Conflict.
All great literature is a series of conflicts. Whether drama,
fiction and yes, even science fiction, a good story features a series
of conflicts between an antagonist and a hero (or heroes). Like
our own lives, we yearn to see adversity triumphed over, the good defeat
the bad, the world set right, and in the same way, there would just be
very little interest in stories which hold no person interest to the reader.
Regardless if the reader can directly relate to the characters of a
given story or not, the reader can connect with the moral issues presented
when characters are pitted against each other.
The most famous pairing
of antagonist in literacy history is, without question, the pairing
of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes against his arch rival
Professor Moriarty. Presented as the “crown prince of crime,”
Moriarty is every bit as good an observer and deduser as Holmes.
Cunning and sly he is the perfect antagonist to Holmes. And despite
only appearing in one of Conan Doyle’s stories (
The Final Problem,
published by The Strand Magazine in December 1893), he is forever linked
as the Great Detective's greatest nemesis, appearing in several versions
of Holmes’ adventures not penned by Doyle.
In the world of
Doctor
Who, the Holmes/Moriarty conflict is mirrored in the characters
of both the Doctor, and his arch rival, The Master. Like both
Holmes and Moriarty, both the Doctor and The Master are equal matches
for each other, each a genius in their own right, one dedicated to
justice, the other to total chaos. The character of “The Master”
made his on screen debut during the eighth season of the program in the
Jon Pertwee story
Terror of the Autons. Played by Roger
Delgado, the Doctor is warned in the episode by the TimeLords that his
old nemesis has arrived on Earth. This would be the first “official”
sighting of the renegade TimeLord within the shows broadcast continuity,
and the character would be featured in every story of the eighth season.
Yet clues within the series suggested that the Doctor and The Master
have a long history together, and while it is stated within the program
that this was the first time the viewers are “introduced” to The Master
by name, it is not necessarily the first time the viewer had seen the character
in the series. Did The Master have an encounter with the Doctor in
the series before
Terror of the Autons?
Here’s what we know
about The Master as pieced together from clues within the series.
The Master, like the Doctor, is a TimeLord from the planet Gallifrey.
He attended the same university as the Doctor (scoring slightly higher
in spatial physics than the Doctor), and it is suggested, but never
out right stated, that the Doctor and him were once friends. It
is also implied (but never stated) that The Master may have had a hand
in an event in Gallifrey’s past which became the catalyst for the Doctor
and Susan to “borrow” the TARDIS and flee. Even with the lack of
facts from this period in TimeLord history one fact is known, both the
Doctor and The Master became fugitives from their home world. I
should point out at this point that others from Gallifrey have also taken
this path, most notably The Rani (who was also a contemporary of the Doctor
and Master) and the Meddling Monk, who was from a time period on Gallifrey
several years after the Doctor had left (we are never told how long the Doctor
and Susan have been “on the run” before the events of
An Unearthly Child).
The Master is obsessed
with power and is willing to do anything or sacrifice anyone to achieve
it. In his second (?) incarnation he is at least willing to share
power with the Doctor on several occasions, but it is with his last two
incarnations where his obsession in destroying the Doctor becomes his
eventual undoing. He has formed alliances with several races (always
planning to betray his allies), including the Daleks, which may explain
the Dalek’s advance abilities in temporal physics. We are never
told if The Master ever had any family and his final fate at the end
of the FOX TV movie, although seemingly etched in stone, is always open
to revision. What follows is a brief summary of The Master’s life
as pieced together from information presented in the series, the novelizations
of the series’ stories, some fan fiction and the Big Finish audio productions:
The War Games
Played by Edward Brayshaw (1969)
Having fled his home planet of Gallifrey, The Master eventually
arrives on the planet of the War Lord, offering the inhabitants of this
hostile world TimeLord technology in return for a position within the
War Lord’s government. Adopting the title of War Chief, he begins
building TARDIS-like time machines for the planet’s military forces.
