Characters / Doctor Who — John Simm's Master

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"Now then, Doctor- Oooh, new voice!"

The "Harold Saxon" Master (Tenth and Twelfth Doctors)

"HERE! COME! THE DRUMS!"

^{Click here to see his second appearance} 

^{Click here to see his third appearance} 

First appearance: "Utopia" (2007)

Regeneration story: "The Doctor Falls" (2017)

Played by: John Simm (2007, 2009–10, 2017)

"Shall we decimate them? That sounds good, nice word, decimate... Remove one tenth of the population!"

John Simm's Master is the second incarnation of the character to debut on the new series, and the first one to be the Big Bad in a season finale. A bouncy troll with a passion for pop music, utter decadence and beating his wife. Came Back Wrong in his second appearance, and eventually redeemed himself just a little bit when confronted with the Wrath of Rassilon. This Master enjoyed toying with his victims, and found that driving people to madness worked just as well as hypnosis, as with his companion-turned-wife, Lucy Saxon.

Also possibly one of the few Time Lords to have ever killed Rassilon and, more importantly, lived to tell the tale.

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#-F

• 0% Approval Rating: Due to his tendency to act like The Caligula every time he conquers something. The Doctor and Martha's plan to defeat him in the Series 3 finale hinged on how badly everybody wanted him gone. In Series 10, when his TARDIS crashed into the Mondas settler ship, he naturally conquered the lower city... only for the people to rebel, forcing him to disguise himself since his TARDIS was damaged and they’d probably kill him otherwise.
• Ambiguously Bi: While this Master is unambiguously attracted to women, having a passionate, albeit abusive relationship with his wife Lucy, and later hitting on Missy, the subtext between him and the Tenth Doctor could fill a book, with the Master half-jokingly asking if the Doctor was asking him out on a date and, later, somberly reflecting on a time when he and the Doctor were the best of friends.
• Ambition Is Evil: When he first arrives on Earth, he quickly takes over the UK, and then takes over the world and then sets his sites on conquering the entire universe. After his resurrection, he's at first only concerned with keeping himself alive, but soon devises and carries out a plan to turn every human being on Earth into a copy of himself.
• AM/FM Characterization: He loves to blast music like Rogue Traders' "Voodoo Child" and Scissor Sisters' "I Can't Decide", showing both how much fun he finds his evil deeds and how, despite his vocal hatred of humans, he does like some parts of their culture, which is also reinforced by his interest in The Teletubbies. Both songs also reflect his villain state as well, with "Voodoo Child" repeating the phrase "here come the drums", and "I Can't Decide" having lyrics meaningful to the Master and the Doctor's relationship.
• The Antichrist: In "The End of Time" — his resurrection by a shadowy cult is heralded by the entire human species having nightmares.
• Arch-Enemy: Par the course for the Master, but Saxon is especially vicious in his hatred for the Doctor, up to killing himself twice (and Immortals Fear Death is in full effect here) out of sheer spite. Basically the only time he's actually unambiguously helped the Doctor was his Heroic Sacrifice at "The End of Time" - and even then, he had just as much reason to despise Rassilon and the Time Lords.
• Arm Chair Military: When the Toclafane invade, he directs them to swarm the Earth and massacre the population from the safety of the Valiant, his Airborne Aircraft Carrier in the sky. During the Year That Never Was, he controls the world with all the armies of the Earth and the Toclafane, but he rarely leaves the Valiant. A civilian says that he "never walks upon the ground".
• Assimilation Plot: Hijacking the Immortality Gate lets him turn most of humanity into duplicates of himself.
  The Master: Breaking news... I'm everyone. And everyone in the world is me!
• Ax-Crazy: While the Master always had a few screws loose, Saxon is certifiably unhinged. In "The End of Time", he pretty much loses all the screws.
  Missy: Oh, the way you burned. Like a sun — like a whole screaming world on fire.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: In Series 3, he almost always wears a suit, and you don't want to cross him.
• Bad Boss: One of the first things he does once elected Prime Minister is to gas his cabinet to death for little reason. He also abuses Lucy, his wife and accomplice, during his reign.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Played with in "The Last of the Time Lords". While the Doctor and his allies managed to defeat him and undo all his plans, he does have one victory over the Doctor when Lucy shoots him, and the Master refuses to regenerate despite the Doctor's pleading. Even he is surprised about it.
  The Master, dying in the Doctor's arms: "How about that? ...I win."
• Bad Samaritan: According to Lucy, the Master was very kind to her family, which makes it hard for her to think badly of him. Granted, given that she was aware of who he was by the time she said this, she might have been lying to and acting like he fooled her to get Vivien Rook's guard down.
• Beard of Evil: Averted in Series 3 and subsequent Tennant-era specials (unless one counts Perma-Stubble in the latter), to the point that the Tenth Doctor jokes about Lucy being his only beard in "Time Crash". A classic Delgado/Ainley-era goatee makes its return in Series 10.
• Beneath the Mask: Behind the Faux Affably Evil Laughably Evil act is a man who is both monstrous and suffering.
• The Berserker: In battle, Simm's Master is consistently shown to be absolutely savage and ruthless, especially after he Came Back Wrong as a cannibalistic monster. Even after regaining his composure by the time of his return in Series 10, traces of his "Time War mode" seep through when he coordinates a Combined Energy Attack against a Cyberman.
  The Master: KILL IT! KILL IT! KILL IT!
• Berserk Button: Not obeying him. He breaks his cool and yells at the Doctor when the Doctor doesn't run as soon as the Master commands him to, and has quite the Villainous Breakdown when everyone on Earth starts helping the Doctor against him. He frequently yells variations of "You will obey me!" when things don't go his way.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Particularly in his first couple episodes, he goofs around, makes silly chit-chat, and dances to pop music. He's also one of the most dangerous beings in the universe, who gets farther than anyone else in devastating the Earth.
• Big Bad: He is the main villain of Series 3, getting elected Prime Minister as Harold Saxon and successfully taking over the world in the finale.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Partners with his own future regeneration in Series 10 finale.
• Big Bad Wannabe:
  • He is almost the Big Bad of "The End of Time", and even successfully turns almost all of humanity into himself. However, he is only a pawn to Rassilon, who undoes his work as soon as he arrives.
  • After being the Big Bad for "World Enough and Time" in Series 10, the Master is, by the next episode, forced into an Enemy Mine with the Doctor in order to survive the onslaught of the Cybermen he helped create.
• Big "NO!": When the Doctor is restored to normality in "Last of the Time Lords", he shouts this in panic.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: When he takes over Britain as the PM, he seems like an eccentric but loveable leader. In reality he's an egomaniac who wants to grind the Earth into dust under his reign. At first, only those not influenced by the Archangel Network can see through the facade, but he soon reveals himself for what he really is to the world when he murders the President and unleashes the Toclafane.
• Board to Death: His first act as PM is to gas his entire Cabinet to death (after mocking and insulting them to their faces).
• Book Ends: His last incarnation regenerated into him when he was shot by a girl, and was then seemingly killed by his wife. This incarnation would ultimately be Killed Off for Real when his future incarnation, also a woman, stabbed him.
• Bound and Gagged: He gets straitjacketed, collared and strapped to a Hannibal-style roller chair in "The End of Time".
