I wish there would've been one more episode where Missy was part of the TARDIS team proper. That would've been fun. It's a shame that her one and only story as a companion was her last!
If anything, they should have gone the route Scream of the Shalka did with the Master and have had Missy as sort of a TARDIS-bound companion the entire second half of the season. Hell, I'd take the entire season, but I guess then we wouldn't have had the mystery box of the Vault. The way it should have been done is have Missy released from the Vault in Lie of the Land, utilizing the apparent fact that Monks weren't aware of the Vault and adding an element they weren't prepared for to defeat them. Then the only re-writing is that you just need to separate her and Nardole from the Doctor and Bill in Empress of Mars. Once we get to World Enough and Time it can still be the Doctor finally testing her on an actual mission, and everything's the same.
Well, if i recall, in Scream of the Shalka, the Master was in an android body. We all know the Doctor can save people like that (Nardole and that kid from Class). Maybe he can save Missy like that .
More accurately, the Master was an android. That is it wasn't really the Master, just an android based on him, which still has his memories and inclination to betray the Doctor anyway.
I like those ideas. I guess the only downside is that Missy's intent to support the Doctor probably would've become clear over the course of more episodes. Although, I suppose they could've handled it like Turlough, where you weren't quite sure for awhile. However, I don't think that arc in classic Who worked particularly well. I think the Vault was a production convenience. I'm sure they filmed all of Gomez' vault scenes in one go. Having one location simplified that process. Moffat just figured he'd make the one location a part of the story rather than trying to explain it way somehow. Missy as an ongoing companion would've been better than the Vault.
Ah ok, its been a very long time since i have seen it. I have thought the Masters essence was somehow in the androids body.
Actually, we only actually see her in the Vault once, in Lie of the Land. In Extremis we see her by the lake where she was meant to be executed, the rest of the episodes are in the console room until the finale two-parter. So my way still works, maybe she'd have to a bit more of an expanded role in Lie of the Land, but otherwise with a few minutes of TARDIS footage in the other episodes, there's not much of a difference.
No big loss. I'm not a fan of Missy, but your idea is a lot more interesting than what we ended up with.
Re: Master... He/she's not dead. However, I do think Missy's gone. And I like to think that the last scene with her and Simm Master indicated the dual nature of the Master, at the end... Potential good and evil, duking out and both losing at the end... Literally a manifestation of his/her true nature. And from now on, these two incarnations will probably duke it out inside the consciousness of the next Master. With the villainous Master laughing, apparently unchanged by the lack of the sound of drums, and the good Master morally challenged to be good. At least, that's how I looked at the last scene, myself.
That's pretty much how I saw it too. The scene where the Doctor gives his speech about kindness really shows the two responses of the Master. Simm's Master replies "take a good look at this face because it's the face of someone who was not listening to a word you said". All the Doctor's talk about being good and kind literally went in one ear and out the other. But Missy responds differently. She was listening to what the Doctor said. She even says "thanks for trying". His speech got to her. And in her last scene with the Master, she was prepared to return and help the Doctor, if not for the Master shooting her. In essence, Missy had changed and was planning on helping the Doctor, but the Master shoots her to stop her. I suspect this was done in part to give the next showrunner a clean slate. By killing off the "good" Master, the show can go back to a villainous Master if they want to. I do think Missy's death is meant to be end of her character but not the last time we see the Master. We could see a past version of Missy or past incarnation of the Master.
See I have to differ. If we have history as an example, the same Missy can continue on with the New incarnation of the Doctor. the Doctor has an oath to keep, and so long as that 1,000 year oath is a prime player in the series as much as it was with Nardole continually bringing it up, the Doctor is compelled by the story arc to uphold that part of his deal. So in my estimation they could go ahead and regenerate Missy somehow into another evil Master, but I think it's much more interesting to have a sort of Missy companion (ala River Song type character) story with the Doctor rescuing her just as she lay back in the grass, and a few seconds before that floor of the ship explodes, and using his regen energy just before the doctor changes in the x-mas special, he could repair Missy's dying cells without her changing face and body, all while becoming the New Doctor and now having a jumbled mind dealing with a now living Missy, and a Nardole and a new companion.. who ever that will be. If the Doctor allows Missy's death without looking at least for her body to keep his Oath, then the writers will be giving a slap in the face to the Doctor as been established by his character constantly quoting the proverbial "I have a duty of Care" comment.. so I think at the least, the Doctor has to get Missy's body back in hand. That I think is not an option.
I'd go one better. We could have an Ainley "The Five Doctors" Master, where he/she in a future incarnation is genuinely trying to help, but is rejected by The Doctor. After all, last he knows, Missy walked away from him, abandoning him to his fate in order to continue her travels, probably with Simm's Master, almost certainly causing untold misery chaos and destruction.
I actually found that image while Googling "dead Kenny" or somesuch. I was looking for a dead Kenny icon or smiley.
I remember seeing that image posted on this very forum six years ago when season 6 was airing. It's especially noticeable when we were watching Day of the Moon, Curse of the Black Spot, and The Doctor's Wife week after week that Rory was quickly becoming the show's own Kenny.
I think the Master will try to rewrite hishistory so he doesn't become Missy. "Time can be rewritten."