Time Lords in popular culture and mythology

Despite their non-interference policy, the Time Lords of Gallifrey were known far and wide across the universe, including on Earth, where, by the 21st century, accounts of them and their world existed not only as matters of historical fact, but as fictional beings and as "the stuff of legend". Most notably recognised were two rival Renegade Time Lords, who both survived the apparent destruction of Gallifrey during the Last Great Time War, the Doctor and the Master.

As real beings
At some point, fragments of the Scrolls of Gallifrey, a history of Gallifrey and biography of Rassilon (including his post-mortem activities as a Matrix Lord) by Postar the Perfidious, made their way to Earth and were found in a churchyard in Berkshire. A dedicated team of historians, led by one Gary Russell, were eventually able to decode most of it. (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey)

Around the early 2000s, science fiction author Paul Magrs would mention in a piece of prose that was requested anonymously, that he knew that the first incarnation of Iris Wildthyme was the one to call upon all seven Irises to the Death Zone on Gallifrey. (PROSE: Bafflement and Devotion)

Krasko, a criminal from the 79th century, recognised what appeared to be a police box as potentially a TARDIS, going on to suggest that it would be worth a lot of money. (TV: Rosa)

Doctor Who
The Doctor was a Time Lord in the BBC series Doctor Who, (PROSE: A Letter from the Doctor) who possessed "Time Lord powers" in David Karpagnon's imagination. (PROSE: The Terror of the Umpty Ums)

Time Surgeon
Loosely based on the Doctor's adventures, Time Surgeon was a popular comic book series in the 2010s written by Sonny Robinson, who was inspired after finding internet records of the Doctor. The eponymous Time Surgeon, who travelled through time in a flatpack wardrobe, identified as a Chrononaut the planet Galahad in the star system of Karaktakus. (COMIC: Invasion of the Mindmorphs)

On Skaro and among the Daleks
As early as their first incarnation, the Doctor was recognised as an enemy by the Daleks, who developed their own time machine to pursue him. (TV: The Chase) In some accounts, however, the Doctor was a human, (PROSE: The Monsters from Earth) and accordingly, the Dalek Emperor expressed a belief that the Second Doctor had become "more than human" as a result of excessive time travel. (TV: The Evil of the Daleks)

However, the Reconnaissance Dalek, an early reconnaissance scout sent out from Skaro, who had been cut off from his people ever since, was able to recognise the Thirteenth Doctor as the Daleks' enemy the Doctor on the basis of her binary vascular system. (TV: Resolution) By 2223, the Black Dalek acknowledged as a Time Lord. (AUDIO: Vengeance)

Eventually, however, after the return of Davros, the Daleks recognised the Doctor as a Time Lord who, in their fourth incarnation, attempted to interfere with their creation by Davros' hand. (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks, AUDIO: The Dalek Conquests)

Following the Last Great Time War, a lone Dalek survivor was informed by the Ninth Doctor that the Time Lords were apparently extinct as well as the Daleks. (TV: Dalek) Meanwhile, the Cult of Skaro, who sat out the war from within the Void, were aware of the apparent destruction of Gallifrey. (TV: Doomsday) After emerging as the last survivor of the Cult of Skaro, Dalek Caan, successfully traveled back to the Time War and retrieved Davros, who was made aware of the near-extinction of the Daleks and the Time Lords. Furthermore, the New Dalek Empire, composed of post-Time War Daleks created from Davros' DNA, recognised the Time Lords. (TV: The Stolen Earth/Journey's End)

After the creation of the New Dalek Paradigm, the Daleks strove to become the new Lords of Time, though their ambitions were thwarted by the Eleventh Doctor. (GAME: City of the Daleks, The Eternity Clock)

Knowledge of the Time Lords
In one account of the Second Doctor's trial, the President of the Court told the Doctor that his prolonged and temporal interference drew attention to the very existence of the Time Lords and that the safety of their race had lain in silence and secrecy for many years. He went to surmise that offences of this nature were capital crimes, in comparison to which his theft of the TARDIS was a relatively minor offence, before reluctantly sentencing him to death. The charges were commuted to a period of exile after the Doctor struck a deal with Sardon and agreed to work for the CIA. (PROSE: World Game)

The time travelling Family of Blood believed the Tenth Doctor to be the last of the Time Lords, who they knew as a "wise and ancient race". Furthermore, they believed that a Time Lord could prolong their limited lifespans. (TV: Human Nature/The Family of Blood)

In the 13th century, the Sontaran Jingo Linx observed the Time Lords to be a "race of great technical achievement, but lacking the morale to withstand a determined assault." (TV: The Time Warrior)

By 2526, the Cybermen, descended from those who came from Mondas, were aware of the Time Lords, their TARDISes, their non-interference policy and ability to regenerate, as well as the fact that the Doctor, their long-standing enemy, was one of them. (TV: Earthshock)

There was a saying among the Dragonhunters that "no Time Lord [could] be trusted". (AUDIO: And You Will Obey Me)

Rosanna Calvierri, one of the last surviving Saturnyn, remarked that the Eleventh Doctor should be either in a museum or a mausoleum when he revealed that he was from Gallifrey. (TV: The Vampires of Venice)

Confronting the Twelfth Doctor in 1980, the Fisher King remembered the Time Lords as "cowardly, vain curators who suddenly remembered they had teeth and became the most warlike race in the galaxy. (TV: Before the Flood)

In 2007, Brother Lassar was aware of the Time Lords and their apparent fate during the Time War. In a confrontation with the Tenth Doctor, he commented: (TV: School Reunion) "I always thought of you as such a pompous race. Ancient, dusty senators, so frightened of change and chaos."

- Lassar.

In 2009, the Shadow Architect of the Shadow Proclamation believed the Time Lords to be the "stuff of legend" which belonged in the "myths and whispers of the higher species". As such, she was skeptical to the fact that the Tenth Doctor even existed. (TV: The Stolen Earth)

An Abzorbaloff, from Clom, knew the Tenth Doctor to be a Gallifreyan. (WC: The Genuine Article)

In 2010, the Shansheeth knew the Eleventh Doctor to be the last Time Lord. (TV: Death of the Doctor)

Knowledge of the masters of Time
Some species, individuals and factions were aware of the existence of a species like the Time Lords, or of some of the factions with them, but knew them incompletely or under other names.

The War between them and the Enemy was perceived by the "lesser species" as a "War in Heaven" fought between gods. More generally, during the War, most factions and documents referred only to the Great Houses and their "members", (PROSE: The Book of the War) the Great Houses having being the actual designation of Gallifrey's noble bloodlines long before the War. (PROSE: Lungbarrow)

Panda, travelling companion of Iris Wildthyme, knew simply of "her mysterious superiors", and this even after having had several direct encounters with them. (PROSE: From Wildthyme with Love)

Blon Fel-Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen, a Raxacoricofallapatorian, observed the Doctor's TARDIS to be "the technology of the gods". (TV: Boom Town)