Who is The Watcher? (Doctor Who's Biggest Unsolved Mystery) 

(this is a long one) I am SO glad I came across your video. I remember watching "Logopolis" on VHS, and I too was gripped by this scene (which is scored and acted beautifully). In Irish and Scottish folklore, there's an entity called a Banshee (or other names). She is heard wailing or seen before someone's death. The watcher is a play on that, or other legends and stories, about people who see ghostly figures OR human figures as real as you or I. Figures of death or doom. Or even those who give warnings. I remember when I was young reading stories about the supernatural or mysterious. One is a a story, about a man riding on a horse. And in the opposite direction, riding towards him, is his doppelganger. Dressed differently, as though he's gone up in the world, but clearly him? Later, in the twist, this turns out t be how he is in his own future. The watcher is very much like The Mothman. According to witnesses, this creature was seen before a huge disaster, where a bridge collapsed killing many people. The Watcher has a slight difference, in the fact, he was maybe projected back into the Doctor's own past by a dying future 4th Doctor, to aid his earlier self, to ensure his up coming regeneration goes right? But, this IS NOT the first time we see a Watcher like being. (Riffing on what you said) "Planet of the Spiders" has a future self, Cho-Je, existing along side his past self. In fact, he's helping to run temple where K'anpo lives and teaches. Curiously, this seems VERY similar to how the 10th Doctor is able to continue and visit his companions before he dies. IS regeneration more than changing? Can a Timelord not only CONTROL the results of a regeneration BUT ALSO hold it off? "Twice upon a time" makes this part of the reason both the 1st and 12th Doctor meet. And just like the Watcher, Cho Je is there to ensure his future regeneration goes smoothly. Curiously, he is able to interact and communicate far more than The Watcher does. He's impacting the events and aiding Tommy in defending themselves against the pupils who are under the great queen spider's control. Maybe the Watcher interacts and has less substantial appearance, because he was created in a moment of jeopardy? Cho Je could very well be the result of a Timelord, who knows how to project into his own past because he is mentally focused and disciplined from hundreds of years of learning? David

I think the whole magic of the watcher is that we never really know who he was. It’s a secret kept by the Doctor and I kinda like it like that because it gives more of a shadowy aura around Tom Baker’s Doctor and to an extent Davison’s Doctor as they never truly explain to their companions who the Watcher was.

The watcher was essentially the doctor's next regeneration and he was measuring a police box to fix his broken chameleon circuit he wasn't making sure if it worked.

I absolutely adore 'The Watcher'. It's just a brilliantly mysterious idea brought to the lore and I feel people seem to hate on it not being explained. Whilst people seem to be okay with the very same idea being used in The End of Time. Personally I feel Timelord lore is way too explored and explained. So having something like this left this ambiguous is cool. Personal head canon wise. I like the idea that because the universe is ending and by effect causing the future not to happen and the universe to change. So it's a bit head f*ck-y. But I like the idea that his future self from the version of the universe where it gets resolved was able to travel back in time to help make sure the future remains the same rather than entropy destroying everything. But I also like how Planet of the Spiders sort of works as a pre-cursor to The Watcher. Very few people seem to point that out.

This intity is part of the regeneration process. Basically it provides the energy and biological matrix superstructure needed for the Doctor to regenerate. In Tom Bakers case when he fell from the scaffolding this intity suddenly came to him and started the energy transition process, but they later changed this to be just the bright color effects used for the A/B roll transition from one actors face to the next actor. In David's regeneration to the 14th doctor, they even changed it again because he was suddenly wearing his old suite as well, and not what Jamie had just been wearing which is traditional for the show. I think David has enough humor attitude to have handled regeneration from the Lady doctor in her old cloths, and then just went and changed out of them, but they didn't give him a chance to play that scene out. I hope that helps, and stay safe. Great videos by the way. Someone should give u a show about all this on BBC One.

I always thought The Watcher's appearance was a reference to 'Terror of the Autons', as the Autons had sort of a similar look, introduced the Master (who the Doctor forms a temporary truce with in both), and a radio telescope is a major location.

