Top Five Magnificent Bastard Moments: The Ainley Master (Doctor Who)

*Spoilers.*

After the brief tenure of the Peter Pratt/Geoffrey Beevers Master, who’s mainly focused on restoring his ravaged body, we’re back in full swing with the Anthony Ainley incarnation. Of the classic Masters, Roger Delgado is still my favorite, but I enjoy how extra Ainley’s is, and he gets in plenty of strong Magnificent Bastard Moments.

 

Controlling Nyssa (Series 18, Episode 27 – “Logopolis: Episode 3”)

This isn’t the worst thing the Master does in “Logopolis”—given that he, you know, attempts to hold the entire universe hostage—but it’s the most knife-twisting thing he does. At this point, he’s done a DIY regeneration by killing Nyssa’s father and stealing his body, but Nyssa doesn’t know that yet. When he appears, he enjoys pretending to be her murdered father, easily securing her trust and then “gifting” her a bracelet that allows him to control her. Just pure cruelty all the way through.

 

Setting a Trap for the TARDIS (Series 19, Episode 1 – “Castrovalva: Episode 1”)

Okay, so first the Master creates a block transfer decoy of Adric, controlled by him and sustained by Adric’s own mental power. He sends the decoy into the TARDIS, where, in the upheaval of the Doctor’s regeneration, the fake Adric sets the TARDIS on a collision course. Now, the Master could’ve sent the TARDIS into a sun or a black hole, or any number of perfectly serviceable annihilation options. But he’s nothing if not extra as hell, so he has the decoy send the TARDIS to “Event One: Hydrogen Inrush.” In other words? The Big Bang! Why do things by halves when you can do them by 1000%?

 

Controlling the Passengers (Series 19, Episode 23 – “Time-Flight: Episode 1”)

It’s a day that ends in ‘Y’, so the Master is doing the most. He’s trapped on Earth in the Jurassic period, and he needs to break into the Citadel of an ancient alien race to power his TARDIS and escape. So how does he reach the center of the Citadel? Why, he creates a time corridor to the 20^th century, of course, ensnaring an airplane full of people that he then psychically manipulates to act as his slave force. The dude kidnapped a bunch of people from across 140 million years to do his legwork for him. Top-shelf bastard, all the way.

 

Plotting Against King John (Series 20, Episode 22 – “The King’s Demons: Episode 2”)

Part of what makes the Ainley Master such a magnificent bastard is how petty his schemes can be. Here, he uses a shapeshifting robot that he controls with his mind to impersonate King John, with the aim of making the “King” behave so erratically that he provokes a rebellion, ultimately preventing the creation of the Magna Carta. Just out here wrecking history because he can. It makes me think of the Sacha Dhawan Master talking to Thirteen: “How else would I get your attention?”

 

Passing Kamelion Off as the Outsider (Series 21, Episode 14 – “Planet of Fire: Episode 2”)

The Master is using Kamelion for his dirty work again, but it’s only because he accidentally shrunk himself with his own Tissue Compression Eliminator and needs help to regain his full size (I love it.) This time, Kamelion takes the form of the Master himself, and when Sarn’s chief elder mistakes him for the Outsider, the prophesied emissary of their god Logar, he runs with it. This comes in handy when he needs to force the Doctor’s hand and applies some external pressure by demanding that the “unbelievers” be sacrificed to the volcano. Yep, masquerading as someone else’s god—the Master is that kind of A-hole.