• Breakout Villain: This Master is a confirmed fan-favourite, which may have contributed to his return in Series 10 in a multiple Master special.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: He has a genius intellect on the same level as the Doctor himself, and uses it to take over the Earth. Once he has control, he's content to lounge around and have idle fun in his airborne lair.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Subverted. At first, it seems like his actions in public office have given the people of Britain enough faith in him to elect him Prime Minister, despite his obvious eccentric side (such as he displays in his conversation with President Winter). But then the Doctor figures out that, because of the Archangel Network, most of them don't have a choice, and that the Master has cheated his way to the top the whole time.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • After being cremated and his ring being found by one of his cultists, the Master made a return in the 2009 Specials after being MIA in Series 4.
  • This incarnation came back in the first onscreen multi-Master story in Series 10.
• The Caligula: He was already insane to begin with, and making him Prime Minister put him into President Evil territory. But once he forcefully takes over the world, he becomes this: massacring humanity and ravaging the Earth just for the fun of it, dedicating his time to playing cruel games with his prisoners, and forcing his subjects to listen to his favourite pop music. In fact, John Simm based his portrayal of the Master on Caligula himself, having played him in another TV series.
• Came Back Wrong: Lucy Saxon interrupts the resurrection process in "The End of Time", resulting in louder drums, Horror Hunger, lightning powers, and a rapidly dying body. Oh, and it turned his hair blond. Apparently fixed by the time of his appearance in Series 10.
• Cannot Tell Fiction from Reality: Watches the Teletubbies and remarks that Earth is an amazing planet where creatures can evolve with televisions in their stomachs.
• Cast from Lifespan: The one drawback to his Darth Sidious powers in "The End of Time": using them accelerates the death of an already damaged body.
• Character Catchphrase: "It's good, isn't it? Isn't it good?" and "Oh no, you don't!"
• Character Check:
  • This incarnation's first appearance harkens back to the original/Delgado Master by not having a decaying body, pulling a Grand Theft Me, or having any worries about his mortality, and being only concerned with evil and power, unlike the previous incarnations from Pratt onward. In his second appearance, after his resurrection, he again has a decaying body.
  • The unexplained Lovecraftian Superpowers he had in the TV movie are also never brought up.
• The Chessmaster: He was responsible for nearly everything happening in Series 3 of the revival, and had carefully implemented every plan to build up towards his grand moment in "The Sound of Drums".
• Clint Squint: He squints his eyes a lot, as part of his generally over-the-top facial expressions.
• Clone by Conversion: He hijacks a piece of alien techonology and uses it to transform every human being into a copy of him. The only ones spared (that we see) are Wilf and Donna, because Wilf was with the Doctor and Donna is, technically, only half-human.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: When posing as Harold Saxon, he acts humorously oblivious and off in his own little world, as shown by his interactions with the Cabinet and the US President. Part of it is an act, and part of it isn't: when he reveals himself as a bloodthirsty villain, he acts much more competent and aware, but still has some of his silly habits.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: The aging process he inflicts on the Doctor is clearly extremely painful, which he does while standing and talking calmly to him.
• Comical Angry Face: Invoked by the Master when he explains to his Cabinet the difference between "funny" and "not funny". A smile is "funny" whilst the angry face is "not funny".
• Compelling Voice: How he managed to get himself elected Prime Minister.
• Conqueror from the Future: He puts his own spin on it by conquering humanity using their own descendants. He has to construct a Paradox Machine to stop his army from cancelling itself out.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist:
  • His immediate precessor, the Yana Master, was a cold, menacing figure who spoke with tremendous hatred and gravitas. The Saxon Master is much more lively, animated, and emotional with a Faux Affably Evil demeanour, a taste for theatrics, and moments of introspection.
  • The new series' previous season finales featured the Daleks and the Cybermen, both of which were species of identical cyborgs with almost no emotions or personalities, and both had straightforward plans of outright invading and conquering the Earth. Then came this Master, who was a human-looking individual villain that often acted silly and had plenty of personality, and his plan involved a much more stealthy and subtle infiltration of Earth. (Although, interestingly enough, part of his plan involved using the Toclafane, who were a species of identical cyborgs. Although even then, they had much more personality than their predecessors.)
• The Corrupter: He persuades Martha's family to betray her and the Doctor through making them think that they were doing it for Martha's safety, he recruits Lucy Saxon (and later breaks her spirit), uses mild mind control to make the whole country elect him, then had them hunt down the Doctor, Martha, and Jack for no legal reasons, blackmails Professor Docherty into betraying Martha by holding her son prisoner, and while he wasn't directly behind humanity's transformation into the Toclafane, he is implied to have had a hand in arranging it and he definitely used it to his advantage. After his death, he even has a cult entirely devoted to him.
• The Cuckoolander Was Right: The Doctor believed his talk of "drumming" was a symptom of insanity — until he heard the drumming in his head for himself. The Master was close to tears when he realised that the drumming that had tormented him for centuries was real.
• Deadpan Snarker: Can be VERY sarcastic at times.
• Demoted to Dragon: In the "He will knock four times" arc, after it's revealed that he has been tricked into working for Rassilon.
• Depending on the Writer: Under Russell T Davies, he's extremely Axe-Crazy, sexually predatory, and obsessive, talking about the sound of drums implanted in his head by the Time Lords. His story implied this was the reason for his initial insanity. When picked up again by Steven Moffat, he becomes a more composed and ironic individual with a personality much closer to the original Delgado incarnation, even dressing in that character's iconic standup collar/goatee/widow's-peak/eyeliner combo, and being the butt of a joke about this. His sexuality also comes off as pathetic and nerdy rather than attractive, as he attempts to hit on his future self and gets rejected. The drumming is never mentioned, though it remains in his Leitmotif. However, he remains very much misogynistic to the core, and is less... caring than his next regeneration.
• Devil in Plain Sight: It's obvious to the audience, even if they didn't know that he was the Master, that something is off with Harold Saxon, what with his bizarre mannerisms and barely-disquised contempt for others. But almost everyone adores him regardless (granted, they are being mentally influenced by the Master's hypnotic network).
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: Lampshaded. "Dying in your arms... happy now?" To no-one's surprise, it didn't stick.
• Domestic Abuser: Lucy has bruises in "Last of the Time Lords", implying this. Him taking her to the end of the universe to break her spirit strongly implies no small amount of emotional and psychological abuse as well; by the end of the episode, she guns him down with a deadened look on her face, a testament to how much damage the Master had done to her.
• The Dreaded: The look on the Doctor's face when he finds out who he is says it all. The peoples of Earth soon learn to fear the very mention of his name.
• Dystopia Justifies the Means: Earth under the Master's rule is turned into a total hellhole, and is effectively closed off to other spacefaring races. Worse, he plans on creating a "New Time Lord Empire" with rockets fitted with black hole converters to begin his universal conquest.
