With rumours the Master is set to make a return, which previous incarnation of the Master was the best and why and who would be your ideal actor to play the next incarnation?

Roger Delgado. He was relatively understated, and his stories better-written, compared to the 1980s Master, who was an overblown copy, and whose stories were relatively poor, in my opinion.

I gather they have had John Simm as the Master-but I cannot comment on him due to having neither seen nor liked much 'New Who'.

I'm voting for Anthony Ainley. In retrospect perhaps I feel less positively about his portrayal, but at the time (I promise you) he was absolutely terrifying particular in Logopolis.

I've got to go with Roger Delgado. He epitomized the suave, intelligent and charming yet utterly ruthless villain. I never warmed to Antony Ainley's version and John Simm's portrayal was too manic for my tastes. That was a definite error of judgement. Derek Jacobi didn't really play the Master. He played the constructed "cover" personality, Professor Yana, and as such his portrayal has no relationship with the real personality of the Master beneath.

Same here! I can see now that it's all a bit too much, but he was amazing when I was a kid.

I agree with this. Voted Delgado as he is the one to comes to mind first when I think of the Master. I liked John Simms's first outing as the Master but found him way too manic and over the top in TEOT.

Voted ainley but could easily have gone with Jacobi.

Simms and Roberts were the worst masters by a long shot. Very glad Simms is not returning (I hope).

Had to be Roger Delgado for me. He plays the part with such charm and skill, and because his Master just doesn't seem to think things through terribly well, you almost start warming to the fool! And the rapport with Pertwee is excellent. Think the excellent Peter Pratt was the scariest. Freaked me out as a kid.

Anthony was easily the second best to Roger Delgado in my opinion, maybe his stories weren`t so well written I agree but his sinister laugh and chuckle was brilliant.

I don't recall seeing The Master in Classic Who as I was only a young cub. So of the three I have seen - Roberts, Jacobs and Simms, I've went for Jacobs.

Roberts..... well, I don't think we need to say anymore.

Simms..... He was a little too manic for me and his return for Tennant's swansong.... hated it.

Jacobs..... Though we seen very little of him as The Master, he was fantastic and as a 28 year old man then, scared the living bejaysus out of me in those few short moments.

I prefer Anthony Ainley because despite the later panto performances, I always felt with his Master that he was utterly deranged, and he'd do stuff like destroy Logopolis and put the Universe at risk and not realise it, he just put his own greed first. He was an utter psychopath and maybe because of his period in decay, this had made him that way.

I also grew up with Ainley as The Master as as he used to give me the shivers with that chuckle, especially when he was doing it on his first entrance into the story!

Okay, as I said, he did become too pantomime in later stories but he had just that one last chance to redeem himself in Survival and he took it, putting in possibly one of his strongest performances. So glad he was able to have that chance before the show got the axe. The only other thing that I didn't like about his Master was that he didn't use Hypnotism enough, especially during the Davison stories. It wasn't until The Mark Of The Rani that he got back into the habit of using it, but it was a bit late by then, in hindsight.

I do really like Delgado's Master, too, watching him a lot at the moment as I'm going through the Pertwee Years. The only problem I have with his Master is that he too much of a 'Gentleman' Villain, I never felt he had the psychopathic edge Ainley's Master did. Yes, he would kill a Human without a qualm, but he wasn't the lunatic Ainley was. I think of Logopolis when he was just typing evil into that machine in deranged fashion while The Doctor was outside on the telescope, and just can't ever imagine Delgado doing that.

However, he was a brilliant Master in his own right and the first, so like Hartnell and The Doctor, we should be grateful to him for creating the character so brilliant for others to follow.

Should also give credit to Peter Pratt and Geoffrey Beevers who both did wonderfully vocal performances in their respective stories.

Eric Roberts was okay in the TV Movie until the TARDIS Scenes then he went into camp mode.

As for new Who, I totally disagree with above poster who Derek Jacobi wasn't a Master as such. He played the part better in those 5-10 minutes than John Simm ever did in 4 episodes. He was more like The Master than Simm, cold, calculating and evil, just how he should be. Not some laughing maniac who's acts like a big spoilt kid.