My theory is that the Watcher is the Doctor's dying final incarnation travelling back in time to a point where he knows he's needed to ensure his past self survived.

We are the watcher.

The Watcher is a reverse-entropic echo of the Doctor from a future where he fails. The REAL mystery is: What the hell was the creature from the planet (and episode) Midnight?

Simplest explanation: the Watcher is an echo of the Doctor's future.

God i have been so fucking starved for good doctor who stuff,

I’ve always viewed The Watcher as a mysterious figure inserted into the Dr. Who STORYLINE as a person whose actual identity was to remain a mystery other than the fact he is (or WAS) ‘The Doctor’. The need to ALWAYS have an explanation for every detail and meticulous facet in A STORY undermines just what a STORY is supposed to be. The character of The Watcher was conceived during a time when open endings in stories/films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alfred Hitchcock’s’ ‘The Birds’ per example, with McGuffins and the like, were readily accepted without the need for explanation. Stories are best when they reflect LIFE and LIFE often leaves MANY unanswered questions. The literary masterpiece JOB in Jewish culture, leaves you with MORE questions than answers at the end. The late great artist and writer famed Alex Toth (Space Ghost) lamented the fact many younger artists and writers of today LACK the skill and understanding to produce stories of old. The Watcher is simply ‘show don’t tell’; YOU the READER or THE WATCHER (forgive Pun! 😊) it is up TO YOU to figure the character OUT, just as you did the fate of David Bowman as the Star Child at the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey (for what it’s worth, my interpretation on the fate of David Bowman in the film, is the evolution of mankind from primal Ape intelligence to emergence as PURE THOUGHT, as every place Bowman saw himself he was already THERE! Until finally ‘the resurrection’).

People love to look for deeper meanings to fill in the gaps left by ambiguity, it makes for a powerful part of the story teller's arsenal, when used sparingly.

This is genuinely the first media of doctor who I've ever really seen, so if this is what doctor who is like... fuck

Loving the content bro keep it uo

Everyone knows the watcher was just Jimmy Carr before they finished putting on his final coat of paint 🤔🤣

I remember the episode where the doctor fell and died but bizzarly I don't remember the watcher

That's just Mr. Knight

The showrunner at the time of the 3rd Doctor was big into Buddhism and introduced many elements of that into the show. By the time of the 4th doctors regeneration I think the writers were just experimenting with making the process more 'mysterious'. That's always been my take on this. Personally I prefer your explanation, it makes way more sense. Excellent job.

I also always thought that the Watcher was why the Fifth Doctor was younger. He was an infusion of life force that caused the Doctor's new body to appear younger.

I have a fan theory. Before the 5th doctor regenerated in caves of androzani, he sees all his friends and the master around him. My theory is that before he became the sixth doctor, he astral projected himself through time and became the watcher. His appearance is a result of a bio perception filter effect, were he looks like he does because no one has seen him yet so he has no physical form. And with what was left of him, he warned 4, and protected Adric, Nyssa and Tegan before traveling with them, showing how far the 5th doctor will go to protect his friends.

The Watcher was "extracted" from between the 4th and 5th Doctors in order to go back and warn his past self about the momentous universe-shattering events to come. The Valeyard in the 1986 story with Colin Baker is similar, but an "extracted" evil version instead of a good one.

During the first 4 regenerations they all had different ways of changing the Doctor. The second said after his first regeneration it was part of the TARDIS. The next regeneration was forced by the Time Lords. Third was assisted Fourth was merged with his next incarnation. I think the Watcher told the Doctor who he was and prepare for the worst would be him sacrificing and regenerating. We don’t actually get a ‘natural’ regeneration until Davison

THANK YOU!! You’ve unlocked a core childhood memory with this video. For YEARS, I’ve been describing this character to people, and no one knows what I’m talking about. This is such a relief. Again, thank you!!

