Time Lord

Doctor Who is a long-running British science-fiction television series that began in 1963. It stars its protagonist, the Doctor, an alien who travels through time and space in a ship known as the TARDIS, as well as their travelling companions. When necessary (usually due to impending death or severe injury) the Doctor is able to undergo a process known as "regeneration", completely changing the Doctor's appearance and personality while maintaining their memories. This renewal process allows the Doctor (and other Time Lords) to live extremely long lives that span millennia. Throughout their travels, the Doctor often comes into conflict with various alien species and antagonists. Characteristics ")The Time Lords live on a planet known as Gallifrey, a yellow-orange planet. A large city called the Capitol resides on the planet, where a large number of Time Lords live. All Time Lords are part of the species known as Gallifreyans, but not every Gallifreyan is a Time Lord, though many involved with the show have interchangeably referenced the Time Lords being either a race or a species. In this respect, it is simpler to view the Time Lords as an elite class of Gallifreyans. Time Lord society is largely present within the Capitol, also called the Citadel, with the land outside of the city being a desolate wasteland. The Capitol contains the Academy, where young Gallifreyans are raised as Time Lords. while those who become Time Lords tend to be from "ruling houses", which are implied to be at the top Gallifreyan society. regenerates into the Fifth Doctor (from Logopolis, 1981).|leftThe term "Time Lord" tends to refer to a male Time Lord, while "Time Lady" is used to refer to a female Time Lord; despite this, the term Time Lord has also often been used as an overarching term to refer to both sexes of Time Lord. Time Lords and human beings look alike, but differ in that they have several physiological differences, with Time Lords having two hearts. Time Lords, usually upon severe injury or impending death, have the ability to "regenerate", during which they are healed from their mortal injuries but have their physical appearances and personalities changed in the process (though their memories remain intact). Time Lords are normally capable of regenerating twelve times, making for a total of thirteen lives in one Time Lord's life. However, this limit has been circumvented in numerous instances, such as with the Doctor and also with his arch-enemy The Master, both of whom have lived well beyond their standard twelve regenerations. Another process that exists, introduced in 2023 episode "The Giggle", is known as bi-generation, in which the Time Lord splits into two distinct bodies when regenerating (the current incarnation remains while a new body also emerges), though both are the same Time Lord. Time Lords also have some level of psychic powers, as well as the power of hypnosis and a "respiratory bypass system" which allows them to avoid being strangled. Time Lords are also capable of disguising themselves as humans using a device called a Chameleon Arch. The Time Lords were originally members of a species known as the Shobogans who were genetically altered with the DNA of a being known as the Timeless Child, a being that later would become the Doctor. This granted Time Lords the ability to regenerate. Later, a Time Lord named Rassilon would work with another Time Lord named Omega to create the first time travel spaceship, harnessing the power of a star going supernova to fuel the device. Though it succeeded, Omega disappeared during the incident and was presumed dead, though he actually survived and passed into an inescapable anti-matter realm. Rassilon harnessed the nucleus of the resulting black hole to provide the energy that powers time travel, resulting in Rassilon receiving praise for Omega's work. After a later interaction with a species known as the Minyans resulted in highly negative consequences, the Time Lords adopted a policy of non-interference with alien species, meaning the Time Lords would no longer directly interact in the affairs the universe and could only observe it from afar. In the past, however, they also established a faction known as the Division to interfere with history when needed, though the Division split off to become separate from the Time Lords entirely, often outsourcing their work to other alien species, such as the Weeping Angels and Lupari. Appearances Classic series The First Doctor steals a TARDIS, one of the time-travel ships the Time Lords use, and flees Gallifrey with his granddaughter Susan Foreman sometime prior to the events of the series. Subsequently, the Doctor, during his travels, encounters and thwarts many conflicts throughout history. Eventually, in the 1969 serial The War Games, during an incident in which a group known as the War Lords capture humans from throughout time and space, the Second Doctor is forced to contact the Time Lords to resolve the situation. The Time Lords deal with the War Lords, but subsequently put the Doctor on trial for his interference throughout time and space. After showing them how he has stopped evils during his travels, the Time Lords decide to force him to regenerate and exile him to Earth, where the Doctor has spent a significant amount of time during his travels. The Doctor also comes into conflict with another renegade Time Lord, the Master, who repeatedly has his schemes thwarted by the Doctor, and would repeatedly feature as a recurring antagonist. The Time Lords eventually contact the first three incarnations of the Doctor during 1972 serial The Three Doctors in order to