Warning: Major spoilers ahead for Doctor Who season 14, episode 2, "The Devil's Chord."
Summary
- Maestro, played by Jinkx Monsoon, is a powerful Doctor Who villain tied to an evil figure from the past, the Toymaker.
- Maestro feeds on music and aims to rid Earth of it, with plans to eventually extinguish it in the entire universe, showcasing a unique and terrifying goal.
- While it's unclear if Maestro is less powerful than the Toymaker, their ability to manipulate music and reality still poses a formidable threat to the Doctor, setting up an intriguing battle.
Maestro is one of the most formidable ending of the Doctor Who 60th-anniversary specials make them even more compelling. While the defeat of certain bad guys in Doctor Who often means they can't return, that certainly isn't the case with Jinkx Monsoon's character.
Maestro's debut as part of the Doctor Who season 14 cast comes in episode 2, "The Devil's Chord." While the ending of the installment softly implies their battle with the Doctor is already over, it also includes certain clues that foreshadow the antagonist's eventual return. The power of Maestro is just as unconventional as it is terrifying, and although their eventual goal may seem far-fetched, it's also something they'd likely be able to achieve if left unopposed.
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Maestro Is The Toymaker's Child In Doctor Who
Maestro doesn't have fond feelings for their father
Monsoon's Doctor Who character is an original villain, but is also strongly connected to an evil figure who dates back to the show's classic era. Most recently portrayed by Neil Patrick Harris in "The Giggle," the Toymaker is revealed to be Maestro's father in "The Devil's Chord". Familial ties aside, Maestro's exchange with the Doctor implies that the Toymaker and his child weren't exactly close. In fact, it sounds as though they actively disliked each other. In plain , Maestro declares, "Daddy was so bad to me."
Although they refer to the Doctor as "The Lord Temporal," Monsoon knows of his legend. Furthermore, Maestro is even aware that the Doctor, "Trapped my father and bound him in salt." So, even though they haven't been physically present, Maestro would seem to have the ability to see into the Doctor's world from their own reality. Maestro was only able to step into the main Doctor Who universe in 1925 when an unsuspecting musician played a specific collection of notes that allowed Maestro to move from one world into another.
Maestro's Goal & Plan Explained In Full
The Doctor Who villain wants the universe to burn
Jinks Monsoon's Doctor Who character feeds on music, and more specifically, they thrive when there is no man-made music at all. Speaking with a young Paul McCartney, the Doctor discovers that beautiful compositions stopped being brought into existence around the same time as Maestro entered the universe. So, Maestro's hunger for music seemingly had an immediate impact on human culture.
Maestro's manipulation of humanity's attitude toward music is part of a grander scheme to eventually extinguish it altogether. The Doctor perfectly describes humanity's emotional reliance on music in "The Devil's Chord." He does this when he takes Ruby to see London in ruins during an alternate timeline, explaining why the absence of heartfelt songs leads to such destruction in the future:
"I think without music, the human race goes sour. Without any way of expressing a broken heart, they go to war without even knowing why. "
Maestro's eventual plan is not only to rid Earth of music, but the entire universe, and to feed on the potential of songs left unwritten and the power of Aeolian tones. The most macabre example of this is when Maestro highlights the sound of a "Nuclear winter, the purest music of all" while showing what remains of England's capital city after what would appear to be a nuclear bomb being dropped.
The Doctor describes Aelion tones as, "Music without the need of people." A good example would be the sound of wind blowing through the trees.
Is Maestro More Powerful Than The Toymaker?
The Toymaker often restricted himself due to adhering to fairplay
Maestro is the living embodiment of music itself, just as the Toymaker was the concept of a game in living form. So, Maestro has evidently inherited powers very similar to the Toymaker, with both villains boasting the ability to bend reality to their respective whims. The Doctor has a respectful fear of both the Toymaker and his child due to their abilities, but one moment from the "Devil's Chord" suggests that Maestro isn't quite as powerful as their father.
When Maestro emerges from the piano during Ruby's performance, the Doctor manages to use his sonic screwdriver to remove all sound from their immediate surroundings. Because sound and music are the source of Maestro's power, this renders the villain inert for a short period. However, even the Doctor its it was "One trick, once. That's all you get with the gods." Additionally, if Maestro had consumed more music by this point, perhaps such a ploy wouldn't have worked.
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Maestro may be more possible than the Toymaker, but the pair playing by different rules makes it difficult to tell. The Toymaker, while still a villain, will establish the rules of a game and abide by its result, regardless of whether he wins or loses. Maestro isn't limited to such a framework. Instead, Monsoon's character simply follows her hunger and her desires, mowing down anything in their way. The Toymaker wouldn't do this, but he could likely match if not sur the abilities of his child if he freed himself of the constraints of rules and games.