• Emperor Scientist: He takes over the world using a low-level brainwashing field and an army he brought from the future, and rules from a flying fortress that he designed himself.
• Establishing Character Moment: While it's not the first we've seen of him, as he had a scene at the end of "Utopia", his first personal scene in "The Sound of Drums" sees him meet with his cabinet. He goes from serious, to silly, to vicious, to silly and murderous as he slaughters the entire cabinet while mocking them. And then, once they're dead, he begins to tap on the table, one-two one-two, drumming out the Terrible Ticking in his head. This scene neatly sums up most of his character.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: In "The Doctor Falls", he is disgusted by Missy's newfound kindness towards the Doctor, so much so that he tries to kill her for good because he can't stand the thought of himself becoming at all sympathetic.
• Evil Counterpart:
  • He has the Tenth Doctor's youth, off-the-wall energy and love of Earth pop culture — and gears it all towards causing as much misery as possible. He even pinches Four's fondness for jelly babies and Three's red-lined jacket.
  • Additionally, with his bleached-blond hair, scruffy appearance, casual clothing, gaining strange powers that will kill him over time, and being separated from the Doctor through a portal, it's hard to believe that his appearance in "The End of Time" isn't meant to evoke Rose Tyler. We weren't kidding about the Foe Yay.
  • And then, in an unusual twist, he ends up being this to Missy, his future self, in "The Doctor Falls".
• Evil Genius: His intelligence rivals the Doctor's, such that he is able to build a hypnotic network to control the world, and convert the TARDIS into a paradox machine.
• Evil Gloating: While he makes an effort at first to be more of a No-Nonsense Nemesis, he ultimately simply cannot help himself and eventually falls back hard on old habits. He ends up keeping the Doctor alive and captive so he can basically do this for an entire year simply so he has someone to brag to about how great his plan is.
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humour: In contrast to Ten's outlandish personality, this Master really enjoys his work. Especially shown with his literal decimation of Earth's population set to "Voodoo Child".
• Evil Is Hammy: He's extremely hammy, playing it up as much as he can. Probably best shown when he sings along to a Scissor Sisters song while dancing.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Joshua Naismith thought he could use the Master to achieve his desire to make his precious daughter immortal. The Master cheerfully played along until he could use Naismith's plans for his own benefit, with Naismith and his daughter being among the billions converted into "the Master Race". To his credit, Naismith tried his best to avert this trope, restraining the Master and refusing to so much as touch the Master's work without having it checked, but, of course, the Master was way ahead of him.
• Evil Is Petty: Takes time out of world domination to fit in some domestic abuse, casual sexism, racism and homophobia and psychological torture of the Doctor. He's probably the most spiteful version of the Master, willingly screwing himself over to get one up on the Doctor on two separate occasions. He even refused to regenerate to spite the Doctor, then shot his own future self in the back to prevent her from joining the Doctor against the Cybermen.
• Evil Laugh: To the point of becoming The Hyena at times.
• Evil Overlord: Rules Earth with an iron fist during The Year That Never Was.
• Expy: In addition to him being an example of The Caligula trope, John Simm said that he partially based his performance as the Master on his own earlier portrayal of the actual Roman emperor in a TV miniseries.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: He has the face of a handsome, fun-loving man, but in reality he's an inhuman (in all senses of the word) sadist and killer.
• Fake Russian: In-Universe while posing as Mr. Razor in "World Enough and Time", just to screw around with Bill.
• Fantastic Racism: He calls Jack and (post-metacrisis) Donna "freaks". He's also very cold towards humans in general, referring to them as "stunted little apes" and the "stupid, stinking human disgrace".
• Fashionable Asymmetry: His Series 10 Badass Longcoat has some funky-looking lapels◊.
• Fate Worse than Death: The Master considers permanent death preferable to being imprisoned by the Doctor, hence why he refuses to regenerate after getting shot.
  The Doctor: [begging] Regenerate, just regenerate! Please, please! Just regenerate! Come on—
  The Master: And spend... the rest of my life, imprisoned, with you!?
• Faux Affably Evil: Simm's Master practically made it an art form. One moment he could be dancing around, listening to something like "Voodoo Child", and the very next moment, go back to the cold-hearted bastard that is the Master. Best seen in his 2017 return, where he kills Missy for good just out of spite, all while pretending to be okay with dying.
• Fisher King: Under his rule, the Earth changes drastically, and not for the better.
  Martha Jones: "I travelled across the world — from the ruins of New York to the fusion mills of China, right across the radiation pits of Europe; and everywhere I went I saw people just like you, living as slaves."
• Foil:
  • He's very similar to the Tenth Doctor in many ways, from his intelligence and charisma to his fondness for blonde human companions, but while Ten's ego is tempered by his care for others, this Master is a sadistic Narcissist.
  • He's also one for Martha Jones in Series 3: While Martha accepted that the Doctor would never love her the way she loved him, and left to live her own life. The Master, by contrast, has such a bloated ego that he demands the Doctor's attention in their twisted love/hate relationship. While Martha left the Doctor for herself, the Master let himself die just to devastate the Doctor and gain his attention one last time.
• Foregone Conclusion:
  • His presence on present-day Earth before the Series 3 finale means Professor Yana will become the Master again, regenerate, and travel back from the end of the universe.
  • We don't see him return for the third and final time until after he's changed into Missy. That guarantees he's going to die when he comes back. We also don't see him regenerate, but we know he will.
• Foreshadowing: "Harold Saxon" sounds way too awesome for a British person, who would have to be extraordinarily lucky to have both the group modern Brits are descended from, and the last Anglo-Saxon king in his name. While it isn't entirely unrealistic, it sounds more like an outsider trying way too hard to appear as a British person.
• For the Evulz: Most of his actions are simply because he is a sadistic monster.
• Freudian Excuse: When he looked into the Untempered Schism as a child, the double heartbeat of the Time Lords, a sound like constant drums, was put forever into his head, driving him to madness. He later finds out that Rassilon did it to him on purpose as a plan to escape the Time War, leading him to seek swift vengeance on the Time Lord President.
• Friendly Enemy: Averted; while previous incarnations (as long as they weren't stuck in a decaying body) were friendly or showed a desire to reconcile with the Doctor (as long as he joined him), this one has no affection for the Doctor; it's especially heartbreaking during Ten's era since at that point they were the only two Time Lords left, but not even that could mitigate this Master's hatred of his old friend — much to Ten's sorrow. Twelve (who no longer suffers Survivor's Guilt due to the events of "The Day of the Doctor"), however, has nothing but contempt for this incarnation, and the feeling is mutual. When Missy decides to stand with the Doctor for friendship's sake, he kills her permanently — that's how much this Master hates the Doctor, he'd put aside his fear of death (every Master's most defining trait) rather than stand with his old friend.
  The Master: I will never stand with the Doctor!
• Future Me Scares Me: Simm's Master, upon revealing himself to Missy, states he's worried about his future, seeing her go soft after a Heel–Face Turn.

