Theory:Timeline - The Master

This page lists appearances of The Master in the order in which they experienced them. It relies on much speculation to fit semi-contradictory sources together, and should absolutely not be seen as representative of this wiki's general policy.

Body decayed

 * The Thirteenth Master is attacked by on Tersurus, and left in a decaying state. The Cult of the Heretic then switch the Masters' bodies. (AUDIO: The Two Masters)


 * AUDIO: Vampire of the Mind
 * Set during The Two Masters, with the Master in the body of his future incarnation.


 * AUDIO: The Two Masters
 * The Master hires the Transhuman Sisters of the Unholy Protocol and the Dragonhunters to kill the "Bald Master". After the Seventh Doctor switches the Masters back, the "Decayed Master" is put back on his path to The Deadly Assassin.


 * TV: The Deadly Assassin
 * The Master allies with Goth to use the Eye of Harmony and the Sash of Rassilon to restore his body, but he is defeated by the Fourth Doctor.

Targeting Jago and Litefoot

 * Fleeing from Gallifrey after his plot with Goth is foiled, the Master attempts to follow the Doctor's TARDIS through the transduction barrier, but this results in him being stuck in London during the 1890s. (AUDIO: Masterpiece)


 * AUDIO: The Museum of Curiosities
 * The Master successfully hypnotises Inspector Quick.


 * AUDIO: Jago & Son


 * AUDIO: Maurice


 * AUDIO: The Woman in White


 * AUDIO: Masterpiece
 * The Master's plot to drain Jago and Litefoot's energies are thwarted by the Sixth Doctor, and he is forced to flee.

Surviving in the universe

 * AUDIO: Trail of the White Worm
 * Ending leads directly into The Oseidon Adventure.


 * AUDIO: The Oseidon Adventure


 * PROSE: Harvest of Time
 * The Master is captured by the Sild.


 * AUDIO: The Light at the End
 * The Master not yet met Nyssa, setting this before The Keeper of Traken.


 * AUDIO: The Evil One


 * AUDIO: Requiem for the Rocket Men


 * AUDIO: Death Match
 * Follows on directly from Requiem for the Rocket Men.


 * PROSE: Special Occasions: 1. The Not-So-Sinister Sponge
 * The Master's plan to ally himself with the Daleks and the Cybermen is foiled by Romana II.


 * COMIC: The Abominable Showmen


 * COMIC: The Five Masters
 * Follows on directly from The Abominable Showmen.


 * AUDIO: Animal Instinct
 * The Master spends several hundred years in stasis. He has set a trap for the Doctor and is surprised when River Song turns up instead. He meets River for the first time.


 * TV: The Keeper of Traken
 * After failing to become the Keeper of Traken due to the interference of the Fourth Doctor, Adric, and Nyssa, the Master regenerates himself by stealing the body of Tremas.

Opposing the Fifth Doctor

 * TV: Logopolis
 * Set almost immediately after The Keeper of Traken. The Master's thwarted plan to hold the universe at ransom results in the Fourth Doctor regenerating.


 * TV: Castrovalva
 * Set immediately after Logopolis, with the Master trying to trap the Fifth Doctor in Castrovalva, only to end up trapped in there himself.


 * PROSE: The Unwanted Gift of Prophecy
 * Set immediately after the Master abducts Adric during Castrovalva: Part One.


 * PROSE: Toy
 * Set during Castrovalva: Part Two, before the Doctor is brought to the city.


 * AUDIO: Smoke and Mirrors
 * The Master is still trapped in Castrovalva.


 * TV: Time-Flight
 * The Master has managed to escape from Castrovalva, but has damaged his TARDIS in the process. He attempts to use the Xeraphin gestalt to repair his ship, but is foiled by the Doctor and left trapped on Xeriphas.


 * TV: The King's Demons
 * The Master uses Kamelion, an android he found on Xeriphas, in an attempt to prevent the signing of the Magna Carta, but is thwarted when the Doctor takes Kamelion from him.


