Alternate counterparts of the
Time Lords

TheTime Lords, (TV:The War Games^[+]Loading...["[[The War Games (TV story)]]"]) occasionally rendered asTime-Lords, (COMIC:The Shape Shifter^[+]Loading...["The Shape Shifter (comic story)"], etc.) were inhabitants of the planetGallifrey, most famous for the creation and attempted monopolisation oftime travel technology. (COMIC:Time Bomb!^[+]Loading...["Time Bomb! (comic story)"],TV:The Time Warrior^[+]Loading...["The Time Warrior (TV story)"],PROSE:The Crystal Bucephalus^[+]Loading...["The Crystal Bucephalus (novel)"] et al.) They created and upheld theLaws of Time (TV:The Three Doctors^[+]Loading...["The Three Doctors (TV story)"],Attack of the Cybermen^[+]Loading...["Attack of the Cybermen (TV story)"]) afterestablishing theWeb of Time to keep the universe "rational". (TV:Once, Upon Time^[+]Loading...["Once, Upon Time (TV story)"],PROSE:So Vile a Sin^[+]Loading...["So Vile a Sin (novel)"],The Book of the War^[+]Loading...["The Book of the War (novel)"], et al.)

Time Lords weresensitive to timelines, being able to see "all that is, all that was, all that ever could be," (TV:The Parting of the Ways^[+]Loading...["The Parting of the Ways (TV story)"]) but also "what must not [be]". (TV:The Fires of Pompeii^[+]Loading...["The Fires of Pompeii (TV story)"]) They had an instinctive urge to stay away from events that wouldalways happen. (TV:The Waters of Mars^[+]Loading...["The Waters of Mars (TV story)"]) They were seen asimmortal, or nearly so, (TV:The War Games^[+]Loading...["The War Games (TV story)"],Last of the Time Lords^[+]Loading...["Last of the Time Lords (TV story)"]) partially due to their ability toregenerate. (TV:Planet of the Spiders^[+]Loading...["Planet of the Spiders (TV story)"]) They hada great place in the mythologies and cultures of other civilisations, being outright called "the Gods" by several species, including theMinyans (TV:Underworld^[+]Loading...["Underworld (TV story)"],COMIC:Omega^[+]Loading...["Omega (comic story)"]) and theGendar. (PROSE:Out of the Box^[+]Loading...["Out of the Box (short story)"])

Indeed, they were also known bymany other names, including but not limited to theGods orGods of the Fourth, (TV:Underworld^[+]Loading...["Underworld (TV story)"],WC:Death Comes to Time^[+]Loading...["Death Comes to Time (webcast)"], etc.) theGreat Houses and theirHomeworlders, (PROSE:The Book of the War^[+]Loading...["The Book of the War (novel)"], etc.) theArchitects, (PROSE:Golden Age^[+]Loading...["Golden Age (novel)"], etc.) theSun Builders, (PROSE:Going Once, Going Twice^[+]Loading...["Going Once, Going Twice (short story)"]) theSuperiors, (PROSE:A Bright White Crack^[+]Loading...["A Bright White Crack (short story)"]) and variations onarchons orArchons of Time. (PROSE:Crimes Against History^[+]Loading...["Crimes Against History (short story)"], etc.)

The ancient Time Lords were known to take part in battles and conflicts, often helping to hunt species known to be dangerous. One of the last of these wasa war against theGreat Vampires, which was so long and bloody that they turned against violence in general. (TV:State of Decay^[+]Loading...["State of Decay (TV story)"]) For at least part of their history, the Time Lords adhered to a strictpolicy of non-interference. (TV:The War Games^[+]Loading...["The War Games (TV story)"]) Despite their attempts to keep up an appearance of being uninterested in the affairs of others, they still sent discreet missions where other Time Lords would act on their behalf. (TV:Colony in Space^[+]Loading...["Colony in Space (TV story)"],The Two Doctors^[+]Loading...["The Two Doctors (TV story)"],Genesis of the Daleks^[+]Loading...["Genesis of the Daleks (TV story)"], et al.) On one occasion, theFourth Doctor was instructed tointercept thecreation of theDalek race, (TV:Genesis of the Daleks^[+]Loading...["Genesis of the Daleks (TV story)"]) a step which eventually led toa devastating Time War between the two species. (COMIC:Hunters of the Burning Stone^[+]Loading...["Hunters of the Burning Stone (comic story)"], et al.)

By the time of theSixth Doctor, the Time Lords were said to have reigned in "absolute power" for "ten million years", (TV:The Ultimate Foe^[+]Loading...["The Ultimate Foe (TV story)"],PROSE:"The Imperator Presidency"^[+]Part ofThe Book of the War,Loading...{"namedep":"The Imperator Presidency","1":"The Book of the War (novel)"}) a number "so round that many feel it must have been (…) a purely arbitrary figure chosen just to suggest 'a very long time'". (PROSE:"The Imperator Presidency"^[+]Part ofThe Book of the War,Loading...{"namedep":"The Imperator Presidency","1":"The Book of the War (novel)"}) During the final day of theTime War, it was claimed the history of the Time Lords spanned "a billion years". (TV:The End of Time^[+]Loading...["The End of Time (TV story)"])

History[[edit] |[edit source]]

Main article:Gallifreyan history

According to some accounts, anearlier race of Time Lords ruled overa previous universe which was destroyed right asthe Big Bang gave birth tothe Doctor's universe. A few of their numbers survived, including the military strategistYog-Sothoth and other beings such asNyarlathotep orCthulhu, fleeing into the new universe where they acquired godlike powers and were known as theGreat Old Ones. (PROSE:Millennial Rites,Divided Loyalties)

In the Doctor's universe, Time Lord civilisation was founded in theOld Time, byRassilon, (TV:The Deadly Assassin)Omega (TV:The Three Doctors) andan other, (PROSE:Remembrance of the Daleks) after theoverthrow ofthe Pythia. (PROSE:Cat’s Cradle: Time’s Crucible) According to one account, throughTecteun's experiments on theTimeless Child, the Time Lords gained the ability toregenerate. (TV:The Timeless Children) In theanchoring of the thread, the Time Lords imposed rationality on the universe and created theWeb of Time, (PROSE:Christmas on a Rational Planet,The Book of the War,AUDIO:Neverland) controlling time through theMouri in theTemple of Atropos. (TV:Once, Upon Time). Other accounts claimed that regeneration was discovered by Rassilon through his exposure to the Eye of Harmony, and he in turn granted it to his people, making them the Time Lords. (PROSE:The Legacy of Gallifrey)

The ancient Time Lords fought theEternal War, (TV:State of Decay,PROSE:The Pit)Racnoss Wars (AUDIO:Empire of the Racnoss) and theTime Wars. (COMIC:4-D War,Black Sun Rising,PROSE:Sky Pirates!,River of Time,AUDIO:Enemy Lines) Rassilon also led the Time Lords against theRavenous, killing most of the species but sparing one family to maintain the moral high ground, (AUDIO:Deeptime Frontier) and oversaw theAlliance of Races's campaigns against theHyperions andCybock Imperium. (COMIC:Terrorformer,Gangland)

The Time Lords held absolute power for some ten million years. (TV:The Ultimate Foe,PROSE:The Book of the War) They adopteda strict policy whereby they would only observe the events of the wider universe and never become involved. (TV:Underworld) In spite of this two secret Time Lord organisations,the Division andCelestial Intervention Agency, were known to exist to interfere in the cosmos when deemed necessary. (TV:The Deadly Assassin,The Timeless Children) Their eons of stability were threatened by the rise of the Imperator, (PROSE:The Book of the War)Morbius, who was eventually overthrown and finally defeated on the planetKarn following acivil war. (TV:The Brain of Morbius,PROSE:Warmonger)

