Doctor/Master
| Pairing | |
|---|---|
| Pairing: | Doctor/Master |
| Alternative name(s): | Master/Doctor, Best Enemies, Thoschei, a variety of more specific names for particular "subsets" of the pairing |
| Gender category: | M/M Slash, M/F Het, F/F Femslash |
| Fandom: | Doctor Who |
| Canonical?: | Semi-canonical, kissed twice |
| Prevalence: | Popular, but varies depending on which incarnations of the Doctor and the Master are involved |
| Archives: | The Prydonian (as of 2023, imported to AO3 through Open Doors) |
| Other: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Doctor/Master is an enemyslash pairing in the Doctor Who fandom between The Doctor, the show's protagonist, and The Master, a reoccurring antagonist. The ship stems from fan reactions to The Doctor and The Master's in-universe relationship. In the show, The Doctor and The Master are presented as enemies that nonetheless retain mutual respect for each other, and once had a much more positive relationship together in the pairs' backstory, though the nature of the latter remains somewhat ambiguous, especially given the show's extensive expanded universe.
Due to Doctor Who's regeneration concept, both The Doctor and The Master have separate incarnations with different personalities and gender identities. This plot element has resulted in Doctor/Master serving as an umbrella to multiple ships. Additionally, the ship spans multiple categories; initially starting with slash ships, Doctor/Master now also includes het and femslash ships. Ships in the umbrella vary in popularity, with slash being the most common.
Canon
The Master first appeared in 1971, was originally conceived as "Professor Moriarty to the Doctor's Sherlock Holmes", and was intended to provide the earth-bound Third Doctor with an ongoing archenemy/equal. Jon Pertwee (the Third Doctor) and Roger Delgado (the first Master) were personal friends, and perhaps it was their chemistry that caused their characters' on-screen interaction to escalate into a much more complicated "friendly enemies" dynamic.
The Master is the second-longest-established secondary character in Doctor Who fandom (after the Brigadier) and, as of New Who, he has known more regenerations of the Doctor than any other person. His relationship with the Doctor evolved as the show went on, but many factors remained constant. As well as having them regularly working together, interacting like an old married couple, and never trying very hard to truly defeat each other, the show included deliberate references to a backstory between the two. In the Third Doctor serial The Sea Devils, it is established that they were in Time Lord Academy together. This childhood relationship has been widely expanded on since, both by paracanon and in the new series.
Stories set during the Doctor and Master's youth, while they were children in the Academy, and before they broke up the first time (if indeed they were ever together) are usually labeled Theta/Koschei. Theta Sigma or Thete is the Doctor's canonical school nickname, and the name Koschei, which fandom uses for the young Master, derives from Slavic folklore, by way of the New Adventures novels.
The show has historically been ambiguous about its lead character's sexuality, largely for Doylist production reasons. Due to this ambiguity, it's textually possible, and some would say rewarding, to read the show and its paracanon though a pairing-related interpretive lens. The series has gotten much less ambiguous about Time Lord romantic orientations since the 1996 TV movie, notably in the subsequent range of Eighth Doctor Adventures novels and in the 2005 series revival, which all had the Doctor kissing his friends regardless of gender.
Context and History
Fandom appreciation for the possibilities of this classic enemyslash relationship dates back to at least the early 1980s. The idea that Time Lords can change sex/gender during regeneration had been explored in various novels and audio stories during the Wilderness Years. This also made its way into the core TV series, as it was gradually established that gender is fluid on Gallifrey, and that gender isn't a factor for Time Lord attraction. Many of the show's writers, including showrunners Russell T. Davies and Steven Moffat, are vocal fans of the Doctor/Master pairing and as a result, many interactions between the two characters (both on TV and in non-televised stories) include deliberate hints toward the ship.
A pairing involving two long-lived Time Lords is unique in that, within Doctor/Master, there are many, many other sub-pairings involving different versions of The Doctor and The Master. The Pairing Table (now outdated) on Livejournal community Best_enemies includes 495 different possible pairings (more than 70 of which have been written).
