Spoilers Centenary Special trailer

[Steve Roby]

Is it controversial to say that I'm not a fan of any version of the Master other than Delgado? And that's only because I enjoy the dynamic between him, Three, Jo, and the Brig.

Every version since then has felt to me like a generic and annoying comic book villain, with Simm and Dhawan's Joker-inspired versions being the most grating of all. Although I couldn't stand Missy either.

I don't think TPTB have blown the casting of the Doctor yet; each one has managed to prove his or her worth, even when the stories weren't the best. But I think Delgado owns the Master in a way that no one Doctor has owned the part. Gomez had her moments, though.

 

[Chaos Descending]

Gomez is my favourite Master...I mean Missy

My favorite version of the Master was Edward Brayshaw.

 

[publiusr]

I wonder if there will be prolonged scenes on the dark…only voices? I keep forgetting Moffet’s not there…he’d have done something like that…Radio Times, pips and all.

 

[kirk55555]

^ She's my favorite for the new series. Delgado is still tops in my book. I do really like Sacha in the role though.

I agree with Missy being the best NuWho Master, but I have to give Ainley the title of best Classic Doctor Who Master, and the best Master overall. Delgado was great, but I liked Ainley's style a bit more, even the times where he got pretty ridiculous (although he could be very menacing when the scene wanted him to be).

 

[jaime]

I agree with Missy being the best NuWho Master, but I have to give Ainley the title of best Classic Doctor Who Master, and the best Master overall. Delgado was great, but I liked Ainley's style a bit more, even the times where he got pretty ridiculous (although he could be very menacing when the scene wanted him to be).

Ainley did Survival the way no one else could, he was very cold restrained malice, and when he helped the Doctor against the Time Lords in Five Doctors or Trial, you felt he would do it from an old debt as much as self interest, but always there was an ice and steel to him that Delgado didn’t have. Even when he was doing daft schemes because of bad writing, there was a malice he brought to the role. I much preferred him to other Masters, and there’s more than a little of the Tremas incarnation in Missy.

Credit where it’s due later as well, Eric Roberts did a *lot* with very little. He even sold ‘the Asian child’ as a line someone would say, and that takes a *lot*.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Also worth noting that Ainley wanted to do a darker version of The Master but JNT always had him ham it up. I believe this was particularly true for Planet of Fire.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

I'm not a huge fan of Ainley's Master, even though it's clearly JNT's fault that he wasn't more menacing. My fave has to be Delgado, but when I factor the audios in, its clearly Beevers. The guy sells the part on his voice alone.

 

[Qonundrum]

It goes by very quickly but if you slow the trailer right down at 23 seconds you'll see something worth waiting 34 years for.

Ace about to be exterminated by a Dalek since she's doing the "Chibnall revisits the show's greatest hits and memes" routine by having her hitting on it with a baseball bat, only this time she's doing so at point blank range?! I wouldn't be surprised, killing off characters is DRAMATIC OF EPIC PROPORTIONS YEEHAW!!!!11!!1!!!11!!!!!!!!1!!!2 Wonder what they'll do with Tegan... One could guess but it's probably cringeworthy...

At 60 minutes' runtime, will there be any story to give Jodie a decent send-off or is this the ultimate example of "distraction casting", a la "Fugitive of the Judoon" where far more emphasis was placed on a returning character lots of people loved over other plot developments, like the new mystery of the new Doctor (which was handled rather good... then we get to the finale, but that's another story...)? Never mind just how many elements are shoved down this finale's throat to conclude the era with... With other writers it's not as much concern but Eric Saward is the only writer I'd seen who could juggle six double-acts and make them all work, within a story that isn't overly-busy either. Chibnall's era has been a bit hit or miss where even his good stuff was under-developed or used as throwaway fodder. (Though he's made more effort in trying to expand the show's locales and origins, regardless if one likes or dislikes the execution... COVID didn't help matters with Flux, which clearly feels rushed and whittled down from its original intent/length...)

