Gallifrey
Encyclopedia
Gallifrey is a fictional planet in the long-running British science fiction television
series Doctor Who
and is the homeworld of the Doctor
and the Time Lord
s. It is located in the constellation of Kasterborous (Pyramids of Mars
, Attack of the Cybermen
and Voyage of the Damned
), at "galactic coordinates ten-zero-eleven-zero-zero by zero-two from galactic zero centre" (Pyramids of Mars
(1975), Full Circle
(1980) and partially in "The Family of Blood
" (2007)), which is some 250 million light years away from Earth (as stated in the 1996 Doctor Who television movie). This would put it far outside our Milky Way
galaxy, which is about a hundred thousand light years in diameter, and indeed outside the Local Group
and even the Virgo Supercluster
; however, at this distance it would still be within the Pisces-Cetus Supercluster Complex
.
During the first decade of the television series, the name of the Doctor's home planet was not revealed, although it was actually shown for the first time in The War Games
(1969) during the Doctor's trial. It was finally identified by name for the first time in The Time Warrior
(1973). It is never definitively stated when the appearances of Gallifrey in the television series take place. As the planet is often reached by means of time travel, its relative present could conceivably exist anywhere in the Earth's past or future before the year 100 trillion, which the Time Lords never reached.
Gallifrey's position in the revived series (2005 onwards) was filled in slowly over the first three years of the series' run. In Series 1, it had been implied that it was destroyed along with the Dalek Empire
, by the Doctor during the Time War
. The planet was not referred to by name until the 2006 Christmas Special
, was depicted in a flashback in "The Sound of Drums
", and played an important role in the plot of "The End of Time
".
From space, Gallifrey is seen as a yellow-orange planet and is close enough to central space lanes for spacecraft to require clearance from Gallifreyan Space Traffic Control as they pass through its system (The Invasion of Time
, 1978). The planet is protected from physical attack by the impenetrable barrier called the quantum force field, named presumably after the Eye of Harmony
, and from teleportation incursions by the transduction barrier - which can be reinforced to repel most levels of this type of technological attack. This prevents all outsiders (with hostile intent, or otherwise) from approaching the planet and allows the Time Lords to maintain their status of absolute neutrality. It also lets them observe the actions of the rest of the Universe without actually taking part in its affairs. These security barriers were breached on occasion by the Sontaran
s, by manipulating the more technological Vardans, who suborned the Doctor into sabotaging both of these from within (The Invasion of Time, 1978).
The Doctor's granddaughter Susan
described her home world (not named as "Gallifrey" at the time) as having bright, silver-leafed trees and a burnt orange sky at night (The Sensorites
, 1964), features that the Tenth Doctor
reiterates in the episode "Gridlock
" (2007). This casts an amber tint on anything outside the city, as seen in The Invasion of Time. Gallifrey's sky appeared blue and Earth-like in The Five Doctors
(1983) within the isolated Death Zone, but this is likely a production oversight, or could be explained away as the effect of the containment forcefield that enclosed the Zone - refracting the visible light spectrum to shift to blue. This is cogent given what is stated in "The War Games
" as the Second Doctor
explains that the Time Lords can control their own environment, so the blue sky of the death zone could be on account of that.
In "Gridlock", the Doctor also mentions vast mountain ranges situated on Gallifrey, "with fields of deep red grass, capped with snow". In "The Time Monster
" he reveals that "When I was a little boy, we used to live in a house that was perched halfway up the top of a mountain", explaining, "I ran down that mountain and I found that the rocks weren't grey at all - but they were red, brown and purple and gold. And those pathetic little patches of sludgy snow were shining white. Shining white in the sunlight". In "Gridlock" he further elaborates how Gallifrey's second sun would "rise in the south and the mountains would shine", with the silver-leafed trees looking like "a forest on fire" in the mornings. In "The Sound of Drums
", the Doctor says that Gallifrey was called the Shining World of the Seventh System.
The Citadel of the Time Lords stands on the Continent of Wild Endeavour, in the Mountains of Solace and Solitude ("The Sound of Drums"), where the capital is also located. Within the capital is the Panopticon
, under which is located the Eye of Harmony
, the nucleus of a black hole
that is their power source. The Eye provides the power required for time travel
(The Three Doctors, 1973; The Deadly Assassin
, 1976), and all Time Lord TARDIS
time machines draw their power from it (the 1996 television movie). Also situated in the capital is the Matrix
, the vast extradimensional computer network which acts as the repository of all Time Lord knowledge as well as containing the memories of dead Time Lords (The Deadly Assassin).
The Deadly Assassin mentions the existence of a section of the Citadel's population called the Shoobugans and dialogue mentions Plebeian class. This implies that not all people native to Gallifrey are Time Lords. Among Gallifrey's wildlife are birds called Flutterwings and The Mark of the Rani
implies that a species similar to cats also exists. Spin-off fiction has also mentioned creatures called Tafelshrews.
Outside the city lie wastelands where "Outsiders", Gallifreyans who have dropped out of Time Lord society, live in less technological tribal communities. The wastes of Gallifrey include the Death Zone, an area that was used as a gladiator
ial arena by the first Time Lords, pitting various species kidnapped from their respective time zones against each other (although Dalek
s and Cybermen
were considered too dangerous to use). Inside the Death Zone stands the Tomb of Rassilon
, the founder of Time Lord society (The Five Doctors
). Somewhere on Gallifrey there is also an institute called the Academy, which the Doctor and various other Time Lords have attended. It is not clear whether this building is in the capital or outside it and equally it is unclear whether it is a single building or different for each group of Time Lords (Borusa refers to Prydon Academy in The Deadly Assassin
, but the Doctor in The Time Monster
and The Sound of Drums
refers to it as a single Academy). Somewhere on Gallifrey is a portal known as the Untempered Schism, a gap in the fabric of reality. Eight-year-old Gallifreyans are brought before the Schism and made to look into the Time Vortex
as part of an initiation ceremony into the Time Lord Academy. According to the Doctor, some are inspired, some run away, and some are driven mad. ("The Sound of Drums
"). In "The End of Time, Part One", the Master refers to his father's land on Gallifrey which had red grass and stretched across the slopes of Mount Perdition.
When the question of Gallifrey's location is discussed by humans, it is presumed to be located somewhere in Ireland
. Examples include episode one of "The Hand of Fear
" (1976), episode two of "The Invisible Enemy
" (1977) and "Human Nature
" (2007).
novels (which are of uncertain canonicity) have further information about Gallifrey. It is said to have a copper moon, Pazithi Gallifreya (first named in Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible
); the novel Lungbarrow
also places Karn (setting of The Brain of Morbius
, 1976) in Gallifrey's solar system, along with a frozen gas giant named Polarfrey and an "astrological figure" of "Kasterborous the Fibster".
