Master Who?

Important Character Traits for Ainley!Master:

The first to succeed in stealing another person's body for their own!

Of all the Masters, this incarnation seems to have the highest body count.

The most recurring villain of the Fifth Doctor's era, appearing in no less than four serials.

Unable to use his natural hypnotism and instead used other means to enslave others.

As of 2023, the Tremas Master is the longest serving incarnation of the Master seen on-screen, with Anthony Ainley's tenue in the role lasting eight years from his debut to the end of the classic series.

Anthony Ainley wanted to play his incarnation of the Master as cold and calculating but, with the exception of his final televised appearance, he instead portrayed the character as a pastiche of original actor Roger Delgado.

Afterwards, the Master was captured by one of the species he had used in his scheme, with him suggesting to the Doctor that "[the Doctor] knew what they [would] do to him" for his crimes against them (GAME: Destiny of the Doctors) seemingly leading to the Master being executed by the Daleks. (TV: Doctor Who)

In ‘The Deadly Assassin,’ the Master’s disappearance is explained to us when he comes up with a clever plot, sending the Doctor back home to Gallifrey in order to uncover a mystery into the future premotionions of the Lord President’s death (and of course he’s behind it.) This Master is FAR more dark than his previous self, hell-bent on only his survival, even if it means taking the rest of Gallifrey with him to achieve it. Only his hate and need for revenge keeps him going. Although it may seem the Master has finally lost, this is only when we start to realize how great of a survivor he can be when it comes to death.

Making a return in ‘The Keeper of Traken,’ he’s still focused on attaining a body that can handle the presence of a Time Lord. Although he isn’t able to obtain the Doctor’s, using his cunning, the Master ends up stealing the body of Tremas of Traken, finding a way to extend his life a little longer.

Important Character Traits for Crispy!Master:

High sense of Self-Preservation. He doesn’t care what it takes to stay alive. This is the first time we see it with the Master, even if he’s going completely against the Doctor to do so.

Known for being the most ruthless of the Master’s incarnations (and that’s saying something.)

His physical state of being rotten and decayed can be used as a metaphor for how evil he is as an individual. As Geoffrey Beevers remarked; this is what the Master is like without his smooth looks and charm: as he put it, "the essence of the creature.”

However, in Big Finish, thanks to Beevers himself, and the writers, Crispy gets more of a development. Despite being just ruthless because of his current situation, ‘being faced with his own mortality also gives him plenty of poetic and calm moments.’ 

The Many Explanations for his Crispy State:

Geoffrey Beevers remarked that this is what the Master is like without his smooth looks and charm: as he put it, "the essence of the creature". This seems to be a running theme with this Master. The first Crispy Master is the ugliest and cruellest of all, while the second Crispy seems to have "healed" a little and is a step back towards Delgado behaviour (how much of the "healed" appearance is intentional and how much of it is due to the limitations of Beevers' makeup compared to Pratt's mask is unknown).

A would be conqueror of the universe, and former best friend of the Doctor, his only ambitions were to 1. Rule the Universe as ‘the Master of all matter,’ and 2. Make the Doctor suffer. First played by the talented actor, Roger Delgado, who had a long standing history of playing villains, he portrayed his Master as true to the trope of Faux Affably Evil. Even though he wanted to bring the Doctor down, you could tell he didn’t really want to kill his friend, and would sometimes join forces with the Doctor if the situation REALLY called for it. They both enjoyed their ‘battle of wits’ together. He’s suave, charming, and polite, a person who knows exactly what he wants and what he is doing, but he will also kill you without a single thought. And despite hating humans, the Master had some degree of villain respect for Jo and the Brigadier, even considering the Doctor to be his most worthy opponent. For all of the classic run’s Season 8 & 9, you see this play out. 

Important Character Traits for Delgado!Master (besides World Domination):

The Master can hypnotize his victims to do anything he wants, saying his usual catchphrase: “I am the Master and you will obey me.”