Novel-length fanfic can include several different iterations of the pairing, but most focus on a single pair. Due to variations in their amount of shared screen time (and arguably the attractiveness of the actors playing the characters), certain parings are more focused on by fandom than others. Ten/Simm and Twelve/Gomez are the most popular pairings, but Three/Delgado and Five/Ainley are not far behind.
Eras
Three Era
The master was introduced during Three's run, and their dynamic established the basis for many future iterations.
Four Era
After Delgado’s tragic death put an end to all plans of an episode in which the Master would have been killed off for good, the Master didn’t appear on-screen until 1976, when his character was reimagined completely.
The new incarnation of the Master – played by Peter Pratt in The Deadly Assassin and by Geoffrey Beevers in The Keeper of Traken, as well as the Big Finish audio dramas – had passed his final regeneration and was now determined to stay alive. Thus, the dynamic between the Doctor and the Master, as well as the Master’s motivation, is largely determined by survival.
In The Deadly Assassin, the Master seems truly determined to kill the Doctor for the first time in the show’s story; still, in spite of his primitive desire to survive, some moments show a feeling more complex than simple hatred. He retains Delgado!Master’s irrational habit of using the Doctor in his plans without any apparent need for that.
In The Keeper of Traken, we see the Master’s fondness for the Doctor morph into a twisted desire to possess as he plans to steal the Doctor’s body. His first move when he gets the Doctor under his hypnotic influence is to make him kneel for a drawn-out display of control; and as he prepares to carry out his scheme, he can’t resist a chance to play with the Doctor’s curls. Even so, he finds it “irrational” to destroy his enemy and intends to make the Doctor a prisoner of his TARDIS’s library forever.
His plan fails and he possesses the body of Tremas (the father of the Doctor’s future companion, Nyssa) instead. No longer plagued with a fight for survival, Ainley!Master resembles Delgado!Master much more than his predecessor, and starts off trying to take over the universe, accidentally destroying a third of it instead and teaming up with the Doctor to save what's left. Although the Doctor is preoccupied with the premonitions of his death, they’re soon bickering and working together happily to avoid the total destruction of the universe. Anthony Ainley and Tom Baker were old friends, and their characters have the same physical closeness: they occupy each other’s personal space almost constantly.
Unfortunately, their collaboration ends in betrayal as the Master backstabs the Doctor again, tries to blackmail the remaining part of the universe into surrendering to his power, and the Doctor gives his life to stop him, regenerating into his fifth self in the process.
Five Era
The Fifth Doctor interacts with a Master played by Anthony Ainley, deemed the Ainley!Master.
Six Era
The Doctor encounters the Master only twice in his very short run. In Mark of the Rani, they run into an old school ‘friend,’ the Rani, who could not be less interested in the Master’s obsessive preoccupation with the Doctor, or in the Doctor’s own need to bicker with the Master. The Doctor then encounters the Master while on trial for his life at the hands of the Valeyard, an evil version of himself. The Master intervenes on his current Doctor’s behalf, which is interesting because Delgado!Master was so interested in the possibility of a Doctor who shared his moral vision of the universe. The Master claims he’s intervening to save the Doctor’s life not because he doesn’t want to see the Doctor dead, but because he cannot countenance a rival.
While Six may appear to actively dislike the Master (shouting criticism whenever he gets a chance), this should be understood in context i.e. he criticises Peri, his companion.
Seven Era
The only Seven era story to feature the Master finds him luring the Doctor in order to save himself, before making many virus-induced remarks about animal urges. By the end of the serial, the Master's fixation with the Doctor has become an urge to hunt him. They fight an unusually physical battle as the dying world rips apart underneath them.
Seven and the Master also interact in the The TV Movie (see Eight Era), in which his final request upon execution is for the Doctor to carry his ashes back to Gallifrey. At this point, the Master somehow becomes a gelatinous snake (known affectionately in fandom as Goosnake!Master), and sabotages the Doctor’s TARDIS in flight, an action that leads (indirectly) to Seven’s death.
