O'BSERVATIONS - MY MASTER PLAN

After it was announced that Chris Chibnall would be the next showrunner for 'Doctor Who', he submitted to an interview by the Royal Television Society:

Chibnall admits that he took a long time to commit: “I finally said yes because I love the show to my bones. I resisted it for a very long time, and [the BBC] really had to woo me.

“But, in the end, I had ideas about what I wanted to do with it. When I went to them and said, ‘This is what I would do’, I actually expected them to say, ‘Ooh, let’s talk about that’, but they said: ‘Great!’”

Chibnall can’t reveal yet what his daring conceit for the series is but would he, for example, be allowed to do a whole-series story­line, like 'Broadchurch', rather than individual episodes? “Yes. What the BBC was after was risk and boldness.” 

A whole-series storyline would not be new to 'Doctor Who' - "Trial Of A Time Lord" and "The Key Of Time" proved it could be done.  And within that one storyline, there still could be jumping-off points for sub-plots.

I've had for years an idea that a running storyline for the Doctor, any incarnation, would be to keep crossing paths with the earlier incarnations of the Master.  We only first met the Doctor's oldest friend and greatest enemy with the last possible regenerated Incarnation, played by Roger Delgado.

The Master was able to keep going even after that last body was in a putrid state of decay by taking over the boy of Tremas of Traken.  Eventually he was executed by the Daleks and reduced to ash, yet somehow he kept going - by resurrecting his executed spirit to possess a human in San Francisco. The Time Lords of Gallifrey granted him a new cycle of regenerations so that he might help them in the great Time War, but instead he ran away to live in seclusion at the End of Time with his physiology altered via his Chameleon Arch.  Even he didn't know he was once the Master; he thought he was a human known as Professor Yana.

(For those not familiar with the basic Toobworld concept, I have no problem with drawing inspiration from other TV show, mini-series, TV movies, and commercials - known as blipverts in our lingo.  But Toobworld Central strives to steer clear from utilizing the information to be found in 'Doctor Who' novels, comics, audio plays, and theatrical works unless they were later incorporated into the televersion of 'Doctor Who'.  Otherwise those elements of his mythos belong in their respective fictional universes based on Mankind's imagination - BookWorld, ComicWorld, the Audioverse, and the Worldstage.  So that's why a lot of Master information - as good as it was - can't be incorporated into his tele-tale.)

So there are twelve other incarnations of the Master we never met.  Well, practically.  We did meet the Master as a young boy in David Tennant's finale as the Doctor: the Christmas special "The End of Time."

At any rate, there are twelve adult incarnations of the Master out there, who could be brought into the 'Doctor Who' narrative.  Some of them could forced into regeneration at the end of their episode; others could live on so that the actor might come back to do battle again.

Think of all the actors who could bring their particular magic to the role!

Here are just a few examples I came up with:

• Joseph Fiennes
• Jeremy Irons
• Tom Hughes
• Adrian Lester
• Hugh Laurie
• Julian Rhind-Pitt
• Mark Strong
• Ewen Bremner
• Ben Kingsley
• Cillian Murphy
• Timothy Spall

And those are just off the top of my head.  There are plenty of other possibilites:

You'll notice a few things about my list of names.

There are no women listed.

That's because I think The Mistress ("Missy") was the first incarnation to be a woman.  Otherwise, I think John Simm's incarnation would have mentioned it.  But he seemed to be surprised by the idea his future self would be female.

I do list a black actor.
Adrian Lester is a very good actor and I think he could twist his usually charming self into a cold and calculating madman.  And I think he should be one of the early incarnations of the Master.  That way, should the Doctor finally regenerate into a person of color, the Master (should he/she ever return - and we know that will happen, don't we?) can crow about beating him/her at even that "milestone."

I didn't make enough suggestions for the full complement of Masters before the arrival of Delgado.  There is no twelfth regeneration.

Technically there is.  I just didn't include the first incarnation of the Master.  And that's because I have a specific actor in mind for the role.....

See, with all of those other incarnations, I'm not married to those suggestions.  Sure, I would love to see them show up eventually in 'Doctor Who', but they don't have to be as the Master.  Other Time Lords - especially the Meddling Monk! - could be portrayed by those actors.  Other alien species and just humans could benefit by their acting talents.

But I think the first adult incarnation of the Master should look as though he was that boy who stared into the untempered schism whom we saw in "The End Of Time".

Here's his picture again:

And here's who I think should then be that little boy grown up to be the First Incarnation of the Master:

Oh no!  I can hear the fangirls squeal.  Not sweet Sam Tarly!

I think John Bradley has shown what a good actor he is in 'Game Of Thrones'.  But he has displayed his range in 'Borgia' and the dark TV movie "Traders".  I think he has the goods to pull off the first in a long line of Masters.

"You will all die by my hand!"

BCnU!