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

Standard for me as well. I do like their packaging, but its too much space-eating and haven't really bought one except the The Light At The End, which was the 50th anniversary after all.

As for the release itself, I'm pumped. Its too bad James Dreyfus made things so ostensibly difficult for him not to get hired for this, but its probably for the best. If we're getting Ainley via a recast, btw, I wouldn't a recast Delgado, with the promise that it wouldn't be a constant usage, as in his recast would only be employed possibly for the Third Doctor Adventures and not anywhere else (although, you know, the idea of some of the furure Doctors going against him, like the Seventh or the Ninth, is irresistible).
 
With how recast-happy BF have become in the past couple years, a new Delgado has to be only a matter of time. Maybe for next year’s Third Doctor Adventures, which will also be in line with the Master’s 50th anniversary. I wouldn’t be surprised if the narrator of “Terror of the Master,” whoever that may be, ends up with the job.
 
Has Eric Roberts played The Master at all between this and The Movie?
 
JD said:
Has Eric Roberts played The Master at all between this and The Movie?
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Yes, a couple of times for Big Finish. First in The Diary of River Song: The Lifeboat and the Deathboat and then in Ravenous: Day of the Master with The Eighth Doctor.
 
A cast list for the story was just listed in Doctor Who Magazine, which spoils two notable additional characters appearing.

Jo Grant and the Lumiat, the latter of which is a particularly vital character in Missy's second Big Finish box set.
 
JaxsBrokenHeart said:
A cast list for the story was just listed in Doctor Who Magazine, which spoils two notable additional characters appearing.

Jo Grant and the Lumiat, the latter of which is a particularly vital character in Missy's second Big Finish box set.
Click to expand...

the former was also mentioned in this month's Vortex from BF.
 
I had Masterful for Christmas 2019 off my wife. I expected it in February 2020 and checked the release date in January 2020. I was a year out.

One global pandemic later, it's due soon - ish !

I'm having the Eccleston series for Christmas this year. First one's due around my birthday in May (2021) !
 
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New trailer for Masterful, which I think seems to suggest another Master (likely the Ainley version) will be involved in the main story. Possibly the Deldago version too as there's a voice at 1:17 I can't place among the main male cast (Parker, Beevers, Culshaw, Roberts, McQueen, Jacobi, Simm, Gatiss).
 
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It seems that Jon Culshaw will be imitating Delgado and Ainley. The latest DWM suggests that the Master invites the other incarnations to witness his triumph, but they get jealous and complicate things.
 
Recently finished the story. Overall its enjoyable, though it feels torn between being a character examination of the titular figure and an over the top adventure, thus it doesn't always feel its doing either concept complete justice.

Cast wise its tremendous. Gomez, Macqueen, & Jacobi are great as expected (though the latter's story feels a bit of waste of him) and Milo Parker makes for an intriguing young Master who's not quite become the ruthless figure he later would. Simm isn't bad but it goes for the more manic End of Time characterization than the restrained Doctor Falls variation and verbally his voice just sounds different from what I remember.

The real standouts are Beevers and surprisingly enough, Roberts. The former gets some real emotional material to sink his teeth into and creates an believable little character journey for the incarnation that's most known for being power hungry and vengeful. The latter feels like he finally finds his voice as the Master, giving an unnerving sense of malice even though he plays almost all his scenes fairly calm and friendly. If Jacobi is the Master who can fake affability to the point where you almost want to believe his façade, Roberts pulls off being the snake you're constantly waiting to strike.
 
I listened to this straight through last weekend and was generally pretty pleased. It’s certainly better as a celebratory release than anything Big Finish have done for the anniversaries of Doctor Who overall or for their own milestones (20th anniversary, 100th/200th/final main range story, etc). I think it does just enough character-based stuff to justify its length and not feel like a candy-floss runaround, without becoming bogged down in unnecessary seriousness. The gradual reveal of the connections among the different events in which the Masters become involved after they split up is well done.

Perhaps surprisingly given that he’s a big get and this is his first work for BF, Simm’s Master feels like an afterthought— Goss doesn’t seem to know how to write for him (this isn’t actually the kind of manic he was on screen), and Simm seems to be one of those actors whose presence doesn’t translate well to audio. Gomez, Jacobi, Beevers, and MacQueen are good value as ever; I’m not really sure what the point of having Gatiss’s version in is other than completism, or what the point of Parker’s version is at all. Roberts definitely comes into his own as the Master here. His River Song story was about as wooden as his TVM work, but there was more promise in Ravenous 4, and this script definitely plays to his strengths. It’ll be interesting to see if he’s equally good in the just-released Master!
 
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