Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Waitaminit... is Peter Capaldi the Valeyard?

Fact: We know that the Valeyard is a darker incarnation of the Doctor, a manifestation of all his evil, that's supposed to pop up between his twelfth and final regeneration.

Fact: We know that Capaldi's Doctor is going to be "darker" than the previous ones.

Fact: The addition of the Hurt Doctor, combined with Tennant's bogus regeneration in "Journey's End," means that the Smith Doctor is actually the twelfth regeneration!

Do I need to explain that last one? Okay here we go.
  • We know the Morbius Doctors are bogus because Peter Davison explicitly refers to himself as the fourth regeneration (meaning the Fifth Doctor - the First Doctor wasn't a regeneration, but the real deal) in The Five Doctors.
    • Oh, you want to subscribe to the hodokery that Hartnell -> Troughton was a "renewal" and Troughton -> Pertwee was a "change of appearance?" Three words: "Blinovich Limitation Effect." Go look it up, ya fanwank menace.
  •  That means that the Sixth Doctor is the fifth regeneration, the Seventh Doctor is the sixth regeneration, and the Eighth Doctor is the seventh regeneration. So far so good.
  • Then McGann (Eight) turns into Hurt. This is the eighth regeneration. The Doctor is now on his ninth life, regardless of whether he calls himself "The Doctor" in this life.
    • And on that note, the notion that the Doctor is called the Doctor because he helps people, and chose that name because he makes people better, go back and watch An Unearthly Child, in which the First Doctor advises leaving a wounded caveman to die because helping them jeopardizes their escape.
  • Hurt regenerates into Eccleston. The ninth regeneration therefore creates the character we know as "the Ninth Doctor."
  • Eccleston regenerates into Tennant. This is the tenth regeneration.
  •  Tennant regenerates into Tennant, and uses the energy to heal himself and create a clone of himself ("Journey's End"). This is the eleventh regeneration.
  • Tennant regenerates into Smith. This is the twelfth and final regeneration.
 To continue...

Fact: as anyone who's seen Logopolis knows, "these don't quite count" versions of the Doctor have shown up before to help the Doctor through his regeneration.

Fact: Capaldi showed up ahead of time in The Day of the Doctor.

What if, and bear with me here, Matt Smith's Doctor dies? He doesn't regenerate at the end of the Christmas Special? He just lays there for a minute... and then Capaldi comes in and says something silly like "I think you need a Doctor." And then we learn that he's the Valeyard, and he's going to ensure that the Doctor gets additional regenerations? Moffat can come up with some way to rationalize this vis a vis his behavior in Trial of a Time Lord.

Just saying.

1 comment:

  1. Why isn't anyone else wandering if Capaldi is the vealyard ?

    Anyway, I'm with you on thinking he will be.

    ReplyDelete

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