The Master (The Curse of Fatal Death)
Not being particularly competent, a rather melodramatic incarnation of the Master, contemporary to the "listless-looking" Ninth Doctor, sought to finally defeat his foe on the planet of Tersurus.
Biography
Origin
By looking into a Tomorrow Window, the Eighth Doctor saw numerous possible futures including one where his ninth incarnation was "a listless-looking man sat on a sofa beside a girl in a red dress in an unconvincing medieval dungeon, (PROSE: The Tomorrow Windows) a sight which greeted the Master as the Doctor outmaneuvered him on Tersurus. (TV: The Curse of Fatal Death)
In another possible future, the Eighth Doctor saw his next incarnation as "an aristocrat with a high forehead and devilish, shadow-sunken eyes". With the assistance of the Master, this Ninth Doctor defeated an alien force that had invaded Gallifrey, though the confrontation left the Master damaged without a suitable body. (PROSE: Doctor Who - The Ninth Doctor) In return for his aid, the Doctor offered to transfer the Master's mental resources into an android body, the appearance of which the Master could personally select. (PROSE: Scream of the Shalka) The Master accepted, appearing with a familiar, bearded appearance. (WC: Scream of the Shalka) While this body granted him corporeal form, he was limited to the confines of the Doctor's TARDIS as his android body was purposely designed to never be able to leave the ship. (PROSE: The Feast of the Stone) Now bound to travel with the Doctor, the pair were sent to work to solve the dangerous problems that plagued the universe (WC: Scream of the Shalka) on behalf of the Time Lords, who had retreated into the Matrix. (PROSE: Doctor Who - The Ninth Doctor)
Vengeance on Tersurus
While spying on the Doctor, the Master inadvertently enabled two way communication and unwittingly revealed his plans to eliminate the Doctor on Zaston IV. 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 Castle Tersurus. Unbeknownst to him, however, 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.
As no other race could tolerate the smell from his time in the sewage, the Master allied himself with the Daleks, because they were the only life-forms without noses and hence the only creatures willing to work with him. As part of their 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.
He then used his very own TARDIS to travel back to the point just after he fell and threatened the Doctor once again, this time backed by the Daleks. After the Doctor continuously regenerated combating the Daleks, the Master believed the Twelfth Doctor to have been killed by the zectronic beam, the Master 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)
Personality
This incarnation of the Master was just 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 post haste. This Master's 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.
Despite being a rival to the Doctor for many years, the Master was devastated when a blast of zectronic beam appeared to strike the Doctor beyond the point of regeneration, and decided to become good in his memory. However, when the Doctor did regenerate in a female body, the Master fell in love with the Doctor and they became lovers. (TV: The Curse of Fatal Death)
Appearance and clothing
The Master was a man with a black beard and wild hair, who wore an outfit with a long cloak and a large green collar.
He would further augment is body with Dalek bumps on his chest which appeared as breasts. The Ninth Doctor referred to him as the “beard and the bosoms”. (TV: The Curse of Fatal Death)
Legacy
Missy would remember having been this incarnation when she recalled climbing through the sewers of Tersurus. (AUDIO: The Bekdel Test)
Behind the scenes
- Jonathan Pryce was previously considered for the role of the Master and the Eighth Doctor in the TV Movie.[1] Jonathan Pryce has laughingly referred to this role as the comical Master as spoiling his chances to ever play the Master in the main show.[2]
- This Master was designed as a pastiche of Roger Delgado's portrayal of the Master during the Third Doctor's era. Moffat would again write a homage to that type of Master with his more suave goatee sporting take on the Saxon Master in World Enough and Time / The Doctor Falls.
- When initially pitching The Curse of Fatal Death, Steven Moffat deliberately linked his story treatment to the gap between "the Roger Delgado-faced Master running away at the end of Frontier in Space and Peter Pratt's cowled and rotted-faced incarnation turning up in The Deadly Assassin." This was eventually abandoned, with the Master instead walking off into the distance with the freshly regenerated Female Doctor.[3]
- Gabe Cronelly was the stunt double for Jonathan Pryce and stood in for him during the scene where the Master falls through the trapdoor.[4]
