M is for... Master (6)

Having stolen the TARDIS, the dying Master regenerated before using it to travel away from the planet Malcassairo in a much younger looking form. The Doctor was able to lock the controls of his ship using his sonic screwdriver - meaning that it could only travel between Earth of 2008 and this region of space billions of years in the future, at the end of the Universe. He was then able to escape the planet using Captain Jack's Vortex Manipulator device. This brought him, Jack and Martha Jones to London, the day after the General Election. Martha had recognised the Master's new voice when he broadcast from the TARDIS. It was that of Harold Saxon, an ambitious young politician who has risen rapidly through the ranks to become Prime Minister, an independent leading a coalition government. As Defence Minister, he had been responsible for the destruction of the Racnoss Webstar vessel at Christmas, 2007. The Master was also now married, to a woman named Lucy.

On becoming PM, the Master sent a veiled message to the Doctor on TV, guessing he would have found a way to come after him. At his first cabinet meeting, he used poison gas to kill all of his supporters, no longer needing them. He then discovered that an investigative journalist named Vivien Rook was trying to uncover his past by exploiting Lucy. He announced to the nation that he had made contact with an alien race called the Toclafane, who would be arriving on Earth the next day. He summoned some of these spherical robots to Downing Street to kill Rook, and then had Martha's family arrested and her flat blown up.

On the run, the Doctor, Jack and Martha sought a way to stop the Master and retrieve the TARDIS. The Doctor told them of the history of the Master - of how as an 8 year old child he had stared into the Untempered Schism on Gallifrey and been driven insane by the experience. The Doctor had run away when it came to his turn. 

It transpired that, as Saxon, the Master had set up a chain of communications satellites - the Archangel Network. He had used this to subject the population of Earth to an insidious hypnotic influence, which helped him create a false identity for himself and to make people accept and vote for him.

The Master had used CCTV to track the Doctor and his friends, and hacked Martha's phone to speak to him. He had explained how he had been resurrected by the Time Lords to fight in the Time War, but had run away after the fall of the Cruciform. The Doctor wanted to know about the Toclafane, as he knew this to be the name of creatures from Gallifreyan fairy tales.

The Master told the Doctor about the constant drumming in his head, which "Professor Yana" had also mentioned.

He, Martha and Jack each had a TARDIS key, and this held some of the ship's properties - such as a mild perception filter. These could be adapted to provide them with personal filters. They would use these to get close to the Master, who was going to travel to the aircraft carrier Valiant. This was to be the location for official first contact with the Toclafane. The Master deliberately antagonised the US President - Winters - who sought to take over the event. The Valiant proved to be a flying aircraft carrier, commissioned by Saxon whilst Defence Minister. When the Doctor and his friends arrived here, they found that the TARDIS was present. The Master had transformed it into a Paradox Machine.

This is because he was about to unleash the Toclafane on the Earth, and they were actually the sadistic remnants of the human race from the end of the Universe. They would conquer the planet and bring him to power, but this massive intervention in their own history needed a Paradox Machine to sustain it.

The Master had found the Toclafane on Utopia, where they had become cyborgs in order to survive.

The Master had President Winters assassinated when the Toclafane arrived, then had them decimate the population of the entire planet. As Saxon, he had commissioned genetic research by a Professor Lazarus, which he had built into his own sonic device. He had also procured the Doctor's severed hand when he stole the TARDIS, and used these to age the Doctor hundreds of years. He would keep him on the Valiant, forced to watch the subjugation of his beloved Earth. Martha was able to escape, and was given a mission by the Doctor. For the next twelve months, the Master ruled the planet through the Toclafane - even building vast statues of himself. He also abused Lucy, physically and mentally, and tormented Martha's family who were enslaved by him. When they tried to escape, the Master had the Doctor aged even further - reducing him to a tiny wizened figure as his power to regenerate was withheld. He learned that Martha, meanwhile, was gathering the components of a weapon capable of killing a Time Lord outright.

Martha allowed herself to be captured exactly one year after the Master had come to power - which was all part of the Doctor's plan. There never had been a weapon. She had travelled the globe telling people about the Doctor, and asking them to think about him on a particular date and time - the anniversary of the Master's conquest of the planet. He had also chosen this exact moment to launch a fleet of war missiles, which the Toclafane had built using slave labour. They wanted to spread their aggression across the entire universe. The Doctor had second guessed his old enemy in sticking to this time-table. He used the Master's own countdown against him. As the population of Earth concentrated their minds on the Doctor, he used the Archangel Network to channel this mental energy and reconstitute himself to overpower the Master. Captain Jack destroyed the Paradox Machine at the same time - throwing the planet back in time one year to just before the Toclafane arrived. Only those at the epicentre of the time-storm - on the Valiant - would be aware of the entire year. This included Lucy, who shot her husband in revenge for all his abuse. The dying Master refused to regenerate, as it would mean imprisonment with the Doctor in the TARDIS. The Doctor later had his body cremated on a funeral pyre, but one of his followers removed his ornate signet ring, which bore the emblem of Prof. Lazarus' genetics laboratories...