Hoping to conquer all planets in the galaxy, the inhabitants kidnap humans
from various time periods during Earth’s many wars, stopping with the 1917
conflict of The First World War. Their plan, have the “brainwashed”
humans fight out their various battles, and use the survivors as the ultimate
invasion force. Unfortunately for them, the Doctor stumbles into
their 1917 time zone. Recognizing The Master, he begins to put a stop
to the War Lord’s plans, deprogramming the humans and organizing them into
a resistance force. Learning that his War Chief (The Master), intends
to betray him and seize power for himself, the War Lord orders his execution,
apparently killing the War Chief. The Doctor, realizing that he has
no practical way of returning the kidnapped humans to their own times, calls
on his own people for help. The War Lord and his scientists are captured
and put on trial by the TimeLords, who return all the captured humans to
their proper time zones. Grateful for his help, but unhappy about
his “interference” with other planets, the TimeLords exile the Doctor
to 20th century Earth, but not before effecting his third incarnation.
The Master, forgotten, apparently regenerates and escapes.
It is obvious that both
the Doctor and the War Chief know each other. Both react with
surprised recognition and alarm when they first come face to face during
the War Lord’s training conference (the Doctor and Zoe having smuggled
themselves into the War Lord’s base). The War Chief also knows
the Doctor’s “secret,” of having stolen the TARDIS and fleeing their home
planet. This would suggest that the War Chief was still on Gallifrey
(possibly in prison?), when the Doctor and Susan fled.
While the actual character
of “The Master” would not be created for another 2 years, it is not
too far of a stretch to view the War Chief as an early incarnation.
We never see the War Chief’s body taken by the TimeLords, so it is very
possible that his regeneration takes place off screen (we have seen
several instances where regeneration takes place several minutes after
“death,” especially in the FOX TV movie).
Edward Brayshaw plays
the part perfectly; vile, sly and scheming to over throw his allies,
he is everything that The Master would become. Brayshaw even
looks the part, sporting a typical short cropped beard and slicked
backed hair. It is easy to assume that The Master and the War Chief
are one and the same, and far more logical to connect the two than connecting
The Master with the Meddling Monk, as some fans had suggested in the
early 1980s. The Monk’s motivation were never as sinister as the
Master’s (the Monk being more of a wandering meddler), and he never held
any ambisions of taking over the universe.
Edward Brayshaw has
appeared in several television series, including
Doctor Who,
The Advengers and
The Saint. In 1964 he played
opposite the 1st Doctor, William Hartnell, as Leon Colbert in
The
Reign of Terror. His film credits include
Rentaghost
(1976), and
The Trouble With Women (1970).
Terror of the Autons - Frontier In Space
Played by Roger Delgado (1971 - 1973)
Having regenerated, The Master heads for 20th century Earth
for a re-encounter with the Doctor, but not before picking up “a few new
tricks,” including a weapon that kills leaving doll-size corpses.
Offering his services to a number of would-be invaders The Master causes
untold damage, coming very close to destroying the world. At one
point he even returns to Gallifrey, stealing files from the Matrix (
Colony
In Space) and using this information in his quest for power.
He is finally defeated and imprisoned on 20th century Earth by the Doctor
and UNIT while trying to resurrect the power of the Daemons. Escaping
however, he continues to plague mankind and the Doctor, attempting to
control the temporal power of a Kronavore (and thus destroying Atlantis),
and finally teaming up with the Daleks in their plans to cause a space
war between Earth and Draconia in the far future. His plans (including
the ones hatched out with the Daleks) are of course, all defeated by the
Doctor, but not before The Master almost mortally wounds his arch foe in
their last encounter. With the Doctor near death and the prospect
of war between Earth and Draconia avoided, The Master once again escapes
into the vortex.
In
Terror of the
Autons the TimeLord that warns the Doctor about The Master’s arrival
on Earth mentions that he had “picked up a few new tricks since their
last encounter.” This quickly establishes that both The Master
and Doctor had dealings before, possibly during the Doctor’s encounter
with the War Lord. Considering that the Doctor has very little
regard for The Master’s “abilities” before the Auton encounter, one
can suggest that their previous encounter (or encounters), was limited.
It is also important to note that the previous encounters had to take
place during the Doctor’s first or second incarnations, as his third incarnation
was immediately exiled to Earth.
Roger Delgado of course,
is the quintessential Master, having established the role so convincingly
during the 1971 season. His trademark looks and mannerism molded
the character into the perfect nemesis for the Doctor. At the
end of
Frontier In Space it is assumed that The Master flees
the Ogron planet, possibly running from the Daleks to escape their wrath
at having failed in his attempts to start the war. The last on
screen appearance we see of Delgado as The Master is of him shooting
the Doctor at the end of episode six. Of course there had been
plans for a final confrontation between both the Doctor and The Master
scheduled for Jon Pertwee’s next and final season. Roger Delgado’s
untimely death in June of 1973 put an end to those plans, and the character
of The Master would not be used again in the series until 1976.
