Saxon Master
Using the alias Harold Saxon, the Master passed himself off as a human, engineered his election as British Prime Minister, and then sought to use the Earth to create a new Gallifrey. He later used the Immortality Gate to create the Master Race, and attempted to free Gallifrey from the time-lock.
Biography
Regeneration
Recently liberated from the human form of Professor Yana, The Master fatally wounded his assistant, Chantho, who in her final moments fired a gun at him. The wounded Master managed to get into the Doctor's TARDIS. He decided that since the Tenth Doctor had a youthful new body, he should, too and so regenerated. The Master then left the Doctor on the planet Malcassairo with Futurekind about to burst in the laboratory door. The Master now had the TARDIS and the Doctor's hand (which Jack Harkness had taken with him to Malcassairo) that contained the Doctor's DNA. (DW: Utopia) He took the stolen TARDIS to Earth in the 2000s. (DW: The Sound of Drums)
Arriving on Earth
It is unknown exactly when the Master arrived on Earth but it is known he arrived just a few months after the events of The Christmas Invasion (although it should be noted that when speaking to the world about the Toclafane in "The Sound of Drums", the Master mentions the destruction of Big Ben, suggesting he could have arrived just before that, and a reference to his alias name is made in "Aliens of London". He had very much established himself on Earth by the time of the episode "Love & Monsters", as evidenced by an article about his Harold Saxon persona leading the polls). He set about fabricating Harold Saxon's past so he could gain political support. He made his first public appearance about one and a half years before the Doctor had met his current companion Martha Jones, shortly after the downfall of Harriet Jones. In this appearance he unveiled the Archangel Network, which he had developed and was hailed as a telecommunications breakthrough. By this point he had taken the identity of Harold Saxon, complete with the fabricated past, which while not being very convincing was believed thanks to the influence of the Archangel Network. The Master also presumably observed the Doctor when he was arriving on Earth at various times during the next year until the Doctor arrived in Cardiff to refuel and make his way unintentionally to the end of the universe.(DW: The Sound of Drums)
Life on Earth
Harold Saxon released his autobiography, Kiss Me, Kill Me, just over a year prior to his first face-to-face meeting with the Doctor. While writing the book (about a year before The Sound of Drums), Saxon met the Honorable Lucy Cole, who was working in publishing; they were married in 2007.
Political Career
By December 2007 he had become minister of defense of Great Britain, and on Christmas eve, he came to real prominence for the first time, ordering the British Army to use tanks to fire at and destroy the Empress of the Racnoss's webstar. (DW: The Runaway Bride, The Sound of Drums)
During 2007 he was already campaigning for the general election as Prime Minister of Great Britain (DW: Love & Monsters). He used the simple slogan "Vote Saxon." (TW: Captain Jack Harkness) He visited his old high school during his campaign, and as Harold Saxon did not exist, he had to use the Archangel Network to brainwash staff so that he could gain political support. One teacher was resistant to the Network and the Master killed him with his laser screwdriver. (DWF: Speech Day)
"Saxon" asserted that extraterrestrial life did exist and that the British must do something about the fact. This stance made him popular in early 2008 after reports of the Judoon having transported the Royal Hope Hospital to the Moon (DW: Smith and Jones)
With his election seemingly a sure thing, politicians from other parties flocked to his side. Harold Saxon was elected prime minister in May 2008, and visited the royal palace soon after. (DW: The Sound of Drums)
- British Prime Minister
- May 2008
- Preceded by: Harriet Jones
- Succeeded by: Aubrey Fairchild
Technological Innovations
The Master started the Archangel Network. This telecommunications network, tied to mobile phones, carried a subtle mind control signal which made humans trust him. The network affected the Doctor so that on Earth earlier, he had never had any suspicions as to the Master's presence as "Saxon", even though the presence of another Time Lord would have ordinarily been detected by him.
To those few humans conscious of it, the signal sounded as a persistent drumbeat (the same as the constant drumbeat the Master always heard) that only they could hear.
He also designed the Valiant, UNIT's air carrier, as well as a laser screwdriver, which he reserved for his own use. (DW: The Sound of Drums) "Saxon" funded the rejuvenation experiments of Richard Lazarus, presumably revealing (at least in part) the biological processes involved in a Time Lord's physical Regeneration, the similarities to which were noted by the Doctor himself after observing the process.(DW: The Lazarus Experiment) With the results from this, as well as the Doctor's DNA, the Master learned how to apply the results to the laser screwdriver to age the Tenth Doctor.
