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

*Spoilers.*

Because I crave patterns in life, I wanted my write-ups on individual Masters to mirror my write-ups on individuals Doctors and companions. Character Highlight or Favorite Character posts—easy. But Top Fives? A Master is hardly going to have a collection of Big Damn Hero moments to choose from. Hence, a new Top Five is born, for all the TV Masters and whatever villain I think is deliciously terrible enough to warrant one.

Just a quick note before we get started: for the most part, I’m going by what the Master actually does, not what they plan to do. Because most of their schemes involve world/galactic/universal domination and/or causing wanton destruction just for kicks, every Top Five would wind up being, “Trying to Take Over the World,” “Plotting to Destroy the World,” “Attempting to Take Over the Galaxy.” So instead, I’ll focus on smaller acts within those larger schemes, the Magnificent Bastard things the Master does to try and achieve that.

 

Killing Farrel (Series 8, Episode 2 – “Terror of the Autons: Episode 2”)

Evil and creepy. When the elder Farrel stands in the Master’s way of taking over his plastics factory, having proven impervious to hypnotism, the Master moves to eliminate the obstacle. He shows Farrel this hobgoblin-like plastic doll that’s allegedly part of a new line of products and insists Farrel bring it home to consider it. Of course, the doll is connected to the Nestene Consciousness, and when Farrel takes it inside, it comes alive in response to the warm temperature in the house. We see throughout this serial that the Master and the Autons can use any manner of plastic objects to kill people. To deliberately design a creepy little demon doll to commit murders for you is just twisted.

 

Sacrificing Rex Farrel (Series 8, Episode 4 – “Terror of the Autons: Episode 4”)

If Rule One for the Doctor is, “The Doctor lies,” Rule One for the Master is, “The Master will eventually turn on any ally,” and they make that evident in their very first story. After using the Farrels’ factory to further his plans with the Autons, the Master finds Rex to be a handy decoy to make his escape. He puts a mask of his own face on a hypnotized Rex and forces him to attack UNIT, which prompts them to open fire. The Doctor twigs that it wasn’t really the Master, so he’s not completely in the wind, but he uses Rex’s death as cover to get away. One would argue that Rex threw his lot in with the Master for power and profit, but he still didn’t deserve to die a patsy like that.

 

Holding Jo Hostage (Series 8, Episode 19 – “Colony in Space: Episode 5”)

After the Master catches the Doctor and Jo snooping around in his TARDIS on the security system, he remotely triggers a release of gas to knock them out, then tosses them in holding cells for the night. His real aim is to force the Doctor to take him to the Primitive city, so when he lets the Doctor out, he keeps Jo locked up, making sure the Doctor knows he can flood her cell with a deadly toxin at any moment with the push of a button. The Doctor tries to argue that going to the city will be dangerous, and the Master’s response is ice cold: “Don’t worry about my welfare, Doctor. Keep thinking of Miss Grant’s.”

 

Hypnotizing Trenchard (Series 9, Episode 9 – “The Sea Devils: Episode 1”)

The Doctor comes to see the Master in prison, in large part to make sure he hasn’t escaped and isn’t cooking up anything nefarious. Col. Trenchard shows the Doctor and Jo all the security protocols in place, including a demonstration of the guards’ anti-hypnosis training in action. Given the Doctor’s history with the Master, he can hardly believe it, but he seems prepared to accept the evidence of his eyes and leaves uneasy but somewhat placated… only for Trenchard to then report to the Master’s cell to discuss how well they “fooled” the Doctor! Because, in truth, the Master has had Trenchard in his thrall the whole time, giving the colonel orders as he freely concocts his latest scheme from prison and has assorted luxuries delivered to his cell. That’s the Master for you!

 

Turning the Humans and Draconians Against Each Other (Series 10, Episode 11 – “Frontier in Space: Episode 3”)

I had to think for a moment about which episode I actually wanted to reference for this. We see this scheme in action from episode 1 of the serial, and there are further revelations later on that makes it even worse in retrospect. But this episode is where the Master enters the scene, making it clear that he’s the brains behind the plot. He’s hired Ogron mercenaries to attack both human and Draconian ships, using hypnosound to make the humans think they’re being attacked by Draconians and vice versa, thus destabilizing the peace between the two peoples and pushing them towards war. This is a horrible enough thing to do on its own, but episode 6 doubles down on the villainy with the reveal that the Master is doing all this on behalf of the Daleks. Quick tip: if you ever find yourself in the vicinity of the phrase “my Dalek allies,” you definitely effed up.

Favorite Characters: The Delgado Master (Doctor Who)

The original, a gentleman foe for a gentleman Doctor. Of the Masters I’ve written up so far, the Roger Delgado incarnation is the first I’d place under Favorite Characters rather than a Character Highlight. Yes, the Three era overused him at times, but he made for an excellent adversary.

It’s not until Two’s final serial that we learn that he’s actually called a Time Lord, or that we meet any others of his species beyond him and Susan. “The War Games” puts the Doctor back in their crosshairs, and Three is born directly out of that encounter. It’s the Time Lords who then exile him on Earth, so it’s only fitting that the Three era introduces first renegade Time Lord besides the Doctor that we’ve met.

Enter the Master. Like the Doctor, the Master isn’t content to stay put on stodgy, staid Gallifrey, and he doesn’t really hold to the Time Lord policy of noninterference. Unlike the Doctor, when he interferes, it’s only for his own benefit, never anyone else’s. Every time he shows up in a story, it’s a guarantee that he’s working some sort of angle. He may be after power or wealth, he may want to tear something down purely because he knows the Doctor is protecting it, or he may just back a bigger, badder alien force in town after assessing that it’s his best chance of survival.

Many of the Master’s core traits, those that will resonate across their regenerations, are established here. He loves a multistep plan, carefully orchestrating every phase like a well-played game of chess. He often has contingencies within contingencies and protects number one above all else. His allegiances are always fluid; he makes all sorts of unsavory allies during his time on the show, but he’ll turn on any of them in an instant once they’re no longer expedient or if he gets a better offer.

Many of his skills also carry over, to varying degrees, into future regenerations. There’s his scientific and technical knowhow, of course. He does the “Master of disguise” thing on the regular, though he usually can’t help dropping little clues in there—most of his aliases involve some translation of the word “Master.” And he uses hypnosis more than many of the incarnations that follow him. It’s a major tool in his toolbox, to the point that, when I hear the words, “I am the Master and you will obey me,” it’s Delgado’s voice I hear.

Even though they originated in this incarnation, a lot of these qualities are just considered “quintessential Master” now. So what does the Delgado Master bring that’s uniquely his own? Without a doubt, it’s his debonair aspect. Slick as a Bond villain and coolly calculating as Moriarty, he feels tailor-made to be a foe for the dashing Third Doctor—which, of course, he is. Whether they’re bluffing each other over stolen TARDIS components or simply exchanging chilly pleasantries while never letting one another out of their sight, this Master and this Doctor fit together in a way that just makes sense. It makes the Delgado Master a wonderful opponent for Three, but it also allows you to see those first glimmers of how those two could have been friends once. Though that’s not an easy dichotomy to pull off, Roger Delgado and Jon Pertwee make it look so.