Doctor Who: Is the decayed Master the same as Roger Delgado's?

The last time that we saw Delgado’s Master on-screen was in Frontier in Space. What happened that lead to him looking so badly disfigured in The Deadly Assassin?

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

Could the decayed form of the Master from Tom Baker’s run in Doctor Who be the same incarnation as Roger Delgado’s? We look at the evidence for and against the fan theory.

One theory I’ve come across often from Doctor Who fandom regards the decaying form of the Master, as seen on television in Tom Baker stories The Deadly Assassin and The Keeper of Traken. This incarnation was played by two actors: Peter Pratt in the earlier story, and Geoffrey Beevers in the later one. (The latter would eventually go on to play the Master many more times in Big Finish’s audio stories.)

Now, there isn’t much debate as to whether Pratt and Beevers played the same incarnation. Despite looking slightly different – the Master’s face in The Deadly Assassin was noticeably less animated with eyes that stood out a lot more – it’s generally agreed by fandom that they’re the same incarnation.

However, across various fan discussions, I’ve also come across another theory: that this distinctly disfigured Master is in fact the same incarnation as the original seen on television, as played by the iconic Roger Delgado. Could this be true, or are they different incarnations altogether?

Legacy of the Daleks

A key reason for this theory is that we never saw Delgado’s Master regenerate on-screen. In fact, in his last appearance, Frontier in Space, he was seen escaping completely unharmed at the end of the story. When the Master returned in The Deadly Assassin, there was no explanation as to how he had become so horrifically burnt. Unsurprisingly, the expanded universe has offered a couple of explanations over the years.

One such explanation is included in the novel Legacy of the Daleks by John Peel. The story features the Eighth Doctor meeting Delgado’s incarnation. At the very end of the story, the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan used the Master’s Tissue Compression Eliminator against an extremely powerful device – a device that the Master was still holding at the time.

It left him horrifically disfigured, and he’s discovered on the planet Tersurus by a Time Lord, thus leading into the events of The Deadly Assassin from his perspective. It also makes it clear that the Master is unable to regenerate from such horrific injuries. This establishes that the burnt Master we see in The Deadly Assassin and The Keeper of Traken is exactly the same as Delgado’s. Or does it?

The Two Masters provided an interesting explanation for the decayed Master, one that potentially opens up some interesting possibilities…

(Image credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

Conflicting explanations

Other explanations have been offered elsewhere in the expanded universe – explanations that directly conflict with the one provided in Legacy of the Daleks.

One is in the comic story Doorway to Hell, as originally featured in the pages of Doctor Who Magazine. Once again, we see Delgado’s incarnation of the Master facing a later Doctor, this time the Twelfth. In the aftermath of the battle, the Master’s body is badly injured – injured by one of his own attacks that backfired, of course. But not so injured that he doesn’t start to regenerate…

Meanwhile, in the audio story The Two Masters, Delgado’s Master doesn’t feature. But it does include a separate “origin” for the decayed Master. And it’s a rather bold explanation, too. While trying to impress a cult trying to end the universe, a later incarnation (as played by Alex Macqueen) goes back in time to “kill” an earlier self. Specifically, his thirteenth incarnation.

We then get a scene with Geoffrey Beevers playing a version of the Master before he was burnt. Literally just before, in fact, as the later Master traps him and burns him to within an inch of life. The whole process was designed to trick the cult into believing he had murdered his earlier self, not knowing that his immolation was already a key part of his timeline.

As you can see, these two explanations are rather complimentary, and basically follow one key idea: that Delgado’s incarnation is not the same as Pratt’s or Beevers’s. But what if we followed just the TV continuity?

Even based on just TV continuity, is it possible for Delgado’s Master to be the same as the one played by both Pratt and Beevers?

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

Just the TV series

Of course, canonicity in other media is admittedly debatable. The fact that Legacy completely conflicts with Doorway and Masters proves that. So let’s just go with the TV series. Is it likely that the decayed Master is the same as Delgado’s?

In this writer’s opinion, it’s possible…but not likely. Keep in mind, there’s nothing stated on-screen during Delgado’s era that he was definitely the last incarnation. There’s nothing to say he isn’t either, but it is something to keep in mind.

What convinces me that they aren’t the same are two key reasons. First, the personality. The decayed Master is crueller and more ruthless than his predecessor. Delgado was full of charm, and honestly, still kept things almost friendly in his confrontations with the Doctor. It didn’t stop him from trying to kill him, but there was a sense between the two that it was almost a game between them.

The decayed form, on the other hand, is willing to stop at nothing to see the Doctor dead. More than that: in The Deadly Assassin, he wants his old enemy to be “shamed and dishonored”. He wants the Doctor to suffer, far more so than Delgado ever did. Not that Delgado’s incarnation wasn’t gloriously evil, but he was arguably less sadistic than the incarnation we saw with Pratt and Beevers.

Now, the different personality can be put down to the fact that the Master is in a completely different situation this time. He’s in constant pain, he’s lost so much, and the Doctor still has a nice long future ahead of him, with many lives left at this point. It’s understandable for him to be a lot angrier this time.

New voice?

But there is one more key difference: the voice. The fact is, the decayed Master’s voice is completely different to Delgado’s. Now I won’t claim that Pratt’s and Beevers’s are exactly the same. But they are very similar, at least. That was arguably a key reason why Beevers was cast.

Pratt’s voice just sounds noticeably different to Delgado. Higher pitched, and with a different delivery, too. For these reasons, I’m convinced that the decayed incarnation is entirely separate to Delgado.

More from Winter is Coming

One reason I like the idea of the two being separate is that Delgado’s Master is just so iconic. He completely stands out in his own way. Even with Ainley’s later incarnation being similar in some key ways, there’s just something about Delgado that makes him stand out more. He deserves to be his own incarnation. (Having said that, I’m not completely against a Big Finish recast, so long as they do it exactly right.)

There’s also something intriguing about wondering what the decayed version of the Master looked like before. The scene in The Two Masters opened up interesting possibilities, and could allow Beevers to play a slightly different version of the character before he’s in constant pain and desperate for survival. In fact, who’s to say he can’t turn up in The Third Doctor Adventures?

Regardless, I think that the decayed incarnation works best when separated from Delgado’s. I like that they’re such radically different interpretations of the character, and it allows for a bit of intrigue as to the Master’s many other incarnations.

Next. Review: Twice Upon a Time’s novelization greatly improves on a flawed story. dark

What do you think? Are Delgado’s, Pratt’s and Beevers’s Masters all one and the same? Or should the latter two be thought of as a separate incarnation to the original? Let us know in the comments below.

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Doctor Who mythology: Is the decayed Master the same as Roger Delgado’s?

By James Aggas | Jul 23, 2019