Talk:The Master

Please note that, due to the templates set up to connect to specific sections of The Master, headings should not be changed.

The following templates exist for the different incarnations of the Master: category=The Master templates columns=2 The way we'll now connect to this page is to write something like this:
 * The Fourth Doctor faced his final challenge: a confrontation with atop the radio telescope. (TV: Logopolis (TV story))

which yields:
 * The Fourth Doctor faced his final challenge: a confrontation with atop the radio telescope. (TV: Logopolis)

If you need to make the the capitalised, then type. These links, be they, or whoever will go directly to the section of this article dealing with that version of the character.

The Doctor/Master
The Power of the Doctor raised a pretty big question, how should we cover the Doctor/Master incarnation?

Perhaps as a subsection of the Thirteenth Doctor or as a subsection of ?

In my opinion this incarnation deserves a page of its own as it was a regeneration in its own right. There were gaps in this character's story left throughout the episode that could lead to potential stories being told that wouldn't involve Thirteen or the original Master (such as when he was causing chaos in the universe with Yaz, or when Yaz abandoned him) and therefore wouldn't make sense to be placed on either's page.

If this character does receive their own page I think that they should be considered an incarnation of both the Doctor and the Master, with him being labeled under more ambiguous on the incarnations of the Doctor template similar to the Meta-Crisis. DrWHOCorrieFan ☎  21:47, 23 October 2022 (UTC)


 * Mh, I'm not sure. Consciousness-wise he's clearly a continuation of the Master, so if we cover him anywhere, it should definitely principally be at just like we cover most of the Roberts Master's exploits on the Master's page, not at Bruce (Doctor Who). This is the Master body-surfing; we've seen this before. As a "the Master in a stolen body", he currently cannot get his own page any more than any of the other possessed-Masters can. But it's a fair question whether he'll get his own page when we do the eventual Master split, and whether, as such, he should get his own heading vs. being a subheading of "As the Spy Master". I'm leading towards the latter even there, though, given that he reverts back to being the original Dhawan in the end and it's always the same actor…


 * Whether we want to link to him somewhere in is a fair point too. I think maybe yes. But under what name? That's the question. Scrooge MacDuck ⊕ 21:51, 23 October 2022 (UTC)


 * The page name that makes the most sense to me is The Doctor (The Power of the Doctor) as literally the whole point of the plot was the Master becoming the Doctor (with a possible redirect from The Master (The Power of the Doctor). It was still the Doctor's body and this incarnation repeatedly named himself the Doctor. I also think that there were hints of the Doctor deep inside the Master which is why he wanted to keep Yaz around. DrWHOCorrieFan ☎  21:55, 23 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Just seen that The Doctor (The Power of the Doctor) is currently being used for the Fourteenth Doctor. I don't particularly think that page needs the redirect and it would better fit this character's page. DrWHOCorrieFan ☎  21:57, 23 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Corrie, I agree that this approach is best. Seeing as it's an unused redirect, I think you should feel free to overwrite it. – n8 (☎) 22:29, 23 October 2022 (UTC)

I've no strong feelings on what to call the current character we're discussing, being an American who has not yet seen the episode. But I agree that as of yet the redirect is not needed imo. It might eventually come to be the case that in retrospect that [certain actor who shall remain nameless] was really the 14th Doctor all along and Tennant is just a weird glitch and RtD was messing with us, so we should then rename things. But we can cross that bridge when we come to it. I'm in the "go ahead and overwrite" camp. Najawin ☎  22:32, 23 October 2022 (UTC)

I think it deserves a page - it's an incarnation of the Doctor, and the Master can't very well be placed under category:Incarnations of the Doctor. Cookieboy 2005 ☎  22:39, 23 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Hey, so someone went and created The Master Doctor. I've now deleted it again, because this discussion is ongoing, T:BOUND is a thing, and anyway that's an unjustified conjectural title. Please do not attempt to create such a page until we're all agreed.


 * Once again I restate: insofar as the "Dhawan Doctor" is the Master possessing someone, he cannot, by policy, get his own page currently any more than the Tremas Master or the Bruce Master. Regardless of what we decide we want to do in the abstract. He cannot. We're not allowed. The most this debate could conclude is that we give him his own "main heading" on par with other incarnations of the Master, and pencil him off for splitting when we do properly split all the Masters. Scrooge MacDuck ⊕ 22:40, 23 October 2022 (UTC)


 * The page deletion seems to be a typical example of one rule for one. A discussion was raised about the Fourteenth Doctor prior to that page being created but it wasn't deleted. Anyway, I created the page as The Master Doctor before seeing NB and Najawin's support for The Doctor (The Power of the Doctor). In my opinion the former would definetly be my preferred option. DrWHOCorrieFan ☎  22:44, 23 October 2022 (UTC)


 * That discussion was concluded, by me, whereupon I created the page. The precedent there is overwhelming. We should call the new, numbered, TV Doctor what the BBC Who website calls them. Obviously we should. In contrast, as I said, even if the present talk page discussion comes to a consensus that he should be treated as his own thing, we cannot implement it. We cannot have a separate page about him right here and now. Not until we have Forums and split off all the other Masters. There is no actual policy-compliant way that this debate could authorise this page's creation currently. Scrooge MacDuck ⊕ 22:48, 23 October 2022 (UTC)


