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Doctor Who: Multi-Master stories – why did they take so long to finally happen?

By James Aggas

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Forty-six years after their first appearance, we finally got an on-screen multi-Master story in World Enough and Time! But why did it take so long?

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: BBC Press.)

Across several decades, we’ve had several multi-Doctor stories in Doctor Who. So why didn’t we get our first multi-Master story on television until 2017?

It’s crazy to think that in over five and a half decades of Doctor Who history, it wasn’t until two years ago that we got our first multi-Master story on television. That in itself is incredibly surprising. Not even in the Classic Series did we ever get a proper multi-Master story.

But, perhaps even more surprising, it didn’t even happen in the expanded universe, not properly, until just a year before. Across comics, audios and novels, we still weren’t given a multi-Master story until 2016.

(Third Doctor novel Harvest of Time from 2013 is almost an exception to this, as this does feature multiple incarnations of the Master. But, with the exception of Delgado’s incarnation, they’re all forced into a comatose state. So it doesn’t exactly give us the multi-Master interaction that we crave for from such stories.)

So why did it take so long for a multi-Master story to happen? Well, perhaps looking at the history of the character will help.

The early years

It’s funny to think that the Master wasn’t originally introduced in Doctor Who until Terror of the Autons, the opening story of Season Eight of the Classic Series. For the first seven seasons, he didn’t appear once in the series. (Well, not unless you count the War Chief, which is very debatable.) So the fact that it took so long for the character to be created is clearly one factor.

Another factor is the reason why a new Master was cast. It wasn’t developed as a natural part of the character’s story but, sadly, as a result of original actor Roger Delgado’s sudden and tragic death.

After his final appearance in Frontier in Space in 1973, it wasn’t until three years later in 1976 that the character returned in The Deadly Assassin. This time, in a very different form than before: horrifically scarred and desperate to survive, Peter Pratt’s Master was a radically different take  compared to Roger Delgado’s.

The Eighties

For some reason, the character disappeared for a few years. It wasn’t until Tom Baker’s final season in 1981 that the character returned in The Keeper of Traken. Still looking horrifically scarred, but now played by Geoffrey Beevers, this was the decaying incarnation’s last appearance. At the very end of the story, he possessed Nyssa’s innocent father, Tremas, played by Anthony Ainley. And so, the most recognizable Master of the Eighties was born.

That was in 1981. A year that was already an anniversary year for the Master, who first showed up in 1971. So it’s easy to see why they didn’t give us a multi-Master story then, especially as that was the year that Ainley was introduced.

So, the TV series only had two incarnations to really bring together. Perhaps Delgado’s Master could’ve been re-cast, just as the First Doctor was with Richard Hurndall in The Five Doctors. But perhaps the idea of a multi-Master story wasn’t that appealing to John Nathan-Turner, who was Doctor Who‘s longest producer and worked on the show for the rest of its run.

Or perhaps it just wasn’t considered. It made sense to have a multi-Doctor story, especially during annivesaries. But a multi-Master story? Would the audience be interested in something like that?

By the time the Classic Series finished, we never got a multi-Master story. And that would continue for a long while yet.

The expanded universe

Even in the long gap between series, we didn’t get a multi-Master story. In fact, the Master himself appeared in only a relatively few novels during that long period.

The audios did give us our first multi-Master story. But it took a long time to get there. It wasn’t released until 2016 – seventeen years after Big Finish was created – that we finally got a story with two Masters.

However, that in itself has its own history. For one thing, the Master didn’t show up in Big Finish’s audios until Dust Breeding in 2001. Once again, Geoffrey Beevers was playing him, this time opposite Sylvester McCoy’s Doctor. This was due to Big Finish being unable to reach an agreement with Anthony Ainley potentially returning to the role.

Perhaps the most surprising thing, however, is that the Master would only have one more story on audio for the rest of the decade. After Master in 2003, Big Finish either didn’t or, due to temporary rights issues, couldn’t use him.

Macqueen appeared with fellow Master Geoffrey Beevers in the epic Seventh Doctor story, The Two Masters.

(Photo credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

New Master, new possibilities

Thankfully, by the time 2012 came along, that completely changed. First, we had the Fourth Doctor up against Beevers’s incarnation once more in Trail of the White Worm and The Oseidon Adventure. But, as it turned out, that wasn’t the character’s only appearance that year.

In the Seventh Doctor audio box set UNIT: Dominion, the Doctor met a previously unknown future incarnation of himself. This one was cheerful and witty. But he was also colder and more pragmatic at times, too. Who played this future incarnation? Alex Macqueen. And who was he really? Of course, he was the Master in disguise.

Across the next few years, both of these incarnations were given many exciting stories and developed considerably by Big Finish. And that was the key thing: not only were Big Finish bold enough to create their very own incarnation, unique to audio. But they also, finally, had more than one incarnation of the Master.

The Two Masters trilogy

We had to wait four years from Macqueen’s introduction for it to happen, but it was worth the wait. In 2016 – the character’s forty-fifth anniversary year – we had The Two Masters. And what an amazing story it was.