G-L

• Gas Leak Cover-Up: Officially, Harold Saxon went "mad" and was removed from office. Due to the paradox machine being reversed, only Lucy, the Doctor, Martha's family, Jack, and others on the Valiant remember the events of the Master's year in power.
• Genius Sweet Tooth: What is it with Time Lords and jelly babies? (This was intentional — this Master was designed to co-opt many of the Doctor's traits, after all, the better to disturb the Doctor.)
• Girl on Girl Is Hot: He says that his wife and his masseuse "getting to know each other" would be "fun".
• Glamour Failure: After he comes back wrong, his flesh sometimes disappears for a split-second at a time, exposing a glowing skull.
• Glorious Leader: Swept into office thanks to a subtle brainwashing signal, at which point he takes over the world and tells his citizens to "rejoice!"
• Greater-Scope Villain:
  • For Series 3, up until the finale.
  • In Series 10 it's revealed he played a role in the creation of the Mondasian Cybermen, or at least the ones on board the Exodus colony ship.
• Guyliner: In "The Doctor Falls", he practices putting on eyeliner in preparation for becoming a woman.
• Hated by All: It really says something when even your own future self comes to view you with contempt.
• The Heavy: In "The End of Time". Rassilon is the Big Bad, but it's the Master, as his Unwitting Pawn, who drives the plot until Rassilon's machinations come to fruition.
• Hidden Depths:
  • In "The End of Time", when the Doctor asks how many people the Master has killed, the Master stops dead with a troubled look on his face, as if he's trying to come up with an answer to the Doctor's question, implying that the number of bodies in his wake may, on some level, affect the Master more than he lets on.
  • Despite his loathing for the Doctor and cruel treatment of him, there are times when the Master seems to recall his onetime fondness for his old friend, although such reflections never manage to overcome his hatred for the Doctor. In "The End of Time", the Master reflects on his childhood alongside the Doctor, somberly reflecting on a time when the two were best friends before mournfully remarking "look at us now", showing a hint of regret over how much their paths had diverged. Later, when the Doctor makes a heartfelt offer to have the Master travel with him throughout the universe, the Master seems almost tempted to accept before carrying on with his plans.
  • In "The Doctor Falls", although he callously shrugs it off afterwards and leaves to save his own skin, the Master's expression and body language show that, despite his claims to the contrary, the Doctor's desperate speech about taking a stand simply to be kind and because it's the right thing to do did strike a chord with him, even if his selfishness and sense of self-preservation ultimately won out. Its possible however, that the Doctor's words are what helped his next incarnation make her eventual Heel–Face Turn
• Hidden Villain: For series 3 and in "World Enough and Time", he's using a fake identity and his plans are unknown until the end.
• Hijacked by Ganon:
  • On the receiving end in "The End of Time" courtesy of Rassilon, who dismisses and undoes his plans with a literal flick of his wrist.
  • Returns after an absence of seven years as the Big Bad in Series 10, though the Cybermen are the last ones standing.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Twice. The first time, he's killed by the woman he romanced into being his wife because he thoroughly abused her and completely destroyed her outlook on life. Then he's killed by one of his own incarnations because, although she says she loved being him, she knows he'd never stand for her joining the Doctor — but he is so adamant about that very point he kills her back before she can do it.
• Horror Hunger: In "The End of Time", he Came Back Wrong and started eating more or less everything made of meat that he ran across. Including humans.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: In his first appearance, he became the beloved Prime Minister of Britain, and then took over the entire world and ruled on high for a whole year. In his second appearance, he's forced to roam England as a homeless thing with a broken body. He soon gets another upper hand, though, as weasels his way into using a billionaire's technology to assimilate everyone on the planet.
  • Again in Series 10. It's implied he was in charge of the lower decks/cities of the lower deck(s) and then botched things that badly he was forced into an elaborate disguise.
• Humanoid Abomination: Upon his resurrection in "The End of Time". His return is even heralded by portentous nightmares that afflict the entire human race.
• Human Sacrifice: He has devoted followers on Earth. They are willing to give their lives to restore his.
• Humans Are Bastards: He claims this, and points to the Toclafane as evidence. "The human race. Greatest monsters of them all."
• Hypocrite: During his first cabinet meeting as PM, he berates all his cabinet members for betraying their own parties, and rewards them appropriately. This despite the fact that he has no remorse about having betrayed his own people and his former best friend in the past. Nor even the implication that his Cabinet Members defected in part of the influence of his Archangel Network, meaning The Master is punishing them for doing what he brainwashed them to do in the first place.
• Hypocritical Humour: When the Doctor takes out a security camera, the Master refers to him as a "public menace", complete with mocking faux-outrage. Remember, this is while he's taking over Britain via brainwashing so he can devastate the Earth and slaughter its inhabitants.
• I Always Wanted to Say That: He's thrilled when he gets to say "So, we meet at last, Doctor!" again.
• I Cannot Self-Terminate: When he threatens to blow up his fleet of rockets and destroy the Earth with him and The Doctor on it, The Doctor says he knows the one thing The Master could ever do is kill himself. Though he later refuses to regenerate after being shot so he won't have to spend the rest of his lives as The Doctor's prisoner.
• Immortals Fear Death: At the end of "Last of the Time Lords", the Doctor calls his bluff on destroying the Earth with both of them still on it for this exact reason.
• Incoming Ham: His intro at the end of "Utopia". Seconds after regenerating, he cheers and dances about the TARDIS.
• In Love with Your Carnage: He was already obsessed with the Doctor, but he's very intrigued when he learns how the Time War ended. "What did it feel like, though? Two almighty civilizations, burning — ooh, tell me, how did that feel?"
• Interim Villain: The only non-Dalek Big Bad of the revival's first four years.
• Internal Homage:
  • As much as this incarnation mirrors the Tenth Doctor — invoked intentionally by the Master, who openly covets Ten's youth — he owes as much to the Third Doctor. Like Three, the Master finds himself stranded on Earth with a non-functional TARDIS. Like Three, he bides his time by tinkering with machines and working alongside Earth governments toward his own stated goal of getting off that rock. (Professor Yana built a rocket, Harold Saxon builds an airship.) His jacket even has a red inner lining.
  • His appearance in "World Enough and Time" is a homage to the Roger Delgado/"Tremas" incarnations, regrowing the goatee and wearing a long black coat. The colouring scheme is one meant to invoke the Twelfth Doctor's, with dark red lines on the inside of the coat.
• In the Hood: Wears a hooded sweatshirt for the entirety of "The End of Time", though he only wears the hood over his face twice.
• Irony: Like his previous incarnation, he complains after having been killed by a woman. Well, not only is his next incarnation a woman, but she is the very same person who stabs him and causes him to regenerate into her.
• It Amused Me: He often finds doing evil to be quite fun and funny.
• It's All About Me: The reason the Doctor can initially defeat him is because he knows the Master can't destroy the world without killing himself, which is the one thing he can't do. Taken to a new level when he turns the entire human race into copies of himself — and assumes the Doctor's prophecy refers exclusively to him.
  The Master: That's what your prophecy was, Doctor! ME!
• I Was Beaten by a Girl:
  • Much like his last self. "Always the women."
  • While he never actually says it, it happens again in "The Doctor Falls" — except the woman in question is his own future self this time. It's downplayed, as he actually praises her for the kill.
    The Master: Now that was really, very nicely done. It's good to know I haven't lost my touch.
    Missy: You deserve my best.
• Jabba Table Manners:
  • In "Last of the Time Lords", he sips the tea that Martha's mother made for him, only to sloppily spit it back out, pour the rest on the table, and smash the cup, presumably because it wasn't quite to his liking.
  • While suffering from his Horror Hunger, he eats like a savage animal.
• Jerkass: Only the Peter Pratt incarnation is just as nasty, and even that version of the character wasn't as petty and needlessly cruel as this Master, who has the added "bonus" of being a Politically Incorrect Villain to boot.
• Just Between You and Me: Defied. Shortly after regenerating, he notices that he feels tempted to tell the Doctor about his plans, but quickly decides that he should try to keep them to himself for once. True to form for the Master, however, his ego and vanity eventually does get the better of him, making him play it straight later, taking time to explain his involvement with several of the problems the Doctor has had to deal with throughout Series 3, but only because he thinks he has really won this time.
• Kick the Dog: He takes great pleasure in mistreating the Doctor, Martha's family, Jack, and Lucy during the Year That Never Was.
• Knight of Cerebus: His debut journeys into territory strikingly darker than Doctor Who tends to go. He slaughters a tenth of all humanity, turns the Earth into a brutal nightmarish Crapsack World (though it all gets undone later), and tortures and traumatizes the Doctor's human friends for a year. He also introduces the Toclafane: the last of humanity, reduced to childishly sadistic murderous cyborgs, who go back in time to kill their own ancestors. They're one of the bleakest concepts put to script in the entire show.
• Lack of Empathy: In stark contrast to the Doctor's All-Loving Hero status, this Master doesn't care about the emotions or needs of anyone besides himself.
• Laser-Guided Karma: The shamelessly misogynist Saxon Master meets both his (temporary, of course) death and the wound that ensures his regeneration at the hands of women. Even better, said temporary death was courtesy of the Master's own abused wife, while the regeneration-inducing wound was the work of his own future female incarnation.
• Latex Perfection: His "Mr. Razor" mask. You'll never see it coming.
• Laughably Evil: Zig-zagged. Initially, he's hilarious, Joker-style. Look at the hammy way John Simm delivers his lines when he's gassing the Cabinet ministers to death. After the Toclafane appear, though, you just hate him too much to laugh. Then when he returns in "The End of Time" he becomes so over-the-top he's hard to take seriously at all, shouting "DINNER TIME!" while devouring people and having conversations with himself after turning every human into him.
• Leitmotif: Four quarter notes to imitate the drumbeats that drove him mad. The full theme is "The Master Vainglorious", and is about as psychotic and gleefully evil-sounding as you'd expect.
• Light Is Not Good: In "The Sound of Drums"/"Last of the Time Lords", He's Faux Affably Evil, presents himself as a kindly leader, is always making jokes, eats jelly babies, watches The Teletubbies, and dances to pop music.
  • In "The End of Time", while he's more vicious, his hair is now blond, his resurrection is accompanied by a great light, and his powers manifest as shooting lightning.
• Living Forever Is Awesome: He goes to great lengths to preserve his own life, and it's because of this trope that the Doctor called his bluff in series 3.
  "Never dying! Never dying! NEVER DYING!"

