Geoffrey Beevers, who usually plays the Master in the Big Finish audios, first played the role in the 1980s TV story "The Keeper Of Traken". So, he most certainly has previous experience.
I was watching Keeper part 4 on TV yesterday. It really makes no sense the Doctor doesn't recognise his voice, or that Melkur dematerialises like a TARDIS. The voice is distorted, but clearly Beevers. Mind you its similar in Arc of Infinity. A distorted voice that still has such a well known voice its no surprise!
Some of the audios also have the Beevers incarnation post-Ainley, explaining that the Tremas body was lost, and he was forced to return to his previous state. (This was probably due to the fact that Ainley died before he could do an audio).
That was one of the biggest surprised Big Finish ever pulled off. They were very clever, casting Geoffrey as Mr Seta, alongside his wife (the much missed Caroline John) so the casting wouldn't get noticed
Not exactly; Big Finish approached him when he was still alive but IIRC, he demanded too much money to pique his interest.
It wasn't just about money. He also wanted script approval, casting approval... he was happy to make demands knowing they wouldn't meet them. But he hadn't got on with Gary Russell from the days he ran Doctor Who magazine.
There's an old Youtube tribute video to the Master which counts Tipple in the line-up, and I've never understood why. He's akin to a body double in the final film.
He originally had the opening narration as well, before they gave it to Paul.
None that we know of. Only that the next time time we see the Master in the Fourth Doctor era, he is definately on his 13th and last body. I think in Big Finish they have the Delgado incarnation as the 13th Master who is horribly burned and disfigured (by Susan if I recall) and can't regenerate. Which techincally makes all the known incarnations of the Master are the 13th Master
(Delgado) until probably Yana or the Time War Master. He is just using stolen bodies until then.
Geoffry Beevers plays the Master opposite Four and Leela in the current Big Finish line with Tom and Louise.
The Master and the Doctor's timelines "usually" remain in sync.
Leela arrived after The Deadly Assassin, and before the Keeper of Traken.
Geofry Beevers is the Master used in the Keeper of Traken.
Alex McQueen plays the Master only in audio, but he has faced off against Seven and 8 separately, and 4 through 8 simultaneously in a multiDoctor
story .
It was Beevers in the Multi-Doctor encounter, who in sense was the current Master then as well!
Susan causing the Delgado regeneration is from one of the BBC 8th Doctor books, I'm not sure it can really tie in with her audio reunion with the 8th Doctor.
The Companion Chronicle - Mastermind deals with the Master's timeline after the TVM. He looses the Bruce body, reverting (again!) to the decaying body, and takes several more bodies as narrated in the story, as humans decay too quickly.
So it basically! goes
Deadly Assassin - Peter Pratt, then Beevers (you could argue he uses enough of the Eye of Harmony to stabilse into Beevers)
4th Doctor audio adventures (I hope he meets Romana 2 one day. He might treat her differently to non-Gallifreyan companions)
Unitl The Keeper of Traken - stealing the Tremas body
Logopolis - Survival (Ainley) *
* There's also Proffesor STREAM in the 6th Doctor Lost Story season 23 adventure The Hollows of Time, by Christopher H Bidbead, played by David Garfield. Big Finish couldn't use the Master at the time due to the TV Series, and obviously had to recast. The Doctor never works out it's the Master, but he is a master of disguise. It would have been Ainley had it been made on TV in 1985.
After Survival The Ainley body is lost, reverts to Beevers.
7th Doctor audio adventures - Dust Breeding (with Ace), Master (solo) There possibly would have been more eventually, but the BBC wanted him on TV.
Steals another body (Tipple), put on trial by the Daleks - TV Movie (Roberts) - reverts to Beevers, steals several bodies in 20th Century America (Mastermind)
Eventually regenerates during 8th Doctor timeline, goes back to bother 7th.
Time War. At some point regenerates into Jacobi.
while the Master who fought in the Time War was either a younger Derek Jacobi or possibly even another incarnation. Likewise, the Derek Jacobi incarnation likely spent decades, if not his entire existence as Professor Yana.
We don't actually know how much of the Yana backstory was true. He ran off to the end of the universe, but his claims of being found as a child could have been invented. He could have just been there a few decades, handful of heartbeats to a timelord. Unlikely the Doctor met him though.