Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time! 

“Master: A Haunting Reflection on Good, Evil, and Redemption”

The final part of Big Finish's Villains Trilogy is a compelling exploration of morality, identity, and the complex relationship between the Doctor and the Master. Framed as a haunted house mystery, the Seventh Doctor faces off against the decayed incarnation of the Master (voiced by Geoffrey Beevers), who exists under the persona of "John Smith." This character-driven story delivers an eerie, atmospheric tale packed with psychological tension, ethical dilemmas, and standout performances.

Atmosphere and Setting: A Classic Gothic Tale

The story’s intimate setting—a remote house shrouded in stormy weather—immediately establishes a brooding atmosphere. The unsettling sound design, with strange voices echoing through the halls, enhances the story's haunted quality. The anonymity of the house's owner, Doctor John Smith, and the gradually revealed secrets of the supporting characters sustain a constant undercurrent of unease.

The classic Gothic overtones—hidden identities, dark pasts, and the thin line between good and evil—make this a standout example of Big Finish's ability to reimagine Doctor Who in new and evocative ways.

The Master Reimagined: A Tragic and Unstable Figure

Geoffrey Beevers delivers a masterful performance as the decayed Master, torn between his John Smith persona and the dark memories of his true identity. The parallels to Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are clear as Smith's outward civility crumbles under the weight of his suppressed nature. His interactions with the Doctor are electrifying, particularly as the story probes whether redemption is possible for someone as corrupted as the Master.

The supporting cast amplifies the Master’s complexity. Jacqueline, played by Anne Ridler (from Wheel in Space), represents a misguided hope for the Master’s redemption, believing in the goodness of his John Smith persona. Meanwhile, Philip Madoc’s (one of the all-time great Doctor Who guest stars; see The War Games and The Brain of Morbius) Victor steals the show in Part 4, his transformation from a seemingly helpful friend to a brutal murderer adding layers of moral ambiguity to the tale. This is easily Madoc’s finest performance in the Whoniverse.

The Seventh Doctor: Manipulative and Unpredictable

Sylvester McCoy’s Seventh Doctor is at his most enigmatic and manipulative here, entering the narrative as a delirious stranger and slowly unraveling the mysteries of the house. His morally ambiguous deal with Death and his willingness to exploit others to entrap the Master highlight the darker side of this incarnation. The Doctor’s conversations with the Master about evil, responsibility, and their shared past are some of the story’s most gripping moments.

Themes of Love, Betrayal, and Death

This story delves deeply into the Doctor and Master’s shared history, suggesting that the Doctor once committed murder to protect his childhood friend. This revelation recontextualises their relationship, presenting it as a tragic tale of betrayal and lost potential.

The introduction of Death, played with chilling authority by Charlie Hayes, adds an existential weight to the narrative. Her offer to free the Master from his torment—or to trap the Doctor in her service—creates a harrowing moral dilemma. The story’s exploration of love and redemption as potential avenues for the Master to escape his darkness is poignant, though ultimately unresolved.

A Gripping Climax

The final part brings the tension to a boil. The reveal of Death's manipulation, the unraveling of Victor’s murders, and the Doctor’s ultimate betrayal of the Master create a crescendo of drama. The Master’s decision, left ambiguous until the very end, keeps the listener on edge. The story concludes with the Doctor facing Death's punishment, a haunting and fitting end for such a morally complex tale.

📝Verdict: 98/100

Master is a standout entry in the Villains Trilogy, blending Gothic horror, psychological depth, and philosophical inquiry. Its exploration of the Doctor and Master’s shared history, combined with strong performances and a tense, atmospheric setting, make it a must-listen for fans of darker, character-driven Doctor Who stories.

26.09.2022

Apart from some retroactive lore contradictions to stories which came later, I liked it. Out of the three "Doctor has a somber conversation with the villain" this worked the best.

That's because they Human Natured the Master. That's it. Plain and simple.

There are of course silly moments. The Master was created by Death itself, for example. The long conversations about nurture vs nature that are just one statement repeated over and over.