M-R

• The Mad Hatter: In his first and second appearances, although not quite as insane as the Doctor thought — while he remains a homicidal maniac, the drums in his head turn out to have a very tangible origin. When he turns up for the last time, he's rather more calm and suave — though still an absolute dick.
• Mad Scientist: He has shades of this, as he is both insane and able to develop technology far advanced of humanity.
• Madness Mantra: "The drums, the drums, the never-ending drumbeat..."
  • Also, briefly, "Never dying! Never dying! NEVER DYING!"
• The Man Behind the Man: Is the one who financed Professor Lazarus and his experiments.
• The Man Behind the Monsters: He looks human, and in the Series 3 finale he commands the Toclafane, which are metallic floating spheres. It's actually an inversion though as the Master is a Human Alien and the Toclafane are future humans who mutilated themselves in order to survive.
• Man of Wealth and Taste: As Prime Minister, and later as dictator of the Earth, he gives himself the very best of clothes and luxuries. After his regeneration, this falls pretty low on his list of priorities, and he lives as a crazed hobo before finding some wealthy people to manipulate.
• Mask of Sanity: He wears one when he poses as Harold Saxon, although he still comes of as a Cloud Cuckoo Lander.
• Meaningful Name: "Mister Saxon" is an anagram for "Master No. Six", as he is the sixth incarnation of the Master to appear onscreen.^note  Maybe. Depending on how you count. It requires either counting the two versions of the Decayed Master as one character, or assuming Gordon Tipple is Ainley's incarnation recasted. And it certainly breaks down if you count the War Chief. Though according to Russell T Davies, this is just a coincidence.
• Meta Guy: If he's not deliberately subverting his own Villain Ball tendencies, he's lampshading them, or something else.
  • His first words to the Tenth Doctor:
    "Now then, Doctor, [...] why don't we stop and have a nice little chat where I tell you all my plans and you can work out a way to stop me, I DON'T think!"
  • When he's pointing out that the Doctor and his friends' faces are all over the news:
    "No, seriously, you're on telly! You and your little band, which by the way is ticking every demographic box, so congratulations on that."
  • When he finally captures the Doctor:
    "We meet at last, Doctor! [laughs gleefully] Oh, I love saying that!"
  • When he starts the countdown for launching his invasion of the rest of the universe:
    "I never could resist a ticking clock!"
• Mind Control: How he tricks the population of England into electing him Prime Minister.
• Motor Mouth: He has a tendency to talk very fast when he's particularly gleeful, smug, or manic.
• My Future Self and Me: The Series 10 two-part finale featured the first ever multi-Master TV story, with Simm's Master meeting his future incarnation, Missy.
• Narcissist: He has perhaps the most massive ego of all his incarnations thus far, as demonstrated by both his brief conquests of Earth. The first involved literal monuments to his vanity (see below), and as for the second... it's hard to get more narcissistic than turning an entire species into yourself. Nevertheless, he has a good go, being attracted to his future self who happens to be a woman.
• Nemesis Weapon: He trades in the TCE for a laser screwdriver, just to underline the whole evil counterpart thing. It can kill someone in a single shot, and also happens to be bigger than the Doctor's.
• New Era Speech: After being elected, ending with the following line:
  "In fact, I'd go so far as to say that what this country really needs, right now… is a Doctor."
• New Neo City: Henceforth, Earth will be known as New Gallifrey.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Saxon's strained relationship with President Winters — himself an analogue of George W. Bush — brings to mind Tony Blair as seen through a cracked mirror. Though Tony Blair was very well-liked and popular, by the time of his last Ministry, 2005-2007, he had suffered a severe drop in popularity and was seen by many as dishonest and sleazy. The Master exaggerates this being a beloved figure until elected, then immediately turning out rotten. Also, fun trivia: Simm supposedly based his performance on Russell T. Davies himself.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: This incarnation is particularly cunning, refusing to give the Doctor any clue about his plans until it's far too late. His methods are also notably efficient and simple: sic the police and MI5 on the Doctor, arrest Martha's family, and send Torchwood to Nepal. But he is ultimately still the Master though; in the end, he simply cannot help himself and falls into the the old "keep them around to suffer" bit, but only when there's seemingly absolutely nothing they can do.
• Oh, Crap!: His expression when he finds out Martha and the Doctor's plan. Calling it this would be a colossal understatement.
• Omnicidal Maniac: After he conquers Earth, he has his human slaves build incredibly destructive rockets so he can "wage war on the universe". In "The End of Time" he plans to make every human and every Time Lord into just another copy of himself, effectively wiping out whoever they were before.
• Our Founder: Erects giant statues of himself across Earth during the Year that Never Was (and carves himself into Mount Rushmore, though we only hear about that).
• Politically Incorrect Villain:
  • During the Year that Never Was, he made Martha's family his servants, started physically abusing Lucy and suggested that she "get to know" one of his masseuses. Not to mention his reaction to spotting Martha and Jack...
    The Master: And look, it's the girly and the freak, although I'm not sure which one's which.
  • Also, his Nazi-esque pun after replacing every human on Earth with an imprint of himself.
    The Master: The human race was always your favourite, Doctor. But now, there is no human race. There is only... the Master race!
  • This continues into his return in "The Doctor Falls"; he keeps making very suggestive remarks to Missy — his future self, no less — and then laments the idea of a future being "all girl". Although unlike his behaviour towards Martha and her family, he does refrain from making any racist remarks about Bill.
• Pop-Cultured Badass: Definitely. He brings the Doctor to his knees and takes over the world for a year while expressing his love of the Scissor Sisters, Rogue Traders, and The Teletubbies.
• Practically Joker: He's Ax-Crazy, Faux Affably Evil, is always cracking jokes, frequently breaks out his Evil Laugh, became evil after "one bad day" (when he stared into the Untempered Schism), always wears a suit, has a romantic partner who, while not as dangerous as him, fully supports his villainy(at first), is completely unfettered,and always does horrible things for amusement and the evulz. In one scene, he even kills a room full of people with gas!
• Pre-emptive Declaration: Why is he wearing a gas mask during a cabinet meeting? Well, obviously, because of the gas.
  Albert: What "gas"?
  The Master: This gas.
• President Evil: He was Prime Minister Evil during the Year that Never Was, and manages to be President Evil of every country by "The End of Time", in Part One. "I'm president! President of the United States!"
• Promotion to Opening Titles: Alongside Bernard Cribbins for Ten's final story.
• Psycho Electro: He gains the ability to shoot lightning during "The End of Time" thanks to his sabotaged resurrection.
• Psychopathic Manchild: He giggles, makes faces, and dances around the room, all while taking over the world and ordering the annihilation of millions of people. Russell T. Davies, wondering what someone who'd successfully taken over the world would actually do next, concluded they'd act like a teenager in their bedroom, as there wouldn't be anyone who could say "no" to them. In "The Doctor Falls", he's a little less of a manchild and much more suave — suggested to be because of years without the drums in his head — though he's still as psychopathic as ever.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!:
  • "HERE. COME. THE DRUMS!"
  • Also: "ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!"
• Put the "Laughter" in "Slaughter":
  • When the Toclafane kill President Winter, the Master laughs and claps his hands like an excited child.
  • Later, when the population of the Earth is decimated, he has a grin a mile-wide and can't keep the excitement out of his voice.
• Retcon: The drumbeat having driven him insane his whole life is first mentioned in the revival series. However, it is heavily implied that it is in actuality a Cosmic Retcon, and the drumbeat was an effect of the Time War retroactively altering the Master's timeline.
  • Despite this supposedly being the cause of the Master's madness, it's removed offscreen before "World Enough and Time" to no effect — he's a lot less manic, but subsequent incarnation Missy is still "bananas" by her own account (though she's still much more lucid than he is when she's not playing up to it, and it could have something to do with the traumatic nature of her regeneration).
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Downplayed, but this version of the Master mixes some red into his usual black attire, wearing a black coat lined with red during Series 3, a red t-shirt under his black hoodie in "The End of Time", and donning a new black coat with red accents in Series 10.
• Redemption Equals Death: Didn't see that one coming in "The End of Time", did you? Granted, it's more along the lines of "revenge against the guy who made me crazy", though it can also be seen as paying the Doctor back for sparing/saving his life seconds earlier. It's subsequently subverted, as he survived and remains as sociopathic as ever.
• Red Is Violent: The main visual change to the TARDIS after the Master has cannibalized it into a Paradox Machine is that everything is glowing red.
• Returning Big Bad: Returns eight years after his last appearance as the Big Bad of Series 10.
• Revenge Before Reason: Despite his obsession with his own survival, he'd rather die permanently than reconcile with the Doctor.
• Revenge Through Corruption: While he didn't exactly cause humanity's corruption into the Toclafane, he definitely uses it to torment the Doctor.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Invoked regarding his short-lived Cabinet, all of whom jumped ship to support him. He "rewards" them with a room's worth of poison gas. The fact that he possibly got them to do this via the same Subliminal Seduction he used on the entire country to get himself elected may make this a particularly nasty Subverted Trope, though.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: When he gets a chance, the Master rages against Rassilon, attacking the Lord President in a fury as vengeance for the drumbeat that has haunted the Master for his entire life. The resulting onslaught was enough to cause Rassilon to regenerate, although the Master seems to have relented eventually, as the Time Lords repaired his unstable body and sent him on his way ("a mutual kicking me out" as he puts it).
• Rushmore Refacement: Martha mentions that he stuck his face on it in the timeline where he conquered Earth.

