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From: ph9991_manfr@rivers.acc.uwrf.edu Newsgroups: rec.arts.drwho Subject: The Valeyard Explained Message-ID: <1993Jan10.162005.604@rivers> Date: 10 Jan 93 16:20:05 -0600 Organization: University of Wisconsin - River Falls Lines: 220

If it seems I'm taking this Valeyard argument rather personally, it's because his origins play a key role in the novel I'm developing for Virgin's New Adventures novels. There is an explanation for the Valeyard that makes complete sense and contradicts nothing on screen or nothing we can imagine. If you think of something as you read this, tell the net and let me know because I do want to get this absolutely right. I've been over this before on the Net, and so far my theories seem pretty watertight.

Before I plung in to this story, I'll say it one more time: the word was "incarnation."

Right.

"THE TRIAL AND THE VALEYARD: EXPLAINED!"

Once upon a time there was an advanced civilization in the constellation of Andromeda. Someone there knew of the existence of Gallifrey, the Time Lords, and of the Time Lords' vast repository of knowledge; an almost ethereal information network called the Matrix. Someone there also knew there was much profit to be had from stealing information from the Matrix, so they decided to steal.

However, these someones also knew that eventually, the Time Lords would be able to trace the leak from the Matrix, and so they decided to work from another location other than Andromeda, in order to protect their home. They chose Earth for reasons known only to them, and there appears to be three principal persons who were nicking the information and data, known henceforth as they were known in the Trial, the Three Sleepers.

Sure enough, the Time Lords do eventually trace the leak, and decide to pull the Earth and its solar system (not to mention the entire constellation) two light years off its original heading, causing a solar fireball that nearly destroys the Earth. Or rather, the High Council of the Time Lords does this using the Magnetron. This is not public knowledge, for it violates every non-intervention rule the Time Lords have, not to mention near-genocide. This was strictly covert and secret. The Sleepers, meanwhile, figure out a way to save some of their efforts by setting up a survival chamber for themselves monitored by an L3 robot. Unfortunately for them, the robot mission sent to recover them couldn't find the Earth now it was off course, and thus the Sleepers were never picked up. However, the secrets they stole from the Matrix were still intact in the form of a memory tape, also guarded by the L3 robot. Various nefarious money-grubbers tried to steal the secrets over the next 500 years, none succeeding.

Then one day, the Doctor arrived. He and Peri stumble onto "The Mysterious Planet" and discover some of the happenings there, such as the Earth being moved off course. What they don't find out is who did this and what was in a particular box that Glitz and Dibber were interested in. However, the seeds of curiosity were planted in the Doctor....

...The Doctor's curiosity can be very dangerous to those in who the Doctor is curious about. The High Council of the Time Lords knows this very well indeed. The Doctor had stumbled on their secret handiwork, and although he didn;t know the full story yet, there was too much of a chance that he someday would, or that someone hearing of his visit someday would. Therefore, the Council decided to save themselves there and then before it got any further out of hand. Simply killing the Doctor would be very conspicuous to any of this Council's political enemies, so that was not done. The best way to handle him, they decided, was to discredit him and at the same time tie his name to the whole Earth/Ravolox affair. This way, should anyone in the future look into what happened on Earth, they would hear "well, the Doctor visited there a lot and was put on Trial for it," and probably end their investigations there. As the Master would later say, they Council was making a scapegoat of the Doctor to conceal their own involcement. The best way to discredit him was indeed to put him on Trial for breaking the First Law of Time, the non-intervention directive, and get him convicted and executed. To make the Trial look even better, the Supreme Guardians of the Law would try the case, i.e. the most upstanding Time Lords on Gallifrey. This way a guilty verdict could never be questioned.

They still needed to convict him though. They know from experience that the Doctor is a rather formidable enemy, especially in purely intellectual challenges, which is all a trial ever is, so they need to have someone prosecuting the case who really knows his stuff, and who really knows the Doctor inside and out, making him or her able to predict the Doctor's reactions to certain strategies. Who better to prosecute the Doctor than the Doctor himself?

