OOC: Application (Boomtown)

Player's Name: Ros
Are you over 16? Yes
Characters Played Here: Rex Lewis, Marty Faraday, Jonathan Crane

Character: The Master
Series/Canon: Doctor Who
From When? From when he gets shot in "Last of the Time Lords."

History: Like any other Time Lord, Koschei (who would later become the renegade Time Lord known as “the Master”) was born and raised on the planet Gallifrey. A member of the House of Oakdown, Koschei was taken to the Time Lord Academy at the age of 8, where he was inducted by being made to look into the Untempered Schism. While most were inspired by it, the sheer enormity of what he was facing ended up driving him mad. As per fancy new canon, ever since Koschei went insane, the sound of drums invaded his head, bringing with them a never-ending call for war and destruction. This event may’ve also been linked to the fact that a young Doctor had very recently bartered the young Master’s life away to Death, rendering him her servant forever in exchange for a murder the Doctor had committed to save him from a bully. [Source: BFA: Master]

Koschei went through the Academy, diligently earning high marks with the rest of his prominent classmates until he earned his Time Lord stripes (so to speak). By the time he and the Doctor graduated, their close friendship had grown distant, souring more and more with his increasing instability. While still in his first Regeneration, Koschei had taken on a companion and pursued the Doctor throughout space, at the request of the Time Lords. However, upon discovering his companion was a spy sent to monitor him, the last traces of good in him were eliminated, and whatever that was “Koschei” died and was replaced with the Master… who was then tossed into a black hole by the Doctor. After crawling out of the black hole with most of his Regenerations wasted, the Master vowed revenge on the Doctor. Over the centuries, the Master became a constant thorn in the Doctor's side, returning again and again to destroy his former best friend/greatest enemy through numerous schemes of varying ridiculousness. Although he was always defeated, it never seemed to stop the Master from trying again and again, and he didn’t even let little things like death stop him in his obsessive campaign against the Doctor.

For more details of his exploits, see this article. It should be noted that the events of Master are a bit nebulous in where they fit in the timeline. I'm going to assume they happen after Survival and before the Eighth Doctor TV movie (since the Master's alias is described as looking like a burn victim in Master, and he was just left on an exploding planet in Survival...).

Finally, after an incident involving the Eye of Harmony, the Master was thought to be permanently disposed of. But then a conflict arose-- the Time War-- in which the Time Lords felt they needed to resurrect the Master. His ruthlessness and cunning made him well-poised to act as a soldier against the Daleks. However, when the Dalek Emperor took control of the Cruciform, the newly resurrected Master became so frightened that he traveled to the end of the universe (literally) to escape the conflict and utilized a Chameleon Arch to rewrite his DNA. Through this act, the Master became human, with his Time Lord "essence" trapped within a fob watch, which had a perception filter that would make the human Master unable to pay too much attention to it. He became Professor Yana, a brilliant scientist who'd devoted his life to the last of humanity escape a dying world to go to Utopia. It was when the Utopia project was nearly complete that the Doctor returned to his life, along with a few companions. Once one of the companions caught sight of the Professor’s fob watch, her interest caused him to fixate on it. As he looked at the watch, something was calling to him, something unexplainable. When the others ran off to help complete the Utopia project, Professor Yana opened up his watch and the Time Lord essence/genetic code seeped into him, returning the Master to life. His first acts of evil were to let the murderous “futurekind” into the facility, send the rocket to Utopia off course, and eliminate his assistant Chantho by electrocuting her. Although he was mortally wounded by his dying assistant, the Master managed to run into the Doctor’s TARDIS and lock it, keeping the Doctor and his pals from getting in. As the Master began to Regenerate, he declared that if the Doctor could make himself young and strong, so could he.

And thus, the Master Regenerated: younger, stronger, manic, and possibly more insane than ever. Sadly, before he could hijack the TARDIS to wherever he wanted to, the Doctor fused the coordinates, forcing him to only be able to travel between the year 100 Trillion and early 21st Century Earth.