Roger Delgado’s film
career began in the early 1950s with the role as a Kalikan policeman
in
The Captain’s Paradise (1953). Since then he had been
featured in over 35 films including
The Bells of St. Trinian (1954),
The Battle of the River Plate (1956),
First Man Into Space
(1959),
The Road to Hong Kong (1962),
The Mummy’s Shroud
(1967), and
Anthony and Cleopatra (1973), Besides
Doctor Who, some of his television credits include
Quatermass
II (1955),
The Buccaneers (1956) and
The Adventures of Don
Quixote (1973).
The Deadly Assassin
Played by Peter Pratt (1976)
Dying and unable to regenerate, The Master returns to Gallifrey
in a last attempt to both extend his life, and defeat the Doctor once
and for all. His body degenerating, he lures the Doctor back to
Gallifrey, framing him for the assassination of the President.
He then plans to open the Eye of Harmony, the Black Hole which gives
the TimeLords their power of time travel, absorbing it’s power in the
hopes of extending his life. With Gallifrey in the balance, the
Doctor quickly exposes his old nemesis’ plan, defeating his old rival
just as The Master is about to unleash the power from the Eye. With
the Doctor cleared of all charges he departs Gallifrey, followed by The
Master, who has slightly regenerated.
It is never satisfactorily
explained exactly how The Master’s body got to the degenerative point
seen in
The Deadly Assassin. It is suggested within the
episode that The Master had just “come to the end of his regeneration
cycle.” The problem with this explanation is that it suggests that
The Master is much older than the Doctor (the Doctor only up to his fourth,
The Master having completed his 12th). This point however, is disputed
by earlier Master stories during the Pertwee era which suggest that both
The Master and the Doctor are contemporaries. Terrance Dicks expanded
on this explanation in the book version of the story, explaining that The
Master had continually forced himself to regenerate in order to disguise
himself for various plans, and thus reached his 12th regeneration.
John Peel presented an interesting theory in his
Legacy of the Daleks
novel, where The Master’s condition is the result of an encounter with
the Daleks of 22nd century Earth, and the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan,
who uses The Master’s TARDIS (after causing his degenerative condition),
to escape 22nd century Earth. Another explanation could simply
be that after his failure to ensure war between Earth and Draconia, the
Daleks simply hunted him down and “exterminated” him.
To portray The Master
for the episode the production team used a static mask fitted over
Peter Pratt’s head, only the mouth piece showing movement. The
look is very effective, as The Master’s skull-like face shows no life
to it. Interestingly enough, during the Matrix sequence, the antagonist
plaguing the Doctor on the train and with the plane, hidden behind goggles
and a face skirt, looks somewhat like Delgado’s Master.
Peter Pratt is best
known for his work with the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company from 1945 until
1959. After leaving the company he turned his attention to theatre,
television and radio work. He was a member of the BBC Drama
Repertory Company in the 1960s, starring in a series of complete Gilbert
& Sullivan operas. Some of his film and television credits
include
The Best of Gilbert & Sullivan (1983),
The Story
of Ruth (1981),
Murder Must Advertise (1973),
Jack Point
(1973) and
The Edwardians (1972). Pratt passed away on January
11th, 1995.
The Keeper of Traken
Played by Geoffrey Beevers (1981)
Escaping from Gallifrey slightly regenerated, The Master flees
to the Union of Traken, where he hopes to tap into the planet’s bio-electronic
source. “The Source” controls all power within the Traken Union,
and with it’s power he will be able to regenerate. Disguising his
TARDIS as the calcified creature “Melkur,” he manipulates Consul Kassia
into allowing him to become the new Keeper of Traken. However the
Doctor foils his attempts to gain total control of the Source, which rejects
The Master. With a new Keeper in place Traken’s future seems secured,
and the Doctor departs. The Master however, still retaining some
of the power of the Keepership, absorbs Consul Tremas’ body, effecting
his 13th regeneration.
It is never stated how
many years have passed between The Master fleeing Galifrey at the end
of
The Deadly Assassin and his arriving on Traken. Nor
are we told whether he had stopped on any other planets along the way.
