Lords and Masters

"I've not been in my right mind since, well, forever."

Writer: Cavan Scott
Format: Short Story
Released: February 2018
Printed in: The Missy Chronicles

Featuring: Missy

Synopsis

With her TARDIS hijacked, Missy is forced to take on a dangerous mission for the High Council. But she's nobody's puppet...

Verdict

Lords and Masters was a superb continuation of my reading of The Missy Chronicles! It was a delightful tale and I really loved that we got to see Missy entertaining with a journey in her own TARDIS. That is something we haven't seen on television so it was a very good treat to read here. I'd just love to have had a little more description of the console room just to get an insight into how Missy may have designed her surroundings. Her little escape from some Skarasens was a lovely way to start the adventure and I really liked how it was obvious that her chameleon circuit was functioning. Just what she had gotten up to with the Zygons may have been another great adventure but for now she provided a lot of humour with her recollection of recent events. Trying to take off in the TARDIS was more difficult and she soon discovered that she wasn't alone. She was joined by Yayani who was on a mission for the High Council of the Time Lords. I thought she was a fantastic character and she strangely seemed to get on with Missy quite well. That strangeness didn't last for long though as we learned she had attempted to assassinate Lord President Rassilon. This story provided an intriguing insight into The End of Time as we learned who the man cowering behind Rassilon was - the Patriarch of the House of Stillhaven. This was the chapter that Yayani belonged to and Rassilon had desecrated it with experiments during the Time War. That was why she tried to kill him, but she failed and her punishment was to serve the man she tried to kill. She accompanied Missy to the Kyme Institute in the 28th century to stop some meddling with time and I loved how quickly she made Kalub immobile and pretty much obsolete for the rest of the story through her sonic umbrella. His experiment on a harmless pregnant creature, which Missy hilariously labelled a beetroot, was disgraceful and Yayani's reaction to learning of its suffering was brilliant. She had no issues in saying the magic word that saw Kalub's bones fracture one by one. The chronographic containment field really was quite horrible and Missy was going to see that the creature was put out of its misery through the tissue compression eliminator. She hadn't used one for years! However, I loved the little switch in direction with it being Yayani that was the victim of the TCE and sent back to Gallifrey. The relationship between the General, who setup the whole mission, and Missy throughout was wonderful with her referring to him as General Slaphead a particular highlight. But she would not be anyone's puppet. She took advantage of the mission though and jettisoned the Eye of Harmony from her TARDIS and used the creature to power it. She got the replacement she was after all along. Overall, an excellent story!

Rating: 9/10