Seven is in some ways the Doctor most like the Master. Unlike most Doctors, who are relatively impulsive, Seven plots, devising at a distance huge, game-changing schemes that only come to fruition incrementally. He’s willing to make moral decisions he shunned as a younger man. This conception of his role in the universe has much in common with the Master’s philosophy, but while Seven eliminates threats to the universe left and right, he never tries to get rid of the Master, who, despite his arguable ineffectiveness, is consistently treated as one of the series’ most formidable villains. Additionally, their admiration-shading-into-infatuation is pronounced, open and mutual in Survival.
In UNIT: Dominion, the Alex Macqueen incarnation of the Master tries to merge with this Doctor, so that they can become a single cosmic being together.
Eight Era
Following Seven’s death in The TV Movie, Eight goes on to battle the Master, who wants to ‘take his body’. At one point he screams, ‘you are my life!’ When body snatching goes poorly, the Doctor offers to save the Master, despite the Master having killed both his companions, the previous owner of his current host-body, and attempting to either co-occupy the Doctor’s body or eliminate the Doctor in the attempt. The Master refuses and falls into the Doctor’s TARDIS, and the ending leaves the question of his survival both ambiguous and problematic. Eight and Roberts!Master are:
suspended between two points, wanting forgiveness and not getting it [Ainley and Five->Seven], and wanting to forgive and not being let to [Ten and Simm]. There's a potential for an equal relationship there. In the movie, Eight reaches out and tries to save him from his own actions, which I don't think he'd done since he was Three. Five always let Ainley get creamed by his own disastrous plots, and even Seven left him to die on the Cheetah planet. But Eight tried to save him."[1]
If we were to take Simm!Master’s speech about the Time War in The Sound of Drums as something of an As You Know, Bob, you could posit that they knew each other then before the Master fled to the end of the universe. As to how they might get along under those circumstances, Eight has a certain Byronic sensibility that would appreciate the Master’s more ridiculous gestures, and a playful side that would work well with the Master’s strong sense of the absurd. There’s little doubt that Jacobi!Master would be interested in this Doctor, who proves in paracanon to be thoroughly charming and prone to deep attachment.
In the Big Finish audio plays, the Master (as played by Alex Macqueen) takes a particular interest in this Doctor, commenting on his appearance while practically purring with appreciation. The two of them reflect on their childhood together in the Dark Eyes range.
Ten Era
The Master was reintroduced to New Who via Ten's run.
Twelve Era
The Master being able to change genders, something that had been previously speculated on, was confirmed with the introduction of Missy.
Thirteen Era
Paracanon
From around the 1970s, there has been a large variety of authorised (and unauthorised) paracanonical media on offer to fans. Though the Master only appeared in a few of the books and audios, several of them expanded on the Doctor and Master's historical friendship, including New Adventures novels such as Lungbarrow and the Big Finish Audio Master. For a full list of the Master's appearances in paracanonical media, see Tardis Wiki.
Significantly for Doctor/Master fandom, there were also two specials: the 1999 Red Nose Day comedy special The Curse of Fatal Death, and the 2003 animated pilot Scream of the Shalka. In Curse of Fatal Death having regenerated a number of times, a female Doctor played by Joanna Lumley ends the serial by eloping with the Master (Jonathan Pryce). In Scream of the Shalka, an alternate Ninth Doctor (Richard E. Grant) is shown living on his TARDIS with a robotic version of the Master (Derek Jacobi): Shalka writer Paul Cornell intended this relationship to be platonic and asexual, but has since come around to the shipper front and has become a vocal proponent of the romantic interpretation.
History of the Pairing in Fandom
Early Doctor Who Fanfic
Most of pre-internet Doctor Who fandom is not currently documented online. We do know that early Doctor Who fanfic was, like a lot of scifi media fandom, largely zine based and focused on gen, but with some het and a small amount of slash. Doctor/Master was perhaps the most common slash pairing, although the Doctor was also written with various male companions.
The oldest Doctor/Master fic available online via the Wayback Machine is "Ring of Truth" by The Android, originally published in Uncharted Waters #10 and Dyad #13 (1993), and the connected "Island in Time" by Julia, which was published in Uncharted Waters #1 (1988).
