Day 327: The Time Monster Episode 4

There's a moment in this episode where the Doctor and the Master essentially try to outwit eachother for about ten or fifteen minutes. It is annoying, as it means that the plot essentially comes to a standstill as we focus on this piece of padding, thus making the story feel dull as a result. It also reveals one of the crucial problems with the Master, being that we have become comfortable with him as a character. Seeing him engage in battles of wits with the Doctor is now commonplace and we always know the outcome. Even when the Master appears to win, we know that the Doctor will secretly win anyway, because he's done so for the past however many times the Master has appeared. So by having an extended scene where the Master and the Doctor essentially have a chat about who is the one in control of the situation, it allows the audience to suddenly realise that they are growing slightly bored of this Doctor/Master relationship, indicating that perhaps something needs to be done to change things for the future.