As I have only watched nu who it would have to be the episodes with Martha and the Doctor.

I suggest you watch the Roger Delgado stories.

I thought the Yana reveal was one of the best of NuWho.

Perfectly judged.

I'm not so interested in The Master as Moriarity in Classic Who.

Heresy, I know

Not heresy! I enjoyed the Master in Classic Who but Simms version took it to another level. The fact people call him a bad actor and 'pantomime' in his portrayal would do well to explain quite why they believe there was any subtleties or nuance in the other versions. I just don't see it. The Master was often just a 'tying a screaming damsel to some train tracks' away from being a lame archetype of the mustache twirling comedy villain. Simms Master was more complex and interesting.

Logopolis

Deadly Assassin, with the decaying husk Master.

http://www.dvdactive.com/images/revi...2009/5/da3.jpg

One of the first Dr Who stories I ever saw and the image of him has stayed with me since then.

Personally thought Roger Delgado was great and played the part with skill and wit. Favourite performance would be The Daemons or Terror of the Autons. Ainley had his moments and think he's particularly good in Castrovalva and Survival. The Deadly Assassin I love, rubbish title and all. Simm was fine and particularly liked the scene where he kills the rest of the Cabinet off by gassing them. Quite chilling.

Whittling it down to one, I'll go with The Daemons.

My favourite Master is Roger Delgado but my favourite Master story is The Deadly Assassin.

I'm with Grisonaut on the YANA reveal, and Michael_Eve, killing the cabinet after lasting into them for being turn coats.

"mcaum mm mhe mas", " what did you say sir? ", Simm removes his mask - "because of the gas"

I also loved reading the stories featuring the classic matter. When i grow up (!) i want to dress in black and have a pointy black goatee.

I never tire of this vid:


http://youtu.be/fKsIrGUV4ew


EDIT: Bugger, posted the same link on two different Master Threads, my posts are crossing the dimensional boundary .....

I don't know, either "The Daemons", "The Sea Devils", or "Survival". They're easily some of the better Master stories, and easily are those Masters at the best.

I have to mention "Smoke and Mirrors" too. Janet Fielding did a very good job voicing Ainely's Master, and it was just fun picturing him in that story.

Gosh! That is difficult. You have put me on the spot grazemytvaddict. There are so many good ones. Terror of the Autons, Claws of Axos, The Daemons, Mind of Evil, The Time Monster, Logopolis, and The Sound of Drums two parter.

For me, it would have to be The Claws of Axos. Such a good story. Great chemistry between Doctor and Master, when they are in the TARDIS together.

This is a good clip from COA, that I found on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGFOU8WvLxs

I think The Sea Devils would be my second favourite Master story.

These clips from The Sea Devils are brilliant! I like them a lot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-YbsiU9bUY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adgnJ37i8DE

My favourite Master is Anthony Ainley, although, as I said above, Claws of Axos is my favourite Master story. My favourite Anthony Ainley Master story would have to be Planet of Fire. The ending with the Master supposidly burning and 'dying', is so believable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNneMUfdm28

For me, The Master is a cold, calculating villain hell bent on Universal Destrbuction. In Classic Who Delgado played him with as a calm, but charming villain, his interpretation was not at all 'moustache twirling' as you call it.
Peter Pratt and Geoffrey Beevers played him with less charm but still played him calm and menacing.
Anthony Ainley started off this way too. Logopolis is my fave Master story as it showed him being cold, clinical and duplitious, everything a Master should be. After that it did go downhill, there were some panto moments until Survival when Ainley was back to his serious best.
Eric Roberts did a good job in the TV Movie until the last third then he just went OTT.
Derek Jacobi took the character back to the Delgado days and made him cold and clinical again.
John Simn, great actor, superb in Life On Mars but seriously disagree he was a great Master.
He lacked the charm and clinical deviousness of previous Master's and for me he was the one with the 'moustache twirling' attitude. He played the role like some big kid and I personally dislike it. Everyone to their own, but Simn wasn't a patch on the previous Masters and for me there was very little complexity in his portrayal. I do think Simn is a good actor but The Master wasn't for him.

The Delgado version was not insane. The 'Skeletor', degenerated version understandably did seem to have been driven so. Since then no-one seems to have been able to make up their mind how he should be. Ainley's version was really an attempt to duplicate Delgado's interpretation, at least initially, and was certainly rational, albeit exaggeratedly villainous. Eric Roberts, I don't really know what was going on there. I think the actor more or less did what he liked and hammed it up simply because he thought that was the form thing to do with the character, which was probably true after Ainley.

