Roger Delgado, The Master remembered. Words by @Zeiton_7 and Pictures by @cheezypeas

On the 18th June 1973 the chauffeur driven car that Roger Caesar Marius Bernard de Delgado Torres Castillo Roberto was travelling plunged over a ravine. At the time he was filming  in Turkey and sadly all that were travelling in the car died.  Roger Delgado was the first actor to portray The Master and did so to perfection in eight stories. Tragically he was to feature in one final story with Jon Pertwee's Doctor and Roger's death has often been quoted as one of the reasons Jon decided to leave the series.

So, on Saturday we in the bar are leading an affectionate and loving tribute to the archest of The Doctors enemies. Roger's on screen presence was tangible right from the first scene in Terror of the Autons. He seemed to exude evil and malevolence without uttering a word. His planning was much more subtle yet still formidable, however the aim was always the same. Complete and total obedience to him and absolute destruction of The Doctor, normally after humiliating him first!

Delgado's Master had impeccable dress sense, normally opting for sharp black suits. His, literally, hypnotic eyes seem to bore into the poor unfortunate souls who crossed him and they soon were under his influence. Even when he seemed to be defeated it was never wise to let down your guard as he could always be relied on to pull another little twist and escape.

Delgado's relationship with Pertwee both onscreen and off was close. This may be one of the reasons that Delgado is so effective as The Doctors adversary. Their performances together show complete trust in each others acting abilities and this just adds to the delight in watching any stories they feature in.

I am sad to say that my recollections and affection for Roger Delgado only began some 15 years after his death. As I was born in 1975 my first encounters were in watching repeats of those classic stories and also with the brilliant writing within the Target books. Even so, I was totally amazed and in admiration of this actor who could deliver such an intense and powerful performance. Here, surely was a match for The Doctor's intellect and someone to be feared. I always felt that when The Master was around The Doctor was always in more danger than with any other foe (something which was ably proven during Logopolis)

Roger Delgado's legacy is obvious. He provided such a fantastically strong foundation for The Master that Doctor Who has been able to continue the characters development through 7 incarnations. Each new actor that portrays The Master, like those who play The Doctor, add something different. But all owe a great debt to the original, and in my opinion, the best.

The Master attends a Black Sabbath Concert.

So please join us on Saturday and revel in Roger Delgado's scene stealing performance as The Master. It is our will "so mote it be"

The Bar opens at 7:30pm BST and we press play at 8.00pm #DWBAR

Planet of Fire- By @Dr_Who_Con_Fans

On Wednesday we are watching Planet of Fire, which features the first appearance of a certain Perpugilliam Brown (or Peri for short) played by the delectable Nicola Bryant. Now when either Peri or the story, Planet of Fire are mentioned this image comes to mind

Or perhaps this one

It is certainly true that, for most, it is a story that is notable for the lack of clothing worn (and no I'm not complaining) than the story itself. But perhaps this is a little unfair. So having got the gratuitous attractive barely clad Peri pictures out of my system, lets have a little look at the story.

On the desert world of Sarn, a weird religious sect worship the fire god Logar and are pretty much unhappy about this situation.]

Meanwhile The Doctor is still travelling with Turlough and the android Kamelion who, unbeknownst to The Doctor, has made mental contact with The Master (who was his previous careful owner)

Peri is a disillusioned young girl who is desperate for some fun and adventure and is rescued by Turlough from drowning. The Tardis dematerialises on its own with Peri still on board and thus begins her adventures with The Doctor. What follows is a story that involves The Master doing what he does best and attempting to gain total power whilst killing The Doctor. It is also significant as it is the last story to feature Turlough as he leaves to return to his people.

So whether you watch this story for Nicola Bryants fantastic performance as the buxom Peri or to discover the mysteries of Sarn, watch it. It may surprise you but it will certainly entertain you.

The Doctor Who Bar opens at 7pm on Wednesday and we press play at 7.30pm #DWBar

Oh and one more thing....

