Doctor Who fans were blown away when it was revealed by the BBC a few months ago that John Simm would be returning to play the Master in the sci-fi show’s tenth season. The actor, who portrayed the recurring nemesis of David Tennant’s Doctor, had not appeared in the series since 2010. Not only that, but the character had already been recast, with Michelle Gomez taking over as a female version of the Master, calling herself Missy.
We’re now nearing the end of the season and Simm has yet to be seen on screen (other than a split-second tease in the ‘coming up’ trailer at the end of the first episode). Thanks to The Express, though, we finally know when to expect the Master to reappear.
He’ll return in the penultimate episode of the season, titled “World Enough and Time,” airing on June 24th. It’s expected that Simm’s role will then carry over into the season finale, ominously titled “The Doctor Falls.” Both episodes are also set to feature his replacement, Michelle Gomez, and the Cybermen – specifically, the old-fashioned models from the metal meanies’ first appearance in the show way back in 1966.
Fans have been heavily speculating about how Simm will return, but the simplest explanation seems to be that, well, he’s a time traveller, so he could easily bump into both his future self and a future Doctor. The heroic Time Lord will definitely have his work cut out for him in the finale, then, facing down two incarnations of his mortal enemy and a whole horde of throwback Cybermen.
It’s likely that he won’t make it through the ordeal, either. Peter Capaldi is set to bow out of the lead role at Christmas time, which means that the Doctor will soon be regenerating into another body. Showrunner Steven Moffat has teased a “slightly different” regeneration this time around, so it’s possible that his ‘death’ will start in the finale before Capaldi transforms into his (currently unrevealed) successor in the Christmas special.
Doctor Who is currently airing on Saturday nights at 9PM on BBC America.
