History of the Time Lords
Encyclopedia
The Time Lord
s are fictional characters, a race of humanoid
s originating on the planet Gallifrey
, seen in the British
science fiction television series Doctor Who
. Time Lords are so called because they are able to travel in
and manipulate time through technology to a far greater degree than any other civilization.
Details of the history of the Time Lords in the television series are sketchy and as is usual for Doctor Who continuity, fraught with supposition and contradiction. This history covers the various versions given on screen and in the spin-off media
based on the television series. The canonicity of the spin-off media in relation to the television series, and each other, is open to interpretation.
The Time Lords become the masters of time travel when one of their number, the scientist Omega
, creates an energy source to power their experiments in time (The Three Doctors). To this end, Omega uses a stellar manipulation device, the Hand of Omega
, to rework a nearby star into a new form to serve as that source (Remembrance of the Daleks
). Unfortunately, the star flares into a supernova
, then collapses into a black hole
. Omega is thought killed in the explosion, but unknown to everyone, somehow survives in an antimatter
universe beyond the black hole's singularity. In "The Satan Pit
", the Tenth Doctor
refers to this event when he claims that his people "invented black holes".
The founder of Time Lord society, however, and its most revered figure, is Rassilon
. Rassilon's name reverberates through Time Lord legend and culture, and is applied to many artifacts of power. Rassilon takes a singularity (assumed by fans and the spin-off media to be the same one as Omega's) and places it beneath the Time Lords' citadel on Gallifrey. This perfectly balanced Eye of Harmony
then serves as the power source for their civilization as well as their time machines (The Deadly Assassin
).
The early part of Time Lord history is known as the Dark Time, when the first Time Lords abuse their powers over time by manipulating lesser species. Among these abuses is the use of the Time Scoop to abduct beings from throughout history to participate in gladiator
ial games (with the exception of such races as Dalek
s and Cybermen who "play the game too well" and are thus considered too dangerous to be used) in an area of Gallifrey known as the Death Zone (The Five Doctors
).
During his rule, Rassilon leads the Time Lords in a war against the Great Vampires, a war so horrific that the Time Lords forswear violence from that point on. The weapons used by the Time Lords against the vampires in that war include Bowships that fired giant bolts through the Great Vampires' hearts. The Doctor encounters a surviving vampire in E-Space in the serial State of Decay
.
Eventually, Rassilon dies, or is deposed; contradictory legends surround his demise. His body is placed in the Dark Tower in the Death Zone, which becomes known as the Tomb of Rassilon (The Five Doctors).
Over 4.6 billion years prior to 2007 AD, the Time Lords wipe out the Racnoss for unstated reasons, although it was most likely because of their devouring of entire worlds. The surviving Racnoss escape in their ship, which drifts into the Solar System
and eventually forms the core of the planet Earth ("The Runaway Bride
").
At some point in their history the Time Lords interact with the civilization of the planet Minyos, giving them advanced technology. This has disastrous results, with the Minyans destroying themselves in a series of nuclear war
s (Underworld
).
Apparently as a result of this, the Time Lords adopt an official policy of neutrality and non-interference, acting only as observers save in cases of great injustice. However, given the existence of the Celestial Intervention Agency and of renegade Time Lords such as the Doctor
, the Master
, the Meddling Monk
, the Rani
and the War Chief, the policy seems to have frequently been breached.
", the Ninth Doctor
reveals that Gallifrey has been destroyed in the last great "Time War
" and that he is the last of the Time Lords. In "Dalek
", the Doctor further reveals that the War involved the Dalek
s and the Time Lords, and that both sides were obliterated in the final battle.
Producer Russell T Davies wrote in the April 28, 2005 issue of Doctor Who Magazine
that the Time War in the series and the one in the novels are unrelated. The survival of several Daleks from the Time War, as seen in the 2005 and 2006 series, however, suggests that the fate of the Time Lords may not be definitive, as do the final words of the Face of Boe
in "Gridlock
" (2007). In "Utopia
" it is revealed that the Master has also survived. In "The Doctor's Daughter
" the Doctor's genetic information is taken against his will and used by the human faction of the planet Messaline colonists to create a daughter via a Progenation Machine. This daughter, Jenny had two hearts, and inherited the Doctor's brilliance and a number of superhuman qualities, meaning in some way the Time Lord race did live on.
