Master (2003) Review

Why was Master written for Doctor Who? When did a charming teatime show turn into a Shakespearean play about the mishaps of childhood coming to punish us in adulthood, and a pondering on the definition and motive of a murderer?

WRITTEN BY

Joseph Lidster, a man whose talent cannot be overstated. He's making the show itself look bad compared to his work. It's weird. I don't know how I feel about it. It actually does feel like William Shakespeare decided to do some fanfiction. 

PLOT

On the 10th anniversary of his new life after amnesia, Dr. John Smith invites his closest friends to his mansion in order to run a social experiment and determine what kind of a man he truly is, or was. Things quickly go horribly wrong however, when supernatural events begin to occur within the house and a mystical, frightened doctor appears out of nowhere...

ANALYSIS

What this story amounts to is a very long conversation. All of the people involved are deep down responsible for some amount of evil, which has led them to that particular night in the mansion and slowly, all the cards are laid on the table. The only real source of conflict is the Doctor's bargain with Death, which is essentially meaningless anyway since the Doctor would never kill the Master. 

Thus, the drama comes from the characters' facing their own weaknesses, particularly John Smith, who is forced to confront his dark nature as the universe's worst monster. It's an ingenious character drama, mystery and even ghost story. 

CHARACTERS

Sylvester McCoy does a sublime job playing a jaded and guilt-wracked Seventh Doctor. Despite his comedy roots, I can't remember a single joke from this story. Death even points out at one point that he's abandoned all of his trademark gimmicks and his misery only increases after a certain plot twist regarding the Doctor's past on Gallifrey. 
But what I liked best about him is that even though he no longer believes there's a happy ending for either of them, he still refuses to kill the Master, simply because that's not the kind of person he is. Now that's a hero. 

Despite the title of the story, Geoffrey Beevers only has one scene as the Master. For the majority of the runtime, he plays John Smith, a beloved village doctor with a mysterious past, but a good heart. Knowing who he really is, it's extremely interesting to see the contrast between Smith and the Master. More than once, I was fooled into believing the Master had returned, when in reality Smith was merely playing it up for his own ends. The way they ultimately resolve Smith's storyline is brilliant and I shan't spoil it... though I can tell you that they don't just cast Smith aside in favor of the Master.

Philip Madoc returns to Doctor Who as Victor Schaeffer, a blustering police detective, who turns out to have a surprisingly creepy backstory. I really loved the way Victor's character was developed, as he went from a harmless, likable, mustachioed Inspector Japp figure to a legitimately frightening lunatic. And I didn't even recognise Madoc's voice! Maybe it's just the fact that I'm so used to his War Lord performance, which is completely unlike all other performances he's given. 

Anne Ridler is also fantastic and multi-layered as Jacqueline Schaeffer. I loved how naive she came across despite being clearly middle-aged and how her prejudices emerged in stress despite her charitable ways. 

Charlie Hayes(daughter of Wendy Padbury!) is alright as Death. She has a smug disinterest, sort of like a Moffat character, but at least it's explained here that it's because she sees everyone as her toys, so it's appropriate to the character. Frankly, I would've liked to have seen more of her and learned her mentality and why she was there to begin with. Because... you know, she's THE GRIM REAPER.

NOTES

*When playing the mild-mannered John Smith, Geoffrey Beevers sounds uncannily like Patrick Troughton. He could seriously do Second Doctor audio plays.

*Why did this story need to take place in some future colony as opposed to the actual time period it was clearly inspired by? I hate these random Earth knock-off cultures, like in Voyage Of The Damned, Mummy On The Orient Express and many others I can't think of right now. It's lazy. There is no reason why this story couldn't have been set in the actual Victorian era. 

*I almost think the Victorian era was chosen purely so the writers could get away with calling Smith "the master"(of the house).

*The Doctor's pondering "Is your red my blue?" made me giddy, because it's actually something I've often wondered myself. Do we all see the same color or is our perception of it actually different without us even knowing it?

*Why was the Doctor hit by lightning when he arrived at the mansion? Was it just an excuse to get into the building?

*And why was he so confused when Smith didn't recognise him? They make a big deal out of the Doctor not expecting Smith to be so different from the Master, when... wasn't that the whole point? 

CONTINUTIY ADVISOR

1) As a human(?), the Master's name is John Smith. I'm not really sure why. They never explain it or bring attention to it other than the Doctor's momentary confusion when he tries to give himself a human name. So I'm gonna give this a thumbs down. 

2) Death discusses the Seventh Doctor's development from a clownish figure to a planet destroyer and mentions his former spoon-playing and metaphor-mixing, both of which were his early quirks. Since this story is all about the characters, it absolutely fits.

3) Perhaps unintentional, but the concept of the Master losing his memories and becoming a human with a heart of gold is revisited in Utopia, five years after this story. It's a great storyline that worked wonders the second time as well.

BEST QUOTE

"We can't pretend to be what we're not. Inside of us, we're fated. I am evil. Don't you
understand? Don't you understand, I'm not human! I am not a doctor, I'm not John Smith! I am the Master. I am evil and I am fated to kill and destroy... and my heart is black, my soul is tainted! If you stay near me, I will kill you! I can't help it! It's what I am, inside!" - John Smith. Can you see why he fooled me?

CONCLUSION

I am still largely unfamiliar with the Seventh Doctor era so I won't comment on the Cartmel Masterplan, but other than that, this was a terrific, immersive and contemplative nugget of drama gold.