More like billions (Logopolis).
The Master's fate
- Thread starter Mr. Sin
- Start date
Anyone who's that evil is going to stay that way. An explanation for why the Master is evil doesn't change the fact that he is. And in the end, does it really matter? The why is irrelevant; all that matters is the what.
That has nothing to do with my point. I don't care about the Vader comparison one way or the other. I was merely emphasizing Starkers' point that The Master isn't redeemable.
The character may not be redeemable, but he might still choose to abandon evil and seek to atone for his past behavior. The means by which he does so can lead to plenty of interesting stories.
He doesn't have to be a two-dimensional villain any longer; the writers can explore other dramatic situations with him, possibly even reversing the roles of the Doctor and Master. We saw in Waters of Mars the Doctor can stray down the wrong road -- he can do the wrong thing for the right reasons -- perhaps next time the Master can help him.
He doesn't have to be a two-dimensional villain any longer; the writers can explore other dramatic situations with him, possibly even reversing the roles of the Doctor and Master. We saw in Waters of Mars the Doctor can stray down the wrong road -- he can do the wrong thing for the right reasons -- perhaps next time the Master can help him.
Not so much Vader. More Moriarty.
The Master, like Moriarty, was designed to be a recurring, equal yet opposite nemesis for the Doctor/Holmes lead character. Both characters can be charming, witty and in certain situations even momentarily co-operative with their nemisies, but only ever when it suits their interests to do so. Their final objective is always malignant.
The Master, like Moriarty, was designed to be a recurring, equal yet opposite nemesis for the Doctor/Holmes lead character. Both characters can be charming, witty and in certain situations even momentarily co-operative with their nemisies, but only ever when it suits their interests to do so. Their final objective is always malignant.
An anti-hero Master would be rather boring, honestly. As a few others have said, the Master is supposed to be truly evil.
I'm hoping that the next actor plays him more like the Delgado version - suave and sophisticated while still quite menacing. We've had far too many wacky Masters lately. I love Anthony Ainley, but even he could be too comic at times.
I'm hoping that the next actor plays him more like the Delgado version - suave and sophisticated while still quite menacing. We've had far too many wacky Masters lately. I love Anthony Ainley, but even he could be too comic at times.
Yeah, but that was partially because of JNT. Ainley wanted to make The Master more serious, particularly in The Planet of Fire, but JNT would tell him to ham it up.
Makes me sad that Ainley didn't do an audio play for Big Finish before he passed away. I would have loved to hear how he really wanted to play the role.
Which is odd considering he died in 2004 and Master came out in 2003. Why didn't they get him to appear in it or Dust Breeding?
A horribly picky and Sherlockian bit of me has to point out that Moriarty was never a recurring villain, except in the films.
In the Conan Doyle stories, he's first mentioned in The Final Problem and apparently dies at the end of it (though as Holmes survived, then maybe... John Gardner got a book trilogy out of that idea).
He's mentioned in a few other stories, but only when Holmes regrets not having any enemy who's a real challenge now Moriarty's dead.
Moriarty's only other 'appearance' is The Valley of Fear, when he doesn't actually appear: he's just the villain behind the scheme, who sends Holmes a mocking letter (even this is a continuity error, as Watson knows about Moriarty in Valley, but doesn't in Final Problem,, but we can put that down to the stories being Watson's write-up of the case: as Valley was published later, maybe Watson was concealing things in Final Problem fo reasons that later went away).
Interesting thing though about Moriarty's appearances: in Valley of Fear, Inspector MacDonald talks about meeting him, but he never actually appears. In Final Problem, Holmes tells Watson about meeting Moriarty, but again, he never actually appears... except as someone chasing after Holmes as he gets onto a train that's about to leave (so just possibly, it was just some innocent commuter trying to get their train).
There's a lot of Sherlockians who suggest that maybe Moriarty didn't actually exist (that he was a figment of Holmes's paranoid imagination), and if he did that he wasn't a criminal mastermind - an idea Nick Meyer used in his book/film The Seven Per Cent Solution.
But anyway... Moriarty doesn't really appear in the Holmes stories. The Master is based on the Moriarty of the Basil Rathbone films, who is a totally different character.
I seem to remember reading on Outpost Gallifrey that Ainley had asked for a lot more money than Big Finish could afford.
Interesting thing about the Master is that he was once going to be the Doctor's dark side (Similar to the whole imagination thing, in a sense). Also the final Pertwee was going to be like that Holmes story where he has his final confrontation with Moriarty, with the Doctor having to regenerate after the final battle with the Master.
Unfortunately Roger Delgado died shortly after "Frontier In Space", so those plans were dropped.
Unfortunately Roger Delgado died shortly after "Frontier In Space", so those plans were dropped.
I hope the Master *stays* two-dimensional. There should be more villains like that, IMHO. There's too much ambiguity as it is; there should still be some characters who are obviously evil.
Do you think they could get Dalton to grow a rubbish beard?
Edit - Finally found a good quality pic:
Edit - Finally found a good quality pic:
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