S-Y

• Sadist: One of the most sadistic incarnations of the character, he delights in tormenting his enemies, his prisoners, and even his wife.
• Sanity Slippage:
  • Already was extraordinarily crazy, but as of "The End of Time", he goes from "weird sense of humour" insane to "full on, batshit, animal-psyche" insane.
  • Then inverted in "World Enough and Time"/"The Doctor Falls", in which he's still deeply evil but much calmer and more rational than he was in either previous story. The Doctor suggests that the Time Lords fixed the problem that drove him insane in the first place, though it wasn't enough to change his evil nature and they eventually kicked him off Gallifrey (he insists it was mutual).
• Say My Name: He admits that he loves it when the Doctor uses it.
• Screw Yourself:
  • Davies got as far as writing Master-on-Master, but the scene didn't make it to the screen.
  • The 2017 finale goes there!
    Saxon: Kiss me.
    Missy: Make me.
  • Also:
    Saxon: By the way, is it wrong that I...
    Missy: [pointedly looking at his crotch] Yes. Very.
• Serial Killer: Even before he took over the world and started killing humans left and right, he and the Toclafane left quite a few bodies in their wake. And after his resurrection, he goes around devouring hobos and anyone else he can get his teeth on.
• Seven Deadly Sins: He exhibits all of them, as befits his being one of the rottenest of the Masters:
  • Envy: He hates how close the Doctor is to the human race, and always delights in coming between them, whether it be taunting the Doctor about how humans will eventually become the monstrous Toclafane, or else turning every human on Earth into a copy of himself.
  • Gluttony: When he takes over the Earth, he uses the opportunity to indulge his every whim and treat himself with excessive spoils. After his resurrection, this sin is manifested a bit more literally with his Horror Hunger.
  • Greed: He's greedy from small ways (taking whatever he wants when he rules the Earth) to big ways (wanting complete control of Earth, Gallifrey, and the entire Universe).
  • Lust: He makes lustful comments about his wife and his female servants. Even some of his dialogue to the Doctor comes off as creepily lustful!
  • Pride: This Master is his own biggest fan. He makes god-like speeches about his own importance and puts statues of himself all over the Earth.
  • Sloth: During the Year That Never Was, he generally had his minions do all the work on Earth while he played and lazed around in the Valiant.
  • Wrath: He's usually quick to anger if you disobey him, or don't treat him with the respect he feels he deserves.
  • For bonus points, his cynicism about the pointlessness of the human race and everything else could be interpreted as Despair, the eighth sin in Orthodox Christianity.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: As "Harold Saxon", at any rate; when he becomes Prime Minister he's perhaps the most conservatively dressed Master in an ordinary black suit. Much less so after his resurrection, when he looks more like a hobo. Come Series 10, he's back to looking classy as hell in a black Badass Longcoat.
• Shock and Awe: In "The End of Time", as a side effect of his botched resurrection he can shoot lightning from his hands. It drains his life force, though, and can't be done for too long without killing him permanently.
• Sinister Surveillance: How he tracks the Doctor's crew in "The Sound of Drums".
• Sinister Sweet Tooth: To further emphsize his role as an Evil Counterpart to the Doctor, he has a taste for Jelly Babies.
• Slap-Slap-Kiss: Has quite a bit of flirting going on with the Gomez incarnation, in between smacks on the head.
• Smug Snake: He clearly thinks the world of himself and doesn't think anyone else even comes close to his brilliance, which is what lets Martha and the Doctor get the advantage when fighting him.
  • It also comes back to bite him when he brings Gallifrey back in "The End of Time" and gleefully mocks Rassilon and tells him that he's going to do the same to the Time Lords as he's done to humanity. Rassilon doesn't even bother saying anything: he just flicks his gauntlet and undoes the Master's plans with absolutely zero effort.
• The Sociopath: The most blatantly amoral and sadistic version of the Master outside of the Crispy version (and even that can be disputed). The point is really driven home in "The Doctor Falls" when paired up with Missy, who ends up making a Heel–Face Turn by the end of the episode and kills the Saxon Master out of disgust.
• Sore Loser: This trait is particularly evident at the climax of "Last of the Time Lords". When the whole world helps the Doctor back to get full strength, he starts yelling at them to stop and screaming that it's "not fair". When that doesn't work, he tries to kill the Doctor. When that doesn't work, he tries to kill Martha's family. When that doesn't work, he threatens to blow up the whole Earth, including himself, just to get back at the Doctor, even though he ultimately doesn't go through with it. And as a final insult, after he's shot by Lucy he refuses to regenerate, just to hurt the Doctor.
• Stable Time Loop: He meets his future self, who ends up causing him to regenerate into her so that she can go on to meet him and make him regenerate.
• Straw Nihilist: The Master pointedly ended up in the year one hundred trillion, the eve of the universe's collapse. His smug description of humans on their last legs is a good peek into his worldview.
• Superpower Lottery: He actually got a pretty good deal out of his Came Back Wrong given that he can shoot lightning from his hands.
• Take Over the World: He succeeds for a year before the Doctor manages to knock him off his throne.
• Taking You with Me: In "The End of Time", he uses the energy from his dying body to blast Rassilon with lighting as they both get swept back into the Time War.
• Temporal Paradox: Averted — he's killed by his own future self, but only to the degree that he regenerates into her.
• Temporal Suicide: Shoots his own future self in the back with an Anti-Regeneration ray, purely because he can't stomach the idea of dying heroically alongside the Doctor to save a village of humans.
• Terrible Ticking: Tappity-tap, tappity-tap, tappity-tap, tappity-tap "Can't you hear it?"
• There Is Another: Before The Master reared his head, The Doctor had thought he was the only Time Lord to have survived the Time War.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: Compared to his previous incarnations, for the most part, he acts more upbeat, enthusiastic, and often even quite jolly. Not that this makes him any less malicious, of course, it's just his pronounced Faux Affably Evil and It Amused Me tendencies.
