BOOK OF LISTS: TOP FIVE MASTER STORIES - NUMBER FOUR

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AN ENTRY FROM THE NEW SERIES 

Aside from the Daleks, New Who hasn't always been entirely kind to villains and monsters from its rich past. More times than others, some huge errors of judgement were made on how to bring them into the 21st Century. 

I do feel Moff did a better job with them than RTD. The Sontarans are a great example of this. Sontaran Stratagem/Poison Sky, to me, went really South. Stratagem showed promise but Sky just crapped the bed! I especially hated watching Sontarans fall from mere bullets. To me, they should be immune to such weapons. Unless, of course, you can put a bullet in the probic vent! 

Moff's desire to take a single Sontaran and make him into comic relief did ruffle some feathers with fandom. But, overall, it was an improvement over what we got when they were in RTD's hands. This is the pattern I tend to see. RTD doesn't do well with Classic Who baddies. Moff slowly cleans things up.  

Again, I will defend quite a bit of the treatment Davis gave to the Daleks. But with most other recurring enemies, I didn't really start liking them much til the Head Writer changed hands. Even then, it still took time for some of them to improve. 

While many fans can't seem to stop spewing vitriol over how bad a writer they think Chibnall is, he does seem to get one compliment from many. He handles the return of an old foe better than any other Head Writer, so far. I tend to agree with that. Which is why the incredible Spyfall - Part 1 and 2 makes it onto this list. 

REVELATION OF THE MASTER

Some of the biggest points Spyfall scores is that super-awesome ending to Part One. Planting the Master secretly into the plot and not revealing his presence til a crucial moment is a much-loved trademark of any great Master story. It's been done with varying levels of success, of course. Even just a few seasons previously, finally letting us know who Missy is at the end of Dark Water was a ridiculously awesome sequence. The way Michelle Gomez leans in conspiratorially and whispers: "Couldn't very well keep calling myself the Master, now, could I?" (or words to that effect) was utterly brilliant.

And yet, somehow, Sacha Dhawan manages to top that. You'd think no one could do better than finally revealing that Time Lords can gender-swap but I really did find my jaw hitting the floor that little bit harder as Dhawan repeats "Spy ... Master" with better emphasis. There is just something about the execution of this revelation that makes me believe there will never be a better one. 

I think it has a lot to do with how well we believe in the Master's false identity throughout the rest of the episode. We do like "O". He's a nice little recluse who seems to be really helping the Doctor along in this latest adventure. We're absolutely positive he's one of the Good Guys. So when the rug gets pulled out from under us, we hit that floor all-the-harder. The Master does an amazing job of hiding in plain sight throughout this episode. As he finally gives himself away, it's almost like a punch in the face!    

The fact that his house is floating through the air beside the airplane makes the whole moment even cooler!    

MORE THAN JUST REVELATION

Of course, an awesome Reveal is not enough to truly give us a great Master Story.  There needs to be more. 

Spyfall gives us an excellent lead-up episode to that climactic cliffhanger. This is not always an easy thing to accomplish. There have been any number of episodes in both New and Classic Who where the plot really wasn't delivering anything great until the Big Reveal happened. If the surprise is well-executed, we forget the unwieldy episode we just sat through. But this isn't always the case. Sometimes, it's just a bad episode with a nice twist at the end. 

Not so with Part One of Spyfall, though. The sinister plot of the Kasaavin is quite compelling. They're  a very interesting race with an ominous presence throughout the first part. I love how visually simple they are, too. I've always been impressed by how Doctor Who can create so much with so little. The modern-day version doesn't engage in this quite as much, of course, because it has a better budget. It can go a bit flashier if it wants to. But a creature like the Kassavin almost feels like a callback to the show's roots. Where they could create things cheaply but still made them effective. The Raston Warrior Robot illustrates this sort of idea quite well. He was, essentially, a man in a silly helmet and a unitard shifting around through cheesy film editing. But damn was it cool when he took out all those Cybermen! The Kasaavin embody that same principle. They look like men in bowler hats with an over-exposed lighting effect. But they're also really menacing. The overall effect that they have in the plot really keeps you engaged. This is a great story even before we find out the Master is behind it all. 

All the actual spy stuff in Part One also contributes greatly to its success. There's just a lot of fun being had with gadgets and secret infiltration and all the other tropes that make stories of this genre so enjoyable. The comedy that's created out of the fact that most of the characters trying to be spies are not at all qualified to do so is a nice touch. I love it when Ryan and Graham spaz out over all the cool spy gear in the MI6 office. 

With the spooky Kasaavin and the cool spy theme, Part One carries itself very well towards that amazing climax. 

BUT WHAT ABOUT AFTER REVEAL? 

Of course, what happens after the Big Reveal can be just as tricky. Utopia, for instance, created a totally awesome return for the Master into the New Series. Sound of Drums and Last of the Time Lords didn't really maintain the standard. Last, in particular, actually seemed to upset quite a few fans with its deus ex machina ending. Something similar happens in the Classic Series with Time Flight (although, truth be told, the whole story seems to be in a lot of trouble!). There are times when the Reveal makes writing the story very challenging. Your audience is saying: "All right! The Master is in this! This is going to kick ass!" So now, of course, you really have to make sure your story kicks ass. If it doesn't, the viewers notice this all the more because they had such high expectations. 