Why Terror of the Autons is so much better than Spearhead From Space

Spearhead From Space is an enjoyable enough romp, but that's about it.  It's not really a gritty drama unlike Terror of the Autons which goes out of it's way to shock you.  Spearhead is also more light hearted and comical during it's first episodes, this is due in part to it being the first story of a new Doctor.  So naturally some of the scenes were played for laughs, not a wise decision to do something like that when you're trying to establish a new Doctor.  And Pertwee's performance is also a bit too comical in this story.

There's a complete contrast with Terror of the Autons, which is so much more serious and more dynamic than it's predecessor.  If anything marks down Terror it's some of it's visual effects.  Some of the interior CSO shots of the factory and Rex's Mother's house do jar quite badly.  Particularly now that the Restoration Team have got the picture so pinsharp, you can see just how in it's infancy the CSO effects were.

However despite the budget, Terror of the Autons is a good strong story.  It is notable for two series debuts, the late Roger Delgado excels in his role of the Master, a part he was born to play.  He also plays the part magnificently, when he pushes the technician off the ladder from the Satellite structure it is a very chilling moment.  Delgado imbues the story with a sense of twisted evil and rivalry against our hero, the Third Doctor.

The other debut is of course Katy Manning as Jo Grant, a rather ditzy character who is forever getting herself into scrapes.  She and series star Jon Pertwee would later develop a very good on-screen charisma with each other as the Third Doctor and his companion Jo Grant.

Terror is renowned for it's scenes of apparent everyday items coming alive and trying to kill you. A premise which perhaps was taken too far judging by the reactions to the story after it was first broadcast. Certainly it is a scary story but I certainly don't think they went too far.  If anything this adventure is a one off, and all for the better.  There hasn't been a story since which has used similar ideas within it's narrative structure.  It's certainly a better story than Spearhead From Space, and although many would say that the Master's change of mind at the end of the story felt a bit rushed, the story does hold up very well.

It's one of my favourites and all Doctor Who fans should have a copy of the Mannequin Mania boxset in their collection.

Why Spearhead from Space is so much better than Terror of the Autons

Terror of the Autons is one of those stories than I wished I had got on VHS. So I was pleased when it was released as part of the Mannequin Mania box set., as Terror was the first story to feature the Master.

There are some set pieces which I think work wonderfully well, such as Jo being hypnotised the Master. Though it was obvious what had happened to her from the moment she walked through the door, after being caught by the Master.

The plastic film over Jo’s face was quite terrifying, as was the chair enveloping poor Mr. McDermott.

But the story is quite slow, it just plods along, and has a very rushed ending. This is common with many of the stories from this era.

Whereas Spearhead has much in common with modern Doctor Who. It is very well paced and visually looks fantastic. Not just because of the fact it was shot on film (due to a strike at the BBC). All the effects are in camera, so there are no clunky video effects, no obvious CSO unlike Terror. Only the rubber octopus and Jon’s comical facial expressions let it down.

Pertwee gets into the role properly by episode two, after the now familiar post regeneration instability in the hospital. But Pertwee makes this scene comical. He takes a very laid back but serious stance in his new role as the Third Doctor which makes this particular adventure shine.

Nicholas Courtney and Caroline John provide very good support in this story. It is a good strong story which stands up well today, and apart from the dodgy octopus, it is without a doubt the better Auton story.

The scenes of the Autons rampaging the streets are so iconic and very scary. That's also why it's the better story, the later Autons in Terror just doesn't have the same menace.

Friday Night In The 'Bar'

The Villain Post: The Master

Welcome to the villain post. Each week we’ll be taking a look through the history of villains throughout the years of Doctor Who. Some will be better known than others. We start with one of my personal favourite villains, The Master.

When coming up with the idea of The Master the creative team wanted a Moriarty to the Doctor’s Holmes. The Master became the Doctor’s arch nemesis (well, he was his arch nemesis until The End of Time but I’ll talk about that more when we get there). They are similar as they are both Time Lords and both have names that reference academic degrees but their personalities and goals are very different.

