thoughts of Earth thinking "Doctor" at the same time. Their psychic energy was channelled through the Archangel Network, which the Doctor had spent the year infiltrating telepathically. The psychic energy restored the Doctor and gave him telekinetic powers, with which he removed the Master's laser screwdriver from his hand. After cowering from the Doctor's forgiveness, the Master used Jack's vortex manipulator to teleport him and the Doctor to Earth, where he threatened to use the black hole converter to detonate the rockets, but was foiled by the Doctor's knowledge that the Master could not kill himself. The two then teleported back to the Valiant just as Jack destroyed the paradox machine.
Time reversed to the moment of the paradox machine's activation, just after the US President was killed and just before the Toclafane arrived. Although this did not affect anyone aboard the Valiant due to being at "the eye of the storm," nobody else would know of the Master's reign of terror in "the year that never was". The Master then tried to escape but ended up running straight into Jack, who handcuffed him. The Doctor announced that, since the Master was a Time Lord, he was the Doctor's responsibility and would be imprisoned on board the TARDIS. However, the Master was shot by Lucy and refused to regenerate, dying in the Doctor's arms. The Doctor cremated the Master's body on a pyre, (TV: Last of the Time Lords) but, long after he had left, Miss Trefusis, one of the warders of Broadfell Prison, (TV: The End of Time) retrieved the Master's ring from his funeral pyre. (TV: Last of the Time Lords)
As far as the general public were aware, Harold Saxon "went mad" and disappeared, along with President Winters. (TV: The End of Time) Among all ex-Prime Ministers, Saxon was on file by UNIT, who noted him as one of the Master's incarnations. (TV: Death in Heaven) By the year 2119, Saxon was well-remembered enough that Alice O'Donnell referred to 1980 as "pre-Harold Saxon". (TV: Before the Flood)
Rassilon's Final Solution
On Christmas Eve 2009, the Disciples of Saxon, led by the governor of Broadfell Prison, resurrected the Master using his ring and a biometric imprint taken from Lucy. However, Lucy had been prepared for this and hurled a Potion of Death at him, causing an explosion that killed herself, her accomplice and the disciples whilst the Master's life force was left in a state of constant depletion. In a state fluctuating between fleshy and skeletal, he was forced to consume huge quantities of food and drain the vitality of humans to survive, also gaining enhanced agility and the power to send bolts of energy from his hands.
When the Doctor found the Master, the pair discovered that the drumming in the Master's head was real and not just a symptom of insanity. The Doctor also told him of the prophecy told to him by the Ood, but the Master quickly dismissed it, assuming that it was referring to him. Billionaire Joshua Naismith then captured the Master and enlisted his assistance to mend the malfunctioning Immortality Gate. The Master co-operated for his own purposes and used the Gate to transform every human on Earth, except Wilf and Donna Noble, into the Master Race — identical copies of the Master subservient to him.
After the Doctor and Wilf were rescued by two Vinvocci, the Master used the combined mental powers of the Master Race and a White-Point Star that had fallen on Earth to trace the origin of the drumbeat in his head. Receiving contact from the Time Lord High Council on the last day of the Time War, the Master tore open the time lock on the war, bringing back the Time Lords into whom he intended to transplant himself. However, Rassilon used his gauntlet to restore the human race and prepared to execute him before the Doctor got in the way with a pistol, eventually shooting the White-Point Star. As the Time Lords returned to the Time War, the Master attacked him, angered by the revelation that the Time Lords had caused the drumbeat, and disappeared with them. (TV: The End of Time)
While the Moment foresaw the battle as ending with the Master and Rassilon both regenerating, (PROSE: Pandoric's Box) the Master was able to survive his encounter with Rassilon, though Rassilon still regenerated after the Master choked him with several White-Point Stars. (PROSE: Lords and Masters) After his "condition" was cured by the Time Lords, (TV: The Doctor Falls) the Master escaped Gomer's Asylum, blowing up the War Room in the process, (PROSE: Lords and Masters) and left Gallifrey in his TARDIS, seeing his departure as "a mutual kicking [him] out". (TV: The Doctor Falls)
After leaving Gallifrey
Still possessing blond hair and stubble, (COMIC: The Abominable Showmen) the Master decided to take control of the production of the drug sold by a dealer called "the Breeder". On the planet where the drug was produced, he came across a young woman, Tala, who gave him a transmitter so he could see the nearby village. The next evening, he revealed to her how the Elders of her tribe made a deal with a mysterious "Breeder" to enhance the drug by having the plants feed directly on some of the strongest members of the tribe. The Master then proceeded to kill the Elders and took control of the production, keeping Tala as his partner. (PROSE: The Night Harvest)
The "Saxon" 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 Battle of the Bands Beyond the Stars. His decaying thirteenth incarnation, the incarnation possessing the body of Tremas and the incarnation possessing the body of "Bruce" all joined in the plan, and the team spent "decades" practising. (COMIC: The Five Masters) Much to his appreciation, he was allowed to play the drums. 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 other Masters soon joined in the fight for power as well, while the "Saxon" Master joined seemingly for the fun of it. The five were quickly disqualified, seemingly destroying them. (COMIC: The Five Masters)
The Mondasian colony ship
Eventually, the Master landed on a Mondasian colony ship which was experiencing time dilation due to pulling itself away from a black hole, and took over the city on Floor 1056, where he "lived like a king until [the people] rebelled against [his] cruelty". Attempting to escape, but being "too close to the event horizon", the Master burned out his TARDIS's dematerialisation circuit, stranding him on the colony ship. (TV: The Doctor Falls) Disguising himself as "Razor", the Master oversaw the "genesis of the Cybermen" via Operation Exodus.
While working for a hospital hosting the Conversion Theatre, the Master found Bill Potts, who had been given a cybernetic chestpiece after being shot on Floor 0000. (TV: World Enough and Time) The two of them spent ten years on the lower decks, (TV: The Doctor Falls) where the Master learned that the Twelfth Doctor was at the front of the ship. Studying the woman travelling with the Doctor, Missy, the Master eventually deduced that she was a future incarnation of himself trying to turn good. Becoming "concerned about [his] future", the Master lured Bill into surgery for full cyber-conversion, knowing that the Doctor would never forgive him for it. Watching as the Doctor, Nardole, and Missy arrived, the Master revealed his identity to Missy, and the two of them gloated to the Doctor about the fate of his companion. (TV: World Enough and Time)
Restraining the Doctor before taking him to the hospital roof, the Master flirted and danced with Missy until the Cybermen turned on them due to the Doctor expanding the Cybermen's definition of humanity to register lifeforms with two hearts as human. Just as Nardole arrived with a stolen shuttlecraft, the Doctor was attacked by one of the Cybermen. The Master and Missy attempted to convince Nardole to leave without him, but their shuttle was stopped by the cyber-converted Bill, who still retained her humanity. Crashing through 549 floors of the colony ship, the shuttlecraft gave out at one of the solar farms. (TV: The Doctor Falls)
That night, while the Doctor recovered from their escape, the Master, accompanied by Missy, ventured to Floor 0508 to revert the Doctor's edits to the Cybermen back on Floor 1056 and regain control of the Cybermen, though they were followed by Alit and a patient that Missy named "Topknot". However, after an encounter with a patrol of CyberNeomorphs, the Master abandoned his plans in favour of being rescued by Missy and Alit before destroying the Cyberman patrol, eager to return to Floor 0507 before any other Cybermen arrived. (PROSE: Alit in Underland)
After two weeks of searching, the Master and Missy found disguised lifts, but Missy accidentally summoned the Cybermen in her attempt to escape. Unable to return to the Doctor's TARDIS due to how quickly time was moving on the floor of the Cybermen, the Doctor insisted that they had to prepare for a confrontation.
As the Doctor prepared to fight, the Master explained to Missy how he had blown the dematerialisation circuit in his TARDIS, which was surrounded by Cybermen on the bottom floor. Missy, recalling an instance where a very scary woman had pushed him up against a wall and insisted that he always keep a spare dematerialisation circuit, pushed the Master against the wall and insisted that he always keep a spare dematerialisation circuit, revealing the spare dematerialisation circuit she kept on her person. Before departing, however, the pair asked what the Doctor's plan was, knowing that he wouldn't be able to save everyone on the ship. As the Doctor explained that he wanted to save these people simply because it was the right thing to do and tried to implore the Master to stand with him in the battle, the Master made his refusal of the offer known, and he left with Missy. (TV: The Doctor Falls)
Death
As they prepared to depart, Missy offered to hug the Master and, after stating her enjoyment for being him, she stabbed the Master in the back, mortally wounding him in order to force his regeneration into her. However, Missy made the wound precise so that the Master would have time to reach his TARDIS before the regeneration occurred. As he was helped into the lift, the Master asked Missy to explain herself, and she told him she planned to stand with the Doctor, believing they had been leading towards it their entire lives. Furious, the Master declared that he would never stand with the Doctor, and shot Missy in the back with his laser screwdriver at full blast, mortally wounding his future incarnation in a way he claimed had put her past the point of regeneration. Laughing, the Master declared that their perfect ending was always going to be "shoot[ing] [them]selves in the back." Still laughing and in pain, the Master returned to Floor 1056 in the lift, leaving Missy to allegedly die alone. (TV: The Doctor Falls) In an aborted timeline, the Master attempted to avoid his regeneration into Missy by healing himself, first with the energies of Kiameth, releasing a sentient entropy wave on the universe in the process, and then by feeding on his own past incarnations who he time-scooped to the ruins of Kiameth, coming into conflict with Missy. These events were undone when the "War" Master created a paradox by poisoning all their past selves including himself and letting the wave consume Missy, having deduced the wave was actually the Master's own future form. (AUDIO: Masterful)
As Missy
After returning to his TARDIS, the Master regenerated into a new incarnation (PROSE: Girl Power!) the same incarnation that had fatally wounded him, (TV: The Doctor Falls) and who referred to herself, in a list of her incarnations, as "the Best One". (PROSE: Meet Missy!)
Due to the presence of her older self during the events surrounding his regeneration, she was left unable to recall the exact specifics of it due to their timelines being out of sync, (TV: The Doctor Falls) recalling only that she woke up in a female body, (AUDIO: The Bekdel Test) and also lost all knowledge of her former time on the Mondasian colony ship, (TV: World Enough and Time) save only that a "very scary lady" had advised to always carry a spare dematerialisation circuit. (TV: The Doctor Falls)
Early endeavours
As with her previous incarnations, the Master went to the Scoundrels Club to recover from the regeneration. After she was ousted from the Club by Harrison Mandeville for being a woman, the Master went on to systematically kill specific members for her revenge, and recruited an 18th century slave at the Mandeville sugar plantation named Saffron, whom coined the name "Missy" for the Master's current incarnation.
While Saffron infiltrated the Club through the kitchens, (PROSE: Dismemberment) Missy was brought to the Bekdel Institute, where she encountered River Song. After Missy taunted her, and killed a few of the other prisoners, River realised she could help her escape. To throw off the Director, she created two sets of solidograms, similar to him, one to be placed in the detention cells, while the other set to be caught in the sewers. It was around this time they figured out that the prisoners were in fact solidograms, generated by the main computer. While Missy and River meddled with the systems, they figured out that they were brought to the prison to check if the Eleventh Doctor was really dead after his assassination. They finally escaped after Missy tricked the computer into thinking that the inside was the outside and vice versa. Missy and River were transported to a planet, where Missy got back to her TARDIS. She told River that she knew something about her future, but that she couldn't tell. Missy also explained that she couldn't kill River because she was a complicated space-time event. Missy then teleported River back to Stormcage, just for the fun of it. (AUDIO: The Bekdel Test)
While searching for a replacement power source for her TARDIS's Eye of Harmony, Missy was forced into working for the High Council by the General, with Yayani being assigned her "companion" in her mission to investigate time experiments at the Kyme Institute. At the Kyme Institute, Missy and Yayani found that Doctor Kalub was keeping a pregnant creature confined in a bubble of time energy, constantly shifting between life and death. Having paralysed Kalub with her sonic umbrella, Missy goaded Yayani into killing him, and then killed Yayani with the Tissue Compression Eliminator, sending her remains back to the General with a warning not to bother her again, as she had jettisoned her Eye of Harmony, replacing it with Kalub's creature. (PROSE: Lords and Masters)
Shenanigans with the Master TARDIS
Missy was captured by the Wardens, who punished her for a crime she had yet to commit. Under the supervision of Mr Cosmo, she was exiled to 19th Century London and forbidden from harming anyone or using anachronistic technology. Following Cosmo's suggestion to get a job, Missy took a role as the governess of Oliver and Lucy Davis. Under the guise of field trips with the children, she investigated places of old power, awakening a Sphinx and stealing an ancient genie from the British Museum. Lucy became suspicious of her, but Oliver remained enthralled and helped Missy gain access to the opening of the Circle Line which their father had been working on. Missy used the circular shape and terror of the passengers on the out of control train, being accelerated by the genie, to charge up a ruby from the Sphinx with ancient power. She then turned on the children, attracting Cosmo's attention. The ruby interfered with his transmat, transporting him into the genie's vase. Stripped of his power, Cosmo was unable to stop Missy using her vortex manipulator to escape. (AUDIO: A Spoonful of Mayhem)
Plotting to obtain control of the Master TARDIS, Missy sought the necessary components to reactivate it. (AUDIO: The Belly of the Beast) She travelled to 15th Century England to find a time traveller who was causing distortions by posing as Henry VIII, discovering they were actually the Monk, who had hidden from the Time War there and was now creating distortions in hopes of attracting the Time Lords' attention for rescue. Her plans were thrown into chaos by the arrival of the Gramoryans, who had been attracted by the Monk's meddling. She was forced to expose the Monk as an impostor to divert them, by revealing the real Henry. She and the Monk were sentenced to execution for treason, however she managed to hypnotise the executioner and they retreated back to the Monk's TARDIS. There Missy stole the component she needed and escaped by vortex manipulator, leaving the stranded Monk swearing vengeance against her. (AUDIO: Divorced, Beheaded, Regenerated) Missy then tracked down her Time War TARDIS, which had hidden from her in 2014 Manhattan. She accompanied Dick Zodiac in his investigation of deaths where the victims had seemingly aged to death. Dick found her TARDIS, which was traumatised from the War and now communicating by an avatar called Mark. Mark let her and Dick in, however a future version of Dick who had been relieving the events in simulations intervened and revealed her true identity to Mark, giving young Dick her vortex manipulator. Refusing to be her tool again, the TARDIS attempted to throw itself into a sun but Missy found the factory reset and regained control. (AUDIO: The Broken Clock) Locating the Master TARDIS in the belly of a dead space creature, Missy used processed clones as a slave army to excavate it. Growing bored, Missy and her own future self played a game where the future Missy attempted to cause a rebellion, to keep her occupied. When the TARDIS was found, Missy used a vortex manipulator to travel back in time to be the rebel leader whilst the older Missy claimed the TARDIS. She used the Monk's component to open its Eye of Harmony and threw her old TARDIS into it as fuel, activating the Master TARDIS. (AUDIO: The Belly of the Beast)
Finding the Master TARDIS wasn't working properly, Missy embarked on a series of plots to attract the Doctor's attention, including kidnapping Bertram to be her companion. Instead she attracted the attention of the Lumiat, who she initially mistook for the Doctor. Eventually the Lumiat revealed her true identity as Missy's next incarnation, a distillation of goodness created by an Elysian field. Missy and the Lumiat went on a series of adventures together, during which Missy killed Bertram out of boredom. After Missy threatened to destroy a rare egg that was causing a truce in a civil war, the Lumiat snapped and threatened to kill her with her TCE. She missed and Missy shot her whilst throwing her the egg, smashing it and mortally wounding the Lumiat. Having grown bored of her, Missy dumped the Lumiat on a random planet mid-regeneration. (AUDIO: The Lumiat)
Still wanting the Doctor's attention, Missy went to Earth and took over a boarding school in Scotland. Oliver Davis arrived at the school and managed to send word to his sister, who arrived with Strax. Fending off their interference, Missy decided to have the boys dig up an ancient mound in search of ancient power. However she was foiled by the arrival of Cosmo, who had been freed by Strax's comrades on the Davis' instruction. Missy escaped by vortex manipulator, (AUDIO: Brimstone and Terror) to 1605, however it was drained of power. Missy decided to meddle in the Gunpowder Plot to attract the attention of a time traveller and came into conflict with a rookie Time Agent. However Missy's meddling was undone and she was captured by the culprit - the Monk. (AUDIO: Treason and Plot) Before the Monk could exact his revenge, they were captured by the Ogrons who were seeking payment from the Master, and assumed the Monk was him. Missy eventually helped the Monk escaped, however revealed she'd programmed his TARDIS to only operate with both of them aboard. As he despaired, she proclaimed this to be the beginning of a "horrible friendship". (AUDIO: Too Many Masters)
Reclaiming her friend
Missy decided to manoeuvre Clara Oswald into becoming the Doctor's companion, believing that Clara was just the right companion to attract the Doctor's interest and make it easier for Missy to emotionally manipulate him, (TV: Death in Heaven) showing him "the friend inside the enemy, [and] the enemy inside the friend." (TV: The Witch's Familiar) Ashildr believed that Missy placed the two together so that that the Doctor and Clara in tandem would become the Hybrid of Gallifreyan myth. (TV: Hell Bent) In 2013, Missy gave Clara the Doctor's phone number, claiming that it was a tech support line, leading Clara to meet the Eleventh Doctor. (TV: The Bells of Saint John, Death in Heaven) She then kept the Doctor and Clara together into the Doctor's twelfth incarnation by placing an ad in a newspaper for Mancini's Family Restaurant. (TV: Deep Breath, Death in Heaven)
After killing Clara's boyfriend, Danny Pink, by running him over with a milk float, Missy returned to the Scoundrels Club to finalise her revenge by having Saffron poison the last remaining members with a temporary paralysing agent. After stranding the majority of the members in the past to act as slave labour, Missy taunted Mandeville a final time by permanently paralysing him and propping him up as furniture, while she made plans for Dr Skarosa. (PROSE: Dismemberment)
To create a new army of the Cybermen, (TV: Dark Water) whom she called her "Cyberdears", (PROSE: Meet Missy!) Missy founded the 3W Institute, in order to create a Cyberman army of the dead. (TV: Dark Water) Needing to collect matrix slices that she had acquired in her previous incarnation, Missy travelled to London to meet her former wife, Lucy Saxon, who had been sent to sell three matrix data slices to another incarnation of the Master. Missy spoke to Lucy about her husband and told her that one day she would have to kill him with a gun. Lucy listened to her story about what would happen to her, and how it would all work out, though she did not tell Lucy that these events would also result in her death. Lucy agreed to the terms and gave Missy the three matrix slices. (PROSE: The Unwanted Gift of Prophecy) Missy used the matrix data slices to create the Nethersphere, where she uploaded dying minds to. This reality changed and rewrote the minds, removing their emotions before re-downloading them into their Cyber-converted bodies. (TV: Dark Water)
Missy went along the Doctor's timeline and greeted people who died in connection with him, (TV: Death in Heaven) such as the Half-Face Man (TV: Deep Breath) and Gretchen Carlisle. (TV: Into the Dalek) Finding this made her "a bit busy", (TV: The Caretaker) Missy began to secretly monitor the Twelfth Doctor and Clara, (TV: Flatline) as she did when Earth was saved from a solar flare by a forest that grew overnight. (TV: In the Forest of the Night)
Missy finally met the Twelfth Doctor and Clara at one of 3W's mausoleums, which was hidden inside St Paul's Cathedral (TV: Dark Water) with dimensional engineering. (TV: Death in Heaven) Initially posing as an android, Missy revealed her true identity to him as the Cybermen marched out onto the streets of London. (TV: Dark Water) Missy was quickly captured by UNIT, having anonymously tipped them off on the Cybermen's presence. She watched as Cybermen flew into the sky and exploded above major population centres, creating clouds that rained Cyber-pollen, turning the dead into Cybermen. Taken onto Boat One along with the Doctor, she sent out a signal to the Cybermen, to attack the plane before freeing herself, (TV: Death in Heaven) and disintegrating the Zygon Osgood. (AUDIO: Narcissus) Missy then ordered the Cybermen to remove a piece of the fuselage, causing Kate Stewart and the Doctor to be sucked out before ordering the Cybermen to destroy the plane, and teleporting away. In the Nethersphere, Missy and Seb watched the Doctor free falling and saving himself by using his key to summon the TARDIS. When Seb got overexcited at this dramatic turn of events, Missy casually disintegrated him.
