Post by jeremiahecks on Nov 18, 2009 6:07:40 GMT -5
It's long been noted that the Master continuity following Survival is in a world of it's own mess, with Big Finish, Virgin, the Comics and the BBC books all presenting disparate outcomes for the character (and let's ignore Shalka, shall we?).
David McIntee was going to resolve the issue by introducing the concept of the Master in the New Adventures being a clone in the rather excellent book Bullet Time, but BBC editors nixed this as being a bit fanwanky (come on, dudes, just one line and the headaches could have gone away.
). This didn't happen, leaving the mess of continuity to be unravelled as the Master in these disparate stories is very clearly The Real True Master. So here is my effort to try and unravel it all, and as chronologically (fitting the Reference Guide's order of stories!) as possible.
Survival: Things go messy for the Master and he's infected with the Cheetah Virus. He does not swallow the Morphant here but he nontheless escapes the death of the Cheetah Planet.
Stop the Pigeon / Prime Time: The Master escapes, still in Tremas' body, trying to find a cure for the Cheetah Virus. Encounters the Seventh Doctor and Ace twice in his scheming.
Dust Breeding / Master: His plans finally work as he locates the Warp Core and it strips away the infected Trakenite avatar that is killing him. Alas, it leaves him in exactly the state before he possessed Tremas. He attempts to use the power of the Warp Core to further heal himself and failing, is later captured by the Doctor who wants to give him one last chance, ending in the events of Master, where at the end, the Master in his dishevelled form is taken away by Death's personification to be used for further evil. Master is the only story here out of sync in terms of chronology, but it has to be to work.
The Eight Doctors: Following being taken away by Death, the Master is folded back along his own timeline as Death needs her Champion and he cannot end yet. He is regressed by Death to his Trakenite form and returned to the planet of the Cheetah People. Presumably Death can only restore the damage done by the Warp Core on that planet, due to it's symbiotic relationship with the Master. To prevent being destroyed a third time, the Master swallows the Morphant at this point and again tries to escape with the knowledge has from previous adventures. This order of events allows the Master to have not met Bernice and to have only met the 'dark brown jacket' Doctor and TV Ace (to allow for First Frontier). This also preserves his notion that he has just come from the Planet of the Cheetah People in First Frontier
First Frontier / Happy Endings / Decalog story - forget the name: He planet hops to Earth (like in Survival) and the events of First Frontier occur. The Master regains some regenerations, escapes and trashes Bernice's marriage in Happy Endings. A brief short-story appearance later, and the Master is captured by the Daleks on Skaro. Knowing he has the Morphant, he realises he can pull yet another 'dying ruse' and get the Daleks off his back once and for all.
TVM: The Master is killed by the Daleks but possesses, using his Morphant form, the body of Bruce, a human. His plans to steal yet another set of regenerations go thingy-eyed when the Doctor throws him into a link to the Eye of Harmony. Poor Master.
The Glorious Dead: The Master resurrected by Esterath and used in the Glory storyline which I have not read but NVM. He is eventually banished away by Esterath and his taint from the TARDIS expunged. This leaves the Master free to cavort around the galaxy doing evil again.
Adventuress of Henrietta Street: A more sombre, tired Master who has survived the eradication of the Time Lords meets with the Doctor. Perhaps finally learning from his several deaths and his manipulation by Death and Esterath, he begins to learn the folly of his ways. During a similar time period, i.e. like Shalka, the Doctor sees a vision of the Master in his TARDIS but this has nothing to do with the real Master, no matter what it is.
The Infinity Doctors: Only if you place this story before the Time War and after the 8th Doctor's adventures.
The repentent Master returns to Gallifrey and becomes the Magistrate. Leading to his apparent destruction at the hands of Omega.
If you do not include TID here, then when the Time War occurs, the resurrected Time Lords simply find the Master in his vagrant body and grant him yet more regenerations (sheesh!). If you do include it here, the Magistrate is saved from whatever purgatory Omega has left him in by the Time Lords (re: the statement from Yana later that the Time Lords 'resurrected' him), and is reinstored with the title 'Master' once again, to mark his deceitful cunning that the Time Lord's need in the Time War.
You Are Not Alone: Thankfully, everything is clear after the Time War. The Master, full of yet more regenerations, decides he has to hide or he'll die in the War, and he decides to take on the Yana identity. And strangely enough by this point, he has inhabited two human bodies and one Trakenite body, as well as in a similar-to-Yana twist, had been made to believe he was human during one life-cycle. So this is actually a cunning disguise for him, even more effective for the Master than the Doctor in many ways.
And the Master claims the Doctor is half human! ;D
-Jeremiah Ecks,
who was challenged to get this out of his system, so he did. Now hasn't that caused you a headache?
