Follow-Up: Why John Simm’s Master returned in Series 10
BBC
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In James’ previous post, he talked about the issues with the finale of Doctor Who and how John Simm’s Master wasn’t presented in the way that most people wanted. As we were talking about it, I had a revelation. I wrote briefly in my review that The Doctor Falls wasn’t Simm’s episode, it was actually World Enough and Time. As I remembered that, an amazing thing happened. I actually taught James something.
To put this into terms that are understandable, James has been in charge of my foray into many things, including Classic Who, Doctor Who Audios, and John Simm’s show Life on Mars. So, to me, James always seems to know exactly what he’s talking about, and I rarely interrupt him. (Also, he’s been here at DWW longer than I have, but graciously allowed me to become his editor.)
Enough of the love fest, you get it, James and I get along well. But as he was telling me this I basically told James he was wrong. At least, with the way he was looking at it.
Well, he’s half right.
It was most definitely not a duo-Master episode, that much is true. The poster that simulated the Day of the Doctor was incredibly misleading, and a shotty way to try to make the “iconic episode” bigger than it was.
BBC
My take on things.
To look at the way I saw how the Masters work, you have to look a little out of the box. First of all, think of World Enough and Time and The Doctor Falls as one large episode rather than two separate ones.
If you do that, then you have the story of the Master at two points of his life. Now, more opens up. The “problem” with World Enough and Time is that we had no idea the Master was there until 2 minutes before the first episode ended. But let’s look back. The Master used a disguise, gained the trust of an individual, and got that individual to do exactly what he wanted.
Sound familiar?
It’s a small, very condensed version of Utopia arc. The Master became Harold Saxon by using a disguise, gained the trust of individuals (Britain and Northern Ireland), and used that trust to get exactly what he wanted. World Enough and Time was Simm’s Master’s episode. He actually controlled most of what happened.
He was responsible for turning Bill into a Cyberman and Genesis of the Cyberman.
Call the episode Master Who? Because it was all the Master’s doing. We just, unfortunately, had no idea. We were on the side of the good guys and didn’t know that it was Simm. But World Enough and Time highlighted, extremely well, everything the earlier regeneration of the Master was before Missy.
Now, let’s look at The Doctor Falls
Looking at World Enough and Time as the Master’s first episode, now The Doctor Falls looks like a hand off. We have everything that happened at the hand of the Master, now let’s see how Missy handles it.
It makes sense to add Simm in only to give him his exit, which we suppose puts Missy in the Promise Land, starting around at season 8.
What does this mean?
It means that the Masters were definitely featured heavy enough. Look at the Master’s fantastic job of keeping in character for 10 years — way longer than 18 months when he was Harold Saxon. Look at how the Master played Bill like a piano, without the Archangel network, but by the cold, chilling fact that he had to get to his future self to stop turning good.
He did all of this for one singular purpose. Not to rule the world (though what’s a try along the way?), but to get to Missy stop her. And he succeeded spectacularly.
For Missy, her big arc was in The Doctor Falls, where we saw her stand against her previous self, only to die at the hand of the Master.
Between the two episodes, the Masters were featured heavily — we just didn’t realize it. World Enough and Time and The Doctor Falls were always supposed to be a part 1 and part 2 episode, people just focused more on the actual finale. The finale’s great, but James is absolutely right, you didn’t need Simm in that episode. You did need Simm to get to that episode. You needed the Master to change Bill, to start Operation Genesis, to kill Missy.
Simm was definitely needed in these episodes. Unfortunately, just mostly in a disguise.
And no, there wasn’t a grand episode where both Masters came together to fight the Doctor, but trust me, everything happened for a reason.
Currently, James and I are wanting Big Finish to do an audio box set of how the Master escaped Gallifrey and got to the spaceship. I will pay it in full, Big Finish. I just want to meet John Simm.
Next: Is the Doctor's first regeneration and twelfth regeneration connected?