In the 2008 finale "The Stolen Earth
"/"Journey's End
", the Doctor's severed hand - brimming with discarded regenerative energy - comes into contact with human companion Donna Noble
and as a result creates a half-Human version of the Doctor, and transforms Donna into a half-Human, half Time Lord. The human Doctor has only one heart and a finite, human life span, but retains all his brilliance - albeit compromised by human emotions and weaknesses. Donna on the other hand came into possession of Time Lord intellect and memory, but her biologically human brain could not store this information and the Doctor forced a complete memory wipe of himself onto her, leaving her essentially human again (but possibly still biologically a hybrid). The human hybrid Doctor clone was left to live out his life with Rose Tyler
on a parallel world.
The 2009 two-part special "The End of Time
" revealed more about the conclusion of the Time War. The Time Lords were planning on eradicating the material universe in order to win the war, hoping to live on as beings of pure consciousness, in a manoeuvre they dubbed "the Final Sanction". For this reason, the Doctor imprisoned the events of the war within a "time lock", isolating them from the rest of space and time. When the Master inadvertently opened the time lock, the Time Lords intended to carry out the Final Sanction, until the Doctor and the Master together resealed the events of the Time War within the lock.
The Doctor Who Annual 2006 article refers to the Etra Prime Incident of the audio play The Apocalypse Element as an early skirmish in the Time War.
Of the many, sometimes contradictory, accounts of Time Lord history, the most developed single vision may have been seen in the licensed spin-offs, in particular the Virgin New Adventures and Virgin Missing Adventures
novels and, to a lesser degree of consistency, their successors, the BBC Books
Doctor Who novels. Due to Virgin's low print runs, their general non-availability outside of Britain, and the fact that the vision has never been translated to screen, their influence is uneven within the global Doctor Who fan community.
The Virgin novels, and by extension the BBC novels, took heavily from the so-called "Cartmel Masterplan" devised by former Doctor Who script editor Andrew Cartmel
, which was supposed to explain the Doctor's origins and his ties to Gallifrey's ancient history. Elements of the Masterplan were supposed to be revealed over the course of Cartmel's tenure on the series, but ultimately, as the programme ceased production in 1989, only hints of it surfaced in Seasons 25 and 26 and were never made explicit.
According to the novels, some millions of years ago the planet Gallifrey is home to a civilisation that can see all of the past and future. Ancient Gallifrey is also a matriarchy, ruled over by a mystical religion consisting of a cult built around the Pythia, a great and powerful priestess. Among the ancient Gallifreyans are time-sensitives, marked by their red hair, who pilot early Gallifreyan time machines. Rassilon is rumoured to have been one of these time pilots, who are known as Heroes (as much a title as a term of adulation). Rassilon, as a scientist, opposes the religious and monarchical power wielded by the Pythia.
Gallifrey begins its wars against the Great Vampires during this period. Rassilon commands a fleet of Bowships that wins the first war and his rationalist movement gains popular and political support as a result.
The rule of the Pythia is finally overthrown by Rassilon and two other scientists, Omega and "the Other
", a mysterious figure whose actual name has been lost to history. This marks the start of the Intuitive Revolution, turning Gallifrey into a society based on rationality and a republic
with an elected President, although a caste system remains. The three are ultimately responsible for Gallifrey's move towards a purely scientific society.
However, when overthrown the Pythia curses the people with sterility before casting herself into an abyss. The curse results in the still birth that night of every unborn child on Gallifrey, including Rassilon's own son. Persecuted, her priestesses and acolytes flee to a nearby planet where they become the Sisterhood of Karn (The Brain of Morbius
).
The Pythia's curse forces Rassilon to find a new way to reproduce, leading him to create the Looms, cloning machines that can create new Gallifreyans to replace the dead. The Looms are eventually incorporated into great Houses of Cousins, to regulate the population levels and organise the new society. Time Lords are born fully grown from the Looms, although they still need to be educated.
Rassilon, with the assistance of Omega and the Other, applies transdimensional engineering to the creation of TARDIS technology. Omega then proceeds to concentrate completely on his time travel experiments. The Other's role is unclear, but he seems to have held the alliance between Rassilon and Omega together, and is a part of the project that produces the Hand of Omega. Omega uses the Hand on the star Qqaba (named in the comic strip Star Death by Alan Moore
, DWM
#47 and the novel The Infinity Doctors
by Lance Parkin
), and vanishes, presumed dead, in the resulting supernova which creates the Eye of Harmony. Rassilon then takes control of both the Eye and Gallifreyan society, and the Time Lords are now able to live up to their name.
