Doctor Who: All The Masters Ranked Worst To Best

6. John Simm

If the Master is the mirror of the Doctor, then John Simm's manic Master is the perfect reflection of David Tennant's youthful, energetic Tenth Doctor. Utterly unhinged and very dangerous, he was teased throughout season three as the mysterious Harold Saxon, a man that would become Prime Minister of England and then enslaver of humanity. His best moments were as the psychotic Prime Minister in The Sound of Drums, gassing his cabinet, scheming with his companion/wife Lucy and unleashing the Toclafane on the world. Unfortunately he doesn't get a higher place on the list due to his remaining episodes. Last of the Time Lords saw John Simm go a little over the top in his performance. The promise of the previous episode fell flat as his imprisonment of the Doctor was wasted by turning the hero into a caged figure resembling Dobby from Harry Potter. Worse still was The End of Time, which saw him leaping around like a frog, his face flashing up like a skull and the Earth's populace replaced with grinning versions of himself. The Master has rarely been subtle but this was just ridiculous. The shame of it all was that when John Simm was good he was really good but the stories he was given ultimately failed him. It was a shame he never got his wish of playing a more sombre, darker Master that would have suited him well.