#master meta

Why does no one ask, Master Who?: A Character Study Series Masterlist

Long before it became another somewhat recurring theme of the Master to go around trying to steal the Doctor or anyone else's body in order to survive, the Tremas Master (also known as the Ainley!Master) was successful in that goal, having stolen the body of Nyssa's father at the end of ‘The Keeper of Traken,’ and finding a way to extend his life a little longer.

Anthony Ainley portrayed his take of the Master as a flamboyantly evil, bombastic and sophisticated individual. He was prone to laughing maniacally and reciting lengthy and verbose speeches, accompanied by melodramatic gestures and poses.

With a new lease on life, this Master wasn't afraid to kill anyone, especially the Doctor. He is also the incarnation most known for having this be said about him: "You are one of the most evil and corrupt beings our Time Lord race has ever produced. Your crimes are without number and your villainy without end" and smiling with pride over it.

He is also the incarnation most known for working alongside the Rani and becoming infected with the Cheetah Virus and getting fangs. RAWR!

This is one of the best “Origin stories of the Master” I’ve ever read besides the Big Finish audio called “Master” and the drumbeat explanation in “The End of Time.”

Just prepare for me to use this all to dive into my character study of the Master...

My thoughts: (SPOILERS below the cut)

I think at this point everyone probably knows how I feel about that, lol. It’s just very disappointing, especially not even getting any acknowledgment of it. And it’s so boring too. Imagine having all those possibilities for new directions to take the character thanks to where we left off in S10, and ignoring all of it to do what’s mostly just a rehash of Simm with a few Classic Who nods, and basically just using the character as a convenient infodumper and plot device. (Hey, on the bright side, at least the Master got to drive the story forward more than any of the actual main characters did.) It’s extremely safe.

Look, whether I agreed with every choice they made or not, both RTD and Moffat did new things with the character, explored them in new ways. I hated most of what RTD did, but he was trying to give a fresh take on the Master and I can appreciate that. He put a lot of thought into what he was doing and really wanted to reinvent the character for modern audiences. Then Moffat did his version, fortunately much closer to my own interpretation, and we got Missy. Again, she’s something different, a fresh direction for the character (and the show, being the first Time Lord to switch gender, at a point when the majority of the fandom was against the idea). Moffat does something new with her each season, with S10 fleshing her out more than any other incarnation of the Master. He didn’t have to give her any more depth than just “wacky evil lady”---people already liked that version of her in S8, and I’m sure she would’ve continued to be very popular as simply a villain, because Michelle Gomez is delightful in the role---but S10 showed how much more you could do, while tying her development into the central theme of the season. Both RTD and Moffat waited for the right moment to use the character, when they had what they believed was a good idea, and tried to do something new.

In S12 though, instead of moving forward, the Master regresses back to Simm-like mania, forgetting all his character development so he can fulfill his role as just another of Doctor Who’s iconic bad guys. He’s a safe, generic version of a New Who Master in the way that, say, Dreyfus is a safe, generic version of a Classic Who Master. Fortunately, he’s played by Sacha Dhawan, so he’s still miles ahead of Dreyfus, but that’s pretty much the only edge he has. Without Dhawan’s charm, there’s very little to the character I find interesting. I mean, I was intrigued by his overt suicidal inclinations, but those are never properly justified or explored in S12 and I doubt they will be.

So I’ve always played the Master as horribly unstable, rejected by his home planet, fighting his ex-best friend for some semblance of control or victory over the one person he strives to be better than, slightly suicidal at the thought of always playing second best to the Doctor. But this takes it to a whole new level.

 The Master’s life work, thousands of years of schemes and plans to be better, to WIN... Only to realize he never had a chance in the first place, the Doctor was special and he was the spare. Everything he secretly thought and wondered about came true and there was nothing he could do about it. 

Hi Anon,

Hope yo don’t mind, I’m going to make this my “Fitz isn’t going to die or be left behind” Post because I’m getting this ask a lot.  

