Doctor Who: 5 Possibilities (And Potential Pitfalls) Of The New Master

1. The Influence Of The Doctor

Saving the least obvious, but most intriguing consideration for last, I wanted to highlight the potential impact the new Doctor's personality may have on the new Master. For instance, it is fair to say Delgado's Master is responding to Pertwee's Doctor. Inasmuch as Pertwee was the James Bond Doctor, Delgado is a Bond villain. His disguises are sillier than his successors, his minions are less skilled, but most importantly, they take delight in the game of their rivalry. Similarly, Simm's take on the Master is affected by Tennant's Doctor. They are both more emotional, more tragic, and more comical. At this point, it is difficult to say how Capaldi's Doctor might take the Master in a new direction, given how little we know about the new Doctor, but he should, and hopefully will. And, to be fair, the counterargument here is obvious. One could say these correlations are merely a narrative of hindsight or a reflection of the chemistry between the actors who played them. After all, for most of the Master's tenure his lives are intersecting multiple regenerations of the Doctor, and the portrayals by Ainley and Beevers were brilliant in their own right. But if one is right in suspecting that there was an effort within the writing that made them fit each other just a little bit better, then here is to hoping it continues. Press 'next' for the conclusion!