*Spoilers for the TV movie.*
Even though the Derek Jacobi Master spends considerably less time actually being the Master, the Eric Roberts incarnation is probably my least favorite. I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s the fault of the actor—I’ve talked about other talented actors who’ve been hamstrung by less-than-stellar writing for their Masters, and while the Eighth Doctor and Grace get most of the TV movie’s best qualities, the Roberts Master is saddled with a lot of its worst.
Like the Anthony Ainley incarnation before him, the Roberts Master isn’t actually a regeneration. With no regenerations left and on the brink of being executed, the Master’s final wish is to have the Doctor transport his remains home. By unknown means, his essence is transmuted into some kind of incorporeal serpent thing (is this a Horcrux situation? Enquiring minds want to know,) and he plans to steal the Doctor’s body and remaining regenerations. That plan hits a snag when the Doctor receives a fatal blow and is on the road to regenerating himself, so the Master coopts a nearby human body in a pinch.
If the Ainley Master usurping Tremas’s body is awful on an emotional level, the Roberts Master taking over Bruce’s body is awful on a physical level. The hijacking is fraught this time around and the body almost immediately starts decaying. A side effect of the serpent thing, maybe? Either way, we’ve now got a Master with yellow snake eyes who spits hypnotic venom, desperate to make a second play for the Doctor’s regenerations before his current body falls apart.
I’m again struck by how tenaciously the Master tries to run away from death, trying to scrape and steal a bit more life for himself any way he can. For all of their schemes for assorted villainy and/or domination, a significant part of any Master is motivated purely by their fear of dying.
The Master we’re left with isn’t great. He does have some quintessential Mastery traits, like the aforementioned hypnotic abilities (even if it’s transmitted through venom in this incarnation) and a propensity for dramatics. But he’s weirdly split between this really slick, slightly cheesy Master and some kind of zombie-snake animalistic Master that growls and hisses. It’s odd, it’s over-the-top, and it doesn’t work all that well.
I do get a kick out of the fact that he changes into traditional Gallifreyan robes before executing his ultimate plan against the Doctor. 1) Again with the dramatics. And 2) since the TV movie was a prospective relaunch for the show to an American audience who wasn’t necessarily familiar with the classic series, I like imagining people who’ve rolled with the regenerating Time Lord and the police-box spaceship suddenly going, “Wait, what on earth is he wearing?”
Roberts Master, we hardly knew ye. Not the best, but you’re still a part of the Master’s lives and thus still a part of that delightful, crazy journey we call Who.
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