#master who series

[whoisthemaster]

Why does no one ask, Master Who?: (#3 - Oh No, He’s Crispy!)

Why does no one ask, Master Who?: A Character Study Series Masterlist

Our next topic to cover in the subject of the Master is his Anakin Skywalker---er, I mean, sudden change in appearance and re-appearance when he surprises us all in the Fourth Doctor’s era. I think this is where his now signature long running gag for ‘coming back from the dead’ without any explanation truly began. 

So, because of the tragedy that happened to Roger Delgado, the Master as a character was kept out of stories for quite awhile until the 4th Doctor’s era in 1976′s episode, “The Deadly Assassin.” An episode not only remarkable for bringing back the Master in a MUCH darker state, nearing the end of his regeneration cycle, but the fact this episode began a lot of the mythos of the Time Lords and Gallifrey as we know it. Played by two different actors for two different episodes years apart, the fandom has dubbed the Peter Pratt and Geoffrey Beevers Master’s as the Crispy Master or Decayed Master, due to his decaying form looking like he was fighting with a Jedi for control of the high ground and lost (Still too soon? Okay.) 

In ‘The Deadly Assassin,’ the Master’s disappearance is explained to us when he comes up with a clever plot, sending the Doctor back home to Gallifrey in order to uncover a mystery into the future premotionions of the Lord President’s death (and of course he’s behind it.) This Master is FAR more dark than his previous self, hell-bent on only his survival, even if it means taking the rest of Gallifrey with him to achieve it. Only his hate and need for revenge keeps him going. Although it may seem the Master has finally lost, this is only when we start to realize how great of a survivor he can be when it comes to death.

Making a return in ‘The Keeper of Traken,’ he’s still focused on attaining a body that can handle the presence of a Time Lord. Although he isn’t able to obtain the Doctor’s, using his cunning, the Master ends up stealing the body of Tremas of Traken, finding a way to extend his life a little longer.

Important Character Traits for Crispy!Master:

High sense of Self-Preservation. He doesn’t care what it takes to stay alive. This is the first time we see it with the Master, even if he’s going completely against the Doctor to do so.

Known for being the most ruthless of the Master’s incarnations (and that’s saying something.)

His physical state of being rotten and decayed can be used as a metaphor for how evil he is as an individual. As Geoffrey Beevers remarked; this is what the Master is like without his smooth looks and charm: as he put it, "the essence of the creature.”

However, in Big Finish, thanks to Beevers himself, and the writers, Crispy gets more of a development. Despite being just ruthless because of his current situation, ‘being faced with his own mortality also gives him plenty of poetic and calm moments.’ 

The Many Explanations for his Crispy State:

Geoffrey Beevers remarked that this is what the Master is like without his smooth looks and charm: as he put it, "the essence of the creature". This seems to be a running theme with this Master. The first Crispy Master is the ugliest and cruellest of all, while the second Crispy seems to have "healed" a little and is a step back towards Delgado behaviour (how much of the "healed" appearance is intentional and how much of it is due to the limitations of Beevers' makeup compared to Pratt's mask is unknown).

There are also many more explanations of how the Master became decayed on the TARDIS Wiki. 

[causalityparadoxes]

The Moon and the President's Wife // BOOM

Bonus:

[isjasz]

[Day 180]

I started what I wanted to draw tdy too late so have more preening ft. the Christmas sweaters :D

[assignmentimprobable]

Thinking about how Doctor Who took the comforting sentiment that is "you are not alone" and turned it into a threat.

[tinkerbitch69]

Best part of the sound of drums/ last of the time lords is the shared arc Martha and Jack have of pining hard for the doctor despite believing him to be immortal and timeless and above such things as romantic connection only to see him simp big time for the genocidal megalomaniacal sadistic bigot who made their lives hell for a year and simultaneously realise

‘Wait, seriously?!!! THAT GUY???!!! That’s the guy we’re playing second fiddle to?!’

And both of them decide ‘hmm you know what? Maybe he ain’t worth it. He really ain’t all that.’

[dandelionjack]

missy doesn’t understand that she’s in the wrong genre. she believes she’s in a darkly alluring gothic romance instead of an optimistic sci-fi show. in her genre, gifting your estranged ex/enemy/lover/best friend/twin flame an indestructible undead army to prove to him that your will to power is identical is the most romantic gesture imaginable. it’s victory via surrender, it’s control through abdication. all her scheming to “corrupt” him, to demonstrate that they’re the same deep down, that his sanctimonious morality is nothing but a method of keeping his own conscience clean, that’s the hannibal gene, the lestat gene (*obviously the dynamics aren’t 1-to-1 similar, but… close enough) and missy’s tragedy in death in heaven is in that, within the narrative format she’s trapped in, she can never succeed

[lokittystuckinatree]

Inspired writing choice to have Maestro trap the Doctor inside a beating drum of all things

[sentientsky]

who tf names themselves “lord president”, anyway? get zapped, loser

[wincheskka]

Oh Ncuti, you know us so well!!! so when does he come back?

[ubububububusgoround]

Michesticker + dollsticker yay

[whoisthemaster]

Why does no one ask, Master Who?: (#2 - The Moriarty to your Holmes)

Why does no one ask, Master Who?: A Character Study Series Masterlist

Since my last topic cover was on the Academy nickname that was symbolic of what the Master would become for the future, I now only think it’s fair to continue our journey with the man who started it all, the legendary Roger Delgado aka Delgado!Master. I will cover Delgado himself later on in another post, but here we will explore how the Master exactly came to be as a character. 