The Master was first played by Roger Delgado on Barry Lett's recommendation.  Although it was really the combined efforts of Lett's and Terrance Dicks who created him.  He first appeared in Terror of the Autons facing the Third Doctor and in his first season appeared in every adventure.  He manipulate, sneaked around and always got away until his capture in The Dæmons but he escaped in The Sea Devils. Delgado’s Master was suave, charming, occasionally a joker and a sociopath. He used disguises at times and brainwashed people. The Master used a weapon known as the Tissue Compression Eliminator. It compressed the targets body until life functions ceased, leaving them as doll like corpses.  The Master also tended to work with other villains of the Doctor to achieve his own personal gain. The final scene of Delgado’s was in Frontier in Space. The Master shot at the Doctor before getting away again scot free.

The next time the Master appeared was in The Deadly Assassin. Played by Peter Pratt under a heavy amount of make-up this Master resembled a walking corpse. The Master was coming to the end of his thirteenth life, his final regeneration.  This Master was much darker than his previous version due to this situation. He tried to restore his full life by using the artefacts of Rassilon. However, the Doctor stopped him because the restoration process would have destroyed Gallifrey. After this episode, the Master once again left the series.

The Master returned in The Keeper of Traken. He was played by Geoffrey Beevers with slightly different makeup but was supposed to be the same incarnation as Pratt. This Master was successful in restoring his body by taking over the body of the Trakenite Tremas played by Anthony Ainley, who then went on to play the new Master.

Ainley’s Master, despite his new body still strove for a new regeneration cycle (he was granted this wish in The Five Doctor’s when the Time Lord Council needed his assistance). Ainley’s Master was the one to kill the Fourth Doctor in Logopolis and went on to terrorise the Fifth Doctor straight after in Castrovalva. Ainley’s Master like Delgado used disguises on many occasions. Notable disguises included The Portreeve, Kalid and Sir Gilles Estram. Ainley’s Master was last seen in Survival, the last story of the original series. He was more restrained this time than his previous manic appearances. He was trapped on the planet of the Cheetah People and after a failed attempt at killing the Seventh Doctor he was trapped on the planet and it was destroyed.

Just as a warning. This next part is about the TV Movie so be warned of my own opinions coming through at this point. Okay, so the Master returned played by Gordon Tipple in the TV Movie (I guess he got off the planet that got destroyed then) and was executed by the Daleks for evil crimes, which really makes no sense as the Daleks shouldn’t really care about evil crimes. Don’t they have better things to be doing? Ah well!  He transformed into a snake like entity thing which also makes no sense and it is never explained why he could do that (I know that they try to explain it in other material but it’s still really weird). This snake entity slithers into the TARDIS console and made the Doctor crash land the TARDIS in San Francisco. He got into the TARDIS console, had power over it and decides on San Francisco? Okay..... moving on. Apparently the snake entity was unstable and possessed a guy named Bruce (played by Eric Roberts) who then proceeded to dress up as an obvious villain and get super powers such as acid bile. He also had the Master’s usual hypnotism skills. The Master attempted to access the link to the Eye of Harmony in the Doctor's TARDIS but got sucked into it and was left for dead just like Doctor Who itself. Okay, rant over.

I started watching Who in 2005 like a lot of people but I went and watched the classics. Already watching the Master I naturally got super excited when he came back for series three of new Who and I love these episodes a lot.  The Master was resurrected by the Time Lords. The Master was to serve as the ultimate front line soldier but fled the war in fear when the Dalek Emperor took over The Cruciform. The Master transformed into a human using a Chameleon Arch and went to the end of the universe using the name Professor Yana (played by Derek Jacobi). Plagued by incessant drumming in his head and hearing Time Lord related words caused Yana to recall his Time Lord essence. Yana opened the fob watch concealing his Time Lord form. Then he became the Master once more and The Face of Boe’s prophecy to the Doctor “You Are Not Alone” came true. Yana Master was shot and had to regenerate, turning into John Simm. He stole the Doctor's TARDIS but the Doctor locked the ships co-ordinates via his sonic screwdriver so it could only travel between where they were and present day Earth.

