Day of the Master (audio story)

 was the third and final story in the audio anthology Ravenous 4, produced by Big Finish Productions.

As well as bringing together multiple incarnations of the Master, this story both explained and depicted the genesis of the Ravenous, inadvertently caused by the ancient Time Lord engineer Artron, as well as their end, by Artron's own command, as he returns them to their Kolstani forms.

By visiting Artron around the time of his discovery of artron energy, and before the start of the Rassilon Era, this story depicts Time Lord history at an early point in their history along with Collision Course, which featured the first prototype TARDIS while this one features a fleet of battle TARDISes placing it afterwards.

Liv Chenka and all others within the same time zone temporarily gain the ability to regenerate, like Time Lords, but indefinitely, and without changing form. The man who granted Helen's wish in Fairytale of Salzburg is also revealed to have been Artron.

With regards to the Master's timeline, Day of the Master finally explains how the maniacal Time Lord's twelfth and final regeneration,, managed to acquire a new regeneration cycle. Three incarnations of the Master watch as he regenerates into.

The Eleven is also depicted regenerating into his next form, the Twelve, after sustaining killing blows from all three Masters.

Publisher's summary
The Doctor investigates a mystery in the vortex, Liv follows the trail of their enemy, and Helen searches for a god. Everywhere they go there is a Master or, but is the Doctor's oldest enemy there to hinder them, or to help? With the TARDIS crew scattered and lost, only a miracle can save the universe. And for that to happen someone is going to have to die.

Part one
Badly injured, and upset about what the Ravenous are doing to the TARDIS, the Doctor is nevertheless persuaded by Liv to escape with the Master's TARDIS. Once they're on board, the Doctor uses the scanner to track Helen down, but finds no sign of her or Eleven on the planet. Liv insists that they go after the Eleven, thinking that Helen is with him, but the Doctor says that they can't. Since the Eleven travels with the Ravenous, it's impossible to track him down this time. Rather, the Doctor checks the information that Eleven and the Master were looking for in Artron's tomb: the coordinates of a planet, Kolstan, whose existence is supposed to be impossible.

The Doctor tricks Liv by abandoning her at an apparently deserted Time Lord waiting station. He tells her that the journey he must undertake will take him all the way to the prehistory of Gallifrey: too dangerous for her. After sending out a distress signal for other Time Lords to come to her rescue, the Doctor sets off.

Meanwhile, on a devastated and abandoned Earth of the future, Helen is forced by "Missy" to read an ancient book, one that the Time Lady can't decipher. Together, the two women travel to a tower to meet what the book describes as a "god" come to Earth in prehistoric times with his servant. Missy forces Helen to follow her at gunpoint, but Helen imagines that the reason she cannot read the book is because the "god" does not want her to. The book tells what they're doing in the exact moment they do, almost as if predicting the future - which Missy explains it's due to the fact it irradiates temporal energy.

The Doctor arrives on Kolstan, where he is rescued by Artron, the great Gallifreyan scientist. He manages to cure the Doctor (who pretends to be from Earth so as not to reveal details about the future) by exploiting the planet's energy, and then explains the special nature of the place. The inhabitants, the Kolstani (a primitive species with a limited language), feed on the energy of the Time Vortex. With this they created the planet they live on, and with this they have taken on the power to heal all wounds, even the most serious. Artron is here to study this ability of theirs, and potentially replicate it on the Gallifreyans. The Doctor is not convinced of the idea: it is too great a power to give to those who would potentially misuse it. Their conversation is interrupted by the "Bruce" Master, who has been assisting Artron in his experiments for some time, pretending to have been sent from Gallifrey.

At the station, Liv is joined by the 'War' Master. Without revealing his identity, he listens to what she has to say, meanwhile 'putting the pieces together'. He explains to her the nature of Kolstan as a planet located in the centre of the Vortex, considered a legend by his people. Liv proposes to get to the Doctor, but the Master replies that it's impossible: his TARDIS, being a new model, can't travel that far back in time without being specially programmed.Instead, he replies that it's better to listen to the internal communications network in Gallifrey and wait for a distress call. That's the station that's likely to be attacked by Eleven and the Ravenous, and then they can reach them.

Helen and Missy, after a long journey, finally arrive at the foot of a tower. They try to get in, but a force field keeps Missy out, allowing only Helen access. Helen starts to climb the stairs of the tower, but at one point on the way up a voice from above asks her if she has come to find a god. Then, without warning, Helen is lifted into the air and thrown down: the god does not want to see her.

On Kolstan, the "Bruce" Master shoots one of the Doctor's hearts, and forces Artron to provide him with Kolstani energy if he wants to save him. Artron accepts, but uses the equipment built by the Master to absorb the Kolstani power himself. This makes him extremely powerful (and he does indeed cure the Doctor immediately), but it also breaks his mind; moreover, with the Kolstani deprived of their energy, the planet begins to collapse. The Kolstani themselves begin to feel "hungry", and then the Doctor realises he's witnessing the birth of the Ravenous. Artron and the Doctor try to escape in the Master's TARDIS, but the "Bruce" Master was faster. The two then find themselves marooned on Kolstan, while a fleet of Gallifreyan warships arrives to attack the planet.

The "War" Master and Liv arrive on the Crucible of Souls, where the Eleven and the Ravenous have slaughtered the crew. Regardless of the attack, the Master proceeds with Liv to the control room, where they observe the Eleven "reverse the polarity" of one of the mechanisms, using Artron's brainprint. On the way back to the TARDIS, the Master reveals that he no longer needs Liv: he only kept her as collateral, to be fed to the Ravenous to save himself in case of need. He also reveals to her that he is the Master, before shooting her with a World War I human gun. But to the amazement of the Master and Liv, she heals immediately - and begins to regenerate.

Part two
to be added

Cast

 * The Doctor - Paul McGann
 * Liv - Nicola Walker
 * Helen - Hattie Morahan
 * The Eleven/The Eleven - Mark Bonnar
 * The Master - Eric Roberts, Derek Jacobi and Geoffrey Beevers
 * - Michelle Gomez
 * Ravenous 1 / Kolstani 1 - George Asprey
 * Ravenous 2 / Kolstani 2 / Valcon - Susie Emmett
 * Artron / Cadrin - Robert Whitelock

Continuity

 * The Doctor notes that and the Rani have worked together in the past. (TV: The Mark of the Rani)
 * River Song once teasingly mistook Missy for the Rani. (AUDIO: The Bekdel Test)
 * The Crucible of Souls is used by the Ravenous and the Eleven in their grand plan. The Crucible was previously a part of a plan by the Nine and the Doom Coalition. (AUDIO: The Crucible of Souls)
 * The War Master is granting his past self a new regeneration cycle as part of a deal with the CIA. (AUDIO: The Devil You Know)
 * The War Master declares that his past self would have "a new body, at last". (TV: The Keeper of Traken)
 * Missy says "Hello you" to the "Bald" Master. (AUDIO: Dominion)