Eventually, Rassilon's rule becomes dictatorial and reaches the point where he becomes obsessed with implementing his reforms and preserving Gallifreyan society as he sees it before the end of his life. Despite the Other's protests, bloody purges begin, and Rassilon begins to dabble in immortality
. Meanwhile, knowing that Rassilon will hold his family hostage to secure his cooperation, the Other tells his granddaughter Susan
to go into hiding. He then literally throws himself into the Looms, disintegrating and spreading his genetic code into the machines.
A year later, the Doctor arrives in his "borrowed" TARDIS from Gallifrey's future and discovers Susan on the streets of the city, where she has been living since failing to make it off-world. Somehow, Susan recognises him as her grandfather and he also knows her name. The Doctor then leaves Gallifrey's past, taking Susan with him into his exile. (Many of the novels (especially Lungbarrow
and The Infinity Doctors) have implied that the Doctor may be the Other, genetically reincarnated
from the Looms, but the truth of the matter remains uncertain.)
Rassilon, now absolute ruler of Gallifrey, leads the Time Lords in further wars against the Great Vampires and other otherdimensional beings released because of the use of time travel, whom he considers dangerous to the universe. Aside from the Bowships, the Time Lords also use N-Forms, extra-dimensional war machines developed by the Patrexes chapter that attack planets where they detected the presence of vampires. The Doctor encounters a reactivated N-form in the Virgin New Adventures
novel Damaged Goods, by Russell T Davies.
Eventually, the Pythia's curse is lifted with the arrival of the Fourth Doctor
's companion Leela
on Gallifrey. Leela falls in love and marries a Gallifreyan, Andred (The Invasion of Time
), and at the conclusion of the novel Lungbarrow is pregnant — the first naturally conceived child on Gallifrey for millennia.
audio play Zagreus
, a historical simulation shows the existence of a vampiric race connected with Gallifrey which Rassilon destroys in his purges. The novels Goth Opera
by Paul Cornell
and Blood Harvest
by Terrance Dicks
suggest that Rassilon becomes a vampire himself to attain eternal life, a belief shared by a Gallifreyan cult also seen in Cornell's comic strip story Blood Invocation (Doctor Who Magazine
Yearbook 1995).
The Big Finish Productions
audio play Gallifrey: The Inquiry reveals further details of the Time Lord encounter with the Minyans: it is actually the secret test of a Time Lord timeonic fusion device that destroys Minyos, an incident that is covered up by the High Council and leads to their policy of non-interference.
's former companion, Romana
, returns from E-Space (where she remained at the end of Warriors' Gate
) and rises to become President of the High Council. She is subsequently captured and imprisoned by the Daleks on the Etra Prime planetoid for twenty years (The Apocalypse Element
) until she escapes on the eve of their invasion of Gallifrey. The Dalek invasion is repelled with the help of the Sixth Doctor
, although the Daleks manage to take control of the Seriphia galaxy, using it as a new power base. Romana reassumes her position as Lord President.
Her tenure, however, is far from smooth. In the Gallifrey audio series
, the emergence of a terrorist group known as Free Time, which wants to break the technological monopoly on time travel, threatens not just Gallifrey, but its time travel-capable allies. Romana's progressive policies, including opening the Academy to non-Gallifreyans, face opposition from more conservative elements. The escape of Pandora — an evil from Gallifrey's past — from the Matrix
further complicated matters. Indeed, it is eventually revealed that Pandora is manipulating the Free Time zealots.
Although Romana initially wards off an attempted coup by Inquisitor Darkel, Pandora manages to manifest herself in the form of Romana's first incarnation. Both Romanas claim the title of Imperiatrix, absolute ruler of Gallifrey, and their conflict plunges the planet into civil war. Romana II is eventually able to eliminate the Pandora entity, at the cost of the destruction of the Matrix. Romana is then removed from the Presidency and replaced by a Time Lord named Matthias. The series ends on a cliffhanger, with Gallifrey on the brink of economic and social collapse as well as in danger of being overrun by a Free Time virus, while most of the cast are trapped with no apparent means of escape.
