Official Synopsis: “The Time War rages around Arcking - a planet serving as a sanctuary for the sick and injured. But Arcking is protected by a mysterious, powerful force: a force the Master will stop at nothing to harness…even if time itself is against him."
Summary:
Doctors Keller and Violet are treating the patients of a recent medi-scout crash. Violet wonders why there would even be any fighting on a planet this remote, but Keller and Major Dezra are more cynical. There are three survivors of the left: Cole Jarnish and Jen Karmell. The impaled Jen is written off as a lost cause by Violet, who wants to give her pain-killers and treat her as hospice. Keller admonishes her for deciding what lives are unnecessary and insists on treating everyone they can. However, Karmell dies on the operating table and Keller has to console a grieving Violet, who sees the woman's death as "unfair." After their talk, an incoming transmission goes planet-wide. It's The Daleks. They want The Master and Arcking will be exterminated within one solar cycle if he isn't turned over to them. Keller is confident that they're protected but not that this "Master" is, fully expecting Arcking's commanders to hand him over. Violet hopes otherwise, for the Daleks will no doubt destroy the planet anyway.
While the Daleks complain about the anomaly draining their weapons systems, one of the survivors wakes up: Cole Jarnish, the pilot of the ill-fated medi-scout craft. Cole displays guilt over being the only survivor but Doctor Keller is quick to play up Cole's quick thinking and tells the boy he needs to move on and keep living. Keller then explains that time passes differently in Arcking due to a temporal anomaly that messes with its gravity, creating a "shield" that according to Cole is very convenient for a hospital planet. Keller thinks the anomaly may hold the key to ending the Time War but insists Cole get rest instead of wistfully analyzing the idea; for Keller has somewhere he really needs to be.
The Daleks detect The Master's TARDIS and begin to mobilize. Keller (IE: The Master) watches the raging Time War from "splendid isolation," debating whether or not Arcking is even worth his time. Violet contacts Keller and wonders why he's been gone for so long. The Master re-assures her that he simply needed some space and he'll return to the fold shortly. After the transmission ends, The Master reveals that he's looking for something and after flicking some switches about, he finds something "interesting." Meanwhile, Doctor Violet meets with Cole, concerned for his well-being. Cole has seemingly taken Doctor Keller's words to heart, working out in the gym to "get on with" his life in case The Daleks show up. Violet is surprised, given Keller wasn't supposed to tell him about any of that. Cole reveals a pain in his chest and Violet scans him, ordering him to return to bed.
Elsewhere, The Major approaches Doctor Keller and admonishes him for taking a grav-suit onto the surface without authorization. Keller re-assures her he has no death-wish, though this doesn't stop her from waxing on about one of her old med-students taking a grav-suit to the surface as a dare, only for the Time War visibly raging around them to drive them into a month's worth of madness and repelling them from medicine. However, The Major came to ask for advice as opposed to preach, wondering what they should do. The Master takes control of the conversation and confronts The Major - convinced something powerful and ancient is protecting the planet, preventing a Dalek invasion and artificially extending the lives of Arcking's inhabitants. (He may have hypothetically injected lethal compounds into patients with nary a complaint) As he says they have the advantage, one of their facilities is breached by three weakened Dalek scouts seeking a way in. The Daleks realize their weapons are still no good and enact the "Emergency Destruction Strategy."
Doctor Keller reveals to The Major that he isn't a doctor and initially came to Arcking due to all of the stories surrounding it. After all, Arcking is a fixed point in time and he believes the Daleks are after this source of energy. Keller and The Major need to find it before the Daleks do. The Major is skeptical, but Keller waxes on about how she would be remembered as a peace-maker if they find it. She should trust him implicitly, for after all...
...he is The Master they're looking for.
