The Time War is over, and the Master is the victor.
Without his people or his old nemesis the Doctor to stop him, the Master seemed poised to take the whole of space and time by storm and shape it to his iron will...except that he didn't. Crushed by all he had seen, all he had done, he was unable to cope. All of that struggle, all of those years of the Doctor telling him he would come to a bad end, and he finally had.
He had nothing now...with only a lone TARDIS and as long as his new regeneration cycle would hold out to wander the universe.
To fill his emptiness, the Master decides to look through the TARDIS historical records to see what makes a good companion. The Doctor had many in his lives, and the Master believes that it might do him well to do the same. In his wandering about for a while, the Master finds no one that he connects with. There are people who fit the criteria, but...
His first few adventures don't go so well. Like the Doctor, the newly minted Master tries to do good, but has no qualms about executing people or allowing others to die if it gets him closer to his goal. Most of the people he runs into (at least those that survive) have no desire to travel with him. Needless to say, he's rather irritated by this...and between adventures in the TARDIS, he decides to take the amoral scientist route - if no person exists who wants to travel with him, he'll create one.
Yes, I'm stealing a bit from Russell T. Davies and his original idea for Rose Tyler here, but I'm going at it in a slightly different way as you will soon see.
Focusing on Earth, in the city of London (and noting the Doctor's odd proclivity to going there in the 20th and 21st centuries in a little bit of leaning on the Fourth Wall), the Master journeys to and fro through time to find and aid in the pairing of people with genetics that he believes would be most conducive to creating a good companion. After some work, finally, a certain couple known as the Mitchells have a son: Adam.
Yep, I'm finally giving Adam Mitchell a go. The two episode blunder that could have been so much if Russell hadn't had the need to use him to insist that Rose Tyler was so, so much better. Will Adam fare better in this timeline than in the Prime one? Well, let's have a look at him.
In the main universe, Adam was kind of a smarmy jackass who had his head completely up his own ass. I still hold that the Doctor was being pretty reckless by leaving that future tech in his head, but Adam really had his licks coming for what he did.
Adam becomes a tech whiz as in the original Prime timeline and, when he hits the age of 19, the Master decides that he is, in fact, ready. As Adam is getting prepped to go to Cambridge, the Master unveils the truth to him - he's an alien from another world and he seeks to bring Adam with him throughout time and space. Adam expresses some concern that he won't be back in time to go to university, but the Traveler does remind him that it is a time machine. Adam accepts, and away they go.
After spending almost two decades crafting Adam, I would think the Time Lord formerly known as the Master might have softened ever so slightly. Seeing a human grow up almost day to day, nurturing, teaching, perhaps...just maybe, the Master would understand just a little better why the Doctor had such an interest in these creatures.
Adam does surprise the Traveler, revealing that he knew the Time Lord was there throughout a lot of his childhood and chose to say nothing. Every time the Master came with his hypnosis tricks and a new persona, while Adam's parents were fooled, Adam was not. The Master congratulates himself on doing so well in molding the boy and they head off into space and time.
He also likely refers to himself as "just a wanderer" to avoid any worries concerning his chosen name, so Adam will likely refer to him as "Wanderer".
However, very soon, the Master finds himself dissatisfied with this. Adam was a smarmy, Adric-esque individual in the main timeline. Here, Adam is cold, analytical. He's logical almost bordering on being sociopathic and having a dim view of what most would call "morality", and the Master doesn't see that, at least not yet.
All the Master knows is that his hard work isn't paying off. Things aren't improving. People die, sometimes by his or even Adam's own hand to get the job done more quickly. While the Master himself doesn't see the problem with this, he knows that the Doctor would and that's what is truly bothering him. He doesn't let Adam know about this, and Adam seems to be none the wiser.
The irony here being that the Master has essentially created...himself, just without the egomania.
Or so one would think.
Eventually, the Master and Adam arrive at a certain underground vault in Utah in the year 2012. They are captured by one Henry Van Statten and things more or less go off as they do in the Prime Reality - the Master coming face to face with the Metaltron aka the "last" Dalek. His attempt to kill it likewise goes as well as the Doctor's, with Van Statten's men locking him up and getting him ready for dissection. Adam manages to get in to see the Dalek and, like Rose in the Prime Universe, touches it. However, the artron energy/DNA absorption has a curious effect on the Dalek - namely that it becomes even more insanely deranged.
Adam manages to escape the Vault, but all of Van Statten's men are slaughtered without effort. Now, however, there's a Dalek trapped in the basement of a high security facility and the Master knows that it will eventually get out. The Dalek begins hacking the systems and attempting to break out as the Master prepares for battle against it. Eventually, they do destroy it though not before the Dalek mentions that what it extrapolated from Adam not only rejuvenated it but renewed its purpose - something which worries the Master quite a bit.
In the end, Van Statten gets FUBAR'd as before and the vault is going to be filled with cement. The Master and Adam take their leave, the Master now beginning to think he might have made a mistake...
...and that's where Part 2 is going to leave off. Will the Master be able to repair the damage he's done? Is Adam blissfully unaware of his nature or is he simply biding his time? Find out whenever I get around to Part 3.
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