It’s interesting that in
the extras of Mastermind Jonathan
Morris says that in writing a sequel to Tales
from the Vault he didn’t want to write four mini stories in one story. He just wanted to write one story for one
hour long and while he definitely does this in the frame story of this audio,
being the story of how the Master escapes UNIT’s Vault and gets back his TARDIS
so he can take place in the Eighth Doctor Adventure novels and audios, it also
tells three smaller stories. The first
story is how the Master became a gangster and casino king while getting on the
bad side of the mafia, having his body decay, stealing other people’s bodies,
and waiting to find a way to kill the Doctor.
This first story is an excellent pastiche of the film The Godfather with Geoffrey Beevers in
the role of the titular godfather. There
are scenes with quotes such as “I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse” and
“It’s time to inherit the family business”.
The Master’s first ‘son’ is even named Michael. The only problem that I can find with this
section of the story is that the pastiche really doesn’t know if we’re supposed
to take it seriously, or if it’s supposed to be funny. Beevers is playing it straight, but some of
the lines in the script are clearly meant to be jokes.
The second story is a
little bit into the pasts of Ruth Matheson and Charlie Sato which is quite
necessary as while Tales from the Vault
introduced the characters adequately enough with good motivations as to why
they joined UNIT, why they would work in the Vault, and how they deal with
stress, it is Mastermind that delves
into their pasts. Charlie Sato wanted to
be a soldier because his father died in San Francisco after he tried saving his
daughter from an earthquake which brought their condo down. Charlie is trying to prove to the ghost of
his father and his still living mother that his father saved the correct
child. It almost shows the character to
have a damaged psyche. Ruth Matheson is
just as psychologically damaged as her entire unit was killed in an accident. She has post-traumatic stress disorder and
blames herself for the deaths of her unit.
Daphne Ashbrook and Yee Jee Tso are excellent at portraying the damaged
personas of their characters, but I will get back to that after I go into the
third story.
The third story is the
framing device where the Master has been captured by UNIT and is now being kept
in the Vault. He wakes up every five
years and there are several protocols for dealing with contact with the Master
as established by Brigadier Lethebridge-Stewart. No operative is to spend more than ten
minutes with the prisoner and the other will be watching through the entire
time. If a failsafe is pressed the
operatives will be taken away for the rest of their lives until they no longer
are a threat. The Master of course uses
his time with Ruth and Charlie to escape by manipulating those using different
plans. He starts by telling them the
story of how he was captured and then he tempts them with the promise that he
will save their loved ones and they start to fall for it. It’s all a ruse however that Geoffrey Beevers
pulls off excellently by making you question the reality of what you just
heard. Ruth and Charlie are hypnotized
by the Master and let him out, while pressing the failsafe button. The final scene is heartbreaking as this is
most likely where the two characters will be unable to live the rest of their
lives.
To summarize, Mastermind is a near perfect story. The only problem is the idea that it is the
Master being the Godfather from The
Godfather, but Beevers doesn’t know how to pull this off either
dramatically or with comedy. Beevers is
excellent in the audio otherwise and Daphne Ashbrook and Yee Jee Tso do
excellent in their roles with Jonathan Morris’