Major Dezra tells him to prove it and he does so, taunting the powerless Dalek drones from a shielded airlock - who quickly name-drop him before he leaves. The Major agrees to keep silent about Keller's true identity and even offers him an orbital skimmer ready to fly within the hour. The Master also needs one more thing: Cole Jarnish, who readily agrees to help Doctor Keller fly the skimmer despite his recuperating state. Doctor Violet protests but acquiesces upon being given an invitation to join the two on their flight to keep tabs on him. After final preparations, they're off. It isn't long before The Daleks catch wind of them, throwing themselves right at the ship in an effort to ground it. Cole manages to shake them off only to be intercepted upon breaking the upper atmosphere. Cole has a lapse of confidence once he realizes the only way to shake the creatures off is to go through a potentially ship-destroying cloud. The Master reminds him that he's an excellent pilot and that he simply needs to obey his instincts...Obey him! The Rousing Speech works and they safely make it through. The Daleks however, do not. They retreat instead, expecting The Master to return to Station 12.The Daleks transmit another threat to Arcking reminding them they now have one solar hour left to deliver The Master. The Major tries to track the skimmer but the computer loses trace of them. The trio soon land at their destination and start feeling better the closer they are to their target. The Master feels its telepathic field and before long the energy reveals itself:
"WE ARE THE HEART OF ARCKING."
The Master quickly realizes that the Heart of Arcking is a fusion of many temporal anomalies into a sentient form. Said anomalies begin to weaken to the Daleks' delight, who quickly muster attack-forces to destroy the planet's stations once the planet's shield goes down. While Arcking gathers what little counter-force it's able, the Heart of Arcking reveals The Master's identity to Violet and Cole - who react with the appropriate shock at Keller being the cause of their woes. The Master quickly counters that The Daleks would've killed them all at some point regardless and that if anything, the Time Lords sending him here to protect the planet saved Cole's life. The Heart notes a change of heart within The Master, who saved many lives during the many times he's lived on Arcking. The Master is very quick to shoot that notion down - stating that he never meant to help anyone that infiltration and exploitation was always his goal. The Heart isn't as certain and is convinced he's Becoming the Mask, even predicting that The Master will make an attempt to change the universe for the better. The Master uses their mission's urgency as an excuse to run away from the Heart, intent on taking it another time. Cole forces him to stay, causing a reaction that has the Daleks on-edge. The Master wakes Cole, incensed that the boy's haste has anchored The Heart into this singular point in time, ensuring its (and the planet's) destruction.
Arcking's stations begin to fall. Major Dezra stays in her station instead of evacuating with everyone else, taunting her Dalek attackers that they'll never win. However the Daleks do win back their weapons, shooting her. Aborad the skimmer, Cole makes an attempt to contact Station 12, but it's compromised, the communication revealing their position to The Daleks. The Master proposes they land where they are and make their way by foot. Violet thinks he's mad, but they have no choice. Upon landing, The Master begins heading another way. Violet is disgusted that he'd run away and leave them all to die but Cole chooses to follow him. He tries to get Violet to come with but she can't: She's too frightened and her suits frozen. Cole tries to help, but Violet is shot by an approaching Dalek and he's forced to run. He catches up to The Master, who reacts to Violet's death with apathy. Cole forces himself into the TARDIS to The Master's chagrin and the two manage to leave just as The Daleks fire on the planet.
The Master warns Cole not to watch the planet's demise - H doesn't want to know how many lives were lost. The Master is more interested in confronting Cole over his impulsive destruction of The Heart. Cole was supposed to die down there but lived to tell the tale. He's "The Man That Shouldn't Be."
The Master ends the tale with a sudden stroke of confidence. Arcking was a pawn to be sacrificed to "save the king."
Long live the king.
The Good Master contains examples of:
- Awful Truth: The Master delivers one to Violet after a patient dies under her care.The Master: When things are brutal, they are most often true. A hard lesson but one worth learning.
- Becoming the Mask: 'Doctor Keller' is quite a good doctor, encouraging his assistant to save Cole's life when she's ready to give up on him and later motivating Cole with a bedside chat. The Heart of Arcking accuses The Master of this, noting that he's saved many lives as Doctor Keller and he isn't even sure what he thinks of the planet anymore. To the Heart, the Time Lords sent him here as a Secret Test of Character. He's less than amused at the thought.
- Big Good: The Heart of Arcking, who's power has been protecting the planet for ages past its expiration date.
- Bottled Heroic Resolve: A variation when the Master uses his hypnotic powers to give Cole the confidence and focus to pilot them through a Dalek attack fleet.
- Downer Ending: Nobody gets what they want, not even The Master. Arcking is destroyed by the Daleks and Cole is now in The Master's very greedy hands.