The Time Lords faced numerous crises during the Doctor's era. One account claimed the Doctor departed Gallifrey after a failed revolution. (PROSE:Birth of a Renegade) After the Doctor wastried andexiled, (TV:The War Games) the Time Lords faced acrisis when their power was drained byOmega forcing them to rely on three incarnations of the Doctor to save them, after which they restored his freedom. (TV:The Three Doctors) Greater crises followed withGoth's assassination of the President andthe Decayed Master's subsequent attempt to use theEye of Harmony which destroyed half the Capitol, (TV:The Deadly Assassin) aninvasion by theVardans andSontarans, (TV:The Invasion of Time) theCrisis of Gin-Seng, (AUDIO:Erasure) asecond manifestation of Omega (TV:Arc of Infinity) and PresidentBorusa's plot to claim immortality. (TV:The Five Doctors) Finally the High Council's cover-up of a theft from the Matrix byrelocating Earth and subsequenttrial of the Doctor for discovering this injustice triggered a revolution on Gallifrey. (TV:The Ultimate Foe)

AfterRomana became President, the Time Lords began to be more involved in the wider cosmos, resolving the rift with theSisterhood of Karn, (PROSE:Lungbarrow) forming an alliance known as theTemporal Powers (AUDIO:Weapon of Choice) and allowing non-Gallifreyans to study at the Academy. (AUDIO:Lies) During this time, the Time Lords were attacked by the Daleks, (AUDIO:The Apocalypse Element)anti-time, (AUDIO:Neverland,Zagreus) andFree Time. (AUDIO:Weapon of Choice,Insurgency) ThePandora entity escaped the Matrix, seizing power as theImperiatrix. This caused acivil war on Gallifrey, (AUDIO:Imperiatrix,Fractures) which Romana eventually prevailed in. (AUDIO:Warfare) In the aftermathMatthias became President, (AUDIO:Appropriation,Mindbomb) however his era was short-lived due to theDogma Virus pandemic. (AUDIO:Panacea) After curing the virus and stopping the Daleks, who had been sponsoring Free Time and created the virus to enable them to invade Gallifrey, Romana was restored as President. (AUDIO:Ascension)

In herthird incarnation, President Romana faced a third manifestation of Omega (AUDIO:Intervention Earth) and began preparing the Time Lords for theWar in Heaven. (PROSE:The Shadows of Avalon) This started a series of events leading to aninvasion of Gallifrey byFaction Paradox at the moment of the war’s beginning. To stop them, the Doctor destroyed Gallifrey, (PROSE:The Ancestor Cell) though he preserved the Time Lords by downloading all their minds from the Matrix into his own mind. (PROSE:The Gallifrey Chronicles) In thepost-War universe, the Time Lords appeared to have been completely wiped fromhistory. (PROSE:The Adventuress of Henrietta Street) Despite this, there still existedfour remaining Time Lords. (PROSE:The Adventuress of Henrietta Street,Trading Futures,The Gallifrey Chronicles) The Time Lords were eventually restored to existence. (PROSE:The Tomorrow Windows)

The existence of Romana's third incarnation was erased byBraxiatel who changed history to stop her second regeneration, claiming to be averting a future war on her future self’s orders, and had her resign the presidency forLivia. This new timeline was stabilised bythe Watchmaker. (AUDIO:Enemy Lines) UnderLivia's presidency, the Time Lords began theLast Great Time War against theDaleks, (AUDIO:Celestial Intervention) during which theWar Council resurrectedRassilon to rule Gallifrey again asLord President Eternal. (AUDIO:Desperate Measures) Creating a new regime, Rassilon took a much harsher stance in conducting the Time War, proclaiming those who refused to join the Time Lords’ cause were enemies of Gallifrey and arranging the erasure of the planetYsalus as an example. (AUDIO:Havoc,Collateral) Romana attempted to assassinate him using theSicari incursions, however only succeeded in forcing him to regenerate. (AUDIO:Assassins) Hisnew incarnation became fixated on the idea of the Time Lords ascending to higher dimensions, and largely left running of the war effort to the War Council. (AUDIO:Homecoming,The Last Days of Freme) After centuries of conflict across time and space that ravaged the whole universe, the Time War culminated in theFall of Gallifrey in which it appeared, and was assumed bythe Doctor for a time, that the Time Lords were all but wiped out along with the Daleks. (TV:The End of the World,The End of Time) However, intervention by thirteen incarnations of the Doctor had actually placed the Time Lords in apocket universe. (TV:The Day of the Doctor)

Readily able to leave the pocket universe but unable to confirm which reality wasN-Space, the Time Lords took control of atime field in a nearby universe, through which they broadcastedthe Question from the planetTrenzalore, hoping that the Doctor would hear their call and confirm that it was safe to return. (PROSE:A Brief History of Time Lords) This resulted in theSiege of Trenzalore, the Doctor spending the next nine centuries defending the Time Lords from theNew Dalek Paradigm threatening to cause a new time war. At the behest ofClara Oswald, the Time Lords saved the Doctor from what would have been his thirteenth and final death by granting him a new cycle ofregenerations. (TV:The Time of the Doctor) Confirming that he'd found the right universe, Rassilon returned Gallifrey to N-Space but moved it to theend of the universe for protection, at the same time locking theTwelfth Doctor in hisconfession dial to learn aboutthe Hybrid. The Doctor eventually escaped,overthrew Rassilon, and used Time Lord technology to save Clara Oswald before fleeing Gallifrey once more inanother stolen TARDIS. (TV:Hell Bent)

The Time Lords were finally wiped out bythe Spy Master, who devastated Gallifrey after learning the secret of theTimeless Child. (TV:Spyfall) TheFifteenth Doctor believed this genocide against the Time Lords went beyond Gallifrey itself, suspecting his granddaughterSusan may have been fallen victim to it. (TV:The Devil’s Chord) The Master later usedCyber-technology to make theCyberMasters out of his people's corpses. (TV:The Timeless Children) The Division still existed in secret however and embarked on a plan to destroy the universe, releasingthe Flux in space and twoRavagers in time, planning to move on tothe next one. (TV:Survivors of the Flux) The CyberMasters served the Master duringhis plan to seize the Doctor’s body and identity throughforced regeneration, with their regeneration energy being exploited byYasmin Khan and theHolo-Doctor to power adegeneration to restore the Doctor. (TV:The Power of the Doctor)

Life cycle[[edit] |[edit source]]

Main article:Gallifreyan physiology

TheEleventh Doctor once said to a group ofhumans, "We were all jelly once. Little jelly eggs, sitting in goop", indicating that Gallifreyans began as ova similar toEarth mammals. (TV:The Rebel Flesh) Time Lords could also be born from individual FamilyLooms, machines that operated on genetic banks that would weave random patterns until forming a new person. (PROSE:Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible,Cold Fusion,Lungbarrow) According to some accounts, the commonness of Looms rendered traditional family units redundant for Time Lords; by the time the Doctor and Susan left Gallifrey,QuadriggerStoyn claimed that "no one [had] grandfathers". (AUDIO:The Beginning)

Provost-MajorBeltempest listed Time Lords separately when he said: "My Time Lords, ladies, gentlemen, and those of indeterminate gender". (PROSE:Happy Endings) Female Time Lords were also referred to as Time Ladies, althoughthe Master's first female incarnationMissy referred to the term as "old-fashioned". (TV:City of Death,Dark Water)Biological sex andgender could change from oneregeneration to another. (TV:The Doctor's Wife,Dark Water,Hell Bent,Twice Upon a Time, et al.)