So Mr Simm became Mr Saxon. working through the government and becoming Prime Minister. VOTE SAXON, VOTE SAXON, VOTE SAXON, VOTE SAXON, VOTE SAXON, VOTE SAXON, VOTE SAXON, VOTE SAXON, VOTE SAXON, VOTE SAXON, VOTE SAXON, VOTE SAXON, VOTE SAXON, VOTE SAXON. Ahem, sorry about that. I don’t know what came over me. Mr Saxon was quite, erm, hypnotic and I liked his policies. Don’t really remember them now but they were really good!!

VOTE SAXON!

Okay.  Now let’s keep going. The Doctor, Captain Jack and Martha returned to present day Earth and found that the Master was Prime Minister.  The Doctor was not very happy about this. The Master took over the world. Made floating orbs out of the people at the end of time and cannibalised the TARDIS. The Doctor was able to reverse the chaos but the Master was shot by his “wife” and he decided not to regenerate. Seriously, how many times does this guy get left to die?

The Master returned again in The End of Time, still as John Simm. He was brought back to life by the power of prison guards, his wife’s lipstick, some blue gloop, a ring and a piece of tissue. He gained electric powers and an eating disorder as displayed here.

He created The Master Race (turning humans into duplicates of himself) with a big machine and used the White Point Star the Time Lords despatched from Gallifrey to bring it out from within the time lock. But then when the Time Lords arrived they changed The Master Race back straight away.  The Master got mad because he found out the Time Lords had manipulated him by installing the drumming in his head and ended up helping the Doctor.  He used energy blasts from his hands to blast them back into the Time War (which is out of character for him as the Master was always more of a coward) going back into the Time War with them at the close of the story. I suppose he’s been left for dead once again. I hope you enjoyed my first villain post and I hope that there will be many more.

Why I like the Third Doctor

I like all the incarnations of the Doctor, however I think Jon Pertwee is often under rated. His authoritative tone contrasts the dandified clothes of his costume.

Having read many of the Target novelisations and the Archives in Doctor Who Magazine, my first glimpse of Jon Pertwee was in The Five Doctors, the first VHS video I got for Christmas 1991. I would have to wait years later until my first Pertwee story, The Sea Devils which was repeated on BBC2 in 1992, when I was fourteen!

Being used to the Seventh Doctor, Pertwee was more authoritative and was much less of a buffoon than his predecessor, or any other actor to follow him. We are now used to a Doctor who abhors violence, but Pertwee was a Doctor who regularly used Venusian Aikido and was also a master swordsman, but never to gratuitous effect. His sword fight with the ultimate Master, Roger Delgado in The Sea Devils highlights this perfectly!

I met Jon Pertwee, just once. I had my photo taken with him on the TARDIS set. Being a shy fifteen year old I could not summon any words to speak to him! Sadly I have long since misplaced the photo.

Since the Bar, to my knowledge at least, have not shown a Pertwee story, I think it’s high time we did! But I cannot decide which one! There are so many classics of this era!

The Deadly Assassin

 "Through the millennia, the Time Lords of Gallifrey led a life of ordered calm, protected against all threats from lesser civilisations by their great power. But this was to change. Suddenly, and terribly, the Time Lords faced the most dangerous crisis in their long history..." 

The Deadly Assassin was first broadcast in four parts from 30 October to 20 November 1976. It is known for being the only story of the classic series run to feature the Doctor without a companion.

 So, join us from 7pm in the #DWBar on Wednesday 3rd May to watch this Classic Adventure! (Press play at 7.30pm)

 Follow us: @DoctorWhoBar

Email us: DoctorWhoBar@gmail.com

Voodoo Child?

