Doctor Who: Flux introduced Swarm, an enigmatic new villain with a link to The Doctor’s past, but Swarm’s true identity could be The Valeyard. Flux is the name of Doctor Who’s 13th season, a single story told across six episodes. Doctor Who: Flux is the final season starring Jodie Whittaker and the last season produced under showrunner Chris Chibnall. Chibnall’s tenure has been controversial with much of the criticism centered on Doctor Who’s problematic Timeless Child retcon. But with Flux, Chibnall looks to win viewers back with a cavalcade of new mysteries.
In Doctor Who: Flux, The Doctor is up against a trio of new villains led by the shadowy Swarm. Swarm’s background is largely unknown. The show teases an ancient rivalry between Swarm and The Doctor, but all the details are just out of reach. He clearly has a link to The Doctor’s past, with a particular association with The Doctor’s time as part of The Division, a period already shrouded in mystery. He’s an ancient being with vast powers, but who exactly is Swarm?
Swarm could be The Valeyard, a composite version of The Doctor, compromised of all of her less than heroic qualities. The Valeyard is a deep-cut villain from Classic Doctor Who and represents just the kind of esoteric lore that Chibnall loves to play with. Revealing Swarm as The Valeyard not only lines up with the events of Doctor Who: Flux, but it’s also the kind of decision that would leave a lasting mark on the canon as Chibnall prepares to exit the show.
The Valeyard In Doctor Who Explained
While Season 23 of the Classic Doctor Who series is often described as being comprised of four separate stories, it was broadcast as one continuous serial entitled, “The Trial of a Time Lord.” The overarching story followed the Sixth Doctor on trial before the High Council of Gallifrey, with each week’s episode brought up as a piece of evidence before the court. The prosecutor for the case against The Doctor is a thorny, officious Time Lord called The Valeyard, who seems hellbent on The Doctor’s destruction.
In the dramatic finale of “The Trial of a Time Lord” it’s revealed that The Valeyard is actually a future incarnation of The Doctor. Speaking to The Doctor, The Master describes The Valeyard as, “an amalgamation of the darker sides of your nature, somewhere between your twelfth and final incarnation.” While the story ended with The Valeyard’s fate left unknown, the series has never addressed The Valeyard again.
Why Whittaker’s Era Makes Sense For The Valeyard’s Return
Despite Doctor Who never again mentioning The Valeyard, the concept has never fully left viewers’ minds. The Master’s prophecy seemed relatively clear, but like many things in Doctor Who, it’s only grown more complicated over the decades. The addition of the War Doctor regeneration and Steven Moffat’s overall reckoning of The Doctor’s regenerations advanced the count significantly, putting Matt Smith’s Doctor at the end of his regeneration cycle. Chibnall’s Timeless Child retcon added countless other incarnations to the beginning of The Doctor’s timeline, further undermining the series’s traditional numbering system. But putting the arcane particulars aside, a lawyerly reading of The Master’s words allows for most of the show’s canon to fit between The Doctor’s twelfth and final regeneration. In fact, Whittaker’s era as the Thirteenth Doctor could actually pose the perfect opportunity for The Valeyard to slide into the timeline.
In his past seasons, Chibnall has demonstrated a fondness for even the most esoteric bits of Doctor Who’s canon. It’s likely that the Timeless Child will define Chibnall’s legacy, and revisiting The Valeyard would fit neatly alongside it as part of Chibnall’s broader exploration of The Doctor’s origin. Much in the same way Russell T Davies’ renewed vision for The Master helped shape the David Tennent era, reviving The Valeyard could help further define Whittaker’s time on the show.
Doctor Who Theory: Swarm Is Really The Valeyard
Details of Swarm’s background are still sparse, but they all point to him as a new incarnation of The Valeyard. Swarm is introduced as a prisoner of The Division, guaranteeing some connection between the skeletal villain and the Time Lords. When he is first face-to-face with The Doctor at the end of season 13, episode 1, “The Halloween Apocalypse,” Swarm gives one of the few concrete statements thus far on his past with The Doctor. He asks her if she remembers, “You and I, dancing across Space and Time, locked in combat.“ The line shows that he’s clearly one of The Doctor’s greatest nemeses. It’s a title that only a few villains can claim, and one that suits The Valeyard perfectly.
Doctor Who: Flux features a number of other telling clues pointing to The Valeyard’s return. For one, Flux is in many ways a kind of homage to “The Trial of a Time Lord,” repeating the Classic season’s serialized structure. The mirrored structure makes Doctor Who: Flux the perfect opportunity for a Valeyard reveal. Swarm’s sinister qualities also make him an ideal representation of The Doctor’s dark side. The gaunt baddie even has a number of visual similarities to the Classic series’s nefarious Time Lord. Swarm’s purplish hue and shimmering outfit both line up with The Valeyard’s iconic robes, a sly hint to the character’s origins.
What Swarm Being The Valeyard Would Mean For Doctor Who Flux
The reveal that Swarm is The Valeyard would open up a treasure trove of potential stories from the show’s extensive lore, and provide an opportunity for some much-needed clarification. The Doctor has always had a complicated relationship with the Time Lords, running from them when they’re here and missing them when they’re gone. The relationship was made all that much harder to explore after Gallifrey’s apparent re-destruction in Season 12. But with both The Valeyard and The Division appearing in Doctor Who: Flux, the show could finally hash out just how The Doctor fits in amongst her people.
While a heaped serving of freshly minted lore is exciting for fans, a Valeyard reveal would also pose some major risks for Flux. The Timeless Child retcon not only irked some viewers with its divisive changes to The Doctor’s background, but it also risked Doctor Who losing itself in an unending cycle of narrative navel-gazing. A big reveal centered around an obscure one-off villain from the 80s could easily be the final straw, alienating new viewers simply looking for fun space adventures, rather than an essay on the history of the show.
In many ways, The Valeyard remains one of the greatest unfulfilled reveals in all of Doctor Who. The villain represents an exciting concept and sets up an epic confrontation, but a final showdown between The Doctor and his evil shadow-self never came to fruition. Perhaps with Doctor Who: Flux, one of Chibnall’s last acts as showrunner will be to finally provide a pay-off to that 35-year-old set-up.