It's a future avatar. We already saw K’anpo Rimpoche had his future avatar, Cho-je. The Watcher may be less defined because of the entropy wave and circumstances of the 4th Doctor's demise. Why should a Time Lord only exist as a single space/time event? :)

I watched this a kid and found the watcher appearing mid regeneration really scary.

As a Fourth Doctor fan, I'm game for any analysis tied to this era, particularly T. Baker's final season, which I find highly underrated, including "Logopolis," with its sense of melancholy and wonder, and an excellent, moody soundtrack, particularly the Watcher's Theme. I frankly prefer these calmer, more introspective regenerations in the early years. The fire stuff from the recent series is all fine and good, but it just lacks anything substantial for reflection. Even Patrick Troughton's comedic delaying tactics before the Time Lords zapped him into Jon Pertwee were charming and whimsical.

I've always thought of the Watcher as an intermediate stage between Drs 4 & 5. A regeneration that will not happen if the Master succeeds in his plan. The fourth Drs 'death' is hinted at in Logopolis. The Master's Tardis (disguised as a grandfather clock), has the time of 4 minutes to midnight on it's clock face. 4 minutes equals 4 episodes.

Basically it’s a physical manifestation of the next regeneration cause the 80’s was an odd time for the show with the bbc actively sabotaging Colin baker’s regeneration to them nearly cancelling the show after the 22nd season for example

0:02 I miss the thinner Tardis. The bigger bulker ones for room for the internal lights etc doesnt look as good.

Visually The Watcher has strong hints of three world mythology tropes. 1. A Mummy 2. The Angel of Death 3. A Crysalis. Given the Time Lords are regenerating time travellers it's quite possible one incarnation could act as Angel of Death to themselves. Mummification is used by cultures that think the physical body needs preserving for reuse in the after life. The Crysalis is often used as a symbol of rebirth and transformation.

As a kid back in '81 seeing this character, he definitely gave me the creeps! & I just always assumed he was, as he literally appears to be at the end of Logopolis, the half-way stage between Doctors 4 & 5, who, in some kind of pre-destination paradox, must bring about the completion of his _own_ regeneration, also I think an interesting detail to note about the watcher are his hands, when we see him in close up operating the Tardis controls, he appears to have talons! And while I don't know if it was intentional, like a nod to the watcher or just a coincidence, but when the 9th Doctor is regenerating, for the briefest few seconds, his head does bare a resemblance to the 'unformed' features of the watcher that are not unlike his appearance in Logopolis, it's when his head is back, eyes still closed, just before the familiar hair of the 10th Doctor literally sprouts from his head & his features finally form properly...well maybe, see what you think, around the 2:30 - 2:33 mark - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-qa3NM9Jhkn0.html

It's hardly an unsolved mystery. Everyone knows The Watcher is the Doctor's future self, and that's been known for about 50 years

The Watcher was meant to have appeared because the Fourth Doctor was supposed to have regenerated earlier. I'm pretty sure that idea came from a Doctor Who magazine interview with Christopher H. Bibmead many many years ago. As for Kanpo Rimpoche and Cho-Je, the conversation he and the Doctor have is interesting - The Doctor stole a TARDIS because 'he didn't have his power', suggesting that Kanpo/Cho-Je did not require a TARDIS to get about. This would explain his appearance in the Doctor's lab at UNIT HQ at the end.

Thanks for this clarification. Ever since seeing this episode I had to come up with my own interpretation. I always thought the Watcher was the final regeneration past his thirteenth, since that's the limit of a Time lords regenerations. We saw how the Master deteriorated when he exceeded his limit and absorbed Tremas on Traaken, so I thought the Doctor must have exceeded his limit and instead of absorbing another person (because he would never do that) he fused with himself instead. That was my interpretation up till now.

I always figured this was the 4th Doctor from an alternate timeline in which he failed to save the universe because the situation in which he [would have] died he knew he wouldn't have regenerated, and so he hesitated. He then barely escaped back in time to tell his past self not to hesitate because if/when he falls, the two of them will merge, allowing him to regenerate after all.

