Doctor Who: 5 Questions Which May Go Forever Unanswered

2. Who Was That Valeyard Chap, Anyway?

Surely every fan with the slightest modicum of capacity for critical thinking has references, episodes, whole swathes of Doctor Who history they'd like to simply forget, perhaps erasing them guilt-free from a personal canon. Unfortunately, while most of us are powerless to ignore (as in the aforementioned supposed half-human nature of the Doctor "revealed" in the TV movie), change (as in the surprise new regeneration cycle of "The Time of the Doctor") and/or reaffirm (as in the name-dropping of the Valeyard in "Trial of a Time Lord") trivial or key bits of series continuity. The show's creators, however, are not. Thus in play is the revelation that the Valeyard as portrayed in the Sixth Doctor story arc is "an amalgamation of the Doctor's darker sides from between his twelfth and final incarnations"; the name-drop in "The Name of the Doctor" acknowledges the existence of this hastily-scripted plot device €“ I mean, character. Two problems with the description of said existence: The world "final" to describe Doctor no. 13 is now incorrect, thanks to that new lifecycle. Additionally, we were told in the "Time of the Doctor" that the "between his twelfth and final incarnations" is in actuality the time period between the second "Sandshoes" and "Chinny." And, um ... I didn't see any spinning off of any dark amalgamation as Matt Smith pranced about discovering his legs. Unless the Valeyard was he who attempted to push Doctor Eleven out of the TARDIS between "The End of Time" and "The Eleventh Hour...?" Some have suggested that the Dream Lord of "Amy's Choice" was this past tormentor of the Doctor, with his hints that he too was merely an aspect of the Doctor. Fine, but what about the Valeyard's inability to regenerate, the central "plot" point of the "Trial of a Time Lord" denouement. Maybe we should just forget the whole thing. Yeah, surrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre.