Big Finish Review: Masterful

The Master has summoned all of his incarnations to celebrate his ultimate victory over the universe. The Doctor is dead, the universe is conquered. But what’s next? And where’s Missy?

It’s been 50 years since Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts decided that what the Doctor really needed was a Moriarty figure. To celebrate this landmark anniversary Big Finish have kicked off 2021 with Masterful, a three-hour special that unites almost all the surviving TV Masters (with Sacha Dhawan absent for licencing reasons) and a few of the audio ones too. It’s a premise that would be even more exciting if they hadn’t already done this a year and a half ago – pitting the Eighth Doctor against four incarnations of the Master in an attempt to liven up the flagging Ravenous arc.

It’s a minor niggle that vanishes as soon as the Masters file into the mysterious black castle-like contestants on RuPaul’s Drag Race. Eric Roberts flounces through the doors drezzzed for the occasion, whilst Derek Jacobi is the more seasoned competitor – calculating, focused and utterly chilling. Alex Macqueen, meanwhile, reprises his role as the middle-manager Master – all board games and team-building exercises.

They and their fellow selves are there at the behest of the John Simm incarnation, who is just as unhinged, spiteful and vainglorious as ever. It’s Simm’s involvement that’s really the big selling point here, and he certainly delivers. I’d bet the house on an upcoming boxed set addition to the ever-expanding Master ranges. Sadly, given the cause for celebration, Roger Delgado’s Master does not feature for obvious reasons, although an actor’s death doesn’t stop the Ainley Master from appearing courtesy of an evocative impression by Jon Culshaw. Par for the course, after all it wouldn’t be an anniversary special without someone missing the party. Due deference is paid to Delgado, though. He’s the only one that Simm deigns suitable for a big entrance whilst the other 70’s character celebrating a 50^th anniversary spends much of their time in the story talking with a fondness for the original incarnation of the Master.

James Goss is clearly having a lot of fun riffing on the idea of the Doctor Who anniversary special. Whilst the epic conclusion rather suitably channels The Day of the Doctor, parts one and two feel more similar to both The Five and Three Doctors with our Masters split off into groups to try and solve a mystery and save the universe.

Much like in the aforementioned Ravenous 4, we get pair-ups of Masters with differing results. For me, Milo Parker’s yet-to-leave-Gallifrey version and Alex Macqueen’s Master are the pair with the least mileage, never getting much further than a young man’s confusion and disgust at the person they become. John Simm and Derek Jacobi, on the other hand, are the most enjoyable pairing – every inch the evil versions of the Tenth Doctor and the War Doctor, the excitable child and the grizzled, disappointed father.

However, it’s Eric Roberts and Geoffrey Beevers who make for the most interesting pairing – the smoothie and the cruelly christened “crispy” Master find themselves vying for the affection of a local scientist in a wholly unexpected but utterly compelling romantic subplot. The fundamental takeaway from all of these pairings is that you cannot trust the Master, especially if you’re the Master.

It’s this core idea that makes Masterful such an enjoyable listen – if you can’t trust yourselves, how the hell are you gonna save the universe? Or should that be universes? After all, we get a bonus Master in the form of Mark Gatiss’ Unbound version, who is wickedly suave and steals every scene he’s in. No mean feat when he shares 50% of those scenes with Michelle Gomez who is on fine form as Missy, the real star of this special. Without giving too much away about the resolution, Masterful ties in neatly to the prospective redemption arc that Steven Moffat sets out in Season 10.

As such, this is possibly one of the best Master stories we’ve ever had. For all the big names, cameos, desolate planets and universe ending portent, this is fundamentally a character study up there with Joseph Lidster’s seminal Master and Steven Moffat’s exquisite The Doctor Falls. It’s a story that interrogates what the Master is actually capable of, what it is – other than that reductive term “evil” – that sets them apart from the Doctor. It’s also really, really funny, arch and a wee bit sexy. If the Doctor Who anniversary specials are big celebrations, full of heroism and positivity then Masterful is very much their Black Mass, and you can’t get a more appropriate tribute to the Master than that.

You can buy the limited edition version of Masterful here, which includes two previously released Short Trips and a new audiobook Terror of the Master, written by Trevor Baxendale and read by Jon Culshaw. Or you can buy the standard version here.