Its not what happens to a character that defines who he is, rather its how he handles those things. This is so trite that its become a platitude. Yet, when one thinks about Doctor Who, the longest running sci-fi series on television, one has to wonder whats made it so enduring. It all boils down to how the Doctor deals all the challenges. When those menaces are the Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, to name just a few, it is easy to see why the Doctor is one of the most beloved of all sci-fi characters. Yet, whereas the baddies listed above are the greatest threats to the universe, the Doctors greatest enemy isnt one of them. His nemesis is another Time Lord, The Master. The Master is Professor Moriarty to the Doctors Sherlock Holmes; he is the yin to the Doctors yang. But, who is the Master? He is best summed up by the Doctor, who said, He is my sworn archenemy. A fiend who glories in chaos and destruction. (Episode 88 The Deadly Assassin)
Actors
Like the Doctor, the Master has had different faces over the years. These are the actors who have played the character, as well as the years they held the role: Roger Delgado 1971-1973 Peter Pratt 1976 Geoffrey Beevers 1981 Anthony Ainley 1981-1989 Eric Roberts 1996 Derek Jacobi 2007 John Simm 2007-? Now that the particulars are out of the way, time to move on to the juicy drama of:
The Masters History
The Doctor and the Master grew up together on Gallifrey. Most importantly, in so far as their temperaments are concerned, both were at the Untempered Schism, the rift in space and time where every Time Lord is initiated. The initiation involves looking into the vortex. The rite of passage drives some Time Lords mad; in the Masters case this is exactly happened. From this time on the Master is plagued by a persistent four note drum beat he calls the drums of war. If it had been a Neal Peart drum solo the Master would have been a much cooler person, but that is the breaks. The Master was introduced in the episode Terror of the Autons during the Third Doctors (Jon Pertwee) exile on Earth. During this time (episodes The Claws of Axos, The Daemons, The Sea Devils and Frontier in Space) the Master aligned himself with different races, with different agendas. He always worked with them only so far as it served his own purpose, which ultimately was to destroy the Doctor . The Master returned to menace the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) in the episode The Deadly Assassin. At this point, he has reached the end of his regeneration cyclesTime Lords can regenerate 12 times. His body is badly disfigured and he is dying. He hopes to use the Eye of Harmony to gain a new regeneration cycle, but is foiled by the Doctor. He escapes Gallifrey and ends up on Traken where he takes over the body of Tremas (an anagram of Master, anagrams being a device much loved by the shows writers), in the episode The Keeper of Traken. Though not what he had hoped, i.e. gaining a new set of regeneration cycles, taking over Tremas is good enough to keep him going. In Tremas body he does manage to mortally wound the Fourth Doctor, who regeneration in the episode Logopolis is incredibly difficult. The Fifth Doctor (Peter Davidson) and the Master cross paths in several episodes: Time Flight The Kings Demons The Five Doctors and Planet of Fire, in all of which the Master is sent on his way, tail between his legs. In the 1996 made for television movie Doctor Who, the Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann) faces the Master. In the prologue the Master is put to death but manages to survive in the form of a snake entity. He infects the Doctors TARDIS and forces it to crash land in San Francisco. The Master cannot sustain the snake form and quickly possesses the body of Bruce, a paramedic. He cant sustain Bruces body either, which slowly starts to degenerate. In a futile attempt to steal the Doctors remain regenerations, the Master gets sucked into the Eye of Harmony and killed. Or was he? When the series was revived in 2005, so was the Master. In the episode The Sound of Drums we learn that the Time Lords resurrected the Master to serve as a soldier in the Time War. Yet, when the Dalek Emperor took control of the Cruciform, the Master fled and disguised himself as a human, Professor Yana. The disguise is more than a superficial affectation. Time Lords have a device, the Chameleon Arch, which rewrites every cell of their body to that of a particular species. To mask his identity and memories from being discovered he uses a fob watch, a quite sophisticated zip lock device, where he can store them until a later date. The Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) runs into Professor Yana in the episode Utopia. During the encounter Yana opens the fob watch, regaining his identity as The Master. He is mortally wounded by Chantho, his companion, and regenerates into a younger manifestation. He escapes by stealing the Doctors TARDIS, but unbeknownst to him the Doctor has sabotaged the TARDIS to travel only to Earth, circa 2006, and the end of the universe, circa 100 trillion (give or take). While on Earth, the Master hides as Harold Saxon and works his way to a high-ranking minister at the Ministry of Defense. From here he manages to win the election to become Prime Minister. He aligns himself with the Toclafane, enslaves the Earth, kills one tenth of the worlds population and captures the Doctor. Not bad for a half hours work (episode run time, that is). But, like the Trix rabbit, the Master never really gets his prize. The Doctor manages to stop him and decides to imprison the Master on the TARDIS to keep a close eye on him. Being the only two Time Lords left, the Doctor feels responsible for the Master, and, naively believes he can change him. Lucy Saxon, the Masters wife, has other ideas, as scorned women are wont to do; she shoots and mortally wounds him. When resurrection is an option being mortally wounded is an all to common occurrence. In a final tantrum in the Doctors arms, the Master refuses to regenerate and dies. Nanny-nanny boo-boo! Stick your head in Sorry, I digress. In a fitting tribute to his misunderstood foe, the Doctor cremates the Master on a pyre, putting an end to their great rivalry. Or does it? (By now Im sure you know that no one every really dies in sci-fi, right?) Luckily for the Master there was a coven dedicated to him, and one of their number manages to snag his ring from the fire. Hmm, whats all this, then? In the episode The End of Time the coven resurrects the Master at Broadfell prison (anagram of Elf Load Br), where Lucy Saxon was incarcerated. Lucy interferes with the resurrection and the Master is brought back to life with a voracious hunger, shoot bolts of electricity from his hands and jump great distances. He is eventually captured by billionaire Joshua Naismith who wants the Master to repair the Immortality Gate. Naturally, the Master hijacks the device and uses it to rewrite the DNA of every human on Earth with his, truly creating a Master race. Finally the Master learns that the drumming in his head was a signal. He uses the Master race to find the signals source, which turns out to be Rassilon, the founder of the Time Lords. Rassilon had implanted this signal as a way for the Master to ultimately free the Time Lords from the Time War. Seeing a chance to overwrite the Time Lords DNA with his own, he attempts to do so but the Doctor destroys the link to the time-locked Time Lords. Furious that his life has been manipulated, the Master attacks Rassilon, disappearing forever with all the Time Lords in the process. Or has he? What would the Doctor be without his archenemy lurking somewhere close, peering out from the shadows? In the episode Remembrance of the Daleks, the Doctor said, You can always judge a man by the quality of his enemies. Without the Master, the Doctor would be greatly diminished. Normally the audience isnt supposed to root for the antagonist, but in this case I hope theres a miraculous resurrection just around the corner.