THE MASTER
In 1970 producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks formulated their vision of Doctor Who for the new decade. The Doctor was given a fresh new assistant Jo Grant (Katy Manning) while the ranks of UNIT were swelled by Captain Mike Yates (Richard Franklin). And there was another game changing addition to the regular cast.
In the 1960's the craze for the Daleks had helped to establish Doctor Who, giving the series a ratings boost whenever they appeared. Letts and Dicks felt that the time had come to create another ubiquitous villain to rival the Doctor in popularity.
Inspired by Moriarty, the 'Napoleon of crime' from Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, they dreamt up an urbane intergalactic criminal called 'The Master'. For their next stroke of genius they cast Roger Delgado, the perfect actor for the role. Delgado's Master would challenge Jon Pertwee's Doctor in every story of the 1971 series and in three other memorable adventures.
Prior to Delgado's premature death, Letts and Dicks were planning to bring the feud between the Doctor and the Master to a conclusion. The story was never made, meaning that subsequent producers, script editors and show runners have been able to redefine the character with each change of actor. A mirror not just of the Doctor, but for the audience's fears and anxieties.
The Master is back!
The Master appeared at the end of Doctor Who Audio Adventures Series 1. My vision of the Master in the story was a dying parasite taking over the body of another and growing on that bodies's strengths and weaknesses. In this case, I was influenced by the idea of 'Missy' and therefore went to cast a woman.
Now obviously the real Michelle Keegan didn't appear in my story, nor is she ever going to appear as herself playing the part in any future stories, it's just a picture. I certainly didn't intentionally set out to cause any confusion and I said from the beginning that the real Michelle wouldn't be appearing in my series and that its just a made up character.
But The Michelle Master is back again, and she'll be a main feature of the series, appearing in many of the stories to come over the autumn. I love The Master, He and it is a He despite everything to do with Steven Moffat's casting and my own personal casting on this occasion, He is a very tormented character, has his own ideas on dominance and power. He and The Doctor have a good confrontation as one is always trying to out do the other one all the time.
There is always unfinished business between The Doctor and The Master and I think like The Daleks and The Cybermen and all the popular monsters the Master will always come back because the audience love the chemistry between them, and there is a desire to see more of The Doctor VS The Master. So it's all good.
