The Master

The Master is a renegade Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey who is intent on ruling all of time and space.

Early Life
The Master, then known as Koschei, grew up on Gallifrey. He came from the House of Oakdown, which was one of the most respectable households. He was taken, though, at the age of eight, like most other Gallifreyans of the same fate, to join the Academy to train as a Time Lord. He was happy enough and even had a close friend named Theta Sigma, with whom he would run in the fields of his father’s estates and such.

The event that set off his life apart from others occurred during the ceremony where the young children would look into the Time Vortex. While most would run away or cry, Koschei refused to give in and look away. However, the effect that it had upon him was tremendous; in fact, he went insane. At that time, he began to hear the sound of drums, something that would stay with him the rest of his life. He feels though, instead of being affected by it, that he was chosen by them. A call to war, he calls him, believing that something special was destined in his life. This is not so, however, and it would be hundreds of years before he found out their true nature.

Even in the Academy, Koschei and Theta continued to be bullied. A particular child named Torvic was ruthless. It happened one day, that while Koschei and Theta were out in the fields, Torvic refused to leave Koschei alone. Theta felt he had to act, but it went too far; Torvic was killed. Later, Death came to visit Theta and tried to make him her disciple. Theta refused, instead, he suggested Death take Koschei. She complied, making Koschei her champion. Without knowing about the drums, the Doctor felt afterward that he was largely responsible for the one who became the Master. Even if he would still meet the same fate, being made Death’s champion certainly didn’t help.

As they grew older, Koschei knew nothing of Theta’s deal. They remained close friends for years. Together, they were apart of a clique known as the Deca, with others such as Ushas and Magnus. Never ones to follow rules to the letter, the pair frequently snuck to the outskirts of the Capital to spend time drinking and laughing with the Shobogans.

Becoming the Master
Upon graduating at the top of his class and passing his flying test, Koschei was granted his own TARDIS. Theta, however, was denied one for himself. When Theta – who became the Doctor – took off from Gallifrey after stealing a TARDIS, the Master decided to go after him. The Council, being a little cautious of him at this time, planted a spy Time Lady named Ailla who posed as Koschei’s human companion. When the Master met up with the Doctor, he ended up getting too distracted by the possibility of using the Darkheart device. In the meantime, he also found out his companion was a spy and a traitor to him; any good that had been left in his hearts was now gone. The Doctor trapped him there in a black hole to stop him from gaining the using the device, and the Master has sworn revenge on him ever since.

It seemed from then on that there was a bit of a cat and mouse chase between the two. The Master met up again with the Third Doctor on Earth, and the Doctor frequently managed to foil the Doctor’s plans. Years went on like this, where it seemed they chased each other and tried to undo the works of the other. The Master was always trying to take over some planet or another to begin his plan of intergalactic domination, while the Doctor was always trying to fix everything and make it all better again. The Master enjoyed the game, the Doctor being a worthy opponent, but there were times where it was simply infuriating.

Degeneration
At one point, the Master encountered the Eighth Doctor and his granddaughter, Susan Foreman. In order to save the Doctor from being shot by the Master, Susan’s husband David took the bullet. The Master kidnapped Susan, thinking her merely one of the Doctor’s human companions, and unfortunately, he massively underestimated her. Upon landing on Terserus, Susan forced the Master outside by using her powers with his own TARDIS’ telepathic circuits. She left him on the planet and shot him with his TCE; this effected a massive explosion, for he was holding a Dalek transmuter. Susan fled with his TARDIS, and the Master suffered a terrible degeneration.

He was found and rescued by Chancellor Goth, whom he promised to help gain power in return for his conveyance back to Gallifrey. The Master gained power through Goth and even had access to the Matrix. He was able to get a new TARDIS, but later, he was eventually stranded on the planet Traken. With some of the Keeper of Traken’s powers remaining, the Master was able to merge his degenerated body with that of Tremas, thus allowing him to have a ‘normal’ body once more. This body wasn’t that of a Time Lord, however; he was going to have to find other ways to maintain it or a new body to inhabit if this one failed.