" (2005), the Ninth Doctor
states that his home planet has been destroyed in a war and that he is the last of the Time Lords. The episode also indicates that the Time Lords are remembered in the far future.
Subsequently, in "Dalek
" (2005), it is revealed that the last great Time War
was fought between the Time Lords and the Dalek
s, ending in the obliteration of both sides and with only two apparent survivors; the Doctor and a lone Dalek that had somehow fallen through time and crashed on Earth. At the conclusion of that episode, that surviving Dalek self-destructs, leaving the Doctor believing that he was the sole survivor of the Time War. However, the Daleks return in "Bad Wolf
"/"The Parting of the Ways
" (2005), and subsequently in "Army of Ghosts
"/"Doomsday
" (2006), "Daleks in Manhattan
"/"Evolution of the Daleks
" (2007), "The Stolen Earth
"/"Journey's End
" (2008) and "Victory of the Daleks
" (2010), the penultimate of these being the series 4
finale where Davros
also returns, and the final of these being the first time the Eleventh Doctor meets the Daleks. During that episode, a new race of Daleks is created.
It is suggested that other Time Lords might have survived the war when the Face of Boe
utters its final words to the Doctor: "Know this, Time Lord: you are not alone" ("Gridlock"). These suspicions are later borne out in "Utopia
" (2007), when the Tenth Doctor discovers that the renegade Time Lord the Master
has survived the Time War and has been living in human form in the year 100 trillion, at the end of the material universe, a point so far forward in time that no Time Lord has ever travelled there.
The Doctor's reference to Gallifrey in "The Runaway Bride" marks the first time the name of his homeworld has been uttered on screen since the new series began. The Doctor's revelation that he is from Gallifrey elicits terror from the Empress of the Racnoss. John Smith (the Doctor in human form) also mentions Gallifrey in "Human Nature
".
The planet makes its first appearance in the revived series in "The Sound of Drums", where the Citadel, enclosed in a glass dome (as described by the Doctor in "Gridlock"
), is seen in flashback as the Doctor describes it. Also seen is a ceremony initiating 8-year-old Gallifreyans — in particular the Master — into the Time Lord Academy.
The 2009 story The End of Time
once again featured Gallifrey, which the Master releases from the Time Lock the Doctor had created to contain the war. However, Gallifrey's reemergence is eventually stopped and reversed after it was made clear that the release of Gallifrey would lead to the Time Lords destroying time - in effect destroying the universe - in order to defeat the Daleks. Resurrected Lord President Rassilon also believed that this action would elevate them to a higher form of existence, becoming "pure consciousness." Upon realizing this, the Doctor and the Master worked together to send the Time Lords and Gallifrey back into the Time Lock, at the expense of the Master's disappearance.
By the end of the war, Gallifrey was in ruins. The dome of the main city, the Time Lord capital, the Capitol, was shattered and dozens of Dalek saucers were crashed on the plains below. When Gallifrey appears over Earth, it appears as a huge orange sphere with lakes of lava.
It was stated by the 10th doctor in The End of Time
that Gallifrey was not how he and The Master knew it in their youth. Implying that the Time Lords had resorted to desperate and deplorable measures to fight the Daleks, the Doctor was willing to break his code of non-violence to stop the return of the Time Lords.
Marc Platt
's novels Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible
and Lungbarrow
, provide a detailed backstory for the civilisation seen in the main series. In the Dark Times (occasionally mentioned in the televised serials such as The Five Doctors
), Gallifrey was at the centre of an empire covering dozens of worlds and continually being extended by heroes such as Prydonius (whom the Time Lord chapter is named after). Ancient Gallifreyians are all telepathic and were ruled by a female cult centred on a figure called the Pythia, who controlled the population through mysticism and prophecies. When the prophetic powers of the last of the Pythias failed her, Rassilion, Omega and a shadowy figure known as The Other seized power in the name of science and rationality. Seeing this the Pythia committed suicide and cursed Gallifrey, killing all children in their wombs and making the world sterile. To combat this Rassilion restructured society and used genetic looms to create new generations of Gallifreyians, who emerge from the looms as fully grown adults. Each of the Great Houses is allotted a total of forty five cousins and given a regeneration cycle of thirteen lives. The Houses themselves are to some degree alive, in the same way TARDISes are and the furniture can move about, occasionally growing into 'Drudges' who function as servants for the family. The Doctor was loomed in the House of Lungbarrow, in the mountains of South Gallifrey, but unique among the houses cousins he has a belly button (Lungbarrow
suggests that this is because he is a re-incarnation of The Other, but the latter BBC books featuring the Eighth Doctor
, suggest he does actually have a Gallifreyian father and a human mother, as stated in the 1996 telemovie). This backstory explains why no children are seen in the classic series Gallifrey stories and provides an explanation for the male-centric nature of Time Lord society. This backstory is hard to reconcile with The Sound of Drums
which shows the Master as a child and the Doctor's reaction to Jenny's creation through a process similar to looming in The Doctor's Daughter
. However, latter BBC books, such as The Infinity Doctors
and Unnatural History
, imply that the Doctor's origin is complex and that every version is somehow "true" (such as Susan's claim in the original version of An Unearthly Child
that she was born in the 49th century). Unnatural History
contains a flash back in which the Doctor sees himself as a child, in the House of Lungbarrow, playing under the watchful gaze of his father. The Infinity Doctors
implies that the "womb-born" did not completely die out and some families continued to exist in secret. This provides a possible explanation for existence of Irving Braxiatel
, a Time Lord who claims to be the Doctor's brother yet is not one of the cousins from Lungbarrow and the implication in The Gallifrey Chronicles
that the character Marnal is The Master's father (whose existence is mentioned in The End of Time
).
The Virgin New Adventures
establish a religion on Gallifrey centred around the three main gods, Time, Death and Pain. The Time Lords use these figures to understand the concepts they represent and in some cases make deals with them and become their chosen champions. The Seventh Doctor
is Time's Champion (as well as someone who makes frequent deals with or wages against Death to save his friends) and the audio play Master states that the Master is Death's champion. It's also briefly implied in Vampire Science
, that the Eighth Doctor
is Life's champion, implying the existence of another unseen figure. Happy Endings
and other books imply that these gods are Eternals
as seen in the serial Enlightenment
.
