The Master may not have been part of monsters Doctor Who may be, but few of them can hold a candle to the Master. As an evil Time Lord and the Doctor's personal rival, the Master is arguably - Daleks be damned - Doctor Who's defining nemesis. In official , the Master, played by Roger Delgado, first appeared in 1971's "Terror of the Autons," facing off against Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor.

It is remarkable in hindsight how fully-formed the Master was during his debut episode. From the smarmy arrogance to his barely-concealed envy of the Doctor, Delgado immediately laid the foundations of a character that has since been portrayed by a number of different actors. From Anthony Ainley to Sacha Dhawan, all actors to play the Master since Delgado have anchored their incarnations on the precedent set by "Terror of the Autons." While it is amazing that the Master arrived virtually ready-made in 1971, however, Doctor Who had been quietly developing the character six years before that.

The Monk In The First Doctor Era Was Doctor Who's First Prototype Master

The First Evil Time Lord To Appear In A Doctor Who Episode

Doctor Who's first proto-Master came in 1965's "The Time Meddler." At this point, Doctor Who was yet to utter the words "Gallifrey" or "Time Lord," but William Hartnell's First Doctor was at least kind enough to reveal he and the story's eponymous villain, the Monk, belonged to the same race. Played by Peter Butterworth, the Monk also piloted his own TARDIS and lacked the trademark good manners Doctor Who's titular hero was renowned for, immediately marking him out as an evil mirror of the Doctor himself.

The Monk came across a little more bumbling, less capable, compared to his eventual successor, but the development of an anti-Doctor had begun.

That premise - two aliens of the same species leaving their home planet - one good, one bad - would later become a vital strand in the Master's DNA, and the similarities went further still. The Monk's plan in "The Time Meddler" involved messing with another planet's history for his own gain - a typical ploy of the Master's. The phony holyman was also adept at disguise, blending into 11th century England seamlessly in order to enact his scheme. The Master is something of a chameleon himself, often stealing another's face or putting on an elaborate cosplay to stay hidden.

Beyond that, the Monk carried the same egotistical and aloof air the Master would later perfect, so while the two characters are clearly not identical, "The Time Meddler" provided the broad strokes of an enemy who resembled an early draft of the Master. The Monk came across a little more bumbling, less capable, compared to his eventual successor, but the development of an anti-Doctor had begun.

The War Chief Brought Doctor Who's Master Even Closer To His Final Form

I Can't Believe It's Not The Master!

Doctor Who's next step in stealth-developing the Master came via Patrick Troughton's regeneration episode, "The War Games." Echoing "The Time Meddler," this adventure introduced a villain who belonged to the Doctor's own species and intended to manipulate history for his personal gain. Yet again, the War Chief was a darker parallel of the Doctor himself, albeit with a number of significant differences when compared against the Monk.

The Monk's more earthy, comedic characteristics were replaced by an aristocratic aura and a more stringent grooming regimen, facial hair included. The War Chief demonstrated a more flagrant disregard for life compared to his predecessor from the First Doctor's era, and had mapped out a far more elaborate, grandiose masterplan. The arrival of the Time Lords also revealed how both the Doctor and the War Chief were viewed by their kind as embarrassing rogues bringing shame upon Gallifrey. With these new qualities, Doctor Who took a big leap toward Roger Delgado's Master, who would debut only two years later.

Are The Monk & The War Chief Previous Regenerations Of Doctor Who's Master

The Master Is A Character Of Many Faces, After All

The question over whether the Monk, the War Chief, and the Master are all the same person is as ambiguous as it is contentious. On balance, the Monk should most likely be considered a separate character. Some pieces of wider Doctor Who media - the book The Master: CIA File Extracts, for example - list the Monk as a regeneration of the Master, but releases mostly take the opposite stance, and the Monk has appeared across a selection of audio stories and published works as an individual character.

The War Chief, on the other hand, is more likely a pre-Delgado regeneration. Once again, various stories exist within wider Doctor Who media that feature the War Chief as a standalone villain, including the renowned The New Doctor Who Adventures book series. On the other hand, some crucial examples of Doctor Who fiction have strongly implied that the Master and War Chief are one and the same. The most notable of these is perhaps Terrance Dicks' novelization of "Terror of the Autons," in which the Third Doctor appears to directly reference "The War Games" upon seeing the Master.

Terrance Dicks, who co-wrote "The War Games," also penned the Doctor Who book Timewyrm: Exodus, in which the War Chief is not the Master.

Given the stronger correlation between them and the balance of evidence weighing in the theory's favor, it makes sense to treat the War Chief as the Master. Indeed, a more recent addition to Doctor Who TV canon may have confirmed it as fact. In December 2024, a colorized and edited version of "The War Games" was released by the BBC, and this updated version of the War Chief's debut came with a few crucial alterations. Most notably, a key scene between the Doctor and the War Chief was updated to include the Master's musical theme.

While not exactly concrete, this is the closest Doctor Who has come to formally combining the War Chief and the Master, and can absolutely be interpreted as tacit confirmation from an official source. Canon or not, this modern attempt to further tie the two villainous Time Lords perfectly proves how the War Chief paved the way for the Master's arrival.