STARBURST chats to the Mark Worgan, the brains behind the unofficial DOCTOR WHO annuals that have gone down well with fans, about the latest addition focusing on everyone’s favourite archvillain…
In 1971, with Jon Pertwee having established his credentials as the third Doctor in the first colour series of Doctor Who the year before, producer Barry Letts and his script editor Terrance Dicks decided to spice the series up even further by introducing a new recurring nemesis for the timeless Time Lord. They felt that if the Doctor was now a character as established in British culture as the legendary Sherlock Holmes, then it was time he had his own ‘Professor Moriarty’. He needed an enemy whose intellect was in many ways a match for the Doctor himself – even though Holmes’ ‘Napoleon of Crime’ only actually appeared in two of Conan Doyle’s stories chronicling the adventures of the Great Detective. The Master was to prove to be considerably more resilient. Portrayed initially by the urbane London-born actor Roger Delgado – complete with demonic salt and pepper goatee beard – the original Master – was a suave and sophisticated opponent for Pertwee’s dashing all-action Doctor. “I am known as The Master, universally” as he tells the first unfortunate victim of his despicable hypnotic abilities. Delgado’s Master was equally at home running a plastics factory as a cover for an alien invasion as he was hiding in plain sight as a vicar in a quaint English village, or masquerading as a space peacekeeper in the distant future. Delgado continued to play the character until his tragic death in 1973 and, after a respectful period, future production teams would revisit this iconic character who has appeared again and again in various increasingly hysterical incarnations. Plus like the Doctor, he has taken a female form more recently. The character even turned up in the most recent series of Doctor Who, with Sacha Dhawan delivering a tour de force performance as a maniac Master eaten away by his hatred for his bitterest enemy. That and, as we now know, the secrets he has discovered about the history of his own people the Time Lords and the Doctor herself.
Many lives, many terrible, unspeakable plots and plans. But for most Doctor Who fans, the original Master is still the definitive incarnation of the Doctor’s most persistent foe and it’s this embodiment of the character that is celebrated in The Master Annual, the latest book from Terraqueous Distributors. The publication turns back the clock to the 1970s and gives us an idea what the Master might have been up to when his every move wasn’t being confounded by the Doctor and his chums at UNIT. A couple of years ago, Terraqueous set out to fill in that infuriating gap in Doctor Who collectors’ run of classic story annuals published by World Distributors from the 1960s to the 1980s by releasing the Unofficial Doctor Who Annual 1972. Last year, they picked up the mantle from World, whose run of annuals ended in 1986, by publishing the Unofficial 1987 Annual featuring Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor. Fans might have been expecting the next annual to feature Sylvester McCoy’s Seventh Doctor, but Terraqueus publisher Mark Worgan (who we spoke to back in Issue 456) had other plans. “I just loved the idea of doing a Doctor-less annual next,” Mark told us. “What could be more thrilling than exploring the Doctor’s universe, without having the Doctor there to save the day? And what better tour guide than the Master himself? The Master is unique, not many villains who face off against the main character are adored. And if the tables were ever turned, and the Master was victorious every now and then – I honestly believe the viewer would cheer. When a beloved villain is repeatedly defeated, he almost becomes the underdog. And now we get to see the Master come out on top. I decided to do the Master annual because on-screen his plans were always squashed by the Doctor. The Doctor is the hero and that’s how it should be. And when it came to the Daleks or Cybermen, the Doctor would defeat them too, of course. However, those enemies had an on-screen narrative and the viewer is told how feared the Daleks and Cybermen are across the universe because when the Doctor wasn’t around, whole planets and civilisations were destroyed by them. But for the Master, there was no such narration. And I thought there should be.”
The real challenge, moving forward, was to put together stories that depicted an established ‘bad guy’ as ‘the hero’ in his own adventures. “I was really concerned about putting together a ‘children’s’ annual where the main character was well known for being ruthless and would kill anyone or any being that got in the way of his plans,” explains Mark. “It was essential to put some guidelines into place. For instance, I wouldn’t allow any stories to have any form of cruelty or torture. I knew people would want to go dark, and that really isn’t the Master. The Master has a lot of charm and cunning, he knows how to choose his battles. You don’t develop that kind of wisdom by smashing everything in sight. I wanted to explore just how successful the Master would be in his plans, without having the Doctor there to ruin things for him. And in the Unofficial Master Annual, we get to see just how successful he can be and it’s wonderful. Because sometimes, without it being intentional, and only because it suits his current scheme – he can be one heck of a hero. To that end, I didn’t want a collection of stories full of different characters each defeating the Master and his plans. This is the Master’s Annual and the Master, without the Doctor around – always wins. And if it suits his current agenda, he will be ‘the hero’. The stories we have in the annual have been carefully selected and I guarantee the reader is going to be cheering the Master on.”