Online Fanfic
Before the start of the new series in 2005, most Doctor Who fanfic online was hosted at alt.drwho.creative, the connected archive The Panatropic Network (1998- 2002), and, from 2003, A Teaspoon and an Open Mind. The newsgroup and Panatropic allowed slash and adult fiction, and this included a small amount of Doctor/Master.
The most significant Doctor/Master story from this era may have been "Bitter Aloes" by Anne Ellis, a story set during the fifth Doctor era that included themes of non-con, darkfic, and bdsm. This story became embroiled in an ongoing wank in late-1990s Who fandom. As a result Panatropic established a separate Adult section, and some Doctor Who slash writers became less willing to participate publicly in the fandom.
Revitalization of the Pairing
Interest in the pairing grew with the overall revitalization in Doctor Who fandom following the start of the 2005 series. Stories were written in previous eras, and with original-character versions of the Master paired with the new Doctors.
Many New Who fans, however, were unaware of or uninterested in Classic Who (and as an extension, the Master, who had at that point made no appearance in the new show), and the pairing did not really take off until the series three season arc, which culminated in the season finale triptych Utopia/The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords. These Foe Yay and sexual-tension-laden episodes were so embraced by slash-inclined fans that the pairing's fandom was reborn almost overnight (see Ten/Master).
In the summer of 2007, AUs set post-the Last of the Timelords, and alternate season 4 fics proliferated. There were also a number of canon-compliant The Year That Never Was fics that sometimes went AU following events in the season 3 finale. Wiccanslyr established the livejournal community slash_lords, which focused on Doctor/Master, on July 4, 2007—less than a week after the last of the Series Three episodes aired.
During this period, many people who were unfamiliar with Old Who and previous Masters entered the fandom. Stories set during the Tenth Doctor's era heavily dominated the internet community. However, an increasingly vocal contingent in the fandom were enthusiastic about the Doctor and the Master as they appeared in previous eras, and New Who fans, eager to consume more information about their new pairing, began watching the older episodes.
In February 2008 the livejournal community Best_enemies was founded by x_los, with goals such as being "more of a community than a ficdump/artdump" and encouraging more "classic!slash". Best_Enemies continued to be a community gathering place, with regular challenges and discussion posts, an ongoing anon fic meme, an auxiliary RPG, active chatrooms, and many various other activities throughout the late 2000s and early 2010s. In March 2008, Versaphile founded the Prydonian, a fanfic archive for Doctor/Master.
During the next several years, fanworks of various kinds continued to be steadily produced, with bursts of increased activity around the airing of subsequent episodes. The Master's appearance in the 2009 special The End of Time also generated interest and increased participation in the fandom, but to a much lesser extent than after The Sound of Drums/The Last of the Time Lords. In September 2010 the community doctor_and_master was founded on Dreamwidth by evilawyer to provide a community for Doctor/Master fans seeking a place off livejournal.
Het Pairings
The appearance of a new Master in a female regeneration, Missy, led to renewed interest in this pairing. However, this het pairing, Twelve/Missy, and the subsequent het pairing of Thirteen/Dhawan!Master, never reached the same levels of popularity that this pairing had during the TenSimm days. When Twelve/Missy appeared, many established D/M fans noticed it had not encouraged slash shippers to return to the pairing, and instead there was an influx of new traditionally het shippers.
Fanon and Fanfic Tropes
Fandom Terminology
Within Doctor/Master fandom, Doctors are usually specified by number (i.e. One through Fifteen) or, for AU and paracanon doctors, by nickname (Zagreus, TenToo), by the canon where they appeared (Shalka!Doctor) or by actor (Lumley!Doctor, Cushing!Doctor). The Master is almost always specified by his actor (Delgado, Ainley, Roberts, Simm, Gomez, Dhawan) with exceptions for cases where the same actor played multiple Masters (Yana, Jacobi! or Shalka), or where the same Master was played by multiple actors or no actor (such as Crispy, from the Fourth Doctor's era, or Goosnake from the TV movie), as well as Missy. Additionally one might wish to specify a particular version of one actor's Master (Cheetah!Master from Survival, EoT!Master from The End of Time). Sometimes just the label is used alone, but primarily bang notation is used, with the label followed by simply 'Master' or 'Doctor' (written as Ainley!Master, Handy!Ten).