In the Eighth Doctor Adventures
novel The Ancestor Cell
by Peter Anghelides
and Stephen Cole
, Gallifrey is destroyed as a result of the Eighth Doctor
's desire to prevent the voodoo cult Faction Paradox
from starting a war between the Time Lords and an unnamed Enemy. Hints about this future war are dropped in several books earlier in the series beginning with Lawrence Miles
's Alien Bodies
and the war itself plays out as it would have originally done in Miles' Faction Paradox series in which certain names are changed for copyright reasons (the Time Lords become the Great Houses and Gallifrey becomes the Home World). The war is fought across four dimensions and whole sections of history are blocked off by either side and it is also suggested that events cross into different universes (such as the events of Dead Romance
). In order to have boltholes or decoys in case of attack, the Time Lords have created nine separate planet Gallifreys (it even hinted that the original Gallifrey may at some point be reduced to ruins) and special looms to constantly produce new soldiers. By this time TARDISes have evolved to point where they appear human and reproduce sexually (the Doctor's companion Compassion
is the first such TARDIS). It is also hinted that the Celestial Intervention Agency
will evolve into the beings of pure thought known as the Celestis, who observe the war from outside this dimension (the Last Parliament in which they sit resembles the Panopticon on Gallifrey and the closest anyone gets to describing them is similar to the Time Lords' robes). Faction Paradox itself is a counter to Time Lord society, dedicated to creating time-travel paradoxes, in contrast to the Time Lords' web of time. It was founded by a mysterious figure Grandfather Paradox, who it is believed was once a Time Lord from the House of Lungbarrow. The Ancestor Cell
suggests that he is a future version of the Doctor, but this is retconned in The Gallifrey Chronicles
, to him being everyone's potential future self. When the Doctor destroys Gallifrey the war no longer happens and his actions also apparently (and retroactively) wipe the Time Lords from history. It is unclear what the attitude of the new Doctor Who television series is toward the information in the novels and audio plays, the latter produced by Big Finish Productions
. However, a number of writers of the novels and audio plays are also writing for the new television series, and Russell T Davies refers to the comic strips, audio plays and novels in an essay describing the Time War, written for the Doctor Who Annual 2006.
In the last regular Eighth Doctor novel, The Gallifrey Chronicles
by Lance Parkin
, it is revealed that while Gallifrey was destroyed, the Time Lords were not erased from history. However, the cataclysm sets up an event horizon
in time that prevents anyone from entering Gallifrey's relative past or travelling from it to the present or future. The Time Lords also survive within the Matrix, which has been downloaded into the Eighth Doctor's mind, but their reconstruction requires a sufficiently advanced computer. At the novel's end, the question of whether or not the Time Lords will be restored remains unanswered, although if the events of the novel are to tie in with later events in the TV series it must be assumed that Gallifrey was at some point restored, only to be destroyed again during the events of the Time War. This could also provide a possible explanation for Rassilon apparently being alive in The End of Time
, where previous stories show him having died millennia before.
Television series executive producer Russell T Davies wrote in Doctor Who Magazine
#356 that there is no connection between the War of the books and the Time War of the television series. In the same Doctor Who Magazine column, Davies compared Gallifrey being destroyed twice with Earth's two World Wars. He also said that he was "usually happy for old and new fans to invent the Complete History of the Doctor in their heads, completely free of the production team's hot and heavy hands".
Despite Davies' unequivocal statement that the two wars are distinct, Lance Parkin, in his Doctor Who chronology AHistory, suggests in a speculative essay that the two destructions of Gallifrey may be the same event seen from two different perspectives, with the Eighth Doctor
present twice (and both times culpable for the planet's destruction).
Science fiction on television
Science fiction first appeared on a television program during the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Special effects and other production techniques allow creators to present a living visual image of an imaginary world not limited by the constraints of reality; this makes television an excellent medium...
series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
and is the homeworld of the Doctor
Doctor (Doctor Who)
The Doctor is the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and has also featured in two cinema feature films, a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series....
and the Time Lord
Time Lord
The Time Lords are an ancient extraterrestrial race and civilization of humanoids in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, of which the series' eponymous protagonist, the Doctor, is a member...
s. It is located in the constellation of Kasterborous (Pyramids of Mars
Pyramids of Mars
Pyramids of Mars is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 25 October to 15 November 1975.-Synopsis:...
, Attack of the Cybermen
Attack of the Cybermen
Attack of the Cybermen is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in two weekly parts from 5 January to 12 January 1985. It opened Season 22 of the series...
and Voyage of the Damned
Voyage of the Damned (Doctor Who)
"Voyage of the Damned" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. First broadcast on 25 December 2007, it is 72 minutes long and the third Christmas special since the show's revival in 2005...
), at "galactic coordinates ten-zero-eleven-zero-zero by zero-two from galactic zero centre" (Pyramids of Mars
Pyramids of Mars
Pyramids of Mars is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 25 October to 15 November 1975.-Synopsis:...
(1975), Full Circle
Full Circle (Doctor Who)
Full Circle is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 25 October to 15 November 1980...
(1980) and partially in "The Family of Blood
The Family of Blood
"The Family of Blood" is the ninth episode of Series 3 of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Preceded by "Human Nature", it is the second episode of a two-part story written by Paul Cornell adapted from his 1995 Doctor Who novel Human Nature...
" (2007)), which is some 250 million light years away from Earth (as stated in the 1996 Doctor Who television movie). This would put it far outside our Milky Way
Milky Way
The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains the Solar System. This name derives from its appearance as a dim un-resolved "milky" glowing band arching across the night sky...
galaxy, which is about a hundred thousand light years in diameter, and indeed outside the Local Group
Local Group
The Local Group is the group of galaxies that includes Earth's galaxy, the Milky Way. The group comprises more than 30 galaxies , with its gravitational center located somewhere between the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy...
and even the Virgo Supercluster
Virgo Supercluster
The Virgo Supercluster or Local Supercluster is the irregular supercluster that contains the Virgo Cluster in addition to the Local Group, which in turn contains the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies. At least 100 galaxy groups and clusters are located within its diameter of 33 megaparsecs...
; however, at this distance it would still be within the Pisces-Cetus Supercluster Complex
Pisces-Cetus Supercluster Complex
The Pisces-Cetus Supercluster Complex is a complex of galaxy superclusters or galaxy filament that includes the Virgo Supercluster .-Discovery:...
.
During the first decade of the television series, the name of the Doctor's home planet was not revealed, although it was actually shown for the first time in The War Games
The War Games
The War Games is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in ten weekly parts from 19 April to 21 June 1969. It was the last regular appearance of Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor, and of Wendy Padbury and Frazer Hines as companions Zoe...
(1969) during the Doctor's trial. It was finally identified by name for the first time in The Time Warrior
The Time Warrior
The Time Warrior is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from December 15, 1973 to January 5, 1974. This serial introduced Elisabeth Sladen as new companion Sarah Jane Smith. It also marked the debut of the Sontarans...
