Story as to what this is and why I'm spending way too much money on it under the cut
SO. I haven't been super active in the Doctor Who fandom like, ever really, but rest assured I've been watching the show and have consumed fan content for it for well over a decade now. I've just never really gotten into the hang of interacting with other members of the fandom much myself. (To be fair being an active member of any fandom is still pretty new to me)
So, naturally, as a result, I wouldn't expect anyone to know this about me, but I am a HUGE fan of The Master. I'm a huge fan of villains in general honestly, any of my followers who followed me for Trinity Blood shitposts can attest to that since I literally never shut up about Cain. (shaped like a son <3)
But, like many other fans who got started with nuwho, my first introduction to The Master was with good ol' John Simm and the Harold Saxon plot. So, naturally, this plot holds a very special place in my heart. Even if Simm!Master isn't my favorite anymore, that doesn't mean I don't still love the round-faced rat man very much and have great nostalgic affection for his first two stories.
So, be me a few months ago, refreshing myself on the contents of that scheme on the wiki, mostly just because I was on the Master's page looking for something I can't even remember at this point and because I have about as reliable an attention span as a wet potato chip has structural integrity I was clicking around on links and going on a rabbithole through the pages. And while I was skimming through the Saxon plot I saw mention of something I certainly didn't remember in the episode. Apparently The Master had given a speech at the school Harold Saxon claimed to have gone to?? And hypnotized a bunch of people and manually implanted memories in some teacher who didn't respond to the hypnosis?? I didn't remember anything about that.
Turns out, it's extended universe content. But while I haven't actually consumed much extended universe content directly (I'm still catching up on NuWho and my ADHD brain won't let me delve into the old series or any EU content until I'm done with that. Brain just said no.), I know a fair few things from it, especially in relation to my boy. Like come on, what kind of Master fan would I be if I didn't even know about him being the Champion of Death, being from house Oakdown, having the school nickname Koschei, like come on. I even know about Mestizer! But I've NEVER heard of this little tidbit before. What speech??? What is this???
Turns out, it's from a short story that was released in 2009. Appropriately titled 'Speech Day'. It was released in a collection of Doctor Who related short stories. But the reason I'd never heard about it before is that while all those other stories have been reprinted in 2015, Speech Day was NOT. The ONLY place to find it is at the back of this short story collection (titled 'The Doctor Who Stories').
Anyway I spent way too much money on this considering the fact that I ONLY want it for Speech Day and don't care about any of the other stories (though I'm sure I'll read them eventually) but my brain made an exception for this piece of EU content based on the sole fact that it seems like it's only gonna get harder to get ahold of as time goes on since it hasn't been reprinted and likely won't be. But it is now en route. :)
Anyone else have Speech Day? Did you like it?
And also just the short story collection in general lol. I mean I bought it solely for The Master content but if I have the book I'm sure I'll read the others too, anyone who's read it have any favorites?
(It's intended to be more of a children's book from the looks of things so that's probably also why I haven't heard much about it. But I'm hardly going to be picky when a whole new piece of content about the plot that first introduced me to The Master drops into my lap lol.)
So yeah this is one of my christmas presents to myself. <3 Merry belated crisis.
