What? People shouldn’t listen to my innane ramblings? Harrumph 
9 Likes
Having listened to the first three boxsets, I can say I’ve really enjoyed hearing this master. Jacobi is tremendous in the role, really chilling to hear at times. I understand the complaint that he sometimes feels like a secondary character in his own stories, but I think that the plotting in the background is a highlight, as it always leaves you wondering what exactly he’s up to, and how many lives he’s willing to take in the process. Master of Callous is one of my favourite Big Finish releases, because having it be one story over four hours just makes it all the more tragic when the Master inevitably reveals his hand and comes out on top, leaving everyone else to die.
10 Likes
Yes I really liked Master of Callous but for me I enjoyed the whole more than the sum of the parts if you get what I mean.
7 Likes
@shauny, have you listened to Diary of River Song Volume 5? It’s four stories of River meeting various incarnations of the Master including Missy, War Master, Decayed Master (Beevers), and Movie Master (Roberts).
10 Likes
Agree with what others have said above - I really enjoy the WM stuff but I find it very consistently to be a 6/10 kind of deal. It’s rarely terrible, but equally there are few absolute banger episodes that I want to listen to again
9 Likes
I really should continue The War Master series. I’ve only listened to the first box set and the one with Bilis. But from what I’ve heard, it was absolutely brilliant, I loved it. Especially the Torchwood crossover!
9 Likes
I was almost going to disagree with the War Master playing a secondary character in his own series, and bring up favorite stories of mine like The Persistence of Dreams… in which the Master doesn’t appear at all, so never mind actually. Apparently I just don’t care enough to notice it.
I think what makes the series so successful isn’t that the War Master is some super special incarnation who’s way cooler than the rest (though he obviously is 
), it’s more that it’s a ‘serious’ Master range in the first place. It’s Doctor Who, but the writers are allowed more freedom and can go darker places with the stories. The other standalone Master ranges are excellent as well of course, but they touch on slightly sillier aspects of the character and this mostly reflects in the tone of the stories. The War Master can go all serious looking, and does kill off that little girl that your usual DW story would keep alive. It’s not Torchwood adult level, but it’s just doing that little thing that you know wouldn’t happen in a normal DW story that makes it so fun. I think.
13 Likes
I agree with what was said on the Dark Gallifrey interviews that Jacobi is the ‘Capable master’. I think what sets him apart is his calm collected cruelty.
12 Likes
I can’t remember who said it (Goss maybe?), but there’s also the fact that most of the other masters have that obsession with The Doctor as a big focus of their characters
It’s definitely a part of War, but with The Time War going on, he’s found something else to focus on, which really lets that sadism come out
12 Likes
Yes, I’ve listened to all of the Diary of River Song 
That box set is really, really good.
10 Likes
Agree. The masters obsession with the Doctor is the thing that holds them back and the War Master manages to focus on other things.
(Think it was Goss too)
10 Likes
The War Master is my favourite incarnation of the Master and Jacobi always gives a perfect performance, even in the stories that are not so good, he is a delight.
This incarnation is the one who wins. So many stories he comes out with a victory that the character would be denied in a normal Doctor Who story, but here he gets so many victories and it makes this incarnation all the greater for it. He is dark and sadistic, effortlessly manipulating those around him. The kind old man act into betrayal is a but tired out by this point of the range but I still enjoy stories like that regardless because the writing is generally good and Jacobi gives a superb performance. Hoping that we will have many more stories with this incarnation.
13 Likes
I’ve only heard two box sets - the first one and Anti-Genesis. I’ve spoken before about my surprise at how many people round here enjoyed Anti-Genesis because I had thought it was fairly unliked but I have to admit it didn’t do much for me (possibly because I’m not a huge fan of Genesis of the Daleks anyway). I did enjoy the first box set but Jacobi is far from my favourite incarnation of the Master.
This is an interesting point though. With the Master’s constant defeats in the TV show it’s probably helpful to see the character winning so we can understand why he keeps doing what he’s doing. But I can see how that might make these stories increasingly dark. The comments about the Nyssa/Jo box set doesn’t make me want to rush to listen to it as I’m not sure I want to hear them being psychologically tortured!
11 Likes