Master (Doctor Who)

The Master is a television extraterrestrial character who features in Doctor Who.

Biography

The Master was the archenemy of the Doctor in all his incarnations. Once a classmate and friend of the Doctor in their youth, the Time Lord who would become the Master became a renegade and began plotting universal domination.

Towards the end of his regenerations, he focused on the planet Earth in the 1970s. During his various attempts to conquer Earth (and other worlds) with the assistance of numerous aliens- including the Nestene Consciousness, the Axons, Kronos the Kronovore, and the Daleks- he was opposed continuously by the Third Doctor and his allies in UNIT It was during this time that he began favoring his Tissue Compression Eliminator as a weapon.

Eventually, however, he reached the end of his life, and began degenerating rapidly, becoming little more than a corpse animated by a desire for revenge. Returning to the Time Lord home planet of Gallifrey, the Master allied with Chancellor Goth and attempted to frame the Fourth Doctor with assassinating the President of Gallifrey while sowing the seeds of the end of all the other Time Lords. He was narrowly uncovered and defeated.

Retreating to the planet Traken, the Master next attempted to gain power by taking the place of the Keeper of Traken. This attempt was foiled by the Fourth Doctor, but the Master still claimed a prize- the body of Counsellor Tremas of Traken, which he usurped to create a new, rejuvenated form.

This new Master attempted nothing less than domination over all reality by trying to subvert the planet Logopolis, which maintained the universe through complex mathematics. The Fourth Doctor was able to defeat him- at the cost of his own life, forcing him to regenerate. The confused and physically unstable Fifth Doctor was soon trapped in the artificial city of Castrovalva by the Master, only escaping with the aid of his companion Adric.

The Doctor fought the Master again on several occasions, including an attempt by him to prevent the signing of the Magna Carta. The Master was drafted into assisting the Doctors (reluctantly) during the crisis in the Death Zone, but showed his true colors before long. He confronted the Fifth Doctor again on the planet Sarn. When the Sixth Doctor battled the Rani, the Master also became involved- interestingly, the Master also assisted the Sixth Doctor when he was battling against the Valeyard. The Seventh Doctor battled him on the world of the Cheetah People- both were nearly claimed by the savage nature of that world.

Some years later, the Master was finally captured and tried for his many crimes. He was executed on Skaro, and reduced to a gelatinous substance that the Seventh Doctor tried to bring back to Gallifrey in his TARDIS. Somehow, however, the Master retained his intelligence and will, and became even more embittered and cruel. He managed to force an emergency landing in 1999 San Francisco, whereupon the Doctor was killed by gang members. The Master was able to escape, and possessed a human's body, which rapidly began to decay. The new Master tried to use the access to the Eye of Harmony in the Doctor's TARDIS to steal the Doctor's remaining lives (not caring that the Eye's power would destroy Earth), but he was stopped by the regenerated Eighth Doctor. The Master was apparently destroyed for the last time when he was consumed in the energies of the Eye.

Overview

Personality and attributes

To hide himself, he assumed the identity of Professor Yana where he hid away his Time Lord persona with his human identity being unaware of his true nature. (Episode: Utopia) Trapped on present-day Earth, he came to craft himself a new alias as Harold Saxon which he used to become Prime Minister of the UK. (Episode: The Sound of Drums)

It was his ambition to become the master of all matter. (Episode: The Deadly Assassin)

In fact, he said he would take pleasure at the destruction of the human race an that this would be a reward in itself. (Episode: The Sea Devils)

Powers and abilities

Even when disguised as a human, the Master was credited for his genius where the Doctor showed an admiration for his intellect. (Episode: Utopia)

As Harold Saxon, he once came to be the Prime Minister of the UK. (Episode: The Sound of Drums)

Notes

• The Master was created by Terrance Dicks, Barry Letts and Robert Holmes where he featured in the setting of the Doctor Who universe.

In other media

Novels

• The Master once called himself Koschei, and travelled the universe righting wrongs much like the Doctor- although his methods were less kindly. Ultimately, he was driven mad, and the Second Doctor was forced to imprison him in a black hole. The Master's attempts to escape may have drained him of many of his regenerations. After the events on the planet of the Cheetah People, the Master fought the Seventh Doctor further times, and it was eventually revealed that he had regained the ability to regenerate. Later, the Master gained even greater ability to return from death after ingesting a wormlike creature that could resurrect itself. It was this worm's properties that allowed him to survive his execution on Skaro (albeit as an ooze). The Master somehow survived his destruction in the Eye of Harmony, and was apparently one of the few Time Lords to survive the erasure of Gallifrey.

An alternate Ninth Doctor and a Master in an android body were grudging companions. Together they battled the Shalka.

Appearances

• Doctor Who:

External Links

• TARDIS Wiki Entry

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