The creative team (Terrance Dicks, Barry Letts, and Robert Holmes) came up with the idea of a recurring villain for the Doctor in the 70s. Someone who would be a Moriarty to the Doctor’s Sherlock Holmes. They chose the title of ‘the Master’ because it was a title conferred by an academic degree, much like the Doctor’s.

And from here, the Master was created for the first time, appearing in ‘Terror of the Autons’ and for the next 50+ years.

A would be conqueror of the universe, and former best friend of the Doctor, his only ambitions were to 1. Rule the Universe as ‘the Master of all matter,’ and 2. Make the Doctor suffer. First played by the talented actor, Roger Delgado, who had a long standing history of playing villains, he portrayed his Master as true to the trope of Faux Affably Evil. Even though he wanted to bring the Doctor down, you could tell he didn’t really want to kill his friend, and would sometimes join forces with the Doctor if the situation REALLY called for it. They both enjoyed their ‘battle of wits’ together. He’s suave, charming, and polite, a person who knows exactly what he wants and what he is doing, but he will also kill you without a single thought. And despite hating humans, the Master had some degree of villain respect for Jo and the Brigadier, even considering the Doctor to be his most worthy opponent. For all of the classic run’s Season 8 & 9, you see this play out. 

Important Character Traits for Delgado!Master (besides World Domination):

The Master can hypnotize his victims to do anything he wants, saying his usual catchphrase: “I am the Master and you will obey me.”

The second episode of Season 8, ‘The Mind of Evil.’ It’s the one where the Master creates an evil emotion machine that uses your greatest fears against you. While the Doctor’s fears are about the monsters he’s faced along his travels and the world being destroyed, the Master’s (although he tries to act like it doesn’t affect him) is what intrigues me the most: It’s of the Doctor laughing at him.

Another important thing is two episodes later in, ‘Colony in Space’ is that the Master offers the Doctor to join him in ruling the world when he plans to use a Doomsday weapon to destroy a civilization. The Master says that the Doctor could join him, that they could reign benevolently and end war, suffering and disease. The Doctor turns him down and says that absolute power is evil. The Master tempts him again and says that he is offering a half share in the universe, but of course the Doctor isn’t for it. He wants to see the universe, not rule it.

There is one last thing I would like to mention for Delgado’s Era of the Master and it is the unmade story, ‘The Final Game.’ It was meant to be the Third Doctor’s and the Master’s final story together. The story was to end with the reveal that the Master and the Doctor were brothers or two different opposing aspects of the same being (the Ego and the Id), and the Master dying in a manner which suggested that he sacrificed himself to save the Doctor's life. However, sadly, Roger Delgado died in a car crash before it was made, so the story ended up being scrapped.

If that story ended up coming to be, just think of how much of a game changer it would have been! 

*mindblown*

[causalityparadoxes]

The Master always bringing in diagetic music, (I Can't Decide, Hey Missy, Rasputin, etc) because they've always been a little miffed that THEY couldn't hear the non-diagetic theme music like the Doctor could.

Imagine your best friend swore up and down they could sometimes hear situationally relavent music. Yet you were stuck with a 4 beat pounding in your head or nothing.

Like sooooo unfair. Hand me the aux, I'm leveling the playing field

[archivistofnerddom]

In the last few years, Star Wars has really been giving some great content about:

Girl Dads and the (adopted) daughters they love, support, and protect completely

Bail Organa and Leia Organa (“Obi-Wan Kenobi”)

Hunter and Omega (“The Bad Batch”)

Master Sol and Osha (and Jecki as well, if I’m being honest) (“The Acolyte”)

AND

Boy Moms/Mother Figures who love and fiercely defend the boys they’ve adopted

Beru Whitesun Lars and Luke Skywalker (“Obi-Wan Kenobi”)

Maarva Andor and Cassian Andor (“Andor”)

With bonus points to:

Girl Mom Breha Organa who is a moderating force to her husband and daughter while also being a loving and supportive guiding figure

Boy Dad/Uncle Owen Lars who just wants to keep an innocent boy safe in a terrible galaxy for as long as possible

Boy Dad Clem Andor who also saw a scared boy and gave him a safe place to call home

Girl Dads/Uncles/Big Brothers Tech, Wrecker, Crosshair, and Echo who also give Omega everything she needs to survive and a family to love completely

[stompandhollar]

the master is gonna be so pissed that the doctor keeps proposing to run away with every handsome stranger he has flirtatious banter with. “we could argue among the stars”— ???????? whore!

[twocrowssinatrenchcoat]

"Her master was Anakin Skywalker?" LMAOOOO LOOK AT HIS FACE THIS POOR MAN HAD WAR FLASHBACKS

Morgan has NO IDEA

[dandelionjack]

the composition of this shot... finger pointed at the doctor in accusation, bill is speaking the words but both masters are talking through her, surrounding her as witnesses as she channels their bitterness, their rage, their abandonment. the master waited for him. jack waited for him. older amy in that hospital waited for him. bill waited for him. ashildr-me waited for him. but he always came back too late. the man whose ship's engine noise is a sound that heralds hope wherever it lands left the ones he cared about behind. when hope itself leaves you behind, what redemption could you ever dream of?