I Promised a Theory, I Delivered A Theory: Who is the Valeyard?

So last time I teased a theory about who the Valeyard might be.  In order to really get into that theory we need to explore some assumptions the Doctor made in “Journey’s End.”  Namely that the “Other Doctor” couldn’t regenerate because he was human.

But fundamentally, he’s not.  He’s part Time Lord, literally grown from the severed hand of a Time Lord.  Sci-fi genetic mumbo jumbo aside this implies that he is a kind of hybrid creature, something new, unique and different…unless this has happened before.

Remember he pumped that energy into the hand, he aimed it, and chose to do that, but we don’t know if that was a kind of reflex or if that was a cognitive decision on his part.  Its implied in “Time of the Doctor” that 10 chose to keep his form rather than take on a new face, which could very well be, but also contradicts everything we’ve ever seen from regenerations prior to this event.

The Doctor also lies.  He actually lies quite a lot throughout the series; even River Song points it out as a cautionary piece of advice to Amy Pond.  When he said he “chose” not to change, he could have been lying to make himself look cleverer than he actually is, and that some kind of genetic instinct directed him to shoot that energy into the severed hand because the regenerative energy sought out “dead Doctor” cells to revive.

Speaking of River Song, she might actually help us unpack this quandary.  In “Journey’s End” the Doctor explicitly states that the Other Doctor has one heart, one life span.  That he will grow old and die with Rose Tyler, “give her the life” he never could.  But two hearts do not a regeneration require.  We know this because of Melody Pond, aka River Song, who somehow gained the powers of a Time Lord because she was conceived while the TARDIS was going through the time vortex.  I cannot make that up, but if that’s all it takes to give someone a set of regenerations, doesn’t that mean that someone actually grown FROM a Time Lord should have their own set of regenerations?

So you have this Other Doctor in an alternate dimension with Rose Tyler, promised that he’s going to grow old and die with the woman he loves.  But you also have this strong case built from circumstantial evidence that he’s probably going to regenerate once he dies of “old age” or what have you.  Now what do we know about the Doctor’s personality when he loses the people he loves or discovers he’s been conned into a losing position?

We know he doesn’t handle loss well.  10^th will destroy and entire species, 9^th will willingly gun down a dalek, 11 wiped out space ships with ease and toppled a government.  12 hijacked Gallifrey itself.

He has a dark side, to be sure of.  The only thing that pulls him back from the brink are his companions, but if he’s living with Rose Tyler and loses her because she’s still just a human being, he doesn’t have the means or the inclination to recruit more companions.  Remember we talked about how 10 pushed away companionship in lieu of running solo.

Because he was grieving.

He tried to re-write time, because he was grieving.

He does not handle grief well.

Now let’s say you were shunted to an alternate universe, told you would get to live out your life with Rose Tyler, and that you were getting a story book ending while the other version of you sauntered away in the TARDIS to go have adventures.  Then Rose dies, as humans are want to do.  Maybe it’s within the year, maybe its ten years, twenty years, or even sixty years, regardless she dies.  Then you die, thinking you’ll get to see Rose in the afterlife and…you regenerate.  Nope, sorry, you don’t get to go anywhere, the Doctor lied to you…or to himself.  Either way, you are kind of screwed, because now you don’t know if you have 12 regenerations because you are technically a brand new Time Lord, or if you’ve just got the one, but you are piiiiiiissssed.

Breaching the dimensional barrier, if you are motivated enough, isn’t that hard for the Doctor.  I cite a different but similar issue that 11 dealt with:  When Amy Pond was kidnapped by the Silence, the Doctor and Rory tore their way across the universe to find her.  Remember all those times he struggled against the Cybermen, how they seemed like this massive, all imposing threat?  Yeah he blows up ships from their fleet with easy as a means of questioning them about Amy’s whereabouts.  The Doctor can do anything with the proper motivation, including using whatever scraps of tech he can find in some alternate universe to punch a hole in between dimensions.