, Romana regenerates into a third incarnation, a more martial and war-like ruler looking ahead to a predicted future war with an unnamed Enemy. In The Ancestor Cell, the Eighth Doctor
apparently destroys Gallifrey and retroactively wipes the Time Lords from history to prevent the voodoo cult Faction Paradox
from starting that war.
In the last regular Eighth Doctor novel, The Gallifrey Chronicles
by Lance Parkin
, it is revealed that while Gallifrey is destroyed, the Time Lords are 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. Some Time Lords, however, may have survived, including Iris Wildthyme
, the Master
and the Minister of Chance from Death Comes to Time
.
The memories of the Time Lords also survive within the Matrix, which has been downloaded into the Eighth Doctor's mind, but their reconstruction will require a sufficiently advanced computer. At the novel's end, the question of whether or not the Time Lords would be restored remained unanswered. However, it can be assumed that both they and the planet are restored at some point before the start of the 2005 series if the novels are to remain consistent with the new series' continuity.
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 are fictional characters, a race of humanoid
Humanoid
A humanoid is something that has an appearance resembling a human being. The term first appeared in 1912 to refer to fossils which were morphologically similar to, but not identical with, those of the human skeleton. Although this usage was common in the sciences for much of the 20th century, it...
s originating on the planet Gallifrey
Gallifrey
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 Lords...
, seen in the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
science fiction television 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...
. Time Lords are so called because they are able to travel in
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...
and manipulate time through technology to a far greater degree than any other civilization.
Details of the history of the Time Lords in the television series are sketchy and as is usual for Doctor Who continuity, fraught with supposition and contradiction. This history covers the various versions given on screen and in the spin-off media
Doctor 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....
based on the television series. The canonicity of the spin-off media in relation to the television series, and each other, is open to interpretation.
On screen
What little has actually been established on screen, arranged roughly in chronological order, is as follows:The Time Lords become the masters of time travel when one of their number, the scientist Omega
Omega (Doctor Who)
Omega is a fictional character from the long-running British science fiction television series, Doctor Who. In the context of the series, Omega is known as one of the founding fathers of the Time Lords of the planet Gallifrey, and is a revered figure in Time Lord history together with the equally...
, creates an energy source to power their experiments in time (The Three Doctors). To this end, Omega uses a stellar manipulation device, the Hand of Omega
Hand of Omega
The Hand of Omega is a fictional device from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who.In Remembrance of the Daleks the Seventh Doctor explains that the "Hand of Omega" is the mythical name for the remote stellar manipulator invented by Omega, the first of the Time Lords of the...
, to rework a nearby star into a new form to serve as that source (Remembrance of the Daleks
Remembrance of the Daleks
Remembrance of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 5 October to 26 October 1988....
). Unfortunately, the star flares into a supernova
Supernova
A supernova is a stellar explosion that is more energetic than a nova. It is pronounced with the plural supernovae or supernovas. Supernovae are extremely luminous and cause a burst of radiation that often briefly outshines an entire galaxy, before fading from view over several weeks or months...
, then collapses into 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...
. Omega is thought killed in the explosion, but unknown to everyone, somehow survives in an antimatter
Antimatter
In particle physics, antimatter is the extension of the concept of the antiparticle to matter, where antimatter is composed of antiparticles in the same way that normal matter is composed of particles...
universe beyond the black hole's singularity. In "The Satan Pit
The Satan Pit
"The Satan Pit" is an episode in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is the second part of a two-part story, following "The Impossible Planet". With the TARDIS seemingly lost, Rose and the remaining humans are trapped on the base with the possessed Ood, while the planet...
", 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...
refers to this event when he claims that his people "invented black holes".
The founder of Time Lord society, however, and its most revered figure, is 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...
. Rassilon's name reverberates through Time Lord legend and culture, and is applied to many artifacts of power. Rassilon takes a singularity (assumed by fans and the spin-off media to be the same one as Omega's) and places it beneath the Time Lords' citadel on Gallifrey. This perfectly balanced 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:...
then serves as the power source for their civilization as well as their time machines (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...
).