Nice to see Ainley getting some love here was always fond of his Master and I think he gets a lot of undeserving stick.

However I don't think anyone comes close to the original so Delgado gets my vote. Nothing wrong with the Gentleman villain, perfect counterpart to Pertwee's Doctor.

That was the point I was making 😛

Absolutely, I think that worked well for Delgado's Master, particularly as we had very much a 'Gentleman' Doctor in Pertwee as well, so suppose for that Doctor, it was the right sort of Master for him.

I wouldn't change anything about his Master at all, it's just that, as I said, Ainley was the one who I was brought up on and stars a lot in a period of the show I enjoy more than any other.

Hence my preference for him.

I decided to go for a less obvious choice and I picked Peter Pratt because his Master genuinely was scary in The Deadly Assassin, which is also one of my favourites from the Tom Baker era as well.

I also like Anthony Ainley he`s easily my second favourite Master I know they pretty much made him a copy of the Delgado Master which some tend to dislike but I still think he played the role really well and yes his sinister chuckle was a great addition to the character I found it a tad scary as a kid when watching logopolis but now after re-watching it I find the whole shrinking people and then the chuckle actually rather funny.

I didn`t take to John Simms as the Master even though I know it was how his portrayal was written, I just could not take his version seriously at all.

Voted for simm. Haven't seen much of delado, but think ainley's portrayal is very good. It's cheesy, but I like it anyway.

Just has to be simm for me though. Apart from the fact that he is 'my' master he Just had such range to the role. One minute he was a quiet, coldly calculating genius playing an 18 month long game that saw him become prime minister and temporarily ruler of the world, then the next time we see him he is a completely unhinged maniac, yet still the hypnotic genius. Not to mention on both occasions when he and the doctor talked about there relationship and the past I totally believed everything they were saying and that they had experienced those things.

I sincerly hope (yet I know it's unlikely) that he will get another episode as the master. There were only two main masters in classic who, going up against multiple doctors so I have no idea why there seem's to be the perception now that the master should change every time the doctor does. To me it's actually more unrealistic that they would, just by chance both happen to change at a similar time.

I voted for 80s Master, Anthony Ainley. I loved this incarnation, especially in stories such as Logopolis and Planet of Fire. He was quite good in The Five Doctors and Mark of the Rani too.

I don't know why Derek Jacobi has been included in the Poll, as I see him as being Professor Yana. Only when the watch was opened, did he turn into the Master.

But he was still officially the Master as briefly as it was hence why he`s been included in the poll.

More people voted for Simms than Roberts? You've got to be kidding me!! Whatever you want to say abour Eric Roberts portrayal of The Master, at least he was evil. He didn't mince around, rip off Ming the Merciless, Star wars and I've forgotten what else and definitely didnt cheapen all previous portrayals by saying "he's not evil, he's a nutjob"

Delgado. The original and best.

He didn't have to really do much acting though. Just stumble about and hiss his lines. The make-up meant he didn't have to do any conveying of emotion with his face.

I don't think he's cheesy all the time!

It's a bit like the Doctors I've been discussing lately and their perception. I think with Anthony Ainley people did tend to think of his performances in stories like Planet Of Fire, where he really did hit a low point on the panto front on that one.

To be fair, Survival does get mentioned a lot as a good performance but nobody mentions too much Logopolis and Castrovalva, at the point before he became panto Master. IMO there is nothing cheesy about these two performances, he was at his very best in the role here.


I think you've just answered your own question there Tigger!

When he opened the watch he became The Master and he was The Master for a good five minutes before he regenerated into John Simm. I don't know why people have got a bee in their bonnet suddenly about him not being an official Master.

He didn't just open the watch and then just regenerate, he had several minutes in the role between the two. As he actually said... 'That is not my name...... I am The Master.'

Come on, if the guy actually says it himself you can't dispute it can you?!!!!!!

I find Roberts the most quotable of all the masters.. But then, I always like to dress for the occasion.

It took me a while, with the walking and the talking.....

I like the madman Master. Why would the master had to be cold and calculating??