Yet I can't help but love these bittersweet conversations between the Doctor and John Smith. There's such a profound respect.
4/5

The Monthly Adventures #049 - “Master" by Joseph Lidster

The Master is a character that divides me. On one hand, written well, they are possibly the best villain in Doctor Who, a twisted version of the Doctor if he had gone down the wrong path. An old friend and an old enemy in the same half breath, locked in a dance of wits and guile, pushing and pulling at a broken, cosmic friendship. And then sometimes we get quirky insane man who does funny quirky insane things for little rhyme or reason (*cough* *cough* Spy Master *cough* *cough*). Luckily for us, for the Master’s entry into the Villains Trilogy, we have none other than Joseph Lidster writing him for us, who, despite his fumble with The Rapture, is unmatched when it comes to characterisation in Doctor Who. So, as we end the Villains Trilogy and come to the end of the first block of the Main Range, it’s time to find out what exactly Lidster did with one of Doctor Who’s oldest enemies.

In a crooked old house on the outskirts of the human colony of Perfugium sits an old man, disfigured and missing half his memory, waiting for his two oldest friends to arrive. But with them comes a man from his forgotten past, and a game that will most certainly end in Death.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

I didn’t expect to love the Beavers Master as much as I did. The Keeper of Traken wasn’t exactly much to go off and god knows that story has escaped my memory since I watched it so booting up Dust Breeding early on in my marathon, I was shocked to find that the mad, conniving and spiteful portrayal of the Master, like the Delgado incarnation but consumed but hate and vitriol, was one of my favourites. And by god does this story just work to cement that, Beavers is an incredible performer and despite the Master barely being in the story, his presence is felt throughout the whole script, this ancient, chained beast ready to break forth and demolish countless lives. In fact, I think I’d call the Beavers Master my third favourite now, behind Delgado and Gomez, which was not the expected outcome of my trip through The Monthly Adventures. And all of this love mainly comes from just the scenes between the Doctor and the Master’s human alter ego - John Smith. The dialogue in this entire story is golden and pretty much every scene is made up of characters bouncing off each other to glorious effect but the conversations had by the Doctor and John are easily highlights of the audio, which is good, because it makes up about 90% of Part 2 (seriously, Part 2 is basically just dialogue). And then through this, we get to meet and know and fall in love with the character of John Smith. This is basically the Master’s Human Nature, his memories wiped, posing as a human being who has built up a reputation of a kind philanthropist, learnéd and generous to everybody he meets. Lidster really makes sure you adore this guy before you realise that he’s going to be ripped away, and a callous monster will come back in his place. It turns the entire story into a disturbing tragedy underpinned by a laden atmosphere from beginning to end. Master at times even becomes a bizarre horror story, a mix of a classic ghost tale and An Inspector Calls (which Master has an unnatural number of similarities too, perhaps it served as inspiration). It’s also hosted by a cast that, whilst pretty small with only four characters besides the Doctor, is wonderfully fleshed out and disturbed in their own ways, from the Inspector obsessed with good vs evil whilst committing a series of heinous murders, to the wealthy and snobby Jacqueline who runs a hostel to sooth her own guilt. And then there’s the meek housemaid Jade, who just so happens to be Death herself, having been playing every character like a chess game the whole time. It may surprise you that our main antagonist isn’t the Master but the Grim Reaper, brought back from the VNAs as an incredibly Seventh Doctor villain, if that makes sense: a chess playing god whose pieces are the characters, watching and mocking from afar, always smugly in control. She’s great - played wonderfully and written spectacularly; that Part 3 cliffhanger alone cements her as a worthy opponent.