The Master later learned of a device called the Warp Core, which he planned to use as power for his TARDIS. However, the device was too powerful; he ended up suffering a degeneration once more. Using a mask, he hid his deformed face. It was after this time that the Seventh Doctor made a new deal with Death. The Master lived, during a ten-year period of time, as a normal, sane person named ‘Doctor John Smith.’ At the end of this time, the Doctor had to kill him. When the Doctor found that John was living a peaceful life, he tried to avoid fulfilling his end of the bargain. However, Death was present, having hidden herself as John’s maid. It was revealed that the Doctor had once made a deal with her, and that he was the reason the Master had originally become Death’s disciple. Though he, as John, forgave the Doctor, the Master later hated him for it. She eventually arranged events so that the Master would break through the façade, becoming himself once more.

Eventually, the Master was tried and destroyed by the Daleks; having prepared for it, the Master’s essence survived via a deathworm he had acquired. He was able to inhabit another body that he found on Earth. He sought the Doctor, this time meeting him in his eighth incarnation. Having failed to steal his body – and its remaining regenerations – the Master fell into the Eye of Harmony.

After the Time War
The Time War came, and the other Time Lords decided to bring back the Master, seeing him as the perfect weapon for the war (even if they also saw him as a disease). He was to protect the Cruciform, but even he was terrified of it. He ran away, leaving the war to his peers. However, before he left, he was approached by Romana, who asked his help. Especially pleased by this, the Master did oblige, telling her of a temporal gate between this universe and E-Space, a place in which she could take her Hand of Time group to remain in stasis until the Doctor found them. The Master couldn’t go with them, however, in order to complete his plans. To the end of the universe he went, trying to find a place he could never be found. Using a fob watch, he hid identity and rewrote his biology. He was now a respectable man known to others as Professor Yana. The title itself reflected how much others treasured him – universities hadn't been around for at least a thousand years. Still, he was rather modest as Professor Yana, even though he was quite a brilliant fellow.

Professor Yana lived with the only other humans on Malcassairo among Futurekind. He had an assistant named Chantho, the last of her race called the Malmooth, and he had truly forgotten who he really was. However, this all ended when the Doctor and his friends, Captain Jack Harkness and Martha Jones, managed to come to the end of the universe. They tried to help, but during the process, Martha managed to recognize the fob watch and allow him to actually see his watch that he had previously thought was broken. Upon opening the watch, Professor Yana was no more and the Master came back to be. He immediately returned to his own plans, and Chantho knew she had to stop him. After letting in the Futurekind to come after the Doctor, the Master fatally harmed Chantho. Before he could get away, she shot him. She died, and he locked himself inside the TARDIS before the Doctor could get the door open. He regenerated, becoming a younger incarnation to match the Doctor. He left the Doctor and his companions at the end of the universe, but not before the Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to lock the coordinates, sending the Master back to the last place the Doctor had been – 21st century Earth.

Harold Saxon
The Master was there a total of eighteen months, back before the Doctor had actually left for the end of the world. He worked his way into existence, getting himself a wife that proved a worthy companion of his own, a woman named Lucy. Under the name of Harold (Harry) Saxon, the Master eventually became Prime Minister. The Doctor, Martha, and Jack came back days after the election. The Master had well gotten his way to ruling everything, but that wasn't stopping the Doctor. Using perception filters, he and his friends got on the Valiant during the day the Earth was to “meet” the Toclafane – who were in fact the humans seeking Utopia from the year 100 trillion. However, the Master caught the Doctor, using his newly created laser screwdriver to reverse the effects of the Lazarus technology and make the Doctor age 100 years. He also caught Jack, though Martha got away using Jack's vortex manipulator.

For a year, the Master was able to have his rule of all over Earth, planning to further his reign. However, it was around this time that Martha came back after having spread an idea around the world – at a certain time, everyone would think of the Doctor, using the power of combined thought to release him and bring him back to his correct age (after having been aged 1000 years at that point). The Doctor used his temporary power to remove the Master's laser screwdriver from him and whisper the words he didn't want to hear (“I forgive you”). Unable to give up the fight, the Master teleported the Doctor and himself to the earth, threatening to blow up his fleet and everything else. After a small fight, the Doctor ended up teleporting them both back to the Valiant, just as Jack destroyed the paradox machine in the TARDIS that the Master had set up. The year rewound, becoming the Year That Never Was, and the Master was caught.