I knew myself, at the first breath of this new life, to be wicked, tenfold more wicked, sold a slave to original evil - The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

I joined Doctor Who quite late in its timeline: 1982 to be exact. It was a year after Botham's Ashes that I discovered a time traveller who dressed as an Edwardian cricketer and travelled in a blue Police Box.

But from the start, I was different from the other children I went to school with. While some wanted to be Daleks and others either the Doctor or one of his companions, I never did.

In that one aspect I was unique at my school...I always wanted to be The Master!

The Master was an enigma wrapped up in a conundrum. Always revealing a little about himself "spoilers" (as River Song would put it), but never giving you the whole picture.

The Third Doctor said they were "at school together" and the Tenth Doctor dismisses the notion that they were "brothers", but it was clear from the outset that they were very much Brothers In Arms.

Whichever one of them did the other always seemed to anticipate the others actions. From the Master's first attempt on the Third Doctor's life in Terror of the Autons, up to the Tenth Doctor's explanation to Rassilon of the Master's plan to change all the Time Lords, they always seem to know what the other is thinking.

But why would someone like the Master and how has the character managed to survive for forty years?

The answer is simple...what's not to like?

From King John's champion in The King's Demons to smartly dressed Prime Minister in The Sound of Drums, the Master "always dresses for the occasion" as he informs the Eighth Doctor, and like all the great villains, he always gets the best lines.

The Master also gets the best weapons. From his Tissue Compression Eliminator to his Laser Screwdriver, the Master has always been familiar with the tools of his trade and how to best use them.

Once his character had been established in the early 1970's, the Master was used less frequently, and though may seem strange to say, Roger Delgado's untimely death was probably the making of the Master's legacy.

The Master wasn't to return to the series until The Deadly Assassin as a deformed, revenge driven being on his last regeneration, whose soul purpose was survival.

His next appearance in The Keeper of Traken gave him a new body of sorts when he used The Source to take over Tremas' body. And once established in his new self, his soul aims were universal domination and the death of the Doctor (Logopolis/Castrovalva).

The Master then returned in Time-Flight and Planet of Fire, on both occasions trying to extend his own borrowed life. And that was where he seemed destined to be, forever seeking an extension on his life and trying to kill the Doctor.

Then came The Trial of a Time Lord. From this point on the Master seems to crave revenge as if it's the Doctor's fault he is what he is, and survival is now a secondary consideration. Indeed, in Survival he blames the Doctor for becoming part of the Cheetah Planet and in the Eighth Doctor adventure actually admits, "I wasted all my lives!"

And so to the new series. When Sir Derek Jacobi declared, "I am the Master", I am not ashamed to admit I punched the air and yelled "Yes!" The apple offered by Eve to Adam was their and with John Simm taking over the role, the Doctor Who universe collectively took a bite of this insane apple!

The Master had always been charismatic, but in Harold Saxon form we now had a psychotic charisma. "Liked" by McFly and Anne Widdicombe, this was a Master we were both repulsed and fascinated by.

With the drumbeat in his head, this was a Master driven to madness, and this madness was also to be his weakness and his downfall.

And so he "died!" Shot by his faithful companion...Lucy. And indeed, Lucy was to be the cause of the Master being as he is now in The End of Time.

The End of Time sees the Master perhaps for the first time ever, awakening from his petty vengeance and starting to grasp the big picture. His realisation that his never-ending drumbeat is part of the Time Lords survival plan and his manipulation by them, not only shatters his ego but forces him to join the Doctor's side.

The Master's most recent act was to drive the Time Lords back into the hell that was the Time War.

Is this The Master's salvation? Is he now trapped on Gallifrey during the Time War? Or did he somehow escape just as the Time Lords were banished back to their own horrors?

Only one thing is certain when it comes to the Master, and perhaps that's the reason I am a fan of his..., nothing can ever be taken for granted.

Article by @BIGGLES27