The final part of the "Villains Trilogy": three standalone episodes that explore how the Doctor and his archenemies aren't so different in the end. The other two parts are "Omega" and "Davros". The trilogy also thematically paved the road for the next episode, "Zagreus", although that episode is not standalone and is instead part of the Eighth Doctor's Story Arc.
This episode was based on the novel Human Nature and ended up inspiring the TV series episode "Utopia".
The Seventh Doctor surprises a sniper just minutes before an assassination attempt and, while waiting for the target's parade to arrive, offers to tell him a story...
In a dark old manor home, as a storm rages outside, friends have gathered to celebrate the birthday of Doctor John Smith, a disfigured but kind gentleman, who was once found wandering the streets of their home, Perfugium. John has no memory of who he was or where he had come from, and he's been living in Perfugium for ten years, with married couple Victor and Jacqueline as his closest friends. Now, having inherited a manor, a maid and a cat from a kind old patient, John simply wishes to enjoy the company of friends. And he'd rather forget the curse that's supposedly on the house — as well as the grisly murders of prostitutes that are going on outside, with Victor, a detective, being in charge of their investigations.
As the clock ticks and the wine bottles get emptier, the group of friends is surprised by the Doctor, who stumbles into the house weakened and babbling on about "DEATH". The Doctor — realising that the name "Dr. John Smith" is taken today — introduces himself as Dr. Vaughan Sutton. He tells John stories about another life, about a world outside the mansion and outside Perfugium. John feels an instant connection to a fellow man of science, and the two quietly start a friendship, with John telling the Doctor about Victor's overly scientific mind and Jacqueline's naiveté. Victor insists that every murder, every act of evil, must be provoked or performed by a deranged, sick mind. The evil are either meant to be cured or to be examined for scientific purposes. John would like to discover more options, and wonders what other motivations for evil might exist in the world. Meanwhile, Jacqueline herself acts oddly, even going so far as to slap the young maid, Jade, in the face. And suddenly, without provocation, the cat is murdered as gruesomely as the whores of Perfugium were, and what seems to be a poltergeist slams a copy of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde into the Doctor's face.
The Doctor, who's perfectly aware of just who John is, can see an obvious clue when it hits him and explains to John just what's going on. Long ago, when two boys on a planet far away were playing by the stream together, one of them was nearly drowned by a bully. The other took up a rock and, to save his friend, killed the bully. The two boys quietly burned the corpse, but their lives had changed forever — one ended up running away and became the Doctor, and the other, wrecked with guilt over having committed that murder, became the Master and turned into one of the most accomplished killers the universe had ever seen.
Meanwhile, Jade finds herself humming a tune about one who sits inside your head, and lives among the dead...
John is horrified to discover that the memory of being the Master is deep inside him, but before he and the Doctor can discuss it further, Jade reveals herself to be Death incarnate. She mocks the people gathered there — Victor for having committed the gruesome murders just to keep the whores away from Jacqueline, Jacqueline for being in love with John but never admitting it because of his low status in society, the Doctor for no longer merrily playing the spoons or mixing his metaphors, and John for being unable to cope with his past life.
The Doctor explains that he manipulated the entire situation, having made a deal with Death — insofar as such a universal concept can be said to have a consciousness — in order to grant the Master ten years of normal life. According to the deal, the Doctor would murder the Master at the end of that decade. But the Doctor can't bring himself to do it, and while Victor and his wife face the revelations that were made, the Doctor begins to realise that his mental image of the Master simply never included being loved or having friends... even if the Doctor would give anything to be a friend to the Master again. Victor, meanwhile, succumbs to Death's influence on everyone's mind, goes into a violent rage and murders Jacqueline, which greatly pleases Death. Death also reveals that this is certainly not the first deal she made with the Doctor... the first one was many years ago, on Gallifrey, after the Doctor murdered a young boy and begged Death, in a dream, to make his friend pay for it instead of himself. The Doctor can't believe the memories that are revealed to him, and realises with utter horror that the Master was supposed to be the one going around saving galaxies, and he himself might have ended up destroying entire chunks of the universe as Death's herald.
He and the Master are given a choice, since Death has the power to reset time, to erase memories and to create entire new scenarios just to please herself. The Master, now back to his old self, explains that his regular consciousness has been lurking helplessly in the back of the "John Smith" persona for ten years, waiting for a chance to strike — but he doesn't consider himself Death's pawn, but rather the other way around. Still, he understands his bond with the Doctor. The Doctor offers to make Death another deal and let John Smith, not the Master, choose what to make of his future, at the cost of the Doctor having to commit the murder of an innocent.
