Doctor Who: Struggling to survive – Exploring a distinct kind of Master story

The Master has often been portrayed as an evil megalomaniac in Doctor Who. But there’s another side to them, too – a side that is constantly fighting for survival. We look back on some of the stories that explore the Master at their most vulnerable.

I was watching The End of Time from my new Doctor Who: The Complete David Tennant Collection box set when something occurred to me. Over the years, a distinct kind of story has been explored, over and over again, with the classic arch-villain the Master. While they’ve often been portrayed as a powerful and manipulative megalomaniac, there has been another side that’s often been explored with the character: the struggle for survival.

This was first explored in the classic Tom Baker serial, The Deadly Assassin. Previously, the Master had been portrayed as charming and charismatic with Roger Delgado’s incarnation. A clear psychopath, but still a surprisingly likable one – the dark mirror image to Jon Pertwee’s aristocratic Doctor.

However, after Delgado’s sudden death and a long absence from the series for the character, writer Robert Holmes decided to reinvent the Master in a big way. This new Master – believed to be separate from Delgado’s, although it is admittedly hard to be sure – has been horrifically scarred and disfigured in an off-screen adventure. (There are various conflicting explanations in the expanded media, but The Two Masters provides the most satisfying one.)

On top of that, he’s also on his last life. As such, he’s in an extremely desperate situation in Assassin, one where he risks everything just to extend his own life. Gallifrey was saved by the Doctor, but the Master escaped at the end – not rejuvenated, but with an extended life span, at least.

Surprisingly, the Master only had three appearances during Tom Baker’s era, two of which featured the decaying incarnation – and even then, played by different actors. While Peter Pratt played him in The Deadly Assassin, Geoffrey Beevers took over four years later in The Keeper of Traken. TV-wise, this was a very brief appearance for Beevers, before Anthony Ainley’s iconic Master took over at the end of the story.

Cheetahs and snakes

Facing the Fourth Doctor in his final adventure, this incarnation restored the Master to the grand schemer that we often saw with Delgado. Anthony Ainley’s Master appeared throughout the Eighties and, thanks to The Five Doctors, essentially met all seven Classic Doctors.

But while Ainley’s Master was often portrayed as trying to take over the universe, his final story, Survival, probably gave us one of the more interesting portrayals of his incarnation. During Doctor Who‘s final serial, the Master was trapped on the planet of the Cheetah People, and while he wasn’t losing his life, he was gradually losing himself, as he slowly started to turn into a Cheetah himself. So his struggle for escape – both off the planet and from his new condition – provided an interesting new angle on his Master.

Seven years later, and the Master had found a new form in the TV movie. With his body exterminated by the Daleks, his consciousness only survived because of a Deathworm Morphant – a serpent like creature he had obtained that was a kind of symbiote. By this point, the last remnants of his original Time Lord body had been completely destroyed.

As the Morphant, the Master possessed an innocent ambulance driver, Bruce. But Bruce’s body decayed rather quickly, and so the Master aimed to possess the Doctor’s body instead. So once again, the Master’s situation was one of desperation and survival – perhaps even at his most desperate yet.

A fresh take (on decay)

When the Master was brought back in the New Series, initially, both Derek Jacobi’s and John Simm’s incarnations were effectively introduced as part of a brand new life cycle. But what’s really surprising is that – in just the character’s second story of the New Series – Russell T Davies once again put the Doctor’s arch-enemy into a desperate situation.

While John Simm’s Master had seemingly died at the end of Last of the Time Lords, he was (not for the first time) resurrected at the start of The End of Time. However, the process was interrupted by his wife, Lucy Saxon, leaving him with a body that was desperate for energy – and food.

More from Winter is Coming

• For All Mankind finally gives us information in Episode 405, “Goldilocks”
• Watch a stunning VFX breakdown of The Wheel of Time season 2
• Of course Steve Toussaint (Corlys Velaryon) thinks Eve Best (Rhaenys Targaryen) should rule Westeros
• Confirmed: The Last of Us season 2 will air in 2025
• Final season of Star Trek: Discovery will have “a lot of action, a lot of adventure, a lot of fun”

This last take is in some ways the strangest. The character had only been brought back for one three-part story just two years before. As a result, it seemed unnecessary to “reinvent” the character like we saw in The Deadly Assassin. The Master’s obsession with food was also weird. Things improved with this Master once he took over the world (again) and became everyone (which was new). Still, it’s hard not to think that this particular exploration of the Master’s struggle for survival was one of the weakest.

This kind of storyline is interesting to explore. Particularly with Geoffrey Beevers’s emaciated Master, as seen (or rather heard) in Big Finish’s many audios. But it needs to be done right, and it needs to be done at the right time. Or at least, with the right Master. Because the Master playing the role of evil genius wanting to take over the universe might be an old trope. But it’s also a classic one, too.

How do you prefer the Master to be portrayed as? A grand, evil manipulator plotting insane schemes? Or as someone struggling to survive, doing anything and everything he can to extend his own life? Let us know in the comments below.