- This is about the Master from Doctor Who. For alternate meanings, see The Master (disambiguation)
The Master is a supporting fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. He is a renegade Time Lord who is the greatest individual enemy of the Doctor. He is not to be confused with the Master of the Land of Fiction , who appeared in the Second Doctor serial, The Mind Robber.
The producers conceived the Master as a recurring villain, a "Professor Moriarty to the Doctor's Sherlock Holmes", and he first appeared in Terror of the Autons (1971).
In the three seasons following Terror of the Autons, the Master (as played by Roger Delgado) appeared in more serials than not. Following Delgado's sudden death in a car crash in Turkey in 1973, the Master disappeared from the series for several years.
In his next appearance, in The Deadly Assassin (1976), the Master appeared as an emaciated, decaying wreck (played by Peter Pratt under heavy make-up). Although Time Lords have the potential to postpone death by completely renewing their bodies, the ability can only be used twelve times. The Master had in the course of his career used up all twelve of his regenerations, and was nearing the end of his thirteenth, and presumably final, life. It is not clear if the Master had any regenerations between the Delgado incarnation and the Pratt one, or which incarnation the Delgado Master was.
He attempted to seize control of an ancient power source (the Eye of Harmony, an artificial black hole maintained on Gallifrey) in an attempt to give himself a new cycle of regenerations. After being defeated by the Doctor, the Master disappeared from the series once more.
In 1981, the Master became a recurring villain again. In The Keeper of Traken , the Master (played by Geoffrey Beevers under different heavy make-up) briefly gained control of another ancient power source, using it to transplant himself into the body of a Trakenite named Tremas, overwriting Tremas's original mind in the process. Now played by Anthony Ainley, the Master appeared on and off for the rest of the series. Apart from his regular goals, extending his life - preferably with a new set of regenerations - was an extra prize he was determined to get.
The Master also appeared in the 1996 Doctor Who telemovie that starred Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor. In the prologue, the Master's current body (played – for mere seconds in the final edit – by Gordon Tipple ) was thoroughly exterminated by the Daleks, but managed to survive by some unexplained means and steal the body of an ambulance driver (played by Eric Roberts). The Master once again attempted to access the Eye of Harmony, this time by means of a link in the Doctor's TARDIS and to steal the Doctor's remaining regenerations, but was sucked into the Eye and apparently destroyed.
Other appearances
The Master has also featured in spin-offs of the series, most notably David A. McIntee 's "Master trilogy" of novels comprising The Dark Path and First Frontier in the Virgin Publishing lines and The Face of the Enemy for BBC Books, and the Doctor Who audio dramas produced by Big Finish Productions, where Geoffrey Beevers has reprised the role.
The Master's past with the Doctor is explored somewhat in the novels, which reveal that his name prior to taking the alias of the Master was Koschei (who turned evil and became The Master after being betrayed by a close friend who was a Time Lord undercover agent), and that he used up all of his regenerations trying to escape from a black hole (thus, the Master as played by Roger Delgado was the thirteenth - which would have been his final incarnation had he not been able to artificially prolong his life).
The reason the Master was so emaciated when he appeared in The Deadly Assassin is explored in John Peel's novel Legacy of the Daleks, in which he attempts to capture Susan Foreman, but is badly burned when she attacks him in self-defense and takes possession of his TARDIS. After Susan escapes, the dying Master is eventually found by Chancellor Goth on the planet Tersurus, leading directly into the events of The Deadly Assassin.
In 2004, an android version of the character was voiced by Derek Jacobi in the animated webcast, Scream of the Shalka. While this last Master is not part of official continuity, he has also appeared, with the Shalka Doctor (voiced by Richard E. Grant in the webcast), in a follow-up short story by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright, "The Feast of the Stone".
He was also played by Jonathan Pryce in the Comic Relief skit Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death. It is not known if the character will reappear in the Doctor Who 2005 series revival. The production team has denied that the Master will appear in the 2005 series, and the Ninth Doctor said in the second episode, The End of the World, that he is the last of the Time Lords.
Appearances
Television series
In chronological order, as played by:
Spin-off media
As played by:
External links