It makes sense why it took a long time for it to happen, though. Until Macqueen’s incarnation was created, Geoffrey Beevers was the only incarnation that Big Finish could use. Especially after Ainley’s death in 2004. For much of that time, they weren’t able to use him. Even when they were and a brand new incarnation had been created, Big Finish still needed time to build that incarnation up across many stories. But like I said – it was definitely worth the wait.

But what of the New Series? Why did it take so long for two Masters to meet on-screen? Let’s rewind the clock back to 2007 and find out.

Simm’s Master was introduced in Utopia in 2007. Thus, the first incarnation of the first ever TV multi-Master story was introduced…

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

New Series, new Master

It took twelve years for the New Series to finally give us a multi-Master story. Why was that? While looking back, that initially sounds like a long time, it actually makes sense why it took so long.

First, Russell T Davies made a very smart decision by reintroducing Doctor Who‘s biggest enemies one at a time, and essentially making them “Big Bads”, too. He also made sure to do this in descending order of how iconic they were. So, for Series One, it was the Daleks. For Series Two, it was the Cybermen. And for Series Three, we had, of course, the Master.

Now, we all remember Utopia. We all remember the shock we felt the moment that Derek Jacobi’s seemingly nice, innocent “Professor Yana” revealed his watch. And we remember the moment he said those magic words:

"I…am…the Master!"

That will always be one of the greatest Doctor Who moments of all time, as far as I’m concerned. And it was a genius way of reintroducing the character to a new audience, too. As criminal as it was that Jacobi got so little time on screen, it made sense to reintroduce the only other surviving Time Lord with a regeneration.

So in just one episode, we had two brand new Masters. Of course, we still weren’t going to get a multi-Master story any time soon. It was exciting enough that the character was back, especially after nearly three series of the Doctor being the last of the Time Lords. So naturally, only Simm’s Master was around for the final two episodes of Series Three.

Missy was a major character in Series Eight, but it wasn’t until the penultimate episode that we found out who she really was…

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

From the Master to Missy

In 2009, the character was brought back from the dead for the Tenth Doctor’s final story, The End of Time. Perhaps bringing Derek Jacobi back could’ve been interesting, but in some ways, it was also too soon. Since The End of Time also brought back the Time Lords (albeit temporarily), and had to lead into Ten’s regeneration, again, one Master was enough. Also, since the New Series hadn’t done a multi-Doctor story yet, it was unlikely that a multi-Master episode would be made first.

After Steven Moffat took over, it was a few years before the character returned. During the Eleventh Doctor’s life, Moffat was more interested in focusing on his own arcs and his own monsters. (With the obvious exception of Series Seven, when he brought back the Great Intelligence from the Troughton era.)

Once Moffat brought Gallifrey back permanently – and thus, gave the Master an easy escape route from the Time War – he gave us the third incarnation of the New Series with Missy in 2014 for Peter Capaldi’s first series. And that’s when the series really started to build towards finally giving us a multi-Master story.

Oh, we had to wait a few years. In fact, we had to wait until the end of Capaldi’s era. But during that time, Moffat made sure to feature a lot of focus on Missy. Whereas Simm’s Master only had two stories on television (up to that point), Missy was given a lot more focus.

After a VERY long wait, World Enough and Time and The Doctor Falls gave us our first ever multi-Master story with Simm’s and Gomez’s Masters.

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

The Master’s redemption?

Beginning with many cameo appearances across the whole of Series Eight before she finally got her first full-length story in the finale, Missy went on to become a major character in Capaldi’s era. Not only did she appear in the first story of Series Nine. She was also a huge recurring character in Series Ten, either featuring in cameo moments, or having major parts, such as in Extremis, The Lie of the Land, and of course, World Enough and Time and The Doctor Falls.

More from Winter is Coming

Across this series, Moffat created a significant character arc for Missy, and indeed, for the Master as a whole. Namely, it asks us the question: what would happen if the Master actually tried to be good? What would force the Master to make that choice? And if they did try, would they succeed and finally be the Doctor’s friend again?

An unexpected meeting

So bringing back a previous Master – one from before all of Missy’s major development – actually made for a natural storytelling choice. It not only added a major obstacle for Missy in her own development, but also showed us just how much she had changed. Plus, considering it had been ten years since the villain had been re-introduced in the New Series, it made for a fitting anniversary story.

So, looking back over the many years, it’s somewhat easy to see why a multi-Master didn’t happen before. It’s still surprising to think about, especially during the long periods of the Eighties and even the Nineties, when it could have happened in the expanded universe.

But I’m glad it’s happened now, at least. With the character’s fiftieth anniversary coming up, will we be given one more multi-Master story, either on TV or audio? Only time will tell.

Next. Why the original Cybermen are the creepiest. dark

Do you think we should have had more multi-Master stories by now? What did you think of Gomez and Simm’s Masters meeting each other? Which incarnations would you love to see meet each other in the future? Let us know in the comments below.

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