THE DOCTOR WHO RATINGS GUIDE: BY FANS, FOR FANS
The Valeyard
Reviews

Whither Valeyard? by Carl West 23/2/02

So, who is the Valeyard? "The amalgamation of the Doctor’s darker side, between his twelfth and final regeration." Ah, that explains everything...

Taking this at face value (if it's actually possible to do so), one would assume that the Valeyard isn’t actually flesh and blood -- how could an "amalgamation" of evil actually be? And, he’s out to steal the Sixth Doctor’s remaining regenerations -- this would perhaps allow him to attain corporeal existence? Would he be taking over the Doctor’s body a la the-Master-takes over-Tremas’-body? The truth of the Valeyard is a very vague, confusing concept, presented at the end of a very messy 14 part story.

I have often wondered what would have been a better explanation of who this Valeyard is. I have thought of an Inferno-type of theory: the Valeyard could have been a POSSIBLE future incarnation of the Doctor (twelfth, thirteenth, eleventh, whatever you like) from an alternative universe -- a universe in which the possibility of the Doctor regenerating into an evil personality is played out. The obvious flaw with this concept would be that, in Inferno, the Doctor vehemently warns against the danger of identical individuals from alternate universes coming into contact with one another (indeed, he is unwilling to save the Brigade Leader, Section Leader Liz, etc. from disaster because of this). True, it sometimes appears that ANYTHING is possible for the Time Lords; but given the Doctor’s and the Time Lords’ extreme paranoia of anti-matter in The Three Doctors and Arc of Infinity, I don’t think that such a Valeyard from an alternative universe could in fact come into ours. (I am aware that the Brigade Leader and company weren’t actually anti-matter, but it appears that their presence in our universe would have a very similar effect).

Then, of course, there is the Pyramids of Mars approach (I am obviously indebted to Andrew Wixon’s recent article for most of my ideas here!). If the Doctor and Sarah fail to stop the progress of events taking place in Pyramids, the earth in 1980 will be a lifeless wasteland. So, perhaps the Valeyard is a 1980’s-earth type of future incarnation of the Doctor -- unless the Doctor treads carefully, one of his future incarnations will be the Valeyard (we see similar concepts in The Space Museum).

However, the explanation we are given from the series -- and therefore the explanation that we must accept -- is that the Valeyard is a being who is the combination of all that is evil in the Doctor, and that he is a Doctor who was created (and perhaps was only meant to exist momentarily) in the process of the Twelfth Doctor regenerating into the Thirteenth. A very ambiguous explanation, perhaps, but maybe it was intended as the sort of rich ambiguity that would keep the fans debating sixteen years on.

Evil self or someone else? by Antony Tomlinson 20/4/05

I feel a bit silly writing this review of the Valeyard, given that I haven't actually heard what is probably the most important contribution to his myth in years - the Unbound audio story He Jests at Scars. However, as the Doctor seemingly speeds towards his 12th regeneration, it seems a good time to look back (or forwards?) at this evil cast-off from that process.

The idea of the Valeyard itself is terrific. I think the moment when it is revealed that he is the Doctor in Trial of a Time Lord is wonderfully done. And after three seasons of the Sixth Doctor's struggles with his own brutality (particularly in The Twin Dilemma and Mindwarp) this battle with a physical manifestation of his cruelty is very timely (and would have been more so, had Colin Baker remained in the role).

Furthermore, the idea of the Valeyard and the Master struggling across time - two well-matched villains battling to outdo each other - is also lovely (and it is amusing to think that the Master might know more about the Doctor's future than he does himself). And while it may be a bit of a cop-out to say that the Valeyard is some kind of side-affect of a future regeneration (like the Watcher) rather than a Doctor himself, I suppose it would have been a continuity headache for producers to have had an evil incarnation of the Doctor due in a few years time.

Nevertheless, I have one real problem with the Valeyard. My problem is that, as far as his character goes, he seems to have virtually nothing in common with our Doctor. However, it seems to me that the only fun in having an evil version of any character is that you get to see the best bits of your hero perverted and turned into something unpleasant - the good humour turns to cruel mocking, the brave ingenuity turns to cunning, the loyalty turns to fanaticism, the entertaining flair turns to malevolent charm etc..

But this is not what the Valeyard is like. Look at him. Is he the Doctor? Does he have the academic, fun-loving interest in the universe that the Doctor has? No, he seems a rather close-minded villain with his eye on Time Lord politics (unlike the Monk or Master who are as much connoisseurs of the cosmos as their nemesis). Is he charming or funny? Not really - he's something of a grumpy bureaucrat throughout (unlike the devilishly smooth Master or the treacherously affable Monk). Is he incredibly intelligent and ingenious? Not really, he just seems to want to blow people up and use surreal traps. Does he even have an eccentric dress sense. No (OK, - maybe the Doctor has taken to wearing leather jackets recently, but he still has more inspiring sartorial tastes than this funny-hatted lawyer).

There is an explanation of this in Trial of a Time Lord. In the story, as the two incarnations stand on a beach, the Valeyard starts reciting Shakespeare and then curses himself for sharing the Doctor's frivolous, academic attitudes. His whole aim is to become purely evil and pragmatic. Everything in him that is Doctorish must therefore die. However, all this then means is that the Valeyard becomes a rather dull villain. And the viewer is left wondering why they would want to watch such a hard-nosed bore. I would rather the writers had chosen to turn the Valeyard into someone recognisably "the Doctor". Otherwise this whole "evil self" thing becomes a bit irrelevant.

Of course, the idea of the Valeyard was a treat for the writers of Doctor Who novels. Their Seventh Doctor was a dark and ruthlessly pragmatic person himself - even if he believed that good ends justified his actions. The Seventh Doctor could thus be portrayed as a clear step towards the genesis of the Valeyard. Indeed, we could see the logic of a whole process across three incarnations. The Fifth Doctor was straightforwardly moral, but weak and unable to bring about the best results (Earthshock, Resurrection of the Daleks). A more ruthless self needed to come into being to overcome the Fifth Doctor's scruples (Cold Fusion). And so, after the instability of the Sixth Doctor, the Machiavellian Seventh Doctor came into being (by a deliberate choice, if Love and War is to be believed). But did the Doctor take a step too far in the wrong direction? The existence of the Valeyard hints that he may have.

In Millennial Rights the Sixth Doctor faces his evil self once again - albeit in a symbolic way, in a story that seems to point towards a future as the less ethically scrupulous Seventh Doctor. Matrix then sees a morose Seventh Doctor face the shoutiest, most straightforwardly nasty version of the Valeyard yet (aka, "Jack the Ripper"). However, he sees this cruel character very much as part of himself.

And so the Valeyard is a convenient device that Doctor Who writers can keep at the back of our minds - "This," they warn, "is what the Doctor might become."

Still, this does not excuse what I think is the mistake of having an evil self that is absolutely nothing like the good self. Furthermore, the logic of the Doctor moving from scrupulous loser to pragmatist, and eventually to morally dead villain has been ruined somewhat in recent years by the introduction of perhaps the two cheeriest, most impulsive incarnations of the Doctor yet - the Eighth and Ninth (although the latest Doctor clearly has a very dark side - see The End of the World).

Perhaps, however, it was the exhausting experience of being these later incarnations, with their ceaseless smiling, excitement and charm that eventually drove the Valeyard to come into existence. Perhaps all that grinning turned our hero into someone who could barely raise a smile. Still, I don't think that the Valeyard really lived up to his potential as the "Evil Doctor" - nice idea as it was. Never mind - bemoaning unfulfilled potential is the lot of the Doctor Who fan...