Under the pseudonym "Harold Saxon," the Master became a high-ranking minister within the Ministry of Defense. Through this position, he created the Archangel Network, which allowed him to slowly hypnotize humanity on a world-wide scale and convince them to vote him in as Prime Minister. It was during this time that he also acquired a companion and wife, Lucy Cole. Although she'd been a harmless, rather sweet girl, the Master showed her the end of the universe, convincing her that there was no point to existence as it presently stood. It’s likely that as the Master came to realize that he and the Doctor were the last two Time Lords left in existence, that his entire planet and people (much as he hated them) had been reduced to dust, the Master went even more insane. Presumably, without the other Time Lords around, the Master had less and less control over the noise in his head, and so the drums became loud enough that he couldn’t silence them at all (at least, it’s one of the most logical explanations for his sudden twist from gentleman villain to lunatic manchild).

When the Doctor and co. managed to catch up to him, it was too late: the Master was Prime Minister. His first act as Prime Minister was to declare first contact with an alien race known as the Toclafane, who were thought to be a race of childlike, floating spheres (but were actually the Utopia refugees from the end of the universe, degenerated and insane and striving to survive by any means necessary). Organizing a meeting with the President of the United States, he and other important figures met on the Valiant, a floating airship. There, the Master had the President killed, defeated the Doctor (by utilizing his laser screwdriver and aging his rival 100 years), and unleashed six billion Toclafane upon Earth, ordering them to kill one tenth of the population. Although the Toclafane's actions should've created a paradox (as they were the last humans, murdering their ancestors), the Master had already cannibalized the TARDIS and converted it into a Paradox Machine, which took care of those sorts of timeline disparities.

The Master ruled from the Valiant for a year, destroying whole countries, developing massive weapons, and tormenting the captive Doctor and his friends. Oh, and he also danced around a lot. Planet Earth became work camps and bases for fleets of rockets. Things were looking up for the Master! Except… before the Master could fire off his rockets and enact his plan of creating a new Gallifreyan empire, the Doctor managed to restore himself to his prime and become god-like, by using the Master’s own Archangel Network against him (through the power of prayer and Deus Ex Machina). When everything was said and done, the Doctor saved the day, reversing whole miserable year of the Master's rule. The Doctor then sentenced the Master to a pretty hideous fate: he would keep the Master in the TARDIS and look after him. They'd travel the universe together and-- ughhhh it was just too much for the Master to handle. Luckily, before he could get hauled away, he was shot by his crazy wife.

As he lay dying in the Doctor's arms, the Master finally found a way to triumph over his hated enemy: he refused to Regenerate. In an almost heartfelt moment (well, as heartfelt as the Master can be), the Master asked if the drums of war would finally stop, and then he died, leaving the Doctor, once more, the last Time Lord.

Personality: The Master in his present incarnation is a bit of a departure from his past selves. Though insane and obsessed with domination and destruction, the Master in times past always carried with him the air of a gentleman. He was a classic, sophisticated villain; the Doctor’s Moriarty. However, with the trauma inflicted on him in the Time War, coupled with his attempt at becoming a twisted version of the hyperactive Tenth Doctor, along with the sheer sense of loneliness and emptiness that cropped up when he realized that every other Time Lord in existence was dead has led to this Master being very different from his previous incarnations. Of course, while the Master may have changed repeatedly over the centuries, one thing has always remained consistent with him: he’s a bastard.

The Master, as he stands now, is more of a manic, vicious, utterly spiteful child who behaves like a parody of a human being. He puts a great deal of affect into his voice/actions/behavior, and treats life like a performance. The world is a theatre, and he seems to be playing the part of a person. This lends something inherently off or alien about his persona; however, to all but those who know what he’s capable of, it’s easily brushed off, overlooked, and ignored, because he’s just got such a greaaaat smile and a winning personality! In this Regeneration, the Master has a youthful and extremely expressive face, and each expression he makes is highly exaggerated, to the point where it seems like he’s constantly mocking others (hint: he is). When he’s serious, he’s deadly serious, and when he’s happy, he’s got a great big grin on his face, and-- oh, if you’re sad? Well, then, he’s just so sad with you, and will give you the sweetest, most caring pout you’ll ever see, and maybe a great big hug while he’s at it.

