Unfair on Missy?

There's a decent amount of criticism of Missy here but I've been watching The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina on Netflix recently and I'm starting to think a female Master could work, more specifically I think Michelle Gomez's Missy could have worked if the braindead writers didn't make her a ridiculous quip machine. Michelle Gomez plays Madam Satan in Sabrina and her character and portrayal gives me serious Master vibes. She's intimidating, unsettling, cunning and you're never exactly sure what her motives or goals are outside of everything she does being for her own gain.

In many ways a show unconnected to Doctor Who and wrote a more fitting version of a Doctor Who character for the actress that played the character and I've gone from disliking Missy and the concept of her to being sorry we didn't get to see what could have been.

They're not the best examples but they're what I found after a quick search on youtube.

No. She was abysmal, and the concept of time lord gender change is an abomination.

Absolutely not. If anything we are too easy on that shitstain of a character.

No.

In the end, if they wanted a female supervillain played by that actress, there's zero reason they couldn't have either brought back the Rani or made up their own. It was done for one reason, and that was to pave the way to destroy the Doctor as a male hero and role model.

No. Whilst the actress is fine in other stuff (like Gotham, ironically when that show started getting silly) Missy opened the door for the sex-change Doctor and the sex/race change General in Hell Bent.

Missy is just New Who rubbish.

Ironically, in theory the idea of a female Master could have worked.
After all, the classic series character used up his allotted regenerations and extended his life cycle only by stealing non-Time Lord bodies (as shown in Keeper of Traken and the McGann movie). Indeed a manipulative body stealing Master could have been quite sinister and even have exploited a temporary female form to evil effect if some imagination had been applied to the concept.
However, it would have required some adept handling to have worked in context and needless to say there was never any chance of that with New Who.

The only thing I'll say in Missy's favour is that I don't think she's anywhere near as bad as Jodie, simply because Gomez is a competent actress and Moffat is a competent dialogue writer, which is a hell of a lot more than can be said for their 2018 counterparts. It's obvious that she would never have been cast as the Master if not for SJW pandering, but I can imagine Gomez being written and directed in a way that I wouldn't find entirely objectionable, whereas Whittaker is fundamentally unsuitable for any role even remotely in the ballpark of the Doctor.

I must stress that none of this should be taken as any kind of endorsement of the agenda-driven bastardisation of the Master's character, but I do firmly believe that what Chibnall & Whittaker have done is much, much worse. Even if the acting and dialogue weren't so appalling, the greater importance of the Doctor alone elevates Chibnall's crime above Moffat's.

Missy was terrible and along with Clara weighed down heavily on Capaldi's era. With an entirely different writing team perhaps she might have been an interesting character and not another example Moffat's penchant for sassy and confident females. Theoretically I'm not against the Master being a female for the reason BillPatJonTom highlighted. I have to be honest I find the notion of the Doctor and the Master being venereal far more disquieting than their changing gender.

ClockworkOcean wrote:The only thing I'll say in Missy's favour is that I don't think she's anywhere near as bad as Jodie, simply because Gomez is a competent actress and Moffat is a competent dialogue writer, which is a hell of a lot more than can be said for their 2018 counterparts. It's obvious that she would never have been cast as the Master if not for SJW pandering, but I can imagine Gomez being written and directed in a way that I wouldn't find entirely objectionable, whereas Whittaker is fundamentally unsuitable for any role even remotely in the ballpark of the Doctor.

I must stress that none of this should be taken as any kind of endorsement of the agenda-driven bastardisation of the Master's character, but I do firmly believe that what Chibnall & Whittaker have done is much, much worse. Even if the acting and dialogue weren't so appalling, the greater importance of the Doctor alone elevates Chibnall's crime above Moffat's.

Agreed - Missy was supremely annoying but I've seen Michelle Gomez in other stuff and she can be occasionally funny (and a bit sexy too, if I'm honest), whereas Whittaker is simply bland, middling and completely forgettable in whatever she appears in.