Okay, but imagine a season where the Doctor loses their memory for the majority of it.
And halfway through the season they encounter the Master, who's in the middle of some impossibly elaborate scheme to obtain an ancient superweapon or reality-ending device or whatever this week's apocalyptic obsession happens to be.
The Doctor slowly pieces together that something suspicious is going on, starts dismantling the plan as Doctors tend to do, and eventually the Master gets fed up and decides it's time for the dramatic reveal.
"So," they say, pulling off the disguise with the biggest grin imaginable. "It's me."
"...Should that mean something to me?"
"You always figure it out by now! Usually I accidentally say one thing slightly too dramatic and you're immediately all, 'Master!'"
The Doctor just shrugs apologetically.
"I really wish I knew what you were talking about."
The Master just stares for a long moment before pressing something on their wrist communicator, and muttering, "Cancel the death weapon."
"You had a death weapon?"
"Yes, but that's not important anymore."
"I feel like that's actually incredibly important."
"I'll build or find another one. There are billions of apocalypse devices in the universe. I can get another. What I can't get is an explanation for why my oldest friend nemesis has apparently factory-reset to not knowing me. Me."
Then the Master spends the rest of the season still doing deeply questionable things on the side because they're still the Master, but their actual objective quietly shifts from conquering the universe to figuring out what happened to the Doctor and who was responsible.
Every encounter becomes less, "Behold my latest evil plan," and more, "Right, yes, the evil plan can wait. Sit down. We're making a timeline."
"No, no, stop trying to foil the plan for five minutes. Tell me what happened. Who did this to you? This is frankly insulting."
"No. We are not continuing until you remember who I am and pin me against a wall in righteous indignation like you're supposed to. Especially after last time."
"...Why would you want that?"
"We don't have to get into that."
Meanwhile the Doctor is standing there completely bewildered because this terrifying stranger seems significantly more invested in restoring whatever bizarre relationship they apparently used to have than actually carrying out any of the world-ending plots they keep interrupting.
Eventually somebody asks the Master why they've abandoned a perfectly good opportunity to take over the universe.
The Master just looks at them like they've asked the stupidest question imaginable.
"What is the point of conquering the universe if there's nobody left in it who knows I'm better than them?"
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