Big Finish
13 Dec 2019

Coming in January 2021, marking the 50th anniversary of the Master’s first appearance in Doctor Who, Masterful is a deluxe limited edition 8-disc audio adventure.

In his Big Finish debut, actor John Simm will reprise the role of the Master

Masterful is now available to pre-order as a limited edition 8-CD box set (priced at £44.99), or on download (at £39.99).

In his Big Finish debut, actor John Simm will reprise the role of the Master, as originally played on television from 2007 (and, most recently, in World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls, opposite Peter Capaldi).

Masterful, written by James Goss, is a three-hour epic adventure that will also feature actors Geoffrey Beevers, Mark Gatiss, Derek Jacobi, Alex MacQueen, Milo Parker and Eric Roberts as previous incarnations of the evil Time Lord. Plus, of course, no reunion of Masters would be complete without Missy, the most recent incarnation, as played by Michelle Gomez.

John Simm said, “It’s a real honour to play this character: the nemesis of the Doctor. He’s everything the Doctor is but he’s evil. And it’s been great recording with Big Finish. You don’t get bored, it’s fantastic. It’s fun. It went really quickly. And I got to work with Derek Jacobi.”

John Simm joins Big Finish in a special Doctor Who audio drama celebrating the Master’s fiftieth anniversary. (Photo: Big Finish Productions – 29 Nov 2019 at Moat Studios)

Producer, David Richardson, added, “It was all Jason Haigh-Ellery’s idea. ‘We should do a special for the 50th anniversary of the Master in 2021,’ he said, and I leapt at the chance to produce it. James Goss was the perfect choice as writer -we knew he’d offer something as entertaining as it was dark, as imaginative as it was thrilling -and he hasn’t let us down!”

“But my first port of call was securing the talents of our Masters (and Missy) – many of them had worked for us before, but for John Simm this was his Big Finish debut. They say never meet your heroes, but they’re wrong. I had one of the best days of my life in studio with Sir Derek Jacobi and John Simm, towering actors and simply two of the warmest, loveliest human beings you could ever hope to spend time with. This may be a line-up of pure, unadulterated evil – but behind every sinister smile there’s a lovely actor we’re blessed to work with!”

Masterful is now available to pre-order as a limited edition 8-CD box set (priced at £44.99), or on download (at £39.99). This release will be limited to 3,000 copies and available exclusively only via the Big Finish website.

The details of each disc are as follows

D1-D3 – Masterful
D4 – Masterful – behind the scenes
D5 – Short Trips: I Am The Master and Short Trips: The Switching (both previously available) 
D6-D8 – a new, narrated audiobook featuring the Third Doctor, the Master and UNIT

A standard edition 3-CD box set is also available (at £24.99), or on download (at £19.99). This vanilla release features only the story Masterful, with none of the extra features listed above.