Doctor Who: Day of the Master announced as the biggest multi-Master story yet
By James Aggas
One Doctor, four Masters! Announced as the finale to Doctor Who: Ravenous, will the Eighth Doctor be able to survive the Day of the Master?
Big Finish Productions have given us a lot of major Doctor Who events over the years. Significant stories that either featured a major first before the TV series did it, or even stories that the TV series has somehow never done. These include Master of the Daleks, a full-length Master and Dalek team-up story, and The Two Masters, done a whole year before World Enough and Time gave us a different take on the same key idea.
However, there’s one story out this year that is going to be bigger than either of those. In fact, it’s going to be the biggest multi-Master story yet. The finale of Ravenous, the Eighth Doctor’s current audio series, will be a two-part story. A two-part story with the perfect title: Day of the Master. And it will feature the Eighth Doctor going up against four incarnations of his greatest enemy!
Which four, you ask? Well, it’s quite the interesting combination. From the Classic Series we have, of course, Geoffrey Beevers’s disfigured incarnation showing up. Beevers is an absolutely brilliant Master that has, after his single TV appearance in The Keeper of Traken, become a major incarnation of the villain for Big Finish, so it makes sense for him to appear in this story.
From the New Series, we have Derek Jacobi as the War Master, and even Michelle Gomez as Missy! I can imagine this being a first meeting for Eight and the War Master (they are going to meet each other in The War Master‘s own series, after all). But why won’t he remember Missy in Dark Water? This is definitely going to be an interesting encounter.
In 1996, Eric Roberts played the Master in the TV movie. Over two decades later, he and the Eighth Doctor will meet once more…
(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.
Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)
A long-awaited reunion
However, most exciting of all is a Master that’s from neither era. Eric Roberts, who played the villain in the TV movie that gave us McGann’s Doctor in the first place, is also featuring in this epic story.
This is pretty major. We haven’t had a story with this particular Doctor and Master combination since the TV movie, and that was twenty-three years ago. This isn’t surprising, considering that Eric Roberts has only recently returned to the role back in January’s release, The Diary of River Song: Series Five.
Still, it’s exciting to know that these two will finally meet again. After all, a lot has changed for Eight since they last met. (In fact, Eight has fought Roberts’s chronological successor in Dark Eyes, Alex Macqueen.) So it’ll be interesting to hear Eight’s reaction when it comes to being reunited with this particular face.
An exciting story
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John Dorney has written this particular story, which isn’t surprising. He also wrote Master of the Daleks and The Two Masters after all, so he’s good at handling major “events”. But how did he feel about writing an event this big?
"Day of the Master was possibly the most exciting and yet terrifying brief I’ve ever had. Finishing off the Ravenous arc was a big enough responsibility on its own… but throw in wanting to give great material to Sir Derek Jacobi… and Michelle Gomez… and that’s before we even get to the heart-stoppingly fantastic prospect of bringing Eric Roberts’ Master back face to face with the Doctor again for the first time in over twenty years.Well, you can see why it might be intimidating! But honestly it was one of the best times I’ve ever had writing a Doctor Who story. I really hope the audience enjoy it as much as I did!"
I’m sure we will, John. I’m sure we all will.
Day of the Master will be the final story of Ravenous 4, which will be released in October on CD and download. You can pre-order it from Big Finish here.
Next. Re-Watch: The Keeper of Traken brings back an old foe. dark
Are you excited about the biggest multi-Master story ever? Which incarnation is your favorite out of the four featured? Which incarnation are you excited for the Eighth Doctor to meet? Let us know in the comments below.