 * Scrooge is technically correct. Master incarnations can't have their own pages as a matter of policy at this point. I actually wrote out my comment sans the last sentence and then modified it due to an edit conflict with Nate's, reading his. I didn't read Scrooge's. That's my bad. Najawin ☎  22:49, 23 October 2022 (UTC)


 * To be fair, there's no rule stating an incarnation of the individual most commonly known as "the Doctor" who happens to look and act like the Master can't have their own page. Cookieboy 2005 ☎  22:50, 23 October 2022 (UTC)


 * The loophole is quite blatantly here. This is not an incarnation of the Master. It is not a possession like the Tremas Master or the Bruce Master. This is far more a Christine Summerfield situation where the Doctor's body, or a clone of Chris Cwej in Christine's case, is implanted with the personality/memories of someone else. It is the Doctor, but with the thoughts and personality of the Master. That is the whole point. She wasn't possessed, she literally regenerated into a new evil counterpart with the Master's likeness.


 * As it is an incarnation of the Doctor not the Master there is no policy preventing us from giving them a page. DrWHOCorrieFan ☎  22:55, 23 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Mh. This is clever, but I really don't think this is correct. The Master's "soul" is very much being transferred from his original body into the regenerated Doctor here; and is then thrown back into his original one. Contrast Christine Summerfield who just existed concurrently with the Blonde Girl. It's the Master possessing an incarnation of the Doctor who looked like Dhawan, and… I guess you could argue the "Dhawan Doctor" whom we never really met because he was possessed by the Master the whole time could kind of deserve coverage as an incarnation of the Doctor in that sense, but his actions aren't his own. The biography stuff is the Master's. Scrooge MacDuck ⊕ 23:05, 23 October 2022 (UTC)


 * I suppose it is a bit of an edge case, but we need him under "Incarnations of the Doctor", goddammit! Cookieboy 2005 ☎  23:07, 23 October 2022 (UTC)


 * Eh, even good categories can be removed, after all: "the big thing to understand about categories is that they are essentially organisational tools, not genuine content". If the only thing that it's causing problems here is the presence or lack of a single category, then let it be said: we don't need him under a category. So long as the content can be added to a page (and it can and is more logically placed on this - or any Spy Master page), we're just fine. OncomingStorm12th ☎  23:12, 23 October 2022 (UTC)


 * Scrooge, I think you have misinterpreted the episode.


 * If the Master was simply body-swapping, what would be the need for the whole forced regeneration? Cassandra did it to the Doctor with a simple psychograft. The Master transferred his entire personality and memories into the Doctor's newly regenerated form (leaving himself, for want of another word, a vegetable). The Master Doctor wasn't an incarnation of the Master, he was an incarnation of the Doctor with the Master's personality and memories (its the whole point of the scheme).


 * There was literally no possession in the episode, no mention of it, no nothing.DrWHOCorrieFan ☎  23:13, 23 October 2022 (UTC)


 * Well, that's not the only reason, there's also him physically, you know, being an incarnation of the Doctor - it's just a reason. (response to Scrooge's prior comment) Cookieboy 2005 ☎  23:14, 23 October 2022 (UTC)


 * User:DrWHOCorrieFan: "Transferring his entire personality and consciousness into the Doctor" is what I mean by "possession". I really don't understand what you're saying. We seem to be describing the same sequence of events: the Doctor force-regenerated the Doctor into a Sacha Dhawan body, then transferred his own soul into (i.e. possessed) that newly-regenerated body. So the "Master Doctor" is the spirit of the real Master going around possessing the body of the Doctor who's been force-regenerated to look like the Master. Scrooge MacDuck ⊕ 23:16, 23 October 2022 (UTC)


 * Whatever subjective opinions any of us may have regarding "continuity of consciousness" or some such, looking at the language used in the episode, it's very clear that there is nothing about the character being a "regeneration/incarnation of the Master", and nothing about the character being "possession by the Master". As literally stated in the transcript, he is an incarnation of the Doctor. There's no reason for him not to be treated as such. – n8 (☎) 23:17, 23 October 2022 (UTC)


 * There is nothing "subjective" about the continuity-of-consciousness thing. As DrWHOCorrieFan acknowledged, we are dealing with the Master temporarily transferring his essence into the Dhawan-Doctor, and then it being transferred back out again. There is never any doubt in dialogue that the character is the Master. Again, this feels a lot like wanting to cover information about Ainley's Master on Tremas. Scrooge MacDuck ⊕ 23:20, 23 October 2022 (UTC)


 * "Forced regeneration, Doctor. To force you... to regenerate... into me."
 * To me, at least, this very much reads as "forcing the Doctor to regenerate into this very individual/the Spy Master", not just "forcing the Doctor to regenerate into a body that looks like the Spy Master and then he goes into that body". Whatever the in-universe mechanics of it are, the Master "took over" the Doctor's body/lifespan, but very much kept on being himself for all intents and purposes.
 * I can't see the benefit of moving into a separate page (again, with the exception of adding a shiny category - which as presented above, is not and should not be the priority here. OncomingStorm12th ☎  23:24, 23 October 2022 (UTC)


 * I have the perfect comparison as to what happened in this episode; in Evolution of the Daleks the Doctor put himself in the way of the gamma strike and as such his personality was implanted into the Dalek-Human hybrids. This is exactly what happened here - the Master caused the Doctor to regenerate so that he could implant his personality and memories into the renewed body. If it was just a possession, why would there be a need for the entire forced regeneration? He'd have just possessed her, surely?