Biological sex is flexible among my people, andgender is merely a social construct.Thirteenth Doctor^{[A Little Help from My Friends (comic story) [src]]}

Young Gallifreyans were known asTime Tots, (PROSE:Big Bang Generation,AUDIO:Trial of the Valeyard,COMIC:Weapons of Past Destruction,WC:Shada) loomlings, (PROSE:Unnatural History) or children. (PROSE:Of the City of the Saved...,Against Nature) Some Time Tots were loomed. (PROSE:Apocrypha Bipedium) In many cases, their life cycle seemed to include a phase similar to human childhood. Like human children, Gallifreyan children slept in cribs. (TV:A Good Man Goes to War) Children were entertained with nursery rhymes (TV:The Five Doctors,AUDIO:Zagreus) and stories such asSnow White and the Seven Keys to Doomsday. (TV:Night Terrors,PROSE:Snow White and the Seven Keys to Doomsday) There were specialised books for Gallifreyan children, includingEvery Gallifreyan Child's Pop-Up Book of Nasty Creatures From Other Dimensions. (AUDIO:Shada,WC:Shada,PROSE:Shada) Many Time Lords were once physically children and at least some lived in homes with others of their own gender before going off to join the Academy or the army. (TV:The Sound of Drums,Listen) Many Time Lords wereloomed as full grown adults. (PROSE:Lungbarrow,Against Nature)

TheTenth Doctor considered himself a "kid" at 90, (TV:The Stolen Earth) but after the age of two hundred years, theThird Doctor no longer saw himself as young anymore, (TV:The Time Warrior) although 200 year old Time Lords were considered "boys" and referred to asJunior Time Lords. (PROSE:The Three Doctors) They could live for hundreds of years beforeregenerating. (TV:The Tomb of the Cybermen)Handrel claimed that Time Lords could live around ten thousand years before regenerating. (PROSE:The Time Lord's Story) TheEleventh Doctor physically lived for at least 1,200 years before having to regenerate, resulting in an advanced physical age. However, this was partially due to the fact that for 900 of those years, he was under extreme stress, as well as him no longer being able to regenerate and so his incarnation continued past the point where age would have required him to regenerate. Notably, by the end of that incarnation, he was dying of old age and when he was granted the ability to regenerate once more, he immediately started to do so. (TV:The Time of the Doctor)

Time Lords, once they had reached old age, were allowed to leaveGallifrey andretire on another planet. This was very rarely done;Chronotis was the only person known to take up the offer. (PROSE:Shada)

According toMissy, a Time Lord was supposed to face death by meditation: repentance, acceptance and contemplation of the absolute (TV:The Magician's Apprentice) while in an earlier incarnation,the Master commented that Time Lords should face death with dignity. (TV:Terror of the Autons)

Time Lords had some control over their own deaths, some would elect a specific "Death-Day," which would allow them time to read their will to their family in their ancestral home, to die after a time of contemplation and acceptance, and then to have their mind transferred to the Matrix. (PROSE:Lungbarrow)

When a Time Lord eventually died with their regenerations exhausted, they could release one last burst of regeneration energy which would see their last body vanish, leaving only the clothing they had been wearing. (PROSE:Shada) Accordingly, in thealternate timeline where he died onTrenzalore,the Doctor'stomb did not contain a body (which the Doctor said would have been "boring"), but rather an embodiment of the deceased'stime stream. (TV:The Name of the Doctor) However, one had to will this to happen prior to death, (PROSE:Shada) and if a Time Lord's death did leave behind a body, it was considered necessary to destroy their corpse soon afterwards. This was because, by harvesting the body, one could gain the ability to regenerate and cheat death.River Song claimed many were prepared to go to war to obtain even a single Time Lord cell. (TV:Last of the Time Lords,The Impossible Astronaut,PROSE:Shada)

Once they had died, a Time Lord's mind and experiences were usually uploaded tothe Matrix onGallifrey. (TV:The Deadly Assassin) Though usually confined to this virtual world, some of the deceased Time Lords would again walk the material plane in the form of the mechanicalCloister Wraiths, (TV:Hell Bent) and although Time Lords were connected to the Matrix throughout their lives, (AUDIO:Pandora) the Time Lords also had a rite calledSoul Catching, which was done to dying Time Lords before they were assimilated intothe Matrix. This allowed them to assimilate their memories before they died. (PROSE:The Devil Goblins from Neptune,TV:Hell Bent)

Culture[[edit] |[edit source]]

Overview[[edit] |[edit source]]

TheEighth Doctor once remarked that half of the Time Lords were "crazy or corrupt," while the other half were "duller than you could possibly imagine." (AUDIO:Terror Firma) He also stated that Time Lords were a ratherconservative bunch and did not like change, with the minds of deceased Time Lords inthe Matrix (AUDIO:Neverland) — theMatrix Lords (PROSE:The Legacy of Gallifrey) — somehow even more conservative and dismissive. (AUDIO:Neverland)BrotherLassar of theKrillitane remembered the Time Lords as a "pompous race", calling them "ancient, dusty senators", who were incredibly scared of "change and chaos". (TV:School Reunion) TheFisher King called the Time Lords "cowardly, vain curators". (TV:Before the Flood)

The Eighth Doctor feared it was his inevitable fate to end up just like the rest of his kind, claiming "the chances were" he would end up "old and alone" on a path back home to "gather dust" with the rest of his people. (AUDIO:Terror Firma) TheEleventh Doctor believed he was on a path back home but saw it in a positive light, (TV:The Day of the Doctor) whileTwelfth Doctor decided to quickly leave Gallifrey on a stolen TARDIS after finding it again. (TV:Hell Bent) While he wrote off the Time Lords as "peaceful to the point of indolence", Lassar called theTenth Doctor "something new". (TV:School Reunion)

The Time Lords changed into a war-like race during theLast Great Time War, withRassilon even leading his people in an effort to wipe out the rest ofcreation to save themselves. (TV:The End of Time)

During theLast Great Time War, Gallifrey experienced a major cultural change with a focus on war. The Fisher King stated the Time Lords "suddenly remembered they had teeth," (TV:Before the Flood) while theTenth Doctor reflected his people were "changed" by the "endless war." (TV:The End of Time) Their change was so great that they were just as bloodthirsty as theDaleks in battle. (TV:The Night of the Doctor,PROSE:The Day of the Doctor) Amid thefinal siege of Gallifrey, (PROSE:The Whoniverse) theHigh Council of the Time Lords even approved theUltimate Sanction, which would have seen the rest ofcreation destroyed. (TV:The End of Time)

Art[[edit] |[edit source]]

Time Lords appreciated music, as indicated by such artefacts as theHarp of Rassilon. (TV:The Five Doctors) They also appreciated art, although painting on Gallifrey was done bycomputer. (TV:City of Death) Time Lord art, known asstasis cubes, were unique in that they were in3D, as they acted as snapshots of a single moment in time. This meant that they could be used as rudimentary time travel, by freezing a person inside a painting and then letting them out at the required point in time. (TV:The Day of the Doctor)

By the time of the Doctor thePatrexes Chapter specialised in art and aesthetics. (PROSE:Damaged Goods)

Education[[edit] |[edit source]]

One of the major institutions of the Time Lords was theTime Lord Academy. It was split up into Chapters, each of which was identified by its distinctive colours. (TV:The Deadly Assassin) The subjects at the academy ranged from the study ofcosmic science (TV:Terror of the Autons) to Veteran and Vintage Vehicles (TV:The Pirate Planet) toGallifreyanflutterwings. (TV:The Pirate Planet)

