Masters of Earth? 

“I’ll have to give them the bad news — that position is taken.”

Is there anyone who doesn’t have a soft spot for Eric Roberts’ Master? Daleks need not answer. As the actor assures us in the behind-the-scenes clips backing this three-story release, he toned down some camp scripting of the 1996 TV Movie and pushed up the sinister. Yes, you read that right, and he’s an actor who knows his way around a bad guy.

Fortunately, one of his unluckiest villains has been given a second life courtesy of Big Finish. You could say it’s about time, but the three stories in this collection are less about Time and more about Lord as a fascinating new version of this familiar nemesis emerges.

Roberts’ success can drown in his prolific work rate — just a cool 102 upcoming credits currently listed on IMDB. But there is gold to be found in his astonishingly packed career without too much panning. His sleazy Maroni in The Dark Knight, the gentle Nick Stark in It’s My Party, and yes, the dress-to-impress incarnation of the renegade Time Lord opposite Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor in 1996’s TV Movie.

Roberts’ Master was even more of a flash in the vortex than the Eighth Doctor. McGann was fresh, young, long-haired and (it’s cool now, right?) half-human). Roberts’ Master was Captain Black, a rotting vessel for a CGI snake. In the fallow years of no Doctor Who, few thoughts were spared for this disposable incarnation. The blurb of this release rightly calls him the Master’s lost incarnation.

McGann’s standing in Who was subsequently forged on audio. He’s moved from conventional serials (with a distinctive twist) to New Series-style adventures and box sets that stretch him across compelling arcs. The time was more than ripe for the return of the rotting Master, who we’ve heard from at Big Finish in stops and starts. Fully revived on audio, Roberts relishes in the ludicrous extended life of this incarnation of the Time Lord through three stories that draw out his devilish side.

In short, he’s delicious. As he steps up to headline, facets remain of his short-lived but hifalutin entrance. The hiss and slipperiness of the morphant serpent form he took to survive extermination are there, as is his innate and misplaced vanity (a trait we can narratively pin on the unknown incarnation in the form of Gordon Tipple at the TV Movie’s start).

Robert’s Master also has an engagingly alien dislocation from his surroundings — as he’s intent on enslaving everything, so a refusal to immerse himself in worlds makes sense. His capricious curiosity draws a line back to Delgado’s Master whistling at The Clangers on the Isle of Wight in the early 1970s. The Bruce Master (don’t forget, savagely, he murdered a San Francisco paramedic for his skin and was chillingly referred to in the movie’s soundtrack as the UnBruce) covets the sharks he inherits, toys with them, and bores of them. But like Delagado’s knowing appreciation of his absurd situation, he is happy to bring his pets up as a joke later.

The character and the casting are sound, but Big Finish knew the context had to be right.

Doctor Who isn’t alone in forcing its characters into rivalries, but the repeating cycles inherent in its format can make them feel forced. Steven Moffat (of course) turned his sharp eye to such rivalries in Series 9 when the Doctor struggled to determine whether his nemesis was Davros or Missy.

As surely as the Sixth Doctor is forever and paradoxically linked to the Valeyard, Eric Roberts Master can’t escape the Daleks, the deadly species to which he owes his transient existence.

Master! is set entirely in the shadow of The Dalek Invasion of Earth in the 22nd century. It’s a tactile part of the Who-universe but feels as neglected as the Draconian or great Cyber Wars. But the Dalek’s greatest stab at dominating Earth is an irresistible playbox.

It’s helped by the 22nd-century presenting like the 1960s in The Dalek Invasion of Earth. Those Daleks and their insidious attempts to specifically revert society by 190 years while they hollow out the Earth’s core. But these are the canonical vacuums Big Finish is made for. The publisher’s industrious work has taken the TARDIS to the era before, the Fifth and Eighth Doctors have dropped in, but there’s still much to explore, and it’s a verdant patch for the UnBruce, especially when Earth is steeped in Blade Runner aesthetic.

Master! leaps from Marlowe to James Bond as the Master is salvaged from the Time Vortex (stepping around other his previous appearances in the Big Finish catalogue) and devilishly assumes a position as the most powerful man on the planet, using the immense resources at his disposal to retain his power, life and freedom.

On the way, it successfully beats the Master and companion conundrum. The Master, a lonely figure even when he isn’t lodged into a borrowed human body, shouldn’t just become the Doctor with a gun after all.

