"Spy" Master
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Regenerating into a new body, the Master discovered that the entire Time Lord history had been "built on the lie" of the Timeless Child, as well as the true origin of the Doctor, in the Matrix. Embittered by his discoveries, and lashing out from the belief he was indeed inferior to the Doctor, the Master took his revenge on Gallifrey, leaving it in ruin. Wanting to inform the Thirteenth Doctor of his discovery, the Master worked with a race called the Kasaavin and tech billionaire Daniel Barton in a plot to wipe out humanity. His plan was thwarted at the last second by the Doctor, and the Master was imprisoned in the Kasaavins' realm.
The Master eventually escaped and returned to reveal the truth about the Timeless Child to the Doctor and build an army of CyberMasters from the remains of the Time Lords he had killed. His plot was thwarted when Ko Sharmus detonated the death particle on Gallifrey, though the Master and his CyberMasters managed to escape to enact the Master's Dalek Plan, which saw the Master use an alliance between himself, the Cyber-Warriors and the Daleks to steal the Doctor's fourteenth incarnation and become the Doctor himself after posing as Grigori Rasputin. However, the Doctor was able to reclaim her body with help from her "extended fam", leaving the Master stuck back in his damaged body, though he was able to mortally wound the Doctor before he apparently expired.
Biography[[edit] | [edit source]]
Post-regeneration[[edit] | [edit source]]
After the Lumiat, an incarnation that was the distillation of all of the Master's goodness created by an Elysian field, attempted to act as a good influence on her predecessor, Missy, she was mortally wounded by Missy after she "[grew] bored" of her, and was forced to regenerate alone in a desert. After the Lumiat finished regeneration (AUDIO: The Lumiat) into her twenty-first incarnation, (PROSE: Girl Power!) the new Master returned to his dark ways, looking down on his previous attempts to be "good". (PROSE: The Doctor vs the Master)
Ravaging Gallifrey[[edit] | [edit source]]
Hacking into the Matrix on Gallifrey until he "got lost", (TV: The Timeless Children) the Master learned the truth of the Timeless Child; (TV: Spyfall) the Doctor was the Child, having been found and adopted by the Shobogan explorer Tecteun, as well as the root of regeneration and the foundation of the Time Lord society. Enraged that the Doctor's childhood attitude of being "special" was apparently validated, (TV: The Timeless Children) the Master decided he had to "make them pay"; he ravaged Gallifrey and left the Citadel in a flaming ruin, having apparently killed all of the Time Lords. (TV: Spyfall) However, he chose not to destroy the Matrix. (TV: The Timeless Children)
Undercover[[edit] | [edit source]]
Wanting to send a message to the Doctor about what had transpired on Gallifrey, the Master found a species known as the Kasaavin from another dimension had embedded across the universe as sleeper agents in the event they went on the offensive. Brokering an alliance with them, the Master recruited Daniel Barton into his plan to trap the Doctor by proposing that Barton and the Kasaavin turn the human race into hard drives. As part of the plan, the Master arranged for "The Silver Lady" to be delivered to Charles Babbage, and that it was passed on to those who would influence the development of computers through history until it ended up with Barton.
The Master used his Tissue Compression Eliminator to kill a newly-recruited MI6 agent on his first day, and took his place. He was put to work as an analyst known as "Horizon Watcher", and given the codename "O" as a joke on how his superior, "C", would react to his presence. During his time at MI6, the Master crossed paths with the Doctor in an unknown incarnation. Not recognising the Master, the Doctor stayed in contact with "O" via text messages. "O" was eventually sacked by C sometime prior to 2020, and the Master went into hiding in Australia, using his TARDIS as a hideout.
By 2020, the Kasaavin began to attack spies from different agencies all across the Earth once the intelligence services started to realise their presence, leading MI6 to track down the Thirteenth Doctor. While the Doctor was at MI6's HQ, the Master personally assassinated C, and the Kasaavin forced the Doctor and her friends to flee to "O"'s alleged location in the Great Victoria Desert. Upon their arrival, "O" greeted the Doctor and Graham O'Brien. He assisted the Doctor by sharing his findings and, after a staged Kasaavin attack, travelled with Team TARDIS to confront Barton.
