From: markc@hydra.maths.unsw.EDU.AU ()
Subject: Re:Time Lords and Gallifreyans
Organization: school of Mathematics UNSW
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 01:47:15 GMT

Over the long weekend here in Oz I had a chance to think about this all 
important question: What is the distinction between Time Lords and
Gallifreyans, and indeed is there one.

Ian Robert Asplin in one of his guises posted a list of quotations purporting
to prove there is some clear distinction between Gallifreyans and Time Lords.
As with all such questions, it is simply a matter of opinion, since facts
change all the time on Dr Who. (Just how many keys did Rassilon make for
example?). My view of the Time Lords/Gallifreyans questions is that the Time
Lords are probably a rank within Time Lord society, perhaps consisting of
the highest figures in Gallifreyan life, like the cardinals of the chapters,
and that all Gallifreyans are in some sense Time Lords, although they are
not all dignified with the title "Time Lord". Some people seem to believe
that the distinction between Time Lords and Gallifreyans should be some kind
of physical ability, like regeneration. I have never seen why. To me, if there
is a real distinction, then surely the logical one is that Time Lords have 
actually travelled in TIME. I mean, what is a Time Lord? If the name means
anything, it must have something to do with Time travel. (Or maybe spending
time working in the temporal control room). 

My major objection to the reasoning which has been given here arguing that Time Lords all go the academy and learn to regenerate, or that Time Lords are some
how physically different from ordinary Gallifreyans, is that the full 
implication of the line of reasoning is not followed. Perhaps I am guilty of
this too, although  I try to avoid it. How succesfully , you are free to decide Let me give an example. Runcible.

Runcible is the obnoxious little broadcaster in "The Deadly Assassin", who
utters the line about "the Time lords gathering " in the panopticon.
( I forget the exact line). Ian Robert Asplin argues that this must mean 
that Runcible is not a Time Lord, because it would be like Dan Rather saying
"around me, the humans are gathering...". I think this reasoning is false,
but if it is not, then the argument that gallifreyans do not regenerate is
false. The reason is that Runcible went to school with the doctor. The 
Doctor has not been to Gallifrey in about 500 years, and Runcible isSTILL 
ALIVE when he gets back. Runcible has to be about 750 years old, for the
simple reason that he went to the Academy at around the same time as the
Doctor. So if Runcible is not a Time Lord, why is he still alive if he 
cannot regenerate?

In fact I think Runcible must be a Time Lord. Why should he not be. He
recognises the Doctor even though he has regenerated. We know time Lords
recognise other Time Lords even though they have regenerated. We know that
he went to Prydon academy, and presumably he passed. Remember the doctor is
a Time Lord and he scraped through the academy on his second attempt.(The Riboe
Operation). So why would a lack lustre student be a time Lord, and an fatuous
pratt like Runcible not be? He has little respect for the doctor, blaming
his several regenerations on a rickety life. He even thought the Doctor
had been expelled.

(Then there is Drax. A time Lord who by his own admission did not do to well
at the academy. In fact he seems to have done worse than the doctor, which
probably means he failed. Yet Drax is a Time Lord. I am not saying Drax did
fail the academy, but I think the argument that to become a Time Lord you
have to do well at the academy is clearly false.)

So what did Runcible mean when he said the Time Lords are gathering"?
Since only a few Time Lords are visible, and they are all wearing elaborate
costumes, I think he meant "the Time Lords" to be the very senior figures
in Time Lord life. In fact 'The Time Lords' might simply mean here "the
government". Remember Borusa says the people must "retain confidence in the
Time Lords and their leadership". he doesn't say"our leadership".
Goth says "the Time Lords are leaderless and in disarray". Not "we are 
leaderless and in disarray". This style of speech is quite common on the lips
of Time Lords. The Doctor says to the vardans "you promised me complete
control of the Time Lords", not complete control of 'My people". This 
could be either a figure of speech, or they may all mean a specific subset 
of time lord society, they call "the Time Lords". How this subset is 
distinguished from the rest of society is a matter, as always, of speculation
and argument. (I note in passing here that Rodan speaks the same way, and
she seems to a time lord too. I mean if she is not, why does the Doctor
trust her to pull the Tardis console apart and wire the controls of gallifreys
forcefield into it? There is also the point that the character of Rodan was
designed to be the first female time lord. She was the second female Gallifreyan we had seen up to that point).

Now let us consider some more information. The Gallifrey stories are not the
only sources of information on the subject. We are told in "The Pyramids of
Mars' that the time lords are  "a perfidious SPECIES". There are other 
references to them being a species. Linx says they are 'a race of great
techinical achievment". Borusa calls them a "race", in the FIve Doctors.
In the "Sunmakers" the Time Lords are called "the oligarchic rulers of the
planet Gallifrey" (which is obviously how Robert Holmes viewed them). If they
are a species, then by definition, every member of that species is a time lord.
It seems that the time lords are 1) a species,2) a race 3) a civilisation
4) the oligarchy ruling Gallifrey. They can be all four if "time lord' is
a name used to mean different things. Words with more than one meaning
are of course common. "Gallifrey" is an example. Notice how in "The 5
Doctors" the first Doctor talks about returning the fifth Doctor "from 
Gallifrey", despite the fact that they are all on Gallifrey anyway!

To sum up. My view is that  Time Lords are both the rulers of the planet,
and the inhabitants, with "the Time Lords" being in some way the name of the
rulers.  As a final point, recall the "Deadly Assassin" where Engin tells
Spandrell that Time Lord Biographies are all colour coded. Spandrell says
"are they now? I had no idea" Engin says " no your duties probably deal
with more plebian classes". This always struck me as odd. The Castellan of
security did not know Time Lord biodata extracts are colour encoded?
He never in his career had cause to examine the biodata of a single insignificant Time Lord? I find that hard to believe. Not all time Lords are involved
in pomp and circumstances, we know that. Look at Drax. However that he never
looked at the biodata of an important time lord is likely. To my way of thinking Engin was refering to senior time lords, like the cardinals and members of
the high council. (or Time Lords like the doctor and the master who are a 
special case). 
So as george Orwell might say they are all time lords (members of the time
lord species) but some are more time lords than others.

Mark C.