The early part of Time Lord history is known as the Dark Time, when the first Time Lords abuse their powers over time by manipulating lesser species. Among these abuses is the use of the Time Scoop to abduct beings from throughout history to participate in 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 games (with the exception of such races as 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 who "play the game too well" and are thus considered too dangerous to be used) in an area of Gallifrey known as the Death Zone (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...
).
During his rule, Rassilon leads the Time Lords in a war against the Great Vampires, a war so horrific that the Time Lords forswear violence from that point on. The weapons used by the Time Lords against the vampires in that war include Bowships that fired giant bolts through the Great Vampires' hearts. The Doctor encounters a surviving vampire in E-Space in the serial State of Decay
State of Decay
State of Decay is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 22 November to 13 December 1980. The serial was the second of three loosely connected serials known as the E-Space trilogy...
.
Eventually, Rassilon dies, or is deposed; contradictory legends surround his demise. His body is placed in the Dark Tower in the Death Zone, which becomes known as the Tomb of Rassilon (The Five Doctors).
Over 4.6 billion years prior to 2007 AD, the Time Lords wipe out the Racnoss for unstated reasons, although it was most likely because of their devouring of entire worlds. The surviving Racnoss escape in their ship, which drifts into the Solar System
Solar System
The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...
and eventually forms the core of the planet Earth ("The Runaway Bride
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...
").
At some point in their history the Time Lords interact with the civilization of the planet Minyos, giving them advanced technology. This has disastrous results, with the Minyans destroying themselves in a series of nuclear war
Nuclear warfare
Nuclear warfare, or atomic warfare, is a military conflict or political strategy in which nuclear weaponry is detonated on an opponent. Compared to conventional warfare, nuclear warfare can be vastly more destructive in range and extent of damage...
s (Underworld
Underworld (Doctor Who)
Underworld is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 7 January - 28 January 1978.-Synopsis:...
).
Apparently as a result of this, the Time Lords adopt an official policy of neutrality and non-interference, acting only as observers save in cases of great injustice. However, given the existence of the Celestial Intervention Agency and of renegade Time Lords such as 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....
, 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....
, the Meddling Monk
Meddling Monk
The Meddling Monk, or simply The Monk, was a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Played by the British comic actor Peter Butterworth, the character appeared in two stories: as an adversary of the First Doctor.Other than the...
, the Rani
Rani (Doctor Who)
The Rani is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. She was played by Kate O'Mara. The word "Rani" means "queen" in the Urdu and Hindi languages and "The Rani" follows the naming convention for other renegade timelords, "The Doctor," "The Monk," "The War...
and the War Chief, the policy seems to have frequently been breached.
The Time War
In the 2005 series episode "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....
", 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....
reveals that Gallifrey has been destroyed in 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...
" and that he is the last of the Time Lords. 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...
", the Doctor further reveals that the War involved 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 and the Time Lords, and that both sides were obliterated in the final battle.
Producer Russell T Davies wrote in the April 28, 2005 issue of Doctor Who Magazine
Doctor Who Magazine
Doctor Who Magazine is a magazine devoted to the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
that the Time War in the series and the one in the novels are unrelated. The survival of several Daleks from the Time War, as seen in the 2005 and 2006 series, however, suggests that the fate of the Time Lords may not be definitive, as do the final words of 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...
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...
" (2007). 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...
" it is revealed that the Master has also survived. 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 :...
" the Doctor's genetic information is taken against his will and used by the human faction of the planet Messaline colonists to create a daughter via a Progenation Machine. This daughter, Jenny had two hearts, and inherited the Doctor's brilliance and a number of superhuman qualities, meaning in some way the Time Lord race did live on.
In the 2008 finale "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...
", the Doctor's severed hand - brimming with discarded regenerative energy - comes into contact with human companion Donna Noble
Donna Noble
Donna Noble is a fictional character played by Catherine Tate in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A secretary from Chiswick, London, she is a companion of the Tenth Doctor, appearing in one scene at the end of the final episode of the 2006 series,...
and as a result creates a half-Human version of the Doctor, and transforms Donna into a half-Human, half Time Lord. The human Doctor has only one heart and a finite, human life span, but retains all his brilliance - albeit compromised by human emotions and weaknesses. Donna on the other hand came into possession of Time Lord intellect and memory, but her biologically human brain could not store this information and the Doctor forced a complete memory wipe of himself onto her, leaving her essentially human again (but possibly still biologically a hybrid). The human hybrid Doctor clone was left to live out his life with Rose Tyler
Rose Tyler
Rose Marion Tyler is a fictional character portrayed by Billie Piper in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and was created by series producer Russell T Davies...
on a parallel world.
