Doctor Who: What Roger Delgado’s and Michelle Gomez’s Masters shared in common

Roger Delgado and Michelle Gomez. The original and the most recent Masters in Doctor Who. In some ways, you couldn’t imagine a more different pairing. But at the same time, do they share something unique in their portrayals of the Doctor’s arch-enemy?

Michelle Gomez was a rather unique interpretation of the Master. There was the clear distinction that, unlike all of the other incarnations we had seen in Doctor Who, this incarnation was a woman. More than that, this Master embraced that. Renaming herself “Missy”, she turned herself into a complete parody of Mary Poppins. Honestly, considering what we saw of John Simm’s Master at the very least, thinking that a woman should be like Mary Poppins actually suits the character, in a strange way.

With her very eccentric behaviour, her love of humor and her open insanity, Gomez’s Master shared a lot in common with Simm’s, and it was very easy to believe that she was a natural extension of him. But, at the same time, she shared much in common with another Master altogether: the original (and arguably the best), Roger Delgado.

Don’t get me wrong, Delgado’s and Gomez’s incarnations are certainly very different. (Although they both had a high level of charm.) Delgado was methodical and restrained while still having a flair for evil. Gomez was psychotic and completely insane.

However, there’s one key thing that these two incarnations shared that many, if not most others don’t: a strong hint of friendship with the Doctor.

A long time ago…

During Delgado’s era, while he often tried to beat the Doctor, or even tried to kill him, you also had a strong hint of their old friendship. It’s stronger with Pertwee and Delgado than with other Doctors and Masters, which makes sense. At this point, while they’ve been enemies for a while, their enmity isn’t what it will become later on. There’s a strong hint of respect that they have for each other, and at the end of Terror of the Autons – the first story we see the Master in – the Doctor admits that he’s “looking forward” to their next meeting.

There are even moments when the Master tries to talk the Doctor round to his side. One moment that stands out is in Colony in Space.

"Look at all those planetary systems, Doctor! We could rule them all!"

Of course, the Doctor wasn’t interested. The Master rarely made offers like that in his later incarnations, especially to the Doctor. That hint of their old friendship made the relationship between Pertwee’s Doctor and Delgado’s Master so much more interesting, as it was so much more unique compared to later incarnations.

That is, until Michelle Gomez came along.

…we used to be friends

Dark Water and Death in Heaven are certainly flawed episodes for Peter Capaldi’s Doctor. But one thing that I appreciated – particularly in the latter episode – isn’t just how it established Michelle Gomez’s new incarnation of the Master. It’s also how it brought the Doctor’s and the Master’s friendship back in a whole new way.

It’s revealed in Death in Heaven that Missy wants her “old friend back”. That – after centuries of just being enemies – she’s ready for her and the Doctor to be friends again. Of course, that doesn’t mean she wants to turn good (not right away, at least). No, she wants to make the Doctor more like herself, first. Not just in Death in Heaven, but even in The Witch’s Familiar, when she tries to trick the Doctor into killing Clara. Even with her extreme methods, she wants her old friend back just as much as the Doctor does.

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Which leads us to Series 10. One thing I enjoyed about this series was how it explored the idea of the Master trying to be good. One last effort to renew her friendship with the Doctor (and to save her own life, of course). It’s an interesting idea to explore, especially when she bumps into her previous self. While Simm’s Master was in some ways more restrained than when we originally saw him against Tennant’s Doctor, Steven Moffat made sure to write him with plenty of spite towards the Doctor. Enough spite, in fact, to kill his own future self, just so he knows he will never be friends with the Doctor again.

Missy’s journey was a fascinating one, and it was great to explore the Doctor’s and the Master’s relationship in a brand new way. It looked at how close the two were to being friends again, something we hadn’t seen since Delgado. In some ways, it went even further than that. After years of the two primarily being arch-enemies, it was great to have that complexity added back to it.

What do you think? Do you think that Delgado’s and Gomez’s Masters shared this much in common, at least? Do you think other Masters had hints of friendship with their Doctors? Let us know in the comments below.