Edward Masters

The Right Honourable Frederick Masters was the Permanent Under-Secretary to the Minister of Science at the Ministry of Defence during the 1970s. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Cave-Monsters, Who Killed Kennedy) By another account, his first name was Edward. (TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians)

Masters visited the Wenley Moor nuclear research facility when a series of power drains and mental breakdowns were caused by the Silurians, whom had recently been awakened from their hibernation units. During his visit, the station security chief, Major Baker, was infected with the Silurian virus. Masters left before the base was quarantined, unaware of being infected himself.

Masters reached London, eluding search parties looking for him. He was caught by two police officers on a bridge, where he then collapsed and died from the virus. (TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians, PROSE: Doctor Who and the Cave-Monsters)

The day before his death, Masters had been scheduled to give an interview to the journalist James Stevens of the Daily Chronicle, but had to cancel when he was called to the nuclear research facility. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy)

Before he died, he received a letter from the Apocalypse Clock which predicted the exact date and time of his death. (AUDIO: The Last Post)

Behind the scenes

 * In the novel Who Killed Kennedy, Edward Masters, as he is known from his first appearance in the TV story Doctor Who and the Silurians, is called Frederick Masters (he is also called Frederick in the novelisation of the TV story). Although in the novelisation, Masters retains his role of Permanent Under Secretary, he is somewhat confusingly called a Member of Parliament and not a civil servant.