'Doctor Who' Season 12 Premiere: What does return of the Master mean for the Doctor?
'Doctor Who' is back with a flash and a bang, quite literally! And what a way to end the premiere episode of the new season with the reveal of all reveals — that MI6 agent O is, in fact, the Master, and the electric, flashy monsters killing the spies are under his control.
The Master — quoting his own line in this episode — is the Doctor's "best enemy", be it in Classic Who or NuWho. In NuWho, we have seen the role being played by John Simm (first appearing against David Tennant's Doctor) and Michelle Gomez (playing the role against Peter Capaldi's Doctor).
Both Simm and Gomez appeared in Capaldi's final season where we see Simm's Master killing Gomez's for good. So where does Sacha Dhawan's Master come in? In a conversation with the 12th Doctor, Missy had told him that she lost count of the regenerations between her and Simm's Master and it is quite likely that Dhawan's comes in between.
Dhawan's Master also tells the 13th Doctor in the final moments of the episode that "everything you know is a lie". The most obvious explanation for the presence of this Master is time travel, but we also see mentions of multiple Earths.
This is not a concept new to 'Doctor Who'. In the second season of NuWho, in an epic battle between the Doctor and the Cybermen and the Daleks, the fight takes place across multiple universes. In Tennant's final season as the Doctor, we also see the multi-universe playing out.
This means that there is also the possibility that Dhawan's Master is from another universe -- but what about the Doctor from that universe? We will have all of season 12 to figure this out, but more immediately we can expect a few answers from the second part of 'Spyfall' which will air on BBC America on January 5th, Sunday.