Anger Management

"It was the darker emotions that generated the most power."

Writer: Peter Anghelides 

Format: Short Story

Released: November 2020

Printed in: I Am The Master 01

Featuring: The Master

Synopsis

Blackmailed by a sinister biomechanoid, the Master must use his talents to liberate three alien warlords held captive on Earth. Can he turn the tables on his oppressors?

Verdict

Anger Management was a somewhat decent start to the I Am The Master: Legends of the Renegade Time Lord collection of short stories! I am a big fan of putting a volume of stories for differing incarnations of the Master and I was delighted to see that my local library stocked a copy of this book and I believe I was the first to reserve it. I was clearly eager to get started, but unfortunately this was something of a mixed start. I'm not sure it works well in a short story given the obvious limitation of page and word count to have a plot focused on three different parts of a combined goal. There just isn't enough time for things to have meaning and the three characters that were warlords without knowing it just didn't matter much because we barely got time to know them. I thought that was a big shame. I enjoyed the writing and description of this incarnation of the Master and it was clear to tell that this was the Delgado Master. The mentions of Clangers and the Master's time spent on twentieth-century Earth was really good and I also loved his reaction to the claim he was fond of humanity. The way the story started with the Master imprisoned was really good and I like the irony of having him imprisoned. I was half expecting a story set between The Daemons and The Sea Devils initially and that could have worked really well and been a fun little jaunt for the Master whist the Third Doctor believed him to be imprisoned. Loge being the one to take on the Master and have him imprisoned for three years whilst fr this biomechanoid it had only been a few seconds. The idea of the entrapment being a blink of an eye for the Time Lord and contemplating revenge was good and the amount of time spent must have meant the Master conjured up quite the plan. The Master taking on a number of disguises throughout the story was fun and him proudly boasting to be a connoisseur in disguise was a highlight for sure. His take as Juan Martino and being a football manager was incredibly unique, although as a big football fan myself I just don't think the writing of a football match was accurate in the slightest. Even more so for the twentieth century! I don't think there was quite the influx of foreign talent at the time this Master was masquerading around Earth and the use of flares in the crowd is a modern foreign import so that was very much out of place. The move then to a concert and the band with Alienated Youth and Sam and Bronwen amongst others was nothing more than okay for me and I just seemed to have lost interest from that point forward as I already knew that there was too much going on for the format. There just wasn't enough space for things to become meaningful in my eyes. Siarnaq was a decent character and I did enjoy that there was an effort to use psychic power as a means of route to escape. The Master having fallen victim to a perception filter on the location of his TARDIS was decent, but I'm not sure on the reasoning of why that was lifted before the Master's purpose was fulfilled. It was good to have the Earth and all of humanity as a means to power the Hyrrokin goal of getting judgement in there own direction. There was just a bit too much going on for my liking in a collection where things need to be quick and pacy and exciting, and sadly that wasn't quite the case here. Thankfully, the character of the Master is so good that it remained a more than enjoyable read and his chuckle at the end when the warlords basically incinerated themselves was magnificent. Overall, some positives but not the greatest of stories to kick off the collection.

Rating: 6/10