 * This was an evil incarnation of the Doctor with the Master's personality. DrWHOCorrieFan ☎  23:29, 23 October 2022 (UTC)


 * By your logic @OncomingStorm12th every time a Cyberman states "you shall become like me" or "you shall become like us" they literally mean that they will physically become that exact Cyberman. The Master telling the Doctor he will force him "to regenerate... into me" is just him saying that he will share his personality and ideals, not that he will physically be him. DrWHOCorrieFan ☎  23:34, 23 October 2022 (UTC)


 * I'll be honest, this all reads very much as malicious compliance. The Master has taken over the Doctor's body, and left his old body behind AND he kept his face. This is no different from the series of Decayed Masters from Mastermind (audio story). It's not like the old body was still up and moving as its own individual entity, it was a husk. This is a classic case of body possession.


 * Say, in the world where we've finally separated all of the incarnations and Sacha Dhawan's Master is situated at Spy Master: Would it really be of use to have a separate page for the period of this story where he's taken over the Doctor's body? How would that help? We'd just have two different pages where the same information is explained TWICE. The Master ends up being forced back into his old body at the end, so the end of the story would still have to be explained on Spy Master and not the new page. What should we do when covering Power of the Doctor (TV story)? Cover it in a sentence, hyperlink over to a new page for another two sentences, and then cover the ending back on Spy Master?


 * In fact, we already have an example of this happening in a movie-length story: The Master (very briefly) takes over the Doctor's body in the TV Movie. We don't have a separate page for the Eric Roberts Doctor and the Paul McGann Master --and at least there they have different actors from their predecessors. To cover the Master's time occupying the Doctor's body, while still having the face of Sacha Dhawan and still having the memories and personality of the Sacha Dhawan Master and NONE of the Doctor's memories or personality, would be (1) disingenuous and (2) actively hostile to readers. I am strongly opposed to any coverage of the Master's stint in the Doctor's body on any location other than The Master or the proverbial Spy Master. NoNotTheMemes ☎  23:37, 23 October 2022 (UTC)


 * I agree with Scrooge, OS12th and NoNotTheMemes here. The Dhawan-Doctor is for all intents and purposes the Master. He's using the Doctor's body as a cruel joke, and shouldn't be considered a separate individual. Also, Corrie, your analogy makes no sense, because the Dalek hybrids aren't all incarnations of the Doctor! Chubby Potato ☎  23:39, 23 October 2022 (UTC)


 * And to counter the notion that this is "an evil incarnation of the Doctor with the Master's personality" --notice how the Master's original body is lying limp in the tube? And how when the "Master Doctor" turns back into Whittaker, his essence returns back into the original body? And how the original body goes on and remembers all of that activity? It's very evident that this was fundamentally a body possession. It's written that way, it's performed that way. To characterize it otherwise is irresponsible. NoNotTheMemes ☎  23:40, 23 October 2022 (UTC)


 * ...And as such, they are a unique incarnation who never truly got to express their own personality or make their own choices - still a new incarnation with a forced appearance. Cookieboy 2005 ☎  23:43, 23 October 2022 (UTC)


 * Nobody on the opposing side seems to be able to answer what the whole point of the regeneration scheme was if it was simply a possession? The Master transferred his memories/personality into the new Doctor - sacrificing himself - in order to make that incarnation an evil duplicate of himself thus tarnishing the Doctor's reputation. The Master was left as a husk as a result, lying in the tube, because he now had literally no essence as he'd transferred it to the new incarnation of the Doctor. DrWHOCorrieFan ☎  23:46, 23 October 2022 (UTC)


 * But "the Master" is the essence. That's what 'essence' means. We don't care about the meat! Scrooge MacDuck ⊕ 23:48, 23 October 2022 (UTC)


 * I interpreted it that he took the Thirteenth Doctor's body, not the Doctor's body, if that makes sense.. Hence why she hasn't crossed the boundary and meets the Guardians of the Edge. As I see it Dhawan-Doctor is both the Master and 13, but not a different incarnation. Chubby Potato ☎  23:50, 23 October 2022 (UTC)


 * @Chubby Potato so what would be the whole point of the regeneration and degeneration if it was the Thirteenth Doctor's body?


 * The Master took over people in The End of Time nobody here is arguing that there should be a page for Sylvia Master or Shaun Master, absolutely not. Because that was stated to be the Master possessing their bodies. This plot was the complete opposite and the Master Doctor was the Doctor with only the Master's personality/memories. That is literally the entire purpose of the scheme. DrWHOCorrieFan ☎  23:53, 23 October 2022 (UTC)


 * That regeneration was the vessel through which he took over her body. I don't really see him as an "incarnation of the Doctor" but that's not to say I'd be opposed to treating it that way since there is a regeneration. But also, I think the return to Thirteen is just that, a degeneration (or retro-regeneration if you prefer) and not something like… well, what we see at the end of the episode. Chubby Potato ☎  00:03, 24 October 2022 (UTC)


 * This is the very obvious solution: We cover the events of The Power of the Doctor (TV story) on Spy Master (for the meanwhile, The Master). On the Doctor navbox, list the incarnation under "More ambiguous". There is absolutely no need to make a separate page for this.