The Master's followers then prepared for his resurrection, using some of his genetic material. Some of this they obtained from Lucy, who had been imprisoned after the downfall of her husband. Some of the warders employed a bizarre ritual to bring him back to life, but Lucy had foreseen this event and sabotaged the process. She was killed along with his followers, and he was left damaged physically and mentally. He now had the power to emit blasts of energy - though his body was being destroyed every time he used this and he took on a skeletal appearance. As he hadn't regenerated, he found himself trapped in the likeness of Harold Saxon - the most notorious man in Britain, recognised by all. He bleached his hair and took to living the life of a down and out to conceal himself. As his new powers drained him, he needed to absorb energy from others - reducing them to burnt-out husks. He also had a ravenous appetite for flesh of any kind.

Warned that his current incarnation was coming to an end, the Doctor had refused to answer a summons from the Ood. When he finally met with them, he learned of the Master's reincarnation and hurried to Earth - arriving too late. From Donna Noble's grandfather Wilf he learned that everyone on Earth had been experiencing nightmares featuring the Master. Some future event was rippling back through time.

The Doctor tracked the Master down to some waste ground, and learned of his new powers. He also discovered that the drumming in his head was a real physical phenomenon, and not just imagination or some symptom of mental ill health. The Master was then abducted by a powerful tech businessman, Joshua Naismith, who had obtained some alien technology from Torchwood. It had been found to have healing properties, and he wanted the Master to repair it for him so that it would make his daughter immortal. It was known as the Immortality Gate. Wilf helped the Doctor track the Master to Naismith's mansion but they arrived too late. The evil Time Lord had worked out what the Gate was - a medical device designed to heal entire armies on the battlefield. He secretly adjusted the device so that its restorative field would encompass the whole planet - whilst interposing his own DNA into the process.

Other than Wilf and Donna, everyone on the Earth was turned into the Master.

The Doctor fled into space with Wilf as the Master used his new army of himself to try to locate him.

On Gallifrey, on the final day of the Last Great Time War, the political leadership met under the resurrected Rassilon. Using an ancient prophesy, he came up with a plan to save his world. A link would be forged with a planet outside of the time-locked war - a psychic link with a Time Lord. This would be the Master, on Earth. A signal was sent back through time to the 8 year old Master - the four beats of a Time Lord's hearts - at the moment he gazed into the Untempered Schism. This would conceal their tampering with his mind, but would result in the sound of drumming which he would experience for much of his life. A gemstone unique to Gallifrey was then sent to Earth for the Master to find, so that he would make the necessary connections that would allow the Time Lord planet to exit the Time War.

The Doctor returned and managed to convince the Master that the return of the Time Lords was not necessarily a good thing. War had changed them, and not for the better. Rassilon undid the Master's genetic manipulation of the human race. When it became clear how he had been used, and Rassilon would never allow him any power, the Master turned on him. He used his powers to break the link - sending Gallifrey back into the Time War, but dragging himself along with it.

The Doctor regenerated soon after, assuming that the Master had perished with Gallifrey - destroyed by one of his earlier incarnations. 

Many years later, the Doctor encountered the Master again in a female form, calling herself "Missy". As part of a process of rehabilitation, he invited her to pilot the TARDIS on an exploration with his companions Bill Potts and Nardole. He would observe. They arrived on a vast colony spacecraft which had become stranded on the edge of a Black Hole. Time flowed at different rates between the front of this vessel and the rear. Bill was mortally wounded, and taken to the bottom of the ship for medical treatment. In hospital, she met and was befriended by a man named Razor. He worked for the doctors. Whilst only minutes passed for the Doctor and Missy, months went by for Bill. Discharged from the hospital with an artificial heart and lungs, Razor provided a home for her. He had a camera set up that showed the front of the vessel. Razor betrayed Bill before the Doctor could come and find her - handing her over to the doctors who were systematically converting the humanoid population to survive in the harsh conditions of the colony ship. Missy discovered that the colony ship originated on Mondas, and the lower levels were now inhabited by Cybermen. Razor made his way to the front of the ship and confronted her - removing a mask to reveal that he was really the earlier incarnation of herself, the one who had been Harold Saxon. For some reason, she had not remembered any of this. 

