Derek Jacobi and the rest of the cast of that first boxed set were just superb and the writing and production were just sublime.
And by Jove, and a whole host of Olympians, they have done it again. The Time War exists at the darkest fringes of the shared Whoniverse and these stories would probably have been too dark for the particular time slot the television series favours. The subject matter requiring a degree of editorial bravery to rise to the challenge of telling the tales that would do justice to the most dreadful conflict of all. The War Doctor with John Hurt and Jaqueline Pearce were equally adept at achieving this, for slices of boxed perfection that blended seamlessly into the continuity set up in the Day Of The Doctor. Now, unbelievably, both gone, leaving a space on the stage it is hard to imagine ever being filled.
Derek Jacobi, as The Master, with more room and time to breath, the character displays levels of a beguiling charm that is deadly and masks a demonically playful and cruel streak. In the way that The Doctor is the best friend we could wish for The Master is the frenemy we could do without. There are moments in Derek Jacobi's performance when you wish to believe that he has changed his ways, that he has the betterment of his fellow beings at heart. You listen as he enhances the life quality of of the inhabitants of Callous, their joy at the improvements he has brought into their difficult lives on this outpost mining planet. With a voice dripping with sincerity and good natured bonhomie he extols the dangers of believing in fairy tales and stories where the good always win. You have to remind yourself, as the listener, that in these stories we are not travelling with The Doctor, that even the happiest of endings is dripping with innocent blood. One of the mostb terrifying aspects of Derek Jacobi's turn as The Master is his ability to perform generous and even humane acts in order to draw the innocent and the desperate into his complex and dangerous webs of conspiracy. This makes the moments when he turns and discards all those who have trusted him and even come to depend upon him all the more shocking
Two scripts by James Goss , two scripts by Guy Adams, seamlessly weilded together, although it has to be said the second pair of stories take the uncomfortable set up from the first two into nightmarishly exciting territories. The third part in particular emerges as a full on haunted house in space story for a very likeable character who finds themselves in a hopeless position. It is a gripping example of just how good Big Finish have become at providing atmospheric and powerful drama.
I had expected four seperate tales in this boxed set. Stories that would have The Master tripping through space and time being charming and deadly in equal measure. The Master Of Callous is so much more than that. It is one big tale , one that resonates like a Joseph Conrad novel, a trip down a dark river where a demented but genius level Kurtz sits waiting for us at the centre of a spider's web, where every thread we follow is poisoned and we realise too late that our trusted guide was a monster all along.