After the Doctor found out from the Cyber-converted Danny Pink that she planned to have the Cyber-pollen fall again so that humanity would be reborn as Cybermen, Missy then arrived to give the Doctor control of the Cybermen, wanting him to use them as his army, in the hopes of proving the similarities between them. However, after pondering the idea, the Doctor proclaimed himself to be simply an "idiot with a box" rather than a general or any sort of leader. He turned control over to Danny, who ordered the army into the sky to destroy themselves, dispersing the threatening rain clouds.
After the threat of the Cybermen had ended, Missy gave the Doctor coordinates to the current location of Gallifrey, lying to the Doctor that the planet had returned to its original location and that she and the Doctor could travel there together. However, Clara, using Missy's own weapon, decided to kill her. The Doctor wouldn't let Clara kill Missy, and decided to kill his old friend himself to "save [Clara's] soul". Before he could fire the weapon, however, Missy was shot by the late Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, who had been resurrected by the Cyber-pollen, (TV: Death in Heaven) but Missy used the energy from the blaster to recharge her vortex manipulator and escape undetected. (TV: The Witch's Familiar)
Further schemes
Despite the Celestial Intervention Agency protocols attempting to stop her, Missy was able to hack and corrupt her file in the TARDIS databanks, adding in mocking remarks and ending with a veiled promise to kill whoever viewed the video file. (WC: Who Is The Master?)
Enslaving a reality changing bear by the name of Teddy Sparkles, Missy arranged for herself to become governess at Queen Square, and used the innocence of the children to manipulate them and Teddy Sparkles into wishing for a future where they became influential entrepreneurs. When the time was right, Missy tried to threaten the children, having grown up to be very well connected, into handing her the means to dominate the Earth, but Teddy Sparkles was able to reverse the timeline to stop Missy, though he had to sacrifice his life to completely to fix the timeline afterwards. However, he was able to change reality enough to have Missy known throughout the world of 1925 as the nicest governess of all time, forcing her to leave in humiliation. (PROSE: Teddy Sparkles Must Die!)
Missy went to face the tests to gain the power of Iarbus, but the wizard refused because she was a woman and drained her life essence into her power source. Missy was able to resist destruction and keep her identity, and used the power to send mental messages to five of the most evil and cruel conquerors in the universe. She didn't mind-secure them, though, and because of that, Daphne Nollis, housekeeper to one of the five warlords summoned, was instead brought there in his place. Missy led the men through Iarbus' trials, which only Daphne and another man, Dib the Magnificent, survived. When Iarbus came to give the winner his prize, Missy used the power of the source to regain physical form and killed Iarbus and Dib by absorbing them into the power. As she was gloating for her victory, Daphne took advantage and grabbed the power for herself, snatching it from Missy's hands. Realising Daphne had become too powerful for her to defeat, Missy withdrew. (PROSE: Missy's Magical Mystery Mission)
Trapped on Skaro
After she was given the Doctor's confession dial from Ohila, Missy tried to find the Doctor to get answers, but was unable to locate him. Needing assistance, Missy got the attention of both Clara and UNIT by freezing all the airborne planes on Earth in time. Managing to arrange a treaty with Clara, Missy helped UNIT deduce that the Doctor was hiding in 1138 Essex, and used her vortex manipulator to transfer herself and Clara to the location, where the Doctor was throwing a party.
When Colony Sarff arrived to capture the Doctor, having been led there by following Missy and Clara, Clara volunteered herself and Missy as prisoners, and were taken to Skaro. While the Doctor was taken to Davros, Missy and Clara escaped their cell, but were soon captured by a Dalek. They were taken to the other Daleks and seemingly exterminated. (TV: The Magician's Apprentice) However, Missy and Clara had survived by using the Dalek blasts to recharge Missy's vortex manipulator and the one she gave Clara, and teleporting from the Dalek city, burning them out in the process.
Missy and Clara entered the Dalek sewers, composed of rotting Daleks, with Missy using Clara to lure a Dalek there. She cut through its case using her dwarf star alloy brooch, enabling the rotting Daleks to kill it. She put Clara inside the case and pretended to be her prisoner, enabling her to re-enter the Dalek control room and propose an alliance with them. When the Daleks began to gain Time Lord regeneration energy, Missy used their incapacitation to find the Doctor. She used a Dalek gun to shoot Colony Sarff, saving the Doctor. She then watched as the Doctor toyed with Davros about the revived Daleks in the sewers and even tapped Davros' Dalek eye as they made their escape.
With the city being destroyed by the regenerated sewer Daleks, Missy tried to trick the Doctor into killing Clara inside the Dalek. However, the Doctor realised the deception and told Missy to run. Trying to escape, she was surrounded by Daleks when the city crumbled in on itself, but purported that she had "a really clever idea". (TV: The Witch's Familiar) Missy spent some time on Skaro, even adopting a Slyther, which she named "Doctor," and writing a postcard to the Doctor, promising she would see him soon. (PROSE: Postcards from the Universe) One Gallifreyan believed that, after she escaped the Daleks on Skaro, Missy went back to Gallifrey and told Rassilon that the Doctor knew about the Hybrid. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords)
After Skaro
Information from Missy Loves Ghostie needs to be added
After eluding the Daleks, Missy was forced into the Time Vortex, where her TARDIS collided with a Gryphon time ship. Caught in a temporal embrace, the Gryphons attacked Missy's TARDIS, and Missy was forced to land in St Mark's Square in Venice. With her dematerialisation circuit damaged from the attack, Missy walked through the market to get her bearings, and had the circuit stolen by pickpockets Mario and Antonia. Pursuing Mario, Missy saw him being absorbed by a temporal shift with her circuit, and later found it in a museum.
Knowing she would need to venture into the temporal shift to retrieve her circuit, Missy met with a local museum curator to find out where the circuit was located, and then travelled through the temporal shift to 14th century Venice with Antonia, where they found the Gryphons attacking. Separating from Antonia, Missy found Mario's deceased body and retrieved her dematerialisation circuit. Telling Antonia that Mario had been sent back, Missy and Antonia returned to modern Venice, where Missy reverted the damages of the temporal shift by flooding Venice. (PROSE: The Liar, the Glitch and the War Zone)
Hearing that the Doctor and Clara had been forced to enter Battle of the Bands Beyond the Stars, Missy came up with a new plan for universal domination. Travelling through her time stream, she recruited her decaying thirteenth incarnation, the Master in the stolen body of Tremas, the Master in the stolen body of Bruce and the "Harold Saxon" Master, and formed a band to compete on the show. The group planned to use the popularity of the program to hypnotise the audiences across the galaxy. According to Missy, the five spent "decades" preparing for the performance. (COMIC: The Five Masters)
The group went on before Clara and the Doctor due to a shift in the program's schedule, and the five revealed themselves to the pair. (COMIC: The Abominable Showmen) Missy expected the Doctor to attempt to stop the five of them, or to at least inquire on their plans, but the Doctor refused to intervene or question their scheme. After much prying, the Doctor correctly predicted the group's plan, but still refused to intervene as they started their song. As she prepared to hypnotise her audience, her previous incarnations began to fight with her over her device, as each wanted to control the universe without the others. During the fight, viewers began to turn off their sets and the group were soon all disqualified and were thus blown up, although neither Clara nor the Doctor believed that they had truly been killed. (COMIC: The Five Masters)
Missy became a headteacher for the school Saxon Heights after she had done away with the previous one. She implemented new and strange rules, such as a school uniform that was almost identical to her own clothing, and getting rid of everyone's mobile communication devices, with her excuse being that they were used too often. However, the real reason was because that she wanted to summon a Dæmon by hooking up her newly acquired devices to a transmitter. The Osgoods found this out and had UNIT stop her, although Missy managed to escape. (PROSE: Yes, Missy)
Missy goaded the Doctor into following her through various time periods while she stole valuable items. The Doctor was too late to stop her each time. Finally catching up with her in the Stone Age, the Doctor revealed to her that he had discovered her true plan: to leave Cybermats behind where she stole each item. Missy expressed her desire to further reveal her plan to him. The Doctor instead refused to listen and boarded the TARDIS in search of some lunch. (PROSE: Dr. Twelfth)
In 1963, Missy filled in as Coal Hill School's supply room teacher. She added a ladder to the supply room which allowed the First Doctor and Shivani Bajwa to escape a pack of alien wolves. Shivani later described the incident to Missy and thanked her for the ladder. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Horror of Coal Hill)
Responding to a distress call from her secret base, Missy found that the "War" Master had had his TARDIS stolen by Liv Chenka. Working with her "War" and their "Deathworm" incarnations in a plan to use the Crucible of Souls to counter the plot of the Ravenous, Missy kidnapped Helen Sinclair to translate the Prophecy of Artron in the future of Earth. After taunting Helen in Artron's tower, Missy took Artron back to the "War" Master, and broadcasted a message to the Eleven for him to return to the Crucible, planning to use Artron as a bargaining chip.
With the Eleven distracted by the Eighth Doctor, Missy helped to remove the regeneration ability from the citizens of the universe, and called in the fleet of Battle TARDISes in orbit around the Crucible to destroy it. Escaping in the "War" Master's TARDIS, Missy joined her past incarnations in shooting the Eleven and left her vortex manipulator with the Twelve. Although the Time Lords requested Artron's Matrix print to give them the ability to grant new regeneration cycles to Time Lords, the Masters first used it to restore a past version of themselves to life with a new regeneration cycle. (AUDIO: Day of the Master)
Trial and execution
After she was captured by an unnamed species on an unnamed planet, (TV: Extremis) Missy was put on trial for her "crimes against the universe throughout all [her] lives". However, she talked her way out of being sentenced for the events of The Year That Never Was by pointing out the Tenth Doctor's undoing of those events, and for the murder of Petronella Osgood by pointing out that two Osgoods were still working for UNIT. She then pointed out she had already been punished for her actions at Devil's End, and cleared up confusion about her involvement in the Death Zone by reminding everyone that Borusa was the culprit on that occasion. She was, however, eventually sentenced to death for pushing a girl into a volcano on Riga-Priam. (PROSE: Missy on Trial)
In accordance with their Fatality Index, the Doctor was chosen to carry out Missy's sentence. However, he sabotaged the execution machine so that she was knocked unconscious instead of being killed. After swearing an oath to guard Missy's "body" for a thousand years, the Doctor scared the executioners away and had Nardole place her inside a Quantum Fold Chamber. (TV: Extremis) The Doctor and Nardole transported the vault to St Luke's University, where they continued to guard it for several decades. (TV: The Pilot) Missy would occasionally ask Nardole to order items for her, and the Doctor would have to approve her requests. (PROSE: Girl Power!)
Imprisoned in the Vault
Information from The Great Shopping Bill, Pain Management, & A Confusion of Angels needs to be added
While inside the Vault, Missy began reading up on how women were treated by history, and decided to help inspire a select group of women to rise against their male oppressors with a Spacebook group chat. However, the Doctor, thinking Missy was plotting an elaborate escape by messing with history, infiltrated the chat with the username "Circe" and dismantled Missy's leadership of the women. Missy then swore off ever trying to help the human race, and instead began a new campaign for the rats of Earth. (PROSE: Girl Power!)
In 2017, (TV: Knock Knock) after the Doctor began travelling with Bill Potts, (TV: The Pilot) Missy began banging on the doors of the vault, only for Nardole to assert that he would stand guard and prevent her escape. (TV: Thin Ice) When he later double-checked the locks, she started playing Für Elise on a piano the Doctor had given her. Once Nardole was dismissed by the Doctor, Missy started playing Pop Goes The Weasel when the Doctor told her about his adventure at 11 Cardinal Road. (TV: Knock Knock)
After he received an email from a simulation of himself warning of an upcoming invasion, the Doctor became tempted to release Missy from the vault. (TV: Extremis) When the Monks later occupied the Earth, the Doctor was kept prisoner for six months. After Bill helped him escape, he decided to consult Missy on how to defeat the Monks. Missy revealed she had dealt with them before, and that the only way to weaken their grip on power was to kill the psychic lynchpin being beamed to the whole planet. After the Monks had been driven off-world, the Doctor visited Missy in the vault again. This time, she claimed to be in deep regret of all the people she had killed throughout her lifetimes. The Doctor assured her she was making good progress on her redemption. (TV: The Lie of the Land)
Nardole later released Missy from the vault so that she could help him return the TARDIS to 1881 Mars after it unexpectedly departed and Nardole couldn't get it to return. After the Doctor and Bill entered the TARDIS, the Doctor was shocked to see Missy at the controls and reminded her that it was against their agreement and that he would have to return Missy to the Vault. To the Doctor's surprise, Missy easily agreed to return, and even questioned if he was alright with obvious concern. (TV: Empress of Mars)
Final endeavours
Deciding Missy was worth trusting, the Doctor released her from the Vault to perform maintenance work on the TARDIS while he took Bill and Nardole to find the lost Roman legion. Missy finished the work, and then took to watching the Doctor until he returned some days later. Nardole was frustrated that the Doctor had freed her, but he brushed him off, preferring to see if Missy had learned anything. Missy later cried as the Doctor watched on, both wondering if it was possible for them to be friends again and whether Missy was finally becoming the person the Doctor had desired to make her. (TV: The Eaters of Light)
The Mondasian colony ship
To test Missy's goodness, the Doctor recruited Bill and Nardole to be her "companions" and followed a distress call to a colony ship while the Doctor monitored Missy's progress from the TARDIS. However, Missy was ill-prepared to handle a frightened crewmember, Jorj, who subsequently shot Bill; she was carried off by passengers from Floor 1056. Missy accompanied the Doctor and Nardole in the lift to Floor 1056, (TV: World Enough and Time) where a time portal appeared. A humanoid hand reached out of the portal, and a voice asked to "grab on", before it disappeared. (COMIC: The Road To...) After reaching Floor 1056, the Doctor left Missy in charge of gleaning information from the computers. She discovered that the colony ship originated from Mondas while being pestered by a man called "Razor", who, upon confrontation, revealed himself to be her past self, who Missy appeared to join forces with for the "Genesis of the Cybermen". (TV: World Enough and Time)
However, when the Cybermen turned on them, Missy knocked the Master down and claimed to have been playing him while still on the Doctor's side, but then admitted to being unsure of her allegiance. Just as Nardole arrived with a stolen shuttlecraft, the Doctor was attacked by one of the Cybermen. Missy entered the shuttle after the Master, as her younger self attempted to convince Nardole to leave without him. However, their shuttle was stopped by the Cyber-converted Bill, who still retained her humanity. Crashing through the floors, the shuttlecraft gave out at one of the solar farms on Floor 0507. (TV: The Doctor Falls)
That night, while the Doctor recovered from their escape, Missy accompanied the Master in venturing to Floor 0508 to revert the Doctor's edits to the Cybermen back on Floor 1056 and regain control of the Cybermen, though they were followed by Alit and a patient that Missy named "Topknot". However, after an encounter with a patrol of CyberNeomorphs, Missy prevented them from attacking Floor 0507 with a swarm of Cybermats, before rescuing her previous self with Alit and assisting the Master in destroying the Cyberman patrol; the two Masters then returned to Floor 0507 and abandoned their plans to control the Cybermen. On their journey back to the farmhouse, Missy, still conflicted over whether to side with the Doctor or her previous self, hypothesised that the only way to finish her internal conflict would be to kill the Master. (PROSE: Alit in Underland)
After two weeks of searching, the Master and Missy found disguised lifts, but Missy accidentally summoned the Cybermen in her attempt to escape. Unable to return to the Doctor's TARDIS due to how quickly time was moving on the floor of the Cybermen, the Doctor insisted that they had to prepare for a confrontation.
As the Doctor prepared to fight, the Master explained to Missy how he had blown the dematerialisation circuit in his TARDIS, which was surrounded by Cybermen on the bottom floor. Missy, recalling an instance where a very scary woman had pushed him up against a wall and insisted that he always keep a spare dematerialisation circuit, pushed the Master against the wall and insisted that he always keep a spare dematerialisation circuit, revealing the spare dematerialisation circuit she kept on her person. Before departing, however, the pair asked what the Doctor's plan was, knowing that he wouldn't be able to save everyone on the ship. As the Doctor explained that he wanted to save these people simply because it was the right thing to do and then implored the Master to stand with him, something the Master rejected, but Missy, speaking with the Doctor in private, admitted that she too wanted to stand with the Doctor as an ally, but still left with the Master. (TV: The Doctor Falls)
Death
As they prepared to depart, Missy offered to hug the Master and, after stating her enjoyment for being him, she stabbed the Master in the back, mortally wounding him in order to force his regeneration into her, but made the wound precise so that he would have time to reach his TARDIS before the regeneration occurred. Missy then helped the Master into the lift, explaining that she planned to stand with the Doctor and that it was the inevitable end that they had been leading towards their entire lives. However, the Master, declaring that he would never stand with the Doctor, shot Missy in the back with his laser screwdriver at full blast, claiming that he was mortally wounding her beyond the point of regeneration. With both of them laughing, the Master declared that their perfect ending was always going to be "shoot[ing] [them]selves in the back." As the Master departed for his TARDIS, Missy collapsed to the ground and seemingly died, (TV: The Doctor Falls) but she managed to regenerate into a new incarnation by creating an Elysian field to "kick start a new regeneration cycle". The process of cryogenetic extraction destroyed her body but retained a copy of her consciousness before regeneration. (AUDIO: The Lumiat)
As "the Lumiat"
Tired of her dark ways, and hoping to impress the Doctor, the dying Missy created the Elysian field to regenerate her body into a distillation of all her goodness. The regenerated Missy, inspired by the Doctor, went out to do good in the universe and abandoned her previous identity as the Master to go under the name "the Lumiat".
The Lumiat foiled several of her immediate predecessor's schemes, causing Missy to believe the Lumiat was the Doctor. After revealing her identity, the Lumiat accompanied Missy on some trips, trying to act as a good influence on her. She also stole Missy's newly-rebuilt Tissue Compression Eliminator. However, she was mortally wounded by Missy after she "[grew] bored" of her, and was forced to regenerate, with Missy speculating that the next incarnation would not share the Lumiat's good nature. She subsequently dumped her on a random planet, where she completed her regeneration, screaming in pain, in view of some baffled villagers. (AUDIO: The Lumiat)
As "the Spy Master"
Ravaging Gallifrey
After regenerating into a new incarnation, the new Master returned to their dark ways, looking down on Missy for trying to better herself and spending so much time with the Doctor. (PROSE: The Doctor vs the Master)
Hacking into the Matrix on Gallifrey until he "got lost", (TV: The Timeless Children) this incarnation of the Master learned the truth of the Timeless Child; (TV: Spyfall) the Doctor was the Child, having been found and adopted by the Shobogan explorer Tecteun, as well as the root of regeneration and the foundation of the Time Lord society. Enraged that the Doctor's childhood attitude of being "special" was apparently validated, (TV: The Timeless Children) the Master decided he had to "make them pay"; he ravaged Gallifrey and left the Citadel in a flaming ruin, having apparently killed all of the Time Lords. (TV: Spyfall) However, he chose not to destroy the Matrix. (TV: The Timeless Children)
Alliance with the Kasaavin
Wanting to send a message to the Doctor about what had transpired on Gallifrey, the Master found a species known as the Kasaavin from another dimension had embedded across the universe as sleeper agents. Brokering an alliance with them, the Master recruited Daniel Barton into his plan to trap the Doctor by proposing that Barton and the Kasaavin turn the human race into hard drives. As part of the plan, the Master arranged for "The Silver Lady" to be delivered to Charles Babbage, and that it was passed on to those who would influence the development of computers through history until it ended up with Barton. The Master used his Tissue Compression Eliminator to kill a newly-recruited MI6 agent on his first day, and took his place. He was put to work as an analyst known as "Horizon Watcher", and given the codename "O" as a joke on how his superior, "C", would react to his presence. During his time at MI6, the Master crossed paths with the Doctor prior to her thirteenth incarnation. Not recognising the Master, the Doctor stayed in contact with "O" via text messages. "O" was eventually sacked by C sometime prior to 2020, and the Master went into hiding in Australia, using his TARDIS as a hideout.