TheUntempered Schism into which all Academy initiates were forced to look into. (TV:The Sound of Drums)

Children began instruction at theTime Lord Academy, at the age of 8, in a special ceremony. The Gallifreyans would be forced to look into theUntempered Schism, which showed the entirety of theTime Vortex and the power that the Time Lords had. The Gallifreyans subjected to its terrifying effects would react differently: "Some would be inspired, some would run away, and some would go mad." (TV:The Sound of Drums) They would then spend "centuries" studying at the Academy. (COMIC:Mortal Beloved)

Time Lords took a variety of classes at theTime Lord Academy of which one was recreational mathematics, which included the study ofHappy prime numbers. (TV:42)

For reasons unknown to Time Lords, amammoth that fell on and killed aCro-Magnon became afixed point. Videos of the event were played for young Time Lords "as a sort of learning experience." (PROSE:Keeping up with the Joneses)

Immediately after being doused with roentgen radiation, theTenth Doctor toldMartha Jones that he used to play with roentgen bricks in the nursery. (TV:Smith and Jones)

Food and sustenance[[edit] |[edit source]]

Gallifreyan physiology provided for a diet similar to the human one (TV:The Keys of Marinus,Boom Town,The Eleventh Hour), includingfruit and flesh, but the Time Lords had long lost the habit of feeding with raw or complex food by the time of the presidency of theFourth Doctor. Freeze-driedpills were employed instead. (TV:The Invasion of Time) Fruit and meat would be eaten on formal occasions, such as holidays, Name Days of Family and Death Days. Such food includedfish,Trumpberries,Magenta Fruits andPig Rats. (PROSE:Lungbarrow) A Time Lord's tastes - similar to their appearance and mannerisms - were greatly influenced by their regeneration, altering which food and drink they preferred and even which ones they could no longer tolerate. (TV:The Eleventh Hour,The Impossible Astronaut) With an enhanced sense of one's internal state and advanced knowledge of chemistry, a Time Lord could - via smell and taste - identify chemical substances and even what chemicals were needed in the body to alter a physical condition. (TV:The Christmas Invasion,The Unicorn and the Wasp)

Dress[[edit] |[edit source]]

ATime Lord wearing robes at theUntempered Schism. (TV:The Sound of Drums)

At events like the resignation of a Lord President, Time Lords who attended wore long robes in bright colours. The different colours signified the Chapter that each Time Lord belonged to:Prydonians wore robes of scarlet and orange;Arcalians wore green;Patrexes wore heliotrope;Scendeles robes changed from light pink to a darker shade of red;Dromeians wore grey, black and silver; andCeruleans wore subdued blue colours. (TV:The Deadly Assassin,PROSE:Lungbarrow,The Ancestor Cell) In addition, most high-ranking Time Lords donned a decorative headdress and crest, complete with a scarlet cap. (TV:The Deadly Assassin) The Tenth Doctor claimed his people had once worn these robes when going into battle, but by his era they were purely ceremonial. (PROSE:The Knight, The Fool and The Dead)A Time Lord historian speculated that, while the elaborate robes had originally been meant for grand occasions, Rassilon's obfuscated legacy had caused their meaning to be lost and they had become everyday dress. (PROSE:A Brief History of Time Lords)

The ceremonial dress of the Gods of Minyos. (COMIC:Omega)

During the time when the Time Lords acted as the interventionist Gods ofMinyos, early in their history, (TV:Underworld) they wore golden robes with fine crystalline, organic-looking ornaments, most strikingly on their headdressess. (COMIC:Omega)

In the Time War, Gallifreyan residents of theCapitol andArcadia, including children and the military, wore red clothes. This was mimicked in the scarlet dress of military and government officers. (TV:The Day of the Doctor,The End of Time)

The Doctor repeatedly stated that he disliked Time Lords' hats, calling them "funny" (TV:Time Crash) and "dreadful". He also said that Time Lords had "no dress sense" (TV:Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS) and considered them a "stiff-necked lot" (AUDIO:Living Legend)

Of those Time Lords seen repeatedly visiting other worlds, such asthe Doctor andRomana, they tended to adopt the local dress of their preferred destination - in the Doctor's case, that ofEarth - that mixed well with the locals, though Romana adopted the same largely to mimic him. (TV:Destiny of the Daleks)

During and after theWar in Heaven, Time Lord dress appeared to hold significant ritualistic value. Agents ofthe Enemy, or possibly even the Enemy themselves, wore Time Lord regalia in parody of their adversaries. (PROSE:Alien Bodies) In thePost-War universe, theOnihr treated the collars, skullcaps, and robes as relics necessary to achieve mastery of time. (PROSE:Trading Futures) Mysterious alien creatures inMestizer's manor dressed in the collars and robes when she planned to usethe Doctor'sCabinet of Light. (PROSE:The Cabinet of Light)

Romance[[edit] |[edit source]]

Due to the fact that a Time Lord could unwillingly swap genders with regeneration, the Time Lords were less concerned about gender roles, despite still calling themselves Lords. (TV:World Enough and Time) Missy once explained that Time Lords were not like animals which were obsessed with sex and mating. (TV:The Magician's Apprentice) TheTwelfth Doctor admitted he had a "man crush" on the Master back during their academy days because of how wonderful he was. (TV:World Enough and Time)

Politics[[edit] |[edit source]]

Overview[[edit] |[edit source]]

TheSixth Doctor once lambasted his people for their corruption. In his speech, he declared that their "ten million years of absolute power" made Time Lord society into one that was "decadent, degenerate and rotten to the core". (TV:The Ultimate Foe)

Domain[[edit] |[edit source]]

The Time Lords ruled from the planetGallifrey, where they would watch the workings of theuniverse. (TV:The Sound of Drums) Though they once hada mighty empire during theDark Times, the empire collapsed after the fall of thePythia. (PROSE:Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible)

Time Lords were originally flexible about manipulating the outcome of certain moments in history. However, they eventually came to fear the consequences of their meddling, noticing how dangerously a change to time could backfire. It became clear that the race had been too reckless when the Time Lords helped theMinyans evolve faster, but found the results disastrous; this led to their non-interference policy. (TV:Underworld)

DuringRomana’s presidencyGryben, a planet used by theTemporal Powers as an enclave for unauthorised time travellers, was Gallifreyan territory. (AUDIO:Weapon of Choice)

During the Last Great Time War, their domain was referred to as anempire, (PROSE:A Brief History of Time Lords) and the Time Lords were known to annex other planets in pursuit of the war effort. (AUDIO:All Hands on Deck,The Lords of Terror)

The Time Lords were said to have control over much of the structure ofthe universe. They had set up theWeb of Time (AUDIO:Neverland) and controlled the entireSpiral Politic, up until the edge of theirnoosphere at thefrontier in time. (PROSE:The Book of the War) They fixedparadoxes (TV:Father's Day) and allowed travel betweenparallel universes. (TV:Rise of the Cybermen) After the near-extinction of the Time Lords during theLast Great Time War, these processes were in flux. (TV:Father's Day,Rise of the Cybermen)

Government[[edit] |[edit source]]

PresidentRassilon addresses the High Council. (TV:The End of Time)

The Time Lords were led by theHigh Council. The Council consisted of theLord or Lady President, theLord or Lady Chancellor (orHigh Chancellor), theCastellan andLords Cardinal. (TV:The Deadly Assassin) Collectively, the Lord President and his or her closest associates from theruling Houses were called "the Presidency". (PROSE:The Book of the War)

