Doctor Who Unbound: He Jests at Scars...

Doctor Who Unbound

by Gary Russell, Michael Jayston (Narrator), Bonnie Langford (Narrator)

What if...
the Valeyard had won?

The thing about meddling with time is that one moment something is real, the next, it's been erased. Probability become just a possibility. Established truth becomes a theoretical falsehood. Like dominoes, as one timeline falls, the others come cascading down around it. You can engineer new timelines, new possibilities but before long, the distinction between what is, what was, what might be and what never can be becomes blurred.

Out of this grow myths, lies and legends. The Doctor was one such legend, but no one knows whether he truly ever existed. Well, not now they don't. The Mighty One, ruling the multiverses from the eternal city of Chronopolis has made sure of that.

Genres: Doctor Who, Audiobook, Science Fiction

Audio Play

First published August 1, 2003

About the author

Gary Russell is a British freelance writer, producer and former child actor. As a writer, he is best known for his work in connection with the television series Doctor Who and its spin-offs in other media. As an actor, he is best known for playing Dick Kirrin in the British 1978 television series The Famous Five.

Reviews

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

An alternate reality? A variant history? An incarnation of the Doctor and/or a timeline that was erased by effects of the Time War? Another darkly disastrous derivation for the Doctor. This time around the sixth Doctor lost his Trial of a Timelord and the Valeyard goes free, with all the potentials of his future incarnations. This time the Valeyard is unstoppable and his machinations may very well spell the end of time itself. A fascinating glimpse into the mind of the Valeyard, as wonderfully portrayed by Michael Jayston (revisiting his role from the classic television series).

[Danny Welch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now this is one of those Doctor Who audios that seems to be rather marmite with people, you either love it or hate it. But me personally I thought it was incredible! Depressingly dark and depressing but with a story that is a bit complicated sometimes. Michael and Bonnie were absolutely brilliant in this bringing in incredible performances showing the more serious sides to their characters. Mel was really likable here too, whilst The Valeyard was absolutely terrifying. There's plenty of refernces in here as you might expect from a Gary Russell script and I really like them.

An utterly brilliant audio that I would recommend to anyone who loves The Valeyard and Mel. 10/10

[David Layton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Doctor Who Unbound has the "what if" starting point of what if The Valeyard won at the end of Trial of a Time Lord? Big Finish uses a couple of their own regulars - Coordinator Vansell (Anthony Keetch) and Ellie Martin (Juliet Warner) from the Sarah Jane Smith series. The story revolves around how much The Valeyard is or is not The Doctor. Like The Doctor, he has nothing but contempt for the Time Lords. Like The Doctor, he seems to need a traveling companion (Ellie in this case). And, like The Doctor he feels compelled to meddle. Where The Valeyard differs is that he wants to undo all The Doctor's achievements, which The Valeyard regards as mistakes, collect all the powerful artifacts and weapons, and then remake the universe to fit some ideal that he does not really himself full understand. The problem is that undoing these events starts undoing both the entire web of time and The Doctor's entire timeline. The Valeyard is actually erasing himself from time, and thus becomes desperate to try to "fix" the problem with even more heavy-handed interference that ends up making the problem worse. Into this chaos, Vansell has sent Mel either to reason with The Valeyard and get The Doctor back, or to assassinate The Valeyard. Unfortunately for Mel, The Valeyard erases the Time Lords, so there is no going back for her. Michael Jayston portrays The Valeyard excellently. He is a character who cannot control most of his impulses, but is intelligent enough to know that what he is doing is wrong. Bonnie Langford does really well as a weary, jaded Mel who has left all her young enthusiasm behind and is now just dedicated to getting a job done. The story itself is told by jumping around in time, so it is a bit difficult to piece together. Also, writer Gary Russell has indulged the "what is reality" idea just a bit too much, especially toward the end. The story does provide the listener with a new way to see the virtues of The Doctor.

