Masterful

The hook for this, as is clear from the cover and cast list, is that it's getting as close as possible to starring “every Master ever”. The Delgado and Ainley versions only feature indirectly, and the Dawan version didn't exist yet (although the story does make what I believe to be the first BF reference to the 13th Doctor) but otherwise it's pretty close, even including some that one wouldn't normally think of.

The first part of the story, with the various Masters meeting up on a remote island, suffers from an overly large cast, and it's sometimes hard to tell which one's which or what they're up to. But soon they are scattered across time and space leading to a more intriguing set of four interweaved stories, focussed on the War Master, Missy, and the McQueen and Beevers versions. Each of these has a different tone - one of the Masters heads down a particularly surprising path - taking advantage of the varying interpretations of the character. As it unfolds, it also becomes clear that the stories are more interlinked than they initially appear, with things coming to a head as the other Masters gradually turn up.

The final part, once everything comes together and the real plot is revealed, is the strongest part, and makes everything else worthwhile. The four Masters that get their own plots, whether as protagonist or villain, come out of this the strongest, with good performances by all four actors - although, my goodness, Gomez is especially stand-out. The others are not so well served, which, given the confusion of the opening segment is probably just as well - there's simply too many of them, even for a three-hour story. Fans of the modern series may be disappointed that the Simms Master, while crucial to the plot, isn't in it all that much, but this is easily compensated for by the presence of Missy who enlivens things whenever she turns up.

I can't quite give this five stars, largely because the beginning doesn't work all that well and some of the storylines are perhaps more sedate than one might expect... but it pulls off an ambitious feat with aplomb and shows the Master as, quite literally, his own worst enemy.