At Barton's party, "O" blended in with the other guests until Barton fled, making the team pursue him to an airport. As Barton was about to take off, the team ran to the plane, with "O" almost not catching up, using the excuse that he was terrible at sprinting, triggering the Doctor's suspicion, as "O's" file said he was a champion sprinter. After being confronted over the inconsistency, the Master decided to reveal his true identity, even showing Team TARDIS the shrunken corpse of the real O. He then revealed he had been working with Barton and the Kasaavin, and left Team TARDIS in the plane as he detonated a bomb in the cockpit. Alerted to the Doctor's survival by Barton, the Master followed her to 1834 London, where he held a crowd at the Royal Adelaide Gallery hostage to draw out the Doctor. However, after a brief conversation with her, the Master was forced to flee when attacked by Ada Gordon.
The Master next chased the Doctor and Ada to 1943 Paris, where he set himself up as German officer using a Tiny Teutonic psychic perception filter to hide his non-Aryan appearance from the Nazis. Once the Doctor made contact with him with a psychic link, (TV: Spyfall) the Master was pressured into a mental conversation with her, during which they looked back on the state of their friendship and "how it had all gone wrong".(PROSE: The Doctor vs the Master) The Master then met her atop the Eiffel Tower, where he revealed his real plan had been to get the Doctor's attention and persuade her to return to Gallifrey. However, the Doctor had had Noor Inayat Khan leak information to the Nazis of the Master being a double agent, and, as they came to arrest him, deactivated the perception filter to ensure his capture while she stole his TARDIS. (TV: Spyfall)
Stranded on Earth[[edit] | [edit source]]
During the 1970s, the Master began working as a mycologist on a mushroom farm at Sakhalin Island in Russia to find a Silurian base, and as part of an elaborate scheme to disturb Jo Grant's marriage to Clifford Jones. When he discovered a Silurian cave, he hypnotised the last Silurain, K'vo, into joining Russian society, and was recruited into Yedinitza as a Scientific advisor, with K'vo to be his assistant. She would remain hypnotised for months until it no longer became necessary for the Master, having apparently gained her genuine loyalty. Combing their natural hypnotic powers, the Master and K'vo were able to work towards convincing Soviet leaders they could control the world through illusions. While working for Yedinitzawith, the Master grew close to his neighbour, Pelageya Vlasova, sharing dinners together and staying in her flat when he lost his key. However, the Master's life in Russia was put at risk by alien businessman Comrade Cap, who the Master quickly killed. However, K'vo had faked Cap's death, the two having been working together from the start and, after K'vo helped the Master stage an invasion to foil, she trapped him in an illusion that had him hunt the Third Doctor to Mount Kailash, but the Master was able to escape with help from Pelageya, who killed K'vo and Cap with the Master's TCE. Due to his long absence from Yedinitza, the Master was forced to flee Russia to avoid the gulag. (PROSE: The Master and Margarita)
Trapped in the Kasaavin realm[[edit] | [edit source]]
After seventy-seven years of waiting, the Master finally caught up to Team TARDIS just as the Kasaavin were enacting their invasion. However, the Doctor thwarted the Master's plot and exposed to the Kasaavin the Master's plan to betray them and Barton. Furious, the Kasaavin captured the Master, trapping him in their reality, (TV: Spyfall) though the Doctor remained convinced he would find a way to escape. (TV: Fugitive of the Judoon)
Return to N-Space[[edit] | [edit source]]
Eventually, the Master was able to escape the Kasaavins, and returned to Gallifrey. (TV: Ascension of the Cybermen) He engaged Strax in "deadly combat", and managed to shrink him in size before retreating. (NOTVALID: Strax Saves the Day)
Joining with the Cyberium[[edit] | [edit source]]
After using the Matrix to transfer the story of Brendan to her, (TV: The Timeless Children) the Master emerged from the Boundary when the Doctor and Ryan Sinclair arrived on the Planet of the Boundary. (TV: Ascension of the Cybermen) By threatening Ryan, Ethan and Ko Sharmus with his Tissue Compression Eliminator, the Master was able to force her to accompany him to the ruins of Gallifrey. Leading the Doctor into the Citadel, the Master reminisced about their times together there, before calling Ashad and inviting the Cybermen to Gallifrey.
