Doctor Who: EVERY Version Of The Master Explained
5. The Child Master (First Appearance: 2007)
The Series 3 episode The Sound of Drums gave us a rare insight into the Master's life as a child on Gallifrey.
Young actor William Hughes played this version of the character, dressed in the black-and-white Time Lord robes reminiscent of those seen when the Time Lords were first introduced in the 1969 serial The War Games.
In a brief flashback sequence, we see a young Master stare into the Untempered Schism, a gap in the fabric of reality through which the entire time vortex can be seen. We learn that this is a form of initiation, with Gallifreyan children being taken from their families at the age of eight, and entered into the Time Lord Academy.
This formed part of the Master's origin story, suggesting that he became the way he is because the Untempered Schism – and the immense power it contained – drove him insane.