The Master (Scream of the Shalka): Difference between revisions

|appearances  = [[NOTVALID]]: ''[[The Feast of the Stone]]''

[[File:Shalka at console master.jpg|left|thumb|232.986x232.986px|The Master hanging over the TARDIS console. ([[NOTVALID]]: ''[[Scream of the Shalka (webcast)|Scream of the Shalka]]'')]]

At one point, the Master and the Doctor crossed paths. The Master aided the Doctor in repelling the alien foe responsible for the loss of his previous companion. It was during this encounter that the Master was left damaged and without a suitable body. ([[NOTVALID]]: ''[[Scream of the Shalka (novelisation)|Scream of the Shalka]]'')

In return for his aid, the Doctor offered to transfer the Master's mental resources into an [[android]] body, the appearance of which he could personally select. The Master accepted, though he would later remark this was a foolish choice. ([[NOTVALID]]: ''[[Scream of the Shalka (webcast)|Scream of the Shalka]]'', [[NOTVALID]]: ''[[Scream of the Shalka (novelisation)|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. ([[NOTVALID]]: ''[[The Feast of the Stone (short story)|The Feast of the Stone]]'')

Only months before meeting Alison, the Doctor had hosted a party in the TARDIS control room and his face fell into a soup tureen, as the catches that kept it attached to the complex machinery that lied beneath were loose. The Master, embarrassed, had to fish his face plate out with a pair of silver tongs. ([[PROSE|NOTVALID]]: ''[[Scream of the Shalka (novelisation)|Scream of the Shalka]]'')

He assisted the Doctor and [[Alison Cheney]] in fighting the [[Shalka]]. When the conflict was over, the Master convinced Alison to travel with them in the TARDIS as a companion. ([[NOTVALID]]: ''[[Scream of the Shalka (webcast)|Scream of the Shalka]]'')

The "Android Master" retained his charm and wit, together with his [[hypnotic]] abilities. Remaining loyal only to himself, the Master would lie about his motivations and join with whomever could offer him an advantage to his current situation.  He attempted to hypnotise [[Alison Cheney]], but was interrupted by the Doctor.

The Master and the Doctor, forced to cohabitate in a way that ran counter to much of their previous lives, shared an antagonistic relationship. He would feign annoyance at the Doctor's various 'human' traits and was resentful of the nature by which he lived, even commenting that death would have been a better fate for him than listening to the Doctor "being right all the time". ([[Webcast|NOTVALID]]: ''[[Scream of the Shalka (webcast)|Scream of the Shalka]]'', [[PROSE|NOTVALID]]: ''[[Scream of the Shalka (novelisation)|Scream of the Shalka]]'')

Despite this, the Master clearly cared for the Doctor. When the Doctor returned from his presumed death at the hands of the Shalka, the Master's face lit up with delight.  ([[PROSE|NOTVALID]]: ''[[Scream of the Shalka (novelisation)|Scream of the Shalka]]'') Likewise, he was aware of the Doctor's loneliness, and talked Alison into becoming his companion, despite admitting to disliking her. ([[Webcast|NOTVALID]]: ''[[Scream of the Shalka (webcast)|Scream of the Shalka]]'')

==Appearance==

[[File:Shalka master android face.jpg|thumb|283x283px|The Master's cybernetic nature as revealed by the Doctor. ([[Webcast|NOTVALID]]: ''[[Scream of the Shalka (webcast)|Scream of the Shalka]]'')|link=https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/File:Shalka_master_android_face.jpg]]The Master's android body resembled a mature man with a pale complexion. His face was wise, whimsical, with dark and hardened eyes that expressed a deal of pain, and a neat, black, goatee flecked with streaks of white. ([[PROSE|NOTVALID]]: ''[[Scream of the Shalka (novelisation)|Scream of the Shalka]]'')

* With the ''[[BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures|Eighth Doctor Adventures]]'' being an ongoing series at the time of ''Scream of the Shalka''{{'}}s release, range editor [[Justin Richards]] connected the [[Eighth Doctor]]'s continuity to that of the [[Ninth Doctor (Scream of the Shalka)|"Shalka" Doctor]]'s via the Master. As Richards confirmed in [[DWM 338]], the novel ''[[Sometime Never... (novel)|Sometime Never...]]'' tied in to ''Scream of the Shalka'' with a scene in "the room in the TARDIS where the Doctor never goes," wherein the Eighth Doctor encounters the Master's essence trapped in [[the Doctor's TARDIS]] since [[TV]]: ''[[Doctor Who (TV story)|Doctor Who]]''. The Master's face appears on a screen and is described as "wise and whimsical with hard eyes and a beard flecked with grey," a more concise version of [[Paul Cornell]]'s description of the android Master in [[PROSE]]: ''[[Scream of the Shalka (novelisation)|Scream of the Shalka]]''. The "Ghost Master" reappears in ''[[The Deadstone Memorial (novel)|The Deadstone Memorial]]'' and ''[[The Gallifrey Chronicles (novel)|The Gallifrey Chronicles]]''. The link between him and the "Android Master" was later clarified by [[PROSE]]: ''[[A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)|A Brief History of Time Lords]]'', which stated that "some rumours" said that after the events of [[TV]]: ''[[Doctor Who (TV story)|Doctor Who]]'' "[the Master] remained trapped in the Doctor's TARDIS, his mental resources transferred into an android, acting as the Doctor's companion or pet."

* According to the production information text on the ''Scream of the Shalka'' DVD, in original drafts of the script, instead of an android of the Master being the TARDIS Defence System, it was going to be a hologram of the [[Fifth Doctor]]. This was later changed so that it would be the Master instead.

* In his intended backstory, the Master came to the assistance of the [[Ninth Doctor (Scream of the Shalka)|Ninth Doctor]] when Gallifrey was invaded by an unknown alien race. While the other Time Lord retreated to [[the Matrix]], the Doctor and the Master "sent the aliens packing", destroying the Master's final form in the process, causing the Doctor to construct an [[android]] body confined to [[the Doctor's TARDIS (Scream of the Shalka)|his TARDIS]]. The Time Lords then used their power to "send the Doctor off to solve the most dangerous problems in the universe", with the Master along for the ride. ([[DWM 464]])

* [[Derek Jacobi]], who voiced the "Android Master", would go on to play a new version of {{Jacobi}} in [[TV]]: ''[[Utopia (TV story)|Utopia]]'', and later star in his own audio series, ''[[The War Master (audio series)|The War Master]]''.