The Doctor and Susan's escape from Gallifrey

For many pressing reasons, (TV: Twice Upon a Time) the Doctor stole a TARDIS (TV: The War Games) and fled his home planet with his granddaughter, Susan Foreman. (TV: An Unearthly Child)

Reasons
According to Ashildr, when he was "barely more than a child", the Doctor learned of a prophesied warrior called "the Hybrid" from the Cloister Wraiths and the story made him "so scared" (TV: Hell Bent) that he eventually left Gallifrey out of fear, (TV: Heaven Sent) and because he was curious (COMIC: Return of the Daleks) of why "good prevail[ed]" over "evil" in the universe, (TV: Twice Upon a Time) leaving during "dark times when [his] world tottered on the edge of ruin, where the impotence of [his] own people had driven him to leave". (PROSE: Roses) To keep his secrets, the Doctor lied that he left his home planet because "[he] was bored". (TV: The War Games, The Witch's Familiar, Heaven Sent)

As the Fifth Doctor told Tegan Jovanka, his travels all started when he "deliberately [chose] to go on the run from [his] own people in a rackety old TARDIS". (TV: The Five Doctors) The Fifth Doctor also claimed to have left Gallifrey to find "the ideal society", (PROSE: Cold Fusion) with the Eighth Doctor claiming to have left his planet because he "disagreed with the philosophy of its Masters", (PROSE: Beltempest) and the Second Doctor admitting to leaving due to "the deviousness and corruption of Time Lord politics". (PROSE: World Game) The First Doctor would later clarify that there were "many pressing reasons" for his departure from Gallifrey. (TV: Twice Upon a Time)

According to, the Doctor left Gallifrey on a whim because an unlocked TARDIS was nearby, (AUDIO: The Light at the End) while Clara Oswald told Robin Hood that the Doctor "was moved to steal a TARDIS [and] fly among the stars, fighting the good fight" because he "[found] the plight of the oppressed and weak too much to bear", something the Twelfth Doctor did not dispute. (TV: Robot of Sherwood) The Doctor grew a bond with that TARDIS, describing it as "the most beautiful thing [he] ever saw" upon first entering it, (TV: The Doctor's Wife) after stealing it from a TARDIS repair shop at the Boulevard of Grand Milieu. (PROSE: Celestial Intervention - A Gallifreyan Noir) When confronted with his first TARDIS, the Fifth Doctor would claim he had no time to pick and choose, and had needed to find the first TARDIS he could "lay his hands on". (AUDIO: Prisoners of Fate)

The Doctor also took the Hand of Omega, (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks) some validium, and Gallifrey's moon when he left, (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords) and brought Susan with him as an accidental passenger, (AUDIO: Here There Be Monsters) deciding it was best to do so to prevent her from being brainwashed and regimented in the thought patterns of the Time Lords. (PROSE: Legacy of the Daleks) He also took his signet ring with him, using it to breach the "laws and barriers" to enable his escape. (PROSE: The Three Paths)

Conflicting stories
By Iris Wildthyme's recollection, the First Doctor's hair was "not even white yet", and even still "a bit of a bruiser", when he left Gallifrey and began his wanderings. (PROSE: The Scarlet Empress)

In an account presented by, the Doctor existed during a period of civil unrest on Gallifrey, when many students of the Time Lord Academy, led by the Master, revolted against the corrupt Lord President Pundat the Third, and attempted to convince the Doctor to take the position as President, but he decided not to interfere with the current constitution. When Pundat died of stress soon after the revolt, his chosen successor was Chancellor Slann. The students had found the last of Lord Rassilon's descendants, Lady Larn, a seven-year-old child adopted by Councillor Brolin, and decided on a second coup. However, their attempt to convince the Doctor to participate in another coup was overheard and reported to Slann, and the students were "brutally put down" by the Citadel guards, though the Doctor was too highly respected to be terminated, so it was decided to wipe his memory. Bloody reprisals against the students followed, and the Doctor decided to leave Gallifrey in a TARDIS. As it happened, Lady Larn was hiding in the same TARDIS that the Doctor stole, and affectionately called him "grandfather". (PROSE: Birth of a Renegade)