By 2020, the Kasaavin began to attack spies from different agencies all across the Earth once the intelligence services started to realise their presence, leading MI6 to track down the Thirteenth Doctor. While the Doctor was at MI6's HQ, the Master personally assassinated C, and the Kasaavin forced the Doctor and her friends to flee to "O"'s alleged location in the Great Victoria Desert. Upon their arrival, "O" greeted the Doctor and Graham O'Brien. He assisted the Doctor by sharing his findings and, after a staged Kasaavin attack, travelled with Team TARDIS to confront Barton.
At Barton's party, "O" blended in with the other guests until Barton fled, making the team pursue him to an airport. As Barton was about to take off, the team ran to the plane, with "O" almost not catching up, using the excuse that he was terrible at sprinting. This triggered the Doctor's suspicion, as "O"'s file said he was a champion sprinter. After being confronted over the inconsistency, the Master revealed his true identity, even showing Team TARDIS the shrunken corpse of the real "O". He then revealed he had been working with Barton and the Kasaavin, and left Team TARDIS on the plane as he detonated a bomb in the cockpit. Alerted to the Doctor's survival by Barton, the Master followed her to 1834 London, where he held a crowd at the Royal Adelaide Gallery hostage to draw out the Doctor. However, after a brief conversation with her, the Master was forced to flee when attacked by Ada Gordon.
The Master next chased the Doctor and Ada to 1943 Paris, where he set himself up as a German officer using a Teutonic psychic perception filter to hide his non-Aryan appearance from the Nazis. Once the Doctor made contact with him, the Master met her atop the Eiffel Tower, where he revealed his real plan had been to get the Doctor's attention and persuade her to return to Gallifrey. However, the Doctor had had Noor Inayat Khan leak information to the Nazis of the Master being a double agent, and, as they came to arrest him, deactivated the perception filter to ensure his capture while she stole his TARDIS. After seventy-seven years of waiting, the Master finally caught up to Team TARDIS back in 2020, just as the Kasaavin were enacting their invasion. However, the Doctor thwarted the Master's plot and exposed to the Kasaavin the Master's plan to betray them and Barton. Furious, the Kasaavin captured the Master, trapping him in their reality. (TV: Spyfall)
With the psychic link between him and the Doctor still active, the Master, sometime later, was pressured into a mental conversation with her, during which they looked back on the state of their relationship and, as it were, "how it had all gone wrong". The Master once again taunted the Doctor with the knowledge he held over her, saying that he would only reveal it when he was "good and ready", and ended the chat. (PROSE: The Doctor vs the Master)
Joining with the Cyberium
Eventually, the Master was able to escape the Kasaavin, and returned to Gallifrey. He emerged from the Boundary when the Doctor and Ryan Sinclair arrived on the Planet of the Boundary. (TV: Ascension of the Cybermen) By threatening Ryan, Ethan and Ko Sharmus with his Tissue Compression Eliminator, the Master was able to force the Doctor to accompany him to the ruins of Gallifrey. Leading the Doctor into the Citadel, the Master reminisced about their times together there, before calling Ashad and inviting the Cybermen to Gallifrey.
Refusing her pleas to save her friends from the Cybermen, the Master trapped the Doctor in a paralysis field, telling her it was time for her to learn the truth of the Timeless Child. The Master sent the Doctor deep into the Matrix, accompanying her via a mental projection. Inside the Matrix, the Master showed the Doctor the history of Tecteun and her adopted daughter who underwent the first regeneration after falling from a cliff in a terrible accident, and was experimented upon for years to discover the secret of the power until Tecteun eventually gained the ability to regenerate and shared it with others of her race, who renamed themselves "Time Lords". The Master then explained that the Doctor herself was the Timeless Child in a life from before her first incarnation, the Time Lords having erased their memory to create a "great creation myth" for themselves.
Back on Gallifrey, the Master greeted Ashad, who revealed that he intended for his new army to destroy all organic life in the universe using a death particle, created using the Cyberium. However, the Master was less than pleased to learn that Ashad intended to turn the Cybermen into a fully-autonomous race, and offered Ashad another solution to becoming the dominant race in the universe. Taken to the Cybercarrier, the Master examined the cyber-conversion chambers and killed Ashad to acquire the Cyberium, though realised that the death particle was still usable from Ashad's remains and could be used as a weapon. He offered the Cyberium an alliance by combining all of the knowledge of the Cybermen with all of the knowledge of the Time Lords that he had absorbed from the Matrix, which caused the Cyberium to take him as a host. Using the bodies of the Time Lords he had killed on Gallifrey, the Master intended to use them to create a new race of Cybermen capable of regenerating, which he dubbed the "CyberMasters".
Sensing that the Doctor had escaped the Matrix, the Master telepathically led her to Ashad's remains. After sending the humans back to Earth in a TARDIS, the Doctor met with the Master in the Matrix chamber, where he revealed to her that he was the host of the Cyberium. Though he was impressed by the Doctor's resolve in the face of the Timeless Child revelation, the Master goaded the Doctor to detonate the death particle he had led her to, and was not surprised when she couldn't do it. As the Master gloated over the Doctor's "weakness", Ko Sharmus entered, intending to sacrifice himself to ensure the destruction of the Cybermen. The Doctor escaped in another TARDIS, while the Master ordered his CyberMasters to kill Ko Sharmus. However, Ko Sharmus was still able to detonate the death particle in his final moments. Before it could be detonated, the Master ordered the CyberMasters to follow him elsewhere. (TV: The Timeless Children)
Undated incarnations
"Merlin" incarnation
Information from The Fellowship of Quan needs to be added
In a body with pale skin, prominent cheekbones, a neatly-trimmed black goatee, and voluminous hair with a widow peek, (PROSE: The Radio Waves) 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 Fifth 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 next travelled to London in the 20th century, at a point when radios were becoming widespread in the population, making his lair in the Post Office Tower by hypnotising a group of workmen carrying out repairs. He then used the Tower to take over the air, broadcasting his hypnotic abilities throughout the city at set times, with the goal of gathering a hypnotised crowd at the State Opening of Parliament to lynch the politicians and the British Royal family and make himself the dictator of the British Isles. However, he made the mistake of testing his hypnosis a few days early by getting a small crowd to stand around the House of Parliament to await instructions for almost an hour. Though this trial run went smoothly, it attracted the attention of the Chief Inspector, who called in the Sixth Doctor and Peri Brown for help.
The Doctor quickly figured out the Master was behind the plot, and hunted him down to the Post Office Tower, where he recognised the Master on sight. Confronted with the armed forces brought by the Doctor and the Chief Inspector, the Master quickly admitted defeat, on the condition that he personally switch off the central hypnosis device. In the process, he also pressed the controls of his invisible TARDIS and vanished, flashing a malicious smile at Peri. (PROSE: The Radio Waves)
On Tersurus
A "listless-looking" Ninth Doctor who existed as a separate future for the Eighth Doctor from the "man with big ears" (PROSE: The Tomorrow Windows) was the contemporary of a male incarnation of the Master with a black beard and wild hair, who wore an outfit with a long cloak and a large green collar.
While spying on the Doctor, this Master inadvertently enabled two-way communication and unwittingly revealed his plans to eliminate the Doctor. After the two had arranged to meet on Tersurus, it became apparent the Master had travelled back in time to bribe a Tersuron architect to install traps in the castle they were now in. Unbeknown to him, the Doctor had also done the same, bribing the architect with food to change the traps' details. This led to the Master floundering around the sewers of Tersurus for over nine centuries, after falling down the same trap three times.
He eventually allied himself with the Daleks, as no other race could tolerate the smell from his time in the sewage, and then used his very own TARDIS to travel back to the point just after he fell. As part of this alliance, the Master had himself "augmented" with Dalek technology, resulting in a more youthful appearance and "Dalek bumps" on his chest. Although he remained adamant they were etheric beam locators, the Doctor continually teased the Master because they resembled breasts.
After the Doctor continuously regenerated combating the Daleks, the Master believed the Twelfth Doctor to have been killed by the zectronic beam, and renounced his evil ways before the Doctor regenerated into a female form. Attracted to each other, the Time Lords walked off, arm in arm. (TV: The Curse of Fatal Death) Missy would later reminisce about having spent a long time in the sewers of Tersurus. (AUDIO: The Bekdel Test)
Masked woman
One of the incarnations of the Master who were extracted from their time streams and imprisoned by the Sild was encountered by the Third Doctor as a masked woman wearing a frilly black dress. She had black hair streaked with white, combed back from her forehead. The Doctor noted "a familiarity" in the shape of her cheekbones and brow, in accordance with the Master's ability to control their regeneration finely and maintain an air of familiarity from one body to the next. (PROSE: Harvest of Time)
Other undated events
- At some point before his exploits on Destination, the Master claimed to have met Harry Houdini. (AUDIO: The Destination Wars)
- The Master travelled with Finsey, a woman who was fascinated by his evilness, until he saw no further use for her and tried to have her killed. (AUDIO: The Transcendence of Ephros)
- An unknown incarnation of the Doctor failed to prevent the Master from escaping. He tried to take off after him, but the Master had sabotaged the Doctor's TARDIS, forcing him to play a quiz game before he could start the engines again, and thus successfully delaying him. The Master, calling the Doctor "my dear fellow", mocked him over the TARDIS speakers as he took off. (PROSE: Enjoy the Game)
Other realities
Alternate timelines
In an alternate timeline where the Cybermen allied with Rassilon to take over history, (COMIC; Supremacy of the Cybermen) the Master, while fighting the Third Doctor, was caught up in a time distortion which resulted in him being cyber-converted while pleading to the Doctor for help. (COMIC: Prologue: the Third Doctor)
Discovering that the Celestial Intervention Agency were gathering illegal Vess weapons, the "Decayed" Master blackmailed their agent, Straxus, into handing over a conceptual bomb. The Master then visited Bob Dovie and, after killing his family, planted 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)
Parallel universes
In the Inferno Earth, the Master was still a loyal Time Lord who went under the name Koschei. He was working for the Celestial Intervention Agency and travelled with a human companion called Ailla. They became stranded on Earth after defeating the Great Intelligence, and the Republic of Great Britain captured him for information. Ailla was killed and Koschei was tortured until all his regenerations were used up. Koschei died when he was confronted by the Master from N-Space, who turned off his life-support machine at his request. (PROSE: The Face of the Enemy)
In one universe where the Doctor was not UNIT's scientific advisor because his exile did not take place in the 1970s, the Master worked for the United Nations, until he defected to China, when his TARDIS was placed beyond his reach. He used alien parasites to brainwash political prisoners, making them mindless soldiers, later to be organised in the infamous Ke Le Divisions. In 1997, when the new Chinese government lost faith in him, the Master tried to escape to Hong Kong, allegedly defecting back to the West; he regenerated into a new incarnation after being caught in a plane crash during this attempt. (AUDIO: Sympathy for the Devil) The Master was a key player in the Great War, working with the Doctor until he deemed the Master's plans too insane. After the War, the Master attempted to escape the dying universe by tricking people into entering his portal at the Emporium, which instead killed them to power up a true portal for him. His scheme was exposed by Bernice Summerfield and the Doctor. (AUDIO: The Emporium at the End) He resurfaced when the Doctor was being impeached as President of the Universe. He succeeded the Doctor by promising to activate the Apocalypse Clock to create a safe zone regardless of the potential consequences. This briefly unleashed the Great Old Ones, but the Doctor stole their energy to transport Bernice home. This left the Master with all the responsibility of ruling the universe and with the Parliament to constrain him. (AUDIO: The True Saviour of the Universe) After his universe finally came to an end, the Master was the last being left alive inside a shielded bubble. (AUDIO: Shockwave)
In an alternative universe created by the Quantum Archangel, the Master joined the Time Lords to fight in the War. However, he began aiding the Daleks by giving them temporal manipulation technology. The Sixth Doctor, who was Lord President Admiral of Gallifrey, activated the Armageddon Sapphire and destroyed the universe rather than letting the Enemy win. (PROSE: The Quantum Archangel)
In a different alternative universe created by the Archangel, the Master cooperated alongside the Rani, the Monk and Drax to try to destroy the world using a DNA recombinator, turning the human race into a gestalt consciousness which could be used as a weapon to conquer the universe. (PROSE: The Quantum Archangel)
Aborted timelines
Alliance with the Doctor
At some point during the Last Great Time War, the Master regenerated into a new incarnation. Now in the body of a small child, the Master fought further along in the Last Great Time War than his predecessor. Despite this, he was able to manipulate events to write out many of his actions during the War, even though it was timelocked. (COMIC: The Judas Goatee) The Master made a deal with the War Doctor to end their old ways of fighting to become allies, fighting alongside the Doctor and his companion, the Squire during the period of the War in which the Cyclors allied themselves with the Daleks. (COMIC: The Organ Grinder)
The Doctor and the Master travelled to Veestrax, where they saw a broken wall with "Exterminhate" written on it. The Master told the Doctor that he hadn't written it. The Doctor then asked for the Master's help with destroying the planet. (COMIC: Outrun)
He arrived on Golgauth with the Doctor, asking what he intended to do, to which the Doctor said "what [he] [had] to". (COMIC: The Then and the Now, The Organ Grinder) The duo soon encountered the Volatix Cabal, together killing one of its members. They then encountered Alice Obiefune, who had travelled in the Master's TARDIS from after the War had ended. The Master set about tethering his future TARDIS to the Doctor's while the Squire set about saving Alice from the Volatix Tendrils.
With both TARDISes in tow, they travelled beneath the surface of Golgauth, where an Overcaste rebel base was located. The Master and the Doctor revealed a Volatix spy in the group and neutralised him. The spy revealed that he had called for help and moments later a Cyclor tore off the roof of the base. (COMIC: The Organ Grinder) The Master used a device to summon a squadron of Gallifreyan ships to attack the Cyclors. He used this chaos of the Cyclor attack to flee, sneaking into his future self's TARDIS to escape the Time War.
However, he discovers that it was his future self that implanted the chronal tumour on his console in the first place. At some point in his now aborted future, he was to operate on the brain of his TARDIS, which would result in the chronal tumour that protruded from one side of the console. (COMIC: The One) But since escaping the Time War in his TARDIS would preclude him from implanting the tumour in the first place, the resulting paradox shattered reality in "a cascade of temporal possibility." Subsequently, the chronal tumour began to react to the Psilent songbox. While the Master attempted to disarm the device, it was too late, and the resulting temporal bomb left the time-ship spiralling out of control. With the Master's timeline collapsing as a result of the paradox, Alice's intervention in the War and the life he now never led was erased, leaving the Master, reverted to his previous incarnation, fleeing the event horizon of the temporal bomb. (COMIC: Fast Asleep)
Saxon's multi-Master event
In another aborted timeline, the mortally wounded "Saxon" Master sought to survive his death and avert becoming Missy. He travelled to the human colony on Kiameth, taking it over and using the energy of the planet to thrive and flourish, so that he could heal his own decaying body. Though the colony flourished for a time, he had unleashed a sentient entropy wave, which the "War" Master later deduced was actually the final form of the Master, that destroyed Kiameth. The wave then spread across the universe, despite the efforts of a parallel Master to combat it by throwing the resources of the Time Lords and Daleks at it. In the ruins of Kiameth, the "Saxon" Master used a time scoop to take six of his previous selves out of time (the young Master before leaving Gallifrey, the "Decayed" Master, the "Tremas" Master who sent Kamelion in his stead, the "Bruce" Master, the "Bald" Master and the "War" Master) and brought them to his castle, intending to use the Attornium to take their lives in a desperate bid to survive.
