Doctor Who: Should we have seen more of Derek Jacobi’s Master on television?

Derek Jacobi’s incarnation of the Master has been fleshed out considerably in his own series. But should he have appeared more on television?

(Photo credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

Derek Jacobi’s Master has proven to be popular thanks to his own audio spin-off series The War Master. But should we have seen more of him in Doctor Who on television?

A series that I enjoy listening and re-listening to over and over again is The War Master. Starring Derek Jacobi in the role, The War Master is an unusual Doctor Who spin-off in that it has the show’s greatest villain as its lead protagonist. More than that, it’s a series where he consistently wins. He gets away with murder, and much worse. It’s one of Big Finish’s darker series, but it’s also a lot of fun.

What really makes the series so fantastic is Derek Jacobi himself. Arguably one of the greatest living British actors today, he’s absolutely perfect as the Master. He brings a huge amount of charm to the role, while still playing the pure evil of the character perfectly. In some ways, he’s the closest we’ve had to a spiritual successor to Delgado’s Master, but he’s also so much more.

Still, as much as I adore his own audio series, it does make you wonder: couldn’t we have had more of him on-screen in the first place? At least for longer than just a few minutes?

Now, I can admittedly see why Russell T Davies went in the direction he did with John Simm’s Master. When he decided to bring the Master back in Series 3, it’s clear that he wanted a villain who was equal and opposite to the Tenth Doctor. That was one of the things that worked so well about Roger Delgado: with his strong sense of class and a high level of charm, he was almost a mirror image of Jon Pertwee’s Doctor.

However, at the same time, Russell T Davies also wanted to make it clear to brand new viewers that the Master was a Time Lord. That was a key selling point, at least to fans of the New Series – that he wasn’t just another villain, he was also the only other surviving member of the Doctor’s race. The best way to do that? Regeneration.

Why the short-lived Master worked (and why it didn’t)

Admittedly, having an incarnation of the Master seen for just one episode – really, for just a few minutes – sounds almost wasteful. But then again, we all remember Utopia. We all remember how amazing that episode was, especially in the final ten minutes. It really is amazing Doctor Who, with one of the best shocks of the entire series.

Even when we knew that the Master was coming back, it was still satisfying to find out how. Especially when John Simm’s mysterious character “Mr. Saxon” had been much more heavily promoted than Jacobi’s character of Professor Yana. So the regeneration itself worked.

It’s also easy to see why they introduced the Master as an old man before bringing along John Simm’s far younger incarnation. The change made more sense, and symbolically showed that Russell was moving away from the old and bringing in the new.

Still…did they have to cast someone as perfect for the Master as Derek Jacobi? I’m not complaining about the casting exactly, just how short it is for an actor of his caliber. After all, he’s been considered to be a brilliant actor for a long time, and with good reason. In just a few minutes, we had an absolutely perfect depiction of Doctor Who‘s greatest villain. And while Simm worked well in his own right, there were definitely many of us who would’ve liked to have seen more of Jacobi’s incarnation. A lot more.

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A different direction

Again however, I can see why Russell T Davies went in the direction he did. While a lot of fans would have loved to have seen more of Jacobi as the Master, at the same time, Davies wanted to make Doctor Who a show that was fast-paced and full of energy. He also clearly wanted to make the Master someone equal and opposite to the Doctor – someone full of energy and humor, but also evil and completely insane. So Simm’s Master was a better match for his long-term view of the character compared to Jacobi.

It’s still a shame that we didn’t get to see more of Jacobi’s Master on television. But then again, that’s why I’m grateful to Big Finish. Through them, not only has Jacobi’s Master become the War Master – in a very nice parallel with John Hurt’s War Doctor. But he’s also been given an era of his own, too.

It was a long time coming, (and Russell T Davies was initially against it, until Big Finish convinced him they could do it in a way that fitted continuity,) but we now have hours of Jacobi playing the Master on audio rather than minutes. In fact, at this point, he currently has had more stories in the role than John Simm’s had so far. So even if Anti-Genesis really is the final volume of The War Master, I’m still happy that we got such a brilliant series at all.

Do you think we should have had more of Derek Jacobi as the Master on television? Could he have been a worthy opponent for Tennant’s Doctor? Or do you think that Davies made the right decision by focusing on John Simm’s Master instead? Let us know in the comments below.