A second account had the Doctor and Susan already on Gallifrey, fleeing to keep the Hand of Omega safe from those who would misuse it and running straight towards the TARDIS with no hesitation. (COMIC: Time & Time Again)

An account from an Astral Projection of the Doctor's life depicted the Doctor living as a lowly Scrutationary Archivist of the Bureau of Possible Events. He had been disowned and banished from his home by his family in the House of Lungbarrow. In order to replace the disowned Doctor, his family illegally loomed another cousin, Owis. Upon learning of this crime, the Doctor reported his family to the Prydonian Chapter. After an encounter with his gloating Cousin Glospin, Glospin revealed that there was genetic evidence to suggest that the Doctor didn't originally come from the Lungbarrow Loom, having originally been naturally born. Glospin claimed that the Doctor had infiltrated the family, and intended to use his evidence to get the Doctor executed for Loom-jumping. Glospin attacked the Doctor, obtaining a sample of his DNA, allowing him to frame the Doctor for the murder of their House Kithriarch, Quences. During the fight between the two, the Hand of Omega arrived to attack Glospin, giving the Doctor the opportunity to escape. Knowing Glospin's claims could lead to his execution, the Doctor left Gallifrey, declining the chance to take a Type 53 TARDIS in the process. He instead chose to leave in a Type 40 TARDIS with the Hand of Omega. The Hand piloted the TARDIS to the Dark Time on Gallifrey to collect the granddaughter of the Other, who recognised the Doctor as the reincarnation of the Other, and the two left Gallifrey together in the TARDIS. (PROSE: Lungbarrow)

When the Eighth Doctor recalled his departure from Gallifrey while recovering from amnesia, the First Doctor was shown angrily striding down the corridors of the Capitol after a meeting in the Council Chamber. He found a TARDIS deep beneath the Capitol, and just as he was about to close the door behind him, heard Susan telling him she was coming with him. Shortly after remembering these events, the Eighth Doctor confronted the First Doctor about his motives for leaving Gallifrey, accusing him of having decided to do so in a fit of pique because his fellow Council members could no longer tolerate his arrogance, and had told him as much. Somewhat conflicting with his earlier recollection, he further berated the First Doctor for having chosen to take Susan with him due to thinking her company might be pleasant without considering the consequence for the young girl. (PROSE: The Eight Doctors)

Gideon Crane, a human temporarily fused with the Eighth Doctor's memories, stated that the Doctor left Gallifrey due to "some misplaced revolutionary fervor". (AUDIO: Minuet in Hell)

Another account suggested that the Doctor broke the Time Lords' law on non-interference and faced being erased from history by his brother Braxiatel on the order of Lord President Pandad VII. Braxiatel allowed the Doctor to run, giving him the chance to steal a Type 40 TARDIS and escape Gallifrey. (AUDIO: Disassembled)

One account showed the Doctor, already with Susan and already wearing Victorian era clothing, ready to steal a faulty TARDIS in a repair shop on Gallifrey. (TV: The Name of the Doctor) The Doctor had brought the flying trunk containing the Hand of Omega with him and Susan had brought basic luggage from her house. Armed guards chased the fugitive Doctor and Susan into the repair shop, where the only place for them to hide was a line of TARDISes. Susan walked into one TARDIS, but the Doctor didn't follow her inside, (AUDIO: The Beginning) as he was being advised by a version of Clara Oswald to steal the Type 40 with the faulty navigation system instead of the one Susan had walked inside, as it would be much more fun. (TV: The Name of the Doctor) The Doctor speculated that the TARDIS was deregistered, and that was how it slipped through Gallifrey's transduction barrier and how they evaded the Time Lords. (AUDIO: The Beginning)

One account showed the Doctor enter the TARDIS by himself and, after admiring the interior, found that the ship had no owner. He then took the TARDIS from Gallifrey to explore the universe. (PROSE: Something Borrowed, Something Blue)