(1973). It is never definitively stated when the appearances of Gallifrey in the television series take place. As the planet is often reached by means of time travel, its relative present could conceivably exist anywhere in the Earth's past or future before the year 100 trillion, which the Time Lords never reached.
Gallifrey's position in the revived series (2005 onwards) was filled in slowly over the first three years of the series' run. In Series 1, it had been implied that it was destroyed along with the Dalek Empire
Dalek Empire
The Dalek Empire refers to the sphere of influence of the Daleks, a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Dalek Empire is also a series of audio plays produced by Big Finish Productions, featuring the Daleks. The series begins in...
, by the Doctor during the Time War
Time War (Doctor Who)
The Time War, more specifically called The Last Great Time War, is a conflict within the fictional universe of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
. The planet was not referred to by name until the 2006 Christmas Special
The Runaway Bride (Doctor Who)
"The Runaway Bride" is a special episode of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, starring David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor...
, was depicted in a flashback in "The Sound of Drums
The Sound of Drums
"The Sound of Drums" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 23 June 2007, and is the twelfth episode of Series 3 of the revived Doctor Who series...
", and played an important role in the plot of "The End of Time
The End of Time
The End of Time: The Next Revolution in Our Understanding of the Universe, also sold with the alternate subtitle The Next Revolution in Physics, is a 1999 science book in which the author Julian Barbour argues that time exists merely as an illusion.-Auto-biography:The book begins by describing how...
".
Geography
The Invasion of Time
The Invasion of Time is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 4 February to 11 March 1978...
, 1978). The planet is protected from physical attack by the impenetrable barrier called the quantum force field, named presumably after the Eye of Harmony
Eye of Harmony
The Eye of Harmony is an artificial black hole created by the Time Lords to provide energy for their home world of Gallifrey and their time travel technology in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.-First appearances:...
, and from teleportation incursions by the transduction barrier - which can be reinforced to repel most levels of this type of technological attack. This prevents all outsiders (with hostile intent, or otherwise) from approaching the planet and allows the Time Lords to maintain their status of absolute neutrality. It also lets them observe the actions of the rest of the Universe without actually taking part in its affairs. These security barriers were breached on occasion by the Sontaran
Sontaran
The Sontarans are a fictional extraterrestrial race of humanoids from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and also seen in spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures. They were created by writer Robert Holmes.-Culture:...
s, by manipulating the more technological Vardans, who suborned the Doctor into sabotaging both of these from within (The Invasion of Time, 1978).
The Doctor's granddaughter Susan
Susan Foreman
Susan Foreman is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The granddaughter and original companion of the First Doctor, she was played by actress Carole Ann Ford from 1963 to 1964, in the show's first season and the first two stories of the second season...
described her home world (not named as "Gallifrey" at the time) as having bright, silver-leafed trees and a burnt orange sky at night (The Sensorites
The Sensorites
The Sensorites is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from June 20 to August 1, 1964. The story is notable for its early demonstration of Susan's telepathy and references to the Doctor and her home planet.-Plot:The...
, 1964), features that the Tenth Doctor
Tenth Doctor
The Tenth Doctor is the tenth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by David Tennant, who appears in three series, as well as eight specials...
reiterates in the episode "Gridlock
Gridlock (Doctor Who)
"Gridlock" is the third episode from the third series of the revived British science fiction television series Doctor Who which aired on 14 April 2007. The Doctor returns to a much grittier New Earth with Martha Jones and meets the Face of Boe one final time. But as New New York becomes a deadly...
" (2007). This casts an amber tint on anything outside the city, as seen in The Invasion of Time. Gallifrey's sky appeared blue and Earth-like in The Five Doctors
The Five Doctors
The Five Doctors is a special feature-length episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, produced in celebration of the programme's twentieth anniversary. It had its world premiere in the United States, on the Chicago PBS station WTTW and various other PBS member stations...
(1983) within the isolated Death Zone, but this is likely a production oversight, or could be explained away as the effect of the containment forcefield that enclosed the Zone - refracting the visible light spectrum to shift to blue. This is cogent given what is stated in "The War Games
The War Games
The War Games is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in ten weekly parts from 19 April to 21 June 1969. It was the last regular appearance of Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor, and of Wendy Padbury and Frazer Hines as companions Zoe...
" as the Second Doctor
Second Doctor
The Second Doctor is the second incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by character actor Patrick Troughton....
explains that the Time Lords can control their own environment, so the blue sky of the death zone could be on account of that.
In "Gridlock", the Doctor also mentions vast mountain ranges situated on Gallifrey, "with fields of deep red grass, capped with snow". In "The Time Monster
The Time Monster
The Time Monster is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 20 May to 24 June 1972.- Synopsis :...
" he reveals that "When I was a little boy, we used to live in a house that was perched halfway up the top of a mountain", explaining, "I ran down that mountain and I found that the rocks weren't grey at all - but they were red, brown and purple and gold. And those pathetic little patches of sludgy snow were shining white. Shining white in the sunlight". In "Gridlock" he further elaborates how Gallifrey's second sun would "rise in the south and the mountains would shine", with the silver-leafed trees looking like "a forest on fire" in the mornings. In "The Sound of Drums
The Sound of Drums
"The Sound of Drums" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 23 June 2007, and is the twelfth episode of Series 3 of the revived Doctor Who series...
", the Doctor says that Gallifrey was called the Shining World of the Seventh System.
The Citadel of the Time Lords stands on the Continent of Wild Endeavour, in the Mountains of Solace and Solitude ("The Sound of Drums"), where the capital is also located. Within the capital is the Panopticon
Panopticon
The Panopticon is a type of building designed by English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in the late eighteenth century. The concept of the design is to allow an observer to observe all inmates of an institution without them being able to tell whether or not they are being watched...
, under which is located the Eye of Harmony
Eye of Harmony
The Eye of Harmony is an artificial black hole created by the Time Lords to provide energy for their home world of Gallifrey and their time travel technology in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.-First appearances:...
, the nucleus of a black hole
Black hole
A black hole is a region of spacetime from which nothing, not even light, can escape. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will deform spacetime to form a black hole. Around a black hole there is a mathematically defined surface called an event horizon that...
that is their power source. The Eye provides the power required for time travel
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
(The Three Doctors, 1973; The Deadly Assassin
The Deadly Assassin
The Deadly Assassin is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 30 October to 20 November 1976...
, 1976), and all Time Lord TARDIS
TARDIS
The TARDISGenerally, TARDIS is written in all upper case letters—this convention was popularised by the Target novelisations of the 1970s...
time machines draw their power from it (the 1996 television movie). Also situated in the capital is the Matrix
Matrix (Doctor Who)
The Matrix, in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, is a massive computer system on the planet Gallifrey that acts as the repository of the combined knowledge of the Time Lords....
