Master (audio story)

Master was the forty-ninth story in Big Finish's monthly range. It was written by Joseph Lidster and featured the Seventh Doctor and Geoffrey Beevers as the Master.

Publisher's summary
Many years ago, on a dark and stormy night, the disfigured and enigmatic Doctor John Smith invited his closest friends, Inspector Victor Schaeffer and his wife, to a dinner to celebrate his birthday. A mere few hours later all the occupants in that house had been changed — some were dead, others mentally scarred forever by the events of that night.

So, what happened to the distinguished dinner guests on that evening? Perhaps we'll never know. But two clues have led to much speculation — found outside the study window, a charred umbrella with a curved red handle and found inside the house, a blood-stained copy of Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

For one person, this night represented an ending: an ending to one thousand years of darkness and an ending to ten years of light.

But for everyone else, is there no ending of this one night of Hell?

Part one
Up in a tower, a man is about to kill someone during a parade. He is interrupted by the Seventh Doctor, who starts telling him a story about good and evil, with an old friend of his as protagonist.

Planets away, on Perfugium, on a stormy night, the local surgeon, Dr John Smith, receives the visit of his two dearest friend, Victor and Jacqueline Schaeffer, at his house, for his birthday. He lives in an old house once belonging to Jacqueline's family, together with his servant, Jade, a young girl. The house is said to be cursed by the ghost of one of Jacqueline's ancestors, who died a violent death, but so far the doctor didn't suffer any damage. He has prepared a feast for his two friends.

Before supper, Jacqueline takes aside Jade and subtly threatens her about what she thinks she may plotting. She reveals to her that Smith arrived at Perfugium ten years ago, has no memory of his past (his birthday is actually the tenth anniversary of his arrival), and may well be the survivor of a terrible accident, given his scarred appearance. At the same time, Smith obtains from Victor news about the latest victim of a series of killings going on in the area: a young girl who, opposite to the previous eleven victims, was not a prostitute. This particularly strikes Victor, who is the local Adjudicator.

At dinner, the three friends talk about good and evil. Jacqueline, who runs a hospice, substains environment and circumstances cause the descent of some men into evil; Victor instead insists that it is only a question of will and choice. Smith mantains equidistance between the two, but he is clearly troubled by the subject. When later Victor makes a toast to him, he suddenly attacks him about his mysterious past, apparently out of nowhere; Smith however dismisses the accident as the result of Victor drinking too much.

Jacqueline shows Smith the present she got him for his birthday: a crystal ball, inhabited from a spirit, which they could contact to ask him about Smith's past. The doctor accepts, and to the surprise of the three men the ball does begin to shake and spell a name: D-O-C ...

The spelling is interrupted by a man appearing at the window: the Seventh Doctor.

Part two
Ignoring Jacqueline's warnings about the new arrival being dangerous, Smith and Victor take the Doctor inside the house to assist him. The Doctor, other than being seriously wounded, is also delirious. and keeps screaming about "death". Smith is surprised: he seems to recognize the man from somewhere.

Some time later, the Doctor wakes up to see himself in Smith's care. He too appears to recognize him, he even asks him whether they know each other (to which Smith answers negatively). To Smith's inquiries, the Doctor tells him he has come to look for a friend of his, an old friend; in return, Smith tells him about the murders, and how they trouble the atmosphere of Perfugium - a human colony built as a recreation of Edwardian England. The two men seem indeed to share a particular affinity.

They feel so close Smith even starts telling the Doctor (who introduced himself as Vaughan Sutton) about his suspicions about his own past. He tells him how, during a deliverance, he was briefly tempted to kill the newborn baby by smashing him to the ground; he confides to the Doctor his reflections about the nature of evil, how it may be possible for someone to be considered evil only because his view of the world is just different from anybody else. The Doctor agrees, and even suggests they may have been friends in another life.

Smith ends up telling the Doctor he sometimes hears voices in this house, voices threatening to kill someone or something, and confesses he invited Victor and Jacqueline to see if they hear them too. He has just said that, when he is suddently and violently possessed by an entity, reminding the Doctor of his obligation to kill someone (which the Doctor desperately says he won't). Back to his senses, Smith exits the room to reach the guests for his birthday party, leaving the Doctor alone - to hear the voice again.

Part three
to be added

Part four
to be added

Cast

 * The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
 * The Master - Geoffrey Beevers
 * Victor Schaeffer - Philip Madoc
 * Jacqueline Schaeffer - Anne Ridler
 * Jade - Charlie Hayes
 * The Man - Daniel Barzotti
 * Child - Joe Bassett
 * Whispering Voices - Gary Russell

Books

 * John Smith owns books by Dr Julia Steer (The Divided Self), Professor Summerfield (Man, Two Hearts in One Mind), Dostoevsky, Stevenson, Welsh.

Personifications of concepts

 * Death makes an appearance.

Planets

 * Perfugium is a human colony.

Individuals

 * An Empress is mentioned.
 * Victor Schaeffer is an Adjudicator.

Time Lords

 * The Doctor and the Master were bullied as children by Torvic.

Continuity

 * The Master claims to be Death's champion, similar to how the Doctor was Time's champion. (PROSE: Love and War)
 * When the Doctor talks about the Master's history, he refers to events on Traken (TV: The Keeper of Traken) and Duchamp 331. (AUDIO: Dust Breeding)
 * The Doctor first encountered this incarnation of the Master on Duchamp 331. (AUDIO: Dust Breeding)
 * The Doctor uses the name "Vaughan Sutton" as a pseudonym. (AUDIO: Excelis Decays)
 * The Doctor says he's known "one or two" Adjudicators. (PROSE: Original Sin)
 * The Doctor mentions how he was disowned by his family. (PROSE: Lungbarrow)
 * The Doctor recalls someone telling him "exposure to evil, even the smallest amount, can corrode the soul". (AUDIO: Primeval)
 * Death refers to how the Doctor used to play with his spoons and mix his metaphors, (TV: Time and the Rani) but how he is now too busy destroying planets and wiping out old foes. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks, Silver Nemesis, PROSE: The Pit, Blood Heat)
 * Death sings a version of the Zagreus poem, then wonders what put that into her head. (AUDIO: Zagreus)
 * The Master would later once again lose his memories of being a Time Lord and live the life of an ordinary human. (TV: Utopia)
 * The Doctor tells the Master that he wants his old friend back. A of the Master would later express a similar sentiment to the Twelfth Doctor. (TV: Death in Heaven)