• Took a Level in Cynic: Some previous appearances of the Master claim that the universe will be a better place under their rule. This version of the Master not only doesn't bother with such supposedly-benevolent goals but actively both revels and wallows in the collapse and doom of humanity and everything else.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: While the previous Masters were usually just as villainous, they at least respected the Doctor enough to try and recruit him in conquering the universe, and if not that, then they would simply try to kill him. This Master doesn't even try to reconcile with the Doctor, and instead of killing him quickly, keeps him captive and tortures For the Evulz. When the Doctor eventually gains the upper hand, the Master immediately tries to kill him, showing that any twisted affection he might have had for his old friend was small at best. It isn't until "The End of Time" that the Master starts to be slightly less hostile towards the Doctor through an Enemy Mine with the Time Lords. Even this small affection is gone by the time the Master runs into the Twelfth Doctor, however; though forced into another Enemy Mine with his old friend (this time against the Cybermen), he's never anything less than sneering, hostile and cruel, makes every effort to abandon the Doctor to his fate, and even insists with some of this incarnation's last breaths that he will never stand with the Doctor.
• To Serve Man: After he Came Back Wrong, he restored his rapidly-dwindling energy by eating humans.
• Troll:
  • His entire modus operandi is to humiliate and screw with the Doctor as much as possible, and in doing so to have as much fun as he can making everyone around the Doctor as miserable as he can.
  • He trolls Bill for all it's worth as Mr. Razor, pretending to be her friend... who then drags her to be Cyber-converted...
• Toxic Friend Influence: A variation where the "friend" is one's self. Missy genuinely wanted the Doctor's favor and tried to become good, but Saxon, representing the worst of the Master's impulses, leads her astray until she works up the nerve to betray him (and gets shot in the back for her effort).
• The Unfettered: John Simm shows what the Doctor would be like without any constraints of morality, humanity, or even sanity.
• The Unsmile: He gives one when explaining to his Cabinet the difference between "funny" and "not funny". The smile is "funny" whilst a Comical Angry Face is "not funny".
• Unwitting Pawn: The Madness Mantra (the four drumbeats) was actually implanted by the Time Lords as part of their plot to escape the Time War alive. It's implied that this is the only reason the Master became insane, which kind of makes them responsible for quite a lot.
• Viking Funeral: The Doctor gives him a positively Vader-esque funeral pyre... which doesn't stop one of the Master's cultists fishing his ring out of the ashes.
• Villainous Breakdown: After the Doctor and Martha reveal their real plan just as he's about to launch his war machines, he starts shouting about how unfair it all is before cowering in a corner as the Doctor forgives him. His next move? Threaten to blow up the entire planet just to spite the Doctor.
• Villainous Glutton: He eats jelly babies while preparing to kill the President, he has his every little whim catered to in the luxury of the Valiant during his takeover of Earth, and when he comes Back from the Dead he starts devouring humans down to the bone left and right, and even when given other sources of meat, wolfs it down like a starving, sabage animal, even licking a burger wrapper and ranting about all the food he craves.
• Villain Song:
  • His first scene in "Last of the Time Lords" has him sing and dance with the Scissor Sisters' "I Can't Decide" as he taunts his prisoners. While it's an already-existing song, the lyrics apply quite well to the situation.
  • The same goes for when he plays "Voodoo Child" by Rogue Traders, with its refrain of "Here come the drums, here come the drums" fitting the Master's drum motif quite well.
• Villain with Good Publicity: As Harold Saxon, he poses as a beloved political figure who is elect Prime Minister. It doesn't last, though, once he reveals himself and sics the Toclafane on humanity, which promptly gets him a 0% Approval Rating.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Initially it wasn't clear what caused him to regenerate into Missy after his last appearance fighting Rassilon in "The End of Time". "The Doctor Falls" reveals this, and it has quite the twist: the Time Lords simply repaired his decaying body, gave him a new TARDIS and kicked him off of Gallifrey prior to its supposed destruction at the hands of the War Doctor and the Moment. Eventually finding his way to the settler ship, he attempted to conquer it, but the colonists rebelled, setting off a chain of events that led to him being stabbed by his next self, who has become much more empathetic and can no longer bring herself to act like him. This leads to the Master shooting her with his laser screwdriver, supposedly killing her permanently.
• White Hair, Black Heart: Sports this as part of his Came Back Wrong look. After being cured he kept the hair but with a darker tint.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: When he has the Toclafane invade the Earth, he is more focused on that then stopping Martha from getting away, and when she does get away, the Master keeps the Doctor as his prisoner to gloat and torment him, instead of killing him. Both of these come back to bite him.
• The Wonka: While acting as Prime Minister, he quotes Little Britain during his speeches and relentlessly takes the mickey out of the US President. Once he drops the pretense, it's more a case of "put up with my antics or be vaporized".
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: This Master is a very unsympathetic example, at least during his encounters with the Tenth Doctor; although the drum beat implanted by Rassilon drove the Master insane long ago, this version is constantly tormented by the noise, driving him even further off the deep end than previous Masters. He's constantly asking other people if they can hear the drumming, wonders aloud if it will stop with his death, and, when the Doctor acknowledges the sound as real and not just a symptom of the Master's madness, the Master is in tears, overcome with emotion that his lifelong torment is real and may have a purpose. By the time of his return in series 10, however, the drum beat has been removed and the Master is more stable than he had previously been, although if anything, even more evil. At the end of the day, this Master is an incredibly broken individual, though he's no less malevolent than any of his previous incarnations.
• Would Hit a Girl: It's implied that he hit his wife during his reign over the Earth.
• Younger and Hipper: He's younger than the previous Masters on the show before him, and has an affinity for Earth pop culture.
• You're Insane!: One of his cabinet members calls him this right before he kills them. His response is a hearty thumbs up.