Refusing her pleas to save her friends from the Cybermen, the Master trapped the Doctor in a paralysis field, telling her it was time for her to learn the truth of the Timeless Child. The Master sent the Doctor deep into the Matrix, accompanying her via a mental projection. Inside the Matrix, the Master showed the Doctor the history of Tecteun and her adopted daughter, who underwent the first regeneration after falling from a cliff in a terrible accident, and was experimented upon for years to discover the secret of the power until Tecteun eventually gained the ability to regenerate and shared it with others of her race, who renamed themselves "Time Lords". The Master then explained that the Doctor herself was the Timeless Child in a life from before her first incarnation; the Time Lords having erased their memory to create a "great creation myth" for themselves.
Back on Gallifrey, the Master greeted Ashad, who revealed that he intended for his new army to destroy all organic life in the universe using a death particle, created using the Cyberium. However, the Master was less than pleased to learn that Ashad intended to turn the Cybermen into a fully-autonomous race, and offered Ashad another solution to becoming the dominant race in the universe. Taken to the Cybercarrier, the Master examined the cyber-conversion chambers and killed Ashad to acquire the Cyberium, though realised that the death particle was still usable from Ashad's remains and could be used as a weapon. He offered the Cyberium an alliance by combining all of the knowledge of the Cybermen with all of the knowledge of the Time Lords that he had absorbed from the Matrix, which caused the Cyberium to take him as a host. Using the bodies of the Time Lords he had killed on Gallifrey, the Master intended to use them to create a new race of Cybermen capable of regenerating, which he dubbed the "CyberMasters".
Sensing that the Doctor had escaped the Matrix, the Master telepathically led her to Ashad's remains. After sending the humans back to Earth in a TARDIS, the Doctor met with the Master in the Matrix chamber, where he revealed to her that he was the host of the Cyberium. Though he was impressed by the Doctor's resolve in the face of the Timeless Child revelation, the Master goaded the Doctor to detonate the death particle he had led her to, and was not surprised when she couldn't do it. As the Master gloated over the Doctor's "weakness", Ko Sharmus entered, intending to sacrifice himself to ensure the destruction of the Cybermen. The Doctor escaped in another TARDIS, while the Master ordered his CyberMasters to kill Ko Sharmus. However, Ko Sharmus was still able to detonate the death particle in his last moments, as the Master ordered the CyberMasters to follow him. (TV: The Timeless Children)
Becoming the Doctor[[edit] | [edit source]]
Having survived the Death particle, the Master devised a plan to have the Doctor undergo a forced regeneration so that he could hijack her body to tarnish the Doctor's reputation. Dubbing it his "Dalek plan", the Master created a clone of Ashad to act as his liaison with the Cyber-Warriors, while also recruiting the Daleks into his scheme, having them overtake Earth's volcanos so they could create multiple eruptions to weaken the planet for a Dalek invasion that would leave it a foundry for the Daleks and Cybermen. The Master then had the CyberMasters invade a a bullet train to capture a Qurunx to use as a power source for a cyber-conversion planet that powered his regeneration chamber, and sent Tegan Jovanka a miniaturised Cyberman that hid Ashad and his Cyber-Warriors within so she would take it to UNIT.
Deciding to impersonated Grigori Rasputin as part of his plan, the Master put "Rasputin's" face on fifteen of Earth's most famous paintings in 2022 to get Kate Stewart's attention, while drawing in seismologists that could alert the authorities of the Daleks' presence in the volcanoes so he could kill them with his Tissue Compression Eliminator at a seismology conference in Naples. Once the Doctor and Yaz Khan caught up to him, the Master was arrested by UNIT and brought to the Bunker at their headquarters. However, as per the plan, Ashad broke him out as his Cyber-Master took the base and the Master escaped to 1916 St Petersburg to take up Rasputin's identity, leaving Ashad to deal with UNIT. In Russia, the Master used hypnosis to convince Tsar Nicholas II to take his family on a holiday so he could use the Winter Palace to house his operations. After the Daleks captured the Doctor, the Master used the energy of the Qurunx to force her to regenerate while they were in connected chambers, allowing him to hijack the regeneration and become the Fourteenth Doctor, while his own lifeless body was left in the other chamber.
