‘THE TWO MASTERS’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
The Seventh Doctor vs. the Decayed Master and the Reborn Master
And here we are on the big one in ‘The Two Masters Trilogy’ of ‘Doctor Who’ audios by Big Finish! 🙂
‘The Two Masters’ is the third and final adventure in the 2016 multi-Doctor trilogy where the time traveller finds himself pitted against his evil adversary – the Master. This time though, Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor must battle two incarnations of the deadly Master in this adventure. 😐
They are of course Geoffrey Beevers as the ‘decayed’ Master (whom the Doctor confronted as Peter Davison’s Fifth Doctor in ‘And You Will Obey Me’) and Alex Macqueen as the ‘reborn’ Master (whom the Doctor confronted as Coin Baker’s Sixth Doctor in ‘Vampire of the Mind’). All isn’t as it appears. 😐
This story is a four-part adventure by John Dorney, who has written plenty of ‘Doctor Who’ audio adventures in his career as well as being a script editor on some stories and has performed in some stories as an actor. I enjoy a John Dorney-penned story now and again, with ‘The Two Masters’ being one of them.
In this ‘Doctor Who’ adventure, something has gone wrong with Time, as there just seems to be the present and there are gaps in the past and future. The Doctor discovers this when encountering the Rocket-Men as well as the Gorlans. These gaps in Space and Time could mean the end of everything.
The Doctor finds himself meeting two incarnations of the Master who seem to be responsible for the displacements of Space/Time throughout the universe. The Doctor gradually notices something amiss with the two Masters. Can the Doctor resolve the universal crisis and will he thwart the two foes?
You may have noticed in my reviews for ‘And You Will Obey Me’ and ‘Vampire of the Mind’ that the appearances of the Geoffrey Beevers Master and the Alex Macqueen Master in those stories aren’t what they seem. I’ve been waiting to hear ‘The Two Masters’ to unveil what the mystery is all about.
So here we are, and I can now reveal what has going on with these two Masters. Are you ready? It turns out that the Alex Macqueen Master was in the Geoffrey Beevers Master in ‘And You Will Obey Me’ and the Geoffrey Beevers Master was in the Alex Macqueen Master in ‘Vampire of the Mind’. 😮
Confused? Well, let me go on to explain in more detail. 😀 There are flashbacks in ‘Parts Three and Four’ that explain what happened with these two Master throughout ‘The Two Masters Trilogy’. Essentially, the Alex Macqueen Master tried to make a deal with a group of Time Lords called the Cult of the Heretic.
They happen to worship a renegade Time Lord called the Heretic. In the process of making a deal, the Alex Macqueen Master is told to kill one of his younger selves – the Geoffrey Beevers Master. The Alex Macqueen Master is soon backstabbed, as he and the Geoffrey Beevers Master get captured.
This leads to the two Masters having their minds switched in different bodies. The Geoffrey Beevers Master in Alex Macqueen’s body soon goes off for his story in ‘Vampire of the Mind’, and the Alex Macqueen Master in Geoffrey Beevers’ body soon goes off for his story in ‘And You Will Obey Me’. 😐
All of this builds up to their confrontation with the Seventh Doctor before they have their minds returned to their original bodies in ‘Part Three’. It’s a challenge to get your head around the complicated aspects of this story, but I enjoyed it, thanks to the writing, the direction and the cast’s performances.
Writer John Dorney and director Jamie Anderson in ‘The Two Masters’.
I enjoyed the references made to the previous two stories in ‘The Two Masters Trilogy’ to remind us as listeners what the two Masters in different bodies had been doing in the lead-up to this adventure. Mind you, the Doctor seems to have forgotten what happened during those particular adventures. 😐
With ‘Vampire of the Mind’, I can understand, since the Sixth Doctor had his memory wiped from encountering the Mind Leach of meeting Alex Macqueen as the Master. I’m not sure about ‘And You Will Obey Me’ though, but then again, that was quite an underwhelming audio story as far as I’m concerned. 😐
But it does tie-in to the situation with there being gaps in the universe, causing history to be erased, which the Seventh Doctor has to sort out. Thankfully, the Seventh Doctor, being a proactive planner, is able to thwart the two Masters’ attempts to cause chaos, especially when appearing in ‘Part Four’.
Sylvester McCoy is excellent as the Seventh Doctor. This is of course the older Seventh Doctor from ‘The TV Movie’, as indicated on the CD cover. Mind you, Sylvester’s Doctor seems to be in his element in this adventure, and I enjoyed how he tackled the two Masters when foiling their plans. 🙂
There are times when Sylvester’s Doctor is absent, particularly in ‘Parts Three and Four’ where, quite often, the episodes are focused on the flashback sequences featuring the two Masters. But when Sylvester’s Doctor does appear in the story, he always has something smart to say to tackle his foes.