Love this video - My pet fan theory is 'the Watcher' is perhaps a projection of the Doctor comprehending his impending regeneration manifesting in the Doctor's realty. His understanding of it. Anyway, I like the explanation in this video.

He’s easily the most iconic. He played the Doctor for seven years. The longest by far.

interesting! tho personally i take all tv stuff to be definitive canon and other stuff to be optional possibilities... idk, maybe the other media stuff happens in a parallel world or something. I feel like one day I'll come up with my own theory about the watcher, tho the explanation you provide is rly cool. I love how u call the valeyard a possible watcher too. that's genius

A Timelord maybe can create an alter-ego with some time like the Watcher, the Valeyard or the Dreamlord for the Doctor I guess... 🤔

Logopolis is the greatest example ever of something making no sense at all but working so well and being so great

Fabulous video and fabulous job explaining. I love how you used the evidence from Planet of the Spiders first, as it's what really explained it best initially. That is, beyond the wonderfully suggestive but still mysterious stuff in Logopolis. Worth remembering that Barry Letts co-wrote one story and then executive produced the next seven years later. And then the audios and novelization are lovely additions. And isn't Trial of the Valeyard fun (and great)?

It would have been a great idea if the final regeneration of the Doctor was the guy controlling things in the background -- you know, flying the TARDIS when he didn't have any control. He could have been the reason why the Doctor knows he'll survive. Also, I think they should have killed off the Doctor and replaced him with his son, or grandson, or his granddaughter Barbara's son kind of thing. Like, let him inherit the TARDIS. At any rate, the final regeneration of the Doctor should have been "the Watcher" to explain things like the Valeyard. Like maybe the Valeyard was the consequence of violating too many times rules, such as meeting himself too many times.

Never been convinced by Logopolis (especially ep 4) but the Watcher is a great idea and it's a shame it was never used again.

I love the watcher, he's so creepy.

Good description, I kind of saw the Watcher in much the same way as you described. There was also another Watcher of sorts in the Big Finish audio, "The Wormery" where Iris Wildthyme's Watcher/Valeyard is the antagonist (leading to some hilarious dialog from Colin Baker's Doctor about how Iris just keeps ripping him off). And also the Dream Lord in Matt Smith's era (who is more or less implied to be the Valeyard). The Doctor can't quite escape his dark shadow.

In Buddhism there is the idea of a ‘Tulpa,’ which is a projected other self, almost like an imaginary friend that has its own will and personality (David Lynch uses this idea a lot in Twin Peaks), and this would fit with the idea of the Watcher maybe?

To me, the Watcher was the Doctor's Death, in the same manner that Death was Orpheus's Death in orphic myths and modern reiterations. An avatar of the Doctor's future fifth incarnation and embodied regeneration cycle midlife crisis of sorts. We have to realise that, by the time of Fourth Doctor's incoming tenure, the Renegade Time Lord only had nine more regenerations left...

It's not his best but Logopolis is so good. I loved it because of all the TARDIS scenes in episode one, the Doctor and Adric seeming to walk through lots of TARDIS corridors.

Thanks for the video. It brought a lot of memories for a 14-year-old watching the Doctor Who Marathon. On public television out of New Hampshire. And I have passed the memories to my two sons. And my daughters and now my grandchildren love classic doctor who. They also love the Batman Animated Series too. And too bad Kevin Conroy has passed on. I wish they would have done an aminated 6 episode of Doctor Who/Justice League. Ending with Batman Beyond. Sven from the United States

Ok, so I don't know Jack about Dr. Who, but this caught my attention. Just the concept of a mysterious white figure standing and watching throughout the show sounds soooo cool

I know: He is the Who in Doctor Who. As a 5 year old kid I always wondered why everyone calls the Doctor "Doctor" when the series is called Doctor Who. What if the Doctor is Doctor and the Watcher is Who? And together they're Doctor Who. So, basically he is the Doctor, but only the part that isn't the Doctor. Maybe his regeneration energy.

