Time Lord

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

Overview

The nature and history of the Time Lords were gradually revealed as the television series progressed. Each story to feature them and their home planet added additional layers of complexity and intrigue, stemming from the dissatisfaction of various scriptwriters wrestling with the thorny problem of why the Doctor is in exile in the first place. Among other things, Time Lords are increasingly revealed as being corrupted by their inaction and Time Lord society as stagnant. Over the course of the show's initial 26-year run, it was never made entirely clear what purpose or mission the Time Lords served, or what exactly they did with their mastery over time. Nor, ultimately, was it ever explicitly made clear what had caused the Doctor to leave his people. The name of the Time Lords' citadel, the Panopticon, suggests that they are perpetual observers of all existence.

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The Time Lords are normally considered one of the oldest and most technologically powerful races in the Doctor Who universe. The small number of beings more powerful than the Time Lords includes the (now extinct) Osirians and higher powers of the universe such as the Black and White Guardians. The power of the Time Lords appears limited by their policy of non-interference with the universe and sometimes by intense internecine division.

Related Topics:
Osirians - Black - White Guardian

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However, the view that they are, to a degree, custodians of time developed in the spin-off media. This is referenced in the television series by the Ninth Doctor's remark in Father's Day that the Time Lords would have prevented or repaired paradoxes such as that which attracted the Reapers to 1987 Earth.

Related Topics:
Spin-off - Ninth Doctor - Father's Day - Reapers - 1987

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