Wellington Yueh
Encyclopedia
Dr. Wellington Yueh (ˈjuːiː; 10,082 A.G.-10,191 A.G.) is a fictional character
in the Dune universe
created by Frank Herbert
. He is primarily featured in the 1965 novel Dune
, but also appears in the Prelude to Dune
prequel
trilogy
(1999-2001) by Brian Herbert
and Kevin J. Anderson
. The character is brought back as a ghola in the Herbert/Anderson sequel
s which conclude the original series, Hunters of Dune
(2006) and Sandworms of Dune
(2007).
Yueh was played by Dean Stockwell
in David Lynch
's 1984 film Dune
. Robert Russell
portrayed the character in the 2000 Dune miniseries
.
of Giedi Prime
and the honorable House Atreides
of Caladan
. The Baron Vladimir Harkonnen
's intent to exterminate the Atreides line seems close to fruition as Duke Leto Atreides
is lured to the desert planet
Arrakis
on the pretext of taking over the valuable melange operation there. The Baron has an agent in the Atreides household: Leto's own physician, the trusted Suk doctor Wellington Yueh. Though Suk Imperial Conditioning supposedly makes the subject incapable of inflicting harm, the Baron's twisted Mentat
Piter De Vries
notes:
The Baron has taken Yueh's wife Wanna prisoner, threatening her with torture and death unless Yueh complies with his demands. Harkonnen also distracts Leto's Mentat Thufir Hawat
from discovering Yueh by guiding Hawat toward another suspect: Leto's Bene Gesserit
concubine
Lady Jessica. With Jessica herself eliminating suspects though her Bene Gesserit skills of observation and Truthsay, Hawat notes that testing Yueh in this way would be "an empty gesture ... He's conditioned by the High College. That I know for certain." Jessica also notes her knowledge that "[Yueh's] wife was a Bene Gesserit slain by the Harkonnens ... Haven't you heard the hate in his voice when he speaks the Harkonnen name?"
The Atreides are soon attacked by Harkonnen forces, and Yueh follows orders and disables the protective shields around the Atreides palace on Arrakis. Also as instructed, Yueh takes Leto prisoner; however, suspecting that the Baron has already killed Wanna, Yueh provides the captive Leto with a fake tooth filled with poisonous gas as a means to kill the Baron (though Leto would die as well).
Yueh discovers that Wanna is indeed dead moments before De Vries kills him, and Leto's poison-gas tooth only kills Leto and De Vries. Leto's son Paul Atreides
flees into the desert with his mother, Jessica, aided by survival kits left for them by Yueh. Both are presumed dead, but actually ally themselves with a community of the planet's native Fremen
.
In Hunters of Dune
(2006), Brian Herbert and Anderson's continuation of the original series, Yueh is resurrected as a ghola on the no-ship Ithaca (over 5,000 years after his death) to aid in the coming final battle with mankind's "great enemy." Renegade Bene Gesserit Sheeana's ghola program also includes new incarnations of Paul Atreides and Lady Jessica, among others. In Sandworms of Dune
, the 2007 sequel
to Hunters of Dune and finale of the original series, the young Yueh ghola is wracked by feelings of intense guilt over the actions of the "original" Yueh, and fears that he will repeat those mistakes. Though he does not yet possess these memories, he has read all of the histories, and reaches out to the Jessica ghola for forgiveness. Similarly without memories but fully aware of their past, a kind Jessica assures Yueh that it only matters what he choses to do in this current life.
