IS THE DREAM LORD, THE VALEYARD?

Since his introduction in Amy’s Choice a theory has arisen concerning the mysterious figure known as The Dream Lord. A being or manifestation or amalgamation or whatever, was revealed to have been created from the darker sides of subconscious of The Eleventh Doctor. With the power to create dreamlike, make believe worlds, he was a devious figure setting up a challenge for The Eleventh Doctor before time ran out. The Dream Lord was actually a species of physic pollen which latched itself onto the TARDIS and created an image to ‘enter’ the physical universe.

                Know putting the backstory and history aside, an interesting question has arisen concerning the character. Is the Dream Lord an early ‘incarnation’ of The Valeyard who appeared in Trial of a Time Lord? Its an interesting prospect, despite the fact that both characters have been established as different identities. Or is that just a red herring? There could be a chance that both The Valeyard and The Dream Lord are one and the same. After all there is a missing link between the incarnations of The Doctor who didn’t actually appear. Or did he?

During the Trial of a Time Lord season, The Master let it slip that The Valeyard was  ‘an amalgamation of the darker sides of the Doctor’s future, taken somewhere between his twelfth and final incarnation’. Now that is interesting, since this amalgamation never appeared towards the end of The Eleventh Doctor’s life. During The Time of The Doctor, it is revealed that the Eleventh Doctor was the final incarnation of his first regeneration cycle. Which meant he had already lived through his twelfth incarnation. Now the interesting thing is no episode(s) actually dealt with this ‘amalgamation’ or did they? After all The Dream Lord is an amalgamation of sort, and came from the dark side of The Doctor’s mind. So The Dream Lord is close enough at honouring this statement. However, on the other side Amy’s Choice did not occur exactly between the twelfth and thirteenth incarnations of The Doctor’s life. It occurred slightly to side, but its near enough, and can do for now. Other episodes such as The God Complex did look at The Doctor’s worst fear. But it turned out to the cracks in time which plagued his travels, and not something or someone from the dark side of his mind. So at the moment The Dream Lord is a good fit.

But is there anything else we can take from The Dream Lord that could be transferred to The Valeyard, and there is a lot of evidence.

Evidence 1: Attire and Costume: When we first see The Dream Lord, he is dressed exactly like The Eleventh Doctor down to the finest of detail, including the bow time. Now this isn’t exactly strong evidence, since The Dream Lord is almost an mirror-image of The Eleventh Doctor. The final shot when The Dream Lord is glimpsed on the TARDIS console, could suggest he is still present within The Doctor’s subconscious, despite the fact The Doctor expelled the psychic pollen from the TARDIS previously.

Evidence 2: Allies and Disguises: The Dream Lord and The Valeyard both wore disguises in their appearances. Appearing and disappearing throughout the dream landscapes he created, The Dream Lord donned a lot of costumes to suit whatever situation arose. It’s a playful characteristic that makes him so much more interesting.  The Valeyard is also guilty of wearing disguises. He posed as Mr Popplewick within the Matrix to toy with The Doctor who was pursuing him.

Now on the other side, The Master is no stranger at wearing disguises: The Portreeve in Castrovalva, Kalid in Time-Flight, Sir Gilles in The King’s Demons etc. al. so perhaps this is just a characteristic all Time Lords possess. Chancellor Goth is also no stranger at wearing disguises as shown in The Deadly Assassin, again a share characteristic perhaps? After all there is The Doctor who has worn many costumes and attires to get out of tricky situations.

Evidence 3: Control of Dream-Like Landscapes: The Dream Lord creates dream landscapes with the power of creating dreams within dreams. He had the power to keep Amy awake in the first dream, and asleep in the second; and vice versa for The Doctor and Rory. He created the Eknodines and perhaps created fake version of pensioners that Amy and Rory may or may have not known in the real world. The Valeyard meanwhile had the power to control and shape situations in The Matrix, throwing The Doctor into various situations that were perilous. So the abilities over dream landscapes is striking and very similar. All situations faced in both worlds were in essence fake.

On the other side, Chancellor Goth did have the same power as The Valeyard as seen in The Deadly Assassin, so again perhaps all Time Lords have the same power? Sabalom Glitz as seen in The Ultimate Foe appears to have had no power or control in The Matrix, nor did Melanie Bush. It seems there is a shared ability between all Time Lords.

There is however another question that must be asked. Is it possible for The Dream Lord to latch onto someone and take complete control of their bodies? The Dream Lord sort of branched off from The Doctor and did not have a body of his own. But could he acquire one. If The Valeyard is amalgamation from The Doctor himself, where did [he] come from? He has a physical body after all. And it does seem the Valeyard killed The Keeper of the Matrix and took over his body. So, The Valeyard does have this ability, but so does somebody else. Or perhaps The Keeper of the Matrix met another unknown fate?

                The Master killed and took over Tremas in The Keeper of Traken and Bruce in Doctor Who: The TV Movie; but it seems that this ability might actually be shared by all Time Lords. Omega also merged with the Fifth Doctor in Arc of Infinity, and Omega is another Time Lord. So, taken this into account, The Dream Lord came off of The Eleventh Doctor, so who’s to say he didn’t take some Time Lord abilities with him? How to say he didn’t manage to find Gallifrey, latch onto another Time Lord, and become The Valeyard? It is possible.

                There is probably more evidence that can be taken to form an argument that The Dream Lord goes onto to become The Valeyard. However, both characters as mentioned before have been established as different identities. Or perhaps there is a story coming up which merged both characters together and answer some lingering questions. Perhaps The Doctor will see The Valeyard again, reuniting him with an old enemy or two.