With John Simm having made his return to Doctor Who for the first time since 2010 in last week’s episode “World Enough and Time,” it seems like an opportune moment to remind ourselves of the long history of the Doctor’s nemesis the Master, doesn’t it?
The short video you’ll see above runs through the Master’s many regenerations at a rather quick pace. If you need some reminding, the uber-villain has gone through seven different incarnations over the decades. First, there was Roger Delgado (1971-73), followed by a horribly disfigured version (Peter Pratt, 1976; Geoffrey Beevers, 1981) and then there was Anthony Ainley (1981-89). The one-off Doctor Who: The Movie featured Eric Roberts as the Master in 1997 before the revived series cast Derek Jacobi in 2007. John Simm then took over, followed by Michelle Gomez in 2014.
Since the main headline right now is Simm’s return, though, the promo mostly focuses on that incarnation of the character. In particular, it features a lot of clips from 2007’s “The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords.” Although, there’s strangely no mention of his second appearance in 2009/10’s “The End of Time: Parts One and Two.” The video is also narrated by Ingrid Oliver, who’s played loveable UNIT fangirl Osgood over the last few seasons. Of course, her character was previously murdered by Missy, so she really knows how bad the Master can be.
Speaking of which, the Master may just have knocked off another pal of the Doctor’s in the penultimate episode of season 10. While in disguise, he led Bill to be converted into a Cyberman. Will the Time Lord find a way to save his best friend and to stop his old enemy’s evil plan? We’ll have to see when Doctor Who‘s current run comes to a close with “The Doctor Falls,” airing this Saturday at 9PM on BBC America.