As in all of his regenerations, this Master absolutely relishes victory and success. He'll gloat endlessly over his victories and is very outwardly expressive when he's happy. He'll gleefully clap his hands or dance around, laugh loudly, openly mock others-- basically, behave like a terrible, sadistic brat. This shows even when he's upset, as he's known to scream "It's not fair!" and suffer from a sort of evil villain tantrum. In his interactions with women, he displays an exaggerated sexual interest in them, which again manifests like someone playing at being a man. There’s something inherently immature about the way he relates to women, as though his over-the-top dancing, goosing, and flirting are all for show. Since Time Lords don’t really have a sex drive the way humans do and the Master thinks of humans as stunted primates, he probably just affects overt sexual interest as yet another way of dominating and controlling others, by making them feel valued, cultivating loyalty, or showing them that their only value to him is how attractive he considers them.

Underneath the performance, the ‘childish’ side of his persona, is a very twisted and angry creature who is in constant (mental) pain from the noise in his head. The Master is a narcissistic megalomaniac, a bit of a sadist (more dealing in emotional sadism than physical; he’s not interested in Hostel style torture, and he doesn’t typically enjoy getting his hands dirty), and obscenely arrogant, vain, and prideful. The Master has sociopathic tendencies (but he's NOT a sociopath), making it difficult to connect with others. He develops no real affection for anybody (except for himself) and is seemingly incapable of self-sacrifice. This means, if he has to destroy himself to destroy his enemies and succeed in his plans, he won't do it. The only time he has ever made an exception to this rule was at the end of his life, when the Doctor had been begging him to regenerate, and even then, he had a backup plan to return. His death was, really, the ultimate act of spite, but don't count on the Master ever going to such lengths unless he's got an ace up his sleeve.

Ultimately, his own survival and happiness are his only real concerns, and his happiness is generally dependent on how powerful he is and how miserable everybody else is. He can't be trusted for one second, as his only real desires are 1) to defeat the Doctor, 2) be the Master of everything, and 3) have a damn good time. Everybody else is just a tool or pawn to him, something to be stepped on as he reaches his ultimate goal. All other lifeforms are as insects to him; unimportant and to be destroyed on a whim. The only time he’s even capable of caring for others is when the “darker” side of his personality-- the utterly insane part of him-- is locked away. Without the madness and the drive for chaos and violence running through his head, the Master is a perfectly affable and sweet man, and he’ll dedicate himself to helping others. He’s also capable of becoming attached to others and, yes, falling in love. This tendency to be a decent person whenever he forgets he's the Master is evidenced by Utopia and the Big Finish Audio The Master. So, if he ever suffers from a bout of amnesia for whatever reason, it’s likely that the Master will revert to this kinder persona, at least for as long as there isn’t anything making him crazy. It also means that there probably is something in him that has the capacity for good, some tiiiiiny seed of decency buried deep down inside him, but the likelihood of anybody ever unlocking that side of him without making deals with Death or giving him a new set of memories is very slim.

The Master is quick-witted and resourceful, and he’s an expert in technology, history, and science. He can create a number of inventions, usually weapons, and is basically dead brilliant. Like the Doctor, the Master is a genius and is known to be a better TARDIS mechanic than his rival. Rather than utilize his intellect to do good works (barring his times as Professor Yana and Dr. John Smith, which had been devoted to helping others), the Master prefers to develop weapon after weapon, each more cruel than the last. His sadism and cruelty are actually his greatest weaknesses; he'd stop in the middle of his plans just to kill an insect, and he’ll usually leave enemies alive just to torment them further. He also takes great relish in using the Doctor’s compassion against him by using anything the Doctor cares about as a weapon (directly, in the case of the Toclafane and Kamelion, or indirectly, by tormenting them to upset the Doctor).

With the Doctor, the Master's feelings are a bit complex-- in that he actually has real (albeit terribly unpleasant) feelings for the Doctor. Although he hates the Doctor, it's in a different way than he hates everybody else. The Master is absolutely fixated on his enemy. He wants to defeat the Doctor, destroy his spirit, crush everything he holds dear (which is the only reason he even pays attention to the planet Earth), but he also cannot fathom a universe without the Doctor. This is why, even when victorious, the Master won't ever kill the Doctor (although he'll certainly place him in life or death situations), despite being able to. Perhaps he feels as though life without a worthy adversary would be dull, or maybe there are residual feelings from when they were friends. His hatred for and obsession with the Doctor drives him, but their rivalry has been going on for so long now that it's hard to pinpoint a real reason for it (although it’s probably got something to do with when the Doctor threw him into a black hole). The Master despises the fact that the Doctor has seen him in his weakest moments, back when they were children on Gallifrey, and the fact that the Doctor is the only one who truly "knows" him fills him with immense resentment. At his core, he is diametrically opposed to everything the Doctor loves; he's a force of chaos, destruction, and maliciousness, a foil to the Doctor's compassion and heroism.

