Steve (Life After Death)
Steve was one of Lady Aesculapius's many acquaintances from across the Multiverse. He appeared as an ominous-looking man with dark, slicked-back hair and a pointed goatee with light-grey stripes through the edges.
Biography[[edit] | [edit source]]
Steve was among the people Aesc and Jason Jackson invited to Aesc's half-fake funeral after one of her incarnations was murdered by an unknown party. This was a ploy to gather all possible suspects in one place for the reincarnated Aesc to examine incognito. Having "dressed for the occasion", Steve wore a flowing crimson robe with an absurdly high collar and elegant gold embroidery all around it. Underneath the robe was a dark grey, almost black suit with a closed collar. His hands, with fingers steepled in front of him, were hidden in black leather gloves.
Another guest, Coloth, bumped into the goatee-sporting man, and, exchanging a few words with him, got the distinct impression that he was up to no good, with Steve knowing Coloth by name on sight even though Coloth had never met him, and him replying with a smirk that he and Aesc were "…acquaintances of a kind" when Coloth aske dif he was a friend of hers. He was later seen watching Aesc and Jason from behind a crystal pillar when Aesc realised she had to run a DNA analysis on the booby-trapped parcel, smirking as he watched them hurrying out of the room.
However, the culprit for the murder turned out to be Aesc's old nemesis Professor Meistras, now in the body of a woman with an orange afro. After Meistras was confronted and fled with Ofelia in Meistras's Factory of Crystal, the innocent guests continued to enjoy the buffet. When the mysterious goatee-sporting man offered Aesc a slice of pizza "with a smile that said 'this is probably poisoned'," however, Aesc readily and trustingly accepted it, recognising the man as her friend "Steve" — to the bafflement of Graelyn Scythes, who'd been watching him with extreme suspicion. (PROSE: Life After Death)
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
Meistras, Aesculapius's nemesis as introduced in Life After Death, is a loose homage to the Master to mach Aesc's Doctor-like qualities. To better serve as a red herring for the actual Meistras, Steve was physically described as highly reminiscent of the classic image of the Master: his appearance as a man with dark, slicked-back hair and a black goatee with light grey stripes through the edges, wearing "a dark grey, almost black suit with a closed collar" and black gloves, was clearly reminiscent of Roger Delgado's incarnation.
Meanwhile, the "flowing crimson robe with an absurdly high collar and elegant gold embroidery" is similar to that put on by Eric Roberts's incarnation of the Master at the climax of the 1996 TV movie, a reference emphasised by the description of the character as "having certainly dressed for the occasion" (quoting the Master's quip that he "always dresses for the occasion" when his red cloak is first seen by the viewer and the Eighth Doctor).