 * There is absolutely no benefit of covering the twenty minutes of the story where the Master is occupying the Doctor's body on a separate page from the parts of the story that precede and succeed that time on separate pages --and if your counter is "Well what about categories" then I refer you to T:Don't over categorize --to make a separate page would embody the idea of focus on frivolity. NoNotTheMemes ☎  00:09, 24 October 2022 (UTC)


 * In my opinion regardless of whether you think the Master possessed the Doctor's new body or whether he transferred his likeness into it during the creation process (I still favour the latter) there can be no mistake that this was a new body and incarnation of the Doctor and therefore deserves a page of its own.


 * There is no current policy that should prevent this page's creation as it is a completely unique situation.


 * I would be open to having this page covered at The Doctor (The Power of the Doctor), however, I would seriously prefer The Master Doctor (but I think this is what the character will be referred to as by production/merchandise before long so we can change it then). The page should cover from the incarnation's regeneration to the degeneration - should it matter that it was only twenty minutes long as that is far longer than many characters get - with the Spy Master's page covering the entirety of the storyline. DrWHOCorrieFan ☎  00:19, 24 October 2022 (UTC)


 * I don't think that being his own incarnation is sufficient for a page, and as you say, this is a special case. The Master remembers being in the other body when put back in his dying Rasputin body. What meaningful content is there to cover on a separate page that wouldn't just be covered on Spy Master? Chubby Potato ☎  00:23, 24 October 2022 (UTC)


 * I'm honestly at my wit's ends here. I don't remotely know how to reply to a statement like "only the Master's personality/memories". That's what personhood is! What else does it mean to "be the Master" than to be the current iteration fo the Master's personality, in possession of all his memories? It can't be about corporeal continuity. The Master's soul has hopped from possessed body to possessed body a whole bunch of times, not to mention been destroyed and resurrected at least twice. "The Master's personality and memories" in a new body is "the Master", all the more unquestionably so when there's no other instantiation of the same running around at the same time to create a fork, which, in this case, there isn't: the Rasputin Master and Doctor Master never coexist as conscious beings and their memories don't diverge.


 * In all senses except… medical, I guess, this is the Master. If we insist on treating him as his own incarnation, "the Doctor Master" would sooner work than "the Master Doctor". This isn't "a version of the Doctor who looks like the Master", it's "a version of the Master who came into existence by highjacking the Doctor's meat suit". Scrooge MacDuck ⊕ 00:25, 24 October 2022 (UTC)


 * Earlier today, before I even knew this would be a discussion, I created several pages Christine I, Christine II and Christine IV. All of these characters are completely different characters to (as you yourself stated) the definitive Christine Summerfield despite them all being inserted with the same individual's memories/personality at birth. This is in complete contrast to say the Master taking over the entire population in The End of Time, he was all of those duplicates.


 * This Doctor/Master example fits more with the Christine version than the earlier Master plot. The Master inserted his own memories and personality into the Doctor's new incarnation at their creation, creating a villainous new entity that was the Doctor but still shared the ideals and goals with the Master. This being couldn't possible be the exact same character as the Master, not only were they biologically different but they also had a mixture of the Doctor's personality/memories too as it wasn't a complete possession/takeover. This can be seen when the Master falters several times in regards to Yaz and wants to keep her around rather than killing her as the Master has so freely done to the Doctor's other companions, this shows that the Doctor/Master incarnation is a new being. An amalgamation of them both, but only an incarnation of the Doctor. The Master sacrificed himself and without his being he's an empty husk until it is reversed and he receives his personality back.


 * If it was a simple possession/take over I would agree with you that there was no different in the characters. But this was an amalgamation of the Doctor's body and personality with the Master's. DrWHOCorrieFan ☎  00:36, 24 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Ah. I better see what you mean. If I agreed that the Dhawan-Doctor-Master's behaviour evidenced a mix of their two personalities, I might well agree to giving him his own page; but that's not how I interpreted the episode at all. His hesitation to kill Yaz just seemed to be a product of wanting desperately to continue his Doctor role-play with the actual companion; a unique toy he doesn't want to break just yet. Perhaps even some amount of mercy the Master still has within his personality from his Missy days, much as he wants to deny it. I didn't see any smoking guns that the Doctor's personality had influenced the mix at all. Curious what other people think. Scrooge MacDuck ⊕ 00:39, 24 October 2022 (UTC)


 * Yes, I agree with Scrooge's above comment. It's not exactly right to consider him an "incarnation of the Doctor" anyway because the Doctor isn't there. The Thirteenth Doctor is in her psyche with the Guardians of the Edge, I don't think any part of the Doctor was part of this incarnation. The Doctor as a person did not get a new incarnation. If anything he's an incarnation of the Master, but again, I don't think he is meaningfully distinct from the Spy Master. When I say that, I mean not only in-universe, but in terms of having a separate page. Having the wiki be understandable and cohesive is more important than creating a page just because we technically can (similar to the categories argument in the beginning of this discussion). Chubby Potato ☎  00:42, 24 October 2022 (UTC)


 * Surely reaability is improved by accuracy? Cookieboy 2005 ☎  11:23, 24 October 2022 (UTC)


 * For those that are operating under the notion that we shouldn't treat this as a possession --the story does everything it can to treat this as a possession short of the Master proclaiming "I'm going to possess your body, Doctor!":


 * 1. The Master doesn't have the Doctor's memories (as evidenced with his interaction with the Fugitive Doctor and Vinder);
 * 2. The Master actively has the memories and intents of the Spy Master (as evidenced by him returning to the Master's Dalek Plan and using the volcanos); and,
 * 3. The Master is able to be placed back into his old body (as evidenced by "Don't let me go back to being me.")


