Doctor Who review: Ravenous: Day of the Master is a must listen for fans of the Doctor’s archenemy

What happens when the Doctor and his friends face four incarnations of his worst enemy? Time to find out in Day of the Master!

(Image credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

When the Day of the Master arrives, who will survive? We take a look at the biggest multi-Master story yet, and why it’s an essential listen for Doctor Who fans.

This is it. This is what we’ve all been waiting for, ever since it was announced earlier this year. Day of the Master. The biggest multi-Master story yet in Doctor Who. Does it live up to the promise of its title?

Well, one thing to keep in mind with Day of the Master is that it’s very much a story of two halves. I’m not just referring to the fact that it’s a story so big, it’s split across two episodes. But, along with the multi-Master story itself, writer John Dorney also had to resolve the Ravenous arc in a satisfying way.

As such, this story features a lot of returning characters and threads from previous episodes. Not just from Ravenous either, although the ones that do return will surprise you, at least if you’ve followed the series closely so far.

But there are even links back to earlier Eighth Doctor series Doom Coalition, as well. In fact, there’s a lot in Ravenous that resolves everything that started with Doom Coalition 1 four years ago, so it’s great to get plenty of payoff to all of that.

The biggest multi-Master story yet?

But what of the multi-Master aspect of the story? Is this really one of the biggest stories the Doctor’s greatest enemy’s had yet?

Well, it depends on your point of view. One thing you should know is that in some ways, the Master isn’t the main villain of this particular story. Oh, I’m not saying that they don’t have a major role, far from it. In many ways, Day of the Master is a huge story for the character, and I’ll get to why in a moment. But this isn’t the kind of team-up story where they plan to defeat the Doctor, once and for all. There’s another villain entirely who fulfills that role, with the Ravenous themselves being the biggest threat of all.

Of course, that doesn’t stop the Master from being a threat altogether. Across each of their three key incarnations in this story, the Masters make life extremely difficult for the Doctor and his companions.

Missy is just one of the Masters that feature in this story. But which one will the Doctor be meeting?

(Image Courtesy Big Finish Productions)

Three Masters…

You’ve probably noticed that I’ve said “three” Masters and not “four”. That’s because – after the events of Planet of Dust – Geoffrey Beevers actually has a somewhat reduced role in this one. That’s not to say he doesn’t appear in Day of the Master at all. In fact, in some ways, he’s probably central to it. But essentially, he hardly appears in this story at all.

However, the three Masters that do heavily feature each work really well. What helps is that Dorney has been very clever about the way he includes them.

For a start, he doesn’t make it a multi-Master story from the beginning, but builds towards it. Each of them features – namely, Eric Roberts, Derek Jacobi and Michelle Gomez – but they each have extremely different storylines, too. They’re also paired with each of the different leads across three different time zones.

What’s particularly satisfying about this is the fact that Eight doesn’t meet either the War Master or Missy, giving us a convenient explanation on why he doesn’t recognize them later when he’s Ten or Twelve, respectively.

…three meetings

If you’re disappointed by the fact that the Eighth Doctor isn’t facing four different Masters at once, don’t worry. For one thing, his reunion with Eric Roberts’s Master from the TV movie is definitely satisfying to hear. Roberts has definitely improved since we last heard him in The Diary of River Song earlier this year, and even though McGann and Roberts recorded their parts separately, it’s still satisfying to hear their characters banter together, for the first time in twenty-three years.

Nicola Walker and Derek Jacobi are also great to hear as Liv and the War Master. They’ve worked together before in Last Tango in Halifax, and clearly have a lot of fun here. Especially as the Master keeps quiet about who he really is, thus leaving Liv in a huge amount of danger…

Hattie Morahan and Michelle Gomez also have a lot of fun as Helen and Missy. There’s a lot of great comedy between these two, and while this does run the risk of reducing Missy as a threat compared to her earlier incarnations, her storyline is still fun to listen. Especially when we start to find out what’s going on.

So what we essentially have are three separate Master storylines, each playing a little to their strengths. But if you’re worried that we’re being cheated out of a multi-Master story, don’t be. Because gradually, their storylines do merge together, leading to the Master having to work with him/herselves…

The War Master also has his role to play in this story. But to what end?

(Image Courtesy Big Finish Productions)

Masters of banter

The last act of this story is the multi-Master part of it, and unsurprisingly, it’s extremely satisfying to listen to. Hearing Gomez’s Missy trolling Roberts’s Master, or hearing how Jacobi’s Master tries to keep a tight leash on the two, is incredibly funny to hear. The banter and the bickering isn’t quite as good as what we got with Macqueen and Beevers in The Two Masters, but it’s still greatly enjoyable.

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But it’s not just the multi-Master aspect of this story that makes Day of the Master such a joy to listen to. It’s how it lives up to that title, too. After all, The Day of the Doctor was more than just another multi-Doctor story – it was also an episode that explored one of the biggest days in the Doctor’s long life. So ideally, you want a story called Day of the Master to be just as personal and significant for the Doctor’s archenemy.

And that’s exactly what Dorney’s story does. Without giving too much away, this fills in a major gap in the Master’s back story. Not just for Big Finish listeners, but even for New Series fans. The ending is extremely satisfying to hear, and is a fantastic payoff to years of mythology, both on and off-screen.

Day of the Master is, without question, something extremely special. Acting as both a finale to a major arc for the Eighth Doctor and as a celebration of the Master, this is a truly epic and enjoyable listen. Along with Planet of Dust, this is easily an essential story for Master fans.

Will you be listening to Day of the Master? If you have already, do you think the story lived up to its promising title? Who is your favorite incarnation of the Masters featured? Let us know in the comments below.