 * TV: The Five Doctors
 * The Master is summoned to Gallifrey by Borusa to assist the four trapped incarnations of the Doctor, but his help is denied and he attempts to kill the Doctors instead. After being subdued, the Master is sent away by Rassilon.


 * PROSE: The Velvet Dark
 * The Master has been stripped of his Trakenite body by the Time Lords for his failure in The Five Doctors, but he is able to regain it by siphoning energy from his past incarnations.


 * PROSE: Birth of a Renegade


 * TV: Planet of Fire
 * After he is shrunk by his own Tissue Compression Eliminator, the Master tries to use the Numismaton Gas of Sarn to restore himself, but is apparently disintegrated by the Doctor.


 * PROSE: A Town Called Eternity
 * Follows on from Planet of Fire, with the Master using the Fountain of Youth to restore his burned body.

Interfering in history

 * AUDIO: Winter
 * Set concurrently with TV: The Caves of Androzani, with the Master using his link with Kamelion to sabotage the Fifth Doctor's regeneration, only to be thwarted by Nyssa.


 * TV: The Mark of the Rani
 * The Master is still being asked how he survived the events of Planet of Fire.


 * PROSE: Master Faustus


 * COMIC: Crossing the Rubicon

Forging alliances

 * COMIC: The Abominable Showmen


 * COMIC: The Five Masters
 * Follows on directly from The Abominable Showmen.


 * TV: The Ultimate Foe
 * The Master assists the Sixth Doctor in his trial against the Valeyard.


 * AUDIO: Lesser Evils
 * Set between The Trial of a Time Lord and Survival. The Master claims to have been exiled on Alexis by the Time Lords, having had his TARDIS impounded.


 * PROSE: The Quantum Archangel
 * The Master recalls the events of The Ultimate Foe.

Further schemes

 * PROSE: The Time Savers
 * The Master has been trapped on Earth since his TARDIS' time-matter adjustment valve was stolen by the Doctor in their previous encounter.


 * PROSE: A Handful of Stardust


 * AUDIO: The Hollows of Time
 * The Master encounters the Sixth Doctor and Peri under the guise of "Professor Stream". The Big Finish website lists The Hollows of Time as a part of their "Master Collection".


 * AUDIO: The End of the Line
 * The Master is threatened by the Valeyard into leaving the Doctor alone.


 * PROSE: Winning

Alliance with Adam Mitchell

 * COMIC: Façades


 * COMIC: Cat and Mouse
 * The Master wears his cloak from Destiny of the Doctors, but has his youthful appearance and is unaffected by the Cheetah virus.


 * COMIC: The Choice
 * Follows on from Cat and Mouse, and leads directly into Endgame.


 * COMIC: Endgame


 * GAME: Doctor Who and the Mines of Terror


 * PROSE: Dr. Fifth
 * The Master is wearing his clothes from Survival.

The Cheetah Planet

 * The Master arrives on the Cheetah World, and takes control of the Cheetah People. (TV: Survival)


 * PROSE: Dr. Seventh
 * The Master is wearing his clothes from Survival, and is working with the Cheetah People, but does not appear to be infected with the Cheetah virus.


 * TV: Survival
 * As a Cheetah virus begins corrupting his systems, the Master has a final showdown with the Seventh Doctor, which ends with him being trapped on the exploding Cheetah World.

After Cheetah World

 * PROSE: The Eight Doctors
 * The Master's last encounter with the Doctor was on Cheetah World. The stress of that encounter drove the Master insane and inspired him to swallow a Deathworm Morphant as part of a plot intended to kill the Doctor.


 * PROSE: Stop the Pigeon
 * The Master is still infected with the Cheetah virus and loses control under stress.


 * PROSE: Prime Time
 * The Master has control of the virus, but is trying to acquire a new body as the virus will kill his Trakenite body within a year's time. The Doctor last met him in Stop the Pigeon.


