He's difficult to get rid of — when he's not the direct cause of his own ridding. Repeatedly. Or hers.
Also, the one that predicted a female Thirteenth Doctor eighteen years before it happened for real.
"The Curse of Fatal Death" is a 1999 Doctor Who Affectionate Parody, produced by The BBC for Red Nose Day between the 1996 TV movie and 2005 revival. It was written by Steven Moffat, who would later be head writer and executive producer of Doctor Who between 2010 and 2017.
The Ninth Doctor (Rowan Atkinson) contacts the Master (Jonathan Pryce), wanting to meet him on the planet Terserus. The Doctor reveals that he's planning to retire and is engaged to his companion Emma (Julia Sawalha), after which things get... kinda weird. And then the Daleks get involved, aligned with the Master but with their own goals as well. When the Doctor and Emma are captured, he's killed several times and rapidly cycles through being Richard E. Grant, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant, and finally Joanna Lumley... who decides she'd actually rather shag the Master than fight him.
The comedy special is notable for offering an early glimpse into concepts that Steven Moffat would later bring into Doctor Who proper, once he became the series' showrunner. These include the Doctor marrying a companion, Time Lords regenerating as a different gender, the Master getting stuck in sewers with Daleks, Emma's outfit (a version of which was seen on companion Amy Pond later on), extremely complicated time travel schemes, and the good ship Doctor×Master.
Originally broadcast in four short parts, the BBC released a two-part version on VHS which, aside from the Comic Relief mentions, resembles any other Doctor Who release from around that point.
A tie-in work, "Who's After Your Cash" was printed in The Mirror Official Comic Relief Newspaper issued by The Mirror on Comic Relief Day. Written by Rowan Atkinson, it was a letter by the Ninth Doctor urging readers to watch "The Curse of Fatal Death". The short is free to watch on Comic Relief's official YouTube channel
. The night itself also complemented the special with promotional links, topped off with a short message to the audience from Atkinson's Ninth Doctor; these extras have been unofficially uploaded online.
"The Curse of Fatal Death" provides these examples, which we'll explain later:
- A-Cup Angst: The Master tries to inspire this in Emma, asserting that his "Dalek bumps" are "quite firm".Emma: What are you trying to say?!
The Master: [mockingly] Oh. Nothing. - Affably Evil: The Master is surprisingly polite and understanding throughout the story, perhaps to set up the ending twist.
- Affectionate Parody: It's pretty much a send-up of the most common Doctor Who tropes.
- Air-Vent Passageway: The Ninth Doctor describes his companion as being "more exciting than an escape up a ventilation shaft."
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: The Thirteenth Doctor.
- BBC Quarry: One of the reasons the Doctor is planning retirement from saving the known universe on a weekly basis? He's tired of endlessly running around those rock quarries.
- Bestiality Is Depraved: The Master's 312 year trek out of the sewers involved him having only dung slugs for food, "and the occasional company on those long, lonely nights."
- Big Heroic Run: In a parody of the classic series habit of running through corridors, the Ninth Doctor and his companion spend a good long while running through the
same exact corridor over and over. - Bizarre Alien Senses: Only the Daleks would join the Master on his quest for revenge, since the Daleks have no noses (and he'd just escaped from a sewer).
- Bond Villain Stupidity: The Daleks' chase with the Doctor and Emma end with them surrounding the two, screaming "Exterminate!" The next scene shows the Doctor and Emma in the Daleks' custody, tied to a chair. Emma lampshades it, only to be told, "We will explain later."
- Cannot Talk to Women: The Eleventh Doctor. Humorously, the Master's "etheric beam locators" get the same response out of him.
- Canon Discontinuity: Obviously, but the Doctor Who Expanded Universe indicates that the Tersurons existed and really did communicate that way.
- Canon Immigrant: The Curse of Fatal Death has since been referenced several times within the Doctor Who Expanded Universe, with the novels The Gallifrey Chronicles and The Tomorrow Windows both explicitly referencing the Atkinson Doctor as a canonical incarnation, while The Bekdel Test Big Finish Doctor Who audio play has Missy reference spending a long time climbing through the sewers of Tersurus.
