Doctor Who Review: ‘Mastermind’ (Audio)
By James Aggas
In a deep underground vault, two UNIT officers interview the most dangerous prisoner in the Universe…
As I was watching Doctor Who: The Movie the other night and celebrating 20 years of the Eighth Doctor, I got to thinking how, with such a talented cast, it was a shame that the plot of the film didn’t quite live up to them. And while Paul McGann received many amazing stories on audio, the characters of Grace Holloway and Chang Lee have, other than in comic books, never had their story continued. As weak as the movie’s plot was, that seemed kind of a shame.
But then it got me thinking if there was something close to Big Finish making a sequel, even without those particular characters. And one story instantly sprang to mind: ‘Mastermind.’ As you can probably guess from the title, the Master plays a pretty big role in this story. In fact, for once, the focus is virtually entirely on him, with the Doctor only showing up in his narration, and even then, only briefly.
The premise of the story is simple: there’s a secret vault deep beneath the Angel of the North, containing all of UNIT’s alien artefacts. The Vault is looked after by Captain Ruth Matheson and Warrant Officer Charlie Sato. Among many of the artefacts kept in the Vault is a prisoner. A prisoner who needs a lot of security. A prisoner who has the blood of millions on his hands. His name is the Master, and he has a story to tell…
This story was released in Big Finish’s Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles range, which usually features only two or three actors, at least one of which would have played a companion on television. The format allows for a mixture of drama and first-person narrative, and it was a great way of telling stories of the earliest Doctors.
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‘Mastermind’ makes a great twist to the format by having one of the show’s biggest villains as the main narrator — and it works. Especially with Geoffrey Beevers in the role. I’ve mentioned before how delightfully creepy he is, and this audio is no exception. In fact, if I’m honest, it’s the kind of story that I can see only working with this incarnation specifically. Someone who doesn’t hide his evil because there’s no way to hide it.
What’s really fantastic about the plot is how it takes a lot of elements from the TV movie, and explores and develops them in a much better story. Even more impressive is how it uses various elements of the expanded universe to do this, including using the term “Deathworm Morphant” (which before had been separate terms used in stories like ‘The Eight Doctors’ and ‘The Fallen,’ but have been neatly combined into one here) and even tidily incorporating a short story from Big Finish’s book ‘Short Trips: The Centenarian.’
These references feel less like full-on continuity for the sake of it and more of an interesting way of threading these elements into a full, one-hour spiritual sequel to the TV movie. This is done by the Master telling his story of how he escaped from the Eye of Harmony, how he lived a life in America (several lives, in fact)… and what he does next.
Geoffrey Beevers is great to listen to, but equally great are Daphne Ashbrook and Yee Jee Tso. While they’re not playing their TV movie characters of Grace and Chang, Ruth and Charlie are great characters in their own right, and it’s nice to get another side to UNIT.
The story also very effectively fleshes these characters out more since their first appearance in ‘Tales From the Vault,’ revealing some deeply personal tragedies in their lives. It’s really great at making you care about them more and therefore make you fear for their very lives when they start talking to the Master.
Next: Series Ten Will See Return of Missy