The Master

The Master is a Time Lord and like the Doctor, he’s from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous. They were friends in their youth and both chose to ignore their people’s policy of non-intervention with other species, but unlike the Doctor, the Master chose to travel the universe causing chaos and revelling in wickedness on an epic scale.

We first encountered the Master during a period in the Doctor’s life when he was stuck on Earth, without the use of a fully-functioning TARDIS. Charismatic, witty and totally ruthless, the Master was attempting to form an alliance with the deadly Nestene Consciousness. The Doctor was able to persuade him of the plan’s folly and it was aborted at the very last moment, but the rogue Time Lord continued to plague the Doctor during his exile on Earth, tirelessly bidding for power with the Sea Devils and the dangerously powerful Daemon Azal; unleashing terror with his Keller Machine and even destroying Atlantis when one of his more insidious plots backfired.

Why did the Master choose to execute his schemes on a planet where he knew the Doctor was waiting for him? The answer was possibly revealed years later when he claimed that his former friend was his ‘greatest stimulation’.

When the Fourth Doctor encountered the Master on Gallifrey he had reached the end of his regeneration cycle and the once urbane and attractive figure had been involved in some kind of accident giving his form a monstrous appearance. His charm had been replaced by a seething malevolence and even the Doctor seemed less charitable to his old enemy, branding him the ‘quintessence of evil’, although he did admit that his mathematical skills were absolutely brilliant – almost up to his own standard, in fact!

The Master later stole another body (‘a new body, at last!’) and didn’t waste time making bad use of it. His plan to gain dominion over the universe led to the destruction of Logopolis and only the Doctor was able to prevent this disaster triggering the end of the cosmos – but at a great cost… The Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors battled this ‘version’ of the Master across the galaxies – from England, 1215, to the far away world known as ‘the planet of the Cheetah People’.

The Master again stole a new body after escaping to San Francisco, 1999 (where he almost managed to use the TARDIS to destroy Earth) but the Doctor’s travels were apparently unhampered by his fellow Gallifreyan following the Time War between the Doctor’s people and the Daleks.

That changed on the planet Malcassairo where the resurrected Master had been masquerading as the kindly genius, Professor Yana. Even he didn’t know he was the Master until a device disguised as a fob watch was opened and his true personality was unleashed. ‘I… am… the Master!’ he declared, making up for many lost years by quickly killing a faithful, old companion, stealing the TARDIS and leaving the Doctor to die at the hands (and fangs) of the Futurekind. Now it seemed that he and the Doctor were the only surviving Time Lords in the universe.

When the Doctor next came face-to-face with the Master he’d regenerated and this latest version had ‘become’ Harold Saxon, Prime Minister of Great Britain. Urged on by the ‘sound of drums’ in his head he attempted universal domination by working with a race he called the ‘Toclafane’, named after monsters that featured in the fairy tales of Gallifrey. After that scheme was foiled he decided not to enslave humanity and instead tried to replace every living person with a version of himself, creating, as he called it, a ‘Master race’. Again, the Doctor was able to derail his vile enterprise and the Master was thwarted.

Throughout all their encounters they usually showed a respect towards each other and on the occasions when they were forced to work as a team it was clear they made terrific allies. These two rogue Time Lords – so different but so very similar – facing the world on their terms with gusto and enormous talent, but forever ending up alone. It was perhaps summed up best in The Sound of Drums: ‘Don't you see,’ the Doctor told the Master, ‘all we've got is each other.’

The Doctor thought that the Master had returned to Gallifrey, and having fought on numerous occasions with his next incarnation Missy, assumed that he would never see the face of ‘Harold Saxon’ again. However, on a giant colony ship caught in the event horizon of a black hole, and face to face with a new breed of Mondasian Cybermen, the Doctor and his companions discovered that loveable passenger Razor was actually the Master in disguise!

United with Missy, the two Masters joined forces to assist the rise of the Cybermen and bring the Doctor down once and for all! The Master was as nefarious as ever, but soon it became clear to him that his future self was less certain of her relationship with the Doctor. In the greatest irony of all, Missy stabbed the Master in the back in an effort to stand with the Doctor during his final battle with the Cybermen. Knowing that he was about to die and regenerate into Missy, the Master took it upon himself to shoot Missy in the back with his laser screwdriver. Two Masters, dying by their own hand – a fitting end to two incarnations of one of the greatest villains in all of time and space…