The 2009 two-part special "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...
" revealed more about the conclusion of the Time War. The Time Lords were planning on eradicating the material universe in order to win the war, hoping to live on as beings of pure consciousness, in a manoeuvre they dubbed "the Final Sanction". For this reason, the Doctor imprisoned the events of the war within a "time lock", isolating them from the rest of space and time. When the Master inadvertently opened the time lock, the Time Lords intended to carry out the Final Sanction, until the Doctor and the Master together resealed the events of the Time War within the lock.
The Doctor Who Annual 2006 article refers to the Etra Prime Incident of the audio play The Apocalypse Element as an early skirmish in the Time War.
New Adventures
Virgin Missing Adventures
The Virgin Missing Adventures were a series of novels from Virgin Publishing based on the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who, which had been cancelled in 1989, featuring stories set between televised episodes of the programme. The novels were published from 1994 to 1997, and...
novels and, to a lesser degree of consistency, their successors, the BBC Books
BBC Books
BBC Books is an imprint majority owned and managed by Random House. The minority shareholder is BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation...
Doctor Who novels. Due to Virgin's low print runs, their general non-availability outside of Britain, and the fact that the vision has never been translated to screen, their influence is uneven within the global Doctor Who fan community.
The Virgin novels, and by extension the BBC novels, took heavily from the so-called "Cartmel Masterplan" devised by former Doctor Who script editor Andrew Cartmel
Andrew Cartmel
Andrew Cartmel is a British science fiction writer and journalist, and former script editor of Doctor Who. He has also worked as a script editor on other television series, as a magazine editor, a film studies lecturer and as a novelist.-Biography:...
, which was supposed to explain the Doctor's origins and his ties to Gallifrey's ancient history. Elements of the Masterplan were supposed to be revealed over the course of Cartmel's tenure on the series, but ultimately, as the programme ceased production in 1989, only hints of it surfaced in Seasons 25 and 26 and were never made explicit.
According to the novels, some millions of years ago the planet Gallifrey is home to a civilisation that can see all of the past and future. Ancient Gallifrey is also a matriarchy, ruled over by a mystical religion consisting of a cult built around the Pythia, a great and powerful priestess. Among the ancient Gallifreyans are time-sensitives, marked by their red hair, who pilot early Gallifreyan time machines. Rassilon is rumoured to have been one of these time pilots, who are known as Heroes (as much a title as a term of adulation). Rassilon, as a scientist, opposes the religious and monarchical power wielded by the Pythia.
Gallifrey begins its wars against the Great Vampires during this period. Rassilon commands a fleet of Bowships that wins the first war and his rationalist movement gains popular and political support as a result.
The rule of the Pythia is finally overthrown by Rassilon and two other scientists, Omega and "the Other
Other (Doctor Who)
The Other is a fictional character in the expanded universe of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A legendary figure in Time Lord history, the Other does not appear in the television series itself, but is mentioned several times in the spin-off media based on the...
", a mysterious figure whose actual name has been lost to history. This marks the start of the Intuitive Revolution, turning Gallifrey into a society based on rationality and a republic
Republic
A republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of...
with an elected President, although a caste system remains. The three are ultimately responsible for Gallifrey's move towards a purely scientific society.
However, when overthrown the Pythia curses the people with sterility before casting herself into an abyss. The curse results in the still birth that night of every unborn child on Gallifrey, including Rassilon's own son. Persecuted, her priestesses and acolytes flee to a nearby planet where they become the Sisterhood of Karn (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...
).
The Pythia's curse forces Rassilon to find a new way to reproduce, leading him to create the Looms, cloning machines that can create new Gallifreyans to replace the dead. The Looms are eventually incorporated into great Houses of Cousins, to regulate the population levels and organise the new society. Time Lords are born fully grown from the Looms, although they still need to be educated.
