The show is a continuation not a reboot, so the Valeyard and regeneration limit are canon. RTD as even stated that the TV movie is canon.
Did you mean the first actor who played the Master in Doctor Who, the inimitable and much missed Roger Delgado or the actor who played the Master turned human in this particular episode, David Jacobi?
Whew! Okay, finally got to see it, and holy frak, things are really buggered for the Doctor now aren’t they? Watching him pleading for the TARDIS was very sad.
So glad Jack’s back! I liked him calling the Doctor on his bigotry, because I was thinking the same thing. Seems pretty rude to ditch the guy because he sets off your Wrong Meter, because your girlfriend badly effed things up, Doctor.
Loved all the Rose references. Martha needs to shut up with all her eye rolling and put-upon looks, I’m really starting to actively dislike her instead of not feeling one way or the other about her.
So this appears to be part 1 of a three-parter - has there ever been a three part episode of a TV show before? That seems odd…
I’m starting to lean that way myself. The lovesick/jealous companion storyline is getting boring. I still like Martha though, in a way that I didn’t like Rose. Rose was a bimbo in comparison - although Martha would be a much more impressive if she’d just come to terms with the fact that the Doctor isn’t going to ask her out on a date.
Yeah, Who used to be serialised, so stories would occupy 2, 3 and sometimes more episodes. I really miss the weekly cliffhanger.
I was referring to Delgado, it was who I thought of immediately when I saw “original actor”… It didn’t even dawn on me to think he meant Jacobi.
I think they had to get rid of Jacobi to make the Master a comparable character to the Tennant Doctor.
I didn’t know that Anthony Ainley is dead too, he died in 2004. 
I’ve always been rather cross about this whole “Time War” storyline as it has, by extension, killed off my favourate assistant ( Romana II ).
If this story line brings her back I may just find it in my heart to forgive RTD 
Well, we don’t know if the Time War crossed over into E-Space, do we?
But I’m fairly sure that RTD has said the Big Finish stuff is cannon … which means at the time of the time war Romana would be President of the High Council of Time Lords.
The funny thing is, Martha is so much more my type of person, and Rose was so very not. So the fact that I absolutely adored Rose and am very close to hating Martha is just a testament to how very well Rose was written and how very badly Martha is being written. Which makes me angry, because I want to like Martha, I really do! But good god woman, shag Jack or something and get it out of your system, and stop mooning over the Doctor!
And I forgot to mention previously: poor Chan-tho. I really, really liked Chan-tho. Her giggling after she didn’t say “Chan” or “Tho” to Martha was just about the cutest thing, ever.
Derek Jacobi is very much alive.
See post #25
Let’s get this straight, as people seem to be getting all kinds of mixed up.
Quartz is saying: “I wish they didn’t have the regeneration scene, and kept Derek Jacobi as the Master for the next two episodes, instead of using the youthful John Simm.”
I loved the episode. Really set up a great story using things we have recently learned about the doctor.
Towards the end of the episode when the Master is in the TARDIS and the doctor is outside, the doctor says sorry and points his screwdriver at the TARDIS.
Am I right in saying he was appologising to the TARDIS as he was trying to desroy it to stop the Master?
If the Master is hiding at the end of the universe to escape the time war, where is his tardis? Can the doctor us it to get back to modern day?
I thought he was apologizing to the Master, though I can’t begin to fathom why.
Can anyone offer any insight to that?
In the thread about last week’s ep, “Blink”, I mentioned how I really enjoyed it because, not being written by RTD, it wasn’t 45 minutes of loud explosions, loud irritating muzak, and running away from baddies. Also it didn’t have the RTD obligatory fawning over how wonderful humans are (we GET IT already :rolleyes: ) and how terrible villain-of-the-week is for not being like humans.
Well, we got just about all of that in this one. 
Props to RTD for reviving Doctor Who in the first place, but I can’t stand the episodes he writes.
ETA: oh and Derek Jacobi was great, right up until the point at which he said “I am the Master”. Did he have to ham it up so much?
Take heart in the fact that reports are saying that RTD is retiring from being Who showrunner after series 4.
However, The Doctor’s love of humanity won’t go, but hopefully it’ll be toned down somewhat.
Hey, at least this series we got a lot less companion-family episodes (those are what really annoyed me).
I assumed he was apologizing to the Master about having killed off the Timelords in the Time War.
I just watched it and it wasn’t nearly as good as “Blink”. It actually…wasn’t very good period. To me anyway.
Would the Master have cared? That’s a lot less people out to get him for one.