This is why I haven’t rushed to listen to it. I’ve not been one to listen to new stuff when it drops for a long time but talk here got be on to the Fugitive set quite quickly and Genesis of the Cybermen is next on my listen list. But the mixed, lukewarm response to this set means I may well put it on a back burner much as I love Dhawan’s Master.
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Hello,would you say this is worth checking out?
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So I wasn’t entirely won around but I think I actually liked the final episode the most. An ok set really, anchored by Dhawan being really good but just not something that did it for me, unfortunately.
Have heard much worse though so it’s not like I think it’s a disaster, it’s just not to my tastes.
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IMO they went wrong w the middle story and just not having an arc of any kind. The Master ranges I’ve heard that don’t have an arc, are the ones I’ve disliked… Coincidence? I think not!
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There was a very loose connection narratively but yeah, they were definitely 3 separate stories. I don’t mind that so much if they hook me but I really only felt myself properly engaged with the final one.
It’s strange because I do really like the Master as a character, and Dhawan’s interpretation is one I respond to, but I’m not sure the character works so much in the foreground. I think that’s probably why that final one is the one I like the most.
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I haven’t heard the last story yet, so I’m glad some posters think it’s the best of the lot.
I’m all for exploring this Master’s playfulness, but there is so much more to him. The problem for me is that BF have placed this very eccentric incarnation among a cast of mainly eccentric characters. Imagine if a group of more relatable people had been visited by The Master, people who we could identify more with. That way, the villain’s magnificent mood swings would be more effective by comparison, and much more dangerous too.
Sacha is so good in this role, a kind of Time Lord ‘Joker’ for our time. So far, however, I don’t think the stories are quite as good as he deserves.
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Listening to it I did think it’d be nice to hear Dhawan alongside other Doctors eventually. Big Finish have kind of thrown out the Doctor and Master meeting in order which the TV show naturally abides by and with the Seventh Doctor meeting Missy, Dhawan’s Master showing up against Colin or Tom or Paul, say, wouldn’t be so out there.
Big Finish do have a dartboard approach but sometimes it can be more of a delicious cocktail approach. Get the balance right and a meeting between unlikely characters can work incredibly well.
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Without giving any plot details away, this is why I thought the third episode worked better.
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Does this boxset go any way to explaining why Dhawan’s Master is the way he is, post-Missy? Post traumatic regeneration disorder? Just a regenerative reset back to the default setting of ‘evil and insane’? Something happen in Part 1 to him?
Because I always liked the notion that Dhawan started out, not unlike Missy, fairly neutral and good… but upon discovery of the Timeless Child secret, that’s when the switch flicked back in his head and he filled back with fury and rage. I just wondered if Big Finish have provided any explanations to smooth the transition between incarnations and portrayals?
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No, but in the first episode he has just regenerated when we meet him.
I really like your idea too but it’s very quickly business as usual.
Big Finish do have a “good” Master incarnation which I take to be between Gomez and Dhawan but could realistically be anywhere. I just think it makes sense given how we left Missy.
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I didn’t care much for him on TV but I enjoyed the nuances Dhawan brought to the role, and he had a sort of Anthony Ainley energy about him at times. I hope that gets more focus over time - the Master unhinged, obsessed with the Doctor, playing at disguises, etc. I could easily envisage him coming up against most former Doctors and it just clicking.
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I feel like War Master will stay as the besr master range tbh,one day I hope for Saxon Master range
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Ah, that seems a bit of a shame IMO.
Could’ve been fascinating to have a first boxset going against all expectations, wherein Sacha’s Master starts out “good” but then ends with him slipping back into his older ways, after the events of the three stories, then Boxset 2 has a more “business as usual” approach.
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I think this box set makes a nice bridge between The Doctor Falls and Spyfall. I found it definitely gives some context as to how the Master got between these two points.
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