, the vast extradimensional computer network which acts as the repository of all Time Lord knowledge as well as containing the memories of dead Time Lords (The Deadly Assassin).
The Deadly Assassin mentions the existence of a section of the Citadel's population called the Shoobugans and dialogue mentions Plebeian class. This implies that not all people native to Gallifrey are Time Lords. Among Gallifrey's wildlife are birds called Flutterwings and The Mark of the Rani
The Mark of the Rani
The Mark of The Rani is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in two weekly parts from 2 February to 9 February 1985...
implies that a species similar to cats also exists. Spin-off fiction has also mentioned creatures called Tafelshrews.
Outside the city lie wastelands where "Outsiders", Gallifreyans who have dropped out of Time Lord society, live in less technological tribal communities. The wastes of Gallifrey include the Death Zone, an area that was used as a gladiator
Gladiator
A gladiator was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their legal and social standing and their lives by appearing in the...
ial arena by the first Time Lords, pitting various species kidnapped from their respective time zones against each other (although Dalek
Dalek
The Daleks are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Within the series, Daleks are cyborgs from the planet Skaro, created by the scientist Davros during the final years of a thousand-year war against the Thals...
s and Cybermen
Cyberman
The Cybermen are a fictional race of cyborgs who are amongst the most persistent enemies of the Doctor in the British science fiction television series, Doctor Who. Cybermen were originally a wholly organic species of humanoids originating on Earth's twin planet Mondas that began to implant more...
were considered too dangerous to use). Inside the Death Zone stands the Tomb of Rassilon
Rassilon
Rassilon is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. In the backstory of the programme, he was the founder of Time Lord society on the planet Gallifrey...
, the founder of Time Lord society (The Five Doctors
The Five Doctors
The Five Doctors is a special feature-length episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, produced in celebration of the programme's twentieth anniversary. It had its world premiere in the United States, on the Chicago PBS station WTTW and various other PBS member stations...
). Somewhere on Gallifrey there is also an institute called the Academy, which the Doctor and various other Time Lords have attended. It is not clear whether this building is in the capital or outside it and equally it is unclear whether it is a single building or different for each group of Time Lords (Borusa refers to Prydon Academy in The Deadly Assassin
The Deadly Assassin
The Deadly Assassin is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 30 October to 20 November 1976...
, but the Doctor in The Time Monster
The Time Monster
The Time Monster is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 20 May to 24 June 1972.- Synopsis :...
and The Sound of Drums
The Sound of Drums
"The Sound of Drums" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 23 June 2007, and is the twelfth episode of Series 3 of the revived Doctor Who series...
refers to it as a single Academy). Somewhere on Gallifrey is a portal known as the Untempered Schism, a gap in the fabric of reality. Eight-year-old Gallifreyans are brought before the Schism and made to look into the Time Vortex
Time vortex (Doctor Who)
In the science fiction television series Doctor Who, the time vortex is the medium that the TARDIS and other time machines travel through...
as part of an initiation ceremony into the Time Lord Academy. According to the Doctor, some are inspired, some run away, and some are driven mad. ("The Sound of Drums
The Sound of Drums
"The Sound of Drums" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 23 June 2007, and is the twelfth episode of Series 3 of the revived Doctor Who series...
"). In "The End of Time, Part One", the Master refers to his father's land on Gallifrey which had red grass and stretched across the slopes of Mount Perdition.
When the question of Gallifrey's location is discussed by humans, it is presumed to be located somewhere in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. Examples include episode one of "The Hand of Fear
The Hand of Fear
The Hand of Fear is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 2 October to 23 October 1976...
" (1976), episode two of "The Invisible Enemy
The Invisible Enemy
The Invisible Enemy is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 1 October to 22 October 1977...
" (1977) and "Human Nature
Human Nature (Doctor Who episode)
"Human Nature" is the eighth episode of the third series of the revived British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is the first episode of a two-part story written by Paul Cornell adapted from his 1995 Doctor Who novel Human Nature...
" (2007).
Spin-off material
Several of the spin-offDoctor Who spin-offs
Doctor Who spin-offs refers to material created outside of, but related to, the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who....
novels (which are of uncertain canonicity) have further information about Gallifrey. It is said to have a copper moon, Pazithi Gallifreya (first named in Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible
Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible
Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible is an original novel written by Marc Platt and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Seventh Doctor and Ace.-Plot:...
); the novel Lungbarrow
Lungbarrow
Lungbarrow is an original novel written by Marc Platt and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
also places Karn (setting of The Brain of Morbius
The Brain of Morbius
The Brain of Morbius is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 3 January to 24 January 1976...
, 1976) in Gallifrey's solar system, along with a frozen gas giant named Polarfrey and an "astrological figure" of "Kasterborous the Fibster".
On screen
Few details on the history of the planet itself emerge from the original series run from 1963–1989. In "The End of the WorldThe End of the World (Doctor Who)
"The End of the World" is the second episode of Series One of the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by show runner Russell T Davies and directed by Euros Lyn, the episode was first broadcast on 2 April 2005....
" (2005), the Ninth Doctor
Ninth Doctor
The Ninth Doctor is the ninth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by Christopher Eccleston....
states that his home planet has been destroyed in a war and that he is the last of the Time Lords. The episode also indicates that the Time Lords are remembered in the far future.
Subsequently, in "Dalek
Dalek (Doctor Who episode)
"Dalek" is an episode in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who that was first broadcast on 30 April 2005. It should not be confused with the first Dalek serial, The Daleks...
" (2005), it is revealed that the last great Time War
Time War (Doctor Who)
The Time War, more specifically called The Last Great Time War, is a conflict within the fictional universe of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
was fought between the Time Lords and the Dalek
Dalek
The Daleks are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Within the series, Daleks are cyborgs from the planet Skaro, created by the scientist Davros during the final years of a thousand-year war against the Thals...
s, ending in the obliteration of both sides and with only two apparent survivors; the Doctor and a lone Dalek that had somehow fallen through time and crashed on Earth. At the conclusion of that episode, that surviving Dalek self-destructs, leaving the Doctor believing that he was the sole survivor of the Time War. However, the Daleks return in "Bad Wolf
Bad Wolf
"Bad Wolf" is an episode in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast on June 11, 2005. The TARDIS crew find themselves trapped in the Gamestation, also known as Satellite 5, where they must battle to survive the cruel games...
