Tempered

"This is me thanking you for making me who I am."

Writer: Dave Rudden

Format: Short Story

Released: September 2022

Printed in: Origin Stories 11

Featuring: Missy, The Master

Synopsis 

We all change, when you think about. We're all different people all through our lives...

Amy Pond looks for her Raggedy Man, Jo Grant remembers her childhood, the Master hunts the past... a young girl discovers a love for explosives.

Eleven incredible stories from the world of Doctor – the early lives of friends and foes that have never been told before.

Verdict 

Tempered was a good, if not a little bit of a convoluted, way to conclude the Origin Stories anthology! It’s fair to say that this has been an impressive collection of stories and whilst I think as a whole there was probably a little too much of the Doctor and an unnecessarily big focus on school time for a lot of companions, I’ve really enjoyed reading this book! Concluding things with Missy and the Master all in one is no bad thing, although I do think labelling it as an epilogue was an odd decision. It didn’t have the feeling of an epilogue in the slightest and was exactly like any other adventure in the collection! That certainly was a strange title to put on it. Regardless of that though, it was a decent tale to serve as something of an origin story for the Master. Although I would argue that we saw with him in The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords and the subsequent interference in his life by Rassilon and company in The End of Time would serve as that. With Missy featuring, it could have been a tremendous way to depict a regeneration of the Master into Missy which would have been rare but of course we’ve already had an origin for Missy picking up that name in The Missy Chronicles collection. I felt this one was a little all over the place with the different people and places we were jumping around to. With the pictures adorning the front cover of so many familiar characters old and new, it’s a shame that Missy’s appearance here is known simply from the process of elimination. But I did love the surprise of the Master appearing alongside in that famous goatee. Two incarnations of the Master teaming up is not new but it’s awfully exciting. The Death Zone’s prominence in the story was terrific and I think that’s an untapped area of potential on Gallifrey. More could be done there with how it was set up and then ultimately left in The Five Doctors so I was delighted that it featured here. Foyo’s exploration of dying planets was good and a Moon exploding and having different death tolls despite being the same event was excellent but he wouldn’t be around to fully investigate. The ominous nature of the voice of the Master feeding through was good and whilst I was confused I liked that I didn’t always know what he was planning or up to. It’s good to keep guessing on times! It definitely keeps me on my toes. The long game of the Master was in full swing when it came to Codubo which worked well as the background setting for Hendor and Ella. They seemed like a normal and nice couple until the Master showed up and turned their life completely on its head. He demanded that Hendor reveal that he did in fact know him and was bitterly angry when that was said to be false. Ella using the emergency to transport the Master out beyond the shield was good but he was determined to get back in and didn’t stop shooting. He knew Hendor had something valuable and that was very much the case when the fob watch was introduced! I’m a huge fan of the Chameleon Arch and how it was utilised here was brilliant. The Master was out to hunt Hendor and didn’t waste time in ensuring he was killed almost immediately after becoming his Time Lord self once again. If only he’d acted against the Master when it wasn’t too late and he realised the truth about this individual. Right around the time he chose his name. Except he wasn’t really the Master anymore. As Ella was actually Missy! That was glorious and the idea of her playing his wife for so many years as part of a long plan just to break his heart fitted in so well with the character and a lot of the disguises we’ve seen utilised in the past. Pondering on childhood and that fateful moment staring into the Untempered Schism was nicely done. Overall, a good read!

Rating: 7/10