The Discontinuity Guide
Miscellaneous Books

The Masters of Luxor

October 1992

Author: Anthony Coburn

The Masters of Luxor was a script originally intended to be one of the stories in the first series of Doctor Who. However, it was replaced at a relatively late stage due to the sucess of Terry Nation's The Daleks.

Roots: Isaac Asimov's Robot novels. Frankenstein. The Doctor quotes Karl Marx. Susan and Barbara recite Peter Piper and Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary.

Dialogue Triumphs: Yes, I was afraid of the unknown. We all were. It is the way of you Earthlings and it has affected me. Have you ever asked yourselves why in the science fiction of Earth, the unknown intelligence is always made out to be hostile? Why should it be? The strange creatures from Mars always come to invade you to subject you to some terrible fate Why not come out of friendly curiosity?

'A very rare metal in the world. Hope'

Continuity: The TARDIS materialises above a moon of Luxor in free float it hits the atmosphere and crashes. Free-float is enabled by the hyper-dimensional neutraliser circuit. The Doctor states that the energy that powers the TARDIS works in a similar way to womens intuition [perhaps explaining why it always seeks out danger, probably in response to its telepathic to the Doctor. This also places The Masters of Luxor after Inside the Spaceship]. In addition to the fault-locator, it has self-repair mechanisms. The city drains the TARDISs energy the Doctor says that there is an emergency power source, but he is reluctant to use it whilst the power drain is unchecked.

Luxor is at the centre of the Primidiion Galaxy and has more than seven hundred satellites. The Luxorites are humanoid. They use their criminals as subjects for scientific experiments and kill any of their offspring that have genetic abnormalities. They measure energy in lomotrons and have a religion, which the scientific Masters rejected. The Moon on which the Perfect One was created is a penal colony. Its atmosphere contains oxygen, but none of the carbon gases, indicating that it has never had plant life. It has slightly less gravity than Earth. The Masters of Luxor, working under Tabon, created the First-made Ones to serve them, but were dissatisfied with them and so built the more complex Derivitrons. When these two failed to please them, they designed the Perfect One, an artificial person physically identical to themselves. Seeing an end to their slavery to flesh and blood, the Derivitrons built the Perfect One from the Masters designs; desiring true life, it attempted to transfer life energy from the Luxorites, using techniques that Tabon had developed on prisoners. The life-transfer process failed each time, and killed the living subject. With the Perfect One in control of the city, Tabon fled onto the surface and designed a suspended animation chamber, in which he remained for seven years. The Perfect One considers Tabon his father. The Perfect Ones control mechanisms are linked to a nuclear device that destroys the city and the planet once he is destroyed. He cannot heal or repair damage. His cerebral cortex is made of liquid Azzintium. Neither the First-Made Ones nor Derivitrons can navigate stairs easily.

The Doctor is fond of twentieth century memoirs of Generals from which he learned many tactical skills [suggesting that he has not met Sun Tzu yet].

Links: There is a reference to 100,000BC.

Location: One of the moons of Luxor, date unknown.

The Bottom Line: A fascinating look at how Doctor Who might have been had this story been made instead of The Mutants. The script is beautifully written, and the Perfect One makes a tragic, and therefore ironically very human, villain.

Discontinuity Guide by Paul Clarke