The second episode of Season 8, ‘The Mind of Evil.’ It’s the one where the Master creates an evil emotion machine that uses your greatest fears against you. While the Doctor’s fears are about the monsters he’s faced along his travels and the world being destroyed, the Master’s (although he tries to act like it doesn’t affect him) is what intrigues me the most: It’s of the Doctor laughing at him.

Another important thing is two episodes later in, ‘Colony in Space’ is that the Master offers the Doctor to join him in ruling the world when he plans to use a Doomsday weapon to destroy a civilization. The Master says that the Doctor could join him, that they could reign benevolently and end war, suffering and disease. The Doctor turns him down and says that absolute power is evil. The Master tempts him again and says that he is offering a half share in the universe, but of course the Doctor isn’t for it. He wants to see the universe, not rule it.

There is one last thing I would like to mention for Delgado’s Era of the Master and it is the unmade story, ‘The Final Game.’ It was meant to be the Third Doctor’s and the Master’s final story together. The story was to end with the reveal that the Master and the Doctor were brothers or two different opposing aspects of the same being (the Ego and the Id), and the Master dying in a manner which suggested that he sacrificed himself to save the Doctor's life. However, sadly, Roger Delgado died in a car crash before it was made, so the story ended up being scrapped.

If that story ended up coming to be, just think of how much of a game changer it would have been! 

*mindblown*

MASTERLIST

1. Why does no one ask, Master Who?: (#1 - Koschei)

2. Why does no one ask, Master Who?: (#2 - The Moriarty to Your Holmes)

3. Why does no one ask, Master Who?: (#3 - Oh No, He’s Crispy!)

May I introduce you to a series of wonderful books? 

Let’s start with the one that introduced the name Koschei for the Master:

1. The Dark Path by David A. McIntee (published March 1997)

A wonderful novel that features one of the earliest encounters with the Master and the Doctor, greatly expanding on their personal histories on Gallifrey. This story in particular is iconic because it’s one of the many origin stories explaining how/why he became the Master. I honestly don’t wanna spoil it for those who have yet to read it, but I did leave a spoiler review on my main blog awhile back. 

This book is important, however, because this is where the Koschei name began. As the book states, this is the name he was going by before he decided to take the title; The Master, by the end of the book. 

2. Divided Loyalties by Gary Russell (published October 1999)

2 years later, this book was released. It’s another fantastic novel which is iconic for showing the begins of the Deca and giving us a glimpse into the childhood’s of the Doctor, the Master, the Rani, and so on. I also don’t want to spoil this for those who haven’t read it. Honestly, it’s an experience, and I’ve posted about it a lot on my main. 

However, it also features the Master using the name ‘Koschei’, but in the Academy! And when alluding to the characters fates at the end, it even mentions what happens in McIntee’s ‘The Dark Path’. 

Bonus: It is also the book that gives us the Master’s house as being Oakdown, hence most of the fandom calling the young Master; Koschei Oakdown. 

So, still....Why the name, Koschei? 

What is the significance of it? Where did it even come from?

The answers lie in a character from Russian Folklore...

Koschei the Deathless (aka the Immortal)

As the wiki describes: “He is an archetypal male antagonist in Russian folklore. The most common feature of tales involving Koschei is a spell which prevents him from being killed. He hides his soul inside nested objects to protect it. For example, the soul (or in the tales, it is usually called "death") may be hidden in a needle that is hidden inside an egg, the egg is in a duck, the duck is in a hare, the hare is in a chest, the chest is buried or chained up on a far island. Usually he takes the role of a malevolent rival father figure, who competes for (or entraps) a male hero's love interest.”

Sounds kind of familiar, right?

It’s very symbolic to who the Master becomes:

Someone always managing to cheat death, and never being really killed off.

Being the constant rival of the Doctor, sometimes abducting his companions.

In some tales, Koschei can cast a sleep spell, almost like how the Master hypnotizes others.