‘MASTER THIEF’ (TLV)

Please feel free to comment on my review.

The Master visits the Repository

It’s time for two ‘Time Lord Victorious’ Short Trip audios that feature the Master in ‘Doctor Who’!

The contributions made by Big Finish to the ‘Time Lord Victorious’ multi-platform series include two Short Trip audios featuring the Master, an Eighth Doctor audio trilogy, a vinyl adventure featuring the Eighth and Tenth Doctors and eventually a bonus audio adventure featuring the Fourth Doctor. 🙂

This was all pretty exciting! A shame the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa weren’t involved in the series, but I was still looking forward to hearing the ‘Time Lord Victorious’ audios by Big Finish once I purchased most of the stories as downloads and I got to hear them via the Big Finish app on my android tablet.

The first Big Finish venture with ‘Time Lord Victorious’ is the two Short Trip audios featuring the Master. Both are read by Jon Culshaw. The stories include ‘Master Thief’ by Sophie Iles and ‘Lesser Evils’ by Simon Guerrier. The two Short Trip audios are just available as downloads from Big Finish. 😐

I wondered how these Short Trip audios would play their part in the ‘Time Lord Victorious’ series and how the Master would be involved. Would the two stories be interconnected somehow? Would they interconnect with other ‘Time Lord Victorious’ stories before and after? I was really keen to find out. 🙂

The first story is of course ‘Master Thief’ by Sophie Iles, read by Jon Culshaw. It features the Master as played by Roger Delgado in the Jon Pertwee era of ‘Doctor Who’, which was very exciting to hear. It’s also very fitting for me to hear this short story during the 50th anniversary of the Master in 2021. 🙂

You could tell that this story features the Roger Delgado Master in it from the 1970s ‘Doctor Who’ theme music used at the beginning and at the end. I imagine this story takes place sometime after the Master’s appearance in ‘Frontier In Space’ before he becomes a husk in ‘The Deadly Assassin’. 😐

I’ve not come across Sophie Iles much as a ‘Doctor Who’ writer and I’ve not come across a lot of her artwork, but I enjoyed her take on Roger Delgado’s Master here. It’s also always a great pleasure to hear Jon Culshaw read this Short Trip audio since he’s so enthused playing ‘Doctor Who’ characters.

Jon Culshaw previously voiced Roger Delgado’s Master in the ‘Terror of the Master’ audiobook. It was fun to hear how Jon captured Roger Delgado’s tones as the Master when he visited the Repository. I could easily visualise Roger Delgado’s Master whilst Jon Culshaw read him in the story.

In ‘Master Thief’, the Master wants to plunder one of the most secure vaults in the universe called the Repository. He wants to steal a map for the Boneyard of Knives…or is it Knithe? Quite why he wants to do that, I’m not sure. He has a plan and deadly new weapon to help get him in the vault. 😀

After managing to persuade and slightly hypnotise a nice girl called Georgina under her control, the Master soon kills her and manages to find what he’s looking for inside the vault of the Repository. But the Master soon discovers that getting inside the Repository isn’t going to be easy as getting out.

What’s fascinating about this Short Trip audio is how it explores the Master’s sudden reluctance and regret of killing people once personality leeches begin to attack his mind whilst in the Repository. He finds a way to break their hold on his mind, but it was fascinating to explore when hearing the story.

The Master uses a devolution gun to kill Repository guards as well as Georgina. It was disturbing to hear the Master had turned people into pools of goo once he used the devolution gun on them. I believe he throws the gun away once he finds the personality leeches becoming too much for him. 😐

Apparently, the Master picked up the devolution gun called the Devolver by miniaturising a larger abandoned structure into a portable weapon, which is a reference to the audio story ‘The Enemy of My Enemy’. I’ve yet to hear that ‘Time Lord Victorious’ audio story from listening to this Short Trip. 🙂

There’s a character in the story called Captain Roja who mentions the Shadow Proclamation. Apparently, Captain Roja’s name is a reference to Roger Delgado. Georgina’s name also happens to be a reference to the daughter of Katy Manning, which I didn’t know about when I heard this story.

The Repository seems to be in an ocean somewhere on a planet. Whether it’s an Earth ocean it’s in, I don’t know. Yet the Master does see a white shark in the ocean. 😀 The vaults of the Repository contain items such as a Martian sword and round canisters, one of which is labelled as The Traitors.

That happens to be an in-joke reference to the missing fourth episode of ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’, which I wouldn’t have picked up on when hearing this short audio story. I like how it gets stated that the Master has had certain experience in various techniques of miniaturisation, which is fun to hear.

I like how the Master’s remorse for the people he had killed is a sort-of foreshadowing for what Missy would do in Series 10 when she was imprisoned beneath St. Luke’s University by the Twelfth Doctor. Mind you, I feel the take of that story with Roger Delgado’s Master is better than with Missy.

The Master leaves a pre-recorded message for himself in his TARDIS console room before he knocks himself out. Once he’s woken up, the Master finds the map of the Boneyard of Knives/Knithe with no memory of him feeling remorse for the people he killed when affected by the personality leeches.

‘Master Thief’ is an enjoyable Short Trip audio featuring Roger Delgado’s Master. It’s well-read by Jon Culshaw. I’m not sure I’m enjoying these Short Trip audios featuring the Master without the Doctor in them, but I’m looking forward to ‘Lesser Evils’ next and what will occur for Anthony Ainley’s Master.

‘Master Thief’ (TLV) rating – 8/10

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The previous story For the Master was ‘Character Assassin’ (Comic)	The next story For the Master is ‘Legacy of the Daleks’ (Book)
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