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Doctor Who: Trailer and details revealed for the Master’s 50th anniversary box set

By James Aggas

We know that the Master heard "the sound of drums" since he was a child. But does that mean he heard it during the classic series...?(C) BBC/BBC Worldwide - Photographer: Simon Ridgway
We know that the Master heard "the sound of drums" since he was a child. But does that mean he heard it during the classic series...?(C) BBC/BBC Worldwide - Photographer: Simon Ridgway /
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We know that John Simm will be joining seven other Masters in 2021 for the Doctor Who story Masterful. But what else will the Master’s fiftieth anniversary box set contain?

Yesterday, we reported Big Finish’s latest announcement about John Simm’s Master finally appearing in a Doctor Who audio. We also discussed how he wouldn’t be alone, and in fact would be joined by no less than seven other Masters, in the villain’s fiftieth anniversary box set Masterful.

But since then, we’ve already learned more details. Particularly about what the box set will contain. We initially only knew that it would feature eight discs, but not what was on those discs. We didn’t even know which ones featured just the story itself – after all, many of Big Finish’s box sets have at least one disc for behind the scenes interviews. (In the case of The Legacy of Time, that set was so big it needed two bonus discs!)

As it turns out, only three of the discs will include the story. In fact, you can get the story on its own in a standard edition (priced £24.99 on CD and £19.99 on download). So what do the remaining five discs of the limited edition box set contain? Find out more below, after the brand new trailer for the story.

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Bonus features

Does anyone else have chills from that trailer? While it doesn’t reveal much, the fact that John Simm has finally said the iconic line means that I’ll be re-watching this video many, many times before 2021 finally arrives.

As for the limited edition’s contents, here’s what we can look forward to, as listed on Big Finish’s website:

"D1-D3 – MasterfulD4 – Masterful – behind the scenesD5 – Short Trips: I Am The Master and Short Trips: The Switching (both previously available)D6-D8 – a new, narrated audiobook featuring the Third Doctor, the Master and UNIT"

That’s a lot to contain in one package. The behind the scenes disc isn’t much of a surprise, unlike the Short Trips disc (particularly as the latter features previously released content). But not as much as the new audiobook.

I’m not going to lie – I’m rather excited to learn more about the Third Doctor audiobook. That’s quite a special feature to include, but at the same time, it also feels like the right thing to do. If this box set is about celebrating fifty years of the Master, then it’s only right to include a story that acknowledges the original Master himself, Roger Delgado.

So I’m eager to learn more about what this story is about, to say the least. Maybe not quite as much as Masterful itself (especially with getting to hear eight Masters together), but it’s definitely exciting. The more we learn about this box set, the clearer it is that it’s going to be a very, very long wait for this major release.

Next. John Simm joins Big Finish for the Master’s 50th anniversary in 2021!. dark

Are you excited to listen to Masterful? Are you tempted to get the limited edition (priced at £44.99 on CD and £39.99 on download)? Or would you prefer just the story itself with the standard edition? Let us know in the comments below.

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