Trickster

Tricksters were an archetypal mythical figure in many cultures.

On Deva Loka, "trickster" was the title of a jester of the Kinda, whose role was to defuse conflict through acrobatics and other antics. (TV: Kinda ^[+]Christopher Bailey, Doctor Who season 19 (BBC1, 1982).)

"Trickster-gods" were a particular archetype of deities with tricksterly attributes. (PROSE: Christmas on a Rational Planet ^[+]Lawrence Miles, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1996)., Canaries ^[+]Dave Rudden, The Wintertime Paradox (BBC, 2020)., etc.) According to one account, the Doctor's unearthly enemy the Toymaker was in fact the Chinese trickster-god No Cha. (PROSE: Christmas on a Rational Planet ^[+]Lawrence Miles, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1996).) The Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith also had run-ins with a member of the Pantheon of Discord who was simply known as the Trickster. (TV: Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? ^[+]Gareth Roberts, The Sarah Jane Adventures series 1 (CBBC, 2007)., etc.) The voices of Sibling Same and Sibling Different, two stranded survivors of a pre-Time-War cult which worshipped contradiction, reminded Anke Von Grisel of "trickster gods from an old myth". (PROSE: Canaries ^[+]Dave Rudden, The Wintertime Paradox (BBC, 2020).)

Some considered the Doctor an example of the archetype. Shortly after they met, Sabbath Dei pegged the Eighth Doctor as a "trickster" as well as a "monstrous egotist", "insane risk taker" and "manipulator". (PROSE: Camera Obscura ^[+]Lloyd Rose, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 2002).) When recalling the legend of the Pandorica, not having yet realised that its intended prisoner was none other than himself, the Eleventh Doctor described the figure meant to be imprisoned in the Pandorica as "a goblin, or a trickster, or a warrior… a nameless, terrible thing". An integral part of the legend was that "nothing could stop it, or hold it, or reason with it. One day it would just drop out of the sky and tear down your world". (TV: The Pandorica Opens ^[+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010).) On the other hand, in his speech to the Clerics in which he told them that the Doctor was a living breathing man, Colonel Manton said that the Doctor was not, among other things, a trickster. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War)

Furthermore, the "Trickster God" worshipped on Gendar was believed by Maxie Masters to be the same time traveller who gave Box to P.R.O.B.E., (PROSE: Out of the Box ^[+]Aristide Twain, Out of the Shadows (P.R.O.B.E., Arcbeatle Press, 2021).) one "Doctor Smith". (HOMEVID: When to Die ^[+]Bill Baggs, P.R.O.B.E. video stories (BBV Productions, 2015).)