The Other The Other was one of the original founders of Time Lord society , along with Rassilon and Omega . The origin of the Other remained a mystery for later Time Lords . The Other had a mysterious connection to the Time Lord known as the Doctor . According to some accounts , the Other was reincarnated through the Looms into the Doctor . ( PROSE : " Lungbarrow " , et al . ) By other accounts , the Other was the Doctor in his later life , having travelled back in time to aid in the start of Time Lord civilisation . ( PROSE : " The Scrolls of Rassilon " , COMIC : " The Lost Dimension ( comic story ) " ) Biography . One of John Smith ' s repressed memories told the story of a human who built a TARDIS to help the police but got lost on a jungle planet , where he taught the natives and elevated their society into a mighty civilisation . ( PROSE : " Human Nature " ) A Time Lord calling himself the Stranger originated from a time long after Rassilon ' s life . Though Rassilon feared that the Stranger was planning to erase his people from history in revenge for being shunned , the Stranger was intent on guiding Time Lord civilisation away from tyranny . He travelled back in time to seven days after Rassilon had returned from the vampire wars and took power . With a pass signed by Rassilon himself , the Stranger gained access to the restricted areas of the Citadel and for the next few months offered advice to Rassilon without providing any detailed information . ( PROSE : " The Scrolls of Rassilon " ) According to " The Thousand and Second Night " , someone who was neither an " angel " nor a " djinn " advised " Allah " to hide the caldera inside Earth . The Shift later claimed to have been this person . ( PROSE : " Head of State " , " Interference " ) The Other was influential during the Dark Times on Gallifrey after the cult of Pythia had ended . He and the Hand of Omega shared some sort of a bond . ( PROSE : " Lungbarrow " ) When Omega ' s plans to detonate the Q star were close to fruition , the Stranger explained his origins to Rassilon . The Stranger pleaded with Rassilon to make the Time Lords less powerful and less stuck in their ways , believing that in doing so the Time Lords of the future he came from would be open to new ideas . Rassilon refused to abandon his philosophies , intending for Gallifrey to become the powerful society that he had always planned . The Stranger visited Rassilon ' s quarters angry about the release of the virus that gave the Gallifreyans the ability to regenerate , as it wiped out a large proportion of the population upon its release . Shortly before the detonation of the Q star , the Stranger materialised his TT capsule on Rassilon ' s ship , and once again pleaded with him to alter the course of established history . Finally understanding that Rassilon would not change his mind , the Stranger left in his ship . However , respecting the Stranger ' s audacity , Rassilon decided to ensure Gallifreyan society would never tolerate tyranny . It also led him to write the first Law of Time . ( PROSE : " The Scrolls of Rassilon " ) As Rassilon ' s rule moved closer to despotism and Gallifrey ' s borders were sealed , the Other took his Granddaughter to the Spaceport for safety , promising to return one day . He then attempted to escape the planet by hurling himself into the Prime Distributor of the Loom s to await his eventual reconstitution . ( PROSE : " Lungbarrow " ) According to one specific account , the Other was simply an alias used by the Eleventh Doctor during his intervention into the creation of the Type 1 TARDIS . Rassillon noted that he was acting just like the " chrono - scrollwriters of old " by refusing to give his real name . ( COMIC : " The Lost Dimension " ) Influence on the Doctor . Accounts differed as to results of this . Some implied that he was re - Loomed some ten million years later to the House of Lungbarrow as the Time Lord who became known as the First Doctor . ( PROSE : " Lungbarrow " ) By his seventh incarnation , he seemed once more to have realised his earlier identity or else Lady Peinforte could not have threatened him with revealing it . ( TV : " Silver Nemesis " ) Cavis and Gandar hinted in their conversations at the Doctor being the Other . ( PROSE : " The Shadows of Avalon " ) When the Seventh Doctor transformed himself into a human named John Smith he removed almost all of his memories , although he was unable to remove the ones from before he was born . " Verity " kept these memories out of John Smith ' s head . ( PROSE : " Human Nature " ) Influence on Gallifrey . Scholars later called documents concerning Rassilon , Omega and the Other the ROO texts . ( PROSE : " Goth Opera " ) A minor Gallifreyan festival known as Otherstide was celebrated yearly in his honour . It coincided with the Doctor ' s " naming day / Birthday " . ( PROSE : " Lungbarrow , AUDIO : Cold Fusion " ) Secret societies on Gallifrey were dedicated to the worship of Rassilon , Omega , and the Other . ( AUDIO : " Intervention Earth " ) In a parallel universe where the Sixth Doctor led Gallifrey in the War , the Master commanded a time dreadnought named the " Arcane Mystery of the Other " . When he defected to the enemy , the ship was thought lost ; in reality , it was being dissected in an enemy shipyard . ( PROSE : " The Quantum Archangel " ) Other universes . In an alternate universe , the Other spoke to Omega ' s wife , Patience , and implied that the Fragment ( the surviving portion of a collection of prophecies by ancient Gallifreyan seers ) was a forgery . The Other was later present at this universe ' s Qqaba when Omega was lost . ( PROSE : " The Infinity Doctors " )