Hello - new sub to your channel. Found you via a Reddit post asking for the watcher to be explained. I have never watched old-who and probably won’t, but I have spent way too long on the various wikis piecing together the canon for myself. This was hugely helpful. Please make a video on the valeyard!

There’s something really creepy about the way the watcher is sort of just in the backround

Love Tom Baker's expression upon seeing The Watcher.

Now imagine if they never explained this character, and had it just continue to show up in the background for the entire show?

Everyone asking Who’s the watcher? What’s the watcher? But no one ever asks How’s the watcher

Its a guy from 2023 trying to warn us, what doctor WHO will turn into

Probably it is related to the Watchers in the Book of Enoch, a group of angels that watch over the Earth.

Watchers have even appeared for other Time Lords as well. It’s like probability personified, a temporally paradoxical handshake, or a Kissogram from Death!

This story has intrigued me since I first saw it on PBS way back in 1981. Thank you for answering some questions I've had for decades. Excellent video.

It was Sam Beckett. He went back in time via the "Quantum Leap" program to help the Doctor regenerate. Unfortunately because the Doctor was not human, the Doctor's body rejected Sam's attempts to fuse his consciousness with the Doctor's body and stop the Master, and instead Sam appeared as a disembodied humanoid. In the end the Doctor recognised Sam, and together the Doctor accepted Sam, assimilated Sam into his body and helped the Doctor charge up regeneration energy, and regenerated into the Fifth. "Oh boy, I'm an alien."

The watcher was a body replacement for Tom (4th Doctor) as he was given a gift from the universe, after his time as the Doctor ended, his gift was to be the archivist/care taker of a trove of VERY powerful artifacts from points in space & time. You are given hints about this & are shown Tom, in that role, during the Zygote? Invasion of 20th century Earth. I think it was during the 10th or 11th Regeneration.

This must be where J.J. Abrahams got the idea for his various mystery characters with poorly thought out anticlimactic origin stories.

In hindsight, I wonder if this was a similar phenomenon to bigeneration. The future of the Doctor echoing back in time and affecting his present. Only it's not as intense as the synchronization the 14th and 15th Doctor went through, so it's more of a ghostly presence

The Watcher is actually David Tennant. 😉

I've always viewed the Watcher as the Doctor's version of putting a post-it-note on the fridge reminding him to buy milk -- except in reverse! There's a lot of in-story hints in _Logopolis_ that the Watcher is *a version* of the Doctor -- the Watcher is able to pilot the TARDIS (and does it better than the current incarnation, LOL), seems to know both Nyssa and Adric and even fetches Nyssa from Traken. Thematically the Watcher character is also a counterpoint to the decayed and emaciated version of the Master from the previous story who merges with a host body in almost the same way the Watcher does with the Doctor. The decayed Master is the past, clawing it's way into the present in any way it can (in _The Deadly Assassain_ he even says "only my hate keeps me alive") while the Watcher is a possible future manifesting itself by reminding the Doctor that a sacrifice has to be made in the present ("It's the end, but the moment has been prepared for").

my man you HAVE to change the pfp nad channel name to something less basic this is good content

ITS MOON KNIGHT

no way the image is from doctor who? bruh when i was young this image terrefied me and was used in german creepypasta and horror story channel

why the time lords had need a watcher for it is odd for the 4 DR who and seeing how his meeting his own new body too, why not seeing how it is be put into a new looking too, the 5 DR who,

Hey dwfan91 can you pls do gameplay videos pls and also there are some doctor who games

why did i click on this. havent watched doctor who in a decade at least, now its all im gonna be doing for the next couple weeks lol

It was "finally revealed" until the next time someone writes a Watcher story and changes it.

it is the watcher the 4 DR who had meeting 5 DR who is born when the 4 had end his own time line and the 5 DR who is born , when his body had to took on a new looks for him now,

I remember watching Logopolis, it seemed to make sense to me at the time. There is only one doctor. This is the true essence of each regeneration of our doctor. The religious analogy would be simply to say that the Watcher is soul of the doctor, which remains the same in each regeneration.