His attempt to time scoop the "UNIT enemy" Master failed, with Jo Grant being caught instead. The Masters decided to sacrifice her for fun, but were interrupted by Missy. She exposed the "Saxon" Master's plan and used the time scoop to scatter the different incarnations along the timeline of Kiameth, to see if any of them would find a chance of redemption by either stopping the wave or salvaging something from its aftermath. Missy herself explored the ruins of Kiameth, after loaning her space yacht to the parallel Master, along with Jo. During their explorations they were pursued by the entropy creature and contacted by the Lumiat, who tried to warn them about what the Master had done. The entropy wave caught Jo and Missy reunited with the parallel Master, who conceded defeat and returned to his own universe. Only four of the Masters managed to do as Missy has hoped: the "Decayed", the "Bald", the "War" and Missy herself. The others, who had turned against Missy, were killed by Kamelion on Missy's orders, though the "Saxon" Master escaped. Despairing about her future, Missy convinced the surviving Masters to use "Saxon's" Attornium to stop the creature by feeding on it, but the "War" Master refused to allow it as the plan would cause a massive energy release capable of destroying any universe. He discreetly poisoned himself and every other incarnation of the Master, having realised the wave was their own future, then turned off the Attornium and left Missy to be devoured by the wave. The resulting paradox erased the events of this timeline, bringing the universe back to normal. (AUDIO: Masterful)
Personality
Collectively
The Master was the polar opposite of the Doctor in almost every respect; condescending, arrogant, vain, and lusting for power. (TV: Terror of the Autons, Colony in Space, The Sound of Drums) However, the Master's insanity was in part due to the High Council from Gallifrey's future sending a four-beat rhythm of drums into the Master's mind, (TV: The End of Time) with the Tenth Doctor recalling that staring into the Untempered Schism as a child caused the Master's personality to change. (TV: The Sound of Drums)
The Master had the ability to control their regenerations, with each face selected bearing an imprint of their mind, leading the Master to keep the same characteristics across various regenerations. (PROSE: Harvest of Time) Comfortable with their villainous reputation, the Master took insults about their wickedness as compliments, (TV: The Time Monster, The Five Doctors, Doctor Who, The Sound of Drums) and reacted with offence if someone asked them if they had turned over a new leaf, (TV: The Magician's Apprentice) to the point that they refused to even acknowledge the Doctor's attempts to change them. (TV: The Doctor Falls)
When introducing himself, or enthralling someone, the Master would usually say, "I am the Master, and you will obey me." (TV: Planet of Fire) He also liked to say "my dear Doctor" when addressing his adversary. (TV: Colony in Space, The Sea Devils, Time-Flight, The Caves of Androzani, The Doctor Falls)
Unlike the Doctor, who usually needed their companions to convince people that they knew what they were doing, the Master had no problem manipulating people into helping him with his evil plans, (TV: The Time Monster, Doctor Who) even getting people to side with by exaggerating certain truths about the Doctor to paint him in a bad light. (TV: The Lazarus Experiment; COMIC: Doorway to Hell)
Extremely self-centred, the Master was willing to destroy Gallifrey to regenerate himself, (TV: The Deadly Assassin) believed that the battle for the Glory was to be between him and the Eighth Doctor, (COMIC: The Glorious Dead) thought that Carmen's prophecy referred exclusively to him, (TV: The End of Time) and viewed the Doctor's saving Gallifrey as an attempt to save her. (TV: Death in Heaven) So great was the Master's ego that he was unable to work with his other incarnations, with the "UNIT enemy" incarnation being psychically attacked by his other selves when he took control of the Sild's telepathic network, (PROSE: Harvest of Time) and the Seventh Doctor defeating the "Decayed" and "Bald" Masters by tricking them into arguing with themselves over ownership of the universe. (AUDIO: The Two Masters) Though the "Saxon" Master and Missy worked more amicably, their clashing views on helping the Twelfth Doctor eventually led them to killing each other out of spite, with Missy purposefully forcing her past incarnation's regeneration to ensure that he would become her and stand with the Doctor. (TV: The Doctor Falls) In the aborted timeline in which "Saxon" tried to avoid his regeneration into Missy, he planned to feed on the life force of five past incarnations and came into direct conflict with Missy herself, who exposed his schemes and manipulated the Masters to her own ends. Three incarnations eventually joined the "Saxon" Master in working against her, so she had them killed. (AUDIO: Masterful) When Missy came into contact with her future self, the Lumiat, she similarly clashed with her, though over a difference in morality rather than ambition. The Lumiat eventually lost her patience with her past self and attempted to shoot her with a TCE, though Missy manipulated the situation to enable her to shoot the Lumiat instead. (AUDIO: The Lumiat)
The Master's schemes usually fell into three categories; conquest, (TV: Terror of the Autons, The Mind of Evil, Colony in Space, The Dæmons, The Time Monster, Logopolis, The Sound of Drums) survival, (TV: The Deadly Assassin, The Keeper of Traken, The Five Doctors, Planet of Fire, Survival, Doctor Who, The End of Time) and the death of the Doctor. (TV: Castrovalva, The Ultimate Foe) Similar to the Monk, the Master would also, on occasion, attempt to disturb the flow of history, (TV: The King's Demons, The Mark of the Rani) and, when imprisoned, would devote their energies to gaining their freedom. (TV: The Claws of Axos, The Sea Devils, Time-Flight, Utopia, The Doctor Falls)
Throughout their lives, the Master would adopt many disguises and aliases, often to pursue their goals, (TV: Terror of the Autons, The Mind of Evil, Colony in Space, The Dæmons, The Time Monster, Frontier in Space, Castrovalva, The Sound of Drums, Spyfall) though other times with no reason or explanation given. (TV: Time-Flight, The Mark of the Rani)
The Master's disguises ranged from the providence of false qualifications, (TV: Terror of the Autons, The Mind of Evil, Colony in Space, The Dæmons, The Time Monster, Frontier in Space, The Sound of Drums) to employing masks and heavy makeup (TV: Terror of the Autons, The Mind of Evil, The Claws of Axos, Castrovalva, Time-Flight, The King's Demons, World Enough and Time) or a change of clothing, (TV: The Sea Devils, Logopolis, The Mark of the Rani, Spyfall) to even changing physical forms. (TV: The Keeper of Traken, Utopia, Dark Water, Spyfall)
In a show of vanity, the Master's choice of alias would often reflect their title of "Master". (TV: Terror of the Autons, The Dæmons, The Time Monster, The King's Demons, The Sound of Drums, Dark Water; PROSE: Doctor Who Fights Masterplan "Q", Night Flight to Nowhere, The Time Savers, Legacy of the Daleks, Last of the Gaderene, The Quantum Archangel, The Duke of Dominoes, The Spear of Destiny, Yes, Missy; AUDIO: Dust Breeding, Trail of the White Worm, Mastermind, The Evil One, And You Will Obey Me, Masterpiece, The Two Masters, The Coney Island Chameleon)
Before their first battle, the Third Doctor called the Master a "jackanapes" and an "unimaginative plodder", (TV: Terror of the Autons) but later came to view him as the "personification of evil". (TV: The Sea Devils) The Fourth Doctor described the Master as both the "quintessence of evil", (TV: The Deadly Assassin) and a "vengeance fixated sociopath with megalomaniacal tendencies". (AUDIO: Trail of the White Worm)
However, the Seventh Doctor recognised the Master as an "evil genius", (TV: Survival) with the Tenth Doctor sincerely calling him "stone-cold brilliant". (TV: The End of Time) The Twelfth Doctor once stated that Missy was the only person "as smart as [him]". (TV: The Lie of the Land)
High Council President Borusa described the Master as "one of the most evil and corrupt beings [the] Time Lord race [had] ever produced" and that his "crimes [were] without number, and [his] villainy without end." (TV: The Five Doctors) Rassilon described the Master as the Time Lords' "most infamous child". (TV: The End of Time)
Iris Wildthyme called the Master a "phallocentric dope", (PROSE: The Scarlet Empress) while Ashildr described Missy as the "lover of chaos". (TV: Hell Bent)
First incarnation
According to a dream the Fifth Doctor had under the control of the Celestial Toymaker, Koschei admired Magnus' ability to command people, and wished that he could one day learn to do the same. (PROSE: Divided Loyalties)
The Master was good friends with the First Doctor at the Time Lord Academy, and the two bonded over a mutual promise to someday explore the universe together. The Twelfth Doctor later recalled that he was "always so brilliant" from the first day at the Academy. The Doctor developed a "man-crush" on him during this time. (TV: World Enough and Time)
The young Master was of the belief that sometimes deaths were necessary but was disturbed by his future selves' tendency to kill for fun. He was also surprised by their seemingly aimless evil, believing that when he finally left Gallifrey he would do so with a clear purpose. (AUDIO: Masterful)
Susan Foreman remembered the Master as a highly regarded man, as a "stickler for the rules" with "meritorious conduct". (PROSE: Time and Relative) The Fifth Doctor believed that his obsession with him was the driving force for him leaving Gallifrey. (AUDIO: The Toy)
"Inventor" incarnation
The "Inventor" Master was very self-centred, willing to influence a whole planet's development to refuel his craft, and equally willing to abandon his plans just to steal the Doctor's ship. He found amusement in shaping a culture to his benefit. He looked down on others as his inferiors, claiming to have "longed for a mind equal to [his] own" when confronting the Doctor on Destination. He particularly disregarded humans as "ape-descended primitives".
He used his hypnotic abilities regularly, subjugating even adepts such as Susan Foreman with ease. (AUDIO: The Destination Wars)
"War Chief" incarnation
The War Chief, who, according to at least one account, was an early incarnation of the Master, (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion) still retained a degree of idealism, albeit tainted with power-lust. (PROSE: Exodus) He wished to take over the universe so he could bring order to it, although he was willing to lie and manipulate his way to that power without scruples, as he demonstrated in his duplicitous alliances with the War Lord (TV: The War Games) and with the Nazis on Earth. (PROSE: Exodus) The War Chief admired the Doctor and his scientific prowess, and once jeopardised his own plan in a fruitless effort to convince the Doctor to join him. He also felt that the Doctor ought to side with him against the Time Lords, believing that, if they caught up with both Renegades, the High Council would be merciless both with himself and with the Doctor. (TV: The War Games)
"UNIT enemy" incarnation
As the rival of the Third Doctor, the Master was often arrogant and impatient, taken to be rude towards all and showing no tolerance for stupidity. (TV: The Dæmons, The Sea Devils, The Time Monster, Frontier in Space) To sway others to his way of thinking, the Master acted as a suave and debonair gentleman, with a sardonic sense of humour. (TV: Terror of the Autons, The Time Monster) When his own survival was at stake, the Master would not hesitate to betray his allies to save himself. (TV: The Claws of Axos)
The Master was willing to play the long game, spinning a web of lies while maintaining several back-ups in his schemes. (TV: The Mind of Evil) He seemed to truly believe his delusions of grandeur, proclaiming that he and the Doctor could "reign benevolently," ending "war, suffering [and] disease," (TV: Colony in Space) and that, instead of "all this talk of democracy, freedom, [and] liberty", the world needed "strength, power and decision." (TV: The Dæmons) When the Doctor accused him of being paranoid, the Master stated that everyone was paranoid, he was just honest about his paranoia. (TV: The Time Monster)
The Master held himself in high-esteem, even believing himself immune to the mind parasite within the Keller Machine, when in truth, he was only able to resist its attack on him for a short time, and with great effort. (TV: The Mind of Evil) He also demonstrated a strong confidence in himself when he walked into the UNIT HQ on the edge of London without fear of capture, instead hypnotising a handful of UNIT personnel. (TV: The Claws of Axos)
The "UNIT enemy" Master also had a juvenile side to him, making blithely sarcastic comments about an impending nuclear meltdown, (TV: The Claws of Axos) enjoying an episode of Clangers in his prison cell, (TV: The Sea Devils) and reading The War of the Worlds while trying to instigate a war between Earth and Draconia. (TV: Frontier in Space) He also had a sadistic side, taking particular pleasure in goading the Brigadier into attacking Axos when they both knew that it would put the Doctor and Jo Grant in danger. (TV: The Claws of Axos) He also took considerable delight in blackmailing the Doctor and Jo on Uxarieus. (TV: Colony in Space)
While he thought killing to be a sign of poor preparation and unprofessionalism, (PROSE: The Dark Path) the "UNIT enemy" Master would casually murder those whom he could not control, (TV: Terror of the Autons) or who were standing in the way of an item he required. (TV: The Claws of Axos) While he initially believed that those who died as a result of his schemes to be "necessary sacrifice[s]", (TV: The Sea Devils) he came to see killing "pawns" as "the only way to win" by the end of his life, even resorting to murder simply as a demonstration of power. (COMIC: Doorway to Hell)
Unlike his following incarnations, the "UNIT enemy" Master was rarely resentful, instead accepting defeat with only a slight annoyance, (TV: The Dæmons, Frontier in Space) though he once stated that destroying the Doctor's favourite species would "be a reward in itself". (TV: The Sea Devils) The Master also learned from his mistakes, placing an alarm in his TARDIS (TV: Colony in Space) after the Doctor stole his dematerialisation circuit. (TV: Terror of the Autons)
Being a haughty psychopath, he regarded most beings as his inferiors, but had a mutual respect for the Doctor as a worthy opponent and his near intellectual equal, (TV: Terror of the Autons, The Sea Devils) and even showed a certain respect to the Doctor's companions, even if he still considered them inferior. (TV: Frontier in Space) He often found himself unable to kill the Doctor, because that would rid him of the satisfaction of defeating him, (PROSE: Legacy of the Daleks) and would only resort to killing the Doctor if he viewed him as an unmovable obstacle in his plans, (TV: Terror of the Autons) considering his quarrel with the Doctor to be something of a game,[source needed] though he was willing to risk the Doctor's life on the Keller Machine to satisfy his curiosity. (TV: The Mind of Evil) However, the Master was not above working alongside the Doctor when necessary, (TV: The Claws of Axos) and even offered to rule the universe with him. (TV: Colony in Space)
While in Atlantis, the Master formed a relationship of sorts with Queen Galleia, remarking that she was beautiful and promising her power. Both Galleia and Lakis commented that the Master had "the bearing of a God". (TV: The Time Monster)
The Thirteenth Doctor remarked that, while he was still "evil", the "UNIT enemy" Master had been "an old charmer". (PROSE: The Doctor vs the Master)
The "UNIT enemy" Master would occasionally smoke a cigar. (TV: The Mind of Evil, The Time Monster)
A master manipulator, the Master knew how to use others' greed and sense of duty as bargaining tools in his schemes, (TV: The Claws of Axos, The Sea Devils) and how to use his authority as an adjudicator to manipulate and influence the human factions and their competing aspirations on Uxarieus. (TV: Colony in Space)
The Master was also stronger than he appeared, as he was able to physically overpower Luigi Rossini, (TV: Terror of the Autons) Harry Mailer, (TV: The Mind of Evil) Smedley, (TV: The Sea Devils) and John Benton. (TV: The Time Monster) He was also able to make a small jump onto a moving lorry from a bridge, and then swing down to the driver's cab to hypnotise the driver. (TV: The Claws of Axos)
After an attack he made on the Twelfth Doctor was sent back at him, the Master, claiming he would get his revenge on the Doctor, proudly welcomed his regeneration, declaring that death was meaningless to him and that "all life [would] obey [him]". (COMIC: Doorway to Hell)
Degenerated body
While he first approached a situation with youthful naivety, (AUDIO: The Two Masters) the Master later preoccupied his time with finding a way to regenerate following his disfigurement and the loss of his own ability to regenerate forcing him to face his imminent death. With his mobility and capabilities of camouflage decreased, he was often forced to hide his involvement in his plans until the very moment victory was within his grasp. (TV: The Deadly Assassin, The Keeper of Traken)
The Master felt a stronger hatred towards the Doctor than before, specifically guiding the Fourth Doctor back to Gallifrey so he could be framed for the President's assassination and executed in disgrace, (TV: The Deadly Assassin) wished to personally kill a companion of the Doctor, (AUDIO: The Two Masters) and once hatched a plan that would have destroyed all the Doctors and unravelled the Web of Time simply for his revenge against the Doctor. (AUDIO: The Light at the End) He also disliked being compared to the Doctor. (AUDIO: Animal Instinct) Despite the animosity, the Master was able to have a civil conversation with the Doctor when it suited him, (AUDIO: Death Match) and showed shades of bitterness when he learned River Song was the Doctor's wife. (AUDIO: Animal Instinct)
While he claimed that nothing he ever did "[was] ever pointless", (AUDIO: The Light at the End) and that he only killed for "power", (AUDIO: The Two Masters) the Master seemed more comfortable with killing people just for the sake of it, (AUDIO: The Light at the End) showing a sadistic pleasure when he resorted to killing, (TV: The Keeper of Traken) and even destroyed the planet Raskalar for amusement. (AUDIO: Death Match) Despite this, the Seventh Doctor recalled how the "Decayed" Master was "generally a serious sort", remembering how he was "cold and cruel." (AUDIO: The Two Masters)
Leela claimed that the "Decayed" Master was "raw" and "honest", as he "did not seem to hide [himself] away" and "disguise [his] hate". (AUDIO: The Devil You Know)
In his degenerated state, the Master's telepathic capabilities and willpower grew stronger, with the Master proclaiming that "only [his] hate [kept him] alive". He was able to launch a telepathic message to the Doctor from Gallifrey to the Doctor's TARDIS, (TV: The Deadly Assassin) and, once he became the Keeper of Traken, the Master forced Tremas to kill Neman through sheer willpower, and also paralysed the Doctor to make him watch. (TV: The Keeper of Traken) However, he was unable to hypnotise the Proto-Time Lord River Song. (AUDIO: Animal Instinct)
Meticulous in his schemes, the "Decayed" Master planned for every imaginable obstacle and put in place a counter for it. (AUDIO: Trail of the White Worm, The Oseidon Adventure) He was willing to be patient with his plans, waiting inside his TARDIS for years to slowly seduce Kassia. (TV: The Keeper of Traken)
"Tremas" incarnation
After possessing Tremas's body, the Master became a more flamboyantly evil, bombastic and sophisticated individual, (TV: Logopolis, Castrovalva, Time-Flight, The King's Demons, The Five Doctors, The Ultimate Foe) who only put trust in himself. (TV: The Mark of the Rani) He was prone to laughing maniacally and reciting lengthy and verbose speeches, accompanied by melodramatic gestures and poses. (TV: Time-Flight, The Five Doctors, The Mark of the Rani) The Seventh Doctor even recalled the "Tremas" Master as having "a taste for melodrama." (AUDIO: The Two Masters)
The "Tremas" Master was unwilling to share any form of power with others, often betraying those he worked with to accomplish his own goals, (TV: Logopolis, The Five Doctors, The Ultimate Foe, Survival) even when working with his other incarnations. (COMIC: The Five Masters)
While in Tremas's body, the Master became devoted to killing the Doctor, often employing elaborate gambits and strategies to this end. (TV: Castrovalva, The Mark of the Rani; GAME: Destiny of the Doctors) However, he mused that a cosmos without the Doctor "scarcely [bore] thinking about", and was willing to join forces with the Doctor if he viewed it as beneficial to himself. (TV: Logopolis, The Five Doctors, The Ultimate Foe)
He showed a genuine disregard for life and was often uninterested in how many people died at his hands, (TV: Logopolis, Castrovalva, The King's Demons, Survival) and had a particular fondness for the Tissue Compression Eliminator. (TV: Logopolis, Time-Flight, Planet of Fire, The Mark of the Rani) However, he showed an unusual level of moral standards when he apologised to Peri Brown for involving her in a battle that was originally supposed to be between him and the Sixth Doctor, and was genuinely horrified when the Rani's contraption turned Luke Ward into a tree, although the Doctor considered it an example of how warped and callous the Master was if he thought that establishing that Luke's death was an accident was any kind of excuse. (TV: The Mark of the Rani) He was also horrified upon witnessing the Kotturuh judgement on Alexis. (AUDIO: Lesser Evils)
The Master was delighted and satisfied when Lord President Borusa addressed him as "one of the most evil and corrupt beings [the] Time Lord race [had] ever produced", but was surprised and outraged when his attempts to convince the Third Doctor of his sincerity was ridiculed and spurned. (TV: The Five Doctors) He also thanked Mel Bush when she remarked on how "evil" he was. (TV: The Ultimate Foe) When the Seventh Doctor questioned the Master's decision to "act the villain", the Master stated he was "famed for [the] role", and claimed to enjoy the "typecasting". (COMIC: Crossing the Rubicon)
After he was infected by the Cheetah virus, the Master became more calm and calculating. However, as the virus took its toll, he became more animalistic and sadistic, taking satisfaction in murdering Karra and attempting to hit the Seventh Doctor's head with a club during their fight. (TV: Survival)
The "Tremas" Master had various opinions of the first seven incarnations of the Doctor. He referred to the First Doctor as a "bore", the Second Doctor as an "incapable comedian", the Third Doctor as a "worthy foe", the Fourth Doctor as "the bohemian, [and] the wanderer", believed that the Fifth Doctor was "the nice one full of charm, innocence, and naiveté", described the Sixth Doctor as "the blustering one with the stupid coat", and that the Seventh Doctor was "too busy setting traps" to realise the ones "set for him". (GAME: Destiny of the Doctors)
Missy described her "Tremas" incarnation as being "the Sneaky One". (PROSE: Meet Missy!)