- Empathic Weapon: Well "grav-suit," but same idea. Arcking's gravity suits resist anyone not in control of their mental faculties (IE: The panicked or the desperate). Violet's inability to keep calm causes her suit to malfunction and her to be shot by a Dalek.
- Evil Gloating: The Master purposefully taunts an entire Dalek squadron from behind an airlock just to prove to The Major that he is who he says he is.
- Evil vs. Evil: Once more The Master and The Daleks are fighting over the fate of a planet they normally would not care about.
- Foreshadowing: The Heart of Arcking outright states that one day The Master will choose of his own will to make the universe a better place.
- Genius Loci: The Heart of Arcking is a conglomeration of various temporal anomalies fused into a sentient energy-source. It is a literal Timey-Wimey Ball.
- Going Down with the Ship: The Major stays behind on her doomed station instead of evacuating with everyone else. The Daleks make short work of her once they find her.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: An old medical student took a gravity-suit to the planet's surface on a dare, only to be driven mad by the Forever War visibly raging outside of the planet's bounds. They were in a psychiatric ward for almost a month and swore off of ever practicing medicine. The sheer amount of death they saw in ten minutes made them question what the point was.
- Hazy-Feel Turn: The Heart of Arcking certainly thinks The Master's on the verge of one. The very notion scares the Master into nearly abandoning the artifact completely.
- Hearing Voices: Mid-way into the drama, The Master starts hearing echoed thoughts of those immediately around him. This is later revealed to be an effect of The Heart of Arcking's manifestation.
- Hope Spot: Much like Gardezza before it, Arcking has a mysterious force protecting it from a full-scale invasion - in this case being an anomalous gravitational field that renders Daleks borderline-immobile and drains their weapons systems. Cole interfacing with the Heart removes this protection.
- Irony: The Master berates Violet for calling a patient's death "unfair" but hardly thinks the destruction of the best part of the Styxian Nebula is fair.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The Master attempts to run away from The Heart of Arcking in the hopes of harnessing it at a later point in time. Cole forces him to remain and makes contact with the artifact....which weakens the field protecting Arcking and allows the Daleks to destroy the planet.
- Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Major Dezra is alarmed when "Doctor Keller" suggests he's Not That Kind of Doctor, but the Master brushes off the idea that he can't do something as simple as surgery.
- Resurrective Immortality: The Master theorizes that the force protecting the planet also prevents people from dying on Arcking unless it's actually their time to go. He tested this theory by giving several patients a lethal injection, to no effect on their health.
- Spanner in the Works: Cole's attempt to interface with the Heart of Arcking prevents both The Master and The Daleks from harnessing its power. This is also what triggers the world's destruction.
- Suicide Attack: The weaponless Daleks resort to throwing themselves at Cole's orbital skimmer in a desperate attempt to kill The Master. They fail.
- Survivor Guilt: Cole is suffering from it, being the only survivor of the squadron shot down by The Daleks. The Master is all too happy to pep Cole up as Doctor Keller but once the façade comes tumbling down and Cole wrecks his plans, he reminds Cole he should've died on the planet instead of jumping into the TARDIS.
- Time Loop: The Heart of Arcking implies The Master has lived out the past few days a multitude of times in his attempts to discover it.
- Timey-Wimey Ball: Time in Arcking passes very differently from the rest of the universe for reasons unknown even to The Master. So many temporal anomalies have coalesced into a "shield" that protects the planet (and is implied to be artificially extending the lives of its inhabitants). Said "shield" is the result of The Heart of Arcking, a literal Timey-Wimey Ball that serves as a Fusion Dance of all of these anomalies into a sentient "heart."
- Trauma Button: Doctor Violet is worried The Master pressuring Cole into piloting their expedition craft will press on Cole's Survivor Guilt.
- Weirdness Censor: The Master spends some time watching the destruction of the Time War play out from one of the stations, commenting on the destruction of a favored sector like a spectator. Two minutes later, it's revealed that Arcking treats this visual as a Brown Note and one medical student outright went mad from seeing ten minutes of it.
- World-Healing Wave: Arcking has been covered by one for a very long time, the anomalous force protecting it extending the lives of its occupants.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: The Heart of Arcking attempts to stoke this in The Master by reminding him of the lives he saved whilst assuming the Doctor Keller persona. He's quick to shoot it down; stating he was only infiltrating the planet to learn its secrets. Though, his voice lacks is usual confidence.