He's just standing There...Menacingly!

I first saw this when I was ten with my old man. As a child I didn'tunderstand who The Watcher was because they didn't really explain it, so I asked him. My old man didn't know either, but he *did* recognize that at that point in time Baker was the longest running doctor so he's all "A timelord doesn't get older on the outside like we do, but they age on the inside just like us and so only live about a hundred years or so before they die." At this point I stop my old man to point out that timelords can regenerate, so he's all like "Yes, but they change their bodies when they regenerate and have to do it *before* they die, so when they're about to die The Watcher comes out of them as a warning need to regenerate before they die. The Doctor could have gotten away because he's The Doctor and way smarter than The Master, but he allowed himself to fall and regenerate so The Watcher merged back into him just in case they're needed again in the future." The fact that we got shorter runs of subsequent doctors and I never really saw The Watcher again more or less "verified" the explanation in my childhood brain, The Doctor wasn't going to cut it so close and was choosing to regenerate early before the Watcher had to remind him to do it so he wouldn't die die.

I’m not familiar with Dr. Who, but I remember when I was a kid that image of the Watcher floating around in creepy Facebook and Instagram pages, supposedly the last photograph taken by a man before his murder in the ‘70’s. It used to creep me out so much so finding out it’s from Dr. Who, of all places, makes me feel so embarrassed. Why was I so gullible?? 😭😭😭

February 28th 1981... my first birthday.

Never watched doctor who but it looks like a man in a white shirt to me.

When they wrote and planned this I don't think they expected some 40+ years later we would be able to painstakingly analyst this frame by frame.

THIS is a construct of the Time Lords, sent out ahead of the 4th Doctor’s regeneration, to catch his incarnation during regeneration. As the 5th Doctor is sitting up beneath the radio telescope, the 4th Doctor was waking up in a London back alley, in a human body, ready to fight the monsters on earth for the rest of the 20th century. We met him in the 50th anniversary movie; as the Curator.

The watcher is a projection of the 5th Doctor in an embryonic state.

To be fair, having a Tulpa as a backup battery is a contingency plan I can definitely see The Doctor creating.

Maybe he was appalled at the state of Baker's TARDIS!

he was just wondering how someone can be that pale

Idk man I think that’s a famous Austrian painter

We first saw a watcher in planet of the spiders in the form of cho he a Buddhist monk,future incarnation of kanpo rinpoche.The valeyard is a watcher,created by the time lords,taken from between the doctors twelfth and thirteenth incarnations of his first regeneration cycle,so between doctors ten and eleven.The watcher we see in logopolis was subconsciously brought into being by the doctor who has known he was going to die for a long time prior to this story.He did not have the power to bring his future incarnation into full form unlike kanpo who gave cho he full form.

"It is the end, but the moment has been prepared for." "The Watcher, so he was the Doctor all the time."

The watcher looks at all the universes of course. Just watch What If

The Doctor’s conversation away from his companions with the watcher in Logopolis reminds me of the secret conversation Aslan had with the White Witch away from the Pevensie children right before Aslan’s slaughter and rebirth in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. It doesn’t make sense, but the mysteriousness of it all is fascinating.

If Chibnall was still around he's suggest and entire spin-off series based on the Watcher, making zero mystery remains, now that we know the completely biography of the Doctor who was just a little girl. Cause in the modern world: mystery is something writers hate.

Why are you explaining it? It was the Doctor all the time.

Great video. I'd love to know who the nightmare child from the time war is. It just sounded so evil. Logopolis was class great ending to his run .

I hope we get the watcher in ncutis season

I don’t even watch doctor who why am I here

He came to warn of the Chibnol Era

Scarier than all of the Doctor's enemies rolled into one!

I always interpreted it as the 4th doctor seeing his death on the horizon, I dont think the watcher is real but rather a premonition/apparition of the doctor's inevitable future. It doesnt make much more sense but I feel thats what the writers were going for.