David McIntee was going to resolve the issue by introducing the concept of the Master in the New Adventures being a clone in the rather excellent book Bullet Time, but BBC editors nixed this as being a bit fanwanky (come on, dudes, just one line and the headaches could have gone away.
). This didn't happen, leaving the mess of continuity to be unravelled as the Master in these disparate stories is very clearly The Real True Master. So here is my effort to try and unravel it all, and as chronologically (fitting the Reference Guide's order of stories!) as possible.Survival: Things go messy for the Master and he's infected with the Cheetah Virus. He does not swallow the Morphant here but he nontheless escapes the death of the Cheetah Planet.
Stop the Pigeon / Prime Time: The Master escapes, still in Tremas' body, trying to find a cure for the Cheetah Virus. Encounters the Seventh Doctor and Ace twice in his scheming.
Dust Breeding / Master: His plans finally work as he locates the Warp Core and it strips away the infected Trakenite avatar that is killing him. Alas, it leaves him in exactly the state before he possessed Tremas. He attempts to use the power of the Warp Core to further heal himself and failing, is later captured by the Doctor who wants to give him one last chance, ending in the events of Master, where at the end, the Master in his dishevelled form is taken away by Death's personification to be used for further evil. Master is the only story here out of sync in terms of chronology, but it has to be to work.
The Eight Doctors: Following being taken away by Death, the Master is folded back along his own timeline as Death needs her Champion and he cannot end yet. He is regressed by Death to his Trakenite form and returned to the planet of the Cheetah People. Presumably Death can only restore the damage done by the Warp Core on that planet, due to it's symbiotic relationship with the Master. To prevent being destroyed a third time, the Master swallows the Morphant at this point and again tries to escape with the knowledge has from previous adventures. This order of events allows the Master to have not met Bernice and to have only met the 'dark brown jacket' Doctor and TV Ace (to allow for First Frontier). This also preserves his notion that he has just come from the Planet of the Cheetah People in First Frontier
First Frontier / Happy Endings / Decalog story - forget the name: He planet hops to Earth (like in Survival) and the events of First Frontier occur. The Master regains some regenerations, escapes and trashes Bernice's marriage in Happy Endings. A brief short-story appearance later, and the Master is captured by the Daleks on Skaro. Knowing he has the Morphant, he realises he can pull yet another 'dying ruse' and get the Daleks off his back once and for all.
TVM: The Master is killed by the Daleks but possesses, using his Morphant form, the body of Bruce, a human. His plans to steal yet another set of regenerations go thingy-eyed when the Doctor throws him into a link to the Eye of Harmony. Poor Master.
The Glorious Dead: The Master resurrected by Esterath and used in the Glory storyline which I have not read but NVM. He is eventually banished away by Esterath and his taint from the TARDIS expunged. This leaves the Master free to cavort around the galaxy doing evil again.
Adventuress of Henrietta Street: A more sombre, tired Master who has survived the eradication of the Time Lords meets with the Doctor. Perhaps finally learning from his several deaths and his manipulation by Death and Esterath, he begins to learn the folly of his ways. During a similar time period, i.e. like Shalka, the Doctor sees a vision of the Master in his TARDIS but this has nothing to do with the real Master, no matter what it is.
The Infinity Doctors: Only if you place this story before the Time War and after the 8th Doctor's adventures.
The repentent Master returns to Gallifrey and becomes the Magistrate. Leading to his apparent destruction at the hands of Omega.
If you do not include TID here, then when the Time War occurs, the resurrected Time Lords simply find the Master in his vagrant body and grant him yet more regenerations (sheesh!). If you do include it here, the Magistrate is saved from whatever purgatory Omega has left him in by the Time Lords (re: the statement from Yana later that the Time Lords 'resurrected' him), and is reinstored with the title 'Master' once again, to mark his deceitful cunning that the Time Lord's need in the Time War.
You Are Not Alone: Thankfully, everything is clear after the Time War. The Master, full of yet more regenerations, decides he has to hide or he'll die in the War, and he decides to take on the Yana identity. And strangely enough by this point, he has inhabited two human bodies and one Trakenite body, as well as in a similar-to-Yana twist, had been made to believe he was human during one life-cycle. So this is actually a cunning disguise for him, even more effective for the Master than the Doctor in many ways.
And the Master claims the Doctor is half human! ;D
-Jeremiah Ecks,
who was challenged to get this out of his system, so he did. Now hasn't that caused you a headache?
So you have to assume the Master returned to the Planet of the Cheetah People, but if he had to be rolled back to his Trakenite body for Death's sake, that works for me.