The Night Harvest

"I'm better than any god."

Writer: Beverley Sanford

Format: Short Story

Released: November 2020

Printed in: I Am The Master 05

Featuring: The Master

Synopsis

A farm worker from a backwater planet, Tala has always dreamed of meeting a stranger from the stars. When the Master arrives, the truth of her world is exposed in ways that will change her for ever.

Verdict

The Night Harvest was a really good little short story to continue my reading of the I Am The Master: Legends of the Renegade Time Lord collection! This has really been an impressive collection of adventures for the Master and getting an extra story for the John Simm incarnation is fantastic as there hasn't really been a lot of room for this. We saw his imminent arrival with the regeneration at the end of Utopia which was such a good reveal, and then by the end of The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords his fate was sealed in the ring that we would see him finally escape from in The End of Time. But by the end of that two-parter, he was sent off back to Gallifrey during the Time War! Of course, more recently we saw the Simm incarnation return in World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls, but unlike other incarnations of the Master there just doesn't seem to be much of a window for his incarnation to have free roam. Of course, the latter Twelfth Doctor finale opens that up as we learn he escaped from Gallifrey, or rather was shunted, but he just doesn't seem to be the kind of Master that would be running around the universe for whatever reason. And I think that's part of the reason why I am so happy to get an extra adventure for him here! I have to say that I thought the author did an impressive job in capturing the characteristics of this incarnation with the childish and eccentric traits there in abundance. This Master likes to play and that was abundantly clear. I do wish he went by his name throughout instead of Xanos, but that wasn't a major issue. It's fun for the Master to play around on a planet where a religious relief has been implemented with such indoctrination and his reaction to Tala's continued mentioning of what her uncle had said was great. His position as High Elder was interesting and the calmness in which the Master delivered bad news was wonderful. Tala's fascination with the Master's TARDIS being disguised as a tree was excellent and I have to admit I'm a little surprised that he kept her alive for so long and even contemplated taking her along with him! I was fully expecting his patience to thin and just kill her. That didn't happen, but he did causally kill her uncle and boyfriend whilst showing her what the plants and Elders were doing through her best friend. The concept of the Night Harvest was good and I loved Tala's shocked reaction to the Master destroying a plant outside of the allowed time frame of the harvest. She was gobsmacked which really said a lot. I thought the revelation surrounding the use of the plants was intriguing with the Elders supposedly bored of living on the same food, so they were using the settlement's own people to feed the plants and provide them with luxury fruits. That was unbelievably selfish and Tala's reaction to that was fantastic. She was stunned, but her efforts to tell the truth to the population were met with mockery which was nicely done. After such a strict upbringing, what else would people believe? Certainly not that they had all been used in a scheme from the Elders! The Master's eventual endgame being to harness the drug from the plants and crashed ships was good and I loved how he was going to continue what the Elders had enacted for efficiency. His 'walking among the people' as Bal'Kalu and appointing Tala as the Elder was a terrific ending to a story where the Master was just having some fun. And I think that's often where he's at his best. Overall, a great little short story! 

Rating: 8/10