Doctor Who: What stories could Big Finish tell with John Simm’s Master?

John Simm will make his Big Finish debut on forthcoming Doctor Who audio drama, Masterful. Could we possibly have other stories for his Master?

(Image Courtesy: Big Finish Productions.)

In 2021, John Simm will finally join Big Finish in a special Doctor Who audio celebrating the Master’s fiftieth anniversary. But what other stories could be told with his incarnation?

Is anyone else looking forward to Masterful? I know I am. While it’s undoubtedly going to be a seriously long wait for January 2021, the three-hour multi-Master story is sure to be epic. Especially with so many Masters featured, including (but not limited to): Geoffrey Beevers, Alex Macqueen, Derek Jacobi, Michelle Gomez and of course, John Simm.

That last bit of casting is particularly exciting, especially as I wasn’t sure it would ever happen. John Simm’s Master is truly iconic, especially for those who grew up with the New Series, so it’s fantastic that he’ll be joining so many others for the character’s fiftieth anniversary story.

But even better is where Simm joining Big Finish could lead to. While I don’t expect him to show up in any stories involving the Doctor directly – particularly as his encounters with his oldest enemy seemed to be extremely mapped out in his TV appearances – that doesn’t mean Big Finish couldn’t give us many more stories with him.

After all, in Utopia, it was clear that the Doctor had never met “Professor Yana” before. But that didn’t stop Big Finish from bring back Derek Jacobi as the Master – and in his very own series, too. Could the same be done with John Simm’s Master?

Harold Saxon

There are certainly a few possibilities that could be explored with Simm’s Master. Perhaps one of the most obvious is the gap between Utopia and The Sound of Drums, at least from his perspective. At the end of the former episode, the Master escaped in the Doctor’s TARDIS and fled to twenty-first century Earth.

We know that the Master was there for at least a year, perhaps as long as eighteen months. We also know that, during that time, he lead an election campaign and became Prime Minister of the UK.

But what lead to that point? How did someone who came from nowhere gain power over time? How did he meet his wife, Lucy, and how did he gain her trust? All of these things could be explored in a potential spin-off set during those early days for this particular Master, in a series that focused on the rise of “Harold Saxon”.

Rise to power

This would be a particularly interesting series to explore, for two reasons. First, just like with Derek Jacobi’s incarnation in The War Master, we’d get to see the Master’s schemes build up over time. Honestly, the scheming itself can be more interesting than the result. (Both versions of House of Cards made sure to have plenty of fun with the villain protagonists and their sheer deviousness, especially when they did everything they could to become prime minister or president.)

Secondly, while I’m sure he’d get to be insane and have plenty of moments of humor, we could also see a more restrained side to Simm’s Master. We could have moments when the insanity would break through, but generally, the Master would have to be more subtle before he could become Prime Minister. I suspect that would be a side Simm would love to play, if his fantastic performance in World Enough and Time and The Doctor Falls is anything to go by.

The Year That Never Was

Exploring the rise of Saxon is the idea that leaps out the most. But there are certainly other clear possibilities. For example, there’s the gap in-between The Sound of Drums and Last of the Time Lords, a gap filled by “the Year That Never Was” when the Master ruled the world. This could be less interesting as a series however, at least if the Master was the protagonist.

With him ruling the world the whole time and with no one to stop him, it would be a series better suited to Martha as the lead, with Simm making cameo appearances, if we’re lucky. (The anthology The Story of Martha in fact took that very approach, with the Master only appearing for mere pages of the book. But it worked extremely well.)

With the Master getting killed at the end of Last of the Time Lords and The End of Time focusing on his resurrection, there’s no gap at all between those stories to explore. However, the gap between The End of Time and World Enough and Time is definitely another story.

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Escape from Gallifrey

It was established very quickly in the latter that a lot had happened to Simm’s Master after we had last seen him. We were given the quick summary of him getting his body renewed on Gallifrey and escaping from the Time Lords before getting his TARDIS stuck on a Mondasian colony ship.

There’s definitely a lot that could have happened between those last two points, however. It’s very clear that a lot of time has passed for Simm’s Master, and while The Doctor Falls represents his end, there are definitely plenty more stories that could be told.

Just what did he get up to after he escaped Gallifrey? How many worlds did he visit? How many did he destroy? It’s certainly an exciting prospect, and just one more reason why I and many other fans are extremely excited about John Simm joining Big Finish.

Do you think John Simm’s Master should have his own audio series? Which gap do you think would be worth exploring? Let us know in the comments below.