What If...the Master was the Last of the Time Lords? (Part 1)

Given that I've finally managed to review Utopia/The Sound of Drums/The Last of the Time Lords without snapping like a Twix Bar (somehow), I figured it was time to bust out a What If that's been knocking around in my head ever since I started this series of What Ifs...what if the Master had survived the Time War instead of the Doctor?

Now, I know that sounds a bit crazy and that we technically do have this scenario as presented in the three-parter I just managed to get through, but let's change things up a bit. I guess a better title would be "What If...the Master was the Last of the Time Lords?".

...nailed it!

After all, the Time War still remains one of the more enigmatic facets of Doctor Who canon. While we have seen fleeting glimpses of the war (such as Gallifrey in ruins from Dalek attacks) and mentions of events during the war (the Fall of Arcadia, the Nightmare Child, etc.) in episodes like The End of Time and Day of the Doctor, we haven't really gotten a definitive establishment of events as they happened on the TV series.

We know the Master was resurrected by the Time Lords for the War, presumably from being sucked into the Eye of Harmony near the end of the Paul McGann TV movie, but not much else between that and him running away and using a Chameleon Arch to become human. That being the case, let's change up the status quo just a little bit. Instead of being alone when the Dalek Emperor took control of the Cruciform, the Master was alongside his oldest friend and enemy - the Doctor. Or, rather, the Warrior as I like to know him by seeing as he declared "Doctor no more" as his first words and how the Sister of Karn who aiding in his regeneration referred to him as "Warrior".

Mind you, this part will take a lot of speculation so bear with me here...

The battle for the Cruciform was entering its fiftieth year, the Time Lords and the Daleks both unable to gain the advantage over the other side. An ancient weapon of Omega's, second only to the Moment itself, was at stake. Whichever side took control of it would inevitably turn the war in their favor and the Daleks were making stronger efforts toward doing so every day. For the Time Lords, naturally, such was unacceptable. However, the stalemate had remained, each side unable to outfight or outmaneuver the other.

The Warrior and the Master were sent with the intent of bringing a quick end to the conflict. On a world stuck forever in a time loop - dying to the Daleks again and again - the two Time Lords attempt to seek out the command keys necessary to control the weapon. While the mission from Rassilon is to take control over the weapon, the Master quickly learns that the Warrior plans to destroy it. He nearly succeeds in this venture, only to be interrupted by a Dalek taskforce that pins them down. A desperate gamble follows that sees them destroy the taskforce, but not before the Warrior is fatally shot by a Dalek blast.

The Master realizes that his old friend isn't going to regenerate. Thus, we have the Derek Jacobi Master holding the John Hurt Doctor as he dies. As he does, the man once known as Theta Sigma passes his TARDIS key to his old friend. With two words the man who had once been the Doctor, the man who had confounded and disrupted so many of his schemes throughout time and space, dies in his arms.

And those words? "No more."

The Master is broken by this, but completes the mission. A triumphant Rassilon takes possession of the Cruciform...which detonates before he can put it to use against the Daleks. Yes, the Master rigged it to explode and then promptly escapes before punishment can be dealt out. He has indeed gone rogue and, like the Doctor in the proper timeline, he raids the Omega Arsenal and takes the Moment. Putting it to use, the Master brings an end to the Time War with it. When he does so, the Doctor's TARDIS departs from Gallifrey with him onboard, sealing the entire event in a Time Lock. The Daleks and the Time Lords are destroyed utterly, wreathed in flames that light the whole of creation.

The Time War...ends.

The Master awakens, the last of the Time Lords. He finally has no one to stop him in his schemes to take over the whole of time and space. The Eternals have left the universe in despair, Gallifrey and Skaro are both cinders floating about in space, and even the Doctor - his oldest friend and enemy - is gone forever. They aren't coming back. Rather than the relief and joy he'd thought he'd feel at this event, the exhilaration and certainty of it all, all the Master feels is emptiness. There's no point to any of it, anymore. The War has left him completely drained, to say nothing of losing all that he did.

The TARDIS lands, the Master finding himself on the planet Earth in the 20th century, one of the Doctor's favorite playgrounds as he knows only too well. However, he doesn't leave the TARDIS. He sits there, thinking things over. All that he has seen, all that he has done mulling around in his head. All of his lives in his first regeneration cycle spent in the pursuit of power, when it has given him nothing but a dead world and people and a rackety old TARDIS that had been the symbol of all that tormented him for so, so long.

Perhaps, he thinks, this new regeneration cycle is a chance to turn over a new leaf. To be better. Maybe, just maybe, some of what the Doctor said was right. But how to be different? It is something he struggles with. However, like in The Curse of Fatal Death, the Master resolves to change his ways and follow the Doctor's example. Looking over the TARDIS' historical records, the Master finds that the Doctor has one constant throughout his lives that helped drive him to do good - companions.

But where to find a companion? That is one of the things the TARDIS historical records aren't so helpful about. However, he is now on Earth, perhaps this would be the perfect place to find a such a companion. Checking the TARDIS scanners, he begins to formulate a plan...and that's where we're going to leave off for now. What is the Master's plan? Will we be following the same formula as the "If the Doctor have never met Rose Tyler" series? The answer to at least one of those questions will be answered upon our return with the introduction of the Master's first companion. See you then!

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