Unlike his predecessor, the "Tremas" Master seemed unable to use natural hypnotism, instead using an Electro-muscular constrictor to enslave Nyssa, (TV: Logopolis) causing misdirection to discredit the Fifth Doctor at Fitzwilliam Castle, (TV: The King's Demons) and took control of Luke Ward by combining hypnotic suggestion via a crystal necklace with the Rani's mind parasites. (TV: The Mark of the Rani) When his attempts to hypnotise Sabalom Glitz with a swinging silver pendant failed due to Glitz's mind being occupied with calculating the wealth of the pendant, the Master resorted to offering Glitz a chest full of jewellery to ensure his cooperation. (TV: The Ultimate Foe)
The "Tremas" Master was able to accurately predict the Doctor's movements, implementing multiple ways to kill him and manoeuvring him into them with relative ease. (TV: Logopolis, Castrovalva, The Ultimate Foe) The Rani even believed that his plans were so overcomplicated that if he walked in a straight line he would get dizzy. (TV: The Mark of the Rani) Unlike his other renditions, the "Tremas" Master was able to improvise when things turned awry. (TV: Logopolis, The Five Doctors, Survival)
After he was shot in the back by Ace to avenge his murder of Joe Manco, the Master withered in extreme pain that he tried to fight while complaining about how close he was to victory. Clawing at his wound and grasping his head, the Master regenerated while cowering from the pain in his TARDIS, begging to be "free". (PROSE: First Frontier)
"Tzun" incarnation
In contrast to his previous incarnation, the "Tzun" Master was calmer, less emotional and flustered, with a proud bearing and an inscrutable demeanour, (PROSE: First Frontier) though he would resort to a panicked state upon confronting the unexpected. (PROSE: Happy Endings) Highly manipulative, the Master would maintain control of a situation, while making others around him think he was not, (PROSE: First Frontier) though would lose this advantage when he knew he was overpowered, such as when at Bernice Summerfield and Jason Kane's wedding. (PROSE: Happy Endings)
Unlike his immediate predecessor, the "Tzun" Master was aware that his theatrical plotting could be his undoing, but found amusement in the irony rather than bitterness. (PROSE: Happy Endings)
He thought very highly of his hypnotic skills, finding it amusing when he made two guards believe he was Major Kreer. He looked down at humanity, treating them like children, and believed the concept of regeneration to be beyond them, (PROSE: First Frontier) and showed a disdain for explaining things he did not have interest in. (PROSE: Happy Endings) However, he showed some respect towards Ace, who had killed his previous incarnation, believing she would make a good enforcer and admiring her willpower. (PROSE: First Frontier) He also enjoyed fencing with Mike Yates and Sarah Jane Smith. (PROSE: Housewarming)
While he agreed with the Ice Lord Savaar that he lacked a degree of honour, the Master would only resort to harming others if he found an advantage in the act, opting to perform with "a considerable degree of leniency" when sabotaging Bernice and Jason's wedding until he was forced to take Bernice hostage at gunpoint during the ceremony. (PROSE: Happy Endings)
The "Tzun" Master was just as adept at winding the Doctor up as his predecessor was, claiming that the Seventh Doctor's pacifism was pure hypocrisy, (PROSE: First Frontier) and taking delight in his apparent inability to protect his friends from Bloom. (PROSE: Happy Endings) However, he did hold the Doctor in some regard, believing the Tzun incapable of overpowering him on their own, and insisting he was a threat to be eliminated, though he felt bittersweet about it, admitting to himself that the Doctor was an inspiring adversary, (PROSE: First Frontier) though reacted with horror when four variants of the Seventh Doctor confronted him at once. (PROSE: Happy Endings)
Nonetheless, the Master pointed out that the Doctor preferred to kill and destroy from a distance, such as with the Sea Devils. To prove this point, the Master handed the Doctor a blaster and baited him to shoot him at close range, which the Doctor refused to do. (PROSE: First Frontier)
"John Smith" incarnation
After losing his body to the Warp Core, the Master became a far darker person, but was calmer and well spoken, which made him sound more sinister. (AUDIO: Dust Breeding, Master) He seemed to enjoy being mysterious about his true identity and enjoyed giving his enemies riddles as to who he truly was. (AUDIO: Dust Breeding)
When called evil by the Doctor, the Master objected that he "crave[d] power, dominion, [and] knowledge of the forbidden and the secret". (AUDIO: Master) He voiced an enjoyment for the Doctor's company, viewing him as a worthy opponent, and mused about keeping the Seventh Doctor's corpse as a "memento". (AUDIO: Dust Breeding)
As Dr John Smith, he was an amiable, charming, humble and scholarly gentleman who was somehow aware of his dark nature and troubled by it. When trapped in John Smith's subconscious, the Master was aware of Smith's activities, but was unable to influence them. He spent his time taunting Smith and trying to get him to indulge in his violent impulses. (AUDIO: Master)
While body-jumping
The "Deathworm" Master was generally calm and sinisterly villainous but was also capable of terrifying rage. After being exterminated by the Daleks, the Master took possession of Bruce and, after finding that his new body was not stable, became determined to steal the remaining lives of the Doctor himself. When his attempt to take the Eighth Doctor's remaining regenerations was thwarted, the Master reverted to a more basic, brutal approach, attempting to smash the Doctor's head in with a staff positioned around the Eye, proclaiming that life was wasted on the living and rejecting the Doctor's aid when he was being pulled into the Eye. (TV: Doctor Who)
The "Deathworm" Master viewed life as being "wasted on the living", (TV: Doctor Who) and boasted his satisfaction in killing innocents, even claiming that mere petty vengeance was enough motivation to do so. (AUDIO: Mastermind) He was also petty, snapping Chang Lee's neck when he refused to follow an order, (TV: Doctor Who) sabotaging his own future self's happiness out of spite, (AUDIO: Masterful) turning Earth into a religious dictatorship to spite the Doctor, (COMIC: The Glorious Dead) and killing Violet solely because she foiled his attempt to kill Edward Grainger. (AUDIO: Mastermind)
Unlike previous incarnations, the "Deathworm" Master was extremely serious when there was work to be done, more focused on getting the task at hand completed than engaging in small talk and humour, (TV: Doctor Who; COMIC: The Glorious Dead) though would enjoy the company of a likeminded individual if he was not in an immediate hurry. (AUDIO: The Lifeboat and the Deathboat) He was also quite literal, not understanding expressions such as killing someone to mean making them laugh. (TV: Doctor Who)
In this rendition, the Master felt a pedantic need to correct people on bad grammar, such as when he corrected Grace Holloway's "kiss as good as me" to "[kiss] as well as [me]". As with his previous selves, he was also comfortable with his villainous reputation, thanking Nurse Curtis for playfully calling him "sick", (TV: Doctor Who) and was critical of people's trust towards the Doctor. (AUDIO: The Lifeboat and the Deathboat)
During the period of his life when he was forced to possess various human bodies to survive, the Master would take on minor personality traits and quirks from the bodies he possessed, and, as a result, he started to fear that his "essence" would eventually become too diluted if he were to jump to another body too frequently, and began to go to great pains to make sure his bodies lasted as long as possible by only possessing members of the same bloodline. However, as he would later admit to Charlie Sato, he began to somewhat enjoy the experience of being human as the years went by, and even toyed with the idea of dropping his plans of restoring his Time Lord body and just remain in a human body. (AUDIO: Mastermind)
Whilst a perception filter disguised his decayed appearance, the Master became genuinely happy in the company of Kitty. He was distressed when she rejected him upon seeing his true form and appeared solemn afterwards. (AUDIO: Masterful)
As his body began to shut down, the Master gained a sense of calm, due to the constant pain he felt in his decaying body being reduced by his body parts shutting down as he died. (AUDIO: Planet of Dust)
Behind the flamboyancy and brutal savagery, the Master still maintained his cunning, leaving a crystalline structure on the Eye that would give the Doctor amnesia in vengeance for his previous defeat, (PROSE: The Eight Doctors) using his link to the TARDIS to send the Doctor to specific locations to later show him the folly of his worth, (COMIC: The Glorious Dead) and acquiring a casino in Las Vegas to accumulate the money needed to fund the experiments to elongate the lifespan of his host bodies, while also becoming head of the Hudson Dusters, and controlling part of the mafia. (AUDIO: Mastermind)
A patient incarnation, the "Deathworm" Master simultaneously juggled a grand plan to achieve divine power with a pettier plan to morally humiliate the Doctor during the fight for the Glory, (COMIC: The Glorious Dead) and also, while trying to remain undetected in the history books, possessed a line of men from the Maestro family to ensure he had a succession of bodies that he could adjust well to, passing from father to son once there was a grandson alive to inhabit later on. (AUDIO: Mastermind)
As he was being consumed by the Ravenous, the Master commanded the Eighth Doctor to save himself and ensure his death was avenged as he threw the Doctor his TARDIS key. (AUDIO: Planet of Dust)
"Bald" incarnation
The "Bald" Master was excitable, enthusiastic, theatrical, and attention seeking, (AUDIO: Dominion, The Death of Hope, Masterplan, Master of the Daleks, The Two Masters) but also held a cold and merciless attitude to his egotistical personality. (AUDIO: Eyes of the Master, Masterplan, Rule of the Eminence, The Two Masters) He took no offence when the Doctor called him "as nutty as a fruitcake." (AUDIO: Masterplan)
Being a manipulative megalomaniac, the Master used his polite mannerisms to enhance how diabolical he was, (AUDIO: Dominion, The Reviled, Masterplan, Rule of the Eminence, Master of the Daleks, The Two Masters) but would drop all niceties the moment he was annoyed or in pain. (AUDIO: Dominion, Master of the Daleks, And You Will Obey Me, The Two Masters) He was also known for making quips and enjoying himself as he carried out his schemes, which allowed the Seventh Doctor to realise what had happened when the Cult of the Heretic caused the "Bald" Master to switch bodies with the "Decayed Master" as the "Decayed Master" was having far more fun than he usually would. In contrast with his decayed incarnation, who killed at the first opportunity, the "Bald" Master liked to build up to a pun when killing his victims. (AUDIO: The Two Masters)
Despite his more theatrical side, the "Bald" Master was as ruthless as his other incarnations, creating his own Infinite Warriors by replacing human eyes with fake ones that had Eminence substance in them, (AUDIO: Eyes of the Master) and manipulating an Eminence attack on Heron's World for an experiment. (AUDIO: The Death of Hope) After manipulating unrest among refugees to seize control of their ship, he was ruthless in curbing unrest even from his former allies. (AUDIO: Masterful) He was also unorthodox in his malice, being more interested in being cruel and spiteful, opting to humiliate and punish his opponents, even after he had bested them, and enjoyed "twist[ing] the knife into the wound" by adding personal tragedies for his enemies into his plans. (AUDIO: Dominion, The Death of Hope, Masterplan, Rule of the Eminence, The Two Masters)
The "Bald" Master was more willing to go into dangerous situations than his other incarnations, not only making deals with the Eminence and the Daleks for universal domination, but also showed signs of extreme anti-obedience and arrogance, openly mocking his allies while fully aware that they could kill him anytime they wanted. (AUDIO: Masterplan, Master of the Daleks)
His plans were meticulous, and like his decayed incarnation, the "Bald" Master liked to plan for every possible obstacle, but instead of waiting for the contingency to be activated by his opponents, he openly went out of his way to close off those obstacles beforehand. (AUDIO: Masterplan, Master of the Daleks, The Two Masters)
He preferred to let others believe they had defeated him before turning the tides and took great pleasure in emotionally humiliating them after he took back control. (AUDIO: The Death of Hope, Rule of the Eminence, Master of the Daleks, The Two Masters)
A slightly lazier incarnation, the "Bald" Master liked the idea of having an army, (AUDIO: Master of the Daleks) but didn't enjoy the prospect of building one up himself. The Eighth Doctor even accused the Master of being unoriginal with his schemes, which inspired the Master to improvise a new plan after his old one failed. (AUDIO: Masterplan)
Seeing his subordinates as possessions instead of people, the Master had no compunctions towards demeaning, mind controlling or even killing subordinates who caught him the wrong way or had served their purpose, (AUDIO: The Death of Hope, And You Will Obey Me, The Two Masters) sparing only the most important ones to his plan until they were no longer of importance. (AUDIO: Masterplan) However, he praised hard work and good results. (AUDIO: The Death of Hope, And You Will Obey Me)
While he had a genuine rapport with Sally Armstrong, telling the Doctor that Sally was brilliant enough to fly his TARDIS on her own, he would assert his dominance over her when she disappointed him, (AUDIO: Eyes of the Master) and when she challenged him. (AUDIO: The Death of Hope) He even kissed her hand, (AUDIO: The Reviled) and briefly mourned for her after her death. (AUDIO: Masterplan)
The "Bald" Master would go to great depths to involve the Doctor in his schemes, (AUDIO: Dominion) with the Doctor believing he did so because he enjoyed the attention the Doctor gave him. (AUDIO: Masterplan) He also accused the Eighth Doctor's attitude about a war with the Daleks of being hypocritical, noting that, while the Doctor claimed not to be fighting a war with them, he had battled the Daleks across time and space. (AUDIO: Eyes of the Master) He later belittled the Doctor for his emotional attachments. (AUDIO: Masterplan)
While the Master had always displayed a degree of disrespect for the laws and workings of time travel, the "bald" incarnation was especially brazen in this attitude, stating that he could simply use his TARDIS to cross his own timeline and attempt to achieve a failed plan without any concern for the paradoxes or personal dangers involved in doing so. (AUDIO: Dominion) So disregarding to paradoxes was he that he even attacked a past incarnation of himself to further his own agenda, (AUDIO: The Two Masters) and had no qualms about attempting to kill the Seventh Doctor, despite already being involved in the circumstances behind his regeneration. (AUDIO: Dominion)
He claimed that he never looked back to the past and was always focused on the future. He also stated that he wanted peace across the universe under his rule. (AUDIO: Masterplan)
He would often introduce himself by saying, "Hello, you!", (AUDIO: Dominion, Eyes of the Master, Master of the Daleks) and had a flair for a Shakespearian dialect. (AUDIO: Dominion, The Death of Hope, Masterplan)
The "Bald" Master also had a habit of imitating the Doctor, such as tricking UNIT into believing him to be a future incarnation of the Seventh Doctor, (AUDIO: Dominion) taking on the Doctor's role of a lone hero saving a group of innocents, (AUDIO: The Death of Hope) and even replacing the Doctor with himself in Molly O'Sullivan's memories. (AUDIO: Rule of the Eminence)
"Child" incarnation
While fighting in the Last Great Time War, the Master delighted in the prospect of committing genocide. He saw people as resources, and that teaming up with the War Doctor was a worthwhile option during wartime. He also had a fondness for paradoxes. (COMIC: The Organ Grinder) The Master wanted to fight in the Time War, but seeing the hopelessness of his efforts with the Doctor he fled from their fight with the Cyclors. He concluded that he enjoyed death and chaos only when it was fun for him. (COMIC: Kill God)
At the moment of his regeneration, the Master held contempt for the Doctor and Alice Obiefune, declaring that he would have his revenge on them. (COMIC: Fast Asleep)
"War" incarnation
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While he started his life declaring vengeance, (COMIC: Fast Asleep) the "War" Master would put on a front of being kind and charming, but would drop the façade the instant it was time to act. (AUDIO: Beneath the Viscoid) When the telepathic entity, the Heart of Arcking, questioned him on whether he was truly as evil as he considered himself after reading his mind, the Master was briefly caught off-guard by the question, and hesitated momentarily in answering before he gathered himself and dismissed the notion, vehemently denying that he had any benevolent sides to his personality. (AUDIO: The Good Master)
He wished to save the universe from the Last Great Time War so that he could rule over it afterwards, (AUDIO: The Heavenly Paradigm) and "enjoy [his] victory", (AUDIO: The Devil You Know) claiming that the only faction he fought for was his own person. (AUDIO: Beneath the Viscoid) Though usually calm and affable, the Master took the time to taunt a squad of Daleks when they were unable to harm him. (AUDIO: The Good Master)
While he would openly admit to allowing the destruction of individuals and places he found "dull", the Master was adamant to ensure the things he found "beautiful" would be left unharmed, such as roses. (AUDIO: Sins of the Father) He also claimed that would only destroy the universe in the hopes of building something better in its place, in contrast to his immediate successor. In the aborted timeline in which his successor unleashed the entropy wave on the universe it was the "War" Master who decided to save the universe, by creating a paradox by poisoning himself and all his other selves and letting Missy be devoured by the wave. (AUDIO: Masterful)
The "War" Master was a misogynist, considering it an embarrassment to have been killed by a girl, even calling it "inappropriate". (TV: Utopia) Although, he equally held everyone in similar disregard unless it benefited him, even planets, stating he only had allegiance to himself. (AUDIO: The Good Master) He was unable to empathise with others, yawning at a mother's drive to save her race being born from her dead husband and her son. On a large scale, he also had little to no regard for the other sentient species of the universe, dismissing the majority of them as lesser beings and primitives, and declaring in private that he did not care "one iota" for their plights under the Time War. (AUDIO: Beneath the Viscoid) His disregard for others was so great that he even secretly impregnated several women with living weapons without a care for the consequences of his actions. (AUDIO: Concealed Weapon)
The Master found enjoyment in the death of others, even killing for his own amusement, believing the most pointless of murders to be the most "fun", (AUDIO: Master of Worlds) and enjoyed tormenting his intended victims before their demise, citing an enjoyment for a "ticking clock". He would even give them a chance at survival for further torment. (AUDIO: Concealed Weapon) He also found amusement in the misery of the Time Lords, particularly when it came to Narvin. (AUDIO: Sins of the Father)
When comparing him to the "decayed" incarnation she was used to, Leela claimed that the "War" Master was "focus[ed]", "making guesses", and "plotting". In comparison to his past self, the Master claimed he was now "civilised, pleasant, [and] reasonable", which was denied by Leela. (AUDIO: The Devil You Know) The "War" Master believed that none of his other selves could have faced the Time War as he had, challenging them to look at him in the eye. (AUDIO: Masterful)
After his use of the Heavenly Paradigm caused the Dalek Emperor to take control of the Cruciform, the Master, driven by the fear of his failure, fled the end of the universe and used a Chameleon Arch to turn himself into a human baby to hide from the Time Lords and wait out the war in a safe place. (AUDIO: The Heavenly Paradigm)
Under the Chameleon Arch, Professor Yana was a benign old man who had lost faith in the Utopia Project. His spirit was revitalised by the Tenth Doctor, and the two shared a mutual admiration. Yana was considered a genius by the Tenth Doctor. He was also somewhat scatterbrained and slightly lacking in self-confidence, at one point referring to himself as "a stupid old man." Also, like the Tenth Doctor with Martha Jones, Yana was oblivious to Chantho's feelings for him.
