Post by Kestrel on Apr 28, 2022 4:01:59 GMT
Holy crap this one was great.
From the very first scene, you know you're in for a wild ride: the grandfather clock, the mysterious museum, the ominous noises, the waking prisoner. The stage is set perfectly. And at the heart of it, the incredible hook of the Master's TARDIS found after being sealed away in an ancient Egyptian tomb for 3000 years. Sheer perfection.
And fundamental to that perfection is, of course, Geoffrey Beevers. Beevers always delivers exceptional performances as the Master, but here he's especially exceptional. Every line is delivered dripping with menace and threat and immeasurable malice. I freakin' love every moment.
Quote of the story: "I am the living embodiment of entropy: rotten to the core."
(A line that could probably be delivered an infinite number of ways, but I sincerely doubt any one of that infinity would surpass Beevers' delivery here. Good god.)
Timeline-wise this Mastermind is really interesting. It takes place after the TV movie, which more or less places it at the "end" of the Classic timeline, but involves the Master having spent several decades playing around on Earth--many of which would've overlapped with other incarnations of the Master wreaking similar havoc. It's fun to think that there are periods of time when there are multiple Masters (and sometimes multiple Doctors) running around at the same time, entirely independently, on the same planet. It's the same kind of exciting time-travel shenanigans fanservice we get with Multi-Doctor/Master stories, only without the interaction. In this case it's the tension that arises from the lack of interaction that gives the story its energy--knowing that the Master was in America, committing all manner of evil, and even though the Doctor was right there--he didn't notice.
And, really, the adventures of "Don Maestro" in America is such a fantastic premise, and the little glimpses we see into the generations he consumed are brilliant (who knew Beevers had such a fun American accent?) that it could have and should have and if we're very fortunate one day will justify an entire boxset. Relegating a story this big to a relatively short Companion Chronicle just seems... insufficient.
Honestly, the way Big Finish under-utilizes the Crispy Master is downright criminal.
Because, and I cannot stress this enough, this story rocks!
Second quote of the story: "The name's Frankie. You're Michael."
Ahahahahahahaha... this is great!
That said, there are a few small issues. Crispy's plan here to get taken in by UNIT is a bit too convoluted to be believable. It relies on him perfectly predicting a number of random variables. Which could have been explained by time travel... but isn't. Though this in no way diminishes this story's perfection (which, again, I cannot stress enough) because the story is being told to us largely by the Master, who is not a reliable narrator! Like, the UNIT interrogators really ought to have noticed something up when the Master was outsmarted so easily by his "son." There's no way that's how things really played out, right?
And then there's the question of how UNIT even identified Crispy as the Master, given that he was unconscious when they found him, and not recognizable (being burned away and all). Though it is fun to imagine how the Brigadier would've reacted to the discovery.
Before I go, I gotta make special mention of the Mastermind's climax. As the Master manipulates his interrogators into releasing him--a sequence that's a little under 10 minutes long, I think--there's list lovely drumbeat in the background, softly beating, which slowly ramps up as things become more and more "serious." It really heightens the tension incredibly well, lending the proceedings a sort of... air of inevitability. Fantastic. Utterly, completely, totally fantastic.
From the very first scene, you know you're in for a wild ride: the grandfather clock, the mysterious museum, the ominous noises, the waking prisoner. The stage is set perfectly. And at the heart of it, the incredible hook of the Master's TARDIS found after being sealed away in an ancient Egyptian tomb for 3000 years. Sheer perfection.
And fundamental to that perfection is, of course, Geoffrey Beevers. Beevers always delivers exceptional performances as the Master, but here he's especially exceptional. Every line is delivered dripping with menace and threat and immeasurable malice. I freakin' love every moment.
Quote of the story: "I am the living embodiment of entropy: rotten to the core."
(A line that could probably be delivered an infinite number of ways, but I sincerely doubt any one of that infinity would surpass Beevers' delivery here. Good god.)
Timeline-wise this Mastermind is really interesting. It takes place after the TV movie, which more or less places it at the "end" of the Classic timeline, but involves the Master having spent several decades playing around on Earth--many of which would've overlapped with other incarnations of the Master wreaking similar havoc. It's fun to think that there are periods of time when there are multiple Masters (and sometimes multiple Doctors) running around at the same time, entirely independently, on the same planet. It's the same kind of exciting time-travel shenanigans fanservice we get with Multi-Doctor/Master stories, only without the interaction. In this case it's the tension that arises from the lack of interaction that gives the story its energy--knowing that the Master was in America, committing all manner of evil, and even though the Doctor was right there--he didn't notice.
And, really, the adventures of "Don Maestro" in America is such a fantastic premise, and the little glimpses we see into the generations he consumed are brilliant (who knew Beevers had such a fun American accent?) that it could have and should have and if we're very fortunate one day will justify an entire boxset. Relegating a story this big to a relatively short Companion Chronicle just seems... insufficient.
Honestly, the way Big Finish under-utilizes the Crispy Master is downright criminal.
Because, and I cannot stress this enough, this story rocks!
Second quote of the story: "The name's Frankie. You're Michael."
Ahahahahahahaha... this is great!
That said, there are a few small issues. Crispy's plan here to get taken in by UNIT is a bit too convoluted to be believable. It relies on him perfectly predicting a number of random variables. Which could have been explained by time travel... but isn't. Though this in no way diminishes this story's perfection (which, again, I cannot stress enough) because the story is being told to us largely by the Master, who is not a reliable narrator! Like, the UNIT interrogators really ought to have noticed something up when the Master was outsmarted so easily by his "son." There's no way that's how things really played out, right?
And then there's the question of how UNIT even identified Crispy as the Master, given that he was unconscious when they found him, and not recognizable (being burned away and all). Though it is fun to imagine how the Brigadier would've reacted to the discovery.
Before I go, I gotta make special mention of the Mastermind's climax. As the Master manipulates his interrogators into releasing him--a sequence that's a little under 10 minutes long, I think--there's list lovely drumbeat in the background, softly beating, which slowly ramps up as things become more and more "serious." It really heightens the tension incredibly well, lending the proceedings a sort of... air of inevitability. Fantastic. Utterly, completely, totally fantastic.