His TARDIS had arrived on this vessel and broken down, its dematerialisation circuit burning out, leaving him trapped here. Initially he had taken over and ruled the colonists, but they had overthrown him. He therefore disguised himself as the hospital caretaker Mr Razor. His collaboration with the doctors in this guise was to avoid being converted himself - the fate which had now befallen Bill.

The Master informed the Doctor that he was rewarded by the Time Lords for stopping Rassilon's plans, only to find that he wasn't welcome on Gallifrey. Cured now of the drumming in his head, he had taken a TARDIS and left to travel the universe once again. 

He was both amused and annoyed to learn of the Doctor's attempts to rehabilitate him / her, and immediately set out to undermine this. He reminded her of what she used to be like and the two joined forces to torment and kill the Doctor - even flirting with each other. As Razor, he had ensured that the Cyberman computers would not accept him for conversion - but the Doctor amended this. The Master and Missy found that they were now as much at risk of conversion as the Doctor, and were forced to flee with him to another level which was as yet free of Cybermen. As the Doctor prepared to defend the small community of humanoids they found on this level, the Cybermen continued to evolve in the lowermost levels and made their way up the vessel. He tried to get the two Masters to help, but only Missy seemed possibly willing. The Master was still vain, arrogant, self-possessed and self-serving, unwilling to fight.

When the time came to battle the Cybermen, the Master finally talked Missy into abandoning the Doctor. With the Cybermen moving up from the lower levels, he reasoned that they would be empty now and he could descend and locate his TARDIS. Missy had provided him with a spare dematerialisation circuit. Together they could flee the vessel.

However, such was their innate deviousness, the Master couldn't even trust his own other incarnation - nor she him. Both plotted to eliminate the other, despite the paradox this would create. Missy had taken on board some of what the Doctor had been trying to achieve with her. 

He did not want to become the Master / Missy which the Doctor was creating, whilst she had come to hate who she had once been.

Out in the woods by a lift shaft, the pair attacked and mortally wounded each other. He descended to the lower level to find his TARDIS, where he would regenerate...

Played by: John Simm. Appearances: The Sound of Drums / Last of the Time Lords (2007), The End of Time (I & II) (2009/10), World Enough And Time / The Doctor Falls (2017).

Young Master played by William Hughes (The Sound of Drums).

• One of John Simm's main reasons for accepting the role was his young son, who was a huge fan of Doctor Who. He had suggested that his dad's character in Life on Mars be called Tyler, after Rose Tyler.
• Having brought back the Daleks in Series 1, and the Cybermen in Series 2, Russell T Davies always intended to have the Master return for Series 3. The very first mention of Harold Saxon comes in a newspaper headline seen in Series 2's Love & Monsters, as well as a poster in the Torchwood episode Captain Jack Harkness.
• The Master is seen to be watching Teletubbies on TV in The Sound of Drums. This was a nod to the scene in The Sea Devils where the Master was watching another children's TV series - The Clangers. 
• He looks back on his time in his Delgado incarnation with a particular nostalgia.
• This incarnation is a fan of bands Rogue Traders and the Scissor Sisters.
• He paraphrases an announcement he had previously made to the inhabitants of the universe in Logopolis - this time confining it to the peoples of Earth.
• He also muses "Britain, Britain, Britain..." - one of Tom Baker's regular lines from Little Britain.
• The Master is given a companion (wife Lucy) but whilst the Doctor's companions benefit from their experience, his suffers from it.
• When the Doctor and Master speak on the phone in The Sound of Drums, the two actors really talked to each other on the phone to make the scene more authentic.
• The Doctor jokes about the Master being his secret brother - an old fan theory which previous producer JNT almost confirmed in Planet of Fire.
• The Fifth Doctor briefly meets the Tenth Doctor soon after the events of Last of the Time Lords. Time Crash relies on the fact that the latter recalls what the former did and said - so why does the later Doctor not recall the fact that he was told he would meet the Master again in this incarnation?
• The End of Time is only the second time that an actor playing a villain gets their name in the opening credits. The last time was, oddly enough, Eric Roberts in the TV Movie.
• The Master sacrificing himself to save the Doctor mirrors Barry Letts' original idea for the demise of the character as portrayed by Roger Delgado.
• At one point, the Master was only going to take on the Doctor's body in The End of Time, instead of the whole planet's. RTD decided he did not want David Tennant playing someone other than the Doctor for much of his final episode.
• Up until World Enough And Time, the Master has always met the Doctor "in sequence" - i.e. their time-lines running parallel to each other. We don't actually know who the Simm Master regenerates into - nor do we know why Missy fails to remember any of this if she is from his future, unless it is a side effect of the trauma of her "death".
• Sadly, William Hughes died aged only 20, apparently by his own hand whilst on a foreign holiday.