Rassilon, with the assistance of Omega and the Other, applies transdimensional engineering to the creation of TARDIS technology. Omega then proceeds to concentrate completely on his time travel experiments. The Other's role is unclear, but he seems to have held the alliance between Rassilon and Omega together, and is a part of the project that produces the Hand of Omega. Omega uses the Hand on the star Qqaba (named in the comic strip Star Death by Alan Moore
Alan Moore
Alan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
, DWM
Doctor Who Magazine
Doctor Who Magazine is a magazine devoted to the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
#47 and the novel 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...
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...
), and vanishes, presumed dead, in the resulting supernova which creates the Eye of Harmony. Rassilon then takes control of both the Eye and Gallifreyan society, and the Time Lords are now able to live up to their name.
Eventually, Rassilon's rule becomes dictatorial and reaches the point where he becomes obsessed with implementing his reforms and preserving Gallifreyan society as he sees it before the end of his life. Despite the Other's protests, bloody purges begin, and Rassilon begins to dabble in immortality
Immortality
Immortality is the ability to live forever. It is unknown whether human physical immortality is an achievable condition. Biological forms have inherent limitations which may or may not be able to be overcome through medical interventions or engineering...
. Meanwhile, knowing that Rassilon will hold his family hostage to secure his cooperation, the Other tells his 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...
to go into hiding. He then literally throws himself into the Looms, disintegrating and spreading his genetic code into the machines.
A year later, the Doctor arrives in his "borrowed" TARDIS from Gallifrey's future and discovers Susan on the streets of the city, where she has been living since failing to make it off-world. Somehow, Susan recognises him as her grandfather and he also knows her name. The Doctor then leaves Gallifrey's past, taking Susan with him into his exile. (Many of the novels (especially Lungbarrow
Lungbarrow
Lungbarrow is an original novel written by Marc Platt and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
and The Infinity Doctors) have implied that the Doctor may be the Other, genetically reincarnated
Reincarnation
Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...
from the Looms, but the truth of the matter remains uncertain.)
Rassilon, now absolute ruler of Gallifrey, leads the Time Lords in further wars against the Great Vampires and other otherdimensional beings released because of the use of time travel, whom he considers dangerous to the universe. Aside from the Bowships, the Time Lords also use N-Forms, extra-dimensional war machines developed by the Patrexes chapter that attack planets where they detected the presence of vampires. The Doctor encounters a reactivated N-form in 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...
novel Damaged Goods, by Russell T Davies.
Eventually, the Pythia's curse is lifted with the arrival of the Fourth Doctor
Fourth Doctor
The Fourth Doctor is the fourth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC British television science-fiction series Doctor Who....
's companion Leela
Leela (Doctor Who)
Leela is a fictional character played by Louise Jameson in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Leela was a companion of the Fourth Doctor and a regular in the programme from 1977 to 1978...
on Gallifrey. Leela falls in love and marries a Gallifreyan, Andred (The Invasion of Time
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...
), and at the conclusion of the novel Lungbarrow is pregnant — the first naturally conceived child on Gallifrey for millennia.
Big Finish Productions
In the Big Finish ProductionsBig Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult British science fiction properties...
audio play Zagreus
Zagreus (Doctor Who audio)
Zagreus is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. This audio drama was presented on three compact discs, and was made by Big Finish as their primary release to celebrate forty years of Doctor Who.-Plot:Following directly...
, a historical simulation shows the existence of a vampiric race connected with Gallifrey which Rassilon destroys in his purges. The novels Goth Opera
Goth Opera
Goth Opera is an original Doctor Who novel, published by Virgin Publishing in their Missing Adventures range of Doctor Who novels...
by Paul Cornell
Paul Cornell
Paul Cornell is a British writer best known for his work in television drama as well as Doctor Who fiction, and as the creator of one of the Doctor's spin-off companions, Bernice Summerfield....
and Blood Harvest
Blood Harvest
Blood Harvest is an original novel written by Terrance Dicks and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features vampires in common with Dicks' 1980 television serial State of Decay and makes reference to that story's events as well as to those of The...
by Terrance Dicks
Terrance Dicks
Terrance Dicks is an English writer, best known for his work in television and for writing a large number of popular children's books during the 1970s and 80s.- Early career :...
suggest that Rassilon becomes a vampire himself to attain eternal life, a belief shared by a Gallifreyan cult also seen in Cornell's comic strip story Blood Invocation (Doctor Who Magazine
Doctor Who Magazine
Doctor Who Magazine is a magazine devoted to the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
Yearbook 1995).
