Motivating the Master
The Master is a difficult character to motivate properly, as his
TARDIS provides him with all he needs for his material survival and
gives him the freedom of all time and space. That freedom in fact
keeps him separate from any society he might wish to dominate. What
really is his life-style of choice? Ruler of the universe surrounded
by minions in a command structure, or self-centered loner wandering the
galaxy by TARDIS? Well, lots of people don't really have the issues
in their lives all neatly sorted out, and villains should be no
exception, particular those who miss their objectives as often as
the Master does with the Doctor on his tail. Still, in order for the
Master character to work well in a script, he either needs a
particularly grand ambition to deviously work towards, or he needs
to be in some form of trouble causing him to work to regain what
he originally had. Ideally, both ideas should be in play. Revenge
is yet a third possible motivational factor, but I find it to be
the weakest in terms of creating quality entertainment, and insufficient
to sustain a complex character like the Master over the long-term.
"Doctor Who" is definitely a long-term sci-fi adventure series.
Robert Holmes' motivation for the Master in this introductory
story is too deep into fuzzy territory for my liking. Obviously,
much of what he does is simply a continuation of the sparring with
the Doctor that he reportedly enjoyed so much in the past. Okay fine,
no problems there. But what exactly does the Master want out of an
alliance with the Autons? Obviously Holmes wants to bring them back
in a sequel, hoping they'll be as effective again as they were before.
But the Master just puts too much careful planning into aiding the
Autons regain a strong foothold on Earth, for one line from the Doctor
to reverse the Master's allegiances in the Autons' moment of triumph.
Talk about the Master working hard to climb the ladder of success,
only to realize at the top that he's leaned it against the wrong
polarity of the neutron flow. Ooops! Might be believable if he
was more of a brawn-based idiot and not such a devious long-term thinker.
Mind you, as far as endings go, there is so much fast-paced
give and take throughout the conclusion of "Terror of the Autons"
that the Master's motivations are only a brief momentary gaffe
and don't detract much from the superficial enjoyment of the story.
The moment itself only needs one little communication of betrayal from
the Nestenes, if not conversationally then through the Autons' actions,
to indicate to the Master that the Doctor actually is right about them
not giving a damn about him. Something must CHANGE in the Master's
relationship with the Autons at this point; the Doctor's word is
not enough by itself to believably turn the Master's allegiances.
So how exactly did that allegiance begin? How does a Time-Lord
make contact with a Nestene, earn its trust, and gain command of its
Autons? Would the Master make such a deal without either a plan
to remain in a good position in the Nestene hierarchy, or a plan from
the beginning to discard the Nestenes after he's used them? Perhaps
there never was any deal... yet. Perhaps the Master just found out
that Nestenes like plastic and started giving it to them. His final
flip-flop still isn't believable enough though.
And really, what does he want with Earth? To destroy it in
revenge and escape? No previous relationship between the Master and
the Earth is described to fuel that. Does he plan to stay on Earth
to rule it through the Autons? The Master's plans for the Earth
flip-flop about a little too easily all through his time on the
program to make good sense.
The Master really replaces Channing from
"Spearhead From Space" (story no. 51),
and if Channing was a well-disguised Auton, how did he ever come into
being? How would the first control sphere meteorite find its way into
a plastic factory to turn itself into a Channing Auton? No explanation is
offered, Channing is like a chicken who materializes out of thin air
and then invents the process of the eggs. It's easier to see how the
Master arrives on the scene, but why is quite another matter.
Episode One will probably remain my favourite due to all of
the classic introductions it contains and the fact that its structure
holds together fairly well. Episode Three is next on my list, as
it is possibly the most creatively directed episode of this story,
and gets a nearly perfect execution all the way through, demonstrating
the essential creepiness of the Autons and giving them some great
expository action scenes. Episode
Four begins very cheesily for the first fifteen minutes, as the script
is not great at all on dialogue or on applying suspenseful threats
where they need to be for good story dynamics, and the production
also displays a lot of its cheapness at this point. The last ten
minutes make up for this, with a fast-paced conclusion that provides
lots of action for UNIT vs. the Autons as well as plenty for all of
the regular characters to do.