The "three most superior Time Lords" held the title ofFirst Time Lord,Second Time Lord andThird Time Lord, (PROSE:Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon) with these three most powerful members of the High Council being known as "theInner Council". The Lord President was the most powerful member of the Council and had near absolute authority, and used a link tothe Matrix, a vastcomputer network containing the knowledge and experiences of all past generations of Time Lords, to set Time Lord policy and remain alert to potential threats from lesser civilisations. (PROSE:The Infinity Doctors) TheLord or Lady Chancellor was next in power and handled many of the government functions. TheCastellan controlled theChancellery Guard and therefore the safety of Gallifrey. (TV:The Deadly Assassin)

The rest of the High Council was made up of theLords Cardinal, which represented the various Gallifreyan Chapters. (TV:The Deadly Assassin) There was at least one Cardinal Prime. (AUDIO:Songs of Love)

During theLast Great Time War,the Visionary was also a member of the council. She acted as a prophet, recording the future, but only with vague predictions written on paper. (TV:The End of Time)

During theWar in Heaven, theWar Council seemingly replaced the High Council, debating plans forHouse Military advances under the supervision ofthe War King. (AUDIO:Body Politic) In the Last Great Time War, the War Council, also known as Gallifrey High Command, were a separate entity from the High Council;the General ignored the High Council'splans to save Gallifrey. They also possessed the ability to give "all thirteen" Doctors the go-ahead to freeze Gallifrey in apocket universe. (TV:The Day of the Doctor)

During theWar in Heaven, Gallifreyan civil servants were all equipped with a psychic tripwire to prevent them from revealing confidential information. Should any of this information be revealed, the tripwire was triggered leading to the civil servant suffering psychic seizure leading to eventual death. (PROSE:Alien Bodies)

The Saxon Master claimed that if theTenth Doctor killedRassilon, the Lord President at the time, he would become Lord President himself. (TV:The End of Time) When theTwelfth Doctor lateroverthrew Rassilon with the help of Gallifrey's military, he did indeed become Lord President. As Lord President, he had the power to banish both Rassilon and the High Council despite the High Council's status on Gallifrey. (TV:Hell Bent)

Justice[[edit] |[edit source]]

TheSixth Doctor'strial before the Time Lords. (TV:Terror of the Vervoids)

The protection of the Time Lords was carried out by theChancellery Guard. They protected theCapitol, investigated crimes and captured criminals. (TV:The Deadly Assassin) More secretive or questionable matters were handled by theCelestial Intervention Agency, which was created to be a covert arm of theHigh Council to safeguard the Time Lords' interests. (TV:Shada) Much of what they did went against the officialnon-interference policy, leading them to use agents such asthe Doctor, an unofficial practitioner of the unofficial Gallifreyan policy, whose connection to Gallifrey's rulers could be reasonably doubted. (PROSE:A Brief History of Time Lords)

Tens of thousands of years before the Doctor's time, criminals were trapped inShada, with the intent being that they would be kept there until a suitable punishment could be decided. By the Doctor's time, this method had been phased out and replaced with disintegration. (PROSE:Shada)Morbius was executedthis way, but managed to survive as just a brain. (TV:The Brain of Morbius)

There were two forms of illegal intervention, both punishable byvaporisation. A Class One was affecting the material properties of a planet, such as axial rotation. A Class Two was when a Time Lord claimed themselves to be agod on a planet. (AUDIO:False Gods)

There were a number of punishments known to be issued by the Time Lords:

• The Spy Master recalledforced regeneration was a punishment for severe crimes. (TV:The Power of the Doctor) For his breaking of thenon-interference policy, theSecond Doctor was forced to regenerate. (TV:The War Games)
• The Time Lords were known to exile criminals. The second part of the Second Doctor's sentence wasexile toEarth with a non-functioningTARDIS. (TV:The War Games) CardinalMagos was banished from Gallifrey following his experiments attempting to revive the dead. (AUDIO:The Castle of Kurnos 5)
• The removal of any remaining regenerations a Time Lord possessed was the sentence for committing genocide. (TV:Terror of the Vervoids,The Ultimate Foe)
• The Time Lords were known to execute criminals by vaporisation. (TV:The Deadly Assassin) Afterthe Imperator led his army of followers and mercenaries on a crusade against hundreds of cultures around theSpiral Politic, he was tried and publicly executed. (PROSE:The Book of the War) One account held the Second Doctor had initially been sentenced to death for his breach of the non-interference policy, (PROSE:World Game) and the Fourth Doctor was threatened with vaporisation whilst accused of assassinating the President. (TV:The Deadly Assassin) An attempted execution was actually carried out on the Fifth Doctor following aWarrant of Termination being issued by the High Council to preventOmega's return, however he was secretly moved to safety inthe Matrix. (TV:Arc of Infinity) TheUnbound Doctor later went through a similar scenario after being tried for existing in the wrong universe. (AUDIO:Gallifrey)
• The Time Lords could erase a subject from existence entirely. For the countless crimesthe Master committed, his punishment would have been the reversal of his time stream, such that he had never existed. (PROSE:Doctor Who and the Terror of the Autons) A similar punishment was carried out onthe War Lord for his interference in human history which led to the deaths of thousands; he (and several of his guards) were dematerialised out of existence. TheWar Lord home planet had aforce field placed around it. (TV:The War Games) Similarly theImperiatrixPandora was executed in such a way she’d never existed. (AUDIO:Lies) TheOubliette of Eternity was used to erase criminals from time, though unbeknownst to the Time Lords its victims actually becameNeverpeople. (AUDIO:Neverland) A similar device capable of erasing the target from existence, theSword of Never, was used by theConvocation of Oblivion. (PROSE:Scratchman)
• Punished Time Lords could stand in place and cover their eyes like "theWeeping Angels of old". (TV:The End of Time^[+]Loading...["The End of Time (TV story)"])

Leisure[[edit] |[edit source]]

Young Time Tots were known to keeprovies as pets. (AUDIO:No Place Like Home) Stories of theShakri were told to the young ones to keep them fearful of doing anything that might get their species eliminated. (TV:The Power of Three) They were also told fairy tales involving a mythical race known as theToclafane. (TV:The Sound of Drums)

Academy students sometimes played a dangerous game called "Eighth Man Bound". The multidimensional game ofPerigosto, played with a ball and a specialisedPerigosto stick, was also a favourite, as was a complicated board game calledSepulchasm. (PROSE:Lungbarrow)

During a darker, more barbarous time in the planet's past, Time Lords enjoyed watching time-displaced individuals fight to the death in a dedicated area called theDeath Zone, but that practice had been entirely abandoned bythe Doctor's day. (TV:The Five Doctors)

Science and technology[[edit] |[edit source]]

The Time Lords were superlatively advanced in many fields of science, includingmathematics, (TV:42)biology, (TV:Evolution of the Daleks)xenobiology, (PROSE:A Brief History of Time Lords)chemistry, (TV:The Crimson Horror) andphysics to such an extent that, when atPoseidon, DirectorJessop regarded any species that had a grasp on science as profound as theTenth Doctor's to be on par with thegods. (COMIC:The Lost Dimension) EvenSusan, still considered a youth by Gallifreyan standards, was able to, using scrap metal, engineer a machine whose basic science was beyond the knowledge of22nd centuryEarth, (AUDIO:After the Daleks) and was considered an expert innanotechnology. (AUDIO:The Sleeping Blood)

Even theDaleks, the rival race of the Time Lords, respected their foes' scientific genius, eager to exploit the genius of a Time Lord, (TV:Evolution of the Daleks) and acknowledging that Time Lord technology could perform feats beyond Dalek science. (AUDIO:The Enemy of My Enemy,PROSE:All Flesh is Grass) The Time Lords themselves however noted that some aspects of Dalek technology, such as theNew Dalek Empire'smagnetron, were superior to their Time Lord counterparts. (PROSE:Dalek Combat Training Manual)