As Mr. Razor

"Mr. Razor"

Played by: John Simm (2017)

The eccentric and disheveled Hospital janitor who befriends Bill Potts while she was stuck at the lower levels of a Mondasian colony ship. In actuality, he is the Master in disguise.

---

• False Friend: He is one to Bill, playing her like a fiddle the whole time.
• The Igor: He has overtones of this before his true identity is revealed.
• Latex Perfection: He hides his true appearance via a rubber mask.
• Mr. Exposition: He explains the Backstory of the Mondasians and why they're doing what they're doing now. Interestingly, despite The Reveal that Mr. Razor is actually the Saxon Master, there is no reason to think (at this point) that he lies to Bill about anything aside from who he is.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Right before Mr. Razor reveals himself to be John Simm's Master, shades of Simm's normal, unaffected voice start to seep through.
• The Reveal: His true identity is that of the Master in disguise.
• Token Good Teammate: Is the only person in the hospital who cares remotely for Bill's safety. Sadly, it's just an act.
• Walking Spoiler: Not only was he manipulating Bill, he was the Harold Saxon version of the Master in disguise the whole time.

Audio Tropes

The "Harold Saxon" Master (Tenth, Twelfth and Thirteenth Doctors)

Voiced by: John Simm (2021)

• Didn't Think This Through: He attempts a complex plan to lure in his own past selves to save his life that even his own predecessor realised was making a temporally dangerous situation worse.
• Inadequate Inheritor: His scenes with Jacobi's War Master make it clear that he is viewed as such by his immediate past self. Both of them have an extremely lofty view of themselves but where the War Master is largely successful, all THIS Master's plans tend to go horribly wrong for him.
• It's All About Me: When his actions nearly destroy the universe, his only priority is his own survival, to the extent that he tries to lure his own past selves into a trap to take their energy.
• Noodle Incident: Apparently killed the Thirteenth Doctor after he unleashed a sentient entropy wave on the universe.
• Other Me Annoys Me: Ends up making himself an enemy of basically all his other selves.
  • And the feeling is absolutely mutual. He refers to his former selves as "failed drafts", and he absolutely despises Missy.

---

"This is our perfect ending. We shoot ourselves in the back!"