A ghola's memories are restored by subjecting the ghola to an intense personal trauma, specific to each individual; Yueh's great fear of having his memories restored itself is the trigger to unlock them as Sheeana pretends to begin the process using sexual imprinting. Yueh recalls how Piter De Vries and Baron Harkonnen had broken the Suk conditioning by repeatedly forcing him to watch Wanna be systematically tortured and humiliated. An awakened Yueh curses the Sisterhood:
On the ship, a Tleilaxu Face Dancer in disguise manipulates Yueh into believing that an unidentified new ghola being created is that of Piter De Vries; horrified, a tormented Yueh poisons and kills it and the once-human axlotl tank in which it is gestating, knowing the consequences for his actions will be severe. Yueh admits his crime, expecting understanding though not forgiveness; all are shocked when Sheeana announces that the ghola had not been De Vries, but Leto Atreides I. Later, Yueh stabs and kills the ghola of the Baron Harkonnen. Eleven years later, Yueh lives on the original Atreides homeworld Caladan, helping Jessica restore it to its former glory.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
in the Dune universe
Dune universe
Dune is a science fiction franchise which originated with the 1965 novel Dune by Frank Herbert. Considered by many to be the greatest science fiction novel of all time, Dune is frequently cited as the best-selling science fiction novel in history...
created by Frank Herbert
Frank Herbert
Franklin Patrick Herbert, Jr. was a critically acclaimed and commercially successful American science fiction author. Although a short story author, he is best known for his novels, most notably Dune and its five sequels...
. He is primarily featured in the 1965 novel Dune
Dune (novel)
Dune is a science fiction novel written by Frank Herbert, published in 1965. It won the Hugo Award in 1966, and the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel...
, but also appears in the Prelude to Dune
Prelude to Dune
Prelude to Dune is a prequel trilogy of novels written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, set in Frank Herbert's Dune universe....
prequel
Prequel
A prequel is a work that supplements a previously completed one, and has an earlier time setting.The widely recognized term was a 20th-century neologism, and a portmanteau from pre- and sequel...
trilogy
Trilogy
A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected, and that can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, or video games...
(1999-2001) by Brian Herbert
Brian Herbert
Brian Patrick Herbert is an American author who lives in Washington state. He is the elder son of science fiction author Frank Herbert....
and Kevin J. Anderson
Kevin J. Anderson
Kevin J. Anderson is an American science fiction author with over forty bestsellers. He has written spin-off novels for Star Wars, StarCraft, Titan A.E., and The X-Files, and with Brian Herbert is the co-author of the Dune prequels...
. The character is brought back as a ghola in the Herbert/Anderson sequel
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
s which conclude the original series, Hunters of Dune
Hunters of Dune
Hunters of Dune is the first of two books written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson to conclude Frank Herbert's original Dune series of novels....
(2006) and Sandworms of Dune
Sandworms of Dune
Sandworms of Dune is the second of two novels written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson to conclude Frank Herbert's original Dune series of novels. They have stated that it is based on notes left behind by Frank Herbert for Dune 7, his own planned seventh novel in the Dune series...
(2007).
Yueh was played by Dean Stockwell
Dean Stockwell
Dean Stockwell is an American actor of film and television, with a career spanning over 65 years. As a child actor under contract to MGM he first came to the public's attention in films such as Anchors Aweigh and The Green Years; as a young adult he played a lead role in the 1957 Broadway and...
in David Lynch
David Lynch
David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...
's 1984 film Dune
Dune (film)
Dune is a 1984 science fiction film written and directed by David Lynch, based on the 1965 Frank Herbert novel of the same name. The film stars Kyle MacLachlan as Paul Atreides, and includes an ensemble of well-known American and European actors in supporting roles. It was filmed at the Churubusco...
. Robert Russell
Robert Russell (actor)
Robert Russell is an actor. He played Dr. Wellington Yueh in the Sci Fi Channel's 2000 miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune.-Selected filmography:*Doom - Dr. Carmack*Anne Frank: The Whole Story - Mr. Keesing...
portrayed the character in the 2000 Dune miniseries
Frank Herbert's Dune
Frank Herbert's Dune is a 2001 3D video game based on the 2000 Sci Fi Channel miniseries of the same name. The game was not a commercial or critical success, and was the last product by Cryo Interactive, which went bankrupt shortly after the game's failure.As Paul, the son of the Duke Atreides's...