Transport[[edit] |[edit source]]

ATARDIS. (AUDIO:Time War: Volume Three)

The most characteristic technology used by the Time Lords was theirtime travel technology of theTARDISes. The TARDIS was derived from the early Gallifreyan technology of theTime Scaphe. (PROSE:Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible) The TARDISes were one of the few types of technology that was updated, from the obsoleteType 40 (TV:The Ribos Operation) to the more advancedType 57 (TV:Warriors of the Deep) along with theType 70 and thehumanoidType 103. (PROSE:Alien Bodies)Battle TARDISes andWar TARDISes also existed. (PROSE:The Taking of Planet 5,Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen,AUDIO:Neverland) The Celestial Intervention Agency usedtime stations, large high-powered TARDISes, as mobile bases of command. A Class 7C station was used during the investigation ofanti-time. (AUDIO:Neverland)

During theEternal War, the Time Lords developed thebowship to use against theGreat Vampires. (TV:State of Decay,PROSE:The Multi-Faceted War) They were later used in the Last Great Time War (PROSE:A Brief History of the Time Lords) including at theFall of Arcadia. (PROSE:A Prologue) After beingoverthrown, Rassilon was exiled ina bowship. (COMIC:Supremacy of the Cybermen)

Space Station Zenobia. (TV:The Mysterious Planet)

The Celestial Intervention Agency operated a space station,Space Station Zenobia. (PROSE:The Eight Doctors) The station was capable of being relocated (AUDIO:Trial of the Valeyard) and of creatingtime corridors and was equipped with aSeventh Door to the Matrix. (TV:The Ultimate Foe) The station was decommissioned and dismantled, (AUDIO:The Brink of Death) though was later extracted from time to use as a base during the Time War, until it was destroyed by a Dalek attack. (AUDIO:A Genius for War) A second station,Zenobia II, was in use during the Time War. (COMIC:The Bidding War)

One of the newer technologies developed withinthe Doctor's lifetime were theTime Rings. (PROSE:Legacy) These Time Rings were small devices attached around the wrist, allowing a person to travel throughtime without being in atime machine. (TV:Genesis of the Daleks) They could also be made as small as finger rings that could be touched together to enable time travel. (PROSE:Happy Endings,AUDIO:The Grel Escape)

The Time Lords also possessed a form ofportal technology that could be used for rapid troop deployment. (COMIC:Supremacy of the Cybermen)

Stellar manipulation[[edit] |[edit source]]

TheHand of Omega, astellar manipulator. (TV:Remembrance of the Daleks)

The Time Lords had the capability to control and use the power ofstars. TheTenth Doctor went so far as to claim that the Time Lords "invented"black holes. (TV:The Satan Pit) When he threatenedRa and theShip of a Billion Years with the59th Time Fleet,the War King said that solar engineering was one of theGreat Houses' first great achievements. (AUDIO:Body Politic)Faction Paradox's propaganda alleged that it was Gallifreyan experiments with black holes that had first unleashed theGreat Vampires. (PROSE:Interference - Book One)

Using theHand of Omega, the Time Lords could speed up the development of stars. (TV:Remembrance of the Daleks) One such star had been exploded but its development into a black hole had been frozen, trapped in a permanent state of decay and was kept either under thePanopticon as theEye of Harmony to power the civilisation of the Time Lords, or in TARDISes to use as their power source. (TV:The Deadly Assassin,Journey of the Centre of the TARDIS)

Weaponry and defences[[edit] |[edit source]]

TheDe-mat Gun, built in ancient times and recreated by theFourth Doctor during theSontaran invasion of Gallifrey. (TV:The Invasion of Time)

In ancient times, the Time Lords created powerful weapons and defences such as theDe-mat Gun, which could erase its target from history, (TV:The Invasion of Time) andvalidium, a living metal considered the ultimate defence. (TV:Silver Nemesis) Thedisciples of Omega spent four generations installing thetransduction barriers around Gallifrey, which kept the planet slightly out of phase with the rest of the universe (AUDIO:Renaissance) and contained four barriers designed to stop outsiders. (PROSE:Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen)

The "last work of the ancients of Gallifrey" wasthe Moment, known as the "galaxy eater"; a superweapon so advanced it’s operating system became sentient, developing a conscience. (TV:The Day of the Doctor) Rassilon used it against theNestenes. (PROSE:Pandoric’s Box) The Moment was stored in theOmega Arsenal amongst many other forbidden weapons, (TV:The Day of the Doctor) such as theTear of Isha, (PROSE:Engines of War)anima device, (AUDIO:A Thing of Guile) andthe Orphaned Hour. (COMIC:Strange Loops)

By the Doctor's era, despite being one of the most powerful species in the universe the Time Lords had little in the way of defences and their conventional warfare technology was lagging behind many other civilisations. (TV:The Invasion of Time) Few Time Lords, evenChancellery Guards, had any real combat experience. (AUDIO:The Apocalypse Element) This may be due in part to the transduction barrier, which was almost completely impenetrable by outside forces, or their generalpolicy of non-interference. (TV:The Invasion of Time)

Chancellery Guards wielding their sidearms. (TV:The Invasion of Time)

The most common sidearm used by Time Lords werestasers, which were carried by the Chancellery Guards (TV:The Deadly Assassin) andTime Lord soldiers during the Last Great Time War. (AUDIO:The Conscript,Day of the Vashta Nerada) Stasers fired a type of directed energy, which was relatively harmless to inorganic matter but caused massive tissue disruption to living creatures. (TV:The Deadly Assassin) They also had a stun setting. (TV:Arc of Infinity) However when Gallifrey wasinvaded by theSontarans, stasers proved ineffective on Sontaran armour, forcing theFourth Doctor to recover the De-mat Gun. (TV:The Invasion of Time) Another sidearm used by the Time Lords was theLord President's personal security sidearm. This gun had no stun setting and a single shot from it would immediately force aregeneration in any Time Lord shot with it. (TV:Hell Bent)

Pandora sought to rebuild the Time Lord’ temporal weapons arsenal during her reign asImperiatrix in theGallifreyan Civil War. After her downfall,Braxiatel arranged the removal of her stockpile from Gallifrey. (AUDIO:Panacea)

As war approached, the shortcomings were remedied. During theWar in Heaven, the weapons of the Time Lords were considered "legendary"; they had built defensive arrays the size of star systems and created armaments that took apart entire galaxies. (PROSE:Alien Bodies) The Time Lords createdthe Cold, a validium based weapon that could break through the space/time continuum. When activated it would suck its target and everything in its vicinity into another universe where it would be destroyed. (PROSE:Interference - Book One) Other accounts described the Time Lords, especially theCelestis faction, as being knowledgeable enough to construct and weaponise abstract concepts and ideas calledconceptual entities to their advantage. (PROSE:The Book of the War)

TheLast Great Time War caused many great and terrible weapons to be wielded by the Time Lords to the point that time itself was described to have been weaponised. (PROSE:The Day of the Doctor, et al.) The Time Lords used all the forbidden superweapons contained in theOmega Arsenal on Gallifrey for the conflict, aside fromthe Moment. (TV:The Day of the Doctor) Over a millionBattle TARDISes were deployed along with every other type ofTARDISes the Time Lords had at their disposal. (AUDIO:Sphere of Influence,PROSE:Peacemaker) During the war TARDISes carriedtime torpedoes, (PROSE:Engines of War) which had been utilised on occasion prior to the conflict, (COMIC:The Stockbridge Horror,AUDIO:Neverland) and could also carryOubliette devices capable of erasing an entire galaxy from existence. (AUDIO:Collateral Victim) The Time Lords used planet killer weapons which could be deployed by a single soldier and triggered remotely. (AUDIO:The Last Days of Freme) The Time Lord also developedempathetic weather which responded to emotions of nearby lifeforms, intended to turn the Daleks’ rage against them. (AUDIO:Broken Hearts)