- Casting Gag: All the actors who played the Doctor in this parody had at some point been considered for the actual role. Yes, including Joanna Lumley.note (Richard E. Grant would go on to play the character in Scream of the Shalka, a story that was initially conceived as canon and only declared Canon Discontinuity during its production.) Plus, Jonathan Pryce was among those considered to play the Master in the TV Movie.
- Deadly Deferred Conversation: The Twelfth Doctor's last words to Emma are, "I'll explain later." This being the tail end of a Running Gag where something ridiculous happens and the Doctor goes, "I'll explain later."
- Death Equals Redemption: Of a sort. Twelve's seemingly final death inspires the Master and the Daleks to renounce their evil ways.
- Death Is Cheap: Whenever Time Lords are around, it is.
- Department of Redundancy Department:
- The title (being that any death is, by definition, fatal), in a parody of similarly redundant classic title "The Deadly Assassin".
- Early on, the Master claims that he shall have the "deadly vengeance of deadly revenge!" He also says that the Doctor's certain death "is now... Certain!"
- Distracted by My Own Sexy: Richard E. Grant's Doctor finds himself so handsome that he licks the mirror.
- Double Entendre: It's subtle enough it can be interpreted as "Ten only had one companion in his incarnation", allowing it to slide through.Tenth Doctor: How could I forget the only time-traveling companion I ever had?
Emma: You've had lots of companions.
Tenth Doctor: The only time-traveling companion I ever had.
Emma: Oh, right! - Dramatic Thunder: The Master somehow conjures thunder inside his TARDIS to accompany his Evil Laugh.
- Evil Laugh: The Master, of course. Jonathan Pryce goes all out with this.
- Expy: Emma shares a lot of mannerisms with Third Doctor companion Jo Grant, while Jonathan Pryce's Master is pretty much the Anthony Ainley version dialed up to eleven (except for his competency, which is dialed down to one). Averted by the various Doctors however, as each of the actors gives their own unique take on the Doctor. That said, Rowan Atkinson is definitely channeling some Blackadder, considering all the snarking he does.
- Farts on Fire: The tragic fate of the Tersurons.Ninth Doctor: They discovered fire.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: When the Master reveals the lever to a Trap Door down down into the Tersuron Sewers, The Doctor can be seen stopping Emma from running. Because he knows the trap door is actually where The Master is standing.
- Fridge Logic: In-Universe. Why do Dalek ships have chairs? And why don't they just exterminate the Doctor when they have the chance?Ninth Doctor: I'll explain later.
- Gambit Pileup: Played for Laughs. The Doctor and the Master engage in a battle of temporal one-upmanship by travelling increasingly further back in time to bribe the same architect first.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The Master's attempts to trap the Doctor backfire horribly on him, though not always through his own fault. His deal with the Daleks, however, is as ill-conceived as it sounds.
- I Know You Know I Know: The entire first act is The Master and The Doctor revealing they bribed the architect multiple times.
- I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: Julia Sawalha and Joanna Lumley both starred in Absolutely Fabulous.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: The Daleks announce that they're going to exterminate the Master... and promptly end up shooting the Doctor and the Zektronic generator instead.
- Insistent Terminology: They're not breasts, they're Dalek bumps.
- Is This Thing Still On?: The Master has serious trouble with closing the communication channel on cue early on. When the Doctor calls him out on it, he quickly claims I Meant to Do That.
- Jumping the Gender Barrier: When the Doctor regenerates into their Thirteenth form to discover they are now a woman, causing Emma to lose interest, however the Doctor and the Master soon realise they are quite attracted to one another.
- Large Ham: The Tenth Doctor and Jonathan Pryce's Master, resulting in Ham-to-Ham Combat.
- Lecherous Licking: Richard E. Grant's Doctor is so distracted by his own sexy that he licks his reflection in the mirror.
- Literal Metaphor: "You're just not the man I fell in love with."
- Mr. Fanservice: In-Universe example with the Tenth and Twelfth Doctors.Emma: Result!