defeat Omega, who has returned to the universe and is attempting to get revenge on the Time Lords for seemingly abandoning him. After Omega is seemingly destroyed, the Time Lords revoke the Third Doctor's exile, allowing him to travel freely again. He is later sent on a mission by the Time Lords during the events of the 1975 serial Genesis of the Daleks, where they request the Doctor to go back in time to the Daleks' creation in an attempt to prevent it. The Time Lords again appear in the 1983 serial Arc of Infinity, during which the Fifth Doctor helps stop another attempt by Omega to return from his anti-matter universe. The Time Lords eventually again capture the Doctor and put him on trial in The Trial of a Time Lord. The Sixth Doctor debates against the prosecutor known as the Valeyard, who is revealed to be a dark incarnation of the Doctor from his future. The Valeyard has manipulated the trial to try and get the Doctor's remaining regenerations, and flees into the Time Lord information repository known as the Matrix in an attempt to escape. The Doctor stops both him and the Master, and is released by the Time Lords as thanks for his help in stopping them. Though the Master was also revealed to have escaped the war, the Time Lords as a race did not physically re-appear until "The End of Time" (2009-2010), in which Rassilon, during the final days of the Time War, attempts to destroy time and space as a whole to make the Time Lords become the final living race in the universe. Though Gallifrey is briefly able to escape the war, the Tenth Doctor stops Rassilon, sending the Time Lords back into the war. During the 2013 50th anniversary special "The Day of the Doctor", the War Doctor meets his future incarnations, the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors, and the three are able to work together to save the Time Lords from the last day of the war, sending the Time Lords and Gallifrey into a pocket universe. The Time Lords attempt to return the universe during the events of the 2013 episode "The Time of the Doctor", needing the Doctor to speak his name into a crack in time to know if it's safe to return. Species from across the universe lay siege to the planet Trenzalore to stop the Doctor from speaking his name; though the Eleventh Doctor, on his final regeneration, does not intend to speak his name, he stays to defend the town of Christmas on the planet, as it will be destroyed by the invading forces if he is to leave. After hundreds of years of defending the planet, he is about to die; the Time Lords gift the Doctor more regeneration energy for a new regeneration cycle, allowing him to survive and defeat an invading Dalek fleet. The Time Lords subsequently return to the universe, with the Twelfth Doctor eventually making it back to Gallifrey in "Hell Bent" (2015), during which the Doctor exiles Rassilon and uses Time Lord technology to pluck his companion Clara Oswald from moments before her death to save her life. Gallifrey is destroyed again by the Master in the 2020 episode "Spyfall", with the Master exterminating all Time Lords in the universe off-screen with a "genetic explosion". The Master later converts the Time Lords into mechanical cyborgs known as Cybermen in the 2020 episode "The Timeless Children". These Cybermen, dubbed "Cybermasters", have the ability to regenerate, unlike regular Cybermen. The Cybermasters re-appear during the events of the 2022 special "The Power of the Doctor", and are seemingly all killed during the episode. Tecteun attempts to orchestrate a wave of anti-matter known as the Flux to destroy the entire universe, allowing her and the Division to escape to another reality away from the Doctor. with the Doctor later defeating them and stopping the Flux wave. In spin-off media Many pieces of spin-off media focus on Gallifrey, particularly in terms of the Doctor's origins on the planet. However, many of these accounts are contradictory and do not align with events portrayed in other media: For example, accounts of the Doctor's true name that they used on Gallifrey are never consistent and often are different between different forms of media. Several elements of the Time Lords' history are present across spin-off media, but are not always present in the main show. One major element was the concept of looms, which are devices used by the Time Lords to reproduce after being rendered infertile. These have been used in multiple forms of media, such as comics and novels. Another is the character of Irving Braxiatel, the Doctor's brother, who acts as a recurring character across multiple spin-off series, including in media focusing on the character of Bernice Summerfield. Other concepts that originate in spin-off media, such as the domed citadel of the Time Lords that debuted in comic strips, would later be adapted and made canon to the television series. The crossover event depicts Time Lords during the Dark Times, with the Daleks and many incarnations of the Doctor becoming involved in the conflict. Time Lord Victorious was depicted across multiple pieces of spin-off media, including novels, audio dramas, comic strips, and real-world immersive events. Novels The 1997 Virgin New Adventures novel Lungbarrow depicted an execution of a planned storyline for the Classic series before its cancellation; the novel revealed the Doctor to secretly be a mythical figure in Time Lord society known as the Other. This conflicted with other novels published by BBC Books at the time, which followed the idea of the Doctor being half human. Audio The Gallifrey audio drama series produced by Big Finish Productions depicts Romana returning to Gallifrey and assuming the position of President, working alongside the character Leela to improve Time Lord society for the better while dealing with political drama and terrorist attacks. Several audio dramas focusing on the War Doctor also reveal more about the events of the Time War, Another series, dubbed ''Susan's War'', focuses on Susan's role in the Time War. ==Creation and development==

