Doctor Who: Eric Roberts’s Master – what surprisingly works for him (and what definitely doesn’t)

We look back on Eric Roberts’s Master in the Doctor Who TV movie. While not exactly the most popular interpretation of the Doctor’s arch-enemy, does he still have his own strong points?

It has to be said, Eric Roberts’s interpretation of the Master, as seen in the TV movie with Paul McGann, has gotten a bad rep from Doctor Who fans over the years. For some, it just might be the weakest element of the film.

Now, there’s definitely good reason for Eric Roberts to not be seen as the very best interpretation of the character. (Especially when compared to Roger Delgado or Derek Jacobi.) But does he deserve the hate?

The good

Re-watching the movie again, one thing that struck me is that, for a lot of the film, Roberts’s version of the character actually works really well. Particularly when the story allows him to be sinister and more restrained in his evil.

The best example of this is his relationship with the young gang member Chang Lee. He subtly manipulates the character, using him to both get to the Doctor and open the Eye of Harmony. How he does this is essentially act like a kind of father figure to the kid, making him believe that the Doctor’s the bad guy and the Master is simply trying to do the right thing.

This is actually a very Master thing to do, and lets us have a glimpse of what happens when the Master has a companion. (We get a further glimpse of this with Jacobi’s Master in The War Master: Only the Good.) The two have some great moments together, and you actually feel sorry that Lee gets used in such an obvious way.

So what lets it down?

The bad

The problem is, while Roberts’s incarnation is written to be subtle and manipulative at times, he’s not like this for the entire story. And while I do enjoy seeing characters have different sides to them, the problem is that it works against this Master’s effectiveness. Especially when another key side to him is how openly evil he is.

This is a real problem, especially when he’s supposed to be using Chang Lee and making him believe he’s a good person. The worst examples are when he uses, for lack of a better way to describe it, his “snake voice”. He goes from being calm and collected one moment, to using a much higher pitched voice that couldn’t sound more evil if it tried.

I don’t know if this was written into the script or whether Roberts deliberately chose to play it that way, but it makes it harder to believe that Chang Lee could fall for his lies.

However, the worst moment? The turning point that destroyed Roberts’s credibility as a Master for many fans?

The ugly

"I always…dress…for the occasion!"

That line. That single line. With an incredibly camp costume, that was enough to destroy the image of Roberts’s Master for a lot of fans.

And it’s actually a real shame, too. Like I said, despite some weak moments, the character actually held up surprisingly well. If he hadn’t had an unnecessary costume change, and he had continued to show some restraint, at least, we could have had a Master considerably more fondly remembered.

Instead, the last twenty minutes of the TV movie are enough to undo all of that. Roberts’s performance becomes considerably more over the top, and it become hard to take his Master seriously. (And frankly, that costume does not help at all.)

Eric Roberts returned as the Master back in January in The Diary of River Song: Series Five. Are Big Finish giving us a far stronger version of his incarnation?

(Image credit: The Diary of River Song/Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

The redemption?

When Big Finish announced that they were bringing Roberts’s incarnation back, I must admit, I was a little bit skeptical. This was partially because the stolen body that the Master was inhabiting seemed to be utterly destroyed at the end of the movie, and partially because I was worried it would conflict with Mastermind.

But mostly, I was afraid of how the character would be handled. Could they really be faithful to this particular incarnation and yet still be able to make him, well, good?

But, while it did conflict with one of my favorite Master stories ever, it has to be said that this Master’s reintroduction has worked really well. The Lifeboat and the Deathboat, the third episode in the fifth series of The Diary of River Song, actually plays really well to the character’s strengths.

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The Master uses both River and a teenage girl that he claims is his “daughter” for much of the early part of the story. While we know that the father with the distinctive American voice is definitely Roberts’s Master, it’s great to hear the more subtle side that we generally got with the character when he was using Chang Lee.

An effective interpretation

Without anything nearly as over the top as what we got in the movie, Eric Roberts’s Master actually comes across as a decent and interesting incarnation in his own right. It really helps that Eddie Robson’s script has really helped to identify the strengths of the character while ironing out the weaknesses, at least in terms of characterization. And the explanation for how he survived the events of the movie is a satisfying one. I’m actually eager to hear more from this incarnation.

With all their promotion of Eric Roberts’s return as the Master, it’s very telling that Big Finish have decided to focus more on his leather coat look – which actually works really well for the character – than on his super camp Time Lord outfit.

It seems that Big Finish are taking this incarnation much more seriously than the movie did, and I think we’re starting to see the same kind of redemption for Roberts’s Master that we got for Simm’s with the Series Ten finale. I’m already looking forward to his return in Ravenous 4, when he will finally face McGann’s Doctor once again.

What do you think of Eric Roberts’s Master? Is he the absolute worst interpretation of the character? And if so, do you still find elements to enjoy about his incarnation? Let us know in the comments below.