Anthony Ainley
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Can't Believe it's been 8 years a true great loved his portrayal as The Master and seemed a genuinely nice person wish i could of had the chance to have met him R.I.P
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That chuckle used to seriously creep me out as a kid!
Survival was a fantastic performance. Would have been nice to see more of that.
He was the first Master I ever saw
I think the first time I saw the Delgado Master was during a repeat of either The Sea Devils or The Daemons on BBC2 in 1992. It was part of a season of repeats from each of the Doctors. That was also the first time I saw Hartnell (The Time Meddler) and the first time I saw Troughton in a story of his own (The Mind Robber)
But it wasn't possible to keep him as a complete psychopath, it would not have worked for the show. So by Logopolis episode three he'd become a more standard Who villain.
It was interesting that he murdered Nyssa's father and Tegan's aunt - and was responsible for the destruction of Nyssa's home planet (killing everyone she knew). But Nyssa or Tegan were never allowed to have a storyline where their hatred for him was expanded upon/resolved.
Personally, I think he played it very well, and I never thought there was anything 'pantomime' about his performance.
He's part of the commentary team on Keeper of Traken and there is a mini-documentary about him on Planet of Fire
I think there often was, but I suspect this was forced on him when it happened. I did come across a story somewhere about two fans who got the chance to visit the set. They spoke to Anthony during a break and confessed that they sometimes did find his performance a bit panto. Anthony said nothing to this, but when filming re-commenced, he began to give a very chilling, subtle and menacing performance. The director stopped him and asked him to make it a bit more OTT, and Anthony obliged with the type of performance the fans had thought panto, to the director's evident satisfaction. Anthony then looked at the fans with a look of "You see what I'm up against?"
I can't vouch for the truth of that story, but certainly Anthony showed how great he could be in Survival.
I remember as a kid ,in the days before spoilers,not realising he was King John's champion until he revealed himself at the end and being genuinely shocked.
"Oh my dear Doctor,you have been naive"
Seem to remember even the Radio Times didn't publish his name in the credits that week to keep the surprise.
Happy days! Now we would have found out six months before filming.
I saw a interview on youtube of him and he looks strange clean shaven.
Yeah, it happened too late as was often the case. In some ways, though, the break from the show for two Seasons may have helped and maybe that's what should happened earlier during the 80's rather than bringing him back every single Season.
So what did you think watching them all for the first time?
Definitely not, it would have spoilered on this forum and elsewhere had they been about in those days. It's probably why the disguise element of his character has been discarded in the New series.
I think in Planet Of Fire he definitely did. I think that was where he was at his worst panto-wise. You compare that performance to Logopolis and Survival and you'll see there is a huge difference in his portrayal.
That happened three times, in Castrovalva, Timeflight and The Kings Demons
I remember being surprised at him being clean-shaven when he appeared as a WWI U-Boat officer in The Land That Time Forgot
I thought they were both very good and along with Jon Pertwee I enjoy them as much as any of "my" Doctors
Spyders Web
Ainley was more than capable as an actor, but as I said with drivel like Time-Flight, it's hard to polish a turd!
Oh dear lord . . . and WHAT a turd it was! Made worse by the fact it directly followed an absolute classic like Earthshock. Talk about peaks and troughs.
And was there ever an explanation as to why the Master dressed up as Kalid and used all those strange incantations? Poor Anthony Ainley . . .
What made it even worse is that he pretended to be Kalid even when there was no-one else there. It was a nonsense. One of the worst stories ever IMO.
I know JNT got criticised for some of his casting decisions, but I can't think of another actor who could have taken the part so brilliantly established by Roger Delgado and made it his own in the way that Ainley did.
I can well believe that story. Doctor Who was plagued by some poor direction at times during the '80s, as Peter Davison has commented before.
He also didn't need to do it OTT, as he had a natural sinister quality and was a good actor.
There's a good quote from Anthony Ainley:
"I once sat next to a girl in a play and had to say 'Would you like some tea?', and I said it and she broke rehearsal and said 'My God you're evil!'. I guess it's something I have."