I liked the brief friendship he formed with Jemima, who got to be a short-lived companion, before she sadly got killed off by Alex Macqueen in Geoffrey Beevers as the Master. Thankfully, the Doctor finds a way to restore things back to the way they were. This includes bringing Jemima back to life. 🙂
Geoffrey Beevers is equally good as the ‘decayed’ Master in this audio adventure. I enjoyed Geoffrey’s take of Alex Macqueen’s Master when his body was being possessed by him. Alex Macqueen’s Master is more playful than Geoffrey Beevers’ Master who’s more serious in manner. 😐
It’s addressed that Geoffrey Beevers’ Master seeks power whereas Alex Macqueen’s Master seeks fun. This is indicated in the times when the Geoffrey Beevers Master kills his victims before Alex Macqueen’s Master gets to finish his jokes, which rubs him up the wrong way and the two don’t get on well.
Incidentally, it’s established for the Geoffrey Beevers Master that ‘The Two Masters Trilogy’ takes place before ‘The Deadly Assassin’. This is especially since the story gives us the events of what happened when Geoffrey Beevers’ Master became a decaying corpse-like figure, which was fascinating to listen to on audio. 🙂
Alex Macqueen is also very good as the ‘reborn’ Master in this adventure. In some ways, Alex Macqueen’s Master is a cross between Anthony Ainley and John Simm’s Masters, especially when he can be suave and charming as well as being playful, which is something Geoffrey Beevers’ Master isn’t.
It was interesting to hear Alex Macqueen playing Geoffrey Beevers’ Master for a bit in this story, since he’s not so cheeky when working with the Gorlans, who have been struck by a terrible civil war. It’s also nice to hear a Big Finish audio Master teaming up with a TV series Master in an audio story.
And I’ll be quite frank about this. I enjoyed ‘The Two Masters’ more as a multi-Master adventure compared to ‘Masterful’. I know this story has the Doctor in it, but it was intriguing to hear how the two Masters interacted with each other and very often didn’t see eye-to-eye when working together.
The guest cast includes Lauren Crace as Jemima. There’s also Russ Bain who plays Blore, one of the Rocket Men, and Baron Jarvill, the leader of one of the Gorlan Civil War armies. Russ Bain previously appeared in ‘And You Will Obey Me’ where he played Michael Masteron, one of the Master’s children.
Talking about the Rocket Men for a bit, they’ve been in ‘Doctor Who’ stories like ‘The Rocket Men’, ‘Return of the Rocket Men’ and ‘Requiem for the Rocket Men’. Before ‘The Two Masters’, I came across the Rocket Men in ‘The Split Initiative’, which is the second episode of ‘The Legacy of Time’. 🙂
The story also features Esther Hall who plays Tazmeena – another Rocket Man (or should that be Rocket Woman? 😐 ), Bauza who is a Gorlan and a subordinate of Geoffrey Beevers in Alex Macqueen as the Master, and Jemima’s mum, who appeared briefly in the final scene of the story. 🙂
There’s James Garnon as Sebastian, the leader of the Cult of the Heretic, and there’s Neil Edmond who plays Sarlon – a member of the Cult. He also plays a Time Lord who see the Decayed Master’s TARDIS arriving at Tersurus base. Neil Edmond previously played two roles in ‘Vampire of the Mind’. 😐
Geoffrey Beevers and Alex Macqueen in ‘The Two Masters’.
‘The Two Masters’ has been an enjoyable conclusion to an enjoyable set of ‘Doctor Who’ audios featuring two Masters. I enjoyed Sylvester McCoy’s Seventh Doctor meeting Geoffrey Beevers and Alex Macqueen’s Masters together in this, and the complex story aspects were very intriguing to hear.
In terms of ‘The Two Masters Trilogy’ trilogy overall, it started decently well, albeit I found ‘And You Will Obey Me’ quite underwhelming, which is a shame, since ‘Vampire of the Mind’ and ‘The Two Masters’ are better stories. I’m glad I’ve at last checked out these stories since their release in 2016.
The CD extras are as follows. On Disc 1, there’s a track of incidental music to enjoy. On Disc 2, there’s a trailer for ‘A Life of Crime’ with Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred and Bonnie Langford. Apparently, ‘The Two Masters’ was ‘so epic’ that Big Finish couldn’t fit the behind-the-scenes interviews onto Disc 2.
Thus, if you subscribe to Big Finish for ‘The Two Masters’ via a 6 or 12 CD/download subscription, you can download the CD behind-the-scenes interviews from there. These behind-the-scenes interviews are with the cast and crew, including Sylvester McCoy, Geoffrey Beevers, Alex Macqueen, director Jamie Anderson, writer John Dorney, etc. There’s also a PDF script and extended extras of ‘The Two Masters’. There’s also the bonus Short Trip called ‘The Monkey House’ with the Fifth Doctor, Tegan, Turlough and Nyssa, read by Stephen Critchlow.
‘The Two Masters’ rating – 8/10
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