And that's why he told the story to the sniper — he plans to take the gun and commit the act himself. But he still can't go through with it, and the sniper gleefully reveals himself to simply be Death, taking great pleasure in watching the Doctor struggle with morality. John is given an opportunity to save Jacquelin's life by killing Victor before he can kill his wife, with the implication that if he takes a life, he will become Death's servant once more. The story ends where it began, with Victor and Jacqueline arriving at their old friend's house to celebrate his birthday, only to find him waiting with a knife. But as the events of that terrible night have not happened, Jacqueline does not understand why John is behaving this way, and she is horrified when he threatens to kill her husband. John is torn with indecision; if he kills Victor, Jacqueline will live, but she will not understand why he has done this and he will be doomed to become the Master once more.
"Master" includes examples of:
- And I Must Scream: The Master inside of John Smith.
- Anthropomorphic Personification: Death.
- Ax-Crazy: The serial killer that plagues the town. Is Victor.
- Awful Truth: One of the real reasons the Doctor keeps trying to save the Master - in their childhood, he killed a bully to defend the Master. But when Death came to select him as her Champion, due to certain other parties having an interest in the Doctor specifically, she agreed to make a deal with the Doctor where the Master would get his memory of committing the crime instead. The Doctor never remembered this meeting until Death tells him about it, but this act at least partly helped push the Master into the spiral of madness he eventually became sunken into.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Death, if she's being honest when she says she never expected the Doctor to be corrupted and kill the Master anyway. Also the Master himself in a way, since the Doctor ultimately fails to reform him, although that's a given really.
- Bait-and-Switch: Torvik's death was actually caused by the Doctor.
- Batman Gambit: A failed one done by John Smith and Jacqueline to get the Doctor to tell them the truth about Smith's past.
- Because Destiny Says So: The reason why Death made her deal with the Doctor to transfer the memory of him killing Torvik to the Master. According to her the Doctor should've turned out to be the Master, but "others" had plans for him.
- Beat Still, My Heart
- Beneath the Mask
- Big "NO!"
- Break Her Heart to Save Her: At the very end, Dr. Smith pretends the Master has taken over earlier than expected, and verbally tears Jacqueline to pieces to try to get her to leave.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Discussed.
- Call-Back: The Doctor goes by the name of Vaughan Sutton.
- One that doubles as a Call-Forward; the Zagreus verse shows up.
- A rather subtle one: the murder on Gallifrey almost exactly mirrors the First Doctor's attempt to murder a caveman using a rock.
- Catchphrase Interruptus: "I am your master and you... ..."
- Character Development: The Seventh Doctor's is darkly lampshaded — he no longer plays the spoons, or mixes his metaphors. He's too busy destroying planets and toppling empires.
- Compelling Voice
- Continuity Nod: A few references to Bernice Summerfield.
- Deal with the Devil: The deal with Death; for ten years, the Master will be allowed to live the life he could have lived if Death had never tainted him, on the condition that the Doctor kill him at the end of that decade.
- Demonic Possession: There are tales that the first owner of the house was possessed by a demon and attacked the other residents, and the Master taking over Smith is presented as though he is a demon rather than the 'original' personality.
- Downer Ending: Not only does the audio end with the Doctor fully aware that the Master has returned, and now also aware of his own unintentional role in his enemy's origin, but Death kills an innocent child just because.
- Dramatic Thunder
- Evil Counterpart: This episode's premise is akin to "Human Nature"/"The Family of Blood" (originally a novel by Paul Cornell) except it's not the Doctor as John Smith...
- Evil Is Petty: Death kills a little girl at the end of the audio just because she can.
- Failure Is the Only Option: The Doctor acknowledges at the end that there was never really a chance for him to save the Master.
- For the Evulz: Dr. Smith and the Doctor have more than a few long discussions about the nature of evil, and how to comprehend an individual that, instead of a concrete motive for their actions, just was. The Doctor says he knew someone whose actions often fitted that description, long ago. The Master personally refutes simply being labeled "evil".The Master: Evil? I crave power, dominion, knowledge of the forbidden and secret. So much more than simply "evil".
- Foreshadowing: Jade sings the Zagreus poem, and wonders where it came from.
- Also the colour green being the colour of death.
- Framing Device: The tale is presented as a story the Doctor is telling an assassin.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: John Smith is disfigured but is a good man despite his twisted face. Of course, since he's really the Master, that doesn't say much...
- Go-to Alias: The Doctor meeting John Smith forces him to abandon this for himself, and he goes for Vaughn Sutton.
- The Grim Reaper: The maid Jade is actually a disguise for Death herself and she really likes her job.
- The Grotesque: While his disfigured face may at first unsettle, Dr John Smith is a respected and well-liked resident of Perfugium.
- Gypsy Curse: Smith reveals that there is a story that the house is haunted because the original owner killed people, and he partly brought his friends here to see if they noticed anything.
- Hate Plague: John's buried alter ego telepathically rouses the subdued aggression of his two friends; Jacqueline is uncharacteristically nasty to Jade, and Victor flies into a brief, paranoid rage.