 * This should be treated in the same way that we treat the Master's many bodily possessions. Here is the schema that I propose and I believe has the most support:
 * The Master's brief stint in the Doctor's body should be covered under Spy Master (and, until we properly split,, the [Thirteenth Doctor]], the Doctors info box, and under “a day to come” on Fourteenth Doctor.NoNotTheMemes  ☎  14:47, 24 October 2022 (UTC)


 * None of these points are slam dunks against non-possession perspectives.
 * The Master doesn't have the 13th Doctor's memories because she hadn't passed the Guardians of the Edge to be subsumed into the new Master-Doctor's subconscious.
 * It makes sense that, using technology specifically identified in the episode as Gallifreyan regeneration tech, the Master would be able to engineer the Doctor's regeneration to match his appearance and intent.
 * Yes, no matter the interpretation, that's an accurate description of what it was like for the process to be reversed.
 * – n8 (☎) 15:50, 24 October 2022 (UTC)

With my birds' eye view of online discussion, I can see at least three widely attested interpretations of what the Master did to the Doctor in The Power of the Doctor: Some of these are based on well-known patterns of the Master's behavior across prior stories and incarnations; others are based solely on the episode, and its consistent description and depiction of the Doctor's transformation as somehow regenerative. Personally, I'm not interested in debating which of these perspectives is "the truth", but I trust that any individual of sufficient good faith can understand how all three capably describe the episode's ambiguities.
 * 1) the Master's consciousness possessed the body of a new incarnation of the Doctor that looked just like the Master;
 * 2) the Master possessed the Doctor in a super weird way so she looked like him, without regeneration being involved; or
 * 3) the Doctor and the Master amalgamated in a way that does not easily fit the "possession" framing.

Reading through this conversation, there seem to be two paths here:
 * the path of single perspective, where we argue for ages with the goal of ultimately concluding "This is possession, plain and simple, and you're wrong for thinking otherwise" (or similar).
 * the path of mutual accomodation, where we say "It's unclear whether this is possession or a new Doctor incarnation etc, so let's mirror that in our coverage and create a page where we can reflect all options."

While not detracting from The Master (or some future Dhawan incarnation page) in any way, a separate page would give us the place to better represent the ambiguity of the episode. There are several other advantages as well: since it will equally represent the perspective that this is a new Doctor incarnation, it can be a separate page from The Master, providing a dedicated place to discuss the Master-Doctor's actions, clothes, behind the scenes, and (for futureproofing purposes) any potential future appearances; additionally, it'll allow us to cover the perspective that this is an incarnation of the Doctor without putting The Master (or some future Dhawan incarnation page) in Category:Incarnations of the Doctor, which would otherwise be misleading to readers unfamiliar with this story.

Let's move on from this debate before it grows any longer and choose the compromise path that allows us to retain our individual understandings. – n8 (☎) 15:50, 24 October 2022 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure anyone was contending your #2 — just contending #1 and saying "and therefore, while very technically a new Dhawan-like incarnation of the Doctor was involved in the process, it wouldn't be practical to try to cover him that way". I think we're dealing with disagreements about how to treat a given scenario, as much as disagreement about what happens. The way I see it, there are two premises, each with multiple lines of thought about how to Wikify if this premise is true.


 * "Premise A" is "the Master's consciousness possessed the body of a new incarnation of the Doctor that was forced to look just like the Master".


 * Within Premise A, some people:
 * #1: think that the resultant being is ontologically still "the Doctor" because that's who they are bodily, even if the Master's personality and memories are at the command chair, and therefore think that this Doctor whose personality happens to be Masterlike should be given his own Doctor page.


 * #2: think that the resultant being is ontologically "the Master" even if their current body originated as a regeneration of the Thirteenth Doctor's; indeed they shouldn't technically be considered an "Incarnation of the Doctor" at all, because the spirit of the Doctor is not in fact incarnate within that body.


 * #3: think the same as #2 but that the Dhawan Doctor still deserves his own page as an entity distinct from "the Master possessing the Dhawan Doctor", even if his "true" personality was never expressed.


 * "Premise B" is "the Doctor and the Master amalgamated into a composite beings whose personality, and not just body, includes traces of both; therefore he's his own entity like e.g. the DoctorDonna" even if his existence is temporary". If this premise were to be granted, a page about him would be a shoe-in, although there would be lingering debate about quite how to name and categorise it.


