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The Master

This article is about the fictional character in Doctor Who. For The Master character from Manos: The Hands of Fate, see The Master (Manos). For The Master character from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, see The Master (Buffy the Vampire Slayer). For the 1980s television series starring Lee Van Cleef, see The Master (TV series) .


The Master is a supporting fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. He is a renegade Time Lord who is the greatest individual enemy of the Doctor. He is not to be confused with the Master of the Land of Fiction , who appeared in the Second Doctor serial, The Mind Robber .

The Master was conceived as a recurring villain, "Professor Moriarty to the Doctor's Sherlock Holmes". And recurring he was: in the three seasons following his first appearance, in Terror of the Autons (1971), the Master (played by Roger Delgado) appeared in more serials than not. Following Delgado's sudden death in a car crash in Turkey in 1973, the Master disappeared from the series for several years.


In his next appearance, in The Deadly Assassin (1976), the Master appeared as an emaciated , decaying wreck (played by Peter Pratt under heavy make-up). Although Time Lords have the potential to postpone death by completely renewing their bodies, the ability can only be used twelve times. The Master had in the course of his career used up all twelve of his regenerations, and was nearing the end of his thirteenth, and presumably final, life. He attempted to seize control of an ancient power source (the Eye of Harmony, an artificial black hole maintained on Gallifrey) in an attempt to give himself a new cycle of regenerations. After being defeated by the Doctor, the Master disappeared from the series once more.

In 1981, the Master became a recurring villain again. In The Keeper of Traken , the Master (played by Geoffrey Beevers under different heavy make-up) briefly gained control of another ancient power source, using it to transplant himself into the body of a Trakenite named Tremas, overwriting Tremas's original mind in the process. Now played by Anthony Ainley, the Master appeared on and off for the rest of the series. Apart from his regular goals, extending his life - preferably with a new set of regenerations - was an extra prize he was determined to get.


The Master also appeared in the 1996 Doctor Who telemovie that starred Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor. In the prologue, the Master's current body (played – for mere seconds in the final edit – by Gordon Tipple ) was thoroughly exterminated by the Daleks, but managed to survive by some unexplained means and steal the body of an ambulance driver (played by Eric Roberts). The Master once again attempted to access the Eye of Harmony, this time by means of a link in the Doctor's TARDIS and to steal the Doctor's remaining regenerations, but was sucked into the Eye and apparently destroyed.

The Master has also featured in spin-offs of the series, most notably David A. McIntee 's "Master trilogy" of novels comprising The Dark Path and First Frontier in the Virgin Publishing lines and The Face of the Enemy for BBC Books, and the Doctor Who audio dramas produced by Big Finish Productions, where Geoffrey Beevers has reprised the role. His past with the Doctor is explored somewhat in the novels, which also reveal that his name prior to taking the alias of the Master was Koschei.

In 2004, an android version of the character was voiced by Derek Jacobi in the animated webcast, Scream of the Shalka. While this last Master is not part of official continuity, he has also appeared, with the Shalka Ninth Doctor (voiced by Richard E. Grant in the webcast), in a follow-up short story by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright, "The Feast of the Stone".

He was also played by Jonathan Pryce in the Comic Relief skit Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death. It is not known if the character will reappear in the Doctor Who 2005 series revival.

Episode and Film Appearances

In appearance order by actor.

External links

  • "The Feast of the Stone" http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/vampires/newstory/scottwright.shtml - short story featuring the Shalka Master on the BBCi website.



Last updated: 02-08-2005 16:39:30
Last updated: 02-27-2005 12:19:38