*Spoilers for “Utopia.”*
This will be a tricky Master to talk about. You thought the Eric Roberts incarnation didn’t have much screentime to work with? Derek Jacobi is in one episode of new Who, and for most of it, he isn’t actually the Master! (Side note: I’m aware that the Jacobi Master, along with other short-lived TV characters, has had a fuller life in supplementary materials like Big Finish audiobooks, but today, I’m focusing just on what we see on the show.)
We can’t talk about the Jacobi Master without talking about Professor Yana. Similar to the Tenth Doctor in “Human Nature,” this version of the Master experienced a human life via a Chameleon Arch. While the Doctor became human to hide out from the murderous Family of Blood, the Master did it to escape the Time War. He’d been granted a new regeneration cycle in exchange for fighting, but as the Time War dragged on, he needed an out—and so he used the Chameleon Arch to make himself human, concealing his Time Lord essence and true memories in a fob watch.
Thus, the Master became Professor Yana. The Master had intentionally chosen the end of the universe as his hiding spot, but for Yana that’s simply his life. And although Yana has some of the Master’s qualities, like his scientific mind and the psychic drumming that plagues a number of the Master’s regenerations, he’s in truth a very different person. Much like the Doctor as John Smith is pretty indifferent to suffering and falls to useless pieces when aliens attack, the Master as Yana is a kind, altruistic soul who devotes his life to building a rocket to find a new home for the remnants of humanity. When it seems to him he won’t be able to complete it, he keeps that news to himself, not wanting to deprive people of hope in their final days, and when the Doctor shows up in the TARDIS, Yana is all too happy to defer to his quickly-apparent expertise to get the job done.
It's this same encounter with the Doctor, though, that ultimately leads Yana to open the fob watch and release the Master within. And credit to Derek Jacobi—even though he’s only in this one episode and is playing Yana for most of it, it’s immediately clear that his Master is someone else entirely. In the blink of an eye, he turns cold, cruel, and ruthless. All of the sudden, he’s once again looking out only for number one. He’s only too happy to leave the Doctor, Martha, and Jack stranded at the end of the universe, and he’s needlessly cruel to his former assistant just because.
Given his limited screentime, as he’s shot and regenerates maybe four minutes after he regains his identity, it’s hard to say too much about this version of the Master, but the impression I get is that he’s harder and more serious than many who come before or after him. We don’t really see much of the Master’s more dramatic tendencies here. And I suppose that makes sense. The Master most likely experienced some intense shit before he ran away from the Time War, and then he spent 60+ years as a human puttering around on a dying planet vainly trying to save a bunch of refugees. 1) This Master has been through it and isn’t really in the mood for theatrics. And 2) he doesn’t have the time for it, having “wasted” enough of his regeneration as Yana. So he goes straight for the jugular, pausing only to frighten and mock Chantho before he kills her. He may not have the chance to be the Master for long, but he packs as much villainy into those few minutes as he possibly can.
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