Now having taken the Doctor's body, the Master forcibly took Yaz as his companion by threatening her with the TCE as he went into the Doctor's TARDIS to pick a new outfit that ended up a caricature of other Doctor's clothes. As he oversaw two planet destroying each other while explaining his intent to tarnish the Doctor's name by causing havoc across the universe, Yaz pushed the Master out the TARDIS and fled, though quickly returned, apparently regretful for leaving him. They then returned to the Winter Palace, where the Master had the Daleks and Cybermen begin to invade the planet. However, due to a fail-safe the Doctor had enacted before her capture, the Master's Cyber-Masters were killed by the Holo-Doctor using the Old circular firing-squad gag, and the Master was forced back into the chamber by Inston-Vee Vinder so that Yaz could use the Cyber-Masters' regeneration energy to get the Master to degenerate back into the Thirteenth Doctor, returning him to his original body. (TV: The Power of the Doctor)
Demise[[edit] | [edit source]]
Neither can you.
With his body weakened from the "forced degeneration", the Master chased the Doctor to the metal planet just as she freed the Qurunx, emerging from his TARDIS as the Qurunx was destroying the planet with an energy beam. When the Doctor proclaimed the folly of his efforts to become her, the Master managed to use his TCE to redirect the Qurunx into striking the Doctor, mortally wounding her as he collapsed. While Yaz was able to carry the Doctor back to her TARDIS, the Master was left unconscious by his TARDIS as the planet imploded. (TV: The Power of the Doctor)
Psychological profile[[edit] | [edit source]]
Personality[[edit] | [edit source]]
While striving to maintain strong self-control, (PROSE: The Master and Margarita) the "Spy" Master could fall into unpredictable fits of rage, stating he could "relate" to a short-fused bomb, to the point that he once attempted to strangle the Thirteenth Doctor with his bare hands. After taking a crowd hostage, he spontaneously focused on a cowering woman and demanded to know if she had moved, only to apologise for his "mistake" before killing her with the TCE. Believing "a little chaos [to be] a wonderful thing", (TV: Spyfall) the Master once voiced a belief that nothing could "calm all [his] rage", though the Doctor countered her belief that he was actually "scared of everything." (TV: The Timeless Children) He harboured a small desire to be the "foiler" instead of the "foiled", (PROSE: The Master and Margarita) to the extend that feared become himself again after hijacking the Doctor's identity. (TV: The Power of the Doctor)
The "Spy" Master enjoyed playing long games, like tricking the Doctor into believing he was "O", gleefully clapping his hands at the Doctor's inability to deduce who he was despite giving clues and expressing he had had "a lot of fun" when she finally realised he had fooled her. (TV: Spyfall) He believed that knowing someone's secrets was the best way to gain power over them. (PROSE: The Master and Margarita)
While not above working with others to achieve his goals, the Master did not see his partners as equals, but as assets to use for his own gain and dismiss once they had served their purpose. (TV: Spyfall, The Timeless Children) His arrogance was so profound that he did not even attempt to conceal his TARDIS in 1943 Paris, (TV: Spyfall) and felt he was justified in destroying Gallifrey when he learnt that the Time Lords owed their existence to the Doctor, himself included. (TV: The Timeless Children)
Believing he had no "better nature", (TV: The Timeless Children) the "Spy" Master had a passion for killing others, remarking how it gave him a "buzz", and that it felt right in his hearts to do so, (TV: Spyfall) making him feel ambitious and powerful. (PROSE: The Master and Margarita) His disregard for life was so great that he even threatened to kill to prove a point. (TV: The Timeless Children) His passion for death, when infused with anger, was reawakened in him when he discovered the lies about the Timeless Child that the Time Lords had committed, driving him to commit genocide back on Gallifrey. (TV: Spyfall)
Despite not wanting her as his enemy again, the Master loved playing mind games on the Doctor and treating her as an inferior, (TV: Spyfall, The Timeless Children) having her kneel before him when he was holding hostages. He chased her through time to force her to listen to him just to get a message across, but would express rage when she outsmarted him. (TV: Spyfall) However, K'vo speculated that he was a little envious of the Doctor, with the Master wishing to compete with the Third Doctor while he was working with the Russian government in the 1970s. (PROSE: The Master and Margarita) He also looked down on their companions, likening his apparent killing of them to "swat[ting] flies", (TV: Spyfall) though held a reluctant respect for Jo Grant. (PROSE: The Master and Margarita)
