Saxon Master


 * You may be looking for the human cultural grouping, the Saxons."The drum beat... The drums are getting closer... and closer."

- The Master

Harold Saxon was an identity adopted by the renegade Time Lord known as the Master. Using this alias, the Master passed himself off as a Human, engineered his election as British Prime Minister, and then sought to use the Earth to create a new Gallifrey.

Regeneration
Recently liberated from the Human form of Professor Yana, he fatally wounded his assistant, Chantho, who though dying, fired a gun at him. The wounded Master managed to get into the Doctor's TARDIS. He decided that since the Doctor had a youthful new body, he should too and so regenerated into one. The Master then left the Doctor on the planet Malcassairo with Futurekind about to burst in the laboratory door. The Master now had the TARDIS and the Doctor's hand (which Jack Harkness had taken with him to Malcassairo) that contained the Doctor's DNA. (DW: Utopia) He took the stolen TARDIS to Earth in the 2000s. (DW: The Sound of Drums)

Arriving on Earth
It is unknown exactly when the Master arrived on Earth, but he made his first public appearance about one and a half years before the Doctor had met his current companion Martha Jones, shortly after the downfall of Harriet Jones. In this appearance he unveiled the Archangel Network, which he had developed and was hailed as a telecommunications breakthrough. By this point he had taken the identity of Harold Saxon, complete with fabricated past, which while not being very convincing was believed thanks to the influence of the Archangel Network.

Life on Earth
Harold Saxon released his auto-biography, Kiss Me, Kill Me, just over a year prior to his first face-to-face meeting with The Doctor. While writing the book (about a year before The Sound of Drums), Saxon met Lucy Cole, who was working in publishing; they were married in 2007.

Political Career
By December 2007 he had become minister of defense of Great Britain, and on Christmas eve he for the first time came to real prominence ordering the British Army to use tanks to fire at and destroy the Empress of the Racnoss's webstar. (DW: The Runaway Bride, The Sound of Drums)

During 2007 he was already campaigning for the general election as Prime Minister of Great Britain (DW: Love & Monsters). He used the simple slogan "Vote Saxon." (TW: Captain Jack Harkness) He visited his old high school during his campaign, as Harold Saxon did not exist he had to use the Archangel Network to brainwash staff so that he could gain political support. (DWF: Speech Day)

"Saxon" asserted that extraterrestrial life did exist and that the British must do something about the fact. This stance made him popular in early 2008 after reports of the Judoon having transported the Royal Hope Hospital to the Moon (DW: Smith and Jones)

With his election seemingly a sure thing, a number of politicians from other parties flocked to his side. Harold Saxon was elected prime minister in May 2008, and visited the royal palace soon after. (DW: The Sound of Drums)


 * British Prime Minister
 * May 2008
 * Preceded by: Harriet Jones
 * Succeeded by: Aubrey Fairchild

Technological Innovations
The Master started the Archangel Network. This telecommunications network, tied to mobile phones, carried a subtle mind control signal which made Humans trust him. The network affected the Doctor so that on Earth earlier, he had never had any suspicions as to the Master's presence as "Saxon", even though the very essence of another Time Lord should have ordinarily been detected by him. To those few Humans conscious of it, the signal sounded as a persistent drumbeat (the same as the constant drumbeat the Master always heard) that only they could hear.

He also designed the Valiant, UNIT's air carrier, as well as a laser screwdriver, which he reserved for his own use. (DW: The Sound of Drums) "Saxon" funded the rejuvenation experiments of Richard Lazarus, presumably revealing (at least in part) the biological processes involved in a Time Lord's physical Regeneration, the similarities to which were noted by the Doctor himself after observing the process.(DW: The Lazarus Experiment) With the results from this, as well as the Doctor's DNA, the Master learned how to apply the results to the laser screwdriver, in order to age the Doctor.

Other Activities
The Master also contacted the Toclafane, the child-like yet vicious cyborg remnants of the future Humans who had never found Utopia. (DW: The Sound of Drums) He also cannibalized and converted the Doctor's TARDIS into a paradox machine so as to change history. (DW: The Sound of Drums / Last of the Time Lords) At some point he also took a devoted Human wife, Lucy. (DW: The Sound of Drums) After Martha had left with the Doctor, he had an agent meet with Martha's mother Francine and tap into a conversation between Francine and Martha via the superphone, which could contact Martha through space and time. (DW: 42)

As Prime Minister
In 2008, he was elected as Prime Minister. He gassed to death his cabinet in the recently rebuilt 10 Downing Street, stating to the public that they had gone into seclusion, and shortly afterward announced first contact with the "friendly" Toclafane who could protect Earth against alien threats. He put Jack Harkness's allies, Torchwood 3, on a futile trip to find him in the Himalayas and branded the Doctor, Jack and Martha as criminals. The Master repairedto The Valiant, which the governments of Earth considered neutral territory and therefore fitting for formal first contact with alien life. The Master had the Toclafane murder the American President Elect Arthur Coleman Winters. The Master captured the Doctor and Jack Harkness, who had come to The Valiant. Earlier that day, the Master's agent had had Francine Jones, Martha's sister Tish and her father Clive arrested and taken to the Valiant. (Martha's brother Leo had received a warning from her and gotten away in time.) (DW: The Sound of Drums)

During The Year That Never Was
The Master used his laser screwdriver to kill Jack and to age the Doctor about a hundred years. Martha managed to escape. The Master ordered the Toclafane to kill one tenth of humanity and commenced their invasion (DW: The Sound of Drums ). One year later, in 2009, the Master had converted Earth into a slave camp which he ruled from The Valiant. Here the Master kept Martha's family, the Doctor, and Jack imprisoned. The Master hoped to soon expand his New Time Lord Empire into space. Martha used the legend of the Doctor (which she had spread), the thoughts of Earth thinking "Doctor" at the same time, and channeled their psychic energy through the Archangel Network, which the Doctor had spent a year infiltrating with telepathy. The psychic energy restored the Doctor and give him telekinetic powers. Jack attacked the paradox machine and reversed time back one year. (This wouldn't affect anyone aboard The Valiant.) Lucy shot her husband, who, defeated, refused to regenerate. The Master then apparently died in the Doctor's arms.

