Theory:Timeline - The Master's incarnations

This page lists the various incarnations and other versions of the Master in order. This timeline is based upon observations of the Doctor Who universe and the events that occur during each of these stories.

The short story Girl Power! suggested that the Master had had a total of eighteen regenerations up to, and including Missy. By this story's count, only instances where the Master has "died" count as regenerations, and not the instances of bodysnatching or undergoing chameleon arch identities.

Timeline

 * Across multiple time streams, the Sild collected about 470 incarnations of the Master. (PROSE: Harvest of Time)

First regeneration cycle

 * Child Master (William Hughes)


 * Koschei
 * Controversially depicted as the incarnation who became known as "the Master" after swearing revenge on the Second Doctor. (PROSE: The Dark Path, The Face of the Enemy)


 * "Inventor" Master (James Dreyfus)
 * Originally advertised as being the First Master, but never confirmed in any of his appearances, with Blood of the Time Lords instead naming him as the "third or fourth". It is, however, established in AUDIO: The Destination Wars that he was the incarnation of the Master that originally left Gallifrey. AUDIO: The Home Guard implies that he is beginning to set up his "War Games" scheme, placing him before the War Chief; if this implication is followed, he may be the incarnation who died in a Trastevarian jail and regenerated into Edward Brayshaw's War Chief as recounted in Save Yourself.


 * The Monk (Peter Butterworth)
 * Controversially suggested to be a pre-Delgado incarnation of the Master, (PROSE: The Three Doctors) specifically the sixth incarnation. (PROSE: CIA File Extracts) Faces the First Doctor and is involved in the Daleks' master plan. (TV: The Time Meddler, The Daleks' Master Plan) Later sources maintain that the Monk and the Master are separate individuals, (AUDIO: The Bekdel Test, Divorced, Beheaded, Regenerated) with the Butterworth incarnation being the First Monk. (PROSE: The Mutation of Time)


 * War Chief (Edward Brayshaw)
 * Controversially suggested in multiple Target novelisation to be a pre-Delgado incarnation of the Master. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon, etc.) AUDIO: The Home Guard suggests that he postdates the "Inventor" Master. Faces the Second Doctor and is killed by the War Lords. (TV: The War Games)


 * "UNIT enemy" Master (Roger Delgado)
 * Either regenerated after being hit by a blast of artron energy when his attempt to attack the Twelfth Doctor backfired, (COMIC: Doorway to Hell) or had his body damaged beyond repair after being shot with his own Tissue Compression Eliminator by Susan Campbell. (PROSE: Legacy of the Daleks) In a parallel universe, the Master (Jonathan Clements) regenerated into a new incarnation (Mark Gatiss). (AUDIO: Sympathy for the Devil)


 * Decayed Master (Peter Pratt/Geoffrey Beevers)
 * According to one account, the thirteenth incarnation of the Master was disfigured by his future self. (AUDIO: The Two Masters) Most accounts agree that this Master is distinct from that played by Roger Delgado (COMIC: Doorway to Hell, AUDIO: The Two Masters, Sympathy for the Devil, Master Thief) however one account insists they are one and the same. (PROSE: Legacy of the Daleks)

Beyond the twelfth regeneration

 * Tremas Master (Anthony Ainley)
 * Inhabiting the body of the Trakenite Tremas. (TV: The Keeper of Traken)


 * Old Master (Gordon Tipple)
 * "Tremas" Master regenerates after being restored by the Tzun Confederacy. (PROSE: First Frontier) According to some accounts, he is then placed on trial by the Daleks and assumes the form of a Deathworm Morphant to survive his execution by the Daleks. (TV: Doctor Who) According to other accounts, he's still in the Tremas body for these events, (PROSE: The Eight Doctors) or alternatively, has been reverted to the Decayed Master by the Warp Core some time prior, (AUDIO: Dust Breeding) possibly implying Tipple was a stolen body rather than a regeneration from Ainley.


 * "Bruce" Master (Eric Roberts)
 * Takes over the body of Bruce Gerhardt using the Deathworm Morphant, before becoming trapped in the Eye of Harmony. (TV: Doctor Who) Escapes on several occasions into the Time Vortex (COMIC: The Glorious Dead; AUDIO: The Lifeboat and the Deathboat) but always gets drawn back to the Eye of Harmony. (AUDIO: Planet of Dust)


 * "Preacher" Master
 * The gaseous "ghost" of the "Bruce" Master is drawn from the Time Vortex by the Glory (COMIC: The Glorious Dead) and reincarnated into the body of an American vagrant. (COMIC: The Fallen) He is eventually sent to parts unknown by the all-powerful Kroton; (COMIC: The Glorious Dead) it can be assumed that his soul is returned to the Time Vortex, now completely without a body, leading into the body-hopping post-TV Movie Beevers Master of Big Finish.


 * Decayed Master (redux) (Geoffrey Beevers)
 * After escaping the Eye of Harmony, steals the bodies of George Steer, (PROSE: Prologue) Richard, (PROSE: Forgotten) Don Maestro, and Michael Masterson, before being returned to his decayed state and escaping in his TARDIS. (AUDIO: Mastermind) Coming to his final end, (AUDIO: Planet of Dust) he is revived and regenerates after receiving a new regeneration cycle from the Celestial Intervention Agency. (AUDIO: Day of the Master)

Time War regeneration cycle

 * Reborn Master (Alex Macqueen)
 * Implied to be the first of the new cycle. (AUDIO: Day of the Master)


 * War Master (Derek Jacobi)
 * After spending years disguised as the human "Yana", the Master regenerated into the "Saxon" Master when Chantho shot him. (TV: Utopia)


 * "War Child" Master
 * Having regenerated into a distinct incarnation during the Time War, the Master "degenerated" back into the War Master after being caught in a paradox. (COMIC: Fast Asleep)


 * Saxon Master (John Simm)
 * Briefly died and later resurrected. (TV: Last of the Time Lords, The End of Time) Regenerated into Missy after she stabbed him. (TV: The Doctor Falls) Evidently the eighteenth incarnation. (PROSE: Girl Power!)


 * Missy (Michelle Gomez)
 * First known female incarnation. Explicitly identified herself as the Master's nineteenth incarnation. (PROSE: Girl Power!) Managed to regenerate into the Lumiat (AUDIO: The Lumiat) after being shot by the "Saxon" Master. (TV: The Doctor Falls)


 * The Lumiat (Gina McKee)
 * Would logically be the Master's twentieth incarnation. (PROSE: Girl Power!) Regenerated after being wounded by Missy. (AUDIO: The Lumiat)


 * Spy Master (Sacha Dhawan)

Unplaced

 * "Merlin" Master
 * The Master has "pale skin, prominent cheekbones, a neatly-trimmed black goatee, and voluminous hair with a widow peek", and is recognised by the Fifth and Sixth Doctors. (PROSE: The Creation of Camelot, The Fellowship of Quan, The Radio Waves)


 * "Tersurus" Master (Jonathan Pryce)
 * Confronted the "listless-looking" Ninth Doctor and their following four incarnations. (TV: The Curse of Fatal Death)


 * "Android" Master (Derek Jacobi)