Doctor Who Character Study - The Master

The Fourth Known Master (Eric Roberts)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws-HwDZ4TIA The Master returned in the 1996 made-for-TV movie called simply Doctor Who. Played for a few seconds by Gordon Tipple, he was tried and executed by the Daleks (?), who had honored his last request (?!), by calling up the Doctor (?!!) and asking him to come pick up the remains (??!!!). The Doctor agreed to do so (?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!), and, astonishingly, the whole thing wasn€™t a trap set by the Daleks to kill him. Instead they give him a box with the Master€™s remains, and he took them away. Of course the Master, while possibly dead, wasn€™t really dead. He€™d turned into a CGI snake (€look, just go with it, ok?), and eventually took possession of an ambulance driver. But the body he was in wasn€™t stable, and he was determined to steal the Doctor€™s remaining lives for himself. This did not work out, and he was thrown into the Eye of Harmony, killed forever€or not. We don€™t know the exact details of how the Master came back from the Eye of Harmony. We do know that he was apparently resurrected by the Time Lords to fight in the Time War against the Daleks. This is at least somewhat plausible, given that it€™s mentioned in €œThe Five Doctors€ that the Time Lords could give the Master an entirely new set of lives. Why they would have been so desperate that reviving the Master seemed like a good idea is anyone€™s guess.