10 Doctor Who Mysteries Explained Outside The Show
4. How Did Missy Become The Spy Master?
The introduction of a new Master at the end of Spyfall raised the eyebrows of many fans. Exciting as it was to meet the Sacha Dhawan incarnation, there was also a pressing question on everyone’s lips: how?
Practically every Master story ends with the character meeting their apparent demise, only to reappear unscathed in future stories, with no logical explanation. But Missy, the incarnation immediately prior to Dhawan's Spy Master, is a special case.
Over the course of Series 10, viewers had seen her come around to the Doctor’s way of thinking, to the point where she was prepared to stand with him against the Cybermen. That is, until she was killed by the Saxon Master. But in Spyfall, this redemption arc (and her death) has been completely forgotten.
For some fans, this was a discrepancy too big to gloss over, with many insisting that the Spy Master must come before Missy. But for those wanting to stick to a more linear chronology, Big Finish has offered an alternative explanation.
Released just a few months after Spyfall, Missy: Series Two posits that, following her death, Missy’s ‘goodness’ was distilled into a new incarnation: the Lumiat.
Mirroring Missy’s own fate, the Lumiat is killed by her previous incarnation. The Master’s kindness is implied to have been completely purged in the process, paving the way for a more traditionally evil incarnation.