 * For example, within this breakdown: I think Premise B is factually incorrect; I think Permise A is factually correct; I believe that Courses of Action A2 and A3 are both acceptable. Proponents of A1 have a philosophical, and aesthetic, disagreement with me; a semantic disagreement, even, about what we mean by "identity" and "the Master" and "possession"; but not a factual disagreement about what occurs in-universe, let alone what occurs on-screen in the episode. Scrooge MacDuck ⊕ 16:10, 24 October 2022 (UTC)


 * I was describing views I've seen around the web, not just on the wiki, but okay, let's roll with your schema. If we were to accept that Premise A is factually correct, and that the only separation between Courses A1, A2, and A3 is "philosophical", "aesthetic", and/or "semantic" – why on earth would we as a wiki pick a side on "philosophy" and "aesthetics" at all? Why not simply assert Premise A and give equal airtime to perspectives A1-A3 equally, on a page where there's room to do such a thing? A2 can still be expressed on The Master as its supporters wish, while giving cursory lip-service (and a link) to the others on the separate page. – n8 (☎) 16:26, 24 October 2022 (UTC)


 * Deciding whether or not to cover the actions of while occupying the Doctor's body under  or a new Master Doctor page is not a matter of picking a side on philosophy and aesthetics. In fact, if we assume Premise A is correct (which it is), then there is fundamentally no circumstance in which this characters actions would not be required to be covered under . Tardis Wiki has already picked a side on the philosophy of "Who is responsible for the actions of the body": Coverage has historically followed the mind, not the appendages. As I have frequently cited, we do not cover the War Master's possession of the Eighth Doctor in The Cognition Shift under Eighth Doctor, we cover it under.


 * A1 has never been followed by Tardis Wiki (or at least not in any case that I can recall). If we are to treat A1 as a valid reason to create a new page to cover the Master's stint in the Doctor's body, then every instance of a bodyswap would predicate at minimum coverage of everything done by the hijacker on the hijackee's page.


 * A3 is entirely rooted in conjecture about a hypothetical personality, but EVEN IF we take that conjecture as fact it would still result in his brief tenure being covered in its entirety under and not Master Doctor. The Master Doctor's body was being hijacked by  and thus coverage would be handled under . This would mean we're creating a page that CANNOT COVER the events of The Power of the Doctor, because Tardis Wiki policy has maintained that coverage follows the mind, not the body and the proverbial 'Doctor Master' didn't do those things, the Spy Master did while piloting his body.


 * Under Tardis Wiki precedent, the actions taken by the Master during his stint in the Doctor's body must be covered on . To do otherwise would contradict ages of precedent regarding body swaps and possessions. So the ultimate question is: "Should we create a Master Doctor page to cover the Doctor that could theoretically exist underneath that possession?" The answer to that question should rather summarily be "No." Tardis Wiki policy is 'every unique noun mentioned in a valid source can have an article written about it' --but there is no unique noun here. The proverbial Master Doctor is an entity of conjecture, as their entire tenure was spent under the possession of . NoNotTheMemes ☎  16:56, 24 October 2022 (UTC)

I think, and I mean no ill will toward Mr. Bumber (and I believe that they know that) so please don't take this as a slight against him, that his previous post is a mischaracterization of the argument. Similarly, I believe acting as if all three interpretations posed in his response are not only equally held by the audience, but equally valid interpretations of the text, is irresponsible and not reflective of the story being told. We don't need to accommodate every wikification viewpoint --just because there are people that would argue that we need a separate page for every person transformed into during End of Time doesn't mean we should accommodate it. By virtue of my anorak tendencies, I've decided to write up my position and argument in a format that I believe would be most easily understood:


 * The Master's activities while hijacking the Doctor's body in The Power of the Doctor should be covered on rather than on a separate page. When determining coverage for stolen bodies, the primary inquiry is whether the new body resembles the previous body and how soon they revert back to their previous body. See Mastermind (wherein the Beevers!Master uses the Deathworm Morphant to possess Don Maestro and Michael Maestro, each of which transform to resemble the Beevers!Master and is left behind for the next body jump). When the Master possesses a new body, his personality is sometimes influenced by that of the body he has possessed. See e.g., Masterful (wherein the Thirteenth Master’s various possessed bodies display different personalities despite being the same incarnation [I can see Scrooge seething, but everybody knows what I mean here]). When determining which individual a body’s actions should be attributed to, the primary inquiry is who is in control of the body. See Keeper of Traken et al. (wherein the Tremas Master’s actions are covered under The Master [specifically under ] rather than Tremas); First Frontier (holding that, in an instance where the Tremas body regenerates into a body resembling Basil Rathbone, the resultant character is covered under The Master [and specifically ] rather than under Tremas because the Master is in control). See also The Cognition Shift (holding that the War Master’s actions while possessing the Eighth Doctor’s body are covered on  rather than Eighth Doctor because the person in control of the Eighth Doctor’s body has the memories and personality of the War Master rather than the Eighth Doctor); TV Movie (holding that the brief moments wherein the Bruce Master transforms into the Eighth Doctor should be covered on  rather than Eighth Doctor or on a new page).


 * Here, like in Mastermind, the Spy Master uses special tools (here Time Lord technology and there the Deathworm Morphant) to leave his own body and possess a new body (here the Thirteenth Doctor’s body and there Don Maestro and Michael Maestro, et al.), only for it to transform to resemble his true body (here the face of Sacha Dhawan and there Geoffrey Beevers). Here, like in The Cognition Shift, the “New” Master maintains the memories and personality of the Spy Master rather than the Thirteenth Doctor. He continues on with the plans laid out by the Spy Master (which were unknown to the Thirteenth Doctor) and did not recognize the Fugitive Doctor (whom the Thirteenth Doctor has met on numerous occasions now). Similarly, like in the TV Movie, the “New” Master (here, the Dhawan Doctor Master and there the McGann Doctor Master) is very quickly returned back to his actual body. See The Power of the Doctor ("Don't let me go back to being me.").


