M is for... Master of the Land of Fiction

Title given to a human being from early 20th Century England. He was in actual fact a prolific writer of adventure stories for boys - published in the Ensign paper, and featuring the exploits of a character named Captain Jack Harkaway.

One hot summer's day in 1926 he fell asleep at his desk and woke to find himself in a strange domain, where fictional characters could be brought to life. He was harnessed to a super-computer - the Master Brain - which allowed him to do this. The origins and nature of the creators of the computer remained obscure, but their ultimate goal was to transplant the entire human race into this domain, leaving the Earth free for them to exploit. As a mortal human being, the creators realised that the Master would need to be replaced, and decided to use him to ensnare the Doctor to take his place.

The Master was, at times, able to reassert his own, more benign, personality over the computer's influence.

He and the Doctor fought a mental duel, conjuring up fictional heroes and villains to fight on their behalf. When the machine was destroyed, the Master was freed from its influence. He had no idea where he was. As the realm collapsed, he was seemingly sent back home to England in 1926.

Played by: Emrys Jones. Appearances: The Mind Robber (1968).

• It is strongly suggested that everything from the TARDIS breaking up onwards is all in the Doctor's mind, and so never exists - meaning that the Master would have come from his imagination as well. He vanishes when the TARDIS comes together again, and there is no mention of his fate from Jamie or Zoe thereafter - possibly because they never actually encountered him.
• The Ensign is based on the popular boys adventure papers, most famous of which was Boy's Own Magazine, which ran for 88 years and gave its name to a particular style of adventure hero.
• Jack Harkaway was a real fictional character, created by S Bracebridge Hemyng in 1871. A silent film was made of his public school adventures in 1910 - The Childhood of Jack Haraway. Hemyng wrote 50 novels in 25 years, so may well be the inspiration for the Master, though some think it might be Frank Richards (real name Charles Hamilton), creator of Billy Bunter. He is alleged to have written over 100 million words in his 60 year career - the equivalent of 1200 average length novels.