Doctor Who Guide

Who Played the Master in Doctor Who?

A complete guide to every actor who has played the Master — the Doctor's oldest and most dangerous enemy — across sixty years of Doctor Who.
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Quick Answer

The Master has been played by many actors across the decades. The most celebrated portrayals include Roger Delgado (the original, 1971-1973), Anthony Ainley (1981-1989), John Simm (2007-2017) and Michelle Gomez as Missy (2014-2017). The most recent television incarnation was played by Sacha Dhawan (2020-2022).

Who Is the Master?

The Master is a renegade Time Lord and the Doctor's oldest friend turned most dangerous enemy. Like the Doctor, the Master fled Gallifrey, travels in time and space, and regenerates into new bodies when near death. Unlike the Doctor, the Master's defining characteristic is a ruthless hunger for power and domination — a need to control, conquer and destroy that the Doctor has always been compelled to oppose.

The Master was introduced in 1971 specifically as a recurring villain to give the Doctor a consistent, credible opponent who could appear across multiple stories without requiring a new backstory each time. The concept proved enormously successful. Where the Doctor represents the best of what a Time Lord might be, the Master represents the worst — someone with all the same intelligence, all the same tools, and none of the Doctor's compassion.

Roger The Original Roger Delgado (1971-73). Created the definitive template: charming, suave, lethal. Introduced alongside the Third Doctor.
Missy First Female Master Michelle Gomez (2014-17). Regenerated into a woman for the first time. Consistently brilliant and darkly comedic.
Simm The Drumming Master John Simm (2007-2017). Chaotic, unhinged, driven by the drumbeat in his head implanted by the Time Lords.
Dhawan Most Recent TV Sacha Dhawan (2020-22). Explosive and theatrical. Responsible for the Timeless Child revelation and destruction of Gallifrey.

Complete List of Master Actors

Actor Years Era Key Story Notable Trait
Roger Delgado 1971-1973 Classic Terror of the Autons Elegant, gentlemanly villain
Peter Pratt 1976 Classic The Deadly Assassin Decayed, near-dead form
Geoffrey Beevers 1981 Classic The Keeper of Traken Continued decayed incarnation
Anthony Ainley 1981-1989 Classic Logopolis Recurring classic era nemesis
Eric Roberts 1996 TV Movie Doctor Who (TV Movie) American-produced, snake-bodied
Derek Jacobi 2007 Revival Utopia Disguised as Professor Yana
John Simm 2007-2017 Revival The Sound of Drums Manic, anarchic, drumbeat-driven
Michelle Gomez (Missy) 2014-2017 Revival Dark Water / Death in Heaven First female Master, darkly comic
Sacha Dhawan 2020-2022 Revival Spyfall Explosive, chaotic, destroyed Gallifrey

Roger Delgado: The Definitive Master

Roger Delgado's Master, introduced in Terror of the Autons (1971) opposite Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor, established the template for every subsequent incarnation. Delgado brought elegance, charm and genuine menace to the role — a perfectly groomed, entirely calm villain who would calmly discuss the merits of world domination over a glass of something civilised before attempting to kill you. His relationship with Pertwee's Doctor had an edge of genuine warmth beneath the antagonism, suggesting a deep and complicated friendship that had soured into mutual enmity. Delgado died in a car accident in Turkey in 1973, and the production team never cast another Master during Pertwee's era out of respect.

Michelle Gomez as Missy

Michelle Gomez's Missy — the Master regenerated into a woman — was one of the most significant castings in the show's history, arriving at a time when the question of whether the Doctor might regenerate into a woman was becoming an active conversation. Gomez brought extraordinary energy to the role, combining the Master's fundamental malice with a darkly comedic sensibility and an unpredictability that made every scene electric. Her arc across Series 8 through 10 — which culminated in Missy's apparent turn toward redemption before being shot by her own previous incarnation John Simm — was one of the most emotionally complex villain stories the show had told.

The Master and the Doctor: A Friendship Older Than the Show

The backstory developed across decades of Doctor Who establishes that the Doctor and the Master knew each other as children on Gallifrey, long before either had regenerated. They were, at some point, friends. The tragedy of the Master is that someone who could have been the Doctor's greatest companion chose a completely different path. This backstory gives their conflict a weight that a purely antagonistic villain relationship could never achieve — every confrontation carries the grief of a friendship destroyed by choices made centuries ago.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who played the Master in Doctor Who originally?Roger Delgado played the Master in his original television appearances from 1971 to 1973, opposite Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor. He defined the character's essential qualities — charm, intelligence, absolute ruthlessness — and remains the benchmark against which all subsequent portrayals are measured.
Who plays the Master in the current Doctor Who?Sacha Dhawan played the Master in the most recent televised appearances, from 2020 to 2022 in the Chris Chibnall era. As of 2025, no further appearances of the Master character have been confirmed in the Russell T Davies / Ncuti Gatwa era, though the character may return in future series.
Is Missy the same as the Master?Yes. Missy, played by Michelle Gomez, is an incarnation of the Master who regenerated into a woman. She is explicitly confirmed to be the same character as all previous Masters, possessing the same memories and personality in a new form. Her storyline across Series 8-10 directly addresses the continuity between her incarnation and those that preceded it.
Why does the Master keep coming back?The Master uses Time Lord regeneration to survive apparent death and return in new bodies. Over the decades the character has survived destruction, execution, bodily decay, conversion into a Cyberman, possession of another body and numerous other apparently terminal fates. The show treats the Master's survival as a running joke about the character's refusal to stay dead, but it also reflects the genuine dramatic value of having a consistent, intelligent adversary for the Doctor.

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