 * Under unkown circumstances, the Master was able to best the Cheetah virus, and would no longer be inflicted by the disease.


 * PROSE: Omegamorphosis
 * The Master has a black goatee and is trying to steal another body, due to being in his final incarnation.


 * GAME: Destiny of the Doctors
 * The Master is no longer infected with the Cheetah virus, and has a much older appearance, with greying hair. After his plan to trap the seven incarnations of the Doctor in the Determinant is foiled by the Graak, the Master is captured by an unknown enemy.

Restored by the Tzun

 * PROSE: First Frontier
 * After escaping Cheetah World with his Kitling, Shadow, the Master is transmigrated to Earth, but a release of Artron energy knocks him back thirty-two years in time. Arriving in 1957 America, he makes contact with the Tzun Confederacy and arranges a deal between them. They retrieve his TARDIS from the planet Antari Three, and provide him with a cure for the Cheetah virus, making him a pure Time Lord once again. After his body is repaired, the Master is able to regenerate after being shot by Ace. Recovering from his regeneration, the Master escapes by leaving a booby-trap for the Doctor in a nuclear warhead.


 * PROSE: Housewarming


 * PROSE: Happy Endings
 * The Master steals the Loom of Rassilon's Mouse to experiment with flesh looming as part of his attempt to create an indestructible clone body from the remains of Anthony Rupert Hemmings.


 * The Master is eventually reduced to a decayed state once again. (AUDIO: Mastermind)

Reduced to an old body

 * AUDIO: Dust Breeding
 * The Master has been stripped of his Trakenite body by the Warp Core, and is reduced back to his decaying form. After the Seventh Doctor destroys the Warp Core, the Master is flung into time and space.


 * AUDIO: Master
 * After living a peaceful life for ten years, the Master is offered a choice by Death.

Swallowing the deathworm morphant

 * PROSE: The Eight Doctors
 * According to one account, the "Tremas" Master travels to Skaro in order to goad the Daleks into killing him, as part of his plan to steal the Doctor's body using a Deathworm Morphant. He sends his TARDIS into the space-time continuum to keep it safe until he can recover it.


 * According to another account, a different incarnation of the Master was captured by the Daleks in the Valley of the Kings to be placed on trial on Skaro. (AUDIO: Mastermind)


 * PROSE: The Novel of the Film
 * The Master sends a psychic message to the Seventh Doctor before he is executed by the Dalek Prelature, asking him to retrieve his remains and return them to Gallifrey.

In Bruce's body

 * TV: Doctor Who
 * Having survived his execution on Skaro as a Deathworm Morphant, the Master forces the Doctor's TARDIS to land in 1999 San Francisco, where, after the Doctor is critically injured, the Master possesses the body of Bruce. Bribing Chang Lee, the Master hunts down the Eighth Doctor to steal his body and remaining regenerations. During a final fight with the Doctor in his TARDIS, the Master is sucked into the Eye of Harmony.


 * After falling into the Eye of Harmony, the Eye attempts to convert the Master into pure energy, but he is able to escape into a spare room in the Doctor's TARDIS, which is then jettisoned into the Time Vortex. (AUDIO: The Lifeboat and the Deathboat)


 * AUDIO: The Lifeboat and the Deathboat
 * The Master has been trapped in the Time Vortex for hundreds of years. He escapes in a stasis capsule.


 * COMIC: The Abominable Showmen
 * The Master is still in possession of Bruce's body.


 * COMIC: The Five Masters
 * Follows on from The Abominable Showmen.


 * AUDIO: Day of the Master
 * Still in Bruce's body, the Master encounters the Eighth Doctor for the first time since Doctor Who. Missy and the "War Master" plan to wipe his memory and throw him back into the Time Vortex after they give a future version of the "Deathworm Master" a new regeneration cycle.