After returning to his true identity, the Master became cold, ruthless, and dignified, but also abusive and condescending, citing that he had the right to attack Chanto when she pointed a gun at him. He was extremely aggressive towards Chantho after regaining his memories, stating that her constant cultural ticks drove him "insane" during their time together. He also ferociously resented her for not thinking that she could set him free from the fob watch. The Master held his 'human' self in contempt, seeing it as merely a disguise so perfect that he forgot his own identity. (TV: Utopia)
When given the chance to rest from the Time War, the Master spent his time cultivating wine. (AUDIO: The Sky Man)
Enjoying "slow-working plans" that gave him ample opportunity to study the small effects that resulted from his ploys, (AUDIO: The Sky Man) the Master would plan ahead with every scheme, preparing for every eventuality, even his capture. (AUDIO: Sins of the Father) He would also research his targets, and manipulate their history to his benefits. (AUDIO: Concealed Weapon) He also showed a great capacity for patience in the implementation of his schemes, being willing to wait for prolonged periods of time to find the perfect subject to manipulate, or for the right time to strike. (AUDIO: The Good Master, The Sky Man)
The Master was adept at manipulating individuals quickly in the heat of the moment, (AUDIO: Beneath the Viscoid) using his choice of words and tone of voice to break down their character with his assessment on their quirks and decisions. (AUDIO: Call for the Dead)
Though he thought "inappropriate" to have been killed by a female "insect", the Master welcomed his regeneration in a grandiose fashion, declaring that "the Master [was] reborn." (TV: Utopia)
"Harold Saxon" incarnation
Immediately after his regeneration, the Master appeared to have gone more insane than ever, gleefully jumping around the Doctor's TARDIS' control console, while ecstatically laughing, and toying with his new voice. (TV: Utopia) By this point in his life, the Master was tormented more than ever by "the drums" in his head, (TV: The Sound of Drums) but, after his sabotaged resurrection, he admitted to seeing it as a central piece of his identity, convinced that something was calling to him through the drum beat. (TV: The End of Time) So much was he obsessed with them, that, on one occasion, "the drums" was all he would say. (COMIC: The Abominable Showmen, The Five Masters) On another occasion, however, the Master fearfully asked the Doctor if he thought "the drumming" would stop after he died. (TV: Last of the Time Lords)
Much like his previous incarnations, the "Saxon" Master was ostentatious; offering out jelly babies and grits, (TV: The Sound of Drums) opting to wear eyeliner in preparation for being a woman in his next incarnation, (TV: The Doctor Falls) and dancing to the Rogue Traders, (TV: The Sound of Drums) and the Scissor Sisters. (TV: Last of the Time Lords) He also enjoyed watching the Teletubbies, believing that the televisions in their stomachs was true evolution, (TV: The Sound of Drums) and thrived on chaos, describing the last day of the Last Great Time War as "[his] kind of world", (TV: The End of Time) and was excited about getting into fights. (COMIC: The Five Masters; TV: The Doctor Falls) He also admitted to loving disguises, (TV: World Enough and Time) and was particularly outraged when he was "stuck looking like the old Prime Minister." (TV: The End of Time)
Behind his charismatic and charming demeanour, however, the "Saxon" Master was sadistic and childishly degrading, even going as far as to slip subtle and private jabs at the Doctor into his public speeches. When Francine, Clive and Tish were forcibly taken to the Valiant under armed guard, the Master shamelessly treated the ordeal like a school field trip, (TV: The Sound of Drums) and, during the Year That Never Was, he kept them as slaves, taking every opportunity he could to belittle them, even goading Francine into murdering him, until the Doctor convinced her otherwise. (TV: Last of the Time Lords) He also made Bill Potts aware of his part in her Cyber-conversion to upset her, and was disappointed when his remarks seemed to have failed, stating that she had "[taken] all the fun out of cruelty". He was also alarmed and disgusted at the idea of his future self gaining empathy, (TV: The Doctor Falls) and disliked being interrupted. (PROSE: Alit in Underland)
He was extremely vain and narcissistic, with the Tenth Doctor noting that he would never destroy himself, even if he could destroy the Earth with him. During the Year That Never Was, he had monuments of himself built all over Earth, and, according to Martha Jones, had even sculptured himself onto Mount Rushmore. (TV: Last of the Time Lords) He also used the Immortality Gate to turn the human race into duplicates of himself, which he dubbed the "Master Race", and also threatened to do the same to the Time Lords, even asserting that Rassilon "[would] [look] better as [him]." (TV: The End of Time) His vanity was so vast that when the Tenth Doctor forgave him for his actions, the Master collapsed and wept out of shame. After he expressed revulsion at being "kept" by the Doctor, the Master was shot by Lucy and, to spite the Doctor, decided not to regenerate and die. (TV: Last of the Time Lords) After meeting his female successor, Missy, the Master admitted to being attracted to his future self, flirting and dancing with her. However, when he saw the possibility that Missy would aid the Twelfth Doctor, the Master killed her. (TV: The Doctor Falls) During his rule of Kiameth, he had statues of himself made and eventually agreed to help the "War" Master attempt to stop the entropy wave in hopes of the people loving him again. (AUDIO: Masterful)
The "Saxon" Master also had an exceptionally heightened sense of his own brilliance, even reciting a Bible-style verse of his own making to the Doctor as the Toclafane invasion began. (TV: The Sound of Drums) He also held Time Lords as the absolute superior race, automatically assuming the right to alter history on the principle of him being a Time Lord, (TV: Last of the Time Lords) and was confident that he could beat an entire city of Cybermen while only being armed with his laser screwdriver. (TV: The Doctor Falls) He gloated at length to his past selves, claiming he was superior as he was the one who had finally "won". (AUDIO: Masterful) However, when his plans were foiled, the Master would turn cowardly, retreating at the first opportunity or allying with whoever could better protect him. (TV: Last of the Time Lords, The End of Time, The Doctor Falls)
The Master still held the lives of others without thought, assassinating the Cabinet of the United Kingdom, setting the Toclafane on Vivien Rook, ordering Arthur Winters's execution as a show of power, commanding the decimation of the population of Earth to emphasise his new dominion, (TV: The Sound of Drums) destroying the islands of Japan when he learned that the Drast had been operating in Yokohama, (PROSE: The Story of Martha) siphoning the life forces of the people who resurrected him, and unceremoniously consuming Sarah, Tommo and Ginger, leaving them as skeletons. (TV: The End of Time) He also showed a sadistic glee when he resorted to murder, continuously listening in on Rook's dying screams, being excited by the prospect of killing the immortal Jack Harkness a second time, (TV: The Sound of Drums) and chuckling after casually killing Thomas Milligan. (TV: Last of the Time Lords) He was also known to kill those who brought him bad news. (PROSE: The Story of Martha)
The Master was somewhat misogynistic, believing that women had "a way of disappointing [him]", and were "fickle" for being "lovey-dovey" at one moment and trying to kill him in an instant. (PROSE: Alit in Underland)
The "Saxon" Master showed minimum affection for the Doctor. Even after he aged the Tenth Doctor to an elderly man, (TV: The Sound of Drums) the Master continued to humiliate him by having him live in a makeshift tent aboard the Valiant during the Year That Never Was, and then furthered the humiliation by ageing the Doctor until he morphed into an ancient dwarf-sized body, and then kept him locked up in a bird cage. (TV: Last of the Time Lords) When Missy told him of her plans to join forces with the Twelfth Doctor, the Master adamantly stated his refusal to stand with the Doctor and killed Missy with his laser screwdriver. (TV: The Doctor Falls) The Master was even willing to die to spite the Tenth Doctor, (TV: Last of the Time Lords) and claimed to prefer death than begging for the Twelfth Doctor's help. (TV: The Doctor Falls) He relished describing how he had supposedly finally killed the Doctor to his other selves. (AUDIO: Masterful)
However, the "Saxon" Master was not without his reservations, considering Rassilon's Ultimate Sanction to be suicidal, but was still willing to subject himself to it to appease Rassilon. He also had a sense of honour, as he sacrificed himself to save the Doctor from Rassilon after the Doctor chose not to kill either of them, also getting his revenge on Rassilon for implanting "the drumming" in his head, and for Rassilon trying to kill him for being "diseased". (TV: The End of Time)
While he originally avowed affection for his wife, Lucy Saxon, (TV: The Sound of Drums) the Master's vanity and overconfidence in his successful taking of Earth led him to forego such pretences, even teasing her with the possibility of replacing her with his masseuse. He was, however, unsurprised when she shot him, instead making a quip about it "always [being] the women". (TV: Last of the Time Lords)
After his sabotaged resurrection, the Master displayed a feral state that led him to act like a predatory animal, plagued by an insatiable hunger. Despite this insanity, the Master was capable of lucid conversation, nostalgically discussing his childhood friendship with the Tenth Doctor. He was also still a cunning strategist, allowing himself to remain Joshua Naismith's prisoner so he could repair the Immortality Gate and use it to create his Master Race, all so he could turn the Earth into a warship, but then improvised a plan where he used his duplicates to locate the source of "the drumming". (TV: The End of Time) The insanity he developed due to his botched resurrection and the drumming was fixed when the Time Lords repaired the Master's body back to normal. (TV: World Enough and Time, The Doctor Falls)
Though she referred to him as "the Bonkers One", (PROSE: Meet Missy!) Missy recalled an enjoyment for being her "Saxon" incarnation, stating how he "burn[ed] like a sun, like a whole screaming world on fire." (TV: The Doctor Falls) Alit described the "Saxon" Master as being "an odd and frightening man" with a habit for "nasty comments and exaggerated gestures". (PROSE: Alit in Underland)
The Master made a habit of saying, "Oh, no you don't", saying it when the Doctor was locking the TARDIS's coordinates, (TV: Utopia) when avoiding a conversation with the Doctor, when the Doctor restored his youthful physiognomy with the Archangel Network's telepathic link, (TV: Last of the Time Lords) and when fending off a Cyberman. (PROSE: Alit in Underland)
The Master shared the Tenth Doctor's technical knowledge, as he was able to construct his laser screwdriver from Earth components, cannibalise the Doctor's TARDIS and turn it into a Paradox machine, miniaturise Richard Lazarus' genetic manipulation technology, (TV: The Sound of Drums) and was able to repair the Immortality Gate for Joshua Naismith. (TV: The End of Time) He also designed the Archangel Network and the Valiant. (TV: The Sound of Drums)
Like his previous incarnations, the "Saxon" Master had dangerous foresight and knew it was a mistake to give the Doctor hints about his plans while he could intervene. (TV: Utopia) His methods for dealing with the Doctor during his reign as prime minister showed an efficient and simple mindset; framing the Doctor for murder to send the police after him, arresting Martha's family for insurance, and luring Torchwood Three away to the Himalayas to prevent Jack from recruiting their aide. (TV: The Sound of Drums) He was likewise straight to the point when explaining how the time differentials were affecting the Mondasian colony ship to Bill Potts. (TV: World Enough and Time)
The "Saxon" Master was also a decent fighter, having brawled with his other incarnations on equal footing, (COMIC: The Five Masters) struck the Tenth Doctor down with a single punch to the face, (TV: Last of the Time Lords) knocked down a partially-converted Cybermen with a blow to the back of their head, (TV: World Enough and Time) and overpowered the Twelfth Doctor in unarmed combat. (TV: The Doctor Falls)
After he was fatally stabbed by Missy, the Master admired how his death was "very nicely done", and found that it was "good to know [she] [hadn't] lost [his] touch." Though he accepted his impending regeneration, the Master was unwilling to accept that Missy would stand with the Doctor, and shot her dead. He then began laughing at their "perfect ending" being them "shoot[ing] [them]selves in the back", and continued to laugh as he made his way to his TARDIS. (TV: The Doctor Falls) Despite this seeming acceptance, in a later aborted timeline he did attempt to escape his coming demise, first by exploiting the energy source at Kiameth and then by gathering his own past selves to feed on them, and showed great hostility to Missy when she intervened. (AUDIO: Masterful)
As "Missy"
Though he had previously preferred a male form, (PROSE: The Novel of the Film) the Master was indifferent when he learnt he would regenerate into a woman, (TV: The Doctor Falls) and, fully embracing her new gender, the Master changed her title to "Mistress", shortening it to "Missy". Considering herself to be "old fashioned", she insisted on being addressed as a Time Lady, (TV: Dark Water, The Witch's Familiar) while nicknaming herself the "Queen of Evil". (TV: Death in Heaven) She also adopted a Scottish accent, claiming she would keep it after taking a liking to the Twelfth Doctor's accent, (TV: Deep Breath) occasionally utilising other accents when she felt the need. (TV: Death in Heaven, The Witch's Familiar)
While she claimed that she had the "body of a weak and feeble woman", she maintained that she still possessed "the heart, and stomach, of a homicidal maniac" (AUDIO: The Bekdel Test) with "absolutely zero morals", (PROSE: Dismemberment) openly described herself as "bananas", but took offence when Danny Pink called her a "lunatic". (TV: Death in Heaven) She also displayed tendencies of being a show-off, such as when vastly enlarging her face on a UNIT monitor in a comical manner to show UNIT that she could, (TV: The Magician's Apprentice) and enjoyed having information that others did not, such as having knowledge of the Doctor's past that others could not argue with. (TV: The Magician's Apprentice, World Enough and Time) She was also something of a thrill-seeker, sometimes putting herself in danger simply for "fun". (PROSE: Lords and Masters)
Though she adopted a bubblier personality with a welcoming and sociable façade, (TV: Deep Breath, Into the Dalek, Dark Water, Death in Heaven) and more choreographic movements, (TV: Deep Breath, Dark Water, Death in Heaven, The Witch's Familiar, World Enough and Time) Missy was more open about her loneliness, and willing to show when she was afraid and remorseful, (TV: Death in Heaven, The Magician's Apprentice, The Lie of the Land, The Eaters of Light) and would abandon all sense of showmanship when her safety was at risk. (PROSE: Lords and Masters)
In her own words, Missy was "especially spiteful", and proved her word when she began murdering some of the Scoundrels Club's members and enslaving the others after they refused to allow her to remain a member. (PROSE: Dismemberment) Though she would admit that some retribution for her actions was justified, Missy still viewed the extremes of such action to be unfair towards her. (PROSE: Lords and Masters) She identified herself as a Slytherin, claiming to "see a lot of Severus Snape in [herself]". (PROSE: The Liar, the Glitch and the War Zone)
Believing that the Doctor's saving of Gallifrey was meant to rescue only her, (TV: Death in Heaven) Missy's affection for the Doctor became more conspicuous, telling the Half-Face Man that, while the Doctor could be mean to others, he would not be with her because he "loved [her] so much". She openly referred to him as her "boyfriend", (TV: Deep Breath) tracked his movements across time and space, (TV: Flatline, In the Forest of the Night, Death in Heaven) and mockingly professed that her hearts "belonged to [the Doctor]" after passionately kissing him. (TV: Dark Water) Despite these implications of their relationship being romantic, Missy adamantly denied that she loved the Doctor, even showing disgust at the thought, insisting it to be a complicated friendship, though expressed jealous irritation when the Doctor called Davros his "arch-enemy", (TV: The Magician's Apprentice) and would become upset and querulous when he did not show interest in her plans. (COMIC: The Five Masters; PROSE: Dr. Twelfth)
Viewing everything as being born to die, Missy held no regrets when it came to murder, describing her urge to kill as akin to a child wanting to pop a balloon, (TV: Death in Heaven) and having a preference for killing "clever-clogs" because they "[made] the best faces". (TV: The Witch's Familiar) When instructed not to kill, Missy would grow uninterested in the task given, (PROSE: Lords and Masters) and once killed a bird for no reason other than she was feeling annoyed. (PROSE: Teddy Sparkles Must Die!) When building up to a murder, Missy would insist that her victim "say something nice" to her, and would wait patiently for them to reply. (TV: Dark Water, Death in Heaven, The Magician's Apprentice) She also insisted that anyone aiming to kill her do the same with her, (TV: Death in Heaven) and would take offence if a threat to kill her was not carried out. (TV: The Witch's Familiar)
Missy retained her predecessors' sadistic tendencies, demonstrating cruel pleasure at taunting her victims before she killed them, such as telling Dr Chang she would miss him and promising to always keep a picture of him "looking so sweet" before she murdered him. (TV: Dark Water) She also encouraged Osgood to have more self-confidence, while counting down to her death to torment her. However, she atomised Seb without a second glance for no reason other than that the AI was annoying her. (TV: Death in Heaven) Missy also held no respect for the dead, using dead human bodies to create a Cyberman army, (TV: Dark Water) as well as crushing Osgood's glasses under her heel while posthumously thanking her for being "yummy". (TV: Death in Heaven)
Missy could be needlessly cruel in her interactions with others, such as taunting Clara Oswald about her dead boyfriend, (TV: The Magician's Apprentice) and pushing Clara down a hole to test its depth. (TV: The Witch's Familiar) She let Jo hang off a cliff for sometime before rescuing her and later let her be caught by the entropy wave. (AUDIO: Masterful) She also ordered the death of Belgians for no reason, (TV: Death in Heaven) vaporised UNIT personnel to prove she had "not gone good," (TV: The Magician's Apprentice) and was believed by Ashildr to have united Clara and the Doctor together just to see what chaos would result from their clashing personalities. (TV: Hell Bent) She would sometimes act childish or ignorant so that others around her would drop their guard. (PROSE: Dismemberment) However, when Missy learnt that the Doctor had departed Darillium to leave River Song to her fate, she offered her sincere condolences for his loss. (TV: Extremis)
Missy liked apricot jam, (PROSE: Dismemberment) but disliked birds and children. (PROSE: Teddy Sparkles Must Die!)
During her imprisonment in the vault, Missy went "cold turkey" on being evil as the Doctor tried to rehabilitate her, which first worked to the extent that Missy offered information on how to defeat the Monks because she did want to change and save the Earth, though her immediate solution involved burning out Bill Potts' brain as it was the only way she knew of to stop the Monks, effectively sacrificing one to save the many. After he repelled the invasion without resorting to killing Bill, the Doctor found that Missy had secretly grown remorseful for all her past murders. (TV: The Lie of the Land) Nardole later trusted her to retrieve the Doctor and Bill from Mars, (TV: Empress of Mars) which in turn resulted in the Doctor trusting Missy enough to do "maintenance" on his TARDIS. (TV: The Eaters of Light)
Though she continued to show progress with her rehabilitation and made an effort to do good on the Mondasian colony ship, when she was approached by her past incarnation, she relapsed back to being evil by allying with him, (TV: World Enough and Time) but continued to be conflicted with her allegiance, admitting to the Doctor that she was "in two minds" about what she wanted. (TV: The Doctor Falls) After a brief adventure with the Master and Alit, Missy kept her past self from regaining control of the Cybermen and speculated that she would have to kill him to end the danger. (PROSE: Alit in Underland) After being moved by the Doctor's speech on kindness and request for her help, Missy stabbed her past incarnation so that he would regenerate into her and she could stand with the Doctor, only for the Master to shoot her beyond regeneration, leading to her death, though she shared the amusement in her "perfect ending" being shot in the back by her past incarnation. (TV: The Doctor Falls)
Missy showed a liking for singing, substituting her name in the song "Mickey" while in UNIT custody, and singing a verse from "Happy Birthday, Mr President" when giving the Doctor control of a Cyberman army. (TV: Death in Heaven) She pulled a similar stunt involving "Mickey" lyrics via text communication when she announced her presence to UNIT by halting all aeroplane traffic, and, when imprisoned by Colony Sarff, she passed the time by partaking in opera singing. (TV: The Magician's Apprentice) Missy was also good at playing the piano, and passed her time in the vault playing Für Elise, Pop Goes The Weasel, (TV: Knock Knock) and The Entertainer. (TV: The Lie of the Land)
She would regularly threaten to bring pain to individuals by threatening their internal organs, (TV: World Enough and Time; PROSE: Dismemberment, Lords and Masters, Girl Power!; COMIC: The Road To...) even once considering eating Clara Oswald if she had too. (TV: The Witch's Familiar) She occasionally fantasised about breaking the necks of those who annoyed her. (PROSE: The Liar, the Glitch and the War Zone)
Missy was a devious planner and skilled manipulator, able to manoeuvre others into place with ease by exploiting their desires. (TV: Death in Heaven) While trapped on Skaro with Clara Oswald, Missy demonstrated fluid planning as her desires changed from wanting to ally with the Daleks, (TV: The Magician's Apprentice) to wanting to help the Doctor, to then wanting the Doctor to unintentionally kill Clara, (TV: The Witch's Familiar) and she was capable of long-term planning, as she worked out a long plan to gain entry into the Monk's TARDIS and steal a component after her Vortex Manipulator was damaged and she discovered the Monk was disguised as Henry VIII. (AUDIO: Divorced, Beheaded, Regenerated) She was also a convincing liar, especially when using her talent for manipulative reasons. (TV: Dark Water, Death in Heaven) However, Missy would often opt for one solitary scheme with virtually no contingencies or back-up plans in place to help steer events back towards her favour like her previous incarnations employed, instead opting to give the Doctor false hope of reaching Gallifrey after she was beaten, (TV: Death in Heaven) and walking away with nothing but taunts to say when the Doctor didn't kill Clara. (TV: The Witch's Familiar) After her past self unleashed an entropy wave on the universe, Missy manipulated her own past incarnations in an attempt to have them stop it or otherwise salvage something from the catastrophe, with three incarnations attempting to do as she had intended. (AUDIO: Masterful)
Sharing the Doctor's observational skills, Missy could tell a man she had killed was a married father by the ring on his finger and the detection of "baby leakage" on his jacket, (TV: The Magician's Apprentice) and pick up on people's personalities by the infliction of their voice. (PROSE: Lords and Masters)
As "the Lumiat"
Due to her previous incarnation's use of an Elysian field to regenerate, the Lumiat claimed to be a distillation of all her past self's positive qualities. She cherished life, weeping over the death of Bertram, a companion Missy had killed after becoming bored of.
The Lumiat showed disgust for her past selves' actions, deriding some of their failed schemes, though regarded her predecessor's ultimate fate as "poetic". By contrast, she admired the Doctor, claiming to be a "fan of her work", and was flattered that Missy had initially mistaken her for them.
Despite claiming to have completely abandoned her old ways, the Lumiat did resort to threatening Missy with her TCE after her patience had worn thin. (AUDIO: The Lumiat) She also displayed a somewhat manipulative side, encouraging Missy to give up her life so she could come into existence earlier. (AUDIO: Masterful)
"Spy" incarnation
Believing "a little chaos [to be] a wonderful thing", (TV: Spyfall) the "Spy" Master could fall into unpredictable fits of rage, stating he could "relate" to a short-fused bomb, (TV: Spyfall, The Timeless Children) to the point that he once attempted to strangle the Thirteenth Doctor with his bare hands. After taking a crowd hostage, he spontaneously focused on a cowering woman and demanded to know if she had moved, only to apologise for his "mistake" before killing her with the TCE. (TV: Spyfall) The Master once voiced a belief that nothing could "calm all [his] rage", though the Doctor countered her belief that he was actually "scared of everything". (TV: The Timeless Children)
The "Spy" Master enjoyed playing long games, like tricking the Doctor into believing he was "O", gleefully clapping his hands at the Doctor's inability to deduce who he was despite giving clues and expressing he had had "a lot of fun" when she finally realised he had fooled her. (TV: Spyfall)
While not above working with others to achieve his goals, the Master did not see his partners as equals, but as assets to use for his own gain and dismiss once they had served their purpose. (TV: Spyfall, The Timeless Children) His arrogance was so profound that he did not even attempt to conceal his TARDIS in 1943 Paris, (TV: Spyfall) and felt he was justified in destroying Gallifrey when he learnt that the Time Lords owed their existence to the Doctor, himself included. (TV: The Timeless Children)
Believing he had no "better nature", (TV: The Timeless Children) and looking down on Missy deciding to better herself, (PROSE: The Doctor vs the Master) the "Spy" Master had a passion for killing others, remarking how it gave him a "buzz", and that it felt right in his hearts to do so. (TV: Spyfall) His disregard for life was so great that he even threatened to kill to prove a point. (TV: The Timeless Children) His passion for death, when infused with anger, was reawakened in him when he discovered the lies about the Timeless Child that the Time Lords had committed, driving him to commit genocide back on Gallifrey. (TV: Spyfall)
Despite not wanting her as his enemy again, the Master loved playing mind games on the Doctor and treating her as an inferior, (TV: Spyfall, The Timeless Children) having her kneel before him when he was holding hostages. He chased her through time to force her to listen to him just to get a message across, but would express rage when she outsmarted him. He also looked down on her companions, likening his apparent killing of them to "swat[ting] flies".