Like the Doctor, the Master has endured numerous physical changes since he first appeared in 1971, but the Unofficial Annual was always destined to focus on the classic Delgado incarnation. “I did at first consider having various incarnations of the Master feature in the annual,” reveals Mark. “But I wanted to stay true to one Master at a time. Although I would love to do a Missy annual, with the cover done in the style of the old ‘70s Misty annuals (this was a well-known girl’s horror/supernatural annual and comic). If Michelle Gomez [who played Missy] writes a little foreword for it, then I’ll drop anything I’m working on to make it happen!”
Fans of the previous Unofficial Books will have been impressed by the extraordinarily high standard both of the written content and the often stunning, evocative artwork. The Master’s own book certainly won’t be letting the side down with a thrilling variety of stories and the same high standard of illustration. “We have stories based on medieval worlds; stories based in the past and in the future,” Mark told us. “There are stories where the Master faces off against other renegade Time Lords. There are tentacled monsters, cool ‘60s spies, robot conductors. And we have the seriously cute Tarkan species. There’s plenty of good quality content.”
Mark continues by enthusing about the contributors, “We have some returning talent providing the art of course; we’ve snagged Alister Pearson again. There isn’t a Who fan around who hasn’t owned a Doctor Who novel or VHS with Alister’s artwork on the cover – and besides being a wonderful artist, he’s a great guy too. There’s also SMUZZ, an award-winning British science fiction, fantasy, and political illustrator and cartoonist best known for his work on the magazine 2000 AD. We also have Paul Cooke, who has done the artwork for the cover of the Master Annual as well as illustrating some stories. When I had the idea for this, one thing that stuck in my mind, was that the cover had to say ‘The Doctor has gone, the universe is no longer safe’. So this was to be the Master’s first annual, so what better place to start than doing a homage to the Doctor’s very first annual, and then completely remove the Doctor – he’s gone, the Master is the man in charge now. So I sent Paul a mockup I’d been working on for a few weeks of the cover, he instantly caught the vision of what I wanted to do and produced this amazing homage. We also have Andy Walker, who was one of the illustrators who worked on the official 2006 Doctor Who Annual. We also have other artists such as Arfon Jones, Richard Young, Malcolm Orr, and many more… and they’re all great, brilliant guys! One person I must mention is Rob Nisbet he has done a fantastic job of proofreading every single story and the annual would not have been possible without his efforts.”
With the Unofficial 1972 and 1987 Annuals having gone down well with nostalgic fans, there’s clearly an audience hungry for further volumes. “The fans seem to have taken them to their hearts,” says Mark. “They love the quality of the stories and the artwork. I get a huge kick when people upload photos of their annual collection, and there between the 1971 and 1973 Word Distributor books, and after the 1986 annual, are the Terraqueous Distributors 1972 and 1987 annuals – that’s pretty cool. But these books are done out of love and there is no 9 to 5 working structure. The contributors love doing these books, but they also have real jobs and lives that demand their attention. It’s all down to these talented people who send me stories and illustrations – that’s what motivates me personally. I also have Asperger’s, which I am told plays a huge part in my obsession with the show. And people with Asperger’s have a pretty rough time, coping with day to day things. Doing these books are a great help to me personally, but we’ve now done three annuals in the space of 12 months and this kind of turnaround can’t be expected all the time. But as long as people keep loving the annuals, we will keep producing them. I have spoken with Alister Pearson about a possible Seventh Doctor annual and I’m very keen to do that. I would certainly like to do another Master annual. When the two previous annuals were released, people were asking “What’s next?” This time, once the Master annual is released, people are going to be asking ‘can we have another Master annual?’ and I’ll say yes, there will definitely be another Master annual in the future.”
THE UNOFFICIAL MASTER ANNUAL is available now from Lulu. For more and news of future publications, visit the Terraqueus Distributors’ Facebook Page.
