In last week’s episode of Doctor Who, John Simm returned to his role as the villainous Master for the first time in seven years. It was a shocking, awesome moment… but it would have been 10 times that if the BBC hadn’t announced it was happening two months ago.
Image: John Simm, learning his Who return was announced early. Probably. Gif via Youtube
The Master’s reveal in “World Enough and Time” was somewhat dampened because most people assumed that the mysterious Mr Razor, Bill’s sole “friend” for much of the episode, was actually the Master in one of his patented quirky disguises. And everyone already knew that not only was Simm back, he’d be making an appearance in that very episode.
But thankfully even the Master himself is in agreement. Speaking in the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine, out this week, Simm discussed his return as well as his own personal disappointment in the early announcement:
I’d never been given the opportunity to use prosthetics and sort of hide underneath this brilliant face that they gave me. That was just so good. I could really play with that. So I was a bit disappointed when they let it out that I was coming back. Because the audience is obviously going to guess that [Mr Razor] is me, aren’t they?
It’s still a great reveal, but can you imagine the utter shock if the news had never been trumpeted out by the BBC, or hell, even put in the trailer for the rest of the series at the end of season 10’s second episode? You would have needed a Time Lord’s second heart just in case you keeled over in surprise!
Doctor Who‘s tenth season concludes this Sunday, July 2.
[DWM via Reddit]