However, this wasn't the end. His own wife, Lucy, shot him, to his surprise (though falsely so). Perhaps it was all in his plans though, a backup in case he failed. He didn't wish to be a prisoner of the Doctor, trapped inside the other’s TARDIS for the rest of time. Despite the Doctor begging him to regenerate, the Master refused to give in, declaring that he won. He died in the Doctor's arms and was later burned in a pyre during the funeral that the Doctor gave him. The Doctor thought that he once again was alone after the death of the only other Time Lord in existence.

The End of Time
But that was not the end. A woman was there, ready to pick up the Master’s ring, the one that contained his biological imprint, ready to bring the Master back to life. Years later, when the time was ready, the Disciples of Saxon brought Lucy from her prison cell to witness the rebirth of the Master. Using the book that the Master had left for this cult, they brought him back according to his plan – though there were guards present, ready to thwart said plans. As the Master was being reborn, hovering in the air above them as his body reformed, they used an elixir that was meant to counteract this potion. However, instead of killing him, the Master was greatly damaged – and in more ways than one. At first, he thought that the changes were so incredible, especially for the all the powers he had gained. He now had the ability to shoot electricity, to jump and practically fly. It was almost like a dream, too good to be true. It was when he would phase into a skeleton-like form that the Master began to notice things were wrong with him – he was dying from all the energy he used and was practically being torn apart. The use of his abilities was killing him, and he was even more insane than before.

However, the Master wasn’t one to give up or die. In attempts to sustain himself, the Master found that he had to eat and a lot. Not wanting to harm Lucy, who had remained faithful to him, the Master ran off, finding any and all food that he could find. He also dyed his hair in attempt to slightly disguise himself, having been brought back looking like Harold Saxon, the former Prime Minister. The Doctor also eventually found him, and the Master showed him the drums within his mind – proving that he wasn’t insane. Afterwards, he was captured, and was taken in to fix the Immortality Gate, though he was able to easily take control of it. The Doctor came with Wilf to stop him only too late, though Wilf was able to stay in the radiation chamber to protect himself. The gate, once used, turned the entire planet into the Master so that every human on Earth became him.

Later, after the Doctor was able to escape with Wilf because of the Vinvocci, the Master then recognized that a signal was being transmitted to him – by none other than the Time Lords during the Time War. Taking the opportunity, the Master realized that he was the link that could bring the Time Lords out of the time lock. He pulled them back through the use of the Whitepoint Star that Rassilon had sent, expecting to either turn all the Time Lords into him or to be able to join the Time Lords as they transcended physical bodies into beings of pure consciousness. However, because of what Rassilon said, the Master realized that this wasn’t what they had wanted to do at all. The Time Lords had started the drums in his head and had done everything to him that had plagued him for life. In addition, they even named him a disease.

After the Doctor told him to move and shot the link to break it instead of him, the Master decided to return the favor – be it because of their old friendship, a payback for not killing him, or of his desperate wish for revenge on Rassilon (perhaps a combination of all three) – attacking Rassilon with his powers instead. Unleashing all his fury upon him, the Master was unfortunately pulled into the time lock with them whilst doing so. Once again, he found himself back in the Time War – and seeing the end that he had already left before in the actual time of the war. However, whilst waiting for the end of it all, the Master remembered something very important, and that was the point of his salvation. The Doctor had released the Hand of Time’s ship from the temporal gate, in addition to a galactic ‘sling-shot’ of energy. It would echo back through time and come through the era of the Time War – and then he’d be there to grab onto it and pull himself to safety.

La Vuelta and Beyond
And then, the Master returned, horribly scarred, more insane than ever, and slowly coming to yet another end. He was back to the time of the Doctor, to the present-day universe, and was able to fight the fight again. His body was failing quickly, and he was far past the ability to regenerate safely. He was afraid of dying, especially after all he had been through and survived. Not to mention, he had so many plans… He went to the Gelth, and he made a deal with them. If they got him to the Hand of Time station, they would have access to Time Lord bodies, and they could have corporeal form again. The Master, on the other hand, planned to steal a TARDIS coral and force its growth rate. But that was before he had at last heard the call, the call of his own TARDIS. At last they would be reunited. And at last his body would be saved.

