Time Lord

The **Time Lords** were inhabitants of the planet Gallifrey, who were most famous for the creation and attempted monopolisation of time travel technology. (COMIC: *Time Bomb!*, TV: *The Time Warrior* et al.) They created and upheld the Laws of Time. (TV: *The Three Doctors*, *Attack of the Cybermen*)

They were seen as immortal, or nearly so, (TV: *The War Games*) partially due to their ability to regenerate. (TV: *Planet of the Spiders*) They had a great place in the mythologies and cultures of other civilisations, being outright called "the **Gods**" by several species, including the Minyans. (TV: *Underworld*)

The ancient Time Lords were known to take part in battles and conflicts. One of the last of these was a war against the Great Vampires, which was so long and bloody that they turned against violence in general. (TV: *State of Decay*) For at least part of their history, the Time Lords adhered to a strict policy of non-interference. (TV: *The War Games*) Despite their attempts to keep up an appearance of being uninterested in the affairs of others, they still sent discreet missions where other Time Lords would act on their behalf. (TV: *Colony in Space*, *The Two Doctors*, *Genesis of the Daleks*, et al.) On one occasion, the Fourth Doctor was instructed to intercept the creation of the Dalek race. (TV: *Genesis of the Daleks*)

By the time of the Sixth Doctor, the Time Lords had reigned in "absolute power" for ten million years. (TV: *The Ultimate Foe*)

## History

Time Lord civilisation was founded in the Old Time, by Rassilon, (TV: *The Deadly Assassin*) Omega (TV: *The Three Doctors*) and an other (PROSE: *Remembrance of the Daleks*) The ancient Time Lords fought the Eternal War against the Great Vampires. (TV: *State of Decay*, *Hostage*)

The Time Lords held absolute power for some ten million years. (TV: *The Ultimate Foe*) They adopted a strict policy whereby they would only observe the events of the wider universe and never become involved. (TV: *Underworld*) Their eons of stability were threatened by the rise of Morbius, who was eventually exiled and finally defeated on the planet Karn. (TV: *The Brain of Morbius*)

The Time Lords faced numerous crises during the Doctor's era. After the Doctor was tried and exiled, (TV: *The War Games*) the Time Lords' power was drained by Omega forcing them to rely on three incarnations of the Doctor to save them, after which they restored his freedom. (TV: *The Three Doctors*) Greater crises followed with the Master's assassination of the President and subsequent attempt to use the Eye of Harmony which destroyed half the Capitol, (TV: *The Deadly Assassin*) an invasion by the Vardans and Sontarans, (TV: *The Invasion of Time*) a second manifestation of Omega (TV: *Arc of Infinity*) and President Borusa's insane plot to claim immortality. (TV: *The Five Doctors*) Finally the High Council's cover-up of a theft from the Matrix by relocating Earth and subsequent trial of the Doctor for discovering this injustice triggered a revolution on Gallifrey. (TV: *The Ultimate Foe*)

After Romana became President, the Time Lords began to be more involved in the wider cosmos, resolving the rift with the Sisterhood of Karn. (TV: *Lungbarrow*) During her presidency, the Time Lords experienced an epidemic, dubbed the Eyes of Madmen, which was identified and effectively treated with the aid of the Doctor. (TV: *The Eyes of Madmen*)

## Life Cycle

Time Lords were born from individual Family Looms, machines that operated on genetic banks that would weave random patterns until forming a new person. These were rendered unnecessary after the reconciliation with the Sisterhood of Karn abolished the Curse of Pythia. (TV: *Lungbarrow*)

Female Time Lords were also referred to as Time Ladies. (TV: *City of Death*) Children were entertained with nursery rhymes (TV: *The Five Doctors*) There were specialised books for Gallifreyan children, including *Every Gallifreyan Child's Pop-Up Book of Nasty Creatures From Other Dimensions*. (PROSE: *Shada*) However, some Time Lords were loomed as full grown adults. (TV: *Lungbarrow*)

After the age of two hundred years, the Third Doctor no longer saw himself as young anymore, (TV: *The Time Warrior*) although 200 year old Time Lords were considered "boys" and referred to as Junior Time Lords. (PROSE: *The Three Doctors*) They could live for hundreds of years before regenerating. (TV: *The Tomb of the Cybermen*)

Time Lords, once they had reached old age, were allowed to leave Gallifrey and retire on another planet. This was very rarely done; Chronotis was the only person known to take up the offer. (PROSE: *Shada*)

The Master commented that Time Lords should face death with dignity. (TV: *Terror of the Autons*)

Time Lords had some control over their own deaths, some would elect a specific "Death-Day," which would allow them time to read their will to their family in their ancestral home, to die after a time of contemplation and acceptance, and then to have their mind transferred to the Matrix. (TV: *Lungbarrow*)