Other Activities
The Master also contacted the Toclafane, the child-like yet vicious cyborg remnants of the future humans who had never found Utopia. (DW: The Sound of Drums) He also cannibalized and converted the Doctor's TARDIS into a paradox machine so as to change history. (DW: The Sound of Drums / Last of the Time Lords) At some point he also took a devoted human wife, Lucy. (DW: The Sound of Drums) After Martha had left with the Tenth Doctor, he had an agent meet with Martha's mother Francine and tap into a conversation between Francine and Martha via the superphone, which could contact Martha through space and time. (DW: 42)
As Prime Minister
In 2008, he was elected as Prime Minister. He gassed to death his cabinet in the recently rebuilt 10 Downing Street, stating to the public that they had gone into seclusion, and shortly afterward announced first contact with the "friendly" Toclafane who could protect Earth against alien threats. He put Jack Harkness's allies, Torchwood 3, on a futile trip to find him in the Himalayas and branded the Doctor, Jack and Martha as criminals to cover up his murder of the cabinent members.
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 Elect Arthur Coleman Winters. The Master captured the Tenth Doctor and Jack Harkness, who had come to The Valiant. Earlier that day, the Master's agent had Francine Jones, Martha's sister Tish and her father Clive arrested and taken to the Valiant. (Martha's brother Leo had received a warning from her and gotten away in time.) (DW: The Sound of Drums)
During The Year That Never Was
The Master used his laser screwdriver to kill Jack and to age the Doctor about a hundred years. Martha managed to escape. The Master ordered the Toclafane to kill one tenth of humanity and commenced their invasion. One year later, in 2009, the Master had converted Earth into a slave camp which he ruled from The Valiant. Here the Master kept Martha's family, the Doctor, and Jack imprisoned. The Master hoped to soon expand his New Time Lord Empire into space and began building an army of warships in preperation to take his war across the universe.
Martha used the legend of the Doctor (which she had spread), the thoughts of Earth thinking "Doctor" at the same time, and channeled their psychic energy through the Archangel Network, which the Doctor had spent a year infiltrating with telepathy. The psychic energy restored the Doctor and gave him telekinetic powers.
Jack attacked the Paradox Machine and reversed time back one year. (This wouldn't affect anyone aboard The Valiant.) Lucy shot her husband, who, defeated, refused to regenerate. The Master then died in the Doctor's arms. (DW: The Sound of Drums)
Aftermath
- It is not known if the general public, or indeed the UK government or UN, were ever made aware of Saxon's true identity.
As far as the general knew, Harold Saxon simply disappeared along with President Winters. (The Torchwood Archives)
Resurrection
The Master was resurrected when his wife Lucy Saxon was imprisoned at Broadfell Prison on Earth, London. One of the warders, Miss Trefusis, was the woman who retrieved the Master's ring. On Christmas Eve night, the prison governor brought Lucy to a chamber where most of the staff were members of the Disciples of Saxon, who had been working ever since his apparent death to bring about his resurrection.
With the help of the ring and a biometric imprint taken from Lucy, the Master reappeared in a swirl of energy, but Lucy and one other warder had prepared for this. In order to stop his resurrection, Lucy hurled a Potion of Death at the Master. His followers were all killed in an explosion that also killed his wife, Lucy.
The Master Race
The Master survived the blast, however his life force was left in a state of constant depletion. If he was waiting for his body to fail completely or if he couldn't regenerate is unknown. Regardless, his physiological deterioration was evidenced by his skeletal system occasionally flashing out from behind the flesh. He consumed large quantities of food and drained the vitality of a number of humans in order to stay alive. As a side effect of the failed resurection, the Master can expend his life force for enhanced agility and send bolts of energy from his hands. His previous refined witty and chamring persona was replaced by feral mood swings and decreased sanity. He led the Doctor on a goose chase after banging the beat of the drums in his mind to lure the Doctor to him, but escaped when Wilf interrupted the chase. Encountering the Master a short time later, the Tenth Doctor discovered that the drumming in his head was not a symptom of insanity, but actually real. This was one of the rare times the Master showed calmness since his revival.
Billionaire Joshua Naismith kidnapped the Master, and enlisted his assistance to mend the malfunctioning Vinvocci medical machine the Immortality Gate. The Master did so, but for his own nefarious purposes. He manged to break out of the straight jacket containing him, and flew into the gateway, which he had working 1 billion fold on the human template. The gateway sent out an energy pulse that transformed every human on Earth, except Wilford and Donna into the Master Race - identical copies of the Master, who were subserviant to him.