[Seb Hasi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story was not what I expected from the premise of ‘what if the Valeyard had won?’. I mean I’m not quite sure what I expected but essentially a clip show of continuity references wasn’t it. I mean Bonnie Langford was incredible and that was delightful to see but I really couldn’t merit this story with anything more than ‘it was alright’. Michael Jayston does manage to drip menace and horror in all his dialogue so that’s definitely a positive but given nothing really happens then what is it all for? I mean obviously in the end it was obvious his destructive ways would he his downfall but it felt like this was a story we’d had told with the Master already. There was some pretty decent sound design which added ambiance but comparing all the aspects of the story to other Dr Who stories with similar plots; this one ranked nowhere near the top. With other Unbound stories up to this point; having small casts worked well but having only about 4 characters didn’t really help create a level of atmosphere that was trying to be achieved. I mean how can it be realised that the Valeyard is doing all this destruction and horror if he only monologues about it and we don’t actually get to see any of it? I really wanted to like this story as it had one of the best theoretical ideas of the range but having already heard the Torchwood story ‘The Death Of Captain Jack, I just recognised their similar plots and felt very underwhelmed by comparison.

[Lucas Johns · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very good audio release. Hearing what the Valeyard gets up to after beating the Doctor is great and seeing how powerful he becomes just shows how strong an evil Doctor is. What if the Doctor was evil was the idea of the Valeyard however the show never really explored that as he was just trying to kill the Doctor in Trial of the Timelord and his other appearances in Big Finish releases is mostly the same. So to actually hear the Valeyard doing things with the Doctor's knowledge is what this release is about. Also Mel is a badass in this.

9/10

[Steven Shinder · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ending was a bit darker than I would've preferred. However, this was a very engaging audio. Great use of the Valeyard. It's too bad this was made before Tom Baker got onboard with Big Finish. I'm sure we would've at least had a cameo from him when The Valeyard and Mel go back to Genesis of the Daleks. But the arguments back and forth were so great to listen to.

[John Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had a fun time listening to Valeyard Doctor picking up his own companion and going on evil adventures while Mel fought to bring back the man she knew. Sure it could have been better and maybe was a little too complex of a story but the performances were great enough that I can forgive its flaws. If Big Finish brought back Valeyard Doctor I'd be excited to check that out honestly.

[Shteblanc · Rating 3 out of 5]

While it offers interesting concepts, imagery and scenes it seriously fails with cartoonishly evil Valeyard. But his overall perfomance especially is superb and the final scene is the real highlight of the episode

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Geez, and I thought the last one took a dark turn. Definitely makes you wonder what the universe would be like without the Doctor. No happy ending. Quite morbid actually.

[Charles Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

What if the Valeyard had won?
Featuring Melanie Bush (Bonnie Langford) and the sinister alternate version of the Doctor, the Valeyard (Michael Jayston). Excellent script and superb performances.

[November · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Unbound series is weird but this was really out there..

[Tabitha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like it, and the ending was pretty dark, but there was just something about it that didn't grab me

[Zach · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic way to create the alternate end to Trial of a Timelord. Also this is one of Mel's best appearances ever.

[Nicholas Whyte]

features the Doctor not as hero but as villain. In "He Jests at Scars...", the Valeyard (played again by Michael Jayston) won the Trial of a Time Lord season, and Mel Bush is sent to investigate by the Time Lords. I was not really satisfied. The most interesting thing about the Doctor is that he is a hero; subtract that, and you can have a character study of evil but it's not as interesting. I have (I believe fortunately) seen none of the Trial of a Time Lord stories, so "He Jests at Scars..." made little sense to me.

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I have vague memories of watching the Trial of the Timelord decades ago but I still really enjoyed this. Gary Russell created an interesting universe ruled by the Valeyard, Michael Jayston did a brilliant job at being evil. Most of all MEL WAS LIKABlE!!!! She was competent and interesting and not at all screechy and annoying. While the time loops got a little repetitive it was an interesting doomed premise. (It also reminded me of the war doctor using the weapon to destroy Gallifrey in the 50th). I thought the ending was brilliant.

[Yosef Shapiro · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this version of reality, the Valeyard beat the Doctor in the Trial of a Timelord story arch. The premise is an interesting one. How would the darker nature of the Doctor's personalities handle many of the events that the Doctor once handled? I was happy with this story until I was let down by the ending. However, it is still worth listening to.

[Debra Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

This unbound story Has to do with the Valeyard. What if the Valeyard had won the trial and took the doctors lives? He goes around changing events in time and space. To stop him the time lords send Melanie to fetch him. The valeyard tries to end his timeline. Can Melanie stop him.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Packed full of continuity and very chilling, love it.