Doctor Who Season 12 reintroduced The Master, which was a move somewhat confusing to audiences. It was said The Master had died back in Peter Capaldi's era, so fans began to question how exactly the character had returned in Jodie Whittaker's run. Well, we may have some answers now, thanks in large part to a new audio series featuring Missy.
In Series 2 of Missy's adventure "Lumiat," (via Radio Times) Missy comes in contact with a future version of herself. Some may already be scratching their heads based on that fact alone, but it turns out Missy did not destroy herself when she took out John Simm's Master. Using a device called the Elysium field, Missy was able to get a new regeneration cycle. This created not only a weird super good future incarnation of herself "called Lumiat," but also gave an added dimension to the biggest mystery behind The Master's return in Season 12.
This opens the door to the possibility that The Master played by Sacha Dhawan in Season 12 could be from an incarnation after Missy, which some Doctor Who fans had previously ruled out. Now that it has been confirmed that a future Master is possible, this may dispel talk that Dhawan's incarnation predates Missy or even John Simm's Master.
If this were true though, why wouldn't the new Master be as good as Missy, or even the audio drama's ultra good Master Lumiat? This is seemingly explained in the audio drama as well, as Missy ends up forcing the good Master Lumiat to regenerate. This bit kind of calls into question just how noble she was to begin with, but also brings in a fundamental truth about Time Lords. That is to say, personality changes happen, and there's no guarantee that The Master will stay good between regenerations.
Another theory inspired by the episode has fans theorizing that the Elysium field (which is said to be unreliable) created two distinctly different Masters. One Master would get a full set of regenerations and be good, and the other evil. Anything is possible when it comes to Doctor Who, though I've always seen The Doctor as a polar opposite to The Master. Wouldn't bringing a "good Master" character into the mix over-complicate that dynamic?
There is a slight question of whether or not Doctor Who's audio dramas are canon, though one can argue as such considering they're signed off on by the BBC. In Season 12 it seemed to me like the revelation the Doctor supposedly isn't a Time Lord (and the reason they can regenerate) was the key to The Master's survival, so I'm curious to see if this audio drama explanation will be referenced. Perhaps Chris Chibnall already had a way of explaining the comeback? We can only speculate for now and wait to see if this story holds any weight when Season 13 arrives.
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