| “ | My notation, is Maestro, and I am music! | „ |
| ~ Maestro introducing themself |
| “ | I heard music! And music IS MINE! | „ |
| ~ Maestro's most famous quote |
| “ | You might be bright, and hot, and timey-wimey, but genius? Oh honey I don't think so! | „ |
| ~ Maestro taunting The Doctor |
Maestro is the main antagonist of the Doctor Who episode The Devil's Chord. They are the child of the Toymaker and much like their father are an immensely powerful, godlike being from outside the realms of The Doctor's universe. While their father is the personification of games, Maestro is the personification of music, something which they seek to keep only for themself and will resort to plunging the universe into darkness to achieve this goal.
They were portrayed by Jinkx Monsoon, who also played Emerald in Steven Universe, Martha in Helluva Boss, and Earl of Lemongrab in Adventure Time: Fionna & Cake.
Biography[]
Backstory[]
Little is known about Maestro's past, aside from the fact that they are an ancient entity from outside of The Doctor's universe, and a child of the Toymaker who reportedly treated them very poorly, leaving Maestro to dislike their father in the present. It is unknown if Maestro was born or created by the Toymaker himself, and no mention of them having a mother is ever brought up. They were also a member of the Pantheon of Discord alongside their father, The Trickster, amongst various others, most notably the mysterious "One Who Waits", an entity feared by other members of the group.
The Devil's Chord[]
In 1925, a composer and jaded music teacher named Timothy Drake was teaching a bored student named Henry Arbinger different musical compositions. To get the boy more interested, he starts playing more complex and dynamic pieces, eventually leading him to accidentally discover and play the lost chord. This summons Maestro, much to his horror. When Maestro appears from inside his piano Henry reveals himself to be Maestro's son, his own name being an anagram for the word "harbinger", rather quickly. However, Maestro dismisses Henry and makes him disappear, leaving them alone with a bewildered and scared Drake. Maestro appeals to Drake's vanity and insecurities, describing him as a genius who never reached his true potential. They then offered to release all of Drake's songs into the world and allow them to be heard, to which he gleefully accepted. Unfortunately for Timothy, however, this was merely a ploy for Maestro to forcibly drain him of all of his musical energy for food, killing him.
Over the next 38 years, Maestro drained the musical energy from all of humanity and left the world in a dreary and sad state, with music being seen as a niche and embarrassing pastime. When The Doctor and Ruby Sunday arrive to London in 1963 to visit Abbey Road Studios and watch The Beatles recording, they quickly realise something is wrong when they hear tuneless and poor quality music performed by them, Cilla Black and an orchestra within the studio. They then proceed to investigate inside the studio cafeteria, by interviewing Paul McCartney and John Lennon. Although at first the two seemingly get through to the two musicians, with The Doctor even getting McCartney to sing part of song he recalled writing fondly, as soon as music enters the room, Maestro makes themself visible in all of the reflective surfaces within the cafeteria, mockingly smirking towards The Doctor as he tries to place their face in a spoon. After this, Paul McCartney and John Lennon leave The Doctor and Ruby, disgusted with the rest of the cafeteria, similarly shooting them dirty looks.
The Doctor decides to place a piano atop the rooftop of the studio, and have Ruby play a piece on it, both in the hopes of discovering what is happening and to remind humanity of the beauty within music. Unfortunately, however, midway through Ruby's song, Maestro starts banging from the inside of her piano as the Doctor and Ruby watch in confusion. Upon hearing Maestro utter their father's distinctive giggle, The Doctor immediately runs away, terrified, as he knows that means they must be connected to The Toymaker. Realising the true gravity of the threat he and Ruby have encountered. Meanwhile, Maestro pursues The Doctor and Ruby, only being slowed down by The Doctor using his sonic screwdriver to eliminate all sound from the vicinity, leaving them confused, once the silence is broken. However, Maestro is distracted by an old woman playing her own piano, being inspired from Ruby's work. Maestro leaps out of the woman's piano, terrifying her before killing her in the same manner they did Drake.
The Doctor and Ruby escape to the TARDIS, with the latter being confused at The Doctor's attitude, asking that if Maestro has ended the world in 1963, how can Ruby still be alive when she was born in 2004. Regretfully, The Doctor travels to London 2024, Ruby's present day. He shows her a ruined and destroyed London, leaving her devastated. Maestro confronts the duo and explains their backstory, even thanking The Doctor for banishing their father, describing him as being "so bad" to them. It's here that The Doctor after some questioning, realizes that the secret to banishing Maestro lies in the lost chord, Maestro remains unfazed. However, they doubt that he's enough of a musical "genius" to find the correct notes to complete the chord.
The Doctor and Ruby travel back to 1963 and prepare to confront Maestro, however, they remain one step ahead, trapping Ruby and suspending her mid-air. Maestro taunts The Doctor over his apparent loss and expresses excitement to uncover more about Ruby, anticipating her musical energy to make for a good meal. They decide to uncover Ruby's soul song a rendition of "Carol of The Bells". Maestro is horrified upon what they're hearing and tells The Doctor that Ruby is "wrong". The Doctor pries Maestro for more information while the latter ignores him, mumbling to themself about Ruby's birth and an unknown figure needing to have been present for what they saw to be possible. Having had enough, The Doctor moves for the piano and begins playing chords, delighting Maestro at the prospect of a "music battle" as they grab a violin and the two engage in a musical duel. The Doctor seemingly gains the upper hand and begins playing the first few notes to complete the lost chord, although he unfortunately plays the wrong final note. Maestro erupts in laughter at their supposed victory and sends the piano sliding down the corridor of Abbey Road Studios, before trapping The Doctor and Ruby within instruments and torturing them.