Classic series Early on in the series, the Doctor was identified as a human being; however, their home planet, which from the start of the series is explicitly established as not being Earth, was not named. Regeneration, out of universe, was introduced to replace First Doctor actor William Hartnell, who was falling into poor health. The Doctor's process of regeneration was also not initially specified, with the process being described as "renewal" and its origins unclear, not being clearly elaborated until the 1970s. Additionally, the character of the Toymaker, a god-like being who appeared in 1966's The Celestial Toymaker, was intended during the script-writing process to be a member of the Doctor's people before the Time Lords were conceived of, though this is not stated on-screen and the Toymaker's origins are left ambiguous. The Time Lords were created for the 1969 serial The War Games, with the initial idea being brought up by producer Derrick Sherwin, who suggested the Doctor meet his own people. The idea of the Doctor belonging to another species was only vaguely brought up in the series' early days, with Sherwin stating that the inclusion of the Time Lords in this episode would either serve as a good end point if the series was cancelled, or allow the series to progress into a new format if it kept going. Elaborating on this genesis in a 2014 interview in Doctor Who Magazine, Sherwin said of The War Games, "It was a case of what shall we do, how can we end this? Let's go back to the beginning and say [the Doctor] was a Time Lord, a renegade Time Lord, a pain in the arse for the other Time Lords who stole his TARDIS and buggered off around the universe. So if he's going to be called to book let's bring in the Time Lords." In The War Games DVD commentary, Sherwin mentioned that he recalled hearing about the Time Lords at the beginning of the series, but as no one else remembered this, it "might have come out of [his] dreams". In a 2016 interview with The Essential Doctor Who magazine, Dicks mentioned how when Sherwin and he were discussing The War Games one day, Sherwin said, "He belongs to this mysterious race called the Time Lords, doesn't he?" with "everything" ultimately coming from that discussion. In an audio commentary recorded for the 2009 DVD release of The War Games, the serial's co-writer Terrance Dicks stated he believed Sherwin had created the Time Lords, though Sherwin did not remember himself. A recurring Time Lord enemy, the Master, would be introduced to the series in 1971's Terror of the Autons, serving as a foil and recurring enemy to the Doctor, characterised as the Professor Moriarty to the Doctor's Sherlock Holmes. Dicks, as well as producer Barry Letts, disliked the Doctor's exile to Earth at the hands of the Time Lords, and so used them as a plot device to get the Doctor in adventures off the planet. Holmes similarly introduced many concepts relating to the Time Lords in this serial. He introduced Rassilon, who usurped the character Omega as being a mystic, founding figure in Time Lord society, and introduced the concept of the Matrix as an information repository for the species. Holmes laid out that regeneration could only be performed twelve times, and also named the Time Lords' home planet, Gallifrey, which had been name-dropped previously in Holmes' 1973-1974 serial The Time Warrior. A symbol that had featured in the 1975 serial Revenge of the Cybermen was re-used and became a symbol associated visually with the Time Lords as the "Seal of Rassilon". Due to frequent appearances by the Time Lords during the 1970s, the Guardians were created to fulfill a role as god-like beings in the sixteenth season of the show. The only Time Lords to feature over the next season barring the Doctor were the Doctor's new companion Romana, a Time Lady designed as a "perfect foil" to the Doctor's character due to her acting more like traditional Time Lords, and another Time Lord named Drax who appeared in the 1979 serial The Armageddon Factor as a supporting character. Subsequently, the show's twentieth anniversary special, "The Five Doctors", saw a further re-appearance by the Time Lords, with Dicks incorporating Borusa into the role of main antagonist to subvert audience expectations that the Master was behind the episode's events; Rassilon was also incorporated into the narrative. Several Time Lord characters were also re-used from Arc of Infinity. The Time Lords putting the Doctor on trial in 1986's The Trial of a Time Lord was done symbolically; Doctor Who was not doing well at the time, and the show was struggling to continue. The trial was representative of how the show was "on trial for its life", and also served to reference The War Games in how the Doctor was tried for interfering with the affairs of the universe. Several new Time Lord characters were introduced, such as the Valeyard, a villainous incarnation of the Doctor, and the Inquisitor, who presides over the trial. A planned expansion to the lore of the Time Lords was the introduction of a being known as "the Other", a mysterious mythic figure from the Time Lords' past that was a founding figure of Time Lord society alongside Rassilon and Omega. The Other would be revealed as the Doctor. Dubbed