Doctor Who review: Geoffrey Beevers writes and performs brilliantly in I am the Master
By James Aggas
The latest Short Trip, I am the Master, is a story that focuses on the Doctor’s archenemy – written by the man himself, Geoffrey Beevers!
This month’s Doctor Who: Short Trips audio is something very special. It’s not just that the person reading the short story for October is Geoffrey Beevers, performing in character as the Master. It’s also because of the fact that I am the Master has been written by Beevers himself.
Geoffrey Beevers has been playing the Master for a long time now. He originally played the role in Fourth Doctor story The Keeper of Traken. Sadly, that was only for one appearance, as Anthony Ainley took over during the story’s final moments.
However, he eventually returned to the role in 2001 for Big Finish’s Dust Breeding. And while there was a considerable gap between his first and second performances, he’s continued to play the role across many audio stories for Big Finish since then, encountering many Doctors and even appearing in a couple of spin-offs.
After playing the role for so long, it makes sense that he knows the character, or at the very least, his particular version of the character, inside and out, by this point. So it’s unsurprising that he’s decided to write his very own Master story himself. And what a great Master story it is.
After years of playing him both on television and audio, Geoffrey Beevers has written and performed his own story with I am the Master. How strong is this audio?
(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.
Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)
A dark and surprisingly funny tale
I am the Master is, rather fittingly for the Short Trips range, a rather small story. It doesn’t exactly tell of a crucial battle between the Doctor and his archenemy. In fact, the Doctor is hardly focused on in this one.
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Instead, the Master finally tells us a story of what happens when the Doctor isn’t around to stop his plans. Of how he takes over a peaceful, happy world, and systematically aims to take over and destroy it.
Both as a writer and as a performer, Beevers tells this story incredibly well. Not only does he begin the story by giving us a good, long glimpse inside the Master’s head. He also avoids over-complicating the character. Some villains have rich and complex motivations. But in many incarnations, the Master is a simple villain who enjoys manipulating people and destroying worlds. And that’s especially true of Beevers’s incarnation.
But its not just the Master being evil that makes this story such a delight. We also have the Master being funny. Not in an over-the-top or cheeky way like we’ve had with Simm, Macqueen or Gomez. But as the Master tells his story, there are lots of little touches of dry, dark humor throughout. There were so many moments that I couldn’t help laughing, even while it felt awful to do so.
From start to finish, I am the Master is an absolute gem of a story. It’s a story about the Master told by the man himself, in more ways than one. A wonderful listen, and a strong debut from Beevers as a Doctor Who writer. I hope we get to hear more such stories from him in the future.
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Have you listened to I am the Master yet? Are you a fan of Geoffrey Beevers’s interpretation? What’s your favorite story that features his incarnation? Let us know in the comments below.