Warning: Spoilers for Doctor Who episode 2, "The Devil's Chord"!

Summary

• Doctor Who introduces Maestro, a terrifying new villain, raising the stakes and connecting to a larger storyline hinted at by the Toymaker.
• Jinkx Monsoon delivers an enrapturing performance as Maestro, adding depth and nuance while connecting to the Toymaker in a nuanced way.
• Maestro's vanishing leaves room for a possible return, hinting at future appearances in the ongoing Doctor Who universe.

Doctor Who introduced a terrifying new villain, Maestro, in "The Devil's Chord" that not only stopped the Doctor in his tracks but teased the larger story for this season that was hinted at by the Toymaker. When Ruby and the Doctor travel to the 1960s in order to see one of the most iconic moments in music history with The Beatles they find that the world is wrong. Music has been stolen from the hearts of humanity and something or someone is to blame. However, the culprit, Maestro, may be more than the Doctor can handle after nearly losing to the terrifyingly powerful Toymaker.

Neil Patrick Harris brought the Toymaker back to the forefront of Doctor Who in "The Giggle" and set th stage for a larger-scale story involving powerful forces of the universe that are bigger than even the Doctor. Davies has promised more Gods to come as he leans fully into fantasy with this new season of Doctor Who. Maestro is a fantastic villain who brings the threat to the next level and hints at possible connections between this larger storyline and the ongoing mystery surrounding the Doctor's new companion, Ruby Sunday. Jinkx Monsoon delivers an enrapturing performance as Maestro, adding depth and nuance to the role while capturing the truly terrifying and often campy element of a God as well.

Screen Rant interviewed Monsoon about her role as Maestro in the new episode of Doctor Who, "The Devil's Chord." She revealed why the Toymaker and Missy were a major part of how she crafted Maestro and why Davies knew she would be perfect for the role. Monsoon also explained why the message of this episode is so important to her and touched on the possibility of Maestro returning in the future.

The Connection Between Maestro & The Toymaker Makes Doctor Who's New Villain "Much More Nuanced"

Davies knew Monsoon would be perfect for the role of Maestro, the new villain with a connection to the Toymaker trying to wipe out all music. This character needs to have the over-the-top energy of the Gods that Harris brought in, along with the truly menacing trait of being a difficult adversary for the Doctor. She revealed how Davies knew she could bring Maestro to life.

Jinkx Monsoon: The way I understand it is Maestro was already in existence, and then Russell came to see my show called Together Again Again, which I created with my music partner, Major Scales. We were doing a tour in the UK and Russell saw our Manchester show.

Now this show is one of my more absurd shows. It's set in the future, it's dystopian, and I play myself in my eighties as a very over the top version of myself. Apparently what Russell tells me is on his walk home that night, he thought Jinx could play Maestro, and events just lined up in such a way that I was cast as Maestro. It was really exciting.

I can't say I've ever gotten to play such a prominent role where someone had me in mind part of the way of creating it. It was really, really exciting because there was so much freedom but also so much trust and respect there that not only did I feel like I could bring a lot to this character, but I felt trusted and respected to do it in a way that was effective for the storytelling in the world of Doctor Who.

One of the things I found really interesting was Maestro's connection to the Toymaker. So I was curious, did you have a chance to check out the classic Toymaker from the classic Doctor Who or gain insight into how Neil Patrick Harris approached it? Or were you going purely from the script and your interpretation of Maestro?

Jinkx Monsoon: I do try to get everything first and foremost from the script. So I always refer to the text for everything. However, because the show has such a rich canon, I of course saw some clips of the Toymaker, Neil Patrick Harris' Toymaker, and I think I saw some clips of the original.

But I was given the pertinent information for how my character fit into what's going on in the overall story in the universe of Doctor. Who. What I loved about that, what I loved about a familial relationship for my character, was it makes it so much more nuanced and there's so much more to work with and play there.

When a villain has human attributes, when a villain has an ego, when a villain has a mission, when a villain has something to prove, when a villain has maybe an inferiority complex with their father, this motivates a villain. So that instead of just being like a wash of evil with a capital E, this gets to be a character with nuance and layers.

Missy Was An Inspiration For Jinkx Monsoon's Approach To Maestro

Doctor Who has introduced many iconic villains over the years, with truly terrifying alien threats like Daleks and Cybermen. However, one of the most notorious is the Master, a childhood friend of the Doctor who took a very dark path that diverged from the Doctor. Like the Doctor, the Master has regenerated over the years with Michelle Gomez playing a version called the Mistress aka Missy during Peter Capaldi's era of Doctor Who. Monsoon revealed that Gomez's performance was a huge inspiration for how she approached the role as "over-the-top, but grounded in truth."

Jinkx Monsoon: I think my whole life I've just been watching female performers, namely, I mean, these are the ones I pay attention to. I pay attention to the female villains who can make big decisions look natural. The way you do that is figure out what's true for the character and then big decisions can be grounded in truth, and it feels honest and genuine for that character.