When a Time Lord eventually died with their regenerations exhausted, they could release one last burst of regeneration energy which would see their last body vanish, leaving only the clothing they had been wearing. However, one had to will this to happen prior to death, and if a Time Lord's death did leave behind a body, it was considered necessary to destroy their corpse soon afterwards. This was because, by harvesting the body, one could gain the ability to regenerate and cheat death. (PROSE: *Shada*) Once they had died, a Time Lord's mind and experiences were usually uploaded to the Matrix on Gallifrey. (TV: *The Deadly Assassin*)

## Culture

### Art

Time Lords appreciated music, as indicated by such artefacts as the Harp of Rassilon. (TV: *The Five Doctors*) They also appreciated art, although painting on Gallifrey was done by computer. (TV: *City of Death*)

By the time of the Doctor the Patrexes Chapter specialised in art and aesthetics. (TV: *Damaged Goods*)

### Education

One of the major institutions of the Time Lords was the Time Lord Academy. It was split up into Chapters, each of which was identified by its distinctive colours. (TV: *The Deadly Assassin*) The subjects at the academy ranged from the study of cosmic science (TV: *Terror of the Autons*) to Veteran and Vintage Vehicles (TV: *The Pirate Planet*) to Gallifreyan flutterwings. (TV: *The Pirate Planet*)

### Food and Sustenance

Gallifreyan physiology provided for a diet similar to the human one (TV: *The Keys of Marinus*), including fruit and flesh, but the Time Lords had long lost the habit of feeding with raw or complex food by the time of the presidency of the Fourth Doctor. Freeze-dried pills were employed instead. (TV: *The Invasion of Time*) Fruit and meat would be eaten on formal occasions, such as holidays, Name Days of Family and Death Days. Such food included fish, Trumpberries, Magenta Fruits and Pig Rats. (TV: *Lungbarrow*)

### Dress

At events like the resignation of a Lord President, Time Lords who attended wore long robes in bright colours. The different colours signified the Chapter that each Time Lord belonged to: Prydonians wore robes of scarlet and orange; Arcalians wore green; Patrexes wore heliotrope; Dromeians wore grey, black and silver; and Ceruleans wore subdued blue colours. (TV: *The Deadly Assassin*, *Lungbarrow*) In addition, most high-ranking Time Lords donned a decorative headdress and crest, complete with a scarlet cap. (TV: *The Deadly Assassin*)

Of those Time Lords seen repeatedly visiting other worlds, such as the Doctor and Romana, they tended to adopt the local dress of their preferred destination - in the Doctor's case, that of Earth - that mixed well with the locals, though Romana adopted the same largely to mimic him. (TV: *Destiny of the Daleks*)

## Politics

### Domain

Time Lords were originally flexible about manipulating the outcome of certain moments in history. However, they eventually came to fear the consequences of their meddling, noticing how dangerously a change to time could backfire. It became clear that the race had been too reckless when the Time Lords helped the Minyans evolve faster, but found the results disastrous; this led to their non-interference policy. (TV: *Underworld*)

### Government

The Time Lords were led by the High Council. The Council consisted of the Lord or Lady President, the Lord or Lady Chancellor, the Castellan and Lords Cardinal. (TV: *The Deadly Assassin*)

The Lord President was the most powerful member of the Council and had near absolute authority. The Lord or Lady Chancellor was next in power and handled many of the government functions. The Castellan controlled the Chancellery Guard and therefore the safety of Gallifrey. (TV: *The Deadly Assassin*)

The rest of the High Council was made up of the Lords Cardinal, which represented the various Gallifreyan Chapters. (TV: *The Deadly Assassin*)

### Justice

The protection of the Time Lords was carried out by the Chancellery Guard. They protected the Capitol, investigated crimes and captured criminals. (TV: *The Deadly Assassin*) More secretive or questionable matters were handled by the Celestial Intervention Agency, which was created to be a covert arm of the High Council to safeguard the Time Lords' interests. (TV: *Shada*)

Tens of thousands of years before the Doctor's time, criminals were trapped in Shada, with the intent being that they would be kept there until a suitable punishment could be decided. By the Doctor's time, this method had been phased out and replaced with disintegration. (PROSE: *Shada*) Morbius was executed this way, but managed to survive as just a brain. (TV: *The Brain of Morbius*)

The punishments used for crimes varied in severity.