What we do know is that he spends several years on Traken, as Consul
Kassia is a young girl when the “Melkur” first arrives. This may
suggest that The Master needed several years for his body to utilize
the power from the Eye and restore himself. As in
The Deadly
Assassin, The Master’s body is still in its degenerative state, although
not as decayed as it’s previous incarnation. The production team
reused the costume and skull cap created for Pratt’s Master, but allowed
much of Beevers’ face and eyes to show through. This allowed for
a greater range of emotions to be displayed by the character while suggesting
that some form of regeneration took place after his encounter with the
Eye on Gallifrey.
Geoffrey Beevers has
enjoyed a long and varying career, appearing in over 40 films and television
programs. Before appearing as The Master, Beevers played Private
Johnson in the 1970 Jon Pertwee episode
Ambassadors of Death.
Some of his television and film credits include
Bertie and Elizabeth
(2002),
Greenwich Mean Time (1999),
Goodnight Mister Tom
(1998),
Napoleon and Josephine: A Love Story (1987),
Curse
of the Pink Panther (1983), and
Victor/Victoria (1982).
He is currently married to actress Caroline John, who played Liz Shaw
during Pertwee’s first year as the Doctor.
Logopolis - Survival
Played by Anthony Ainley (1981 - 1989)
Regenerated, The Master once again plans to gain revenge on the
Doctor, who he lures into a temporal trap on Earth. The Doctor,
of course, escapes, but unwittingly brings The Master to Logopolis, where
he hopes to once again gain control of the universe. Once again the
Doctor defeats his plans but at the cost of his fourth incarnation.
The Master then tries to trap the newly regenerated Doctor in the temporal
trap of Castrovalva, a world which is slowly closing in on itself.
The Doctor escapes but The Master becomes trapped within his creation
himself. Escaping, he finds himself trapped on prehistoric Earth,
where he encounters the hibernating race of the Xeraphin, an alien collective
intelligence of immense power. Hoping to use their life-force
as a power supply for his TARDIS, he is yet again stopped by the Doctor
(who traps The Master on the Xeraphin home planet). Escaping he
once again makes several attempts to pervert Earth’s history, including
an attempt to prevent the signing of the Magna Carta, and the beginning
of the Industrial Revolution (where he teams up with the Rani). Each
time he is defeated by the Doctor, and each time his frustration and obsession
to destroy the Doctor grows. He comes closest to achieving his two
greatests gold’s during the 6th Doctor’s trial, where he organizes
a coupe on Galifrey. Escaping from the TimeLords, The Master finds
himself stranded on an unnamed planet, a planet where the genetic experiments
of the inhabitants have mutated the survivors into Cheetah People.
He is overcome by the power the planet holds over it’s inhabitants, slowly
mutating. It is only by luring the Doctor to the planet that he
manages to escape.
Unlike the various actors
who played the Doctor (and brought their own take on the part), Ainley
was given the daunting task of recreating the character Delgado made
his own ten years previously. Ainley’s Master was different from
his predecessor however, in that as the series went on Ainley’s Master
becomes less interested in controlling the universe and more and more
obsessed with humiliating and destroying his old foe. Therefore his
grand plans at universal conquest are slowly replaced by revenge.
Ainley, like Delgado, made the part his own, appearing in 9 stories as
the TimeLord’s nemises (1 episode more than Delgado). If the show
had continued after the twenty-sixth season there is no doubt that he would
have appeared in more stories.
Born on August 20th,
1937, Anthony Ainley is a member of a distinguished British acting
family. He made his film debut at the age of five in the 1942
production
The Foreman Went to France. He has appeared
in over 20 films and television series including
You Only Live Twice
(1967),
Inspector Clouseau (1968),
Oh! What a Lovely War
(1969), and
The Land That Time Forgot (1975). He has made
several TV guest appearances including episodes of
Upstairs, Downstairs
and
The Avengers. He passed away in May of 2004.
Dust Breeding - ?
Played by Geoffrey Beevers
Desperate to break free of the power the planet of the
Cheetah People holds over him, The Master returns to Earth, where he steals
Edvard Munch’s painting, “The Scream.” The Master knows that a
powerful alien force is trapped within the painting, but instead of
controlling the power as he had hoped, the alien force attacks him, destroying
Tremas’ body and leaving him once again in a degenerative form. Realizing
that the force trapped within the painting holds the key to his regeneration,
he arranges to have the painting transported to the planet Duchamp 331,
where the force was originally created. Bringing to the planet the
force’s ancient enemy, the Krill, The Master still hopes to control and
capture the force, transplanting it at the center of his TARDIS.