First, there is not another Fitz still out there.  With where the story is at now he has caught up with the team in the year 2091.  He took the long way to get there and slept nonstop for 74 years.   Once the team leaves there isn’t still a version of Fitz frozen somewhere with nothing to wake up too.

When the team goes back to the past they will start a NEW timeline.   This will allow the Timeline they just escaped and the people we got attached too (Flint) to carry on but also allows for the team to stop that future from happening in the new one.  

The entire team is in this new timeline together.

The new timeline was already set to be started because Enoch sent the team to the future because of Robin’s ‘prophecies’…already interfering with that timeline.  

Deke mentioned the Multiverse theory which is how this all works.  Its not going to be like Back To The Future and when they team goes back to the past the future changes and Biff rules the world.   In the NEW timeline they go back too FItz is with the team.  His counterpart in stasis has already run its course in the timeline they just escaped.   

Time has still passed on earth while the team is in the future.   I’m betting there will be some sort of jump to the when the team returns too and when Fitz left with Enoch.   This allows the writers to clear the decks if you will and even have the event they are trying to stop into motion when they return.  

Even if that Fitz in stasis is in play there is no way the team can get to him. 

Enoch had him in a Chronicon vessel orbiting a distant planet for his protection.

Enoch is the one who can summon such a ship and one way or another he doesn’t look to be making the trip back to the past.  My guess is he stays with that timeline because he needs to continue to observe humanity there (I like Enoch and will be way bummed if he turns out to be evil).

Shield doesn’t have a Spaceship that would allow them to get to him.

Story wise it doesn’t make sense to me either:

They built to the engagement and hopefully wedding in 12 for 5 seasons.   If they weren’t ready for it to have happened they wouldn’t have done it, Fitz and Jemma could have waited to propose to each other until they writers were ready for it.  

I don’ think the writers are THAT cruel.  They are well aware of how frustrated a lot of the Fandom was with Fitzsimmons and they know ‘taking that away’ would be far too much for many fans.  

They already did this with Philinda in a way.   IE they had Phillinda have some major movement between Coulson and Robo May…and now is still dealing with the fall out from that.   

The Fitz in stasis intended on proposing to Jemma the first chance he got so IF they did this, and took all the time to dedicate to getting stasis Fitz back from deep space, they are still getting to the same place with a lot of unnecessary drama.   

That is not where the story is going.   This season is about the team coming back together and stopping the future they’ve escaped.   They’ve set up progression for Fitzsimmons not regression.   Plus there a other arcs that need to be dealt with IE Coulson’s deal.  

Going the route of them getting Fitz from prison throws away a ton of set up and character development.  

Even if you take the character development aside, the events of Rewind secured the team a base in the Lighthouse and Liberated the Zephyr for them.

Why does no one ask, Master Who?: A Character Study Series

This was one subject I was excited to cover, especially after just recently getting into Russian folklore. And of course since this is technically the first master (as according to the fandom, EU content, and The Sound of Drums ), this had to be the one to cover first (especially because of the symbolism present here that I feel is so important to beginning our journey exploring who the Master is.)

Though the young first Master’s name is never revealed to us in the show, how did we get the name Koschei? Let me direct you to the way of the Extended Universe.

Why does no one ask, Master Who?: A Character Study Series Masterlist

Our next topic to cover in the subject of the Master is his Anakin Skywalker---er, I mean, sudden change in appearance and re-appearance when he surprises us all in the Fourth Doctor’s era. I think this is where his now signature long running gag for ‘coming back from the dead’ without any explanation truly began. 

So, because of the tragedy that happened to Roger Delgado, the Master as a character was kept out of stories for quite awhile until the 4th Doctor’s era in 1976′s episode, “The Deadly Assassin.” An episode not only remarkable for bringing back the Master in a MUCH darker state, nearing the end of his regeneration cycle, but the fact this episode began a lot of the mythos of the Time Lords and Gallifrey as we know it. Played by two different actors for two different episodes years apart, the fandom has dubbed the Peter Pratt and Geoffrey Beevers Master’s as the Crispy Master or Decayed Master, due to his decaying form looking like he was fighting with a Jedi for control of the high ground and lost (Still too soon? Okay.)