However, beneath his charismatic exterior, the "Spy" Master hid a melancholy pain, recounting his ravaging of Gallifrey with sombre calm, though he was still petty enough not to divulge the entire truth of the Timeless Child to the Doctor, reasoning it should be as difficult for her to discover the truth as it was for him. He was also unnerved by the sounding of a four-beat rhythm that resembled "the Drumming". (TV: Spyfall)
When Ashad's death particle failed to activate upon his death, the Master found himself disappointed and noted his acceptance should it have killed him. He later tried to persuade the Doctor to detonate the death particle to kill him and his CyberMasters. (TV: The Timeless Children)
"Tersurus" incarnation
This version of the Master was as melodramatic and hammy as ever, frequently laughing maniacally and taking pleasure in explaining his evil plans at great length.
He was also significantly more inept than other versions of the Master, monitoring the Doctor in his TARDIS and gloating about the traps he had set without realising that he was on speakerphone until the Doctor informed him. After deactivating his viewscreen, he continued to monologue in what he thought was privacy, unaware that he had just switched the screen off and was still audible to the Doctor. He also inadvertently fell into a trap he had set for the Doctor no less than three times. Over nine hundred years, he developed some questionable appetites and behaviours with slugs.
The Master's incompetence manifested itself again when he failed to realise that the Daleks were planning to exterminate him once had assisted them in completing the death ray. In fact, so lacking in common sense was the Master that when the Doctor used the language of the Tersuruns to discreetly inform him of the Daleks' intentions, the Master gave the game away by blurting it out loud, causing the Daleks to try and exterminate him. His uncharacteristic lack of intelligence was further demonstrated by his inability to repair the exploding generator, admitting that only the Doctor had the capacity to do so. (TV: The Curse of Fatal Death)
Appearance and clothing
First incarnation
As an eight-year-old boy, the Master had dark hair and bright blue eyes. (TV: The Sound of Drums) As he matured, the Master swept his black hair back, and also grew a greying beard. (AUDIO: The Toy)
The Master was described by Maris as "pewter, [having] washed-out skin, and the beginnings of a goatee". (PROSE: Celestial Intervention - A Gallifreyan Noir)
Koschei
While imprisoned beneath the Tower, Koschei had a long dark beard and "piercing" green eyes. He gave off an aura of menace to all who came near him, and, in his emaciated state, came across as a "creature" more than a man. (PROSE: Rebel Rebel) Later in his life, he was of medium build with a high forehead and swept-back hair that was greying at the temples. His neatly trimmed dark beard also had streaks of grey at the comers. (PROSE: The Face of the Enemy)
"Renegade" incarnation
When he met the First Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara on Destination, the Master had short hair and a beard, both of which were almost completely grey, save for some dark patches. His eyes were brown in colour. He wore an asymmetrical black coat with a large white lined collar on the left-hand side. (AUDIO: The Destination Wars) He later adopted a black Nehru jacket by the time he met the Second Doctor. (AUDIO: The Home Guard)
"UNIT enemy" incarnation
The "UNIT enemy" Master resembled a mature, elegant man, with a swarthy complexion, brown eyes, and mild streaks of grey in his combed back thinning hair. He had a goatee beard, which also had white skunk stripes. He generally wore an ebony black Cardin-Nehru jacket, with dark trousers, black leather boots and gloves, and a ivory cuff-linked shirt. (TV: Terror of the Autons) On occasion, he would wear a suit, with either an orange, grey or blue tie. (TV: Terror of the Autons, The Mind of Evil, The Time Monster)
While imprisoned on Fortress Island, the Master wore a black cape over a white turtle-neck jumper, with black trousers, but switched these for a naval officer's uniform while secretly infiltrating HMS Seaspite. During his return and subsequent escape from Fortress Island, he changed back into his black Nehru jacket and trousers. (TV: The Sea Devils)
The Master's UNIT file described him as "a guy of swervey complexion, with a goatee and a reseeding hairline." (AUDIO: Mastermind) Missy remembered him as "the Beardy One". (PROSE: Meet Missy!)
Degenerated body
Either because Susan Foreman used the TCE against him while he was holding a matter transmuter, (PROSE: Legacy of the Daleks) or because he was burnt in an energy net by a future incarnation, (AUDIO: The Two Masters) the Master came to resemble a deformed corpse, (TV: The Deadly Assassin) with brown eyes. (TV: The Keeper of Traken) However, after absorbing some energy from the Eye of Harmony, (TV: The Deadly Assassin) he became less "putrescent". (AUDIO: Trail of the White Worm) With his decayed body, the Master would experience almost unendurable pain. (AUDIO: The Two Masters)
To hide his disfigurement, the Master took to wearing a rotting hooded cloak. (TV: The Deadly Assassin) Whilst in Victorian London, he wore a mask in public to conceal his decaying appearance, and also used a cane to aid his frail body. (AUDIO: Maurice)
He was described by Spandrell as being "emaciated", (TV: The Deadly Assassin) with Bob Dovie describing him as looking "burned." (AUDIO: The Light at the End) The Fourth Doctor described him as "a cowled cadaver", (AUDIO: Requiem for the Rocket Men) while River Song described him as the "crispy-looking Master". (AUDIO: Animal Instinct) Missy remembered her wraith-like thirteenth incarnation as being "the Yucky One". (PROSE: Meet Missy!)
"Tremas" incarnation
After the Master used the power of the Source to steal Tremas's body, the Trakenite's body was also rejuvenated, with his grey hair becoming a dark brown, and his white bushy beard turning into a black goatee beard. (TV: The Keeper of Traken) The Fifth Doctor had a low opinion on the beard, calling it "rubbish" when he met his tenth incarnation. (TV: Time Crash)
After the Master stole his body, Tremas's robes inexplicably changed into a black velveteen high collared tunic with puffed sleeves and long tails, (TV: The Keeper of Traken) black trousers, dark leather boots, and black velvet gloves. (TV: Logopolis) The Master would also utilise a cloak with a large collar. (TV: The Five Doctors)
While stranded on Cheetah World, the Master opted to change his usual attire for a black collarless silk jacket, a navy blue shirt with an ivory collar, a midnight blue bow tie, black trousers and shoes, a collared silver waistcoat (with the collar coming out over the collarless jacket), and a belt with a dragon-shaped buckle. (TV: Survival)
In an account that depicted the "Tremas" Master with greying hair, he wore a red velvet jacket, a white waistcoat with a black jumper, and a pair of dark trousers, with leather gloves and shoes, with various rings decorating his gloves. Completing the ensemble was a black cloak with a huge collar and white lining, (GAME: Destiny of the Doctors) which the Master had also worn during his alliance with Adam Mitchell. (COMIC: Cat and Mouse)
While combating the Graak in the Determinant, the Master adopted many costume changes to suit the situation he found himself in; wearing an a conductor hat with an "M"-insignia at a platform station, a bowler hat while on a train taunting the Graak, a Dalek Trooper helmet while commanding a rocket launcher, and a plastic crown at a medieval themed festival. (GAME: Destiny of the Doctors)
"Tzun" incarnation
The Master had a high forehead, glossy moustache, neat beard, aristocratic nose and a lean face, and spoke in a rich cultured voice. (PROSE: First Frontier) He wore a Van Dyke beard, a dark Italian-designed suit, a silk shirt, and a cravat with a silver bird-of-prey tiepin. (PROSE: Housewarming)
"John Smith" incarnation
When the Master was robbed of his Trakenite body by the Warp Core, he regained his deformed appearance, which Ace described as resembling Freddy Krueger and "a dropped pizza". To hide his disfigurement, the Master took to wearing a golden mask with diamonds encrusted inside it. (AUDIO: Dust Breeding)
After becoming John Smith, the Master did not hide his disfigurement and wore a suit instead. (AUDIO: Master)
While body-jumping
When being exterminated by the Daleks, the Master had a full beard and snake-like eyes. He also wore a black high collared tunic with crimson lining. As a Deathworm Morphant, the Master resembled a snake. (TV: Doctor Who) Indeed, Missy recalled the version of her who was born from the theft of Bruce's body as "the Snaky One". (PROSE: Meet Missy!)
While within Bruce's body, the Master looked like a young American man, but his eyes appeared reptilian, forcing him to wear black sunglasses to remain inconspicuous. (TV: Doctor Who) He decided to have his new hair gelled (PROSE: The Novel of the Film) into a slick backcomb style, (TV: Doctor Who) as opposed to Bruce's messy style. (PROSE: The Novel of the Film) While searching for the Doctor, the Master wore denim jeans and a check shirt with Bruce's black leather jacket and light boots. When his plan neared completion, the Master changed into a black high collared tunic with crimson lining, similar to the one he wore during his Dalek extermination, with an extravagant Gallifreyan robes, citing that he "always dress[ed] for the occasion". (TV: Doctor Who)
Bruce's body was breaking down, starting by losing his fingernails, (TV: Doctor Who) but was reinvigorated by the Vortex when lost inside it. (AUDIO: Day of the Master) Despite this, Bruce's body did visibly age during his confinement in the Vortex. (WC: Listen to the voice of your Master!, The Master wants to be your Santa Claus)
After gaining a new body, the Master resembled a black street preacher with a balding head. (COMIC: The Fallen) After revealing himself, he replaced his clothes with a more regal outfit. (COMIC: The Glorious Dead)
When trapped on Earth in the 20th century, the Master wore whatever his hosts wore normally, to avoid detection. He discovered each body he possessed would inevitably revert to a decayed appearance, despite his best efforts to prolong them. (AUDIO: Mastermind)
The Master was briefly given a perception filter by Missy to hide his decaying appearance making him appear, in his own words, "handsome". He deactivated it at the suggestion of his past self, prompting Kitty to scream. (AUDIO: Masterful)
By the time of his death, the Master had continued to rot away, and had begun wearing a hooded cloak to conceal himself and was covered in bandages, with the Eleven comparing him to a mummy. (AUDIO: Planet of Dust)
"Bald" incarnation
The Master had light skin and brown eyes, and was bald, (AUDIO: Dominion) with many commenting on his lack of hair. (AUDIO: Dominion, Eyes of the Master) He wore a plain suit with a charcoal velvet blazer, (AUDIO: Eyes of the Master) and a kipper tie that was either plain black (AUDIO: Eyes of the Master) or striped black and pink. (AUDIO: Masterplan) On one occasion, he wore a white Stetson. (AUDIO: The Death of Hope)
The "Decayed" Master described his "Bald" incarnation as resembling a "low-ranking civil servant", but the "Bald" Master argued that he more resembled a leader. (AUDIO: The Two Masters)
While posing as the "Other Doctor", the Master wore an ebony black overcoat, with raven black trousers, a gunmetal grey blazer, an ivory shirt with either the collar turned up and a striped black and gold cravat or a down over an emeraldgreen tie in a basic bow (AUDIO: Dominion)
"Child" incarnation
In his sixteenth incarnation, (PROSE: Girl Power!) the Master's body was that of a small child with black hair and blue eyes. (COMIC: The Organ Grinder) On Veestrax, he had short hair, and wore a white shirt with a black jacket. (COMIC: Outrun) By the time he and the Doctor had arrived on Golgauth, the Master's hair was longer, and he sported a scarlet shirt under his jacket. (COMIC: The Organ Grinder)
"War" incarnation
In his seventeenth incarnation, (PROSE: Girl Power!) the Master originally looked old, having white hair and blue eyes. Though he started his life clean-shaven, (COMIC: Fast Asleep) he eventually grew a scruffy white goatee beard. (AUDIO: Beneath the Viscoid)
After use of the Chameleon Arch, he regressed into a baby. (AUDIO: The Heavenly Paradigm) When Professor Yana met the Tenth Doctor, he resembled a slightly younger version of his original self, having aged naturally as a human. (TV: Utopia)
He wore an ivory shirt with a narrow collar, sometimes with sleeves rolled up, (AUDIO: Beneath the Viscoid) a black cravat tie, and black trousers. He also wore a waistcoat done in green-and-brown stripes cotton, (AUDIO: The Master of Callous) gunmetal grey tweed (AUDIO: Rage of the Time Lords) or dark tan moleskin. (AUDIO: Day of the Master) He also wore a sport-jacket of charcoal Donagel tweed over this attire. (AUDIO: The Heavenly Paradigm) During his encounter with UNIT, he wore a burgundy moleskin overcoat. (AUDIO: Master of Worlds) When he was Yana, he wore the same shirt alongside a black ascot tie and a wine brocade waistcoat which housed a Chameleon Arch biodata module, disguised as an ordinary fob watch. (TV: Utopia)
During his walks on Arcking, he wore a Grav-Suit over his clothes. (AUDIO: The Good Master)
In a timeline in which he altered the creation of the Daleks, the Master stole the black uniform of a Kaled Military Elite with embroidered white eye logos on the collars. (AUDIO: From the Flames)
"Harold Saxon" incarnation
In his eighteenth incarnation, (PROSE: Girl Power!) the Master was young, with light brown hair, and dark brown eyes. (TV: Utopia) According to the Twelfth Doctor, he had a "round face". (TV: The Doctor Falls) As "Harold Saxon", the Master would wear a black blazer with a white shirt and black kipper tie. While meeting President Arthur Winters, he wore a black coat with a crimson lined interior. He wore a ring on his left ring finger, bearing the Lazarus Laboratories logo completed with circular Gallifreyan inside the disks on a green jewel background, while also wearing a wedding ring on his left ring finger. (TV: The Sound of Drums)
After his botched resurrection, the Master's hair was bleached light blond, and he grew some stubble. To remain inconspicuous, he wore a black hooded sweatshirt over a scarlet T-shirt with gunmetal grey combat trousers and black boots. Due to the corruption of his life force, the Master's outer skin would fade away and reveal the translucent blue life energy encasing his body, exposing his skeleton and internal organs, with each fluctuation making an unsettling primal roar. (TV: The End of Time) After being "fixed" by the Time Lords, the Master no longer distorted into the translucent blue energy. (TV: The Doctor Falls)
By the time he found the Twelfth Doctor aboard the Mondasian colony ship, the Master had aged somewhat, now having grey hair and a goatee beard. He also discarded his previous clothes for a black asymmetrical frock coat with a large crimson lined collar on the left-hand side, a loden green shirt, (TV: World Enough and Time) dark trousers, and black zip-up boots. (TV: The Doctor Falls)
When the Third Doctor saw the "Saxon" Master in Sild captivity, he described what he saw as "a young man in a business suit, beardless, with a mop of boyish hair," and that his face "seemed friendly and plausible", overall thinking him "the kind of man people would find easy to trust." (PROSE: Harvest of Time)
As "Missy"
Missy looked like a mature woman with pronounced cheek bones, and light blue eyes. Her black hair was wild and free, but held in place in an up-do. She also adopted a Scottish accent similar to the Twelfth Doctor's. (TV: Deep Breath)
Fashioning herself in Victorian-styled garb, Missy wore a wingtip collar blouse (TV: Deep Breath) with a cameo brooch made of Dark star alloy under her throat, (TV: The Witch's Familiar) along with a high-waisted skirt that cut to ankle length, and a croak lengthen jacket which puffed up at the shoulders and dark lapels, with a blouse in ivory (TV: Deep Breath) or olive green. (TV: The Lie of the Land) She also wore black ankle boots with a sharp toe and tapered heels. Completing the ensemble was a black boater cap worn at a rakish angle, with an arrangement of black and crimson berries on the brim and a black veil over the top, held at the back with an Onyx black hatpin (TV: Dark Water) which was a TCE with four petals over a glowing sphere design. (PROSE: Lords and Masters) For further accessories, Missy wore a spiked bracelet on her left wrist, carried around a black sonic umbrella, and wore a bar ring on her right middle finger, and a 3 coils ring on her left middle finger. (TV: Deep Breath) She later adopted a vortex manipulator on her left wrist instead of her spiked bracelet and replaced her rings with a black signet ring on her left middle finger and a silver one on her right one. (TV: The Magician's Apprentice)
Missy varied the colours of her clothes, with her usual outfit coming in ebony black, (TV: Deep Breath) bottle green, (TV: Into the Dalek) burnt orange, (TV: The Caretaker) plum purple, (TV: Flatline) or violet purple. (TV: The Magician's Apprentice)
Before she was imprisoned in the Vault, Missy's up-do hair had grown in length, she had began wearing leather clothes, and she had replaced her brooch with a rust orange cravat tie. (TV: Extremis) After spending a number of years in the Vault, her hair grew out into a messier style. (TV: The Lie of the Land)
Saffron believed Missy had a "cruel look to her", (PROSE: Dismemberment) while Missy thought herself as being attractive, openly admitting to admiring her reflection on occasion. (AUDIO: Day of the Master) The Thirteenth Doctor compared Missy's look to Mary Poppins. (PROSE: The Doctor vs the Master)
As "the Lumiat"
The Lumiat was a middle-aged woman with collar-length auburn hair and blue eyes. She wore a white collarless blouse. (AUDIO: The Lumiat)
"Spy" incarnation
The "Spy" Master was a short-standing, skinny man with dark skin, black hair, and brown eyes. He originally had stubble as "O", but once he revealed his true identity, the Master grew out a full beard. He regularly disguised himself as various individuals, such as an auction dealer and even a Nazi officer, shaving his hair off for the latter.
After being stranded on Earth for seventy-seven years, the Master took to wearing a double-breasted overcoat of plum purple Donagel tweed, with external pockets on each hip and a chest pocket skewed at a forty-five degree angle under the left lapel, and metallic silver buttons attached to the coat; two on each side pocket, one on the breast-pocket, two on each sleeve, two on the back strap, and three on the front right side.
