Gallifreyan history

Gallifrey, the home planet of the Time Lords, had a long and storied history, up until its destruction. In total, Time Lord civilization lasted for 1 billion years.


 * Due to the time travelling nature of the Time Lords and no points of reference, not all historical events can be properly dated.



The Dark Time
The Dark Time (also known as the Old Times or the Age of the Pythias) was the earliest known point in the history of Gallifrey. It was split into two eras, the Time of Empires and the Time of Chaos. (NA: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible)

The Time of Empire
The Gallifreyans were an ancient species, having evolved well before the Dark Times of the Universe (IDW: Agent Provocateur), and being one of the first humanoid species to evolve. (NA: Lucifer Rising, DW: The Beast Below) During this early era, it was stated that they were known as the Shadow People who were caught between the warm dark of magick and the cold light of science. Magick was known to had predominated Gallifreyan culture for a long time. (NA: So Vile a Sin) One Time Lord stated that they had perfected the transmat beam when the Universe was less than half its present size. (DW: Genesis of the Daleks) Even before the Sol system formed, the Gallifreyans were able to lead an interstellar war against the Racnoss Empire. (DW: The Runaway Bride)

This early empire was massive, with colonies across the galaxy. Slave trading was a common practice, even though there was protesting against it. The early order was under the rule of the Pythia, a line of female seers who controlled Gallifrey. They could predict the future and controlled all aspects of power on Gallifrey. They also perpetuated the mystical aspect of Gallifrey, being against the use of reason. After an event called the Intuitive Revelation, telepathy started to be used instead of speaking. All communication was done telepathically and only special individuals could retain their own personality or secrets. (NA: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible) During this time, the Game was played in the Death Zone, where beings were kidnapped out of time using Time Scoops and forced to fight. (DW: The Five Doctors)

Many Gallifreyans worshipped the Menti Celesti during the time of the Pythia. (NA: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible)

Early research into time travel was done at this point. This first time machine, the Time Scaphe, was powered psychically rather than technologically. (NA: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible)

The Time of Chaos
The Time of Chaos was when the power of the Pythia started to weaken and the Neo-Technologists, led by Rassilon, started to take power. The last of the Pythia began to lose her power of prediction and committed suicide, cursing Gallifrey with sterility as she died. The surviving members of the Pythian order fled to Karn, where they evolved into the Sisterhood. After the collapse of the power of the Pythia, there were threats of war and chaos throughout the empire. Another Ice Age began and the colonies of Gallifrey started to demand their freedom. (NA: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible) The validium statue Nemesis spoke to Lady Peinforte of this time. (DW: Silver Nemesis)



The early days of the Time Lords
The Time Lords had two founders: Rassilon and Omega. Some, albeit dubious, sources describe four more: the Other, Apeiron, Pandak, and possibly Eutenoyar. (PDA: The Infinity Doctors, EDA: The Ancestor Cell)


 * If the latter sources are to be believed, then it might explain the cultural significance of hexagonal objects in later Time Lord society.

The Age of Rassilon
In order to deal with the problems facing the empire, Rassilon instituted several changes. Rasslion instituted the creation of genetic looms to enable the Gallifreyan race to reproduce. The Great Houses were formed to stabilise society. (NA: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible)

Following these early changes, the Time Lords began research into black holes, the first race to do so. (DW: The Satan Pit) One of Rassilon's early attempts to create a black hole accidentally punched a hole through space into the Yssgaroth's Universe. The Yssgaroth escaped and caused mass destruction. The Time Lords, led by Kopyion Liall a Mahajetsu, tried to stop them, leading to the thousand year Eternal War. They were eventually able to push the Yssgaroth back into their own universe, while Kopyion Liall a Mahajetsu guarded the final opening. (NA: The Pit)

Later, Omega utilised two stellar manipulators, the so-called 'hands' of Omega, to detonate a star (DW: Remembrance of the Daleks, PDA: The Infinity Doctors) known as Qqaba and create a black hole from which the Time Lords drew the power they would require for time travel. Omega was himself cast through the black hole into an anti-matter universe and was presumed dead. (DW: The Three Doctors, DWM: Star Death, BFA: Omega) Rassilon eventually retrieved the Eye of Harmony and stored it in a vault beneath the Time Lord capitol as a source of power. (PDA: The Infinity Doctors)


 * The Eye of Harmony may have been a different black hole than the one created by Omega.

At this point, the Non-interference policy was instituted, after the damage that had been done by the Time Lords to other species. (DW: Underworld, PDA: The Quantum Archangel)

Rassilon's reign also saw the war with the Great Vampires (DW: State of Decay) and the end of the games in the Death Zone, blood sports where combatants from throughout time and space fought for the amusement of onlookers. (DW: The Five Doctors) During the Millennium War 150 million years ago, Rassilon went against the non-interference policy and led the Time Lords against the Mad Mind of Bophemeral. (PDA: The Quantum Archangel)

One legend says that despite his great achievements, the Time Lords, with good reason, rebelled against Rassilon and imprisoned him in the Dark Tower in the Death Zone. (DW: The Five Doctors)

Later History
Centuries of isolation had induced a complacency among Time Lords which caused their technology and power to stagnate, even as other races became more powerful and dangerous.