 * While some may argue that the “New” Master is somehow an "amalgam of the Doctor and the Master", I do not believe this holds much weight nor does it change my conclusion. For starters, I find the evidence that he has in any way changed upon taking the Doctor's body to be dubious at best. The narrative seeks to demonstrate that, even if the Master is in the Doctor’s body, he is still behaving like the Master. Compare The Power of the Doctor (“I am the Doctor, and you will obey me”) with The Power of the Doctor, Spyfall, Terror of the Autons, et al. (“I am the Master, and you will obey me”). The Doctor’s companion, Yaz, rejects the notion that he is the Doctor. See also The Power of the Doctor (“You're not the Doctor. You'll never be the Doctor [...]”). Even if his personality had shifted, Sacha Dhawan describes his Master “...wearing a mask” and as a “sad clown [who] gets a real excitement and joy by wearing different masks” and that his time as ‘the Doctor’ was an example of his Master “wearing a mask.” See Behind the Regeneration (9:00-12:00). Also noteworthy, the Spy Master imitating the Doctor is done not only prior to him taking over her body in this story (taking on the Daleks and the Cybermen as his “fam”) but throughout his tenure (his costumes being designed to imitate Doctor-ish costumes. Previous incarnations of the Master have similarly taken on companions and worn costumes intentionally meant to mimic the Doctor’s. See e.g., World Enough and Time; The Doctor Falls; The Magician’s Apprentice; Witch’s Familiar; Only the Good; UNIT: Dominion. In this instance, like in previous instances, this was for the purpose of mocking the Doctor. In fact, the Spy Master’s desire to take the Doctor’s name solely for the purpose of dragging it through the mud is explicit in text. Id. (“...while I tarnish the name of the Doctor. I’m going to make the Doctor a byward for fear, pain and destruction, so when people hear that name in future, they quake in fear.” If this incarnation was meant to legitimately consider themselves the Doctor, they wouldn’t refer to the Doctor as if they were someone else that they wanted to drag through the mud.
 * Finally, coverage on rather than a new page is better for readers. If split, this would generate either (1) two much less clear pages or (2) one new page that is all but identical to a section of a page that already exists. While, under Wiki policy, “[e]very unique noun [...] that can be wikified should be wikified”, this is not a unique noun. This is the Spy Master, possessing the Doctor’s body, telling his allies from prior to stealing the body to go forward with the plan he made prior to stealing the Doctor’s body gloating for a bit, being abandoned by Yaz, before being forced back into his old body. All of that information not only *should* be covered by, but will *have* to be covered under . If  implemented under a   schema, as proposed by the opposition, the page will still have to explain the events wherein he was possessing the Doctor’s body because (1) he’s still the Master and individual incarnations of the Master have yet to be split and (2) even if the Master-split has been conducted, the actions taken by the “New” Master/Doctor will have to be summarized in between the sentences “The Master uses Time Lord technology to force the Doctor to become him” and “Yaz, Vinder, and the Hologram-Doctor force the Master back into his own body.”

For these reasons, I believe it is most appropriate to cover the Master’s brief stint controlling the Doctor’s body on rather than as a new page, with reference on The Doctor, the Thirteenth Doctor, the Doctors info box, and under  “a day to come” on Fourteenth Doctor. NoNotTheMemes ☎  16:20, 24 October 2022 (UTC)


 * And to glom onto Scrooge's structure of argument, because I think it is a very compelling structure:
 * A1: Separating them based on this position does not reflect Wiki precedent, as demonstrated through its treatment of the Doctor and the Master during *The Cognition Shift*, *The Switching*, and the end of the TV Movie.
 * A2: This is the position I take, rooted in the previous precedent alongside the treatment of as the Master rather than as Tremas or  as the Master rather than as Bruce.
 * A3: I don't believe this one is convincing, and I look to the treatment of the Don Maestro and Michael Maestro bodies in *Mastermind* as part of 's tenure rather than as separate tenures.
 * B: I agree with Scrooge, this is not reflected in the text, as I have outlined above. Premise B has also been outwardly rejected by Sacha Dhawan himself in the interview seen in "Behind the Regeneration" --his tenure play-acting as 'the Doctor' was just that: his Master parading about in a mask because he gets a "real excitement and joy" out of it.

NoNotTheMemes ☎  16:30, 24 October 2022 (UTC)


 * Lengthy though your argument may be, I do not find it convincing, and it contains so many unjustified sweeping statements and smuggled assumptions that it would take me thousands of words to unpack. As a brief example, you say
 * “...while I tarnish the name of the Doctor. I’m going to make the Doctor a byward for fear, pain and destruction, so when people hear that name in future, they quake in fear.” If this incarnation was meant to legitimately consider themselves the Doctor, they wouldn’t refer to the Doctor as if they were someone else that they wanted to drag through the mud.
 * But this can be trivially easily explained with even a shallow attempt to understand the other point(s) of view: just see the coverage of The Power of the Doctor on The Doctor (title) already. The statement is no harder to understand than if a President said, "I will tarnish the name of the President. I'm going to make 'the President' a byword for fear, pain and destruction" etc – this might make them a bad President, in my opinion, but it would not necessarily make them an illegitimate one.


