Doctor Who Review: ‘Vampire of the Mind’ (Audio)
By James Aggas
The Sixth Doctor once again comes face to face an old enemy…only this time, it’s a face he hasn’t even met yet.
Doctor Who: ‘Vampire of the Mind’ is Big Finish’s second story in their current “Two Masters” trilogy, loosely continuing from April’s release ‘And You Will Obey Me.’ Moving on from the Fifth Doctor and Geoffrey Beevers, this release features Colin Baker’s Sixth Doctor against Alex Macqueen’s “new” Master, exclusive to Big Finish. (As I’ve said before though, it would still be great for him to show up on TV.)
However, there’s a slight problem – the Doctor hasn’t met this incarnation yet. So while he recognises a clear and obvious plan from his arch-enemy that involves missing scientists, he’s not too sure whether he’ll recognise the Master himself…
What I really liked about this story is how much of a contrast it is to ‘And You Will Obey Me.’ Where the last story focused on the Master simply trying to survive, something that’s rather common to the Beevers incarnation, here, we have the Master doing what he loves to do best: create a brilliantly evil scheme, trap the Doctor, all while hiding in plain sight.
It’s stories like this that help make it clear why Big Finish wanted to create their very own incarnation of the Master. Yes, there was the initial shock and appeal of learning more about this previously unknown version of the character, but also, it allows for the kind of story that could’ve been told with Roger Delgado or Anthony Ainley, but not with Beevers.
Specifically, the kind of story that would allow the Master to blend in, to hatch evil plans while using an all-too-obvious alias, to toy with the Doctor, and perhaps most important of all, to have fun. Beevers is the pure evil incarnation that you just love to hate, while Macqueen’s is one of those incarnations that, like Delgado and Gomez, you can’t help but love.
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Of course, there is an interesting twist to this story. I mentioned before how the Doctor hasn’t met this incarnation of the Master yet. This isn’t just a case of the audience learning about the first time he met Macqueen’s Master either, since a crucial part of the rather excellent story
Doctor Who:
‘
’ is, while dealing with a multi-dimensional invasion, the
(and, when it was first released, the audience) had no clue who Alex Macqueen’s “Other Doctor” really was until the shocking reveal.
Don’t worry, this isn’t a case of Big Finish forgetting its own continuity. Without going into spoilers, the story ensures that the Doctor will not recognise Macqueen’s Master until ‘Dominion’ and, while telling a good story of the Doctor stopping another of the Master’s twisted schemes, wraps everything up nicely.
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Next: Doctor Who: Convention Fun with Actors
Well, not quite “everything.” Like ‘And You Will Obey Me,’ the story raises quite a few questions over the Master and what’s recently happened to him. To both of him. Questions that the very promising story ‘The Two Masters‘ looks set to answer…