Spoilers for the first two episodes (after the Christmas special) of Doctor Who Season 1.
Doctor Who Season 1 ushers in a new era of adventure with the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby Sunday. There are fun places in the universe to explore and plenty of places in time to touch. The Doctor has a lot of fun and friends, but this character also has an endless list of enemies. The latest is Jinkx Monsoon's deliciously campy and musically inclined Doctor Who evil Master (pronouns: they/them). Let's get into this character and his potential future in the Whoniverse.
Jinkx Monsoon's master is the toy maker's son Doctor Who
In the second episode of this season, aptly titled “The Devil's Chord,” we finally see Jinkx Monsoon in some deliciously evil action. People speculated that Monsoon could play anyone from the Rani to another version of the Master and a somehow regenerated version of the Toymaker. Turns out the final theory wasn't too far off base. At the end of the 60th anniversary episode, the toymaker warned the Doctors that a legion would be headed their way.
In “The Devil's Chord”, Maestro reveals that they are the Toymaker's son. While Toymaker's jam played deadly games like a living game (sort of), Maestro is the essence of music. The Master is happy that the Doctor (who is strangely referred to as the Time Lord) caught his father so they can actually play.
He is the master of Jinkx Monsoon really the toymaker's son or are they the master?
Well, we can only assume that Maestro is being honest about his origins. Interestingly, when you google “Doctor Who Maestro”, the results reveal that Mestre is a word that can also mean teacher. The word literally means a master of art, especially music, which is true in this episode. It seems more like a clever ode to the Doctor's enduring nemesis, so that's what we'll believe for now. Jinkx Monsoon is not playing a new version of the Master as far as we can tell.
What does the master villain want? Doctor Who?
At the beginning of the episode, we see the Master invade 1925 and suck the musical life out of a prolific composer. It's not clear what this means until the Doctor takes Ruby Sunday back to 1963 to listen to him The Beatles record his first album. They're all decked out in '60s gear and ready to witness music history, but they soon discover that the songs, well, hurt because the Maestro is sucking music from humanity. (Now that's a smart way to have the Beatles on the show and solve music licensing issues.)
The Doctor knows something is wrong, so he takes Ruby to the roof of the recording studio to play the piano. When he does, Maestro literally pops out of the piano and starts wreaking havoc. Later, Ruby asks why the Master is doing this. Besides the obvious answer that they are the children of an agent of chaos, the Master likes to hear the sweet music of a nuclear winter. They call it the purest music of all because it is “aeolian tones,” meaning music without the need for people. Every unsung song fuels the Master, who wants to grow stronger so he can steal the music of the entire universe so it stops spinning and “fond of a minor key.” Maestro plans to “go solo” and make this his biggest symphony ever. This is a wild plan indeed.
What does the Master know that the Doctor and Ruby Sunday don't?
Master is a being of many mysteries and secrets. The biggest one comes later in the episode. Ruby finds herself trapped in Maestro's musical chains. They want to consume the music that remains in his heart. Maestro reveals Ruby's hidden song, which is “Shepherd's Bell Carol,” the Christmas carol played the night she was born. Similar to the space station, snow begins to fall in this room. The teacher says: “How can a song have so much power? And the power like him?” The Doctor asks who “he” is and the Master says he is “the greatest”.
The master wonders how he could have been the greatest on the day of Ruby's birth and why. They almost get the upper hand on Ruby and the Doctor, but two of the Beatles, Lennon and McCartney, team up to strike the right chord to defeat Maestro. Upon being expelled, the Master warns the Doctor and Ruby that “what awaits is almost here”.
Will Jinkx Monsoon Will Return as Master Doctor Who?
We don't know what any of this means at this point. But we're pretty sure this won't be Maestro's last. Doctor Who said that this character was one of the Doctor's greatest enemies to date. And, with the Master and Toymaker stories laying the groundwork for Fifteen's arc, it would be odd to have the former in just one episode. We'll see how it affects the Master Doctor Whothe future of