Before he can gain control of the force however, the Doctor intervenes,
confronting both The Master and his Krill army. The force, detecting
the presence of it’s ancient enemies, manipulates the dust of Duchamp to
attack the Master’s base on an orbiting space liner “Gallery.” The
Doctor and The Master engage in a telepathic battle of wits for control
of the force. In the end however, the planet and the force are destroyed.
The Master’s TARDIS is thrown out into space, leaving him to search for
a new way to restore himself.
The inability of Anthony
Ainley to come to contract and creative terms with Big Finish Productions
presented the story writers with an interesting dilemma. Wanting
to use the character but not wishing to regenerate him, they opted for
the interesting twist of degenerating him back to his pre-
Logopolis
condition, having Geoffrey Beevers reprise his role from
The Keeper
of Traken. The result is an interesting retake on the character,
with Beevers sounding almost exactly like he had in the part 20 years
earlier. In addition the Master’s degenerated form allows for a
logical flow of events which would occurred at the beginning of the FOX
TV movie (filmed 5 years before
Dust Breeding).
Doctor Who: The Enemy Within
Played by Eric Roberts
Unable to find a way to regenerate himself, The Master devises a
final plan to survive, and once again returns to Skaro, offering the Daleks
one final chance to destroy the Doctor. Staging a trial and execution,
the Daleks lure the Doctor to Skaro under the guise of retrieving The
Master’s remains. Accepting the container with The Master’s ashes, the
Doctor begins the journey back to Gallifrey. The Master however,
has learned to transfer his essence into a jelly-like/snake-like life form,
concealed within his dying body and not destroyed by the Dalek execution
squad. Forcing the TARDIS to land in 1999 San Francisco, The Master
escapes from the TARDIS, inhabiting the body of an EMS technician.
Knowing that his borrowed body has a limited life span, The Master plans
to open the Eye of Harmony at the heart of the TARDIS and use the power
source to steal the Doctor’s remaining lives. The fact that this
will destroy the known universe is of little concern to him. The Doctor
however, recovering from his most recent regeneration, stops The Master,
yet again. The two fight within the TARDIS Cloister Room, where The
Master is pulled into the TARDIS’ power source, his reign of terror finally
ended.
There are of course, several
problems with the FOX television movie, the least of which is the notion
that the Doctor would just walk up to the Daleks, accept The Master’s
ashes, take them into the TARDIS and not think it was a trap. Another
is the question as to exactly when the Eye of Harmony was transferred
from below the Panopticon on Gallifrey to the TARDIS’ Cloister Room.
It is obvious that the production company had very little understanding
of exactly what Doctor Who was. Then there’s Eric Roberts portrayal
of The Master, considered by most fans as the ultimate in miscasting.
Considering however that he is playing a desperate dying insane Master,
his take on the role is most acceptable (and the least of the production’s
problems).
One interesting point
however is the condition of the Master’s “original” body shown in
the pre-credit sequence. Although the far shot of the Master
suggest the Delgado Master, the close up on the Master’s eyes shows
the skin surrounding them as decayed and blacken, suggesting that the
body of Tremas had long since degenerated. What makes this an interesting
point however, is that this degenerative condition of The Master is presented
in the film five years before the Big Finish story of
Dust Breeding
would degenerate the character back to that form. Coincidence?
I don’t think so!
Eric Roberts is best
known for being the brother of Julia Roberts. He has received
critical acclaimed for his roles in
Star 80 (1983) and
Runaway
Train (1985), which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting
Actor. His other film credits include
King of the Gypsies
(1978),
Raggedy Man (1981),
The Pope of Greenwich Village
(1984), and
Nobody’s Fool (1986).
With the series continuing
in the current run of Big Finish’s Doctor Who Audio Adventures, and
the the program coming back to the BBC, the future of The Master, like
our favorite Time Lord himself, is open to endless possibilities.
Although apparently killed at the end of the FOX TV movie, it would not
be the first time within the series that a “dead” character has made a comeback
(just look at Davros), making The Master’s final fate far from sealed.
If this means that The Master returns to the world of
Doctor Who,
either in his current degenerated form or a future incarnation played by
a new actor (either via a Big Finish audio, or the BBC), then The Six Faces
of The Master might very well become The Seven Faces (or Eight, or Nine,
or Ten, etc.).
Photos from
Doctor Who Image Archives.