Meanwhile John Lennon and Paul McCartney come across the discarded piano in the corridor and begin playing, their love and passion for music being reignited. Unbeknownst to the two, they find all of the correct chords to banish Maestro and play them in succession. Upon realizing what's happened, Maestro immediately tries to flee, although they are dragged into the piano from whence they came, much to their dismay. Before being sent back to their own universe, Maestro warns The Doctor that "THE ONE WHO WAITS IS ALMOST HERE!"
Following this a musical number celebrating the world's musical energy being restored happens within the halls of Abbey Road Studios and a confused looking Henry Arbinger reappears decades after being discarded by Maestro, watching the scene unfold before him, hinting at Maestro's eventual return.
Personality[]
Maestro is an incredibly eccentric and sadistic entity, usually having a very cheerful and loud demeanour however their mood can quickly shift into primal rage when provoked. They are immensely arrogant and confident in their abilities, not taking the idea of The Doctor besting them particularly seriously, although apparently holding enough gratefulness to thank him for banishing their father, the Toymaker, who Maestro loathed due to his treatment of them. This is rather hypocritical of Maestro, considering they treat their own son Henry Arbinger with apathy, instantly discarding him as soon as they've been summoned and he's no longer of use to Maestro. Naturally, they adore music and have a flair for theatrics, in spite of this love for music and performing however they only want to have it for themself, feeding off of everyone else that they can find's musical talents, finding the taste of it irresistible.
Although usually confident and sure of themself, there are a few things that manage to rattle Maestro; they are deeply disturbed by Ruby Sunday after hearing her the song of her soul, describing her as "wrong" afterwards, they are also frightened of the One Who Waits much like their father is, and upon realizing they are about to be banished from The Doctor's universe, flies into a blind panic, terrified and enraged of their work being undone.
Appearance[]
Maestro is fair skinned and of a tall (albeit they're always in high heels), slim stature. They have large brown eyes, a round face, thin ginger eyebrows, long, curly ginger hair that's usually styled to resemble two horns atop their head, and long, sharp fingernails. They always appear in a very extravagant and theatrical manner, donning large amounts of makeup and always dressing in a flashy and flamboyant manner.
Maestro's first look and the one that appears in most promotional materials sees them wearing a very long, black & white tailcoat, adorned with piano motifs, most notably on the lapels, collar and lining, all of which resemble piano keys. There is also lace detailing on the back of the coat and the coat's pointed shoulders are adorned with tiny black rhinestones and sequins. They also wear a white quilted waistcoat, black leggings, fishnet arm warmers and black, leather, thigh length high-heeled boots. In this outfit they also wear a silver diamond choker with matching earrings, and their makeup consists mostly of red, peach and yellow shades, alongside maroon lipstick, matching nail polish, and black winged eyeliner.
Maestro's second look consists of a long, ruffled, violet ballgown which they wear alongside a purple choker and musical note shaped earrings. They also wear silver heels and grey tights with this outfit. This is Maestro's only look in which they wear their hair mostly down (albeit still pulled back), their makeup is also much softer and more elegant than theatrical with this look, although still similar as to how it appeared in their first outfit. They've also added a small musical note shaped beauty mark on their cheek.
Maestro's final outfit vaguely resembles one that their father wore in "The Giggle", consisting of a velvet teal and gold bandleader outfit, gold ankle length, heeled boots and pearl, beaded earrings. Maestro's hair appears similar to their usual style with this look, albeit much messier and parted in the middle compared to how it usually is. Their makeup is also much darker, with maroon eyeshadow, giving their eyes a sunken look, as well as heavy contouring and purple & red lipstick, giving their mouth a rather bruised look.
Trivia[]
- Prior to the episode's airing and after the character's name was revealed, many theorized that Maestro was a new incarnation of The Master due to Maestro meaning Master in Italian and Spanish (Though more used as Mentor rather than Ruler or Sovereign in Spanish) and likely also due to Roger Delgado's incarnation of the character using "Don Maestro" as an alias at one point. This is in spite of Russell T. Davies saying previously he would be giving The Master "a rest" due to feeling like he was becoming overused in recent years.
- Maestro is one of the first Doctor Who characters to break the fourth wall, both playing the show's opening theme at the start of their episode after staring straight to the audience and later winking at the audience before murdering an old woman. They were both preceded and followed funnily enough by The Doctor himself, with The First Doctor wishing the audience a Merry Christmas in The Feast of Steven, The Twelfth Doctor making a comment and side eye addressing the viewers in "Before The Flood, and The Fifteenth Doctor winking to the audience towards the end of the same episode as Maestro's first appearance.
- Although nothing as of yet has been confirmed, Jinkx Monsoon has said she'd love to return as Maestro in the future should Russell T. Davies ever want to bring them back, she also expressed liking how Maestro was defeated as it was rather open ended and that it wouldn't be hard to justify them returning so long as someone played The Devil's Chord again and summoned Maestro.
- Additionally many Jinkx fans started jokingly calling her "Jinkx Monspoon" due to the scene where The Doctor is staring at Maestro's smirking reflection inside of a spoon in the Abbey Road Studios cafeteria scene, something she quickly embraced in jest.
- Their final hairdo is similar to that of Winifred Sanderson, the leader of the Sanderson sisters from Disney's Hocus Pocus.
- Their destruction of the Earth being used by the Doctor to explain to a companion the non-linear nature of time was done identically in the Classic Doctor Who serial The Pyramids of Mars, the villain of which being Sutekh, who was also a godlike entity, this callback was indeed foreshadowing of Sutekh's return as The One Who Waits who would eventually be revealed in The Legend Of Ruby Sunday.
