The Master is a fictional character on the action-horror/fantasy television series
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003). He is a centuries-old vampire portrayed by
Mark Metcalf, determined to open the portal to hell below Sunnydale High School in the fictional town of
Sunnydale where the main character
Buffy Summers lives. The premise of the series is that Buffy (
Sarah Michelle Gellar) is a
Slayer, a teenage girl endowed with superhuman strength and other powers which she uses to kill vampires and other evil beings. Each season of the series Buffy and the small group of family and friends who work with her, nicknamed the
Scooby Gang, must defeat an evil force referred to as the
Big Bad; the villain is usually trying to bring on an apocalypse. The Master is the first season's Big Bad.