However, beneath his charismatic exterior, the "Spy" Master hid a melancholy pain, recounting his ravaging of Gallifrey with sombre calm, though he was still petty enough not to divulge the entire truth of the Timeless Child to the Doctor, reasoning it should be as difficult for her to discover the truth as it was for him. He was also unnerved by the sounding of a four-beat rhythm that resembled "the Drumming". (TV: Spyfall) When Ashad's death particle failed to activate upon his death, the Master found himself disappointed and noted his acceptance should it have killed him. He later tried to persuade the Doctor to detonate the death particle to kill him and his CyberMasters. (TV: The Timeless Children)
He enjoyed conversations on philosophy, vodka martinis and crackers. (PROSE: The Master and Margarita)
While he was stranded on Earth for seventy-seven years, (TV: Spyfall) the Master chose to consider his predicament a "gap year" for him to develop new skills, such as guitar playing, though he was still angry about being exiled. During his time stranded, the Master found himself growing close to those around him, such Pelageya Vlasova, his neighbour in Russia. (PROSE: The Master and Margarita)
The "Spy" Master looked down on Missy for trying to better herself and "[spending] too long in [the Doctor's] company", even referring to her as a "mistake". (PROSE: The Doctor vs the Master)
Habits and quirks[[edit] | [edit source]]
The "Spy" Master held a flair for using elaborate disguises, even going as far as shaving his head while disguised as a Gestapo officer in 1943, (TV: Spyfall) and grow his hair out profusely when masquerading as Grigori Rasputin in 1916. (TV: The Power of the Doctor)
Skills[[edit] | [edit source]]
The "Spy" Master could play the guitar, (PROSE: The Master and Margarita) and a recorder. (TV: The Power of the Doctor)
He was also a convincing actor, being able to masquerade as O for years without arousing suspicion, with a performance convincing enough to fool the Doctor through multiple incarnations. (TV: Spyfall) He claimed to be a fast learner. (PROSE: The Master and Margarita)
Appearance and clothing[[edit] | [edit source]]
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The "Spy" Master was a short-standing, skinny man with dark skin, black hair, and brown eyes. While he went with a stubble appearance as "O", once he outed his true identity, he grew out a complete beard.
After being stranded on Earth for seventy-seven years, the Master took to wearing a purple double-breasted wool overcoat, with external pockets on each hip and a chest pocket skewed at a forty-five degree angle under the left lapel, and metallic silver buttons attached to the coat; two on each side pocket, one on the breast-pocket, two on each sleeve, two on the back strap, and three on the front right side. He also wore a plaid material waistcoat and trousers with a pattern of three vertical stripes interlocking with three lines of horizontal dashes, in varying shades of orange over a navy background. The waistcoat additional possessed two blue chains, silver shank buttons and black style lapels. The end of his trouser legs were turned up slightly. Completing his ensemble was a navy blue shirt, purple knee-high socks, and low topped leather lace-up shoes.
The "Spy" Master regularly disguised himself as various individuals, such as an auction dealer and even a Nazi officer, shaving his hair off for the latter. (TV: Spyfall) When posing as a seismologist, he went clean shaven while sporting brown glasses and an orange shirt with a navy blazer and and trousers held up by braces. As Grigori Rasputin, the Master donned blue robes with knee-high boots, and grew out his hair and beard to exaggerated lengths.
When he became the Doctor, the Master dressed up in a caricature of the Doctor's other incarnations, including the Thirteenth Doctor's coat, the Seventh Doctor's jumper, the Fourth Doctor's scarf, the Tenth Doctor's shirt and tie, the Fifth Doctor's stick of celery, and also carried around the Second Doctor's recorder. (TV: The Power of the Doctor)
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
The "Spy" Master's costume was conceived by Ray Holman, based on Sacha Dhawan's suggestions.[1]
Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]
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