Master Plan? The Mysteries of Missy
Guest contributor Ryan O’ Connor ponders the unanswered questions regarding the Master’s latest incarnation.
You know, I was just beginning to think that the old news well for Series 9 was running a little dry. Trust Doctor Who to pull one on us when we least expect it, with the recent announcement that Michelle Gomez’s delightfully-maniacal incarnation of the Master (last seen being obliterated by the Cyber-Brig in Death in Heaven) will be making her return to plague the Doctor much sooner than previously suspected, in Series 9’s opener no less!
Clearly intent on opening in grandiose fashion, little is currently known about the two-part episode, but so sudden a return does get one thinking, doesn’t it? Very little has been revealed to us about this new Master yet, such as the circumstances of her escape from Gallifrey, how she’s getting about, how did she end up allying with/taking over a small segment of the Cybermen, and quite a bit more besides!
In any case, seeing as Missy herself seems in no hurry to provide us with any answers, I thought I’d reflect a bit on the mysteries yet to be explained to us and examine what the future may hold for everyone’s favourite villainous Time Lord-turned-Lady! To wit, let’s begin!
How did the Master regenerate?
This question and the next are the big ones in my opinion, as far as most people are concerned! Interestingly enough, I have had the question of whether or not our latest Master is in fact our latest Master posed (after all, it’s been alluded to that at least one of the many pre-Delgado incarnations was a woman), but I believe evidence from the Series 8 finale suggests fairly definitively that Gomez’s Master indeed regenerated from John Simm’s incarnation. This, of course, puts her in a rather interesting conundrum and brings up two queries: how did she regenerate, and how did she escape Gallifrey’s current situation?
The first is a rather pressing issue, as the last time we saw the Master in The End of Time, he was something not quite Time Lord, stuck in a rapidly-degenerating body that caused him all manner of problems. Given that he didn’t simply regenerate his way out of that unsatisfactory situation, it seems certain that his body at that time was merely incapable of doing so (I suppose the ability to fire lightning from your hands and leap over buildings comes at a price!).
How, then, did the regeneration into Gomez’s incarnation take place? This, I suspect (or at least hope) is something that will be answered in time, as the Series 8 finale told us only what we needed to know at that point, all the better to keep the element of mystery intact. That said, were I to hazard a guess at it (and that is after all the point of this article), it’s a known fact that the Master has burned through at least one full set of regenerations already. He has attempted to steal those of the Doctor or any other Time Lord that might be handier on numerous occasions, and is likely quite adept at finding new ones at this stage!
Last we saw, the Master was driving Rassilon back to Gallifrey by way of lightning blasts (an effective method if ever there was one), and the two were sucked back into the time lock presumably very shortly before Gallifrey itself was sealed away in a pocket universe. I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to assume that the Master, given his unique powers at that point, would have had a relatively easy time of it either locating a new source of regenerations on Gallifrey or, somewhat more grimly, taking them by force, perhaps even from Rassilon himself.
How did the Master escape Gallifrey?
The second question, while no less important, is perhaps somewhat easier to make guesswork of. If anyone in the universe can escape a situation as well as the Doctor can, it’s the Master. Like the most persistent of infestations, she simply cannot be kept down for good, she’ll always find a way to return. This particular return, however, carries with it the added complications of Gallifrey’s current state, trapped away and inaccessible.
In this case at least, there are several potential ways out. The first, and a fan-favourite theory, is that her escape occurred during the events of The Day of the Doctor, specifically during the scene where the Doctors enter the Black Archive by way of their temporally-linked painting. There is a rather interesting moment in that scene wherein a certain questionable hand seems to follow Clara out of the painting…while I’m not sure I follow that line of thinking and it could merely be somewhat-awkward positioning making it look strange, it’s definitely a good contender (after all, if Capaldi’s Doctor made an early appearance…).
A second point of escape, and the one I’d jumped to quite quickly, was during the Siege of Trenzalore, specifically when the great crack between worlds opened up and granted the Eleventh Doctor a new regeneration cycle. It seems likely that something (or someone) else could have slipped through at the time…and wouldn’t it be a delightful circumstance if the situation that led to the Twelfth Doctor’s birth also inadvertently provided him with his oldest enemy once again? This question links on to the next one…
The Master’s TARDIS
Regarding the Master’s form of transport. A legion of Cybermen and the technology to build them doesn’t carry itself around, after all. The Doctor himself alludes to it briefly over the events of Series 8’s finale, idly referencing the notion that she must have a TARDIS somewhere about. The question of where she could have gotten a TARDIS is easily answerable, given that the Master is an excellent time capsule thief and she was escaping from the planet where practically all TARDISes in existence were at that point to boot.
As for its whereabouts during the Series 8 finale, who knows? Personally, I was inclined to believe it was the cathedral at one point (the inside and outside didn’t quite seem to match up) but that’s probably just me. It seems likely that we’ll see it when she makes her return in Series 9, at the very least!
The Master’s ‘Death’
The final question that needs addressing, and the most immediately pertinent regarding a return, of course, is Missy’s somewhat-explosive fate at the hands (well, blaster) of the Cyber-converted Brigadier at the climax of Death in Heaven. For any ordinary villain, this would be a rather conclusive send-off, but death has only ever been but a temporary annoyance for the Master!
The current prevailing theory here is that she was merely uploaded to the Nethersphere like everyone else who had recently died, and though the device had uploaded all of its many occupants already, the chances of the Master not having a failsafe (ideally several) in play are slim to none by my reckoning!
Alternatively, it’s very possible that a seemingly-innocuous device from earlier on in Series 8 could play a part in her survival. ‘Shredders’, introduced in Time Heist, are teleportation devices that seem, by all accounts, to obliterate their targets completely, while in reality they merely teleport said target to a pre-arranged (and presumably safe) location. It’s very possible that one of Missy’s countermeasures for her Cybermen turning rogue was the simple addition of a shredder to their weaponry, a shredder that would be fired should they turn their guns on her…fanciful thinking, perhaps, but it would make for a rather neat Chekhov’s gun, wouldn’t it?
In any case, those are merely some of the questions to be answered when the Doctor and the Master next clash. Or not, of course, we may well be kept waiting! The newest incarnation of the Master has a rather sadistic streak indeed, and just might dangle the answers over our heads for a while longer (perhaps if we say something nice…). Everything I’ve discussed is probably wrong, naturally, and it’ll likely be something that none of us have thought of, but that’s Doctor Who for you, eh?
I’m sure anyone reading this has several billion other suggestions and theories, and I’d love to see them in the comments! For our guaranteed answer, though, unfortunately we must wait until the autumn…