The Time Lords sought to devise new biological weapons during the Time War, (AUDIO:Concealed Weapons) commissioning theWar Master to createthe Rage andwar seeds, (AUDIO:Darkness and Lights,War Seed) andLord Vibax to weaponise theOrrovix. (AUDIO:Assets of War) The CIA enhanced the psychic powers of one Time Lord,Quarren Maguire, to the point he could alter reality, however he refused to be used as a weapon and fled. (AUDIO:One Life) Duringthe Barber-Surgeon’s campaign, theWar Council sought to seize his factory and abominations for themselves, however his erasure from history prevented them. (AUDIO:The Horror)

The Capitol surrounded by downedDalek saucers at the end of theTime War. (TV:The End of Time)

TheCapitol during the Last Great Time War was protected by a set of dual turrets set around it. They were used to destroy attacking ships. (TV:The End of Time) The Capitol andArcadia were also defended bysky trenches, multi-layered armoured shields in the atmosphere. Arcadia was believed to be the "safest place on Gallifrey" due to its four hundred sky trenches, however on the last day of the War the Daleks managed to breach them. (TV:The Last Day) The Capitol's sky trenches continued to hold even as the Daleks bombarded the planet. (TV:The Day of the Doctor)

During and after the Last Great Time War,Lord PresidentRassilon wielded aGauntlet which was capable of destroying a person by shooting out electricity and also reverted theMaster Race to itshuman form. (TV:The End of Time) It was also able to remove a person from history. (PROSE:Engines of War)

Miscellaneous technology[[edit] |[edit source]]

Some other Time Lord technology includedthe Matrix, (TV:The Deadly Assassin) theGenesis Ark (TV:Doomsday) and theChameleon Arch. (TV:Human Nature)

The Time Lords developed a chemical that could turn vertebrateblood intoacid, butthe Doctor successfully campaigned it to be banned. (PROSE:The Age of Ambition)

Rassilon also invented Gallifrey's geneticlooms, the devices used to birth new Gallifreyans after thePythia's curse. Looms were no longer used after the Curse was lifted following President Romana's negotiations with theSisterhood of Karn. (PROSE:Lungbarrow)

Race or rank?[[edit] |[edit source]]

Overview[[edit] |[edit source]]

Several accounts described the Time Lords as the name of the species, seemingly synonymous with "Gallifreyan", (TV:Pyramids of Mars,Smith and Jones,Utopia,Knock Knock) or, in a slightly differing version, as a distinct race ofGallifreyans. (TV:The Time Warrior,School Reunion,Human Nature,The Sound of Drums,Planet of the Dead,Before the Flood) In contrast, many other accounts suggested that Time Lord was a rank or a social class. (TV:The Invasion of Time,Listen,Hell Bent;PROSE:K9 and the Time Trap,The Infinity Doctors,Interference,The Book of the War,A Brief History of Time Lords;AUDIO:Time in Office,The Eleven Day Empire,Body Politic,Words from Nine Divinities;COMIC:The Stolen TARDIS)

The Book of the War synthesised these two perspectives by positing that theGreat Houses were a meta-culture, having become something more than abiological species at theanchoring of the thread. (PROSE:The Book of the War) TheTenth Doctor described a Time Lord as "so much more" than just biology, instead being a "sum of knowledge, a code, a shared history, [and] a shared suffering." (TV:The Doctor's Daughter)

The Time Lords were referred to by rank, as "Lords," by their sentient technology such asvalidium. (PROSE:The Parliament of Rats) Other time active cultures, likethe Pageant, also referred to the Time Lords in this manner, addressing them as aristocracy. (PROSE:The Man in the Velvet Mask)

Time Lords received thesymbiotic nuclei after initiation, which allowed them to safely useTARDISes andregenerate. (PROSE:Love and War,Interference) After a Time Lord's first regeneration, theirDNA would change; for instance, they would grow asecond heart. (PROSE:The Man in the Velvet Mask,PROSE:The Shadows Of Avalon,The Book of the War) However,NewbloodGreat Houses, like those developed shortly before and during theWar in Heaven, (PROSE:The Book of the War)bred their members with a second heart, as well as increased control over regeneration. (PROSE:Christmas on a Rational Planet,The Book of the War)

Other sources suggested that the ability for a Time Lord to regenerate came from evolution caused by exposure to theVortex through theUntempered Schism.Melody Pond's human DNA was able to develop many of the characteristics of Time Lord DNA (such as regeneration) simply by being conceived in the Time Vortex. (TV:A Good Man Goes to War, et al.)

Many Gallifreyans were not Time Lords. (PROSE:The Infinity Doctors,AUDIO:Thin Ice,Insurgency, et al.) TheFourth Doctor once claimed "not everyone on Gallifrey [was] a Time Lord — some [didn't] want to be — and those who [did had to] go throughthe Academy". (COMIC:The Stolen TARDIS) One of the members of theOutsiders claimed that they were once Time Lords before "dropping out". (TV:The Invasion of Time) Aman said that theFirst Doctor would never "make a Time Lord" at the Academy, so he would have to join the military. (TV:Listen)

Non-Gallifreyan Time Lords[[edit] |[edit source]]

There are many records of Time Lords who were either completely or partially not Gallifreyan. The Fourth Doctor specified himself as a "native Gallifreyan Time Lord", implying the existence of other kinds of Time Lord. (PROSE:A Letter from the Doctor)

According to one account,the Doctor belonged toan unknown species, residing inanother dimension. They were found asa child by theFirst Tecteun, an earlyShobogan explorer, and subsequently brought back to Gallifrey. When it was discovered the child possessed the ability toregenerate, this was studied extensively, and the ability was eventually given to select native Gallifreyans. Over time this led to the creation of the Time Lords, of which the Doctor was one. (TV:The Timeless Children) The Doctor's origin story, however, was always in flux, (PROSE:Celestial Intervention - A Gallifreyan Noir) with other equally-true accounts of the Doctor's birth painting them as a half-Time Lord half-human, (TV:Doctor Who) aLoomed Time Lord whosewhite-, long-haired self was the reincarnation ofthe Other but also the first to call himself the Doctor (PROSE:Lungbarrow) or even ahuman. (PROSE:Doctor Who and the Daleks)

During theImperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War,Davros, who had crowned himself theemperor of theImperial faction, sought to leadhis Daleks against the Time Lords to become the new Lords of Time. (TV:Remembrance of the Daleks)Dorothy "Ace" McShane became a Time Lord after attending theTime Lord Academy. (AUDIO:Dominion) Upon completing her training, she joined theCelestial Intervention Agency and was given aTARDIS with a functioningchameleon circuit. (AUDIO:Intervention Earth)

During various missions for Gallifrey,K9 Mark I was briefed by Time Lords that resembled non-Gallifreyan species. (PROSE:K9 and the Zeta Rescue) Upon meeting K9,Omegon said, "Listen, hound. I too was once a Time Lord." (PROSE:K9 and the Time Trap)

TherenegadeGreat House ofParadox often inducted members of thelesser species into their ranks, going so far as to actually incorporate them into the House's bloodline. (PROSE:The Book of the War)The War King said that, while members of Faction Paradox were not members ofthe Homeworld by blood-right, they had been adopted and given the inherent advantages of all members of the Great Houses, so they were equal to even the members of theWar Council. (AUDIO:Words from Nine Divinities)

During theWar in Heaven,military Houses likeHouse Xianthellipse experimented withhybridisation to createNewbloodHouses better adapted for war. (PROSE:The Book of the War) Each ofHouse Meddhoran's members had foreignbiodata from species, including theRaithaduine. (PROSE:Against Nature)

House Lolita had a seat on theWar Council (AUDIO:Body Politic) even though its founder and only member,Lolita, (PROSE:The Book of the War,AUDIO:The Shadow Play) was a101-formtimeship. (AUDIO:The Shadow Play,PROSE:Of the City of the Saved...)

