Welcome to Gaia! ::

I'm just curious about The Master. I'm a new fan of Doctor Who, and like most new fans my first doctor was the Tenth. Thus, of course, my first Master was Saxon.

Now, in modern Master, the character is shown to be in somewhat of a very sympathetic light: he's got this odd Love/Hate obsession with the Doctor, his actions are driven by his insanity, and his insanity was caused by the people he trusted most when he was just a child, whom we actually meet and thus can see what jerks they are up close. Despite the fact that the Master basically commited genocide twice during the Tenth's reign, he is still a difficult character to dislike, and even more so difficult to place the blame of it on his shoulders.

So, as stated earlier, I'm curious if this was a new light of the character that the new writers were playing around with, or if the Master's always been such a conflicted character? I'm talking about the Master in the ClassicWho series, obviously. Were the drums that huge of a focus in the early series, as they were in this one? I read in a Wikepedia report that, one story was planned where the Master dies and its speculated that he died to save the Doctor, so I have to guess that Love/Hate relationship was there from the beginning, but again, I'm only guessing, as I havn't seen any of the early episodes yet.

So, to any veteran Who fans out there: what's the story? Was the current Master written true to his ancestors, or did the writers take the villian running and have their fun little ways with him?

I'm honestly interested in this, so if anyone knows of any Classic Who episodes that would put the past Master into a clearer light for me, please let me know and I'll see if I can find it somewhere online. Please and thank you ^_^

Oooo. This is something that I too, would like to know. I am in the same situation, and am very curious at what the answer is.

Ah, but if I were to just do all the research myself, what would I have to talk to all you lovely people's about? Though, your comment about five made me curious to watch his episdoes. I'll start with him first ^_^

heehee celary smile

Will do, Eruvanne! Hee, though I'll admit, I got distracted by reading the online webcomic, The Five Doctors. Have you seen it yet? Pure love! And, it's only made me that much more excited to go watch the old doctors. Though, there was no Saxon Master in the comic ;_;

The comic inspired me, made me want to do something Fan-Made myself; typically I'm a fanfic-er, but again, I don't feel I know enough about Who yet, epecially the Master, who is who I really want to write about. Part of what prompted me to put up this thread in the first place sweatdrop

Ask any old-school Who fan which was the best master and they'll invariably plump for Roger Delgaldo(sic?)'s incarnation of the character. And, to be fair, from what I saw of the early Pertwee era he was more or less what you'd expect the antithesis of the doctor to be. He was the brainy master who relished his encounters with the doctor and their continual games of mental chess with one another.

Then along comes Anthony Ainley (sic, again? I'm too lazy to wikipedia this stuff :/ ) and he's all manic glee and pantomime villainy. He's closer to the current Master in this respect, but he gets a lot of stick from the fan community for his percieved lack of threat and, to quote five, his 'rubbish beard'. Personally I love the Ainley incarnation, mostly because he was such a collossal ham. This was the Master who'd twiddle his moustache and swish his cape while committing dastardly deeds which were always, inevitably, foiled by the end of the serial.

Then there was Eric Roberts Master in the movie. This...we don't talk about so much. Partly because he was supposed to be some sort of spectral snake but mostly because Roberts made him into the high king of camp.

So, in summary, the master's mental condition's been going downhill for years. It's not Timelord treachery, mind, just the apparent belief by the writers that the less sane something is the better a villain it'll make. Hmm.

Actually, wasn't his plan to create a huge paradox by making the future human race kill the past human race (thereby removing the future human race from existence, meaning they didn't kill them, etc...)? I mean, it probably would have worked if the Doctor didn't randomly turn into Tinkerbell/Jesus at the last minute, but it was still a pretty insane plan.

Uh... I know he turned the TARDIS into a paradox machine, but I can't remember the reason behind it. Honestly, I didn't pay that much attention to that particular season as a whole... so yeah... ninja