Doctor Who: Nemesis (The Master Faction)

Yes, the next few paragraphs are mostly the same as my openings in the previous Doctor Who: Nemesis faction reviews, where I looked at the Dalek and Cybermen. You can reread Part 1 talking about the gameplay HERE (or in Cosmic Masque Magazine Issue #18), Part 2, looking at the Daleks HERE, and Part 3, looking at the Cybermen HERE.

Just a reminder that I won’t go over the mechanics of the game here. If you decide to simply read on (which you are welcome to do) and feel a bit lost, you know where to look and what to do. But for today, I’m going to be digging into yet another of the Doctor’s various nemeses that are featured in the game.

For those readers who decided not to look back at the earlier reviews, I’ll quickly remind you what the concept of the game is. Each player will take on the persona of one of the Doctor’s classic nemeses: Daleks, Cybermen, Weeping Angels, or The Master. Each nemesis has a unique, double-sided, Control Board with a different “faction” or iteration of their chosen nemesis. Each player also has a unique deck of cards for their chosen nemesis and an additional set of cards added to that for their chosen faction. Further added to their deck are cards representing two randomly selected Doctors (Doctors 1-13 plus the War Doctor). Again, I mostly just rewrote the exact same description from the previous issues, but the details still haven’t changed.

THE MASTER Core Deck and Control Board

What would the Doctor be like if he didn’t dress and act so… ostentatiously…? What about if he did a better job of simply blending in with the humans around him? What if he accepted the cookies and went over to the Dark Side? Well, the answer to most of those questions would be that you have The Master. Now, universal statements are rarely universal. For example, you would be hard pressed to call anything about Christopher Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor ostentatious, nor are you likely to win an argument trying to claim Michelle Gomez’s Master (aka Missy) blends in almost anywhere. A sort of Moriarty to the Doctor’s Holmes, the Master is a rival timelord with a complex relationship to the Doctor. The two have been friends, colleagues, rivals, and outright enemies. Sometimes all at the same time. 

The core deck for the Master is adorned with the visage of Sasha Dhawan’s Master. First appearing in the Thirteenth Doctor episode Spyfall, this Master is often referred to as The Spy Master. Now, it’s often said that if you go far enough left or right on the personality spectrum, you end up at the far other end, like a loop. That is very much the Spy Master’s story arc. He casually hides in plain sight, until choosing to reveal himself and by the end of the Whitaker Era he could be easily mistaken for Caesar Romero’s Joker in a striking purple suit, acting completely bat guano insane. He was also one of the best Rasputines in screen history. (Fight me.) I should clarify something here. The cards in Doctor Who: Nemesis each have an icon with the face of the core Nemesis, Faction, or Doctor that the card belongs to. The Master’s core deck ( and box art) uses Sasha Dhawan’s face but his iteration of the Master isn’t playable in the game. But regardless of the actor, the Master is still the Master. This is something that makes the character unique in the context of the game. The Daleks, Cybermen, and Weeping Angels are all plural. Groups, with Gale Force Nine spotlighting individuals within their ranks. But there is only one Master and the core deck delivers images of most incarnations. I do find it interesting that it is only most incarnations. The most frequent Master was Anthony Ainley, who played the part through four different Doctors until the show went on hiatus in 1989. Yet for some reason, the ‘Tissue Compression Eliminator’ (Nemesis, Constant ; Upgrade) and ‘Defeat Enemies’ (Nemesis, Constant ; ) are the only two cards featuring him, while Eric Roberts’ Master doesn’t appear at all. 

The Master is, if nothing else, unpredictable, and his play style leans into that. Many of The Master’s cards involve either someone making a choice or the Master rolling a die. Just to add to the unpredictability, the card ‘The Master’ (Nemesis, Character ; Master, Minion) has an ongoing effect that lets the players roll two dice whenever they would have rolled one, and choose the result they want. That’s right, each of the nemeses comes with an oversized custom die, but The Master comes with TWO oversized custom dice. If you recall in my Cybermen review, I stubbornly insisted on referring to the Cyberplanner faction as “Mr. Clever,” which is the specific name of the individual Cyberplanner used in the game. Along those same lines, I try not to think too hard about what the various iterations of The Master are called on the cards. The Character card featuring Roger Delgado is simply ‘The Master’ but as The Scheming Master as a player faction. John Simm is The Masterful Master as a player faction, and ‘The Resurrected Master’ (Nemesis, Character ; Master, Minion) as a card. In both cases the card names are more accurate to canon, but whatever. Also minor, but weirder still, is that ‘The Master’ card has Delgado’s picture but the ongoing ability is way more application to Simm’s Control Board ability. Speaking of Simm…

THE MASTERFUL MASTER faction

John Simm’s iteration of the Master is most commonly referred to as the Saxon Master, owing to his pseudonym of Harold Saxon. As Saxon, he spent years of intricate planning and manipulation to eventually be elected prime minister of the United Kingdom. The Masterful Master moniker seemingly comes from the first Master lead project by Big Finish Audio, starring Simm, entitled Masterful. That may also just be a coincidence, but anytime a Doctor Who anything seemingly connects the continuity of different mediums, I’m in heaven. The Locations on his Control Board are Time-Locked Gallifrey, a Stolen Tardis, Earth: Present Day, and Silo 16: Malcassairo, and it has the Ongoing ability to draw 1 card and discard 1 card whenever the player rolls 1 or more dice. 