 

[Qonundrum]

No one has ever said to any Doctor Who writer, “Could you rewrite your script to preserve the narrative integrity of this tie-in that had a tenth of a percent of the audience the episode will?” Needing to turn every petty complaint into evidence of Chibnall’s failings doesn’t help the case against him; at this point the overnight ratings are making that case single-handedly anyway…

That's the problem with popularity. One makes a show popular by catering to appealing to a wide audience. The people that stick become fans. The fans like reasonable consistency, without lame narrative tricks. Eventually a cul-de-sac is reached. How do you break that to try to increase the audience after a bunch of people left for whatever reasons, usually boredom because they felt the show ran out of ideas... like the Borg Queen, complete with loose verbiage to shoehorn into the events of "The Best of Both Worlds". But some people love the new handling, others balk. Rinse and repeat. You can't appease casual audiences who aren't going to care either way after a certain point, nor can one with established fans. That's usually why shows fizzle out and new ones made, and for the latter at least some universal interest is garnered by stamping the established brand name on it.

Another example of in-story or other forms of internal continuity: It's like saying "Cybermen don't have emotions and can be killed only with gold" and then find any number of ways to make them emote (especially pride or boasting their abilities) and/or kill them, of which most didn't use gold. Or amounts of gold so small that it becomes just as laughable. Building up a menace with a set of rules and then not deviating from them because it will be seen as a lame cheat. Or using the sonic screwdriver, a device originally intended to send a unidirectional wave of sonic frequencies to unlock doors or explode mines at a distance or be used as a blowtorch can now reprogram entire computer systems anywhere in a single wave. Or, worse, take a group of marching Cybermen and turn the lot of them the other way... On the flip side, reusing the same means to get rid of them becomes just a tad predictable so something new has to be devised, if one is going to keep wringing the proverbial turnip by putting more lipstick onto it. And many shows prove that old tropes can still be re-used effectively, so...

 

[jaime]

She appears to have her bomber jacket back on.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Cybermen having no emotions has never been much of a thing on screen- they claim it in Tenth Planet, then by the next story are strutting around going "only stupid Earth brains would have been fooled!"

 

[matthunter]

Very interested to know how you whack a Dalek with a baseball bat at anything OTHER than point blank range, barring some form of gun that fires baseball bats.

Her previous bat-on-Dalek scene was at the EXACT SAME RANGE, Qonundrum....

 

[jaime]

Cybermen having no emotions has never been much of a thing on screen- they claim it in Tenth Planet, then by the next story are strutting around going "only stupid Earth brains would have been fooled!"

I have always taken it that emotion, and particularly identity, is more repressed than removed. Cyberleaders in particular love a good bicker.

 

[Turtletrekker]

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[Lonemagpie]

I have always taken it that emotion, and particularly identity, is more repressed than removed. Cyberleaders in particular love a good bicker.

They've openly said that several times in Nu Who. - Age Of Steel and (urgh) Closing Time spring to mind.

 

[jaime]

They've openly said that several times in Nu Who. - Age Of Steel and (urgh) Closing Time spring to mind.

I think it was obvious even in Tenth Planet, by by the time the raving queens of Revenge show up, it’s in the bag. It’s why David Banks is (or was, since he’s classic who) one of the few series regular villains despite always being under plastic. He practically unionised the Cybermen, which is why the Cyber controller is somewhat XL in Attack.

 

[StCoop]

While being interviewed with Ncuti on the BAFTA red carpet Russell said that it's a 90 minute episode; so feature-length actually means feature-length for once.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

While being interviewed with Ncuti on the BAFTA red carpet Russell said that it's a 90 minute episode; so feature-length actually means feature-length for once.

Thank the gods. My hopes for the special being able to handle everything it's going to have in it has risen greatly.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

Very interested to know how you whack a Dalek with a baseball bat at anything OTHER than point blank range, barring some form of gun that fires baseball bats.

Very good, this.

Indeed, by definition to hit someone with a handheld weapon a person would need to be within point blank range.

A Dalek is a litte tank. It's possible to get close enough to a tank to hit it with a baseball bat without getting shot. Stay out of fire arcs. Same with a Dalek. Not that it's not dangerous, but it could be done.

I think it's neat. One of my earliest Who memories is Ace twatting Daleks with a baseball bat. It's the reason I actually own an aluminium black baseball bat for home-defence.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

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I always get a chuckle from that scene because she hits everywhere but the Dalek weapon, the Dalek then suddenly sprouts broken supermarket trolley wheels for the duration of the attack and can't turn round, then she moves away from the exit doors, jumps in front of the Dalek and into the Daleks line of fire, then jumps up onto a table and out through a windown into the corridor she was standing next to while attacking the Dalek.........and that is why that scene cost £8.97p back in the day. lol.

Still good though.