Authors: Lance Parkin,Lars Pearson
The Doctor’s reflex link connected him to the Time Lord intelligentsia.
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Like all Time Lords, he swore an oath to protect the Law of Gallifrey.
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The Doctor was a member of the Supreme Council.
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He held a powerful position before leaving Gallifrey.
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He was a member of the High Council during the latter years of his first incarnation.
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“Flashback”
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The first Doctor (“Thete”) supervised Magnus’ project to tap into a giant ball of Artron energy that Magnus had extracted from the Vortex. It would provide the Time Lords with more power than even Rassilon and Omega had dreamt of, and Magnus saw this as leading to “a new beginning for our stagnant race”. The Doctor was more sceptical, and his fears were confirmed when they learned the energy ball was alive. Magnus wanted to continue regardless - so the Doctor destroyed his equipment with a staser. “And that was that. Any chance of a reconciliation between the two - any hope of regaining their former friendship - died at that moment.” The Doctor was commended for his action.
Lord Braxiatel never wanted to conform, but graduated with a “fistful of firsts” and initiated many research projects - all to position himself as a nonconformist in conformist’s clothing. By the time Braxiatel’s brother was doing his exams (and scraped through with the barest minimum of effort), Braxiatel was trusted enough to achieve his dream of serving as an unofficial ambassador, and saw the universe by undertaking clandestine missions for Gallifrey’s benefit. Braxiatel’s brother followed his example to more of an extreme, and outright left their homeworld.
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The Minyan Incident
The Minyans used nuclear technology to destroy their planet. The Time Lords subsequently renounced intervention in the affairs of other planets.
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The truth was more complicated. Braxiatel and the Time Lord Narvin had become involved in Project Alpha, an undertaking to create a timonic fusion device capable of obliterating portions of space-time. As Braxiatel feared, the device was more powerful than its designers believed - when tested, it created a shockwave that ravaged Minyos. The High Council launched a cover-up, saying Minyos was destroyed in a civil war. Braxiatel felt that technology’s potential for destruction had become so great that the universe’s great artistic and cultural treasures needed better protection. He started sneaking away from Gallifrey and amassing a personal collection of such works.
(=) The isolationist Torvald travelled back to this point from Gallifrey’s future and stole the timonic fusion device as part of a scheme to discredit President Romana, causing alterations to Gallifrey’s history. Narvin covered up the theft.
Romana and Braxiatel travelled back and ensured the device was detonated as history recorded. Minyos was destroyed, and Torvald stole a fake device instead.
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Time Lords were “forbidden to interfere”.
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Past Lives
Morbius would later probe the Doctor’s mind, and see eight incarnations of the Doctor before the one generally accepted as the “first” Doctor.
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The Doctor’s Marriage
The Doctor fell in love with his former nurse and tutor, the Womb-born Gallifreyan who would become known as Patience. She taught him to dance, which he did in front of some house guests including Mr Saldaamir, a pair from Althrace and a yellow-skinned man with red fins.
They married. Savar was one of the guests at the wedding.
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The Doctor painted his wife’s portrait. As he finished, she told him she was pregnant.
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They went on to have thirteen children.
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Shortly after he regenerated, the Doctor and Patience celebrated the birth of their first grandchild. Their son was a Cardinal and the Doctor sat on the Supreme Council, as his father did before him. The President ordered the Guard to search the Doctor’s family home for “children born of woman”. The Doctor’s thirteen children were dragged out and his daughter-in-law’s baby was scheduled for termination. The Doctor’s whereabouts during this incident were unknown, but there was a warrant for his arrest - he stood accused of “consorting with aliens”.
The Doctor (in what we would consider his “first” incarnation) would later travel back in time to this point. He rescued his infant granddaughter and took her to the ancient past. He then got Patience to safety by taking her to an ancient TARDIS. As he did this, the Capitol was burning.
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Mobs stormed the Panopticon that night.
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The Doctor’s memories of this trauma were blocked, although by who or what is unclear. He believed his wife had died.
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It is unclear if the Doctor’s father was still on Gallifrey at this point. After this, the Doctor’s father may have adopted the name “Joyce” and relocated to San Francisco on Earth, continuing the Project with Larna and Mr Saldaamir.
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The Doctor remembered that he was a father, once.
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He was a father, but “lost all that a long time ago”, and remembered “the hole the left, all the pain that filled it” - when they died, a part of him died with them.
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He “had plenty of family and knew what it was like to lose them”.
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The Infinity Doctor
? (=?) (w?) - The Infinity Doctors
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The Doctor mourned for his dead wife, and even though she died a long time ago, he still lit a new candle every year in her memory. Before this time, he had travelled the universe and returned to Gallifrey. He had defeated and imprisoned Centro, a mechanical being that could warp space.
On Gallifrey, the Doctor served as a tutor who oversaw - amongst others - the brilliant student Larna. He negotiated a final peace between the Sontarans and the Rutans, ending their eternal war. Gallifrey monitored the Effect, a reality-altering ripple. The Doctor and his friend the Magistrate went to the end of time to confront the one who was responsible: Omega. The Doctor met his wife Patience, whom Omega had rescued from death, but again lost her. Omega was defeated, but the Magistrate didn’t return from this mission. The Doctor did, and had grown restless with Gallifrey.