 * The Master was eventually drawn back into the Eye of Harmony. (AUDIO: Planet of Dust)

Ghost in the machine

 * PROSE: The Eight Doctors
 * Directly after Doctor Who, the Master leaves one final trap for the Doctor, in the form of a crystalline structure that erases the Doctor's memories. By this account, the Master remains trapped inside the Doctor's TARDIS, where he will stay for the rest of the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures. The Gallifrey Chronicles suggests that this Master is an "echo" of the real Master.


 * PROSE: Sometime Never...
 * The Master's essence has the appearance of the Master from NOTVALID: Scream of the Shalka.


 * PROSE: The Deadstone Memorial


 * PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles
 * The Master is still trapped inside the Eye of Harmony.

Fight for the Glory

 * As his essence is left wandering the Time Vortex after passing through the Eye of Harmony, the Master is saved by Esterath to take part in the fight for the Glory, and is resurrected into the body of a deceased vagrant after Bruce's body decays beyond recovery. The Master's connection to the TARDIS brings him to Wormwood, where he witnesses the Doctor's fight against the Threshold. (COMIC: The Glorious Dead)


 * COMIC: The Fallen
 * The Master observes the Doctor combat Donald Stark.


 * COMIC: The Glorious Dead
 * Forming an alliance with Sato Katsura, the Master turns Earth into a dystopia to anger the Doctor into fighting him for the Glory. After besting the Doctor, the Master learns that the real contest was between Sato and the Doctor's companion, Kroton. When Kroton wins, he removes the Master's influence from the TARDIS and place the Master somewhere that he can not escape, implied by later releases to be the Eye of Harmony.

Escaping the Eye of Harmony

 * PROSE: Forgotten
 * The Master escapes the Eye of Harmony by influences the dreams of Edward Grainger.


 * PROSE: Prologue
 * Set during Forgotten. The Master is prevented from killing the infant Edward, by the Doctor, Violet and the adult Edward. His Deathworm Morphant loses its serpentine appearance, and becomes an "unearthly green glow".


 * The Master escapes by possessing the body of Violet's fiancée, Richard. (PROSE: Forgotten)


 * AUDIO: Mastermind
 * Following on from Forgotten, the Master survives by possessing various bodies until he is imprisoned in the UNIT Vault. Upon hypnotising UNIT officers Ruth Matheson and Charlie Sato, the Master retrieves his TARDIS and escapes from the Vault.

Reaching the end

 * AUDIO: I Am The Master
 * Set after The Keeper of Traken. The Master has his TARDIS and recalls stealing multiple bodies, setting this after Mastermind.


 * AUDIO: Planet of Dust
 * Dying and at the end of his life, the Master recalls his time trapped in the Eye of Harmony and how he was drawn back in after his escape in Bruce's body, until he found a way to escape permanently, setting this after Mastermind. He is killed by the Ravenous, leading directly into Day of the Master.


 * AUDIO: Day of the Master
 * The "Deathworm Master" is resurrected by the "Bruce" Master, the "War" Master and Missy, posing as CIA agents, who use CIA technology to grant him a whole new regeneration cycle. He regenerates into a new body, implied to the "Bald" Master.

Early exploits

 * AUDIO: Dominion
 * The Master is working against the Time Lords.


 * The Master attacks on Tersurus. The Cult of the Heretic then switch the Masters' bodies. (AUDIO: The Two Masters)


 * AUDIO: And You Will Obey Me
 * Set during The Two Masters, with the Master in the body of his "Decayed" incarnation.


 * AUDIO: The Two Masters
 * The Masters are restored to normal by the Seventh Doctor, who undoes the damage they have done and sends the Master back to his rightful place in history. The "Bald" Master recalls the events of Dominion.

The Eminence experiments

 * AUDIO: Time's Horizon


 * AUDIO: Eyes of the Master
 * The Master recalls being in San Francisco on 31 December 1999, setting this after Doctor Who. He was anticipating facing the Seventh Doctor, and is surprised see the Eighth Doctor.


