Doctor Who news: Mark Gatiss is the Master in new scene for the villain’s 50th anniversary story!

Mark Gatiss stars as the Master in a brand new scene released for the Doctor Who villain’s 50th-anniversary story, Masterful!

As we head into the final month before its release, Big Finish is steadily releasing more and more details about Masterful – the upcoming epic story celebrating 50 years of Doctor Who’s greatest villain. We’ve known for a while (close to a year, in fact) that the box set will feature at least eight incarnations of the Master, including John Simm in his Big Finish debut. But now we know who else will star in it – particularly which old friends of the Doctor will be appearing.

Once again, Katy Manning plays former companion Jo Grant. The inclusion of this particular companion is rather fitting – just as the box set celebrates 50 years since we met the Master for the first time, the same date also marks 50 years since we first said hello to Jo.

Script Editor Matt Fitton reveals more.

"Because we’re also celebrating the first appearance of Roger Delgado’s Master, we wondered how we could represent that era and Jo Grant sprang to mind – she also first appeared in Terror of the Autons. So we asked Katy Manning if she’d like to be involved as well and she said yes, which is great."

But Jo isn’t the only companion who’s returning in this box set. In the newly-released clip below, the Master from another universe – played by Mark Gatiss, who’s played the role in several Big Finish audios – meets the shape-shifting companion Kamelion…

Kamelion

Kamelion’s return is also rather fitting. Not only were the character’s two on-screen appearances both stories featuring Anthony Ainley’s Master. But Kamelion is also voiced in the audios by Jon Culshaw – an actor who’s proven to be excellent at playing several iconic Doctor Who characters. In fact, he recently voiced both Roger Delgado’s and Anthony Ainley’s Masters in two Short Trips for Time Lord Victorious. And – unsurprisingly – Matt Fitton has confirmed that he’ll be voicing at least one of these iconic incarnations for this multi-Master event.

"We also thought about other tools the Master has used over the years and it made sense to include Kamelion. We were delighted that Jon Culshaw agreed to play that role and, through him, we were able to channel the Anthony Ainley Master – among other surprise guests!"

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”

Terror of the Master

Could Jon Culshaw be voicing Delgado’s incarnation in Masterful itself? It wouldn’t surprise me, especially for a multi-Master story as big as this one. But even if he isn’t, fans who purchase the limited edition version of the story – either on CD or download – will be treated to a bonus audiobook featuring the iconic incarnation. Written by Trevor Baxendale and narrated by Jon Culshaw, Terror of the Master is a brand new story featuring the Third Doctor, the Master, and UNIT.

Baxendale has revealed hints of what we can expect from this brand new bonus story.

"I approached Terror of the Master as a Target novelisation – it’s about the same length – of a six-part TV story we never saw. But then it’s also satisfyng to up the ante just a little – I gave the Doctor and the Brigadier an exciting car chase through London, with hitmen on motorbikes and bullets flying, which wouldn’t have been achievable for the programme on TV."

The more we hear about this box set, the more exciting it sounds. We can’t wait to listen to every single disc – including the one that features two great short stories previously released on download – when the box set is released on Jan 2, 2021.

You can pre-order the limited edition box set of Masterful right now on CD or download directly from Big Finish. If you just want the anniversary story itself, you can instead pre-order the standard edition, also available from Big Finish on CD or download.

Are you excited to listen to Masterful? What did you think of the brand new scene? How do you think Jo will react to meeting her old enemy? Let us know in the comments below.