Time Lord

:This article is about the Time Lords from Doctor Who. For alternate meanings, see Time Lord (disambiguation).

Culture and society

The Time Lords are, in general, an aloof people. The Doctor has characterised the Time Lords as a stagnant and corrupt society, a state caused by ten million years of absolute power (The Ultimate Foe). Their portrayal in the series has been reminiscent of academics living in ivory towers, unconcerned with external affairs. It has been suggested that, since perfecting the science of time travel, they have withdrawn, bound by the moral complexity of interfering in the natural flow of history (compare with the Prime Directive from Star Trek).

Related Topics:
The Ultimate Foe - History - Prime Directive - Star Trek

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Another explanation might be that they simply find the outside universe distasteful. While interference is apparently against Time Lord policy, there are occasions when they have intervened, albeit indirectly. The Time Lords occasionally sent the Doctor on missions that required plausible deniability (The Two Doctors) and sometimes against his will (Colony in Space, The Monster of Peladon). One mission even involved changing history to avert the creation of the Daleks, or at least temper their aggressiveness (Genesis of the Daleks). In fanon, these apparent violations of neutrality have been attributed to the Celestial Intervention Agency, an organisation mentioned in The Deadly Assassin.

Related Topics:
The Two Doctors - Colony in Space - The Monster of Peladon - Dalek - Genesis of the Daleks - Celestial Intervention Agency - The Deadly Assassin

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It has also been hinted that the terms "Gallifreyan" and "Time Lord" may not be synonymous, and that Time Lords are simply that subset of Gallifreyans who have achieved the status of Time Lord via achievement in the Gallifreyan collegiate system. However, both Romana and the Doctor have referred to "Time Tots" (infant Time Lords), which suggests that the Time Lords may also be a hereditary, aristocratic class among Gallifreyans.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Time Lords belong to various colleges or chapters, such as the Patrexes, Arcalian, and the Prydonian chapters, which have ceremonial and possibly political significance. Each chapter also has its own colours; the Prydonians wear scarlet and orange, the Arcalians wear green and the Patrexeans wear heliotrope. Others mentioned in spin-off novels include the Dromeian and Cerulean chapters. The Prydonian chapter has a reputation for being devious, and tends to produce renegades; the Doctor, the Master and the Rani are all Prydonians. The colleges of the Academy are led by the Cardinals. Ushers, who provide security and assistance at official Time Lord functions, may belong to any chapter, and wear all-gold uniforms.

Related Topics:
Scarlet - Orange - Green - Heliotrope - Spin-off - Rani - Gold

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The executive political leadership is split between the Lord President, who keeps the ceremonial relics of the Time Lords, and the Chancellor, who appears to be the administrative leader of the Cardinals and who acts as a check on the absolute power of the Lord President. The President is an elected position with a fixed term, but on Presidential Resignation Day, the outgoing President usually names his successor, who is then usually confirmed in a non-contested "election". However, it is still constitutionally possible for another candidate to stand for the post, as the Doctor did in The Deadly Assassin.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The President and Chancellor also sit on the Time Lord High Council, akin to a legislative body, composed variously of Councillors and more senior Cardinals. Also on the High Council is the Castellan of the Chancellory Guard, in charge of the security of the Citadel, whom the Doctor has referred to as the leader of a trumped-up palace guard.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Time Lord society is full of pomp and ceremony, with artefacts given weighty names like the Hand of Omega, the Eye of Harmony or the Key of Rassilon. The Doctor has observed that his people "enjoy making speeches" (The Invasion of Time) and have an "infinite capacity for pretension" (Remembrance of the Daleks).

Related Topics:
Hand of Omega - Eye of Harmony - The Invasion of Time - Remembrance of the Daleks

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Paradoxically, although the Time Lords are a scientifically and technologically advanced race, the civilisation is so old that key pieces of their technology became shrouded in legend and myth. In the spin-off fiction, an edict and general aversion against exploring Gallifrey's past also contributed to this. Accordingly, until the Doctor rediscovered it, the Time Lords did not know the location of the Eye beneath their Capitol. They also treated such ceremonial symbols as the Key and Sash of Rassilon as mere historical curiosities, being unaware of their true function.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Time Lord homeworld, Gallifrey, is an earthlike planet in the "constellation" of Kasterborous. Its capital city is also called Gallifrey, and contains the Capitol, the seat of Time Lord government. At the centre of the Capitol is the Panopticon, beneath which is the Eye of Harmony. Outside the Capitol lie wastelands where the Shobogans, or "Outsiders", Gallifreyans who do not belong to the Time Lord elite, live in less technological tribal communities.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Fitting their generally defensive nature, Time Lord weapons technology is rarely seen other than the staser hand weapons used by the Guard within the Capitol. Standard TARDISes do not have any onboard weaponry, although War or Battle TARDISes (armed with "time torpedoes" that freeze their target in time) have appeared in the spin-off media. In the novels, the Eighth Doctor's companion Compassion, a living TARDIS, was seen to have enough firepower to annihilate other TARDISes.

Related Topics:
Spin-off - Eighth Doctor - Compassion

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

One exception to the Time Lords' defensive weaponry is the demat gun (or dematerialisation gun), a weapon of mass destruction that removes its target from spacetime altogether. The de-mat gun was created in Rassilon's time and is a closely guarded secret, the knowledge to create one kept in the Matrix and available only to the President. To make sure this knowledge is not abused, the only way to arm a de-mat gun is by means of the Great Key of Rassilon, whose location is only known to the Chancellor. As a means of extreme sanction, the Time Lords have also been known to place whole planets into time-loops, isolating them from the universe in one repeating moment of time. In the Eighth Doctor Adventures novel The Ancestor Cell by Peter Anghelides and Stephen Cole, the Time Lords are shown to house other weapons of mass destruction in a stable time eddy known as the Slaughterhouse. In the Doctor Who Annual 2006, a section by Russell T. Davies says that during the Time War, the Time Lords used Bowships, Black Hole Carriers and N-Forms (organisms first mentioned in a Virgin New Adventures novel written by Davies).

Related Topics:
Eighth Doctor Adventures - Peter Anghelides - Stephen Cole - Russell T. Davies - Time War - Organism - Virgin New Adventures

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~