.
Dune
As Dune begins, a longstanding feud exists between the decadent House HarkonnenHouse Harkonnen
House Harkonnen is a powerful noble family in Frank Herbert's fictional Dune universe. The Harkonnens are featured prominently in the original 1965 novel Dune, and are also a major presence in both the Prelude to Dune and Legends of Dune prequel trilogies by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson...
of Giedi Prime
Giedi Prime
Giedi Prime is a fictional planet in Frank Herbert's 1965 science fiction novel Dune. A planet of Ophiuchi B , it is the homeworld of the vicious House Harkonnen, the sworn enemies of House Atreides.-Description:...
and the honorable House Atreides
House Atreides
House Atreides is a fictional noble family from the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. One of the Great Houses of the feudal interstellar empire known as the Imperium, its members play a role in every novel in the series. It is suggested within the series that the root of the Atreides line...
of Caladan
Caladan
Caladan is a fictional planet in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert, first mentioned in the 1965 novel Dune.-Overview:Caladan, the third planet of Delta Pavonis, is the ancestral fiefdom of House Atreides, who have ruled it for twenty-six generations, from the ancient Castle Caladan...
. The Baron Vladimir Harkonnen
Vladimir Harkonnen
The Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is a fictional character from the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. He is primarily featured in the 1965 novel Dune, in which he is the secondary antagonist, and is also a major character in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson...
's intent to exterminate the Atreides line seems close to fruition as Duke Leto Atreides
Leto Atreides I
Duke Leto Atreides I is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. He features in the novel Dune by Frank Herbert and in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson....
is lured to the desert planet
Desert planet
A desert planet is a single-biome planet on which the climate is mostly desert, with little or no natural precipitation. Desert planets are known to exist; Mars is often considered a prime example. Indeed, many terrestrial planets would be considered desert planets by this definition...
Arrakis
Arrakis
Arrakis — informally known as Dune and later called Rakis — is a fictional desert planet featured in the Dune series of novels by Frank Herbert. Herbert's first novel in the series, 1965's Dune, is popularly considered one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time, and it is...
on the pretext of taking over the valuable melange operation there. The Baron has an agent in the Atreides household: Leto's own physician, the trusted Suk doctor Wellington Yueh. Though Suk Imperial Conditioning supposedly makes the subject incapable of inflicting harm, the Baron's twisted Mentat
Mentat
A Mentat is a profession or discipline in Frank Herbert's fictional Dune universe. Mentats are humans trained to mimic computers: human minds developed to staggering heights of cognitive and analytical ability.- Overview :...
Piter De Vries
Piter De Vries
Piter De Vries is a fictional character from the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. He is featured in 1965's Dune, the original novel in the science fiction series, as well as the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.In David Lynch's 1984 adaptation of the...
notes:
The Baron has taken Yueh's wife Wanna prisoner, threatening her with torture and death unless Yueh complies with his demands. Harkonnen also distracts Leto's Mentat Thufir Hawat
Thufir Hawat
Thufir Hawat is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. He is primarily featured in the 1965 novel Dune, but also appears in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson...
from discovering Yueh by guiding Hawat toward another suspect: Leto's Bene Gesserit
Bene Gesserit
The Bene Gesserit are a key social, religious, and political force in Frank Herbert's science fiction Dune universe. The group is described as an exclusive sisterhood whose members train their bodies and minds through years of physical and mental conditioning to obtain superhuman powers and...
concubine
Concubinage
Concubinage is the state of a woman or man in an ongoing, usually matrimonially oriented, relationship with somebody to whom they cannot be married, often because of a difference in social status or economic condition.-Concubinage:...
Lady Jessica. With Jessica herself eliminating suspects though her Bene Gesserit skills of observation and Truthsay, Hawat notes that testing Yueh in this way would be "an empty gesture ... He's conditioned by the High College. That I know for certain." Jessica also notes her knowledge that "[Yueh's] wife was a Bene Gesserit slain by the Harkonnens ... Haven't you heard the hate in his voice when he speaks the Harkonnen name?"