Pairing him with Laura Aikman’s Dr Lila Kreeg works well in Rob Valentine’s pointedly named opener, Faustian. Bookending it with Kreeg’s first-person narrative works alongside this Master’s unique qualities, especially when haunting his victims. Much of the audio recording took place during the lockdown, which enhances Roberts’ slurring and sneering take on the character (and fondness for near-asides).

Kreeg isn’t simply seduced, fooled, or manipulated, but a perfectly matched grey-shaded character for a Master who permanently has a foot in victory and defeat.

The opener drips in horror, with a devilish pact signed against corporate dystopia. When the Master finally materialises, it’s with a smudge of Hellraiser. Sadly, that horror vibe is lost in the remaining two parts, which choose dystopian action.

Lodged at the top of the world, albeit one that’s recovering, places it as a futuristic Bond movie, hanging somewhere between Die Another Day and Licence to Kill. The second episode, Prey, AKA Escape from Notting Hill, has the Master and his companion pursued through a battered, ghettoed and upsidedown London. It’s the broadest in its comedy and parody, but all good fun up to its cliffhanger.

Setting this American-accented Master against Chase Masterson’s Vienna Salvatore could have felt a little convenient. But it’s evidence of Big Finish’s ingenuity (the pair were recorded in Los Angeles) as much as a way for the publisher to develop the fabric of its Worlds of Doctor Who. There is an undeniable chemistry between the lesser-known assassin with a conscience and the lesser-known Master. Compared to other incarnations, he’s quickly established as one of the more successful ones. He’s not up there with the War Master, who really has tasted victory, but he beats the Beevers incarnation hands down. He’s particularly tantalising as a tormentor of that other unlucky corpse Master in the anniversary audio Masterful. Roberts Master fully throws off the gothic horror. For much of this story, he’s building, defending and consolidating his power, only to meet event, dear boy, EVENTS.

The real interest is in a three-hander stalemate. Neither Vienna nor the Master can win, we know. Between them, how and why will Kreeg break their Faustian partnership? Well, those events… They don’t come much bigger than another Dalek invasion.

The final story, Vengeance, reverses the ever-popular siege story. The Daleks’ arrival on an Earth where the Master has assumed his position as the highest-profile businessman on the planet sees the Time Lord itching to take the fight to them.

Big Finish and writer/script editor Matt Fitton don’t miss the opportunity to tie up one of the oddities linked to the start of this Master’s life. Over the years, we’ve met supreme councils, parliaments, and emperors, but the TV Movie’s assertion that the Daleks have a legal system always stuck out.

In Vengeance, the Dalek Supreme is implementing a secondary invasion just as the planet is recovering. But it has to grapple with the sneaky Dalek Litigator (models soon, please, Character Options), an attorney with its eyestalk on the prisoner who got away. It’s a nice clash at the top of the hierarchy, although, in a breakneck and destructive story, there’s barely any time to develop it.

The litigator is the true nemesis of the Master, determined to see its savage justice through. It’s a bit ropey — the master’s body was exterminated after all, but Dalek mistrust of Time Lords must be growing in this time period. One thing it does cement is the long-held theory that the Master was tried for breaking his pact with the the pepperpots during Frontier in Space.

The destructive finale (what else?) underpins Roberts’ Master. This is an incarnation who wins more than he loses, no matter how big the setbacks (and they are big, time vortex big). He takes minor failures with a wry dismissal and relishes his victories without gloating. There’s also the sense this Master can never be satisfied. As he says in one notable scene, he’s dedicated to being the master of everything he encounters.

Considering he’s the Time Lord’s second (known) zombie body, born out of several desperate escapes, he makes a good stab at being a definitive master.

Jaw drop 

The most desperate incarnation of the Master, sure, but also the most vengeful. Snap to the end of the second episode, where the Time Lord seizes a gun from an underling to let off a little steam on some hapless aggressors. Ouch.

Verdict

An enjoyable action-packed romp that vindicates this incarnation, landing that plum series title: Master! We’re used to Big Finish finding new routes to develop characters, old and new, but this incarnation is an impressively balanced and fully formed version that sits happily between the classic and modern years. He remains an exotic bad guy, and Roberts wrings life from the unlikeliest of returning villains. But while the action suits him, it would be great to see the terror dripping once again from one of the universe’s most horror-tinged villains come back. We need more and with sunglasses on.

Review previously published on Medium (April 18, 2023)