Common Tropes and Storylines in Fanworks
- Pre-canon: Many Doctor/Master fans, and their fanfics, assume that the Doctor and Master were in a relationship before the show began. Some even posit that they were married, and/or that Susan is a result of a shared relationship. It is generally assumed they broke up while still at the Academy, or just afterwards, probably as a result of something objectionable the Master did or the Doctor's own restlessness.
- Darkfic: As the pairing includes two supposed enemies, one of whom is a known villain, it is perhaps not surprising that one of the most prevalent tropes in the D/M fandom is darkfic. Both physical and emotional violence are inflicted on one or other of the participants (generally the Doctor), including bdsm, dubcon (sometimes noncon), forced regeneration, and general humiliation. This trope is particularly common in Ten/Simm fanfic, due to the way the pairing was represented in canon. However it also applies to Classic fanfic and later New Who pairings.
- Schmoop: The softer (or schmoopier) side of Doctor/Master is, conversely, represented chiefly in Classic Who fanfic and art. Surprisingly, fluffy fics in which the protagonists leave off saving the world and arguing to have tea or sex are not un-common. Admittedly, many of these fics are AUs, in which the Doctor and the Master develop some form of compromise, but not all. In a non-AU fic it is possible that they make love after (or occasionally while) working together to save the world, but in this case under the proviso (typically from the Doctor's side) that such a reprise is temporary. It should be noted that even in the fluffiest fics, there is usually still an undercurrent of bickering and one-upmanship. Classic fic is more likely to depict the Master as the more romantically invested partner, which perhaps explains why fluffy fics are more common in Classic Who (i.e. the Master is more likely to adapt to a way of life the Doctor finds acceptable)
- Erogenous Zones: There is a general acceptance of the idea that necks are an erogenous zone for Time Lords. This belief is due partly to the large collars the non-renegades wear on Gallifrey (and the tendency even of the renegades to cover their necks), and a scene in one of the the EDAs, in which the Doctor responds very appreciatively to a back massage. If this is true, then the phone-cord strangulation of the Doctor in Terror of the Autons takes on new erotic significance.
- Traveling Together: In New Who, during the period just after The Last of the Time Lords, AU stories in which the Master accepted the Doctor's suggestion to travel with him in his TARDIS proliferated. In the summer of 2007 there were probably more stories set in such AUs than in canon-based universes (though the cheese-cloth permeability of Canonicity in a show based on time travel and the malleability of events and histories means the barrier between 'normal' and AU fic is stretched exceptionally thin in the Whoniverse). These are sometimes called "Alternate Season 4" stories, partly due to ariastar's novel-length Doctor/Master AU, which was posted in an lj called dwseason4.
- The Year That Never Was: Fics set during the Year That Never Was were also extremely common, and became known as 'Valiant!fic', after the Master's airship. Although the Doctor was shown to be old at the beginning and end of the year, most people writing in this sub-genre assumed the Master de-aged the Doctor whenever convenient.
- Vault fics: In DW season 10, the reveal that Missy was in the Vault and the Doctor was endeavoring to turn her 'good', led to several fluffier fics, more in keeping with Classic Who than New Who. These works are often referred to as Vault fics. Fics where the Mistress helps the Doctor in his efforts to save the planet, still involve considerable bickering, and some indiscriminate murder much to the Doctor's dismay.
- Humor: Crack or humorous fic and art are relatively common, possibly due to the comedic tension between the Master as a villain and the Master as a romantic partner. In a small number of these works, the Masters continued efforts to kill the Doctor are revealed to be the elaborate mating rituals of Timelords.
- Academy Fic: Academy Era fic typically picks and chooses from the somewhat uneven and contradictory canon established by the books and audios. Usually Theta and Koschei are roommates, and potentially troublemakers. Ushas (the NA school nickname for the Rani) often features, and the Doctor's paracanonical brother, Braxiatel has been known to put in an appearance. In some of these works, the reason why their friendship broke down is revealed.