The 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...
audio play Gallifrey: The Inquiry reveals further details of the Time Lord encounter with the Minyans: it is actually the secret test of a Time Lord timeonic fusion device that destroys Minyos, an incident that is covered up by the High Council and leads to their policy of non-interference.
Later history
The recent history of Gallifrey has been referred to in the spin-off media as well as the television series. In addition to the uncertain canonicity of the spin-offs, where these various events fit on a time line, or even if they can be consolidated into a single one, is also unclear. The spin-off media have also suggested that they each take place in separate continuities.Audio plays
Echoing similar events in the novels, the Fourth DoctorFourth Doctor
The Fourth Doctor is the fourth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC British television science-fiction series Doctor Who....
's former companion, Romana
Romana
Romana, short for Romanadvoratrelundar, is a fictional character in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
, returns from E-Space (where she remained at the end of Warriors' Gate
Warriors' Gate
Warriors' Gate is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was written by the English author Stephen Gallagher and first broadcast in four weekly parts from 3 January to 24 January 1981...
) and rises to become President of the High Council. She is subsequently captured and imprisoned by the Daleks on the Etra Prime planetoid for twenty years (The Apocalypse Element
The Apocalypse Element
The Apocalypse Element is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It forms the second serial in the Dalek Empire arc, following on from events in The Genocide Machine...
) until she escapes on the eve of their invasion of Gallifrey. The Dalek invasion is repelled with the help of the Sixth Doctor
Sixth Doctor
The Sixth Doctor is the sixth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by Colin Baker...
, although the Daleks manage to take control of the Seriphia galaxy, using it as a new power base. Romana reassumes her position as Lord President.
Her tenure, however, is far from smooth. In the Gallifrey audio series
Gallifrey (audio series)
Gallifrey is the umbrella title of a line of audio plays set in the Doctor Who universe, produced by Big Finish Productions, featuring Louise Jameson as Leela, Lalla Ward as President Romana, and John Leeson as two K-9 units, Mark I and Mark II...
, the emergence of a terrorist group known as Free Time, which wants to break the technological monopoly on time travel, threatens not just Gallifrey, but its time travel-capable allies. Romana's progressive policies, including opening the Academy to non-Gallifreyans, face opposition from more conservative elements. The escape of Pandora — an evil from Gallifrey's past — from 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....
further complicated matters. Indeed, it is eventually revealed that Pandora is manipulating the Free Time zealots.
Although Romana initially wards off an attempted coup by Inquisitor Darkel, Pandora manages to manifest herself in the form of Romana's first incarnation. Both Romanas claim the title of Imperiatrix, absolute ruler of Gallifrey, and their conflict plunges the planet into civil war. Romana II is eventually able to eliminate the Pandora entity, at the cost of the destruction of the Matrix. Romana is then removed from the Presidency and replaced by a Time Lord named Matthias. The series ends on a cliffhanger, with Gallifrey on the brink of economic and social collapse as well as in danger of being overrun by a Free Time virus, while most of the cast are trapped with no apparent means of escape.
Eighth Doctor Adventures
In the BBC books Eighth Doctor AdventuresEighth 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...
, Romana regenerates into a third incarnation, a more martial and war-like ruler looking ahead to a predicted future war with an unnamed Enemy. In The Ancestor Cell, 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...
apparently destroys Gallifrey and retroactively wipes the Time Lords from history 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 that war.
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 is destroyed, the Time Lords are 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. Some Time Lords, however, may have survived, including Iris Wildthyme
Iris Wildthyme
Iris Wildthyme is a fictional character created by writer Paul Magrs, who has appeared in short stories, novels and audio dramas from numerous publishers...
, 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....
and the Minister of Chance from Death Comes to Time
Death Comes to Time
Death Comes to Time is a webcast audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, produced by the BBC and first broadcast in five episodes on the BBCi Cult website from 12 July 2001, accompanied by limited animation.-Synopsis:When two Time Lords are...
.
The memories of the Time Lords also survive within the Matrix, which has been downloaded into the Eighth Doctor's mind, but their reconstruction will require a sufficiently advanced computer. At the novel's end, the question of whether or not the Time Lords would be restored remained unanswered. However, it can be assumed that both they and the planet are restored at some point before the start of the 2005 series if the novels are to remain consistent with the new series' continuity.