Oh Missy, you’re so fine… The Mistress of mayhem enjoys a slice of time-twisting steampunk action in Dark Gallifrey: Missy – but is she her own worst enemy?
Missy, the female incarnation of the Master, appeared throughout Peter Capaldi’s era, meeting her end thanks to an encounter with her earlier self in ‘The Doctor Falls’.
Since leaving the show, Michelle Gomez has embraced the character on audio. As well as celebrating the character in Masterful, she’s starred in her own series, met River Song and dallied with a young Amelia Pond.
As Dark Gallifrey hits its second year, it brings us two more versions of the Master. We’ll hear from Eric Roberts’ TV Movie Master! later. First, Missy runs riot across her own trilogy from writer Rochana Patel.
Dark Gallifrey: Missy
Rochana Patel’s Missy tale brings us to Opus Thule, a world where regular technology does not work. However, the denizens of this steam punk backwater are aware of Time Lords – the Doctor’s exploits against an entity known as The Malevolence are immortalised in dramatic form on the stage.
We’re introduced to Opus Thule by way of Mortimer Fox, aka Sly Boots, a criminal who is the junior partner in an attempt to relieve the Queen’s advisor of his briefcase while he and his regal mistress watch a play. Naturally, it all goes wrong, and the pair end up on the run from automatons called the Clankers when they when they encounter Missy, arriving by vortex manipulator.
Unable to leave, Missy soon allies herself with the pair and begins scheming to obtain the power she needs by way of an ambitions train-based heist.
Enter the Doctor…
Escaping back in time, the second chapter introduces us to Doctor and the events previously chronicled. Missy and Sly Boots have travelled back five years, to the time when the Doctor defeated the Malevolence, and aboard a flying metal steamship, the HMS Phoenix.
However, it’s the wrong Scottish Doctor and Missy breaks into the credits to discuss the problem this poses – she shouldn’t be interacting with a pre-Time War Doctor and temporal forces should keep them apart.
As Missy and the Doctor deal with each other, Sly Boots is working hard to change the future. He knows that his family will be wiped out when the ship crashes on his village.
The story really lets Missy off the leash. With both Gomez and McCoy at the top of their game, the Doctor/Missy relationship is taken to a place it has never been before.
The concluding chapter brings the tale together in satisfying fashion, providing explanations for all that fourth wall breaking. It also leaves us in no doubt that Missy truly embodies all the qualities of the Master – intrigue, duplicity and self-loathing
In Summary
Chock full of Missy mayhem, this time-twisting trilogy serves the character well. While she’s wacky and unpredictable, Missy is also a deadly operator and not to be underestimated. Leading the trilogy, Michelle Gomez gets the space to play with her character even more than usual, and it’s a delight.
As well as her own carefully constructed world, writer Rochana Patel also has fun with Doctor Who lore; Missy challenges the Seventh Doctor for starting the Time War and then shirking responsibility for it.
In the wider cast, Jonathan Case is brilliant as Mortimer Fox, the companion who self-narrates his way through the tale, and he makes a great double-act with Bruce Alexander’s Scratch.
Dark Gallifrey
However, one thing we’re (still) struggling with is how Dark Gallifrey fits together. Previously, we’ve seen the desire of Morbius to harness its legions, while the War Master’s involvement was seemingly set after the main thrust of the story. Missy’s trilogy does nothing to make the overall story line less obscure and, in fact, there’s no mention of it whatsoever.
Once again, the Doctor’s involvement in the tale is tangential. Previously, we’ve has a matrix projection and an Unbound incarnation. Now, this trilogy presents the Seventh Doctor from a divergent timeline. While this allows for shocking events, as well as the meeting of this two Scottish-presenting Time Lords, it does make you wonder if the ‘real’ Doctor will ever make an appearance!
The Worlds of Doctor Who – Dark Gallifrey: Missy Parts One to Three are available as single-disc collector’s edition CDs (+ download), or as downloads only, from Big Finish.
Catch up on our reviews of the first two trilogies – Dark Gallifrey: Morbius and Dark Gallifrey: The War Master.