Deep down inside, he is absolutely terrified of-- yet dependent on-- the Doctor, even if he won't admit it. His greatest fears all revolve around the Doctor: the Doctor victorious, the Doctor laughing over him, or the Doctor showing him compassion, uttering the words "I forgive you." This is why the thought of being "kept" by the Doctor was so unbearable that the Master allowed himself to die (well, that and the opportunity to truly break the Doctor's hearts by robbing him of the only other being in the universe who could've fully understood him, being a Time Lord and all. And he had a plan to come back from that death, anyway). And yet, according to the Master, "a cosmos without the Doctor scarcely bears thinking about."

When it comes to plotting, the Master tends towards ridiculous, over-the-top acts of villainy; however, he’s also very patient. He has a tendency to blend in with his surroundings, take on a respectable position within the community/world he’s trying to dominate or destroy, and use whatever influence he gains to his advantage. The Master prides himself on his cunning and intelligence, to the point where it makes him a bit stupid. He has a ridiculous amount of hubris, which causes him to assume that people will react to things the way he would (see: his assumption that Martha Jones was gathering the pieces of a MAGICAL ANTI-TIME LORD GUN to kill him with), rather than look at their own person and predict the more likely outcome. He can be blind to the obvious when he underestimates a person or an emotion, and this typically leads to his downfall. You'd think he'd learn... And this is how, despite being a mega-genius with nine centuries of scheming under his belt, the Master is still defeated by plucky companions.

Why do you think your character would work in this setting? The Master would've taken Eli's offer in order to escape imprisonment with the Doctor (and his own death). He's not particularly interested in seeing New Dodge flourish; HOWEVER, he will also not be interested in destroying it, simply because it's too small scale for him to really care about either way. So, that, at least, is some incentive for him to behave while he's in the settlement. In addition, he's interested in the Achamarian time/space technology, and will be either trying to steal it or bargain with Eli for it in exchange for his six months here.

Inventory:
-Snazzy suits
-A fancy ring
-A laser screwdriver

Samples: And now for the hard part! If you need a prompt for your samples, refer back to the Applications Page.

Third-Person Sample:
The Master, Rose and Jack have a picnic.
The Master and Ace have a picnic.
The Master and Libby have a picnic.

First-Person Sample: [From lastvoyages]
Citizens, rejoice. Today is a day of new beginnings. In response to the quiet murmurings of dissent, dissatisfaction, disloyalty and all those other nasty little 'd' words, I have racked my brains to work out how to best serve you, my dear and loyal subjects, with a long-term solution. Oh, I know, you're worried about food, forced labour, overeager police officers-- all very reasonable concerns, I assure you, but ah... [He pauses, taps a finger against his lips.] I believe your priorities are all askew. After all, has nobody ever stopped and asked: [He pauses, then shrugs exaggeratedly.] What about the children?

[He shakes his head, tutting.] What, citizens, are we doing for our children? Our future. Education is in shambles, they've no place to run and play, and... [He leans in close to the camera, as though imparting a secret.] let's face it, mum and dad, you're not doing much to raise them in a proper, kid friendly environment.

[He pulls back and grins charmingly, ever the politician.] And that is why my esteemed Ministers will be enforcing a new initiative: [Pause. WAIT FOR IT. He says this with relish:] The No Child Left Behind Policy.

Doesn't that just tug at your heartstrings? Just a little? No? I know it does mine.

Effective immediately, all children will be rounded up and sent to their Master's new, state of the art educational centres, where they will learn to become the proper, law abiding citizens our world requires. There, they will be under the state's care, and they will be cared for... [And he puts on SUCH A KIND AND SYMPATHETIC FACE.] as if they were my own children. [A beat.] Think of it as an extended summer camp for the next, ohhh... twelve years? And remember: [GRINNNN.] No child will be left behind.