News Big Finish will celebrate The Master's 50th anniversary with "Masterful"

Big Finish announced today that they'll be celebrating The Master's 50th anniversary in 2021 with a special three-hour, eight-disc epic called Masterful starring John Simm, Michelle Gomez, Geoffrey Beevers, Mark Gatiss, Derek Jacobi, Alex MacQueen, Eric Roberts, and Milo Parker. All they're missing are Roger Delgaldo and Anthony Ainley, alas.

John Simm said, “It's a real honour to play this character: the nemesis of the Doctor. He's everything the Doctor is but he's evil. And it's been great recording with Big Finish. You don't get bored, it's fantastic. It's fun. It went really quickly. And I got to work with Derek Jacobi.”

Producer, David Richardson, added, “It was all Jason Haigh-Ellery’s idea. ‘We should do a special for the 50th anniversary of the Master in 2021,’ he said, and I leapt at the chance to produce it. James Goss was the perfect choice as writer -we knew he’d offer something as entertaining as it was dark, as imaginative as it was thrilling -and he hasn’t let us down!"

“But my first port of call was securing the talents of our Masters (and Missy) - many of them had worked for us before, but for John Simm this was his Big Finish debut. They say never meet your heroes, but they’re wrong. I had one of the best days of my life in studio with Sir Derek Jacobi and John Simm, towering actors and simply two of the warmest, loveliest human beings you could ever hope to spend time with. This may be a line-up of pure, unadulterated evil - but behind every sinister smile there’s a lovely actor we’re blessed to work with!”​

 

All I want is the War Master to address Saxton and Missy with:

"So you're my replacements? A nanny and a clown."

 

Which incarnation is Milo playing? A recast incarnation, or a new incarnation? (Though I don't know where he'd fit.)

For some reason I was thinking of the War Doctor (well, John Hurt) when I read this. I was thinking "pity that'll never happen" but it's the Jacobi Master.

 

I think Milo might be the first Master.

 

Okay.

Good to see they're getting the Unbound Master in there (Gatiss). I wonder if they're thinking of including the Unbound Third Doctor (David Warner) for him to bounce off.

 

Yup, that's my thinking as well, which is why I linked to his IMDb profile: He's a kid, best known for Mr. Holmes and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.

 

There’s speculation that bringing in Milo Parker is a way of not using James Dreyfus, who has played an original-to-BF incarnation of the Master that might be the first. There was some controversy in BF fandom about Dreyfus’ comments on trans people, and while BF didn’t really commit to anything, they’ve deemphasized his involvement in the publicity materials for recent releases, and the fact that he’s not in this is suggestive.

For anyone who didn’t click through and is curious how a three-hour story runs to eight discs, the story only covers the first three, which are available by themselves as a standard edition. Disc four is behind the scenes material, disc five contains two previously-released readings of short stories featuring the Master, and the last three discs are a “new, narrated audiobook featuring the Third Doctor, the Master and UNIT.” It’s not clear whether that means original material or a pre-existing book that’s never been available in audio form.

 

What audio(s) is James Dreyfus in? I'm rather behind on my Big Finish stories, although I'm coincidentally listening to Day of the Master today.

 

He’s only been in two stories released so far- “The Destination Wars” from the First Doctor Adventures (the series with David Bradley and the other AAISAT cast) and the second Doctor story “The Home Guard” from the Early Adventures (the part-narrated series that uses a mix of surviving original cast members and recasts). But he’ll be in the February 2020 main range story “The Psychic Circus” alongside the Seventh Doctor, and he’s also in one of the upcoming Fourth Doctor stories.

 

Ah, okay. I'm waaay behind on Early Adventures and I haven't listened to any of the David Bradley stuff.

 

Another possibility is that Milo is playing the kid Master seen in the Titan comics, who apparently existed between the MacQueen and Jacobi versions, yet fought later in the Time War (alongside Hurt's War Doctor) than Jacobi did.

 

Hmm, the kid seen in The Sound of Drums at the Untempered Schism, perhaps?

 

Yes, that's what we're (or at least I am) thinking when we said the First Master.

 

And now we have a glorious cover!

The limited edition has an even more inclusive version.

 

Dang, I'd forgotten there was already a thread on this. How do I delete mine?

 

You can't after someone posts in it. Send a PM to a moderator and they'll take care of it.

 

I wonder if Mark Gatiss won't just play the Master of the Unbound series and simply just play a recast Dreyfus. Come to think of it, WHY didn't they use Mark Gatiss as an original Master all this time, especially for the First Doctor Adventures.

 

I can "hear" Jacobi saying that in my head, right down to the way he would inflect his voice. If that doesn't happen, it'll be a missed opportunity.

 

Big Finish dropped Dreyfus as quietly as possible; I doubt they’d highlight the fact by recasting that specific incarnation when they could just create another one.

I think this will be the first limited-edition BF release in a while where I go for the standard version instead. I never listen to the making-of disc, the Short Trips I can get elsewhere if I want them, and I’m not really interested in an audiobook by Trevor Baxendale.

 

Yeah, I might go with the standard, too. I've been collected all of the limited editions and I don't think I've missed any (although I was really late on getting the one featuring The Sixth's final days and I was surprised it was still available). Between mostly switched all downloads and Big Finish halting all physical deliveries for the foreseeable future, along with what you said about the special features, I'll probably just go with the standard.