- Ms. Fanservice: The Thirteenth Doctor.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The Master. Ultimately, subverted:Thirteenth Doctor: Tell me, why do they call you "The Master"?
The Master: I'll explain later. - Mythology Gag:
- The sound and visual effects used for regeneration most closely resemble those used for the First Doctor's regeneration into the Second.
- When the Twelfth Doctor dies and suddenly regenerates, Roger Limb's incidental music for the Fifth Doctor's regeneration in "The Caves of Androzani" plays. Later on, as Thirteen and the Master walk away, the regeneration music from "Logopolis" is played.
- When it appears as though the Doctor's death won't lead into regeneration, his companion says that the Doctor was "never cruel and never cowardly", one of the many Author Catchphrases of prolific Who writer Terrance Dicks during his stint writing novelizations of the show.
- Noodle Incident: How the Eighth Doctor regenerated into Rowan Atkinson's Ninth, and the circumstances where he met Emma.
- The Nth Doctor: Five of them, in fact. And the Seventeenth Master.
- Off-the-Shelf FX:
- The Daleks in the special are made and played by Fan Film producers, specifically those of Devious (which is most notable for its final scenes with Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor). You can clearly see the actors inside them in some shots.
- The TARDIS console room and console are also from said fan film.
- The opening shot of the TARDIS flying through space is lifted directly from the TV movie.
- Power Perversion Potential: Only now, after thousands of years, does the Doctor notice the Sonic Screwdriver comes with three settings.
- Really 700 Years Old: In "Who's After Your Cash", the Ninth Doctor states that he is over 800 years old.
- Repeating So the Audience Can Hear: When the Doctor relays a message to the Master through flatulence, the Master repeating what's being said out loud tips the Daleks off that the Doctor is trying to warn him they'll kill him when he's served his purpose.
- Retirony: The story is set off when the Doctor wants to tell the Master that he's retiring to marry his companion.
- Rule of Three: The Master falls into the sewers of Terserus thrice, each time taking 312 years to climb back out and growing ancient and repugnantly filthy in the process.
- Running Gag: The story has one, but we'll explain later.
- Science-Fiction Writers Have No Sense of Scale: The Dalek's new superweapon will enable them to take over the universe in minutes. How, you ask? We'll explain later.
- Shout-Out: Etheric Beam Locators are a feature of Vogon Constructor ships according to a briefly visible graphic in the TV series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Actually recursive, as the Kaleds confiscated an Etheric Beam Locator from the Fourth Doctor early in "Genesis of the Daleks".
- Single-Target Sexuality: Foe Romance Subtext becomes Dating Catwoman when the Doctor's thirteenth incarnation turns out to be Joanna Lumley.
- Sissy Villain:Tenth Doctor: I remember you, don't I?
The Master: And you still fear me, Doctor.
Tenth Doctor: You're the camp one.
The Master: I am not camp.
Tenth Doctor: Oh yeah? Nice tits. - Slip into Something More Comfortable: Mocked with the Tenth Doctor saying it just after his regeneration.
- The Slow Path: The Master has to do this to get out of the sewers. Three times.
- Starfish Language: The Tersurons communicated via carefully-modulated flatulence. The Master and the Doctor are both fluent.
- Stock Footage: The opening shot of the TARDIS in the vortex is recycled from the 1996 TV movie.
- Timey-Wimey Ball: The Master and the Doctor have a duel using this as their weapon, each attempting to bribe the architect of the ancient castle they're currently in.
- Toilet Humor:
- The Tersurons, long-dead natives of the planet the action takes place on, communicated through farts. They became extinct when they discovered fire.
- The castle is built atop an extensive sewer system. When the Master is tricked into dropping himself down into it, it takes him 312 years of wandering with nothing but
Dung Slugs for food (and companionship on long, lonely nights) to escape. He then falls down again. Twice.
- Too Dumb to Live: The Tenth and Eleventh Doctors die in quick succession "all because I forgot to unplug first."
- We Meet Again: A Dalek says it to the Ninth Doctor.
- The World Is Always Doomed: The Doctor has saved every planet in the known universe a minimum of 27 times.