Recent History

 * The following events are believed to have occurred before the Doctor left Gallifrey, though their specific placement is unknown.


 * Mawdryn and a group of scientists attempted to find the secrets of Regeneration from Gallifrey, stealing a metamorphic symbiosis regenerator, but their attempts were unsuccessful and they became stuck in a cycle of never-ending mutated regeneration. (DW: Mawdryn Undead)
 * The Doctor attempts to ban the Miniscope, thinking it to be a cruel practice. The Time Lords went against their non-interference policy and had the Miniscopes recalled. (DW: Carnival of Monsters)
 * The Time Lords developed a chemical that could turn vertebrate blood into acid, but the Doctor successfully campaigned for it to be banned. (ST: The Age of Ambition)

The Doctor's Era
During the Doctor's lifetime, several crises occurred which brought to light the vulnerabilities of the once-omnipotent Time Lords. Testimony at the Second Doctor's malfeasance tribunal revealed the many marauding races which had emerged in the Universe after the Time Lords adopted their isolationist policy. (DW: The War Games)

When the Doctor was very young his father, Ulysses was told by Larna, a Time Lady from the future, that the fate of Gallifrey was mixed with that of the Doctor and that the Doctor would have a part to play in its downfall. (EDA: The Gallifrey Chronicles)

The Time Lords were easily rendered helpless while Omega began to drain energy from Gallifrey, and were only saved by the intervention of the Doctor's first three incarnations. (DW: The Three Doctors) The ease with which the Master was able to alter records contained within the Archives and manipulate the Matrix was due largely to the fact that the technology behind the Matrix's APC Net had been surpassed on other worlds, such that on those worlds the technology would, according to the Doctor, be considered "prehistoric junk". (DW: The Deadly Assassin)

The Time Lords faced "the most dangerous crisis in their long history" when the Master arranged for the assassination of the President as part of a plan to take control of the Eye of Harmony. The Eye was believed to be myth, but in reality it resided underneath the Panopticon and continued to power all of Gallifrey's technology. The Fourth Doctor saved Gallifrey and left. (DW: The Deadly Assassin)

However, the Doctor's departure left Gallifrey in the midst of a constitutional crisis. Due to a legal technicality exploited by the Doctor, he was now technically President, the only other candidate, Goth, having been killed. For a time Gallifrey seemingly had no President. The Doctor eventually returned to claim this title as part of a plot to defeat a Vardan invasion. This invasion was merely a front, however, for a Sontaran invasion of Gallifrey. Although defeated, these invasions exposed weaknesses in Gallifrey's defence systems. (DW: The Invasion of Time)

At a later time, the High Council decided to physically move Earth in order to preserve secrets stolen from the Matrix. (DW: The Mysterious Planet)

These revelations caused a revolution on Gallifrey. (DW: The Ultimate Foe)

First Destruction

 * See also Second War in Heaven.

In a (now defunct) future the Time Lords went to war with a group known only as the Enemy. The war was temporal by nature and cracks throughout the Web of Time appeared and followed themselves backwards through time, retroactively affecting the past. (EDA: Alien Bodies) The war with the Enemy raged for an undefinable amount of time, but eventually temporal events stretched to a critical level, allowing the Eighth Doctor to openly attack, destroying Gallifrey. (EDA: The Ancestor Cell)


 * At some point after this Gallifrey was restored. (EDA: The Gallifrey Chronicles)



Second Destruction

 * See also the Last Great Time War

The Time Lords finally met their end in the Last Great Time War, as the Dalek Imperial fleet attacked their world. During the Last Great Time War, the Time Lords became corrupt and sought to end time itself in order to free themselves from physical bodies. The Doctor succeeded in destroying the Daleks - or so he believed at the time - and locking the Time Lords away in order to stop their disastrous plans. (DW: The End of Time) The guilt and trauma resulting from this haunted the Doctor throughout his ninth incarnation. (DW: The End of the World, Dalek)

In an attempt to stop their destruction, the Time Lords sent a four-beat signal into the Master's mind and then sent a Whitepoint Star diamond to December 2009 Earth. With the drumming as a signal, and the diamond as a connection, the Master used it to pull a group of Time Lords through to Earth, which also pulled Gallifrey through as well. Gallifrey was returned to the last day of the Time War, and destroyed when the Tenth Doctor destroyed the Whitepoint Star within the Nuclear Bolt that was generating the signal. (DW: The End Of Time)