Master (Doctor Who audio)

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Master
Big Finish Productions audio play

Series	Doctor Who
Release number	49
Featuring	Seventh Doctor Master
Writer	Joseph Lidster
Director	Gary Russell
Producer(s)	Gary Russell Jason Haigh-Ellery
Executive producer(s)	Jacqueline Rayner
Production code	7Y
Set between	Project: Lazarus and The Sirens of Time
Release date	October 2003

Master is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It forms a trilogy with Omega and Davros to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the show. It features the Seventh Doctor as its main character.

1 Synopsis
2 Cast
3 Notes
4 External links

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The Seventh Doctor arrives at an old house on the colony world of Perfugium where he has, through a deal with Death, sent the Master to live without memory of his evil for several years.

It is eventually revealed that while the Seventh Doctor was Time's Champion, the Master was Death's. This was a result of an incident in their youth, when the Doctor accidentally killed a boy who was bullying the young Master. When Death came to him, the young Doctor gave his childhood friend over to Death (personified as a woman) rather than become its slave himself, causing his friend to take on all the guilt & after-effects for his crime and ultimately become the Master.

However, as a result of this, neither the Master nor the Doctor remembered the truth, instead having the false memory of the Master being responsible for the death. The deal the Doctor made involved Death allowing the Master to be what he would have been if he had not become her avatar, but in return the Doctor would have to kill him ten years later.

Rendered amnesiac and thinking his name was John Smith, the Master becomes a benevolent doctor on Perfugum. At the end of those years, however, Doctor is unable to bring himself to kill him. This causes Death to become personally involved, unleashing a night of horrors upon the household. The truth of the Master's past is revealed, but "John Smith" forgives the Doctor for this. However, the end implies that the Master will once again become Death's servant.

[edit] Cast

The Doctor — Sylvester McCoy
The Master — Geoffrey Beevers
Man — Daniel Barzotti
Child — Joe Bassett
Jade — Charlie Hayes
Victor Schaeffer — Philip Madoc
Jacqueline Schaeffer — Anne Ridler

[edit] Notes

Geoffrey Beevers reprises the role of the Master, whom he previously played in the 1981 story The Keeper of Traken and the Big Finish Productions audio play Dust Breeding.
The Master spends most of the play in his "John Smith" personality. However, when his true personality briefly surfaces, he is quite contemptuous of the idea that Death had anything to do with his creation. The Master scoffs at the idea of being Death's Champion, casually tells her to be quiet and generally dismisses her. This may imply that Death is exaggerating her role in the Master's formation.
The personification of Death had previously appeared in the Virgin New Adventures line of books, and this story, although it is set after that line of books, shares much of its tone with them.
Death tells the Doctor that she knows what is inside his head and sings a paraphrased version of the Zagreus nursery rhyme, foreshadowing future events.

v • d • e Seventh Doctor audio dramas
The Sirens of Time • The Fearmonger • The Genocide Machine • The Fires of Vulcan
The Shadow of the Scourge • Last of the Titans • Dust Breeding • Colditz • Death Comes to Time • Excelis Decays
The Rapture • Bang-Bang-a-Boom! • The Dark Flame • Project: Lazarus • Flip-Flop • Master • Zagreus • The Harvest
Dreamtime • Unregenerate! • LIVE 34 • Night Thoughts • The Settling • Red • No Man's Land • Return of the Daleks • Nocturne