- Healing Factor: The Doctor (as a Time Lord) heals from a lightning strike fairly quickly.
- Hearing Voices: A disembodied voice, seemingly inaudible to anyone else, taunts John.Death: If you can hear me, you're going to die...!!!
- Heroic BSoD: The Doctor when he learns he was supposed to have become the Master.
- If I Can't Have You…: Basically the reason Victor kills Jacqueline in the end.
- Invincible Boogeymen: Death. Both the Doctor and the Master find out the hard way that there's no way of opposing her in any way, shape or form.
- Internal Homage: To "Human Nature" by Paul Cornell (back when it was still just a novel, not yet a TV episode). The novel starred Seven as "John Smith", and featured a pet cat. This episode subverts both concepts quite horribly.
- Jack The Rip Off: Victor.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Dr. Smith. It's not exactly a secret who he was.
- Morality Chain: Jacqueline is one for John Smith, helping him resist just turning back into the Master straight away.
- Horribly subverted with her to Victor.
- Nightmare of Normality: The reason for John Smith's life in Perfugium. Needless to say, the Master is not happy at being deluded into believing himself an ordinary human being, and gives both Death and the Doctor an earful over it.
- Noodle Incident:The Doctor: "It's been a long time since I've been attacked by a book!"
- Obliviously Superpowered: Now known as "John Smith", the Master believes himself to be an ordinary human being and is able to make a life for himself without knowing that he's an immortal psychic alien. Unfortunately, John's telepathy is still active and under the control of the Master's dormant personality, so people around him begin to demonstrate odd behaviour, the result of his telepathy encouraging them to act on their darker impulses. Of course, John doesn't realize this, and initially attributes the plague of weird outbursts to the "curse" surrounding his house - up until the Doctor finally reveals the truth.
- Offering Another in Your Stead: In the finale, however, Death herself reveals that it was the Doctor who killed the bully to save the Master, and when Death came for him that night, he begged her to take his best friend instead. Death accepted his offer, erased the young Time Lord's memory of the incident, and turned the Master into the psychopath that the Doctor should have become.
- Orphaned PunchlineVictor: "So I said, fetch me EVERYTHING on the menu!"
- Ouija Board
- Out-of-Character Alert: The people are slowly turning more menacing inside the house by a presence.
- Poltergeist
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: I!! WILL!! NOT!! KILL!! AGGHHIIIIM!!"
- That Poor Cat: The original Human Nature novel introduced Wolsey, the Seventh Doctor's pet cat, who'd stay part of team TARDIS for years and years. In this episode, John Smith also has a cat. It's ripped open halfway through the story.
- Red-Flag Recreation Material: When the Doctor inspects John's collection of books, he finds it full of works on the human mind, collected by the ex-Master in an attempt to understand his own brain... but it's not until he finds The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde that he starts getting really concerned, though.
- The Reveal: Several, with episode four opening with three (just after the revelation of Jade's true identity); the Doctor is there to kill 'Smith', Victor is the one who's been committing the recent murders, and Jacqueline is in love with Smith rather than Victor.
- Sadistic Choice: In the end, John Smith is faced with one; he can either kill Victor or let Victor kill Jacqueline, knowing that killing Victor will set off his return to the Master.
- Say My Name
- The Scream
- Tomato in the Mirror: You know it's coming, but it can't be easy for the kind hearted Doctor Smith to find out he's actually a mass-murdering psychopath.
- Or for the Doctor to discover that he was supposed to be the Master, and the only reason he didn't become the mass-murdering psychopath was because he sold out his friend.
- Wham Line: Jade's reveal at the end of episode 3.Jade: Why, me sir? I'm Death.
- Out of the blue, you have Jade reciting the Zagreus poem while washing dishes...Jade: They say he sits inside your head, / they say he lives among the dead, / they say he eats you when you're—What an odd verse. / They say he sits inside your head...
- Out of the blue, you have Jade reciting the Zagreus poem while washing dishes...
- What You Are in the Dark: Smith recalls an incident where he didn't kill a thief who'd broken into his house as proof that he isn't a killer.
- Whole-Plot Reference: Very blatantly to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The others actually groan once Seven starts reciting from it. But as it turns out, the episode is like the novel in more ways than one.
- Xanatos Gambit: Death's plan; in the end, however things play out, someone will end up dead.
- You Can't Fight Fate: The Doctor wonders if he ever had a chance to save his old friend or if Death was always going to stop it.
- Your Worst Memory: The Doctor initially introduces the murder of the bully as the Master's worst memory, being the moment that made him the Master in the first place... except it turns out that it's actually the Doctor's worst memory. He killed the bully, then sold the Master to Death in order to escape becoming her servant- hence why he had the moment wiped from his mind until this adventure.