the Cartmel Masterplan after then-script editor Andrew Cartmel, hints were dropped toward the Doctor's true identity in the last two seasons of the Classic era, though these ideas would not be enacted upon due to the show's cancelation. Several of these ideas would be used as a baseline for the Virgin New Adventures tie-in novel range, most notably in the 1997 novel Lungbarrow. Another concept planned for a cancelled series of the show was in the planned serial Ice Time, which would have seen a return of the Ice Warriors. The Doctor would have tried to enroll his companion Ace in a Time Lord academy in order to "shake Time Lord society out of its lethargy", with Ace being judged for inclusion by Time Lords. Revived series , on display at the Doctor Who Experience. When the show was revived following its cancellation in 1989, then-showrunner Russell T Davies decided to kill the Time Lords in a large conflict known as the Time War, which removed both them and the Daleks as established forces in the universe. Davies found the Time Lords boring, and even with rewrites to make them more human, he felt that their execution would have de-valued the narrative impact of the Time War. Davies also wished to make the Time Lords more mythological figures, wanting to distance them from being "figures of continuity". The Doctor would experience survivor guilt as a result of surviving the war, and the war would greatly affect the series' universe going forward. For the Time Lords' eventual return in "The End of Time" (2009-2010), Davies decided to characterise them as being corrupt figures who had evolved into monsters during the course of the war, justifying why the Doctor would have to stop their return and why he had to end the war by destroying both sides. Moffat eventually had the Doctor return to Gallifrey in "Hell Bent" (2015), a story which showed the Doctor at their lowest point. The story would depict not only the return of Rassilon and a character called the General, who had previously appeared in "The Day of the Doctor", but also saw an expansion on elements of the Time Lord lore, such as with the introduction of a location known as the Cloisters, a place below the Capitol that was considered dangerous by other Time Lords. == Reception and analysis ==

Reception The initial decision to not make the Time Lords god-like beings in The Deadly Assassin was controversial among fans of the series at the time, as they did not like the changes made to the Time Lords' established nature. The serial would retroactively be considered one of the show's best, however. Writing for Radio Times, Olivia Garrett positively highlighted the decision to kill the Time Lords for the series' revival, as it allowed for the Doctor to be expanded as a character. Adi Tantimedh, writing for Bleeding Cool, similarly stated that the Time Lords' demise allowed for the Doctor to develop into a "mythic" figure on their own, while also allowing for new viewers to jump onto the show without needing to be familiar with the Time Lords' lore. Who Is The Doctor 2: The Unofficial Guide to Doctor Who — The Modern Series stated that the decision allowed the Time Lords to never disappoint audiences when they returned due to their lack of heavy involvement in the series' narrative, and that their in-universe disappearance allowed for the Doctor to gain additional emotional sympathy from the audience. Lewis Knight, writing for Radio Times, believed the Time Lords should be brought back permanently, as the Time Lords' continued presence in the universe allowed for a greater exploration of the dynamic between them and the Doctor, as well as of Time Lord culture as a whole. Analysis The book Once Upon a Time Lord: The Myths and Stories of Doctor Who discussed how the depiction of the Time Lords in Doctor Who media emphasised how Romantic ideas of traditional society could be warped and distorted, as despite the Time Lords maintaining a vow of non-intervention, they are shown to be a cruel and despotic race not dissimilar from the warmongering Daleks in their actions. The book Academia and Higher Learning in Popular Culture stated that the Time Lords have a close association between the academy and their teachings of non-interference; these allusions are shown to illustrate how the Time Lords view themselves as being intellectually superior to other races, and how they look down on those below them. The paper ''Doctor Who and Race: Reflections on the Change of Britain's Status in the International System'' stated that the destruction of the Time Lords allowed for the Doctor to be symbolic of how class warfare evolved over time, as the Doctor no longer represented an "upper-class Englishman" during the show's revival as they had during the Classic era, with the rest of the Time Lords they opposed being characterised as destructive and power hungry individuals. Similarly, the Fifth Doctor's clashes with Gallifreyan society in the Classic series were considered symbolic of class struggles at the time of those episodes' airings. The book Design for Doctor Who: Vision and Revision in Science Fiction Television analysed the usage of the Time Lords' ceremonial robes and collars in their iconography; it stated that while the costumes had proven to be cumbersome and not be taken as seriously by modern day audiences, they still continued to be retained due to their importance in the visual identity of the Time Lords, which the book stated helped unify the classic and revived series through this shared element. A paper by the Scientific American analysed how the Time Lords' two hearts could work in real life. ==References==