Gallifreyan ( language ) Gallifreyan was a Gallifrey an language used by the Time Lord s . There were several forms of written Gallifreyan . By the time of the Doctor , the archaic Old High Gallifreyan language used in the days of Rassilon had changed considerably . ( TV : " The Five Doctors " ) TARDIS es ' translation circuit s translated neither Old High Gallifreyan nor Gallifreyan written in the Doctor ' s time . ( PROSE : " The Price of Paradise " , TV : " The Time of Angels " , " A Good Man Goes to War " ) Old High Gallifreyan . " Old High Gallifreyan " was the ancient language of the Time Lord s . It was not known by many by the Doctor ' s era . ( TV : " The Five Doctors " ) When speaking of the immense power of his ancestors , the Eleventh Doctor stated that Old High Gallifreyan once possessed the power to raise empires and destroy gods . ( TV : " The Time of Angels " ) He later stated that Old High Gallifreyan had tenses that aided in speaking about time travel . ( PROSE : " Borrowed Time " ) The written form of Old High Gallifreyan resembled , to human eyes , a mixture of Greek letters and mathematical symbols . Inside the Tomb of Rassilon in the Death Zone on Gallifrey , an old rhyme was written in " Old High Gallifreyan , " which explained the outcome of the " Game of Rassilon " . ( TV : " The Five Doctors " ) Within the Doctor ' s rooms on the Gallifrey of one universe , there was a painting of a woman holding a scroll with the words " Death is but a door " written in High Gallifreyan . ( PROSE : " The Infinity Doctors " ) The First Doctor wrote his Five Hundred Year Diary in High Gallifreyan to make sure no one else could read it . ( PROSE : " The Power of the Daleks " ) Susan Foreman wrote the Doctor ' s real name on the wrapping paper of a hypercube intended for him . ( PROSE : " Ghost of Christmas Past " ) River Song could write in Old High Gallifreyan . ( TV : " The Time of Angels " ) The word " valeyard " was said to mean " learned court prosecutor " . ( TV : " The Trial of a Time Lord " ) " Mi ' en Kalarash " translated as " Blue Fire " . ( AUDIO : " House of Blue Fire " ) The Fifth Doctor once spoke a sentence in Gallifreyan to Patience , who recognised it . To Adric ' s ears the speech sounded musical , like a nursery rhyme . ( PROSE : " Cold Fusion " ) Modern Gallifreyan . While Old High Gallifreyan was the original language of the Time Lords , it had evolved into a different form by the time of the Doctor . ( TV : " The Five Doctors " ) Two Time Lords looked at an archive of information on the Third Doctor , which displayed a photo and writing in modern Gallifreyan . ( TV : " Colony in Space " ) A vaguely - looking script , in a letter written by the Fourth Doctor to warn the High Council of an assassination , was in modern Gallifreyan . ( TV : " The Deadly Assassin " ) The Seventh Doctor left a calling card for the Supreme Dalek in a script other than English . It appeared to include the Greek characters Theta Sigma ( TV : " Remembrance of the Daleks " ) , which had been an old nickname of the Doctor ' s . ( TV : " The Armageddon Factor " ) Circular Gallifreyan . Gallifreyan could also be written using interlocking circles , hexagons and lines , at least by the time of the Last Great Time War . ( TV : " The End of Time " ) A complex system of interlocking circles was used by the Doctor ' s TARDIS output screens in " coral desktop theme " mode and was seen in the notes that the Doctor scattered around the console room . ( TV : " Rose " onwards ) Simpler handwritten circles appeared on the Betamax tape used by the Tenth Doctor to trap the Wire . The circular text , since scribbled over , presumably stated the tape ' s contents . ( TV : " The Idiot ' s Lantern " ) Captain Jack Harkness ' s office in the Torchwood Hub had windows with circular Gallifreyan engraved on them . ( TV : " Everything Changes " - " " ) However , these were likely destroyed when a bomb was implanted in him without his knowledge and used to blow up the Hub once he was inside . ( TV : " " ) The Visionary wrote interlocking circles , which Rassilon and the other Time Lords could understand . One of the words was " Earth . " ( TV : " The End of Time " ) The envelope from the Eleventh Doctor inviting River Song to Lake Silencio , and a page from the 1 , 103 - year - old Eleventh Doctor ' s TARDIS diary , were written in Circular Gallifreyan . ( TV : " The Impossible Astronaut " ) Text in circular Gallifreyan was seen carved into the Doctor ' s cot . ( TV : " A Good Man Goes to War " ) A blue fire extinguisher that the Eleventh Doctor used on the TARDIS was marked in silver Circular Gallifreyan . ( TV : " The Angels Take Manhattan " ) The Eleventh Doctor ' s second TARDIS control room design featured circular Gallifreyan symbols on rotating sections above the main console and time rotor . ( TV : " The Snowmen " ) The Whisper Men showed Clarence DeMarco a map that he had to memorise in Circular Gallifreyan that they demanded he give to Madame Vastra . ( HOMEVID : " Clarence and the Whispermen " ) These were space - time coordinates which led to Trenzalore , the final resting place of the Doctor following the Siege of Trenzalore . ( TV : " The Name of the Doctor " ) Circular Gallifreyan writing was written on the sides of the TARDIS exterior after it had entered siege mode . ( TV : " Flatline " ) The blind Twelfth Doctor employed a reading aid which had circular Gallifreyan script on it . ( TV : " Extremis " )