The Atreides are soon attacked by Harkonnen forces, and Yueh follows orders and disables the protective shields around the Atreides palace on Arrakis. Also as instructed, Yueh takes Leto prisoner; however, suspecting that the Baron has already killed Wanna, Yueh provides the captive Leto with a fake tooth filled with poisonous gas as a means to kill the Baron (though Leto would die as well).
Yueh discovers that Wanna is indeed dead moments before De Vries kills him, and Leto's poison-gas tooth only kills Leto and De Vries. Leto's son Paul Atreides
Paul Atreides
Paul Atreides is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. Paul is a prominent character in the first two novels in the series, Dune and Dune Messiah , and returns in Children of Dune . The character is brought back as two different gholas in the Brian Herbert/Kevin J...
flees into the desert with his mother, Jessica, aided by survival kits left for them by Yueh. Both are presumed dead, but actually ally themselves with a community of the planet's native Fremen
Fremen
The Fremen are a group of people in the fictional Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. First appearing in the 1965 novel Dune, the Fremen inhabit the desert planet Arrakis and are based on the desert-dwelling Bedouin and Kalahari Bushmen. In Herbert's novels, Arrakis is the sole known source...
.
Other works
In the Prelude to Dune prequel series (1999-2001) by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, a younger Baron Harkonnen consults with Yueh seeking a cure for the debilitating disease which is slowly but surely rendering him obese; Yueh is aware of no cure, but correctly suggests that the disease's source may be the Bene Gesserit. The early years of Yueh as the physician to House Atreides are also explored in the novels.In Hunters of Dune
Hunters of Dune
Hunters of Dune is the first of two books written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson to conclude Frank Herbert's original Dune series of novels....
(2006), Brian Herbert and Anderson's continuation of the original series, Yueh is resurrected as a ghola on the no-ship Ithaca (over 5,000 years after his death) to aid in the coming final battle with mankind's "great enemy." Renegade Bene Gesserit Sheeana's ghola program also includes new incarnations of Paul Atreides and Lady Jessica, among others. In Sandworms of Dune
Sandworms of Dune
Sandworms of Dune is the second of two novels written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson to conclude Frank Herbert's original Dune series of novels. They have stated that it is based on notes left behind by Frank Herbert for Dune 7, his own planned seventh novel in the Dune series...
, the 2007 sequel
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
to Hunters of Dune and finale of the original series, the young Yueh ghola is wracked by feelings of intense guilt over the actions of the "original" Yueh, and fears that he will repeat those mistakes. Though he does not yet possess these memories, he has read all of the histories, and reaches out to the Jessica ghola for forgiveness. Similarly without memories but fully aware of their past, a kind Jessica assures Yueh that it only matters what he choses to do in this current life.
A ghola's memories are restored by subjecting the ghola to an intense personal trauma, specific to each individual; Yueh's great fear of having his memories restored itself is the trigger to unlock them as Sheeana pretends to begin the process using sexual imprinting. Yueh recalls how Piter De Vries and Baron Harkonnen had broken the Suk conditioning by repeatedly forcing him to watch Wanna be systematically tortured and humiliated. An awakened Yueh curses the Sisterhood:
On the ship, a Tleilaxu Face Dancer in disguise manipulates Yueh into believing that an unidentified new ghola being created is that of Piter De Vries; horrified, a tormented Yueh poisons and kills it and the once-human axlotl tank in which it is gestating, knowing the consequences for his actions will be severe. Yueh admits his crime, expecting understanding though not forgiveness; all are shocked when Sheeana announces that the ghola had not been De Vries, but Leto Atreides I. Later, Yueh stabs and kills the ghola of the Baron Harkonnen. Eleven years later, Yueh lives on the original Atreides homeworld Caladan, helping Jessica restore it to its former glory.