He also wore a plaid moleskin waistcoat and trousers with a pattern of three vertical stripes interlocking with three lines of horizontal dashes, in varying shades of orange over a navy background. The waistcoat additional possessed two blue chains, silver shank buttons and black style lapels. The end of his trouser legs were turned up slightly. Completing his ensemble was an indigo shirt, purple knee-high socks, and low topped leather lace-up shoes. (TV: Spyfall)
Other information
Relationship with the Doctor
The Master's relationship with the Doctor was complex. (TV: The Magician's Apprentice) They respected the Doctor as a worthy opponent, once offering to use a recently recovered weapon to take control of the universe while offering to share it with the Doctor though he refused. (TV: Colony in Space) As time went on, however, the Master became increasingly obsessed with proving his personal superiority, causing him to view the Doctor both as his greatest friend and his worst enemy.[source needed] He expressed deep anger toward the Doctor, along with a desire for vengeance, (TV: Last of the Time Lords) and accused the Doctor of causing him to waste his regenerations. (TV: Doctor Who)
Although initially willing to work with the Doctor when the situation required it, (TV: Terror of the Autons, The Claws of Axos) after the Last Great Time War, the Master absolutely refused to listen to the Doctor on any occasion. He evinced his vanity when the Doctor confronted him with the words "I forgive you", which he had been terrified of hearing because it significantly dented his pride. (TV: Last of the Time Lords)
The Master enjoyed making playful flirtations towards the Tenth Doctor while speaking on the phone, even asking the Doctor if he was asking him out on a date. (TV: The Sound of Drums) 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. (TV: Last of the Time Lords)
After regenerating into a female incarnation, Missy took her sexual innuendos to a new level by referring to him as her "boyfriend" and holding him responsible for her fate. (TV: Deep Breath, Death in Heaven) Upon meeting the Twelfth Doctor, she pretended to be an android and passionately kissed him. (TV: Dark Water) She later wanted to give him control of her army of Cybermen, attempting to force him to recognise that they were the same, but he refused and gave it to Danny Pink instead, who stopped her plans. While surprised, Missy didn't try to stop the Doctor as he prepared to kill her to spare Clara Oswald from doing it. (TV: Death in Heaven) When searching for the Doctor, Missy challenged Clara's skepticism about her concern about him by claiming to have cared about the Doctor "since always" (TV: The Magician's Apprentice) and even begged the Doctor to find out about her plans. (COMIC: The Five Masters) Shortly before her encounter with her predecessor, Missy showed a genuine desire to rekindle her friendship with the Doctor. (TV: The Eaters of Light) In fact, she had been rehabilitated enough that she would stand with him to fight the Cybermen. (TV: The Doctor Falls)
Missy's male successor enjoyed playing long games, like tricking the Doctor into believing he was someone else, expressing he had had "a lot of fun" when the Thirteenth Doctor finally realised he had fooled her. Despite not wanting her as his enemy again, he loved playing mind games on the Doctor and treating her as an inferior, having her kneel and call him "Master". He chased her through time to force her to listen to him just to get a message across, but would express rage when she outsmarted him. (TV: Spyfall)
Companions
Unlike the Doctor, the Master usually worked and travelled alone. On rare occasions, they were seen with companions. Examples included Ailla the Time Lord spy; (PROSE: The Dark Path) Mother Finsey, a woman who was fascinated by the Master's evilness and would follow his track afterwards; (AUDIO: The Transcendence of Ephros) Chang Lee, a young human whom the Master met in San Francisco; (TV: Doctor Who) Katsura Sato, an immortal Japanese samurai who helped the Master in his quest for Glory; (COMIC: The Glorious Dead) and Sally Armstrong, a woman who helped him to use the Eminence. (AUDIO: Time's Horizon)
During the Last Great Time War, he took in Cole Jarnish, (AUDIO: The Good Master) though as a ploy, (AUDIO: The Heavenly Paradigm) and later Chantho, a female assistant and companion to the Master in his "Professor Yana" identity. (TV: Utopia) As Harold Saxon, Lucy Saxon, his wife, was described as having travelled with the Master in the TARDIS in the same fashion as the Doctor and his companions. (TV: The Sound of Drums)
Clara also temporarily became Missy's companion when they both teleported out of the Dalek city together. Missy treated Clara as her "canary", forcing her to act as bait for the Daleks and test the safety of their situations first. She also made her get inside a Dalek casing so they could sneak back into the city convincingly. (TV: The Witch's Familiar)
References
When holding Kahler-Jex at gunpoint, the Eleventh Doctor said he honoured the Master's victims along with others. (TV: A Town Called Mercy)
Behind the scenes
Character conception and development
Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks often discussed that the relationship between the Third Doctor and the Brigadier was similar to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, and envisioned a counterpart of the Doctor to act as "Moriarty", a character that became "the Master", his name being developed to counter the Doctor's — like that of his enemy, "Master" is an academic title. (DOC: The Doctor's Moriarty)
In the Third Doctor's original final episode concept, Roger Delgado's incarnation of the Master would have redeemed himself and given his life to save the Doctor, after which the Doctor would have regenerated; however, this story was never developed due to the sudden death of Roger Delgado. Over thirty years later, this idea was reused in The End of Time, with John Simm's incarnation of the Master sacrificing himself to save the Tenth Doctor from Rassilon.
In The Deadly Assassin, writer Robert Holmes deliberately chose to show the Master in a "transitional" form, in case future production teams wanted to bring back the character. This transitional form was also used in The Keeper of Traken.
Near uses
The Master was the villain in the early drafts of the 1977 television story The Talons of Weng-Chiang, until he was replaced by Magnus Greel.[2]
When writing the 2015 audio story The Black Hole, Simon Guerrier intended for Constable Pavo of the Time Lord police force to be an earlier incarnation of the Master. This is strongly hinted at in the story, where Pavo makes use of a deadly "silver baton", possesses hypnotism similar to the Roger Delgado Master's, and seems to be on the path to breaking away from Gallifrey's authority, as she ends up wiping the Doctor and companions' memories of their encounter and letting them go so as not to risk implicating herself concerning her own transgressions. However, the connection is not spelled out.[3]
The mystery of the Master's true name
The 1997 novel The Dark Path shows the Second Doctor in what is purported to be his first encounter with the Master since leaving Gallifrey. Throughout the story, the Master is only called by the name "Koschei", and it is only at the end of the tale, when his turn to evil is complete (as foreshadowed by the title), that he proclaims himself "the Master". In Russian folklore, Koschei (rus.Коще́й or Коще́й Бессме́ртный, "Koschei the Deathless") is a villainous sorcerer who hid his soul in an obscure location under many layers of protection so that he may never die. The Face of the Enemy, by the same writer, saw Roger Delgado's Master encountering a parallel version of himself for whom The Dark Path had not happened, who still called himself "Koschei". The Second Doctor recognises Koschei's name in The Dark Path when Ailla mentions it, although the narration also suggests that it is an alias rather than the Master's birth name.
In Divided Loyalties, flashbacks to the Doctor's childhood in "the Deca" have the future Master already calling himself "Koschei" at the Time Lord Academy, although it is no clear if this is his birth name or a school nickname like "Theta Sigma" (the name persistently used for the Doctor in those same flashbacks). Although the flashbacks themselves come in the form of dreams the Doctor has under the influence of the Celestial Toymaker, and are explicitly inaccurate in some respects, the epilogue confirms that "Koschei" eventually became obsessed with "becoming the Doctor's Master".
The comic Flashback was written with the intent that Magnus, an old friend of Theta Sigma who seems to be growing more and more corrupted, was an early incarnation of the Master. However, the comic did not explicitly confirm Magnus's identity, and later sources went on to use "Magnus" as a name for the War Chief, although the Master and War Chief are sometimes thought to be one and the same. Interestingly, in the original script, the name was not "Magnus" but "Magus", the Latin word for "sorcerer" or "wise man"; it was incorrectly "fixed" to Magnus by the letterer, who assumed Magus was a typo.
The Black Hole featured the Second Doctor bumping into a Time Lord called Pavo, working for the Time Lord police to track down renegades (consistent with the claim in Time and Relative that the Master was a "truant officer" who was originally sent by the Time Lords on the Doctor's trail before deciding to become a Renegade himself). This Time Lord was intended by writer Simon Guerrier to be the Master prior to their turning evil; there are other clues to Pavo's identity, such as the silver rod Pavo wields as a weapon or their hypnotic abilities. It is, in any event, not made clear whether "Pavo" is an alias, nickname, code name, or birth name.
Beyond all those possibilities, several accounts suggest the Master's true name was something altogether more alien than "Koschei," "Magnus," "Magus" or "Pavo". In Doctor Who and the Terror of the Autons, Adelphi speaks the Master's birth name to the Doctor when warning him about the Master's arrival on Earth (the suggestion being that he has only recently adopted the pseudonym of "the Master", which Adelphi believes the Doctr might be unfamiliar with). It is described "a string of mellifluous syllables — one of the strange Time Lord names that are never disclosed to outsiders". This was eched by the 2018 short story Lords and Masters, which had Missy stating that her real name contained thirty-two letters. However, this does not foreclose the possibility that though any one of the spelled-out, shorter names given in other sources might be nicknames, they could be formed by shortening the Master's true name, similar to Romanadvoratrelundar usually going by "Romana".
How many Masters?
Especially in comparison to other prominent Time Lords like the Doctor and Romana, the number of the Master's incarnations has been left unclear by many stories. TV: The Deadly Assassin gives the first clue when the Master is said to be near the end of his thirteenth and final incarnation. PROSE: Legacy of the Daleks shows the transformation from the Roger Delgado Master into the degraded form portrayed by Peter Pratt in The Deadly Assassin, establishing that they, and Geoffrey Beevers, are playing a single regeneration of the Master. However, the comic Doorway to Hell contradicts this by showing the Delgado incarnation's regeneration, and AUDIO: The Two Masters features the Beevers incarnation of the Master before disfigurement.
Evidence in invalid entries
Behind-the-scenes material for TV: The Curse of Fatal Death referred to Jonathan Pryce's incarnation as the Seventeenth Master, although this was unsupported in the TV story itself.
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The Doctor Who Role Playing Game by FASA, which admits to taking liberties with the source material in its opening pages, gives a rundown of the Master's first thirteen incarnations in "The Master" supplement book, which was similar to (but not entirely consistent with) the in-universe biography given for the Master in FASA's own CIA File Extracts.
According to the book, the Master could control the form of his incarnations, and frequently used the same face. His first to fourth incarnations lived on Gallifrey and regenerated due to his researches. The Fifth Master kept the same face as his predecessors, but lasted over four-hundred-years due to his retirement. He eventually regenerated, aged over 700-years-old, when his rebellion on Gallifrey failed and forced him to become a renegade, with the War Chief among his followers. The sixth and seventh incarnations were "the Monk", as portrayed by Peter Butterworth, being different from his previous incarnations mostly by lacking a beard, who regenerated when repairing his TARDIS after the events of The Time Meddler. The Eighth Master, aged over 800-years-old, regenerated following the events of The Daleks' Master Plan, returning to a bearded Delgado-like appearance and being the first to call himself "the Master". He kept these features up to his twelfth incarnation which combed his grey hair back. The thirteenth incarnation, still aged over 800-years-old, started intervening against UNIT, but, after his death to the Daleks following Frontier in Space, took on the decayed appearance of Peter Pratt. The Fourteenth Master, aged over 900-years-old, was portrayed by Ainley, who stole the body of Tremas and he survived the events of Planet of Fire, due to the gas which gave him a new cycle and he regenerated into a similar fifteenth incarnation.
The 2010 edition of The Visual Dictionary indicates that the Master played by John Simm is the seventeenth incarnation. However, this source is considered invalid by this wiki for being non-narrative.
Valid entries
The short story Girl Power! showed eighteen deaths on Missy's Spacebook page. This results in nineteen true incarnations to result from regeneration, not including incarnations who come into being as possessed bodies (although notably, the Spacebook entry mentions one singular instance of body-theft). While the identities of the Master's first regeneration cycle's incarnations are not named by this story, and the unique cases of the multiple Ainleys and of the "Tzun" regeneration are not addressed, it does account for most regenerations of the Master to have appeared in spin-off media at the time.
Off-screen relationships
Although they played antagonists on screen, in real life Roger Delgado and Jon Pertwee were actually close friends. In interviews and convention Q&A sessions, Pertwee often cited the death of Delgado as one of the factors that led him to give up the role. (DOC: PanoptiCon 93, MM VHS 15)
Long before Tom Baker met Anthony Ainley during the filming of Baker's final serial, Logopolis, he had lived with his brother, Richard Ainley, an acting instructor. Tom often saw Anthony, who would come over to play with Richard's children, but always thought of him as mysterious.[4]
Information from invalid sources
The Doctor Who Fun Book
A glimpse into the Master's life on Gallifrey is provided by the short story NOTVALID: TARDIS Stolen! from 1987's The Doctor Who Fun Book, which is not considered a valid source by this Wiki due to its parodical nature, such as revealing that the Master's true name is "Cuthbert Windbottom", though he is already going by "the Master", a choice of identity the author of the Gallifreyan Gazette article finds unsurprising.
Following the First Doctor's theft of the TARDIS and flight from Gallifrey, the Master is interviewed by the Gallifrey Gazette to give his opinion on the probable motives of his old classmate's crimes; the Master claims that the Doctor had been very excited in the last month over a phone call from "the BB Corporation" and attempts to convince the interviewer that these were surely some of Gallifrey's oldest enemies in whose league the Doctor had entered. Yet another hint as to the Master's activities is the classified ad for "lifelike dolls" to be purchased from him, which heavily suggests that the Master is already in possession, and making illegal use of, a Tissue Compression Eliminator.
Doctor Who The Official Annual 2018
According the Doctor Who The Official Annual 2018, which is not accepted as a valid source for in-universe articles on this wiki due to not constituting a story as such, Missy remained on Skaro after The Witch's Familiar, adopting a Slyther as a pet that ate the Thals she met.
Doctor Who: Legacy
In the story of Doctor Who: Legacy, time travelling Sontarans' attacks on the timeline are felt by the "Saxon" Master. After witnessing the universe collapse with Lucy Saxon on Utopia, the Master, seeking to establish his New Time Lord Empire, leads the Toclafane in overrunning the Sontaran Empire and pursuing the Doctor. As the Doctor's incarnations assemble, the Master likewise gathers his other selves, retrieving his decaying incarnation from the collapsing reality. Next to be summoned is the "UNIT enemy" Master, wielding a paradox generator.
Other matters
- The character was originally supposed to be killed off for good in The Final Game, which would have seen him sacrifice himself to save the Doctor and reveal that they are split parts of the same personality (the Doctor being the Ego and the Master being the Id). Roger Delgado's death prevented this.
- He was originally supposed to be the main villain of The Talons of Weng-Chiang, presumably the Peter Pratt incarnation.
- Planet of Fire was supposed to be his final appearance, as Anthony Ainley's contract was expiring. Dialogue from The Mark of the Rani explaining how he survived was cut.
- Missy's appearance was based upon that of the Julie Andrews version of Mary Poppins. For example, when first introduced in the stage directions from the script of Deep Breath, Missy was physically described thus: "She's dressed a little like Mary Poppins." Furthermore, Missy imitates the style of Mary's iconic arrival (floating down from the sky using an umbrella) in Death in Heaven.
- Though Robert Holmes has received a creator credit for the Master in the revived series, no such credit is given for Missy.
- The "Spy" Master's costume was conceived by Ray Holman, based on Sacha Dhawan's suggestions.[5]
Feature
Casting
Television
| Actor | Tenure | First story | Last story | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edward Brayshaw[1] | 1969 | The War Games | The War Games | The War Chief was suggested in some, but not all, later accounts to be an earlier incarnation of the character later played by Delgado (see footnote). However, he was never referred to as "the Master" on-screen, instead going by the War Chief, his rank in the War Lords' hierarchy. |
| Roger Delgado | 1971-73 | Terror of the Autons | Frontier in Space | Roger Delgado would have also appeared in the final story of Jon Pertwee's tenure, had not his death intervened. |
| Norman Stanley | 1971 | Terror of the Autons | Terror of the Autons | Stanley, credited as "Telephone Mechanic" in episode three of Terror of the Autons, portrays the Delgado Master disguised by a mask while he infiltrates UNIT and installs a Nestene telephone. |
| Peter Pratt | 1976 | The Deadly Assassin | The Deadly Assassin | Peter Pratt was the first actor to portray the Master's cadaverous body. Accounts differ on whether this decaying Master is a later form of Delgado's incarnation or a different incarnation. |
| Geoffrey Beevers | 1981 | The Keeper of Traken | The Keeper of Traken | Geoffrey Beevers became the primary vocal performer of the Master for Big Finish |
| Anthony Ainley | 1981-89 | The Keeper of Traken | Survival | Anthony Ainley also appeared in the specially shot full motion video that accompanied 1997's Destiny of the Doctors |
| Gordon Tipple | 1996 | Doctor Who | Doctor Who | Tipple played the Master whom the Daleks exterminate at the start of the 1996 telemovie. Virtually all of his footage was cut from the finished film. |
| Eric Roberts | 1996 | Doctor Who | Doctor Who | The first and, so far, only American actor to play the role. |
| Jonathan Pryce | 1999 | The Curse of Fatal Death | The Curse of Fatal Death | Pryce's portrayal of the Master was openly parodying the character's more humourous traits. |
| Derek Jacobi | 2007 | Utopia | Utopia | Derek Jacobi had earlier played another version of the Master in the Scream of the Shalka webcast. |
| John Simm | 2007-2010 | Utopia | The Doctor Falls | John Simm's version of the character was the first incarnation of the Master to ever be shown as the product of a proper regeneration shown onscreen, and was also the first Master to return to the role on television after being replaced by another performer. |
| William Hughes | 2007 | The Sound of Drums | The End of Time | William Hughes was the Master as a child in a dialogue-free flashback which was repeated in The End of Time. |
| Michelle Gomez | 2014-17 | Deep Breath | The Doctor Falls | Michelle Gomez was a character introduced as Missy, later revealed to be short for "Mistress" in Dark Water, as she could no longer be known as "Master". Michelle Gomez is notable for being the first female performer to play this character, and marked the first time in a TV story that a Time Lord had been seen to change gender between regenerations, though the actual regeneration was not shown. |
| Sacha Dhawan | 2020 | Spyfall | The Timeless Children | Sacha Dhawan was the first non-white actor to play the Master. |
Audio
Geoffrey Beevers is the main portrayer of the character in Big Finish audio dramas. Sometimes, as in Fourth Doctor Adventures, he's merely reprising the pre-Tremas Master seen in The Keeper of Traken. On other occasions, he has portrayed a post-Survival Master that had had Tremas's body stricken away. On two more occasions, Mastermind in 2013 and Day of the Master in 2019, he played a post-TV movie Master, who is established as always returning to the same emaciated form even as he takes over the bodies of others.
Alex Macqueen portrayed the Master in Dominion, Time's Horizon, Eyes of the Master, The Death of Hope, The Reviled, Masterplan, Rule of the Eminence, Vampire of the Mind and The Two Masters, set at a time where the Master is given a new regeneration cycle by the Time Lords after his confrontation with the Eighth Doctor, and is set to work on their behalf.
In The Two Masters, it is revealed that the Beevers and MacQueen Masters had switched bodies due to the manipulations of the Cult of the Heretic, with the result that the two actors were technically portraying each other's version of the Master in the audios And You Will Obey Me and Vampire of the Mind respectively.
Derek Jacobi returned as the Master in his own audio series, The War Master, as well as Gallifrey: Time War. He portrayed the same incarnation as seen in Utopia, yet set before that incarnation turned himself human. Michelle Gomez's Missy was given her own series as well in 2019.
James Dreyfus portrayed the Master in The Destination Wars, The Home Guard and The Psychic Circus. As well as Dreyfus, the Master, through the use of a voice filter, temporarily assumes the voice of the First Doctor, as played by David Bradley. The announcement of his casting on the Big Finish website referred to him as "the first incarnation of the Master".[6] This would make him the adult version of William Hughes' incarnation, although him being the First Master is not explicitly mentioned in his audio stories.
Milo Parker played the Master during his time at the Academy in Masterful.
Additionally, in The Hollows of Time, an audio adaptation of an unrealised 1980s Sixth Doctor script made as part of The Lost Stories range, a character called Professor Stream appears, played by David Garfield. While he was supposed to be revealed as the "Tremas" Master in the original script, he was not identified as the Master in the audio version, and the audio is narrated by the Doctor and Peri as a flashback, where their memories are partially distorted, leaving them both uncertain as to Stream's true identity.
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 TV: Castrovalva. "Tremas" is itself an anagram of "Master".
The tradition continued in the BBC Wales version of the show. During Series 3, the Master takes on two new identities, "Professor Yana" in TV: Utopia, and "Mr. Saxon" in TV: The Sound of Drums. "Yana" is an intentional acronym of "You Are Not Alone", the final words of the Face of Boe, which led the Doctor to discover that Yana was a Time Lord. "Mister Saxon", as the character was mysteriously referred to throughout series 3, is an anagram of "Master No. Six" - John Simm's rendition being the sixth on-screen version of the character. However, Russell T Davies has claimed that the anagram was unintentional.
External links
- The Master at the Faction Paradox wiki
- The Master / Missy at the Doctor Who Legacy wiki
- Missy at the Doctor Who Legacy wiki
- Missy at the LEGO Dimensions wiki
- The Master at Marvel Database
- The Master at the Doctor Who: Lockdown! wiki
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Various authors, including the War Chief's creator Malcolm Hulke, have stated that they believe the War Chief to be an earlier incarnation of the Master. Though not using the name of "the War Chief," Terrance Dicks' two introductions of the Delgado Master in Target novelisations suggested that the Master had been the Time Lord involved in the events that led to the Doctor's exile on Earth, and, indeed, that he was the only other Renegade the Doctor had faced by his third incarnation. The Game of Time & Space, which is not a valid source on this Wiki, also explicitly identified the two.
However, more recent accounts strayed from this 1970s doxa, with The Doctor Who Role Playing Game and valid sources such as Divided Loyalties and A Brief History of Time Lords treating the two as distinct, though similar, Time Lords. As this Wiki rejects the notion of canon, we hold these two possibilities to be equally true.
See The War Chief#Connection with the Master for more information. - ↑ http://www.shannonsullivan.com/drwho/serials/4s.html
- ↑ https://twitter.com/0tralala/status/1104079021510402048
- ↑ http://www.tom-baker.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=756
- ↑ Dhawan's instagram post
- ↑ https://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/james-dreyfus-is-the-master
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