It is not known if the general public -- or indeed the UK government or UN -- were ever made aware of Saxon's true identity. In the book 'The Torchwood Archives' it states Harold Saxon simply disappeared along with President Winters.

Resurrection
"Never...! Never! Never, never! Never dying! Never dying! Never dying! Never dying! Never dying!"

- The Master

"Can't you hear it, Lucy? The noise! The drumbeat! Louder than ever before! The drums... the neverending drums... ohh, I have missed them!"

- The Master

The Master was resurrected when his wife Lucy Saxon was imprisoned at Broadfell Prison on Earth, London. One of the warders, Miss Trefusis, the woman who retrieved the Master's ring. On Christmas Eve night, the prison governor brought Lucy to a chamber where most of the staff were members of the Cult of Saxon who had been working ever since his apparent death to bring about his resurrection. With the help of the ring and a biometric imprint taken from Lucy, the Master reappeared in a swirl of energy, but Lucy and one other warder had prepared for this in order to stop his resurrection Lucy hurled a harmful potion at the Master. His followers were all killed in an explosion that also killed his wife, Lucy.

The Master Race
"The human race was always your favorite, Doctor, but now... there IS no human race! There is only... the Master Race!"

- The Master

However, the Master survived the blast, but his life force was left in a state of constant depletion, forcing him to drain the vitality of a number of homeless people on a desolate construction site. A later encounter with the Master revealed to the Doctor discovered that the drumming in his head was not a symptom of insanity, but actually real. A squad of troops fly down from the sky in a helecopter and sedate and kidnap the Master and taking him to the mansion of billionaire Joshua Naismith. Naismith enlisted the assistance of the Master to mend the malfunctioning Immortality Gate. After the Master broke out of the straight jacket he was strapped in, he flew into the gateway. He then set the gateway to Human thus making every human on earth into the Master Race, identical copies of the master.

The Last Act of the Time War
"You did this to me! All of my life...! You MADE me!"

- The Master

The High Council of Time Lords managed to make contact with the Master using the rhythm of the drumbeats in his head - the same rhythm as the Time Lord's heartbeat - and sent him a White Point Diamond, which was found only on Gallifrey, to boost the signal. Fitting the diamond to a nuclear bolt to boost the signal, the Master tore open the time lock on the war, bringing back the Time Lords. This meant that the Lord President Rassilon and his council arrived through the Immortality Gate, the Master announced that he intended to transplant himself into the entire Time Lord race, just as he had done to the human race. Lord President Rassilon, using his gauntlet, reversed the effects of the Master's transplantation, and watched as Gallifrey returned to the universe on a collision course with Earth.

The President revealed what he and the Time Lords had been planning at the final days of the Time War. But the Doctor stepped in with Wilfred Mott's pistol, undecided. This could have been used to kill the President or the Master, and sever the link. As the Master mocked him, calling him a coward, and Rassilon taunted him by saying that the last act of his life would be murder, the Doctor saw a familiar Time Lady among Rassilon's entourage, then turned back to the Master and instructed him to step out of the way. The Master, suddenly realizing what the Doctor had in mind, and jumped to the side as the Doctor shot the nuclear bolt holding the White-Point Star, destroying the link.

Rassilon then prepared to kill the Doctor, the Master told the Doctor to step out of the way, and unleashed his bio-electric blasts at the President, claiming that he had made him the way he was and counting the beat of the rhythm that had resounded in his head all of of his life. The Time Lords at the Naismith Mansion vanished in a burst of white light, at the same time that Gallifrey disappeared from Earth's sky, returning the Time Lords and their world to the eternal Hell of the Time War to die there. (DW: The End of Time)

Personality
Like most of his previous incarnations, "Saxon" was dapper and charming but also greatly manipulative and sadistic, taking pleasure in the humiliation and suffering of others. He did have a dark side though, where he was serious with a touch of malicious humor. His childish demeanor and eccentric sense of humor were both traits he shared with the Tenth Doctor, underlining that he was the Doctor’s equal and opposite.

However, after his resurrection was sabotaged by Lucy Saxon his sanity decreased dramatically. His usual urbane sophistication was replaced with an almost feral state of mania and bloodlust. He was often in a disturbingly happy mood, grinning wildly and laughing at the slightest thing, and did strange and unpredictable things.

Behind the Scenes
The first, very minor reference to Harold Saxon, occurs in Love & Monsters when the Abzorbaloff sits reading a paper which mentions a Saxon election victory on its cover. The second (and first direct) reference happened in a dialogue reference at the end of The Runaway Bride. Saxon also crossed over into the Torchwood spinoff itself, with "Vote Saxon" posters being visible in one episode.

The BBC created an official in-universe campaign website for the election as well. In 2007, a popular online meme among Doctor Who fans making the popular the "Vote Saxon!" slogan.