Master isn’t perfect however and there were one or two things that held it back to me. For one, we’re lumped with a strange and ultimately confusing wrap-around narrative that oddly bookends the story. Basically, the Doctor is telling the story of John Smith and his turn back into the Master to a would-be-assassin, tasked with taking over the hitman’s role so as to pay back Death for going back on a deal they made. Only for it to be revealed the hitman was Death in disguise and was… testing him? It’s not really clear, Death’s actions don’t make a great deal of sense and in the end it was unnecessary. Not impactfully bad, just strange. On a more pertinent note, Master continues the trend of lending back story to its titular villain, this time around revealing what exactly made the Master the Master. And, lo and behold, instead of going down the same path as the Doctor, only for one to become enraged at his society and for the other to become dedicated at improving it, it was all because of Death. Turns out Death had marked the Doctor to become its advocate, but the Doctor had begged Death to take the Master instead, and their roles switched, the Master becoming tyrannical and evil and the Doctor becoming the great philanthropist. This rubs me the wrong way, it feels like a rewrite for the sake of it that is less interesting, nuanced and original than what came before (which kind of reminds of another uninteresting, endlessly damaging and bewildering plot twist involving the Master and the Doctor. And if you’re reminding me of that, you’ve f**ked up). Unlike Davros, where we’re simply given context for things we already know, Master works to introduce a new “origin story” so to speak that simply cannot compare to what came before. And this is all in service of a climax that I don’t like. The final moments, in a darkened version of John Smith’s house, where John is forced to choose between killing Victor and releasing the Master or letting Jacqueline die and remaining himself, are confusing. Between all the switching personalities and tricks and deceits and stoppages in time and trickery, things just become cumbersome and hard to follow, leaving me to wonder if only there was a simpler way of doing it.

Master is an excellent character study, no doubt. This is the sort of story that makes me love Joseph Lidster: dark and clever, twisted and tragic, it’s a tale of the psyche, the self and friendship. The relationship between the Doctor and the Master continues to be one of the most complex narratives in Doctor Who, and one that I will (almost) always enjoy. Here’s to more of these two old fools, and here’s to our next story, Zagreus, which will cap off the first fifty entries of the Main Range. Can’t wait.

9/10

Pros:

+ Pitch perfect portrayal of the Master with an excellent performance

+ Expert dialogue, especially between John and the Doctor

+ John is a morbidly sympathetic character

+ Great mystery with an unclear end throughout

+ Small but well developed cast

+ Death is a brilliantly acted and creepy antagonist.

+ Great, dread-inducing atmosphere

Cons:

- Unnecessary framing device

- Wasn’t keen on the reforms to the Master’s character

- Ending was somewhat of a let down

It's a stroke of genius to start things off with The Doctor telling a story of a creepy old house to an assassin. He tells the story of old acquaintances, a man who is shaking off the pressures of investigating a series of murders, the understanding but subtly undermined wife. Their friend, the host and owner of a seemingly cursed home.

It's serious and camp in equal measure and a world away from the story I thought they were going to tell as the final part of this trilogy (or fourth part of a quadrilogy?).

It slowly unravels that the house is bringing out the worst in the guests, the host has a secret identity and all this is more connected to the murders than we realised.

The Master is in such a deep disguise here that even he doesn't know he is himself, though unlike the similar reveal from Utopia (which came out 5 years later) he did not put himself into this state.

The Doctor crashes into this story whilst also remaining within the framing device of him telling the same story to the assassin. It's creates a neat rhythm across the 2 hours. We learn a dark secret from The Doctor's past with The Master which develops the brooding 7th Doctor.

Master is a work of art.  It might be, out of all the hundreds of Big Finish audios I have listened to so far, the single most emotionally moving story I've encountered yet.

I really like all the characters here.  Not only does the Master and the Doctor have a number of incredible scenes and lines here, but the supporting cast is all very memorable.  I got invested in Victor and Jacqueline, and they worked really well as friends of the Master's assumed identity.

The audio is at its best when it is nothing but quiet build-up, mystery, and a growing sense of dread and darkness.  I love the framing device of the Doctor relaying this story to a sniper.  It's very good an a cool take on the Master and Doctor's past together.  Death showing up was quite the twist, and I kept waiting for it to be revealed she is some secret alien in disguise or something, but no.  It's Death, personified and with a very specific agenda here.  It's good stuff all around and absolutely gets a recommendation from me.