"/"The Parting of the Ways
The Parting of the Ways
"The Parting of the Ways" is an episode in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast on 18 June 2005. It was the second episode of the two-part story that featured Christopher Eccleston making his last appearance as the Ninth Doctor...
" (2005), and subsequently in "Army of Ghosts
Army of Ghosts
"Army of Ghosts" is the twelfth and penultimate episode in the second series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who which was first broadcast on 1 July 2006...
"/"Doomsday
Doomsday (Doctor Who)
"Doomsday" is the thirteenth and final episode in the second series of the revival of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on 8 July 2006 and is the conclusion of a two-part story; the first part, "Army of Ghosts", was broadcast on 1 July 2006...
" (2006), "Daleks in Manhattan
Daleks in Manhattan
"Daleks in Manhattan" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 21 April 2007, and is the fourth episode of Series 3 of the revived Doctor Who series. It is part one of a two-part story, concluded in "Evolution of the Daleks"...
"/"Evolution of the Daleks
Evolution of the Daleks
"Evolution of the Daleks" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 28 April 2007, and is the fifth episode of Series 3 of the revived Doctor Who series. It is the conclusion of the two-part story begun in "Daleks in...
" (2007), "The Stolen Earth
The Stolen Earth
"The Stolen Earth" is the twelfth episode of the fourth series and the 750th overall episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The episode was written by show runner and head writer Russell T Davies and is the first of a two-part crossover story; the concluding episode is...
"/"Journey's End
Journey's End (Doctor Who)
"Journey's End" is the thirteenth episode of the fourth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who first broadcast on BBC One on 5 July 2008. It is the second episode of a two-part crossover story featuring the characters of spin-off shows Torchwood and The Sarah Jane...
" (2008) and "Victory of the Daleks
Victory of the Daleks
"Victory of the Daleks" is the third episode in the fifth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is written by Mark Gatiss and first broadcast on BBC One on 17 April 2010....
" (2010), the penultimate of these being the series 4
Doctor Who (series 4)
The fourth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who began on 25 December 2007 with the Christmas special "Voyage of the Damned". Following the special, a regular series of thirteen episodes aired, starting with "Partners in Crime" on 5 April 2008 and ending with "Journey's End"...
finale where Davros
Davros
Davros is a character from the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Davros is an archenemy of the Doctor and is the creator of the Doctor's deadliest enemies, the Daleks...
also returns, and the final of these being the first time the Eleventh Doctor meets the Daleks. During that episode, a new race of Daleks is created.
It is suggested that other Time Lords might have survived the war when the Face of Boe
Face of Boe
The Face of Boe is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Not portrayed on-screen by an actor, the Face of Boe is a wholly mechanical effect, resembling in appearance a gigantic, wrinkly human-like head with, in place of hair, numerous tendrils which...
utters its final words to the Doctor: "Know this, Time Lord: you are not alone" ("Gridlock"). These suspicions are later borne out in "Utopia
Utopia (Doctor Who)
"Utopia" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 16 June 2007 and is the eleventh episode of series three of the revived Doctor Who series...
" (2007), when the Tenth Doctor discovers that the renegade Time Lord the Master
Master (Doctor Who)
The Master is a recurring character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. He is a renegade Time Lord and the archenemy of the Doctor....
has survived the Time War and has been living in human form in the year 100 trillion, at the end of the material universe, a point so far forward in time that no Time Lord has ever travelled there.
The Doctor's reference to Gallifrey in "The Runaway Bride" marks the first time the name of his homeworld has been uttered on screen since the new series began. The Doctor's revelation that he is from Gallifrey elicits terror from the Empress of the Racnoss. John Smith (the Doctor in human form) also mentions Gallifrey in "Human Nature
Human Nature (Doctor Who)
Human Nature is an original novel written by Paul Cornell, from a plot by Cornell and Kate Orman, and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The novel was also serialised in e-book form on the BBC Doctor Who website, but was removed from the site in 2010...
".
The planet makes its first appearance in the revived series in "The Sound of Drums", where the Citadel, enclosed in a glass dome (as described by the Doctor in "Gridlock"
Gridlock (Doctor Who)
"Gridlock" is the third episode from the third series of the revived British science fiction television series Doctor Who which aired on 14 April 2007. The Doctor returns to a much grittier New Earth with Martha Jones and meets the Face of Boe one final time. But as New New York becomes a deadly...
), is seen in flashback as the Doctor describes it. Also seen is a ceremony initiating 8-year-old Gallifreyans — in particular the Master — into the Time Lord Academy.
The 2009 story The End of Time
The End of Time
The End of Time: The Next Revolution in Our Understanding of the Universe, also sold with the alternate subtitle The Next Revolution in Physics, is a 1999 science book in which the author Julian Barbour argues that time exists merely as an illusion.-Auto-biography:The book begins by describing how...
once again featured Gallifrey, which the Master releases from the Time Lock the Doctor had created to contain the war. However, Gallifrey's reemergence is eventually stopped and reversed after it was made clear that the release of Gallifrey would lead to the Time Lords destroying time - in effect destroying the universe - in order to defeat the Daleks. Resurrected Lord President Rassilon also believed that this action would elevate them to a higher form of existence, becoming "pure consciousness." Upon realizing this, the Doctor and the Master worked together to send the Time Lords and Gallifrey back into the Time Lock, at the expense of the Master's disappearance.
By the end of the war, Gallifrey was in ruins. The dome of the main city, the Time Lord capital, the Capitol, was shattered and dozens of Dalek saucers were crashed on the plains below. When Gallifrey appears over Earth, it appears as a huge orange sphere with lakes of lava.
It was stated by the 10th doctor in The End of Time
The End of Time
The End of Time: The Next Revolution in Our Understanding of the Universe, also sold with the alternate subtitle The Next Revolution in Physics, is a 1999 science book in which the author Julian Barbour argues that time exists merely as an illusion.-Auto-biography:The book begins by describing how...
that Gallifrey was not how he and The Master knew it in their youth. Implying that the Time Lords had resorted to desperate and deplorable measures to fight the Daleks, the Doctor was willing to break his code of non-violence to stop the return of the Time Lords.
Novels
Various spin-off novels have expanded on the history and nature of Gallifrey, although not all fans consider the information in them to be canonical.Marc Platt
Marc Platt
Marc Platt is a British writer. He is most known for his work with the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who.After studying catering at a technical college, Platt worked first for Trust House Forte, and then in administration for the BBC...
's novels Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible
Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible
Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible is an original novel written by Marc Platt and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Seventh Doctor and Ace.-Plot:...
and Lungbarrow
Lungbarrow
Lungbarrow is an original novel written by Marc Platt and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
, provide a detailed backstory for the civilisation seen in the main series. In the Dark Times (occasionally mentioned in the televised serials such as The Five Doctors
The Five Doctors
The Five Doctors is a special feature-length episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, produced in celebration of the programme's twentieth anniversary. It had its world premiere in the United States, on the Chicago PBS station WTTW and various other PBS member stations...