* For his breaking of the non-interference policy, the Second Doctor was forced to regenerate and was exiled to Earth with a non-functioning TARDIS. (TV: *The War Games*)
* Committing genocide would lead to the removal of any remaining regenerations a Time Lord had; artificial species were not considered alive, thus genocide was impossible. (TV: *The Trial of a Time Lord*)
* For the countless crimes the Master committed, his punishment would have been the reversal of his time stream, such that he had never existed. (PROSE: *Doctor Who and the Terror of the Autons*) A similar punishment was carried out on the War Lord for his interference in human history which led to the deaths of thousands; he (and several of his guards) were dematerialised out of existence. The War Lord homeworld had a force field placed around it. (TV: *The War Games*) Ruath had the same fate pending for her as a result of her actions in alliance with the Great Vampires and the Master. (TV: *Mind Games*)
* When the Doctor was framed for assassinating the Time Lord President, he would have been vaporised if found guilty. (TV: *The Deadly Assassin*)

## Leisure

Academy students sometimes played a dangerous game called "Eighth Man Bound". The multidimensional game of Perigosto, played with a ball and a specialised Perigosto stick, was also a favourite, as was a complicated board game called Sepulchasm. (TV: *Lungbarrow*)

During a darker, more barbarous time in the planet's past, Time Lords enjoyed watching time-displaced individuals fight to the death in a dedicated area called the Death Zone, but that practice had been entirely abandoned by the Doctor's day. (TV: *The Five Doctors*)

## Science and Technology

### Transport

The most characteristic technology used by the Time Lords was their time travel technology of the TARDISes. The TARDISes were one of the few types of technology that was updated, from the obsolete Type 40 (TV: *The Ribos Operation*) to the more advanced Type 57. (TV: *Warriors of the Deep*)

During the Eternal War, the Time Lords developed the bowship to use against the Great Vampires. (TV: *State of Decay*)

One of the newer technology developed within the Doctor's lifetime was the Time Rings. (TV: *Legacy*) These Time Rings were small devices attached around the wrist, allowing a person to travel through time without being in a time machine. (TV: *Genesis of the Daleks*)

### Stellar Manipulation

Using the Hand of Omega, the Time Lords could speed up the development of stars. (TV: *Remembrance of the Daleks*) One such star had been exploded but its development into a black hole had been frozen, trapped in a permanent state of decay and was kept either under the Panopticon as the Eye of Harmony to power the civilisation of the Time Lords, or in TARDISes to use as their power source. (TV: *The Deadly Assassin*)

### Weaponry and Defences

In ancient times, the Time Lords created powerful weapons and defences such as the De-mat Gun, which could erase its target from history, (TV: *The Invasion of Time*) the Mind Wrest, which allowed complete control over the mind of several individuals, (TV: *Mind Games*) and validium, a living metal considered the ultimate defence. (TV: *Silver Nemesis*)

By the Doctor's era, despite being one of the most powerful species in the universe the Time Lords had little in the way of defences and their conventional warfare technology was lagging behind many other civilisations. This may be due in part to the transduction barrier, which was almost completely impenetrable by outside forces, or their general policy of non-interference. (TV: *The Invasion of Time*)

The most common sidearm used by Time Lords were stasers, which were carried by the Chancellery Guards. Stasers fired a type of directed energy, which was relatively harmless to inorganic matter but caused massive tissue disruption to living creatures. (TV: *The Deadly Assassin*) However when Gallifrey was invaded by the Sontarans, stasers proved ineffective on Sontaran armour, forcing the Fourth Doctor to recover the De-mat Gun. (TV: *The Invasion of Time*)

### Miscellaneous Technology

Some other Time Lord technology included the Matrix (TV: *The Deadly Assassin*) and Rassilon also invented Gallifrey's genetic looms, the devices used to birth new Gallifreyans after the Pythia's curse. Looms were no longer used after the Curse was lifted following President Romana's negotiations with the Sisterhood of Karn. (TV: *Lungbarrow*)

The Doctor ensured that the Time Lords had protection against further epidemics of influenza by ensuring that drugs and vaccines targeted against the disease were put in Time Lord medical programs. (TV: *The Eyes of Madmen*)

## Race or Rank?

Some accounts described the Time Lords as the name of the species, seemingly synonymous with "Gallifreyan". (TV: *Pyramids of Mars*, *The Herald*) In contrast, many other accounts suggested that Time Lord was a rank or a social class. (TV: *The Invasion of Time*)

Time Lords received the symbiotic nuclei after initiation, which allowed them to safely use TARDISes and regenerate. (TV: *Love and War*)

### Non-Gallifreyan Time Lords

Many Gallifreyans were not Time Lords. (TV: *Ice Time*)

The Doctor's origin story was always in flux. Accounts stated that he was a plausible reincarnation of the Other (TV:*Lungbarrow*), a Loomed Time Lord whose white-, long-haired self was the definite reincarnation of the Other but also the first to call himself the Doctor (PROSE: *Lungbarrow*) or even a human. (PROSE: *Doctor Who and the Daleks*)

During the Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War, Davros, who had crowned himself the emperor of the Imperial faction, sought to lead his Daleks against the Time Lords to become the new Lords of Time, (TV: *Remembrance of the Daleks*) a position he intended to obtain through his pre-emptive destruction of the Thals. (TV: *Paradox of the Daleks*) Dorothy "Ace" McShane became a Time Lord after attending the Time Lord Academy. (TV: *Ice Time*)

Time Lord and human hybrids were known to exist, though in only a handful of cases in the history of the universe. (PROSE: *Lungbarrow*)