The Last Act of the Time War
The High Council of Time Lords managed to make contact with the Master using the rhythm of the drumbeats in his head - the same rhythm as the Time Lord's heartbeat - and sent him a White-Point Star which was found only on Gallifrey, to boost the signal. Fitting the diamond to a nuclear bolt to boost the signal, the Master tore open the time lock on the war, bringing back the Time Lords.
This meant that the Lord President Rassilon and his council arrived through the Immortality Gate, the Master announced that he intended to transplant himself into the entire Time Lord race, just as he had done to the human race. Lord President Rassilon, using his gauntlet, reversed the effects of the Master's transplantation, and watched as Gallifrey returned to the universe on a collision course with Earth.
The President revealed what he and the Time Lords had been planning at the final days of the Time War. But the Doctor stepped in with Wilfred Mott's pistol, undecided. This could have been used to kill the President or the Master, and sever the link. As the Master mocked him, calling him a coward, and Rassilon taunted him by saying that the last act of his life would be murder, the Doctor saw a familiar Time Lady among Rassilon's entourage, then turned back to the Master and instructed him to step out of the way. The Master, suddenly realizing what the Doctor had in mind, jumped to the side as the Doctor shot the nuclear bolt holding the White-Point Star, destroying the link.
As Rassilon then prepared to kill the Doctor, the Master told the Doctor to step out of the way, and unleashed his bio-electric blasts at the President, roaring that the Time Lords had made him the monster he had become, and counting the beat of the rhythm that had resounded in his head and tormented him all of of his life. The Time Lords at the Naismith Mansion vanished in a burst of white light as Gallifrey and the Time Lords were sent back to the eternal hell of the Time War to die there, and the Master died once again. (DW: The End of Time)
Personality
This incarnation of the Master was charming and charismatic but also greatly manipulative and sadistic, taking pleasure in the humiliation and suffering of others. He possessed a childish demeanor and an eccentric sense of humour, which were both traits he shared with the Tenth Doctor, underlining that he was the Doctor’s equal and opposite. The Master was extremely vain and self-centered; the Doctor noted that if he destroyed the Earth, he'd destroy himself, and that was something he would never do. His vanity was such that when the Doctor confronted him with the simple words "I forgive you," the Master felt that his pride had been wounded. Just before his apparant death, the Master refused to regenerate because he did not want to spend the rest of his life trapped in the TARDIS with the Doctor.
However, after his resurrection was sabotaged by Lucy Saxon, his sanity decreased dramatically. His usual urbane sophistication was replaced with an almost feral state of mania and bloodlust. His huge ego was badly damaged by his thwarted resurrection, which was perhaps the reason for his reduced sanity. He was also quite contemplative, reflecting on his childhood days, and wondering about the kind of person he would have been without the drumming in his head, and stating that his childhood was one of duty, and how he was taken to the Untempered Schism in the dark, something that clearly disturbs him. Nevertheless, he evidently retained a touch of the old vanity, transforming everyone on the planet into identical copies of himself after taking control of the Immortality Gate. After transforming the human race into extensions of himself, he re-named them "The Master Race".
This incarnation also showed a more broken side to the Master's nature, suggesting that maybe he isn't completely evil, just scared and alone. He is seen several times almost pleading with the Doctor to hear the drumming in his head, and being obviously devastated when the Doctor said he couldn't. He also clearly carries some liking and respect for the Doctor, despite them being enemies.
The Master was also vengeful, attacking Rassilon and the Time Lords for what they did to him as a child. Despite having been the Doctor's enemy for several centuries, the Master chose to protect the Doctor from Rassilon instead of destroying him, possibly because the Doctor had refused to kill him or perhaps simply because he felt Rassilon was a greater enemy. He seriously injured Rassilon just before the Time Lords and Gallifrey were returned to the Time Lock and presumably sacrificed himself to save the Doctor, possibly due to their past friendship.
Behind the scenes
- The first, very minor reference to Harold Saxon, occurs in Love & Monsters when the Abzorbaloff sits reading a paper which mentions a Saxon election victory on its cover. The second (and first direct) reference happened in a dialogue reference at the end of The Runaway Bride. Saxon also crossed over into the Torchwood spinoff with "Vote Saxon" posters visible in Captain Jack Harkness.
- 'Mister Saxon' is an anagram for 'Master No. Six'.
- The BBC created an official in-universe campaign website for the election as well. In 2007, a popular online meme among Doctor Who fans made popular the "Vote Saxon!" slogan.
- John Simm stated that after David Tennant (Tenth Doctor) left the series his asscociation with the programme would end. However in a recent One Show interview he stated that he would love to return as the Master, and recent comments from Steven Moffat suggest he could return in a future series.[source needed]