How The Doctor Defeats Maestro In "The Devil's Chord"
Two of The Beatles unknowingly saved the day in Doctor Who
Just as Maestro was able to enter the universe due to a specific cluster of notes being played, the Doctor works out that another combination will banish his new adversary. However, although they come close to working out the required chord on their own, the Doctor and Ruby lack the musical genius to figure it out. After a fraught musical battle, the Doctor and Ruby stumble onto the beginnings of what will eventually bring down Maestro. Thankfully, two key figures in the building unwittingly finish what the Doctor started when the piano rolls down the hall.
When Paul McCartney and John Lennon come across the unfinished composition, their musical talents aid them in adding the final piece.
Due to the proximity to Maestro, the notes being played on the Abbey Road piano physically manifest above the instrument. So, when Paul McCartney and John Lennon come across the unfinished composition, their musical talents aid them in adding the final piece. Doctor Who's take on the legendary musicians in the "The Devil's Chord" are disillusioned with music, as is the rest of humanity. However, their innate skill would seem to have survived Maestro's manipulations of the timeline and enable them to find what Maestro refers to as, "The Lost Chord."
The chord played by Lennon and McCartney to banish Maestro is a Cmaj9.
What Maestro Knows About Ruby Sunday
Maestro seems afraid of a figure from Ruby's past
When Maestro traps Ruby in musical bindings and forces her to sing, Maestro's reaction to the melody that emits from Ruby suggests they know more about the past of the Doctor's companion than even Ruby herself. Ruby's lineage has been a mystery since her introduction in "The Church on Ruby Road," but this moment in "The Devil's Chord" finally sheds a tiny bit of light on who was there on the night Millie Gibson's character was abandoned on the doorstep of a church.
Maestro mentions no names, but they tell the Doctor that Ruby has a "Hidden song deep inside her soul," which just so happens to be the traditional Christmas piece, "Carol of the Bells." Rambling mostly to themself, Maestro talks about "The oldest one" and that "On the night of her birth, he can't have been there." The moment is kept intentionally vague, but it's clear that Maestro has stumbled across a key clue about where Ruby comes from. While the "Oldest one" in question may be a fellow member of the Toymaker's "legions", this isn't confirmed in the episode.
Maestro Is Part Of Doctor Who's "Pantheon"
The Pantheon seems to genuinely terrify the Doctor
In "The Devil's Chord," the Doctor theorizes that Maestro is "Part of the Pantheon" when explaining to Ruby that there are "Vast powers beyond the universe." The Pantheon likely also includes the Toymaker, as the group sounds as though it consists of immortal beings from somewhere outside the known universe. Maestro may have just been a vanguard, an early invader, before more of the Toymakers' "Legions" also enter the fray.
Although the Doctor only refers to the group as "The Pantheon," Gatwa's Doctor may be referring to the Pantheon of Discord. A member of this group has appeared in a story called "The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith" in the Doctor Who spinoff, The Sarah Janes Adventures. An enemy called the Trickster in the spinoff shares many characteristics with both the Toymaker and Maestro, meaning they could have the same origin.
David Tennant's Tenth Doctor faced off against the Trickster in "The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith."
Doctor Who Is Already Setting Up Maestro's Return
The young boy at the start and end of "The Devil's Chord" is a sign of what's to come for Maestro
"The Devil's Chord" begins with a young boy being taught the piano by the man who happened across the chord that set Maestro free. While the child in question appears innocent at first, Maestro refers to the boy as their "Prelude." The boy vanishes when Maestro appears, leaving behind nothing but a pile of crumpled clothes, but this isn't his final appearance in the episode.
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The closing number in "The Devil's Chord" features a heavy repetition of the line, "There's always a twist at the end." Although he seems to go unnoticed due to the elaborate choreographed sequence, Maestro's Prelude appears once again. For a villain like Maestro, it seemed unlikely that they were gone for good, and featuring the boy again near the end of the episode foreshadows Maestro's eventual Doctor Who return.
Episode |
Disney+ Release Date |
|---|---|
"Space Babies" & "The Devil's Chord" |
May 10 |
"Boom" |
May 17 |
"73 Yards" |
May 24 |
"Dot & Bubble" |
May 31 |
"Rogue" |
June 7 |
"The Legend of Ruby Sunday" |
June 14 |
"Empire of Death" |
June 21 |
Doctor Who season 14 is currently being released weekly, with a new episode arriving on Disney+ each Friday.
The latest Doctor Who series introduces the Fifteenth Doctor, ed by new companion Ruby Sunday.
- Cast
- Ncuti Gatwa, Millie Gibson, Susan Twist, Michelle Greenidge, Anita Dobson, Angela Wynter, Jemma Redgrave, Yasmin Finney, Nicholas Briggs, Varada Sethu
- Seasons
- 2