Now there is a problem here.  The Doctor, 10, our Doctor, explains that crossing dimensions was easier before the Time War, now they’re all pretty much separated from each other.  So you are an angry version of the Doctor, pissed that you’ve been screwed really really hard, and you know that you can’t just kick down the interdimensional door to get back.  What do you do?  You go back in time of course.  Chances are their version of Torchwood has at least one version of a vortex manipulator. Or, being that you are the Doctor, you can cobble together your own.  Either way, you go back in time to a point where the walls between universes are thin enough to cross.  Vortex manipulators aren’t terribly accurate, but they work well enough so you can get where you need to go, back to the time of the 6^th Doctor, some 20 or 30 years before the Time War.

This would be a logical point for him to shoot for since, being that he’s the angry Doctor, the sum of all rage and hurt, he knows he’s been here before, as the Valeyard menacing the Doctor.

This sets up the Valeyard’s motivation as well, since he wanted to claim the Doctor’s remaining regenerations for himself, he wants to end his pain before it begins.  It also explains why the 10^th Doctor would have been so willing to send him away, hoping that Rose’s love would keep him from turning, or if he did turn, he’d be trapped in an alternate dimension.

Ironically it’s one of the least complicated ways you can have a villain who is a true match for the Doctor.  The Doctor is sincerely his own worst enemy.

But that’s just a theory.

Why the 10th Doctor Didn't Want To Go.

“I don’t want to go.”

Famously these were the final words of the 10^th Doctor before his regeneration into incarnation 11, and they’ve never really set well with me.  When 9 turned into 10, he had a good speech, praising his companion and setting up the new series.  When 11 turned into 12, he had a really good speech, one that reflected on the changes life brings.

But then there is 10.  I love 10, I really do, David Tennant is a phenomenal actor and brought so much to this role.  But there’s still that nagging little line, the final words spoken by someone who had contributed so much to the role.  Why would they do him like that?

Then I remembered something.  When I got into Dr. Who, I dove in head first.  9 was my first Doctor, but I went back and I absorbed everything I could about the character.  I wouldn’t get something close to an answer, however, until Matt Smith was getting ready to depart.  In that episode, it was revealed that the Doctor had actually used up all his regenerations.  Prior to this, we met the “War Doctor”, the actual 9^th incarnation, which made 9 actually 10, and 10 was actually 11.  So that meant that Matt Smith played the 12^th version of the Doctor, right?

Nope, in 10’s story “Journey’s End” we see him about to regenerate after getting blasted by a dalek.  He regenerates just enough to heal the damage, but then pumps the rest of that regeneration into his severed hand, which later becomes a new version of the 10^th Doctor.  11 explains in his final turn that THIS was his 12th incarnation, making Matt Smith the 13^th version of the Doctor.  It was explained much earlier in the series that Time Lords get 12 regenerations, so this was it…this was the last of the Doctors.

So, going back to 10’s line “I don’t want to go.”  Why would he say that?  Was it because he knew he was about to change into his final version, that there were no more continues to the video game he called a life?

To understand his real fear, we need to go back to the 6^th Doctor’s run, and his episode “The Mysterious Planet”.  In this storyline, he meets a character called the Valeyard, who causes him no end of frustration.  He soon discovers that the Valeyard is in fact a version of the Doctor, a culmination of all the darkness in the Doctor’s soul given physical form, and set to appear between his 12^th and final incarnation.

When 10 (actually 11) sent that regeneration energy into the hand, he created a hybrid creature, half Time Lord, half human, and it was the 12^th incarnation, like we just discussed.  But he had no ability to regenerate, which means that if the Valeyard was going to come, this evil creature was going to manifest, it was going to be from 10.  If you follow the logic that Time Lords get 12 regenerations and the 12^th incarnation can’t regenerate, that meant that 11 would have to become the Valeyard.  The dialog said that he appeared between his 12^th and final incarnation.  10 was about to become the incarnation right after 12.  He had no way of knowing that the Time Lords would kick him some more lives.  I noticed a distinct tone shift in the Doctor after “Journey’s End”.  Suddenly he was much more closed off, disinclined to recruit companions, ready to push people away and occasionally give into his darker impulses.  He was, essentially preparing for the coming of the Valeyard and that was depression and angst taking hold.  He fully expected the next Doctor to be this sinister being that would go on to menace his previous incarnations.

Of course those of us following the series know that didn’t happen, he went on to become new versions of the “good” Doctor…but that still begs the question:  “When will the Valeyard come?”

Later I’ll post my theory about that…

Until next time.