Forgotten Villains: The Master Deadly Assassin

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

Who is the Master? He’s my sworn arch enemy; a fiend that glories in chaos and destruction.

Photos copyright BBC

I was recently made aware of just how many movies and television shows the younger generation have never heard of, never mind seen. So to that end, we look back at some characters you really need to see before you kick the bucket.

The Master is and always has been the Doctor’s arch nemesis. Former childhood friends on Gallifrey, they somehow became sworn enemies when the Doctor left their homeworld to explore the universe in direct contradiction of Time Lord law.

There have been seven versions so far starting with Roger Delgado and currently Sasha Dhawan. But for me the most terrifying version was the dessicated one from the Deadly Assassin, This Master was decayed and dying, seemingly burnt beyond recognition. He lures the Doctor to their homeworld of Gallifrey by sending a telepathic image of the President being assassinated by the Doctor (Tom Baker) himself. He frames the Doctor before trying to murder him in side the Matrix, the total residual of all Time Lord minds. The Master plans to steal the Eye of Harmony to restore his body and give him ultimate control over reality. But not before he sees the Doctor die.

The Deadly Assassin was the Doctor’s first solo adventure, a trait Tom Baker wanted to continue but he was overruled. This story has stod the test of time and theis new version really fits in beautifully with the dark corridors. Through the story there are the deep tones of organ music evocative of the Hammer Horror movies. It reflects the pomposity of the Time Lords and the unwarranted high regard they see themselves in compared to the rest of the universe. The cathedral like sets are the perfect setting for the Master’s return.

Initially he is seen in shadow, a rasp of anger and a flick of the edge of a cloak. I cannot recall at the time if the newspapers had revealed this story would feature the Master but the little me never expected to see such a horrible figure.Wearing a dark cloak like a shroud with a deep hood to hide his burnt flesh, this was terrifying and exciting at the same time. Questions that would never be answered on screen but only in a novel like why did the Master look like this? Where was the suave charming Roger Delgado version we loved? In reality Roger had died in a car crash a few years before. The production team took the character in a bold new direction intending this to be the final battle between the two Time Lords on their homeworld.

This Master is electrifying and by far my favourite version. I proudly own the action figure still in his packaging. There is something so grotesque yet sympathetic with this Master. In the novel the Legacy of the Daleks, the Doctor finds the Delgado Master trying to revive the Daleks in 22nd century London some years after the Dalek Invasion of Earth where he left his granddaughter Susan behind in the original television story. She stows away aboard the Master’s Tardis after her husband is killed. There is an incident on the planet Tersurus where she thinks the Master has been killed. In fact his badly burned body is found by a fellow Time Lord Goff who saves him bringing him back to Gallifrey. This sets in motion the events of the Deadly Assassin.

What has always powered the Master os his desire to kill the Doctor but not before letting him see all he cares about die first. Whether his mind has been broken or his hatrred has finally cnsumed all reason, the Master finds he has no regenrations left so needs the Eye of Harmony, the heart of the capitol to restore himself again. He finds a sympathetic mind in Goff who keeps him safe in the underbelly of the city ensuring the Master can spin his web. Using the Matrix to kill the Doctor gives us a glimpse into the Master’s mind. Dead;y clowns, crocodiles, deadly swamps and bizarre soldiers twisted from what we see as normal are all weapons against the Doctor as Goff hunts him down. It is a brutal, unforgiving landscape echoing the Master’s focused intent on killing his former friend. It alos gives us the cliffhanger that made Mary Whitehouse cry Doctor Who was too violent kids. Goff and the Doctor battle hand to hand in the swamp. Gaining an advantage Goff holds the Doctor’s head underwater which freeze frmaes on the drowning Time Lord. It is brutal, it is scary but it is vital to the story and establishing the Master’s persona in this story. Never before has he been so sadistic and cold in his thrist for vengeance and power.

When the Dotor comes face to face with the Master in bright light, the Master’s face is literally a skull heild together with charred skin with eyes that look like they could fall out at any time. Even if that happened, the Master would keep going. It draws you in and as a kid was alluringly repulsive. This is Doctor Who horror at its best. The Master here evokes echoes of the Phantom of the Opera and Dracula mixed with Dr Phibes and every disfigured madman that has ever graced the silver screen.

Peter Pratt plays this Master perfectly and in the scene where the Master is found dead in his lair, there is a pensive expectation that he would come back to life in a heartbeat. There aare no eyelids to close over those eyes and the face’s skin is so taut over the remains, it looks like the Master has in reality been dead for years; a true example of the walking dead. But it is just a plan to get closer to his goal. He has faked his death. The Eye of Harmony is the nucleus of a black hole which gives the Master a new life and absolute power. But to attain that Gallifrey must fall into dust with the Doctor watching. Defeated the Master seemingly falls to his death but slips away in his grandfather clock Tardis.

We would meet this dessicated Master once again in the penultimate Tom Baker story Keeper of Traken. This time the Master has taken his Tardis to Traken where he has taken the form of Melkur. He again controls unsuspecting Trakens to do his bidding. This version is not as scary as the Deadly Assassin one. This time played by Geoffrey Beevers, husband of the late Caroline John 3rd Doctor companion Liz Shaw.

This time the mask was a seond skin so you could see the actor’s features allowing for more connection, something Jon Pertwee preferred for his monsters like the Draconians. This time the Master gains a new body in the form of the unfortunate Tremas, Anthony Ainley and would go on to haunt the Doctor until the final story of the classic era Survival.

But it is the Deadly Assassin version that sticks in the mind for the horror content alone. To see any familiar character even a villain twisted and deformed such as here is jarring to the audience but somehow draws them in with morbid curiosity.