Maestro
Maestro was the child of the Toymaker, and, where their father embodied a game, they embodied the "essence of music". Maestro fed on music, and was fanatically opposed to anyone other than themself playing it, wanting to absorb all music in the universe — with their sights set on the music of the spheres — until they were the only being left. (TV: The Devil's Chord [+]Loading...["The Devil's Chord (TV story)"]) Harriet Arbinger, Sutekh's Harbinger, referred to Maestro as the "God of Music". (TV: The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+]Loading...["The Legend of Ruby Sunday (TV story)"])
Biography[[edit] | [edit source]]
Origins[[edit] | [edit source]]
Maestro was the child of the Toymaker. Describing their youth, Maestro said, "Daddy was so bad to me. Daddy was so mean. Daddy was so tough."
They were named in the Chorus of Ancient Songs and had a child called Henry, who was their Harbinger who would be sent ahead to announce their arrival. (TV: The Devil's Chord [+]Loading...["The Devil's Chord (TV story)"])
Incursion into the Doctor's universe[[edit] | [edit source]]
After the Fourteenth Doctor cast salt at the edge of the universe, where "the walls" were "thin", (TV: Wild Blue Yonder [+]Loading...["Wild Blue Yonder (TV story)"]) the Toymaker was able to get into the mainland universe. After the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Doctors defeated him, (TV: The Giggle [+]Loading...["The Giggle (TV story)"]) he warned them that his "legions" were coming, a warning soon fulfilled when Maestro was summoned into reality by composer Timothy Drake. Drake had rediscovered the Lost Chord, a musical chord incorporating the Devil's Chord. After emerging in 1920s England, their arrival foreshadowed by that of Henry Arbinger, their Harbinger, Maestro sucked out all the music within Drake's heart, then continued with the rest of humanity, all the way to a 1963 where music was all but extinct.
It was then that the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby Sunday arrived, being baffled to discover a world without music in which the Beatles were recording uninspired drivel and intending to go out of the music business entirely after just one album. Wanting to test the limits of the phenomenon, Ruby played a song she'd composed for her friend Trudy on a piano on the rooftop of EMI Recording Studios. Maestro was duly summoned, identifying themself to the Doctor as a member of the Pantheon by laughing through the Giggle arpeggio.
Maestro gave the Doctor and Ruby chase with their tuning fork, threatening them with musical notes until the Doctor used his Sonic screwdriver to create a wave of silence. Maestro disrupted this silence with their fork and a puddle, but was distracted by a distant piano player, which allowed the Doctor and Ruby to escape.
Finding the Doctor and Ruby once more in the ruins of music-less 2024 London, Maestro threatened the Doctor, and revealed themself to be the Toymaker's child, whining about how their "daddy" was so mean. Maestro attacked the TARDIS with the Harold Saxon drumbeat, and the Doctor and Ruby barely escaped, returning to 1962.
Capturing Ruby, Maestro was baffled when the Carol of the Bells turned out to be buried within her heart with a power which Maestro recognised as that of the Oldest One. Thrown off their game, Maestro was challenged to a music battle by the two time-travellers, ending with the Doctor almost figuring out the Lost Chord. Things briefly looked grim as the Doctor got the final note wrong. However, while Maestro was toying with their two victims, trapping the Doctor in a drum and Ruby in a double bass, John Lennon and Paul McCartney wandered by the piano and completed the sequence based on their own musical "genius", forcibly sucking Maestro back into the piano from which they'd emerged when first revealing themself, and forcing them out of the universe altogether. Before being fully banished, Maestro snarled at the Doctor that the coming of the One Who Waits was imminent. (TV: The Devil's Chord [+]Loading...["The Devil's Chord (TV story)"])
Second incursion at Royal Albert Hall[[edit] | [edit source]]
In the middle of a performance at the Royal Albert Hall, the Doctor's message to the audience was interrupted abruptly by the Vlinx, who alerted everyone to Maestro's arrival. They mocked the audience, and the Doctor's incapability, as they seized control of the orchestra, compelling them to play bad music so Maestro could feast on the "dissonance" created from human exposure to it. The orchestra began playing what Maestro deemed, "the worst song ever", "I've Got a Dog".
They began to gorge upon the resulting dissonance from the audience, before another interruption from the Vlinx. It alerted the human beings present that the Doctor wanted them to clap to stop Maestro. Maestro initially lauded this, as they loved the praise, however the Vlinx rebuked that the Doctor, as his "astute grasp of logic", deduced that applause can only occur when music stops, thus cutting off Maestro's source of power. As the audience clapped and cheered profusely, Maestro begged them to stop, soon before exploding and, presumably, leaving the Doctor's universe. The Doctor professed to the audience that Maestro was wrong, as there is no bad music, and music belongs not to the god of music, but everyone. (AUDIO: Pantheon of Discord [+]Loading...["Pantheon of Discord (audio story)"])
Physical appearance[[edit] | [edit source]]
Maestro appeared as a tall, androgynous figure with flaming red hair styled asymmetrically, wearing heavy make-up. They primarily spoke in a feminine, American-accented voice, but sometimes played in a lower, more masculine register, particularly when expressing anger. Their accent, too, was malleable, sometimes slipping into different languages altogether such as French, (TV: The Devil's Chord [+]Loading...["The Devil's Chord (TV story)"]) much like their father the Toymaker in the incarnation who encountered the Fourteenth Doctor. (TV: The Giggle [+]Loading...["The Giggle (TV story)"])
They primarily wore a black and white outfit whose lapels evoked a piano's keyboard, complete with black, high-heeled boots. They additionally wore a ring on which they would strike their tuning fork. However, (TV: The Devil's Chord [+]Loading...["The Devil's Chord (TV story)"]) also like their progenitor, (TV: The Giggle [+]Loading...["The Giggle (TV story)"]) they displayed a propensity to instantaneously change outfits to suit a specific occasion. They wore a purple dress, as well as a more elaborate hairdo and distinctive treble-clef earrings, when explaining their plans to the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby Sunday in a ruined 2024, and later adopted a blue outfit with gold embroidery during their final "music battle" with the Doctor. (TV: The Devil's Chord [+]Loading...["The Devil's Chord (TV story)"])
