Howling:Missy, Doctor, Master, and Valyard?

This theory is going to be a bit of a doozy, so bear with me.

So, when the time lords beamed the Doctor a new set of regenerations, what if the regenerations weren't really all that fresh?

From previous examples, we have seen that regenerations can be both given and stolen between Time Lords. By time lord standards, the equivalent of an execution would be killing said time lord and giving the remaining regenerations to another time lord. The last we saw of the master, he ended up being trapped in some of the closing moments of the Time War with Rassilon, and a number of other high up time lords. So what, in giving the The Doctor more regenerations, they were killing two birds with one stone in executing the master at the same time?

So how does Missy fit into all this? Well, there has already been some speculation of her being the master, through the logic of "Missy" being a shortened form of "Mistress." If the time lords beamed the master's regenerations into the Doctor, what if the Master is still rattling around in the 13th Doctor's subconscious in the form of this "Missy" character? It would explain the whole "accent" link between them, and also, the darker self-centered personality quirks that are manifesting in the new regeneration, as a representation of a greater conflict between the Doctor and the Master for dominance over the Doctor's body. My current theory is that at some point, "Missy", being a hybrid of the Master, and the darker parts of the Doctor's subconscious are eventually going to find their way out of the 13th Doctor's head, manifesting as the entity known as the Valyard. So what do people think of this idea? Too far out there, or is this a pretty solid theory? 775510 ☎

==== Please sign your posts with 4 tildes(~), makes it's much easier to know who's saying what.

If the Time Lords stole the Master's remaining regenerations i'm not sure if that means there is a piece of him inside the Doctor now. Also, the 12th Doctor(Hurt is the War Doctor) should have 11 regenerations left(used 1 at Trenzalore). How many times has the Master regenerated(aside from Utopia (TV story))? Jedted ☎  03:37, August 26, 2014 (UTC)

==== Will do. Sorry. New to sharing my theories online.

From what I recall, the last we saw him in classic Who, the Master wasn't even biologically a Time Lord anymore, but more of a disembodied entity that could only "regenerate" by possessing sentient creatures. By the time we see him again, the Master has managed to regain the form of a time lord, along with the ability to regenerate (most likely by possessing another time lord during the time war). How many times this version of the master has regenerated, and how many are left is unknown, as he could have used more regenerations than we have seen, or stolen more than are typically alloted to a Time Lord.

The precedent that the master has been able to possess the minds of others, and supposedly even maintain a greater degree of control over the process of regeneration lends some weight to the idea that his consciousness could potentially piggyback the beaming of his remaining regenerations into the Doctor, forming a sort of split personality inside the Doctor's mind. 775510 ☎  07:17, August 26, 2014 (UTC)

I see what you are saying, it is sort of a twist on The Watcher who anticipated Tom Baker to Peter Davison; some form of the next one up coming into existence prematurely, and following the regenerations to the Doctor. But I don't have any problem with the Time Lords giving the Master a new cycle of regenerations in exchange for joining in the war, they offered him that just to help the Doctor in the past. And we really don't know what the Master's status is on Galifrey currently. While when last seen, Rassilon would want to kill him, it's not clear the rest would agree. (If you were imprisoned in a pocket universe, who is the Time Lord you would want to help you try to find a way out?)

But I think attributing the new Doctor's personality to Not Him is to undermine part of the point of a regeneration; to allow the Doctor to show a different side of himself. Further, I don't see the Master's influence as necessary to showing some of the darker side of the Doctor. It's always been there, as we saw with the Dream Lord. That's why he has so many rules.

As for Missy, I suspect that the characterization Clara & the Doctor arrive at describing who placed the ad, may be our best clue to who Missy may be. And I also suspect that as it was strongly hinted the description also fit Clara, the eventual finale will pit Clara & Missy against each other in some sort of game. Perhaps being Gatekeeper to the Nether sphere is what you do when you ” retire” from leading the Silence. Alternatively, who in the Doctor’s long history might refer to him as a boy friend? And could the Nether-sphere (a bubble outside space?) possibly refer to the pocket universe where Galifrey resides? But why would the cyborg end up there, unless the Doctor was sending a message? (ie. I know where to find you) Where did the Doctor go in the Tardis between the time we saw the impaled cyborg, and Clara realized he was gone? He could not have just left that cyborg where it was, for fear it gave earth scientists some dangerous technology, and ideas. Did the Doctor take him to Paradise? And could the promise of that be what caused the cyborg to jump? And what does it all have to do with his face?

Of course if Missy is the Master it is unlikely The Doctor will be left out of the finale. And unless we are supposed to believe that Galifrey is now lost forever, now that it has apparently left Trenzalore, those opposed to its return must once again try to kill the Doctor. And if we recall where The Doctor and Romana split up, at a bridge to a different space, for her to return through the "nether-sphere" is nicely symmetric. Perhaps the Doctor's unexplained disappearance was just a shake down trip as his predecessor made. And Missy is at Torchwood, her "boyfriend" not being the Doctor, but a hero of his acquaintance. Many people have commented upon the garden "set" of Paradise as being reminiscent, if not being identical to the Two Rivers facility in The Girl Who Waited. I expect rather than a set, it was a Computer generated image, a hint that Paradise is the same. That could still be Torchwood, using alien tech to get what they can from the mind of the cyborg. Alternatively, perhaps the Doctor did take him to a virtual world, the virtual world of the Library. Phil Stone ☎  05:08, August 27, 2014 (UTC)