This is not a problem for Part 2 of Spyfall. We get all the stuff that makes a fight between the Doctor and the Master great. The rivals do all sorts of things to put obstacles in each others' paths. This creates a variety of fun twists and turns in the plot. For good stretches, the Master even seems to have the Upper Hand. The Doctor must then come up with something truly clever to defeat him. 

This is done especially well since the Doctor is deprived of her TARDIS for most of the episode. There have been any number of occasions where the two Time Lords have used their time machines against each other as weapons (Time Monster, Logopolis, Time Flight just to name a few). It's always kinda cool when this happens. But it can also feel like a bit of a cop-out, sometimes. Rather than relying on the Doctor's resourcefulness, the writer just has him jump in his TARDIS and do some piece of technobabble with it to save the day. I love that, in Spyfall, the Doctor is stranded in the past without her handy time vessel. So she has to figure out something clever with what she has on hand to take him down. 

And she accomplishes just that. Getting Noor to send the false message and then purposely confronting the Master to remove his perception filter was just the sort of intelligent solution that I was looking for. Up until that moment, the Doctor really seemed to have her back against the wall. Once more, however, she's able to work with what she has to defeat her enemy. This, to me, is what a good Doctor/Master fight should be all about. The two try to outmaneuver each other in a battle of wits. Eventually, the Doctor proves that she's that little bit smarter. It's a great plot structure that really makes Part Two shine. 

It's also really cool the way the Master then has to hide in history til he can reach that specific moment where he can re-join the story! 

SOME OTHER STUFF THAT I REALLY LIKE

So we've talked about all the important things that the story does in and around the Big Reveal - is there anything else about the tale that I like? 

Of course there is! 

The dynamic between the Master and the Doctor in the New Series was quite peculiar for a while. I'm not even really complaining about it - it was cool. But it is nice to see a very succinct shift in the way the two rival Time Lords deal with each other now that Dhawan is at the helm. 

What exactly am I talking about? I'll explain better... 

When Simm was playing the Master, he seemed more intent upon humiliating the Doctor. Or, at the very least, tormenting him. Last of the Time Lords demonstrates this best. For most of the episode, the Master has the Doctor completely defeated. In the Classic Series, when the Master has this kind of advantage, he tries to kill the Doctor. But this was not the case in Last. He kept the Doctor alive for an entire year - forcing him to watch as he and the Toclofane set about enslaving humanity. 

As Missy takes over, the dynamic becomes even weirder. The Doctor's greatest enemy actually becomes his friend. In a few stories, she even sets out to rescue him. In the end, she chooses to become "good" and wants to join the Doctor at his side as he takes on the Cybermen that are trying to invade a solar farm on the Mondasian colony ship. It's something we never expected to see happen between these two bitter rivals. And, quite honestly, it was amazing. 

Again, I've actually really enjoyed seeing these new sorts of relationships going on with these last few incarnations. But, having said that, I do love seeing the Master back to just trying to kill the Doctor. It is great to see that level of hatred and rage burning again in the character. He is emulating Simm's Master a bit. They both have that high level of manic energy that makes them just a bit comical in places. But Dhawan seems that little bit more menacing. Most of the time, he is quite ready to kill the Doctor. Which takes us back to the Classic Series Days - where the Master was always out to end the life of his greatest foe. It's good to see that "edge" back to the character. 

Another element to the story that I am quite happy to see are the various confrontation scenes that take place. The first one during the actual Big Reveal is, of course, quite stupendous. But the one that takes place at the inventors' convention is equally intense (what a different connotation there is when the Master gets the Doctor to kneel before him!). Even the brief psychic link that they form after the four taps on the telegraph is really well-performed. 

But then, of course, we get to the Eiffel Tower. The reference to Logopolis is a nice touch. A great way to start things off. But then the whole moment just seems to get better and better with every line of  dialogue. This is how a confrontation between two bitter rivals should flow. Particularly as we get to that awesome revelation that the whole meeting was just a trick. The Doctor takes advantage of her enemy's need to gloat over his victories in person to take him down. It's great stuff, really. I loved Ainley so much because he always did his confrontation scenes so well with whatever Doctor he was playing off of. We're seeing a lot of that same vibe going on, here, too. 

On a more superficial level, I adore that the Tissue Compressor is back! I always loved that thing and have missed it greatly. A laser screwdriver just wasn't the same! 

CONCLUSION 

In the end, Spyfall's greatest strength lies in those climactic final minutes of Part One. That really is what propels the story into making it onto this list. But it is also so much more than that. It is a genuinely solidly-written tale that brings us back to those wonderful Anthony Ainley days that I loved so much.  The Master is completely unbalanced and highly intent upon murdering his greatest enemy. He's also using one of the coolest weapons ever as he does so! 

It's these various factors that make me love Dhawan again as he returns at the end of the season. While his second story is considerably more controversial among fandom, I still love it. It doesn't quite make it into my Top Five (or maybe it does - we've still got three more stories to go!) but it's also another great Master Adventure penned by the much-maligned Chris Chibnall. 

As far I can see, Chibnall "gets" the Master better than any other Head Writer for the New Series has. While I hate to sound "Trumpian", he's made the Master great again! 

The Countdown will continue shortly. See you all again soon...