Story: Demons. We all have them. Those skeletons we keep in our closets. Our little vices we con ourselves into believing are not bad for us. We all do things that, even if they appear to be rotten, are for the greater good. The seventh incarnation of the Doctor has demons. One in particular. One which he doesn’t have to look too far inside himself to find: The Valeyard. Does his chess-playing with his companions as pawns draw him nearer to becoming the dark version of himself? Or did his last regeneration prevent this from ever taking place? This adventure has him playing God once again. However, it is no longer out of a sense of fair play. It is because his constant meddling has screwed up the fabric of time so badly, that it is now out of obligation…
Review: The Doctor is haunted by the ghost of his former self, who taunts him, asking for his life back. Asking him why he wanted to live so badly that he would kill his sixth incarnation, in a selfish act, just to exist. Did he force his former self to hit his head on the console upon landing on Lakertya, causing him to regenerate? Did he really want to live that badly that he could sacrifice his former self in order to exist? Or, was it for the greater good as well? Could he see his former incarnation moving ever closer to becoming the Valeyard, and the only way to protect the future from that situation was by sacrificing himself? Was his former incarnation also a pawn in the seventh Doctor’s game? If you unleash your demons, who will be hurt in the wake? Maybe the needs of the future outweighed the needs of the past…
Even if the Doctor did sacrifice his former self, it was not out of a selfish desire to live. It was out of a sense of duty, so that others would not die. So that he could continue fixing his mistakes. So that right and good have a soldier of time on their side. The Doctor has to live with these demons, keeping them safely bottled up inside.
Just think of the consequences of the Valeyard roaming the universe instead of the Doctor, and who would survive? 9 out of 10.
Year: 1995
Author: Steve Lyons
Publisher: Virgin
Pages: 258