Not only was the situation ideal, but he discovered that Susan Foreman – the Doctor’s granddaughter who had forced his degeneration and stolen his TARDIS – was aboard the station and had been granted a full set of regenerations. The Gelth brought both Susan and Amy Pond, one of the Doctor’s companions, to him. After taking them to the Cloister Room of his regained TARDIS, the Master restrained the two women and began to drain Susan of her regeneration sets. But then, the Doctor was there again, ready to stop him. The Gelth was turned against him, while the Doctor and his companions escaped. The Doctor tried to save him, but the Master refused his help once more. His TARDIS helped start the regenerative process; the Gelth were fought off, some destroyed, and the Master gained a new body.

With a new regeneration came new possibilities. Despite having found out the true origin of the drums, the Master has decided that he will only let this disease of the Time Lords fester and ruin all of time and space all the more. Those drums will not end, going on forever in an unending beat that drives further in fury and a frenzied wish for domination – and so will the Master.

Personality
The Master, when it comes down to it, is a power-hungry Time Lord gone wrong. It was once said to him that he is “one of the most evil and corrupt beings [the] Time Lord race has ever produced. His crimes are without number and his villainy without end.” He wants power, and he will stop at nothing to achieve it. His determination is what really pushes him, and it transcends most of his other traits. Most could describe him as insane. Perhaps he truly is, after having looked in the Time Vortex. Ever since, he has suffered madness and has heard the sound of drums. But he was chosen by it, and maybe the insanity is just a side effect of what it wants of him. It is a call, he believes, a call for war.

The outward exterior of this incarnation of the Master is that of a smooth, suave businessman. He seems very in-control of himself, and his very demeanor demands excellence from those around him. He uses his commanding presence to his advantage, of course, and he excels at managing the work of others. More often than not, he is calm, cool. He’s quick to make up his mind, and he believes his justice to be perfect, as least as it is suited to him. Without hesitation, he will use his Tissue-Compression Eliminator, if need be.

He’s swift, quick-thinking, and clever. In general, this incarnation has a very dry wit. The Master is very innovative when it comes to the use of technology. He’s a master at creating weaponry. Even more, he knows just how to manipulate people. The Master is charismatic, quite adept at using his words wisely, drawing others to himself when needed or persuading them to do as he so desires. When this fails, the Master uses his strong psychic abilities to affect the minds of others.

Despite his outer appearance of complete control, the Master has an even darker interior with more intense desires than before. Because of his revelations regarding the Time Lords’ retroactive use of the “drums,” as well as his recent degenerative state, this Master was born with hatred already boiling over in his hearts. His plans for power, as ever, are the most important to him. Although he generally gives orders or uses his TCE, this Master is more likely to give in to physical displays of violence. He knows how throw a punch and the quickest ways to bring another man down. In addition, his methods of torture are ever-growing, and he seems more eager to use them than before.

Appearance
After having spent an unfortunate amount of time in those hideous jeans and sweatshirt (not to mention the fact that he turned into a blue skeleton quite frequently), the Master has at last regenerated into a new body. He now stands at about six feet tall, and he is rather slim. His hair, light brown almost to the point of blonde, is kept short and is somewhat spiky when ruffled. Despite past incarnations, this Master keeps his face free of facial hair. His eyes are an icy blue, a feature he knows how to utilize well.

In general, the Master wears dark-colored suits; the dress shirt is often left unbuttoned, as though he has other things on his mind. However, when he wants to impress – or perhaps assert his dominance more than usual – he takes special care with his clothing. He’ll wear a tie and button up the suit jacket, making sure that this particular suit is one of his nicely tailored ones. He also has a pair of black leather gloves that obviously hark back to his older days. They do nicely to protect the hands and to help keep his identity secret, if need be. Additionally, he has a long black lab coat that he uses when he’s locked away for hours, developing a weapon or chemicals for whatever purposes he has recently concocted.