The Master (Sympathy for the Devil)

This topic might have a better name.The Master (Unbound Universe) as he's a valid character now, this is usually what we do with the Doctor.

Talk about it here.

A version of **the Master** from a parallel universe was a Time Lord exiled on Earth.

## Biography

Having had his TARDIS placed beyond his reach, the Master spent his time stuck on Earth through the 1970s right through to 1997 when the Doctor was sent to Earth by the Time Lords. He worked for the United Nations and then defected to China after being sent there to assist against alien parasites. He turned the parasites into a way of brainwashing political prisoners into zombie-like soldiers organised into Ke Le Divisions.

Losing favour with the new Chinese government in 1997, he fled to Hong Kong to allegedly defect back to the West. He regenerated when he crashed an experimental cloaked plane on Hong Kong, and tried to gain the last of the parasites. He was rescued by Adam, but the Master then proceded to kill and steal his garments, including an Union Jack tie. China intended to wash their hands of the Ke Le Divisions by destroying the other parasites. The Master realised this would cause the Divisions to go insane under the weight of their returned memories; with the last parasite, he intended to seize control of the Divisions and the country ("I'll save the world from anarchy overnight").

When the Doctor arrived, the Master showed a genuine bitterness at having to live on an Earth where the Doctor hadn't been present for thirty years; he brought up scores of atrocities that the Doctor had failed to stop, accusing him of letting entire cultures and races die from missing the big picture, choosing the wrong sides, and simply not turning up. Eventually, he agreed to help the Doctor and UNIT destroy the last parasite - allowing them to believe nothing bad would happen - in return for being taken off Earth in the TARDIS, while secretly planning to betray everyone. Unfortunately for him, the Doctor had anticipated this and tricked the Master into being left in Hong Kong as the TARDIS departed.

In a desperate attempt to be evacuated from the city, he admitted to UNIT's Colonel Brimmicombe-Wood that the Ke Le Divisions would go insane once the last parasite was destroyed. By this point it was too late, and the Master was last heard giggling as the Divisions massacred Hong Kong. (AUDIO: *Sympathy for the Devil*)

### The War

Having escaped Earth, the Master fought alongside the Doctor in a great war against some other enemy, with the natives of the planet Tramatz being a key player in one side of the conflict. Towards the end of the War, the Master had acquired a weapon that would destroy the enemy at the cost of essentially destroying the universe as well, with the Doctor fleeing the conflict in the hope that the Master would be unable to activate the weapon without him. However, the Master used the weapon, leaving the universe faced with near-imminent collapse, requiring the Doctor to sell most of his memories to try and power a means of delaying this collapse.

The Doctor heard his voice when he was captured by the Library. (AUDIO: *The Library in the Body*) He posed as the Manager of the shop at the Gateway to the universe. He created a lottery which had a prize to get out of this universe. He knew that Bernice Summerfield didn't belong to his universe and paid attention to her. He wanted to send Benny back to her universe in order to create a permanent bridge between their universe to send everyone in the universe. In fact he was using the energy of the people in the universe to create the illusion that the universe was dying ahead of schedule so that he could guarantee his own escape. This plan failed when the amnesic Doctor regained enough of his memory to suspect the Master of a trap, analysis confirming that his alleged portal just disintegrated those who used it to act as a power source. The Master was subsequently thrown into the portal himself and apparently killed. (AUDIO: *The Emporium at the End*)

## Behind the scenes

* The character is called "Ke Le" on the *Sympathy for the Devil* CD case.
* This version of the Master was played by Mark Gatiss, using the anagrammatic pseudonym "Sam Kisgart". This was a reference to the use of anagrams to hide Anthony Ainley's appearances in several stories in the 1980s.
* Mark Gatiss also portrayed an incarnation of the Doctor who appears in the comedy sketch *The Web of Caves*. Along with Derek Jacobi, this makes Gatiss one of only two actors to have portrayed both the Master and the Doctor in licensed, although not canonical, appearances.
* Jonathan Clements, author of *Sympathy for the Devil*, voiced the dying previous incarnation of the Master in that story.

## Footnotes

1. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20110427054921/http://www.muramasaindustries.com/other/interviews/bigfinish/bigfinish.html