- Language: Time and the Gallifreyan language are often used as erotic tools, the latter particularly prevalent in Ten/Simm fic - at which point, the language is one that only they know. In other works where they are the only two surviving Time Lords, the Doctor or Master may seek out the other's help in the event of a emergency or fatal injury - as they can only be saved by another Time Lord.
- Fobwatch fics: Stories where the Doctor and the Master are living as humans with their Time Lord memories kept in fob-watches, these are usually very much like Human AUs, where they live out human lives together, except they are still technically Time Lords and may change back to their Time Lords selves at some point during the fic. There are also works where only one character is fobbed and unaware they are a Time Lord. Crossovers with the TV show Life on Mars in which John Simm's character Sam Tyler is a fobwatched version of his Master were extremely common.
- Valeyard fics: often involve a current Doctor becoming The Valeyard
Fanworks
Fanfiction
A very incomplete list of some of the best known fics in the fandom. Ten/Master, Twelve/Missy and Thirteen/Master fanfiction examples can be found on the respective pages of these pairings.
Theta/Koschei
- the naming of things by ariastar
- DDC 613.96 (previously on prydonian.net) by sam42
Three/Delgado
- The Final Game by x_los
- literally, stars in their eyes by livii
- A Mutually Satisfying Agreement by bagheera_san
- Ring of Truth by the Android
- Sweet Are The Uses by bagheera_san
Five/Ainley
- Bitter Aloes by Anne Ellis
- The Crane Wife by x_los
- The Moment of Truth by Kitty Fisher
- What Rassilon Has Joined Together by x_los
- Waterloo by aralias
- Wonderwall by aralias
Six/Ainley
- Sartorial Differences by aralias
Eight/Master (including Goosnake, Roberts, Jacobi)
- Any Time At All by roachpatrol
- Masterplan by aralias
- A Very Original Sin by x_los
Shalka!Doctor/Shalka!Master
- Living Things by bagheera_san
Fanvids
- Blank Space by purplefringe and such_heights (both classic and nu who versions of the Doctor/Master)
- No Time To Die by HostilePoet17 (mostly Twelve/Missy, Thirteen/Dhawan!, Ten/Simm!Master, and Three/Delgado!Master)
Example Art Gallery
Obey Your Master by MistressAinley (2012), featuring the Third Doctor and Delgado!Master
Distraction by Nimius (2010), featuring the Fourth Doctor and Ainley!Master
Untitled art by lighttimegoddess (2014), featuring the Fifth Doctor and Ainley!Master
Last of the Time Lords by Niki-UK (2007), here with the Tenth Doctor and Simm!Master
thank you by doreline (2015), here showcasing the Twelfth Doctor and Missy/Gomez!Master
i’m not going to stop, roleswap!au by AlyxWalrus (2020), this one showcasing Thirteen and Dhawan!Master
Resources
- A Teaspoon and an Open Mind (link) (general DW archive)
- The Prydonian (D/M archive)
- Fanworks tagged The Doctor/The Master at AO3
- The Doctor/Master Anon Kink Meme at AO3
- No D/M Ship Left Behind, a collection/challenge devoted to writing Doctor/Master rarepairs, at AO3
- Best_enemies (D/M livejournal community)
- Slash Lords (D/M livejournal community)
- Doctor_and_Master (D/M Dreamwidth community)
- DW_Slash (general DW slash livejournal community)
- Scream of the Shalka webcast
- Big Finish Audios
- The Doctor Who Reference Guide
- Doctor Who Wiki
- Rassilon, Omega and that Other guy (extensive notes on Gallifrey and its people)
- Time Lord biology (all you have ever wanted to know on the subject)
References
- ^ Commentary on 'Any Time at All', Archived on 25 December 2012, fic and commentary by reasonabsurd. Posted 8 October 2010.
- ^ Tumblr post by gayleviticus, Archived on 14 February 2024 Posted 29 April 2023.