Specifically, I've played characters on existing shows before, and I always like to refer to the show for what kind of acting style, how much presentation is there, what level am I trying to fit in with here? So I looked at Michelle Gomez as the Mistress and looked at the way that she found that balance between over-the-top, but grounded in truth. That's just who she is as an actor. I think she makes really big decisions look natural.

That's something I like to do in my work because I'm a drag entertainer. So my whole philosophy has been go big or go home. So to get to play a character like Maestro where I can make over the top decisions because they're a God, they're an immortal, they make their own rules, and they're not bound by societal constraints. That's very freeing as an actor and you get to make your own rules, and as long as it's rooted in truth, we'll buy it.

Can you talk to me a little bit about working with Ncuti and Millie and getting to toy with them on set because it's such a fun dynamic to see Maestro just completely toy and mess with the Doctor?

Jinkx Monsoon: Ncuti and Millie are both incredibly generous scene partners and so easy to work with because they bring such a great attitude to set every day. It is easy to do good work when you're surrounded by people doing good work. So they were just always game for whatever, Ncuti and Millie and I and the director Ben, there was lots of times where we would just have a discussion of like, Okay, let's try this. It was some zany idea and we tried.

There's just an atmosphere of let's play and have fun because that's what the script calls for. There's a lot of over the top moments and we just really threw ourselves into it. If I was working with people who didn't like getting in there and really doing it, it wouldn't have been so easy to do work I'm proud of.

I love the climbing out of the piano part. That was absolutely terrifying in the best way. Can you talk to me about filming that a little bit?

Jinkx Monsoon: Climbing out of the piano was one of the first things I did, and then climbing back into the piano was one of the last things I did on set. It was a lot of fun to figure out. I love challenges. I love figuring out the science of performance. But it was nothing when you come from a background of creating your own work and putting on your own productions.

I think drag entertainers are just used to putting themselves through extenuating circumstances to deliver the performance. Let's put it that way. At least this time, I was surrounded by a crew that was making sure everything was safe rather than a bunch of drag queens who were going, Yeah! Since I'm putting my life in danger. You know what I mean?

Doctor Who Episode 2 "Is Telling Us How Essential Music Is To Humanity"

Doctor Who always has a message and the message of "The Devil's Chord" was especially poignant for Monsoon. At the heart of this story is the importance of music, art, and artistic expression to humanity, which was not only something she wanted to be a part of, but felt more important than ever to show in the wake of how art and artists were impacted by the pandemic.

Jinkx Monsoon: I think that everything you're talking about is a big part of why I absolutely, beyond all the fun I had beyond the dream making that is getting to work on Doctor Who, the episode and Doctor Who as a whole always has a meaning and a message, and Russell's writing is always telling us something.

I love that this episode is telling us how essential music is to humanity and beyond that, how essential art and artistic expression is to humanity. I feel really excited to be part of an episode that says that after a global pandemic that shut down the arts and entertainment industry in so many ways and devastated lots of artists.

I just think about constantly while corporations and CEOs were getting bailed out at that time, artists were racking up debt. So to be part of an episode that says you need art for your survival, I was really happy to do that.

How did it feel to almost wipe out the Beatles? That was the part where I was like, I'm on board with Maestro. I can't get on board with this.

Jinkx Monsoon: Well, like I said, a real captivating good villain has a mission, and Maestro has just accepted that it's all collateral damage. You don't stand in the way of a masterpiece. So I really had to just get myself into that mindset because when you're playing a villain, you have to empathize with the villain, even if you don't believe in what the villain wants to accomplish. If you're going to play the villain, you've got to have empathy for them. So of course, I don't want the extinction of mankind, but I understand what we'll put ourselves through for art. I get it Maestro.

I love the connection Maestro has to this bigger overall plot we have with Toymaker. Is there any chance we could see Maestro appear later down the line, and would you want to come back maybe with Neil Patrick Harris and kind of have an overall battle with all of them?

Jinkx Monsoon: Oh, listen, I'll come back into any form or thought that they want me, and if they want me to be a piece of skin stretched out on a gurney, I'll be that. I loved working with everyone involved in Doctor Who and I would happily do it again in any capacity.

What I love about the end of the episode is Maestro is just vanished, Maestro isn't destroyed. We know that Maestro can be summoned, and we know how Maestro can be summoned. So it's not my place to say I'm not going to hypothesize or pontificate on whether or not Maestro will come back, but I will say it feels open-ended and I'll take open-ended.

About Doctor Who Season 14

The Doctor and Ruby travel through time and space on adventures to unknown lands, to the Regency era in England, to outer space worlds and the Sixties.

Check out our other Doctor Who series 14 interviews:

• Ncuti Gatwa
• Nucti Gatwa & Millie Gibson
• Russel T Davies

Doctor Who series 14 debuts on May 10 at 7 PM EDT on Disney+ and on BBC the following day.

Source: Screen Rant Plus