), Gallifrey was at the centre of an empire covering dozens of worlds and continually being extended by heroes such as Prydonius (whom the Time Lord chapter is named after). Ancient Gallifreyians are all telepathic and were ruled by a female cult centred on a figure called the Pythia, who controlled the population through mysticism and prophecies. When the prophetic powers of the last of the Pythias failed her, Rassilion, Omega and a shadowy figure known as The Other seized power in the name of science and rationality. Seeing this the Pythia committed suicide and cursed Gallifrey, killing all children in their wombs and making the world sterile. To combat this Rassilion restructured society and used genetic looms to create new generations of Gallifreyians, who emerge from the looms as fully grown adults. Each of the Great Houses is allotted a total of forty five cousins and given a regeneration cycle of thirteen lives. The Houses themselves are to some degree alive, in the same way TARDISes are and the furniture can move about, occasionally growing into 'Drudges' who function as servants for the family. The Doctor was loomed in the House of Lungbarrow, in the mountains of South Gallifrey, but unique among the houses cousins he has a belly button (Lungbarrow
Lungbarrow
Lungbarrow is an original novel written by Marc Platt and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
suggests that this is because he is a re-incarnation of The Other, but the latter BBC books featuring the Eighth Doctor
Eighth Doctor
The Eighth Doctor is the eighth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by Paul McGann...
, suggest he does actually have a Gallifreyian father and a human mother, as stated in the 1996 telemovie). This backstory explains why no children are seen in the classic series Gallifrey stories and provides an explanation for the male-centric nature of Time Lord society. This backstory is hard to reconcile with The Sound of Drums
The Sound of Drums
"The Sound of Drums" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 23 June 2007, and is the twelfth episode of Series 3 of the revived Doctor Who series...
which shows the Master as a child and the Doctor's reaction to Jenny's creation through a process similar to looming in The Doctor's Daughter
The Doctor's Daughter
"The Doctor's Daughter" is the sixth episode of the fourth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 10 May 2008.- Synopsis :...
. However, latter BBC books, such as The Infinity Doctors
The Infinity Doctors
The Infinity Doctors is a BBC Books original novel written by Lance Parkin and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
and Unnatural History
Unnatural History
Unnatural History is a compilation album produced by Coil. Including tracks that originally appeared on various compilations and limited edition releases along with some previously unreleased material...
, imply that the Doctor's origin is complex and that every version is somehow "true" (such as Susan's claim in the original version of An Unearthly Child
An Unearthly Child
The serial that became An Unearthly Child was originally commissioned from writer Anthony Coburn in June 1963, when it was intended to run as the second Doctor Who serial. At this stage, it was planned that the series would open with a serial entitled The Giants, to be written by BBC staff...
that she was born in the 49th century). Unnatural History
Unnatural History
Unnatural History is a compilation album produced by Coil. Including tracks that originally appeared on various compilations and limited edition releases along with some previously unreleased material...
contains a flash back in which the Doctor sees himself as a child, in the House of Lungbarrow, playing under the watchful gaze of his father. The Infinity Doctors
The Infinity Doctors
The Infinity Doctors is a BBC Books original novel written by Lance Parkin and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
implies that the "womb-born" did not completely die out and some families continued to exist in secret. This provides a possible explanation for existence of Irving Braxiatel
Irving Braxiatel
Irving Braxiatel or Cardinal Braxiatel is a fictional character from the Virgin New Adventures—spin-off novels based on the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who. He subsequently became a regular character in novels and audio dramas in the Bernice Summerfield universe...
, a Time Lord who claims to be the Doctor's brother yet is not one of the cousins from Lungbarrow and the implication in The Gallifrey Chronicles
The Gallifrey Chronicles
The Gallifrey Chronicles may refer to:*The Gallifrey Chronicles , a Doctor Who book written by John Peel*The Gallifrey Chronicles , a Doctor Who novel written by Lance Parkin...
that the character Marnal is The Master's father (whose existence is mentioned in The End of Time
The End of Time
The End of Time: The Next Revolution in Our Understanding of the Universe, also sold with the alternate subtitle The Next Revolution in Physics, is a 1999 science book in which the author Julian Barbour argues that time exists merely as an illusion.-Auto-biography:The book begins by describing how...
).
The Virgin New Adventures
Virgin New Adventures
The Virgin New Adventures were a series of novels from Virgin Publishing based on the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who...
establish a religion on Gallifrey centred around the three main gods, Time, Death and Pain. The Time Lords use these figures to understand the concepts they represent and in some cases make deals with them and become their chosen champions. The Seventh Doctor
Seventh Doctor
The Seventh Doctor is the seventh incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by the actor Sylvester McCoy....
is Time's Champion (as well as someone who makes frequent deals with or wages against Death to save his friends) and the audio play Master states that the Master is Death's champion. It's also briefly implied in Vampire Science
Vampire Science
Vampire Science is the second novel in the BBC Books series, the Eighth Doctor Adventures, based upon the BBC's long-running science fiction television series, Doctor Who...
, that the Eighth Doctor
Eighth Doctor
The Eighth Doctor is the eighth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by Paul McGann...
is Life's champion, implying the existence of another unseen figure. Happy Endings
Happy Endings (Doctor Who)
Happy Endings is an original novel written by Paul Cornell and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is the fiftieth book in the Virgin New Adventures series...
and other books imply that these gods are Eternals
Eternal (Doctor Who)
The Eternals are a race of cosmic beings first introduced in the Doctor Who TV adventure "Enlightenment." One Eternal who called himself Striker explained to the Doctor that he and his people lived outside of time, in the realm of eternity. They considered the mortal inhabitants of the universe to...
as seen in the serial Enlightenment
Enlightenment (Doctor Who)
Enlightenment is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was originally broadcast in four twice-weekly parts from March 1 to March 9, 1983...
.
In the Eighth Doctor Adventures
Eighth Doctor Adventures
The Eighth Doctor Adventures are a series of spin off novels based on the long running BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who and published under the BBC Books imprint. 73 books were published overall...
novel The Ancestor Cell
The Ancestor Cell
The Ancestor Cell is a novel by Peter Anghelides and Stephen Cole, based on the science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Eighth Doctor, Fitz Kreiner, Compassion and Romana III- as well as a brief appearance of the Third Doctor in a ghost-like state due to the Faction's...
by Peter Anghelides
Peter Anghelides
Peter Anghelides is an English author and dramatist best known for his work on various spin-offs related to the BBC television series Doctor Who.-Work:...
and Stephen Cole
Stephen Cole (writer)
Stephen Cole is an author of children's books and science fiction. He was also in charge of BBC Worldwide's merchandising of the BBC Television series Doctor Who between 1997 and 1999: this was a role which found him deciding on which stories should be released on video, commissioning and editing...