At first glance, The Masterful Master’s Faction Cards are unspectacular. ‘Human Resources’ ( Nemesis, Character ; Minion ) Allows you to discard 2 Power to gain 1 Plot. Both ‘Will of Rassilon’ ( Nemesis, Instant ; ) and ‘The Sound of Drums’ ( Nemesis, Constant ; Upgrade ) allow the player to roll a die in the End Step to gain Plot, remove Plot, draw cards, or retrieve cards. It’s easy to miss, but he does have an incredibly fast winning combination. ‘The Master Race’ (Nemesis, Constant ; Installation) must be attached to the Earth: Present Day Location, and gives all Companion and Minion Characters there the Master trait, and Companions do not Contest the Location. ‘Gallifrey Returns’ (Nemesis, Constant ; Installation, Scheme) must be attached to the same location and as an Action lets the player gain a Plot if there are 3+ Masters in play. The Scheme’s win condition is triggered when the player has 5 or more Plot. Any combo that requires unique cards is going to be a challenge to pull off, of course, so it’s helpful that some of the core deck cards, and four of the Masterful Master’s faction cards provide Plot. If you’re like me and enjoy a bit of risk, the core deck card ‘Thwarted Plans’ ( Nemesis, Moment ; ) has a two in six chance of removing 1 Plot from each card and Control Board that has Plot, setting back The Master’s own victory trigger. 

As a small tangent, I mentioned earlier that the Master is only one individual Time Lord. But then we get ‘The Master Race’ card as a reminder that nothing is constant. Except for the card; the card is a Constant. But nothing outside the game. 

THE SCHEMING MASTER faction

Roger Delgado’s Master, the first to appear in Doctor Who, was known for his remarkable hypnotic abilities, and his constant scheming. The Scheming Master is not technically an honorific given to the first Master in any sort of official capacity, but it is incredibly suitable. Delgado’s Master would prove to be an ever-present thorn in the Third Doctor’s side as the primary antagonist across an entire season, with a linear story arc –which actually made sense– that carried on through until Delgado’s tragic real-life death shortly after completing the episode Frontier in Space. Unfortunately, many of his episodes were later lost by the BBC, leaving Gale Force Nine to design his Faction in a unique way. Instead of using episode footage, the images of Delgado were likely taken from production photos since they are in black and white, while Jon Pertwee’s run as the Doctor was notable for being the first time Doctor Who (and by extension the Master) was aired in colour. 

The Scheming Master’s Control Board has the locations Earth-side Lab, The Master’s Tardis, Traken, and Gallifrey Burning. It also has the ongoing ability to allow the player to draw one card whenever placing or removing a Plot token. This combines well with his faction cards, as all five focus on Plot. ‘The Mastermind’ (Nemesis, Constant ; )Allows the player to discard 1 Hero card to gain 1 Plot in the End Step, as well as retrieving 1 Constant when played. ‘Defeat Enemies’ (Nemesis, Constant ; ) has the ongoing ability to gain the player 1 Plot whenever they thwart a Companion Hero Character and 2 Plot when they Capture a Doctor. ‘Grand Entrance’ (Nemesis, Instant ;) Gains the play 2 Plot if they have a Master Character in play, in their discard pile, and in the hand. Being an instant is good here because it can be played before taking an action like playing ‘Gather Power’ (Nemesis, Constant ; ) which shuffles your discard pile into your main Nemesis Deck. It also allows the player to discard 3 Power to gain 1 Plot. The Scheming Master’s final card is ‘Master of Everything’ (Nemesis, Constant ; Upgrade, Scheme) which is attached to a Master Character giving them +1 Strength for every Plot token on your Control Board. Its Scheme win condition is triggered when the player has 6 or more Plot.

I find it a bit interesting that the rulebook recommends playing The Masterful Master in your first games, as The Scheming Master is a less chaotic and more straightforward to play faction. But I do love me some chaos.

The Master, in general, plays well in the game. But as a fan of character, and as someone whose job it is to view games with a critical eye, some of the photo choices are bewildering. ‘Gather Power’, for example, is a Scheming Master faction card with a giant “Saxon Victory” sign. That is a direct reference to John Simm’s “Saxon Master”. Simm’s Master appears on plenty of cards but Delgado and other classic Masters do not. I understand the potential reasons for most of these choices, but they nevertheless feel clunky and poorly thought through. Especially for that specific card. Of all of the nemeses in this game, The Master is the one I hope to see some sort of expansion for. There are, of course, a TON of great antagonists to pick from in the Whoniverse. But The Master would only require a single-sided Control Board and five new cards to be playable versus something entirely new. I ALSO want something new, but The Master could be a faster release and no less interesting. 

Make sure you come back next issue when I’ll be looking at fourth antagonists-turn-protagonist in Doctor Who: Nemesis! (If you’re paying attention, you can figure out who that will be.) Until then, you can find Gale Force Nine at www.gf9.com or on Facebook at facebook.com/GaleForceNine. You can find more of my Doctor Who gaming reviews at TheRatHole.ca/who. Enjoy.

[Editor’s Note: at the time this goes live we are experiencing some technical difficulties behind the scenes. Our Doctor Who Games landing page is specifically impacted and may not include our most recent Who reviews, including our Nemesis reviews. -dc]