Voran became President. Larna was charged to travel the universe and clear up after the Effect, a mission that would take two thousand years.
Susan
The Doctor’s granddaughter Susan was something of an enigma.
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Susan was the Doctor’s grand-daughter “and always will be”.
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Susan described her home planet as “quite like Earth, but at night the sky is a burned orange, and the leaves on the trees are bright silver”.
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She knew about the Dark Tower.
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She was 15 when she met Ian and Barbara.
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The other Time Lords never referred to Susan.
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She coined the name “TARDIS”.
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Susan was born in Gallifrey’s recent past. Her grandfather was the Doctor. She was a naturally-born child, an abomination in the eyes of the authorities of Gallifrey. Her mother’s fate was unknown. Her father was a Cardinal.
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Susan was born in Gallifrey’s distant past. Her grandfather was the Other. She was the last naturally-born child on Gallifrey. Her mother died at the moment of her birth, as the Pythia’s curse of sterility came into effect. Her father was a warrior.
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Susan had a perfect memory, which she said was “the curse of her people”.
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Circumstances denied Susan a proper education on Gallifrey.
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The Doctor Leaves Gallifrey
The exact nature of the Doctor’s departure from Gallifrey is still a mystery, and there have been a number of seemingly contradictory accounts of the circumstances in which he left.
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Account One:
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Jamie: “Why did you run away from [your people] in the first place?”
The Doctor: “What? Well... I was bored
.
.. The Time Lords are an immensely civilised race. We can control our own environment, we can live forever barring accidents, and we have the secret of space/time travel.”
Jamie: “Well, what’s so wrong in all that?”
The Doctor: “Well, we hardly ever use our great powers! We consent simply to observe and to gather knowledge.”
Zoe: “And that wasn’t enough for you?”
The Doctor: “No, of course not. With a whole galaxy to explore? Millions of planets? Aeons of time, countless civilisations to meet?”
Jamie: “Well, why do they object to you doing all that?
The Doctor: “Well... It is a fact, Jamie, that I do tend to get involved with things.”
Jamie: “Aye, you can say that again! Whenever there’s any trouble he’s in it right up to his neck.”
Zoe: “But you’ve helped people, Doctor.”
The Doctor: Yes, yes, but that’s no excuse in [the Time Lords’] eyes.”
Account Two: Lungbarrow
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The Doctor worked as a Scrutationary Archivist in the Prydonian Chapterhouse Bureau of Possible Events. His applications for promotion were always turned down.
Consulting the Bench of Matrocians, Quences - the head of the Lungbarrow household - learned that the Doctor would be a huge influence on the future of Gallifrey. He wanted the Doctor to become a Cardinal. The Doctor stormed out of his family home after an argument with Quences about the Doctor’s future prospects. With the Doctor no longer regarded as a member of the family, a replacement - Owis - was Loomed to maintain the family quota. However, this was illegal and the House was ostracised from Gallifreyan affairs. The Doctor’s Cousins were trapped in the House.
The Doctor left an experiment with water-sligs running. A hundred and thirty years, later they broke out.
Quences was the 422nd Kithriarch of Lungbarrow.
The Doctor decided to steal a TARDIS and leave Gallifrey. The Hand of Omega recognised the Doctor was linked to the Other. When the Doctor left Gallifrey, the Hand redirected him to Gallifrey’s ancient past.
Account Three:
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The Doctor lived sealed inside a city, on a planet hidden behind energy barricades. He finally left his people so he could experience the universe’s wonders, to see its majesty, firsthand. He didn’t leave for Susan’s sake - she was an “accidental passenger, a hanger on”. The Doctor looked old, but was just an adolescent as far as his people went; Susan, comparatively speaking, was just a baby. The TARDIS navigation system wasn’t broken as was sometimes claimed - the Doctor had yet to forge a “mystical” bond with his TARDIS, which the legends of his people said was possible.
Account Four:
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The president of Gallifrey, Pandak VII, issued a kill order on Braxiatel - but Braxiatel killed Lord Burner, the president’s assassin, in self-defence. Braxiatel was appointed Lord Burner as punishment, and given a “burn order” for a member of his family - an old man - as a test of loyalty. The old man was tipped off by Braxiatel as to the danger, stole a TARDIS and left Gallifrey with his granddaughter. Pandak VII died the very same day, owing to a power relay overload... that an inquiry led by Braxiatel determined was an accident. Braxiatel and the old man were the only two Time Lords to ever survive a burn order.
The Doctor might have left of his own free will, because he was “bored” or had “grown tired of their lifestyle”. He renounced the society of Time Lords. He abandoned his Prydonian birthright.
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But he has also stated he was “kicked out” and was “on the run”.
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The Doctor “ran away” from Gallifrey.
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The Doctor was an “exile”, unable to return home.
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He “had reasons of his own” for leaving his home planet.
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The second Doctor told Victoria that he might try to take her to his planet.
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