At this point, the Council did one of two things unexplained in the series: 1) they contacted the already existing Valeyard and dealed with him or 2) they actually constructed the Valeyard and dealed with him then. I think the second option is the far more likely one by a process of elimination, and also based on dialog the Master has. I eliminate the first possibility because it would constitute an interference in history which is too dangerous to the Valeyard to risk. Many have asked the question, "Why was he going after the Doctor's regenerations? He'd kill himself because the Doctor would never live to number twelve." I agree with this question. It doesn't make sense. Therefore the Valeyard is not *directly* from the Doctor's future. But he still is in a way. Arguments supporting reason two may help to understand this better. The Master has the following lines in "The Ultimate Foe": from Part One: "The Valeyard is an amalgamation of the darker sides of your nature, somewhere between your twelfth and final incarnation." from Part Two: "But the Valeyard, a distillation of all that is evil in you, a composite of your every dark thought is a different proposition." The words "amalgamation," "distillation," and "composite" all indicate, to me at least, that the Master means the Valeyard was created by someone, some outside force. The Valeyard is not a natural phenomena. What I think he is is a prediction by the Matrix of the Doctor's "phased" form between his Twelfth and Thirteenth selves. The "phase" I speak of is similar to the Watcher seen in "Logopolis," or of Cho-je in "Planet of the Spiders." Cho-je in particular, because although he was a projection from K'Anpo's mind, he did seem to be able to operate quite independently of K'Anpo, until the moment of regeneration of course. I think the High Council chose to create a Doctor of their own to prosecute this case. They used the Matrix to envision what the Doctor would be like between his Twelfth and Thirteenth selves, and then told it to distill out all the good qualities, leaving only an evil Doctor. They chose the 12-13 phase because this Doctor would not have any regenerations of his own, and thus that is something they could and did use to bargain for his co-operation. Also, a future phase had to be used to prevent destabilizing the present Doctor. There is also the great side benefit of having the most experienced Doctor possible prosecuting the case, i.e. this is the oldest one. Additionally, if the Valeyard is indeed a "child of the Matrix," then he of all people would be best able to alter the evidence from the Matrix, and this also explains why he was so easily able to set up his dreamscape within it in "The Ultimate Foe." This also explains why he survived the Particle Diseminator in "Foe." he is only a phased Doctor, a projection of the Matrix. How do you kill or diseminate something that doesn't really exist?

Once they conjured up the Valeyard, they had to make a deal with him because he does have free will of his own. They offered him the remainder of the Doctor's regenerations and evidence-adjustment help in return for prosecuting the Doctor in the Trial. The Valeyard accepted, but for his own reasons, not the Council's. The Valeyard did not trust the Council to honor their side of the bargain and made preparation to cement his own existence himself. When the Trial collapsed (thanks to the Master), the Valeyard abandoned his previous plans and cut right to the chase to get the Doctor's regenerations by ring him into his Matrix dreamscape. He gets the Doctor to sign the paper that will surrender the regenerations, and then must convince the Doctor WHILE HE'S INSIDE THE MATRIX that he's dead. If you can convince someone they're dead while they are only existing in mind, then they are indeed dead. Thus, the reason for the quicksand bit at the end of Part One of "Foe," and for the bogus Trial in Part Two of "Foe." I think the previous plan would have involved the point before execution where the Doctor's memories would have been dumped into the Matrix, as is done with all near-deceased Time Lords, but would have been easier for the Valeyard to win because the Doctor would have been really due to die. AS it was , the Valeyard needed to kill the Doctor within the Matrix in order to inherit the remaining lives of the Sixth Doctor. The Valeyard also wants the Doctor destroyed to unfetter himself from the Doctor's side of his existence. If you still don't believe all this, listen to the Valeyard's words himself: The Doctor asks the Valeyard why he wants the Doctor dead, and the Valeyard replies: "Come now Doctor, how else can I obtain my freedom? Operate as a complete entity?.... Only by ridding myself of you can I be free." And as I've said before, this freedom was going to include the six unused lives of the Doctor. And not only that, but it was also going to include control of Gallifrey! And here's how... The Valeyard was going to blow the whistle on the Council right after the Trial, neatly arranging their deposement. At the same time, he would sick the Diseminator on the assembled Trial jurors, taking out all the good guys on Gallifrey and the Keeper of the Matrix. This would leave no one left with control over the Matrix, except for the Valeyard himself since the Doctor is already at one with the Matrix after "The Invasion of Time." (something not forgotten in another story too, "Arc of Infinity.") He would then reclaim his title to the Presidency, and with his control of the Matrix, the Time Lords would have to agree to his demands.

The Master threw a spanner in the works, which in a way saved the Valeyard some work. He already got the Council deposed for him, leaving only the Trialists and the Doctor to deal with. The Master's ambitions were easily put out of the way with a boobytrap in the form of the Limbo Atrophier

A further spanner was thrown in the works when the Valeyard found the Doctor to be a bit more difficult to trick into suicide than he had originally thought, in both the case of the quicksand and the fake Trial. He also didn't anticipate the Doctor spotting the Popplewick disguise. And he didn't think the Doctor could unravel the Diseminator.

The Valeyard had been doing quite a number and pulling all the right strings during the Trial (such as the faked death of Peri, getting the Doctor to explode into outbursts, not to mentioning altering the evidence), but he hadn't prepared adaquately for when the Doctor was able to do the same in the Matrix.

However, the Valeyard survived the Diseminator, simply because of the nature of his incomplete existence. He somehow escaped the Matrix, killed the Keeper, and took his clothes as a disguise until he could get off the station.

What he's up to these days is anyone's guess. I imagine he might have tried to stop the Inquisitor's election to the Presidency. It's also dangerous to think about what he might be doing with the Hand of Omega and/or the Silver Nemesis now that the Doctor has sent them back to Gallifrey. The Valeyard would be able to "remember" where on Gallifrey they had been sent...

However, I believe his unsatisfactory existence is his number one priority. He still wants to be complete, and indeed his continued existence may be threatened if the new High Council ever figures out how to make the Matrix "cancel" its prediction of his existence. I'll stop here, and hopefully if my book ever gets published (or even finished for that matter), you'll find out how I think he'd go about it. Suffice it to say that I truly want to make him the Ultimate Foe. ...he's going to be very, very nasty....

Steven.K.Manfred