TheOsirian Court was so powerful that it was almost aGreat House. (AUDIO:The Ship of a Billion Years)

On Gallifrey, theprophecy ofthe Hybrid spoke of a being who was created from "two warrior races". Many, includingthe General and Davros, speculated thatthe Hybrid was supposed to have been crossed between theDaleks and the Time Lords, (TV:Hell Bent,The Witch's Familiar) and Davros briefly believed he had in fact fulfilled the prophecy in the form of Daleks invigorated byregeneration energy stolen from theTwelfth Doctor, though the regenerated Daleks never got the chance to fulfil the end of the prediction by standing in the ruins of Gallifrey, and they never displayed other Time Lord characteristics than their regeneration. (TV:The Witch's Familiar)

Time Lord and human hybrids were known to exist, (PROSE:Lungbarrow,The Gallifrey Chronicles) though in only a handful of cases in the history of the universe. (PROSE:The Book of the War)

By many accounts,the Doctor himself was half-human onhis mother's side. (TV:Doctor Who,PROSE:Alien Bodies,The Infinity Doctors,Unnatural History,The Shadows of Avalon,Grimm Reality)Ashildr speculated that this made the Doctor himself the aforementionedHybrid of Gallifreyan lore. (TV:Hell Bent)

SinceRiver Song was conceived on boardthe Doctor's TARDIS while it was travelling through the Time Vortex, she possessed certain genetic characteristics of a Time Lady, which were brought to the fore by experimentation bythe Church. (TV:A Good Man Goes to War) This enabled Melody to regenerate at least twice, intoMels andRiver Song, before sacrificing her remaining regenerations to revive the Doctor. (TV:Day of the Moon,Let's Kill Hitler) She retained herrespiratory bypass system. (AUDIO:I Went to a Marvellous Party) In her River Song incarnation, she possessed an augmented lifespan that left her as over two hundred years old not long before her death without much ageing from the time she had regenerated into this incarnation. However, it was unclear if this augmented lifespan was a result of her Time Lord DNA or if it was something that River had acquired over her lifetime by other means. (TV:The Husbands of River Song)

A "generated anomaly",Jenny, the artificially created daughter of theTenth Doctor, hadtwo hearts, but was not considered a true Time Lord by theTenth Doctor, who claimed that Jenny was merely an echo of himself and that being a Time Lord was "so much more" than that, though as he later admitted toDonna Noble, "when I look at [Jenny] now, I can see them. The hole they left, all the pain that filled it." Jenny was later revived from a bullet wound with a release of bright energy, although this may have been the doing ofthe Source rather than any form of Time Lordregeneration. (TV:The Doctor's Daughter)

The Tenth Doctor said his "Time LordDNA" was mixed up in the composition of theDalek-humans'human andDalek DNA after he got in the way of thelightning strike that created the Dalek-humans. (TV:Evolution of the Daleks)

TheMeta-Crisis Doctor, a single-hearted, non-regenerating Time Lord/human hybrid, was created by a biological meta-crisis in whichDonna Noble and theTenth Doctor's DNA merged. He was born from the Doctor's eleventh regeneration. After committing genocide againstDavros' newDaleks, he was left onan alternate Earth where he began a life withRose Tyler.Donna Noble said thatDavros giving Donna's synapses "that little extra spark, kicking them into life" by waking up the dormantregeneration energy in her head had made her "part human, part Time Lord." The Tenth Doctor said this event made her a "human being with a Time Lord brain." However, her human brain was unable to process the Time Lord influence beyond a few hours, so the Doctor was forced to wipe her memory of her adventures of him. (TV:Journey's End)

Behind the scenes[[edit] |[edit source]]

Starships and Spacestations[[edit] |[edit source]]

According to the non-narrative source,REF:Doctor Who: Starships and Spacestations, which this wikidoes not count as valid, the Time Lords had little interest in creating forms of transport other than TARDISes. As such, they relied on them instead of other methods of travel.

How to Be a Time Lord[[edit] |[edit source]]

Depending on the chapter, thenon-narrative sourceHow To Be a Time Lord: Official Guide byCraig Donaghy seems to refer to Time Lords both as a species as well as something that a resident of the planetGallifrey or anyone else can become after going through theTime Lord Academy.

In the chapter "The Time Lords", the Time Lords are referred to as both "a hugely advanced and civili[s]ed species" as well as "the leaders of the planet Gallifrey". The chapter "Time Lord Biology" describes a Time Lord's — and not a Gallifreyan's — biological difference to humans. The chapter "Companions" reaffirms thatRiver Song had "Time LordDNA" as a result of being made inthe TARDIS. The chapter "Time Lord Myths and Legends" again calls the Time Lords a "species". Conversely, the chapter "The Time Lord Academy" mentions that "[t]he Time Lord Academy [was] a school for training young Time Lords," that "[i]n order to become a Time Lord, one must successfully complete training at the Academy and swear to serve Gallifrey," and also that "[a]ll trainees at the Time Lord Academy must pass an exam to prove they have the knowledge and skills required to become a Time Lord."

At the end of the book, the Time Lord Pledge mentions that studying the book and learning its lessons means that the reader is "now ready to become a Time Lord", whilethe Doctor's Certificate says that "[n]early anyone can be a Time Lord".

Other information[[edit] |[edit source]]

The "Gods" inOmega (COMIC:Omega)

According to production notes inThe Complete Historyvolume 67, writerNeil Gaiman's line in theDoctor Who television storyThe Doctor's Wife, in whichAmy Pond tellsRory Williams that Time Lord was "just what they're called", is intended to mean that "Time Lord" is just a name and nothing more.

VariousDoctor Who spin-offs that do not have the rights to use the name of "the Time Lords" have needed to find indirect ways to use the species through otherlicensed elements (such as the individually-licensed concept of "theGreat Houses") or other ways to incorporate the lords of Gallifrey. For example, in theFaction Paradox series, their faction is usually referred to as simply the Great Houses, with their planet called simplythe Homeworld. Individual members are thus known as "Homeworlders" or "members of the Great Houses", or on occasion by the title of "Sun Builders" (introduced inThe Book of the Peace and subsequently used under license fromJayce Black in other DWU spin-offs, such asP.R.O.B.E.).Cutaway Comics'Omega comic series, having the legal right to featureOmega and theMinyans, referred to Omega's people as simply "the Gods", relying onUnderworld itself establishing that the Gods of Minyos were the ancient Time Lords.Cwej: The Series features a group known as the Superiors, a species whichKoschei is a part of. The novelThe Bloodletters copied this convention and also used the term "Archons of Time", equating its Homeworlders/Archons with the Time Lords via the licensed usage ofthe Colonel.

External links[[edit] |[edit source]]

• Great Houses attheFaction Paradox wiki
• Time Lord atMemory Beta, the wiki that covers all licensedStar Trek works
• Time Lord attheDoctor Who: Lockdown! wiki
• Time Lord at theJenny Everywhere Wiki

Footnotes[[edit] |[edit source]]