 * As I wrote earlier, there are valid perspectives rooted in past stories, as you've nicely illustrated; and this fact detracts nothing from other perspectives rooted in The Power of the Doctor itself, which repeatedly uses regeneration terminology to describe the Doctor's transformation (another major point which in my opinion you didn't adequately address). But the idea of debating these perspectives on a wiki talk page is not only unproductive, it's actively mind-numbing – Sisyphean, even! – and in my opinion we should take a long, hard look at any policy or precedent that might encourage or force us to undergo such a thing.


 * I move, again, that we dispense with this picking and nitpicking between interpretations and philosophies and simply cover the topic neutrally, on its own page, where there's room to present the multiple points of view. – n8 (☎) 16:44, 24 October 2022 (UTC)


 * Let me add that I sincerely thank you for your reassurances regarding absence of ill will; I don't take anything said in debate personally, but perhaps I too readily assume that others share in this approach. Let nothing said above detract anything from my high respect for Mr NoNotTheMemes; I will never match his knowledge of the Master's history and character! – n8 (☎) 16:52, 24 October 2022 (UTC)


 * We could always footnote + behind the scenes it? Along with also mentioning that the leak said something about, what was it, "metaphysically blurring the lines"? That seems to be in accordance with our War Chief "precedent". :> Najawin  ☎  19:06, 24 October 2022 (UTC)

Short of some major revelation, this is the last I'll say on the matter.

I take it that the main contention from Nate and his camp is that "he comes across as a Hybrid figure because there are both lines that show it's a possession and the obvious on-screen fact that it's a regeneration and should count as a Doctor"

We already have precedent that establishes that, when possession+regeneration occurs, it's still a matter of who is in control.

The Master's plot in The Power of the Doctor is most similar to Rassilon's resurrection in *Desperate Measures*. In Desperate Measures, Rassilon's consciousness, previously held within the Matrix, is removed from the Matrix and uploaded into the Time Lord Valerian (as portrayed by David Sibley). This resulted in the Sibley body regenerating into Terrence Hardiman's Rassilon. At no point did Sibley portray Rassilon and at no point did Hardiman portray Valerian. Tardis Wiki has covered the Hardiman!Rassilon as an incarnation of Rassilon, rather than as an incarnation of the Doctor --despite the body that regenerated into Hardiman!Rassilon being an incarnation of Valerian --because Rassilon is in charge of the body.

Here, the Master's consciousness, previously held within the Spy Master, is removed from his body and uploaded into the Doctor (as portrayed by Jodie Whittaker). This resulted in the Whittaker body regenerating into Sacha Dhawan's Master. At no point did Whittaker portray the Master and at no point did Dhawan portray the Doctor. Whether the consciousness of the Doctor lingers on is inconsequential, as previous stories (and The Power of the Doctor) indicate that previous incarnations of a Time Lord linger on inside their mind. If that's the case, Valerian's consciousness is still lingering on inside of the Hardiman!Rassilon --but that doesn't change that he's an incarnation of Rassilon. Where The Power of the Doctor differs from *Desperate Measures* is that the hijacker is eventually purged from his body and returned to their original body --which only further strengthens the notion that the incarnation is not distinct. If Tardis Wiki holds that Hardiman!Rassilon is an incarnation of Rassilon to be covered on Rassilon's page and counts as an incarnation of Rassilon rather than Valerian, then it has to cover the Dhawan!Master!Doctor on the Master's page and counts as an incarnation of the Master.

Obviously there are differences, namely that Valerian only had one incarnation before being, to use the term from the audio, "overwritten" by Rassilon. Thus, there's no infobox or category for him. Likewise, the previous Rassilon (to our knowledge) didn't look like Terrence Hardiman. While this is hardly some slamdunk, we do know that the reason why it's Hardiman rather than Don Warrington was due to a lack of availability on Warrington's end. But if we are to use that as the line of distinction, that would create another Sacha Dhawan incarnation of the Master, not a Sacha Dhawan incarnation of the Doctor. And if THAT is the case, I would cite the absence of a new "pages" for the Don Maestro and Michael Maestro or pages for the post-Stolen Earth Tenth Doctor.

I am hopeful that this is enough to resolve the debate, and with it I would like to move to limit the documentation of all of the Master's actions in The Power of the Doctor to and the A day to come section of Fourteenth Doctor. NoNotTheMemes ☎  20:01, 24 October 2022 (UTC)

If this goes forward, will this incarnation also gets added to timeline theory in Timey-Wimey detector Drjohnbazilsmith 18:12 25 October 2022 (UTC)


 * Can I just point out that I don't consider this to be resolved, and I personally think that @n8 came up with the best solution which was to cover this incarnation on a neutral page where the two (clearly divided) interpretations can be fleshed out in detail with evidence and explanations. As this is an incarnation of the Doctor's regeneration cycle (if not the Doctor himself as some are arguing) this should be enough of a loophole to bypass any potential T:BOUND concerns as we're not strictly just giving a separate page to a Master incarnation. DrWHOCorrieFan ☎  19:53, 25 October 2022 (UTC)