With Simm's version I think it was a deliberate choice by the writer, RTD, that he should be insane. We even got the flashing skull type effect to remind us he was that self-same degenreated Master that Peter Pratt and Geoffrey Beevers played. Narratively, I can accept this: after his experiences in that emaciated form I can quite accept the loss of his sanity and that he was no longer the same calm, totally rational persona we saw Delgado play.

In terms of personal taste though I don't care for Simm's portrayal at all. Neither do I really think that a totally unhinged Master is as interesting a foil for the Doctor as Delgado's calculated, rational one. If there is indeed to be a new version at any point I hope they give him his marbles back. Maybe he can get a new regeneration cycle like the Doctor, so that that desperate part of his persona can be buried again.

To be honest, as he was a recurring villain it was always a little silly they used up his regenerations in the first place, so had to then keep coming up with spurious ways for him to change form, which really was a lot of needless work. That said, Robert Homes and Phillip Hinchcliffe were never interested in endlessly bringing back the old guard and were unlikely to have cared much for the character's longevity beyond 'The Deadly Assassin'.

Personally, I don't really find the Master interesting post 'Deadly Assassin', and honestly can't say I've found any of the subsequent storylines with him to be very good. I do love Delgado's version, who was so perfect as a foil for the 3rd Doctor, but I've no interest in seeing the character again unless there's a really good story there and something to do with the character beyond bringing him back in disguise with some crazy mastermind scheme.

Further to my previous post (I can no longer edit it), I don't even think the Doctor needs an arch-enemy. It made narrative sense when they first introduced him because the Doctor was stranded on Earth and they needed some spurious thread of logic to somewhat offset the coincidence of all of this crazy stuff suddenly happening on Earth, and a scheming mastermind contunually plotting to enslave the world made sense to that end.

Once the show returned to its format of the doctor traveling across time and space such a figure wasn't really needed anymore, just like it hadn't been in the 60s.

Terror of the Autons is my favourite Master story and Delgado my favourite Master.

Hated Simms portrayal but had he had more time in the role, I think Jacobi would have taken the title from Delgado. The end of Utopia was exquisite.

Terror of the Autons is my favourite Master story. Delgado was superb as the Master, chilling,scary yet still had charm which made him a popular villain.

The Master in Terror of the Autons and Claws of Axos. Roger Delgado is my favourite as the Master. Calm, calculating, controlled, clever. An equal to the Doctor. John Simms hysterical version was my least favourite. A pantomime version.

Yes, me too. He was never as terrifying as he was here, especially in the first couple of episodes where you only heard him and saw the repercussions of his actions - the horrible murders of a policeman and Tegan's Aunt Vanessa. That 'matter compression eliminator' was such a horrible weapon. Really terrifying and completely reflective of his ego-mad personality; shrinking his enemies to death. Just horrible!

I enjoyed Delgado in his introductory story 'Terror of the Autons'. He was a great new villain. But I think they did a bit of overkill that season - he was the villain in EVERY single story that year!! It got a bit (yawn) tedious by the end!
Enjoyed him 'Claws of Axos' though.
Anthony Ainley was a good replacement in the 80's - but a bit more panto-villain IMO.
John Simm was a refreshing change from the old-style Master - in his first story.

I vote Delgado anyway - "The original, you might say"!

I agree about Delgado. The Master is supposed to be The Doctor's equal but opposite, that was how he was conceived. In other words, he was the evil to The Doctor's good. I've seen this done in other shows with Faith in Buffy being the bad bitch slayer and the Superman Movies, where there were three other Villains from Krypton who were Superman's opposite, but they shared his exact skills. In all these cases these villains have a streak of insanity, they certainly aren't right in the head. However, they did not act as childishly and totally insane as John Simm's Master in the New Series.

For me a decent nemesis has be sneaky, devious, cold, calculating and clinical. Outside The Master, the other villains like this are Morgus from The Caves Of Androzani and The Rani. Those type of villains work because they are so cold and heartless, it provides a real contrast to The Doctor.

That's why Delgado worked so perfectly. Peter Pratt took it to the next level and Anthony Ainley started off that way, but unfortunately went down the panto route before redeeming himself in Survival. However, even at his lowest ebb, like in Planet Of Fire did he act as crazy as Simm's Master did in the New Series. That's also why I also think Jacobi would have been brilliant in the role. He achieved more in five miniutes as The Master than Simm did in 4 whole episodes, he really was one evil badass.

Best Master: Delgado
2nd best: Jacobi
[big gap]
Worst: Simm.