 * AUDIO: The Death of Hope


 * AUDIO: The Reviled


 * AUDIO: Masterplan


 * AUDIO: Rule of the Eminence

Further schemes

 * AUDIO: The Monster of Montmartre


 * AUDIO: Master of the Daleks

In the body of a child

 * At some point in the Last Great Time War, the Master regenerates into the body of a small child. He also makes a pact with the War Doctor. (COMIC: The Organ Grinder)


 * COMIC: Outrun
 * The Doctor and the Master aren't aware of who coined the term "Exterminhate", setting this before they met the Volatix Cabal.


 * COMIC: The Then and the Now
 * The Doctor and the Master land on the Overcast homeworld.


 * COMIC: The Organ Grinder
 * Alice Obiefune arrives in the Master's TARDIS from the future. Ending leads into Kill God.


 * COMIC: Kill God
 * The Master attempts to flee the War in his future TARDIS, only to realise too late that he is causing a paradox, leading directly into Fast Asleep.


 * COMIC: Fast Asleep
 * Being at the centre of the paradox causes the Master to regenerate into the incarnation seen in Utopia.

The Lumiat

 * As she dies, Missy, tired of being evil, creates an Elysian field in order to kick start a new regeneration cycle and reconstructs her body into a distillation of all her goodness. This new incarnation takes on the name "the Lumiat" and seeks to do good in the universe, inspired by the Doctor. (AUDIO: The Lumiat)


 * AUDIO: The Lumiat
 * The Lumiat foils several of Missy's schemes, leading Missy to believe she is the Doctor. They spend some time travelling together, with the Lumiat trying to act as a good influence on her. However, Missy soon grows bored of the Lumiat and mortally wounds her, before abandoning her in the middle of her regeneration.

In a male body again

 * After regenerating into a male body, the Master learns the truth of the Timeless Child and destroys the Time Lord civilisation by ravaging Gallifrey. (TV: Spyfall)


 * TV: Spyfall
 * The Master confronts the Thirteenth Doctor and Team TARDIS during an alliance with Daniel Barton and the Kasaavin. Pursuing the Doctor throughout Earth's history, the Master is left stranded and without a TARDIS in 1943 Paris, where he is also taken prisoner by the Third Reich.


 * After being trapped on Earth for 77 years, the Master is exiled to the Kasaavin realm. (TV: Spyfall)


 * PROSE: The Doctor vs the Master
 * The Master has made a psychic link with the Doctor, and is still taunting her with his knowledge of the Timeless Child, setting this before Ascension of the Cybermen. He recalls his time as Missy, even referencing her imprisonment in the Vault.


 * TV: Ascension of the Cybermen
 * The Master catches up with the Doctor at the Boundary on Gallifrey, leading directly into The Timeless Children.


 * TV: The Timeless Children
 * After forming an alliance with the Cybermen to create the CyberMasters from the bodies of the dead Time Lords, the Master and his Cyber-Army are apparently destroyed by Ko Sharmus with a Death particle.

The

 * AUDIO: Sympathy for the Devil


 * AUDIO: The Library in the Body


 * AUDIO: The Emporium At The End


 * AUDIO: The True Saviour of the Universe


 * AUDIO: Shockwave
 * The Master is the last being left alive in his universe, and is trapped for ten thousand years before being rescued by the Dalek Time Strategist of N-Space, leading directly into He Who Wins.


 * AUDIO: He Who Wins
 * The "Exiled" Master and join forces, and the "Exiled" Master escapes into N-Space.

The Doctor Who Annuals Master

 * PROSE: The Creation of Camelot
 * The Master is in the same body as described in The Radio Waves, and is recognised by the Fifth Doctor.


 * PROSE: The Fellowship of Quan


 * PROSE: The Radio Waves
 * The Master has "pale skin, prominent cheekbones, a neatly-trimmed black goatee, and voluminous hair with a widow peek", and is recognised by the Sixth Doctor.