, Gallifrey is destroyed as a result of the Eighth Doctor
Eighth Doctor
The Eighth Doctor is the eighth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by Paul McGann...
's desire to prevent the voodoo cult Faction Paradox
Faction Paradox
Faction Paradox is a fictional time travelling cult/rebel group/organized crime syndicate, originally created by the author Lawrence Miles. The Faction's belief-system as portrayed has some similarities to voodoo, and is sometimes described as such...
from starting a war between the Time Lords and an unnamed Enemy. Hints about this future war are dropped in several books earlier in the series beginning with Lawrence Miles
Lawrence Miles
Lawrence Miles is a science fiction author known for his work on original Doctor Who novels and the subsequent spin-off Faction Paradox...
's Alien Bodies
Alien Bodies
Alien Bodies is an original novel written by Lawrence Miles and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Eighth Doctor and Sam. This story marks the first appearance of Faction Paradox, a time travelling Gallifreyan voodoo cult...
and the war itself plays out as it would have originally done in Miles' Faction Paradox series in which certain names are changed for copyright reasons (the Time Lords become the Great Houses and Gallifrey becomes the Home World). The war is fought across four dimensions and whole sections of history are blocked off by either side and it is also suggested that events cross into different universes (such as the events of Dead Romance
Dead Romance
Dead Romance is an original novel by Lawrence Miles, originally published as part of the Virgin New Adventures series. The New Adventures were a spin-off from the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
). In order to have boltholes or decoys in case of attack, the Time Lords have created nine separate planet Gallifreys (it even hinted that the original Gallifrey may at some point be reduced to ruins) and special looms to constantly produce new soldiers. By this time TARDISes have evolved to point where they appear human and reproduce sexually (the Doctor's companion Compassion
Compassion
Compassion is a virtue — one in which the emotional capacities of empathy and sympathy are regarded as a part of love itself, and a cornerstone of greater social interconnection and humanism — foundational to the highest principles in philosophy, society, and personhood.There is an aspect of...
is the first such TARDIS). It is also hinted that the Celestial Intervention Agency
Celestial Intervention Agency
The Celestial Intervention Agency is a fictional organization of Time Lords in the universe of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who....
will evolve into the beings of pure thought known as the Celestis, who observe the war from outside this dimension (the Last Parliament in which they sit resembles the Panopticon on Gallifrey and the closest anyone gets to describing them is similar to the Time Lords' robes). Faction Paradox itself is a counter to Time Lord society, dedicated to creating time-travel paradoxes, in contrast to the Time Lords' web of time. It was founded by a mysterious figure Grandfather Paradox, who it is believed was once a Time Lord from the House of Lungbarrow. The Ancestor Cell
The Ancestor Cell
The Ancestor Cell is a novel by Peter Anghelides and Stephen Cole, based on the science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Eighth Doctor, Fitz Kreiner, Compassion and Romana III- as well as a brief appearance of the Third Doctor in a ghost-like state due to the Faction's...
suggests that he is a future version of the Doctor, but this is retconned in The Gallifrey Chronicles
The Gallifrey Chronicles
The Gallifrey Chronicles may refer to:*The Gallifrey Chronicles , a Doctor Who book written by John Peel*The Gallifrey Chronicles , a Doctor Who novel written by Lance Parkin...
, to him being everyone's potential future self. When the Doctor destroys Gallifrey the war no longer happens and his actions also apparently (and retroactively) wipe the Time Lords from history. It is unclear what the attitude of the new Doctor Who television series is toward the information in the novels and audio plays, the latter produced by Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult British science fiction properties...
. However, a number of writers of the novels and audio plays are also writing for the new television series, and Russell T Davies refers to the comic strips, audio plays and novels in an essay describing the Time War, written for the Doctor Who Annual 2006.
In the last regular Eighth Doctor novel, The Gallifrey Chronicles
The Gallifrey Chronicles (2005 novel)
For the John Peel book of the same name, see: The Gallifrey Chronicles The Gallifrey Chronicles is a BBC Books original novel written by Lance Parkin and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
by Lance Parkin
Lance Parkin
Lance Parkin is a British author, best known for writing fiction and reference books for television series, in particular Doctor Who and Emmerdale...
, it is revealed that while Gallifrey was destroyed, the Time Lords were not erased from history. However, the cataclysm sets up an event horizon
Event horizon
In general relativity, an event horizon is a boundary in spacetime beyond which events cannot affect an outside observer. In layman's terms it is defined as "the point of no return" i.e. the point at which the gravitational pull becomes so great as to make escape impossible. The most common case...
in time that prevents anyone from entering Gallifrey's relative past or travelling from it to the present or future. The Time Lords also survive within the Matrix, which has been downloaded into the Eighth Doctor's mind, but their reconstruction requires a sufficiently advanced computer. At the novel's end, the question of whether or not the Time Lords will be restored remains unanswered, although if the events of the novel are to tie in with later events in the TV series it must be assumed that Gallifrey was at some point restored, only to be destroyed again during the events of the Time War. This could also provide a possible explanation for Rassilon apparently being alive in The End of Time
The End of Time
The End of Time: The Next Revolution in Our Understanding of the Universe, also sold with the alternate subtitle The Next Revolution in Physics, is a 1999 science book in which the author Julian Barbour argues that time exists merely as an illusion.-Auto-biography:The book begins by describing how...
, where previous stories show him having died millennia before.
Television series executive producer Russell T Davies wrote in Doctor Who Magazine
Doctor Who Magazine
Doctor Who Magazine is a magazine devoted to the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
#356 that there is no connection between the War of the books and the Time War of the television series. In the same Doctor Who Magazine column, Davies compared Gallifrey being destroyed twice with Earth's two World Wars. He also said that he was "usually happy for old and new fans to invent the Complete History of the Doctor in their heads, completely free of the production team's hot and heavy hands".
Despite Davies' unequivocal statement that the two wars are distinct, Lance Parkin, in his Doctor Who chronology AHistory, suggests in a speculative essay that the two destructions of Gallifrey may be the same event seen from two different perspectives, with the Eighth Doctor
Eighth Doctor
The Eighth Doctor is the eighth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by Paul McGann...
present twice (and both times culpable for the planet's destruction).
External links
- Rassilon, Omega, and that Other guy — every fact about Gallifrey no matter how apocryphal