Episode Two is the least effective
in the story, looking cheap and filled with inane scenes of characters
who don't get acted out all that well at all. The script could have
given us decent and proper exploration scenes inside the Master's TARDIS
instead of wasting the Doctor's screen time with old worn out prisoner
vs. interrogator dynamics with Rossini/Russell and our friend
Roy Stewart in a leopard suit. (Stewart is more famous as Toberman in
"The Tomb of the Cybermen" (story no. 37).)
The one effective scene of this episode features
Harry Towb as Mr. McDermott, a fine actor putting a gem of a performance
into this touch-and-go production. He plays well off of Delgado and
Michael Wisher. Wisher's natural features are seen in this story better
than in any other, with his face clean-shaven and his haircut neat and
trim, and his acting is
superb as always in a role that becomes stranger and more demanding
as it progresses. I'm not sure I like the Rex Farrel character too
much towards the end of the story, but this is mostly in the scripting.
Finally, let's look at what the Doctor actually gets to do in this
adventure. Jon Pertwee is not really at his best in this one. His
scene with the holographic Time-Lord in episode one doesn't work as
well as it really should, and to be realistic, holograms don't really
need to rip the ether of time and space wide open with the usual
TARDIS sound effect upon appearing and disappearing. (Nor do heroes
look particularly heroic asking holograms to deal with bombs). Jon
Pertwee also seems to have accidentally stolen some of
Richard Franklin's lines about hypnosis early in episode two and made
an awkward cover-up, and his first confrontation with the Master in
episode four is less than impressive. The rest of the Doctor's
shortcomings originate in the script. He seems all right in the first
half, a wily investigator as well as scientist and outcast Time Lord,
and a really likeable, friendly, reasonable kind of guy at that. Robert
Holmes' use of the Doctor's lab as a "home base" set throughout the
story is also quite excellent in pushing investigation to the forefront
of story dynamics. The Doctor conscientiously boils out the contents of
the Master's
weapon to keep it out of UNIT hands - a nice touch. His character
is not so pure in the second half, getting irritable and provoking
conflict where none be needed.... also requiring rescuing and not
contributing a heck of a lot to the plot resolution. Proving that
the Daffodils are dangerous, and exactly how they are dangerous,
is no great achievement - Jo and Mike Yates make more contributions
to that and to the problem of the ugly plastic doll. The Doc also
seems like a weak wiener when it comes to confronting the Master,
winding up helping the bad guys and requiring rescuing and
sacrificial cavalry characters to do their thing. He can take credit
for a clever way of giving the Brigadier his report in Morse code,
and that's about it apart from the ridiculous one-line job of
rerouting the Master's loyalties. He has to share the credit of
defeating the Nestenes with the lead villain, and nothing really goes
well for the good-guys after their defeat.
Dudley Simpson's music for the Master is limited in this
particular story to a very effective and recognizable electronic
sting, plus a "hypnosis" track, the two being played back-to-back
over the Master's entrance. The rest of the music is quite bold,
including some very distinctive melodic tracks played with harshly
simplistic electronic tones, at other times very short notes or
phrases bubble out with fresh creativity in electronic sound. The
two styles manage to complement each other fairly well in this
story, and though "Terror of the Autons" is one of the season's
better scores, only the two above-mentioned "Master" tracks survived
to be heard in later stories of the year.
"Terror of the Autons" is aptly named, a story whose strength
is in the horror department, attempting to frighten and terrorize
and upset the daily British rituals of tea-time and what-not. For
some fans, this is what Doctor Who should be about, but not me.
Not all of the terrors work anyway, so it's a bit of a hit and
miss job of finding its own target. Personally, I prefer to aim at
different ideals, so this adventure will not be ranked high as
a personal season favourite of mine.
Final Line: "I'm not [worried about our next encounter with the Master].
In fact I'm quite looking forward to it."
Rating: Disgusting. A lot of average citizens died horribly in this
round with the Master. If the fans want to look
forward to the next adventure of Doctor vs. Master,
fine; they know it's entertainment, they know from
the fuzzy CSO definition, rubber masks, and
shrapnel-free explosions how fake the loss of life
is anyway. The hero of the show does not have the
same luxury if he is going to make any attempt to
stay in character, and needs to show more concern
for all those innocent lives that will be lost in
the next round with the Master.
International Titles:
Deutsch: (Der Meisterschlag der Autons)
Magyar: "Autonok terrorja"
Français: (La terreur des Autons)
Русский: "Террор автонов"
This story is available on DVD and VHS video,
re-colourized as it was meant to be seen:
