| The following article is written from an In Universe perspective. |
The Time Lords were originally inhabitants of the planet Gallifrey, who were most famous for the creation and attempted monopolisation of time travel technology. (DW: The Time Warrior et al.) They created and upheld the Laws of Time. (DW: The Three Doctors, Attack of the Cybermen)
In 3460, after the atmosphere of the planet had been irreversably modified by Ascension Bomb (PAN: Survivors), the remaining Time Lords were forced to abandon Gallifrey and look for a new home. (PAN: Doctor) By 3769, the Time Lords and the Vex had become so interbred, they evolved into one species known as the Scallatti. (ELYM: The Promise)
Characteristics
Taxonomy
External appearance
Externally, Gallifreyans were usually identical to humans. Hair and eye colour were of any colour found among humans. Teeth were indistinguishable from human teeth. (DW: The Gunfighters) However, while Romana I was regenerating into Romana II, she took on various appearances varying in height and build, and even one with blue skin. (DW: Destiny of the Daleks)
Resilience
Time Lords could survive the subzero temperatures and extremely low pressure of vacuum for around six minutes, (DW: Four to Doomsday) and survive electric shocks that would be fatal to humans. (DW: Genesis of the Daleks, Terror of the Zygons)
Radiation could be fatal, but even then a Gallifreyan could handle much higher doses than a normal human could, and could hold out much longer than even most terrestrial life-forms, (DW: Planet of the Spiders)
A Gallifreyan who was severely injured without actually needing to regenerate to heal the damage would generally slip into a healing coma, and devote all his or her energy to healing the injury. While in the coma, they would appear to be dead. (DW: Inferno, Planet of the Daleks)
Special abilities
Time Lords occasionally displayed, or referred to, the ability to fly. Due to his coordinates having "slipped", the Time Lord messenger who warned the Third Doctor of the Master's presence on Earth materialised hovering in the air, an error he soon corrected. (DW: Terror of the Autons) However, later incarnations of the Doctor were not so keen to fly; the Fourth Doctor and Romana II briefly considered flying to get to the top of the Eiffel Tower, though they eventually took the lifts because flying would have been too conspicuous. (DW: City of Death) As part of a scheme to be carried out by both himself and the Fourth Doctor, Drax told the Doctor he could "fly over there and shut the door", although this plan was not carried out. (DW: The Armageddon Factor)
Life cycle
Time Lords were born from individual Family Looms, machines that operated on genetic banks that would weave random patterns until forming a new person. (DW: Lungbarrow)
Female Time Lords were also referred to as Time Ladies. (DW: City of Death)
When on the brink of death a Time Lord could regenerate, changing their entire physical appearance and giving them a new life. (DW: The Tenth Planet) They had thirteen lives and could regenerate twelve times, an attempted thirteenth regeneration would cause their current body to decay and would cause insanity. (DW: The Deadly Assassin; MOV: Doctor Who: Endgame)
Even without regeneration, Gallifreyans had considerable lifespans. Within one regeneration, Gallifreyans could live for hundreds of years, yet look much younger than a human of equivalent age. When artificially aged 500 years, the Fourth Doctor looked like an elderly human. (DW: The Leisure Hive)
The Second Doctor once stated that, barring accidents, his people could "live forever". (DW: The War Games) The Doctor once said that he considered himself at approaching 750 to be middle-aged. (DW: Pyramids of Mars)
Time Lords had some control over their own deaths, some would elect a specific "Death-Day," which would allow them time to read their will to their family in their ancestral home, to die after a time of contemplation and acceptance, and then to have their mind transferred to the Matrix. (TV: Lungbarrow)
Once they had died, a Time Lord's mind and experiences were usually uploaded to the Matrix on Gallifrey. (DW: The Deadly Assassin; MOV: Doctor Who: Genesis)
Culture
Education
One of the major institutions of the Time Lords was the Time Lord Academy. It was split up into Chapters, each of which was identified by its distinctive colours. (DW: The Deadly Assassin) The subjects at the academy ranged from the study of cosmic science (DW: Terror of the Autons) to Veteran and Vintage Vehicles (DW: The Pirate Planet) to Gallifreyan flutterwings. (DW: The Pirate Planet)
Food and sustenance
Gallifreyan physiology provided for a diet similar to the human one (DW: The Keys of Marinus) including fruit and flesh, but the Time Lords had long lost the habit of feeding with raw or complex food by the time of the presidency of the Fourth Doctor. Freeze-dried pills were employed instead. (DW: The Invasion of Time) Fruit and meat would be eaten on formal occasions, such as holidays, Name Days of Family, Death Days and feasts. Such food included fish, Trumpberries, Magenta Fruits and Pig Rats. (DW: Lungbarrow; PAN: War is Only as Good as Your Leader, All Tied Up)
Dress
At events like the resignation of a Lord President, Time Lords who attended wore long robes in bright colours. The different colours signified where on Gallifrey each Time Lord had come from: Prydonians wore robes of scarlet and orange; Arcalians wore green; Patrexes wore heliotrope; Scendeles robes changed from light pink to a darker shade of red; Dromeians wore grey, black and silver; and Ceruleans wore subdued blue colours. (DW: The Deadly Assassin, Lungbarrow) In addition, most high-ranking Time Lords donned a decorative headdress and crest, complete with a scarlet cap. (DW: The Deadly Assassin)
Of those Time Lords seen repeatedly visiting other worlds, such as the Doctor and Romana, they tended to adopt the local dress of their preferred destination - in the Doctor's case, that of Earth - that mixed well with the locals, though Romana adopted the same largely to mimic him. (DW: Destiny of the Daleks)
Politics
Government
The Time Lords were led by the High Council. The Council consisted of the Lord or Lady President, the Lord or Lady Chancellor, the Castellan and Lords Cardinal. (DW: The Deadly Assassin)
The Lord or Lady Chancellor was next in power and handled many of the government functions. The Castellan controlled the Chancellery Guard and therefore the safety of Gallifrey. (DW: The Deadly Assassin)
The rest of the High Council was made up of the Lords Cardinal, which represented the various Gallifreyan Chapters. (DW: The Deadly Assassin)
Justice
The protection of the Time Lords was carried out by the Chancellery Guard. They protected the Capitol, investigated crimes and captured criminals. (DW: The Deadly Assassin)
By the Doctor's time, punishment was done via disintegration. Morbius was executed this way, but managed to survive as just a brain. (DW: The Brain of Morbius)
The punishments used for crimes varied in severity.
- For his breaking of the non-interference policy, the Second Doctor was forced to regenerate and was exiled to Earth with a non-functioning TARDIS. (DW: The War Games)
- Committing genocide would lead to the removal of any remaining regenerations a Time Lord had; artificial species were not considered alive, thus genocide was impossible. (DW: The Trial of a Time Lord)
- The punishment carried out on the War Lord for his interference in human history which led to the deaths of thousands; involved him (and several of his guards) being dematerialised out of existence. The War Lord homeworld had a force field placed around it. (DW: The War Games)
- When the Doctor was framed for assassinating the Time Lord President, he would have been vaporised if found guilty. (DW: The Deadly Assassin)
Leisure
Academy students sometimes played a dangerous game called "Eighth Man Bound". The multidimensional game of Perigosto, played with a ball and a specialised Perigosto stick, was also a favourite, as was a complicated board game called Sepulchasm. (DW: Lungbarrow)
During a darker, more barbarous time in the planet's past, Time Lords enjoyed watching time-displaced individuals fight to the death in a dedicated area called the Death Zone, but that practice had been entirely abandoned by the Doctor's day. (DW: The Five Doctors)
Technology
Stellar manipulation
Using the Hand of Omega, the Time Lords could speed up the development of stars. (DW: Remembrance of the Daleks)
Weaponry and defence
Despite being one of the most powerful species in the universe, the Time Lords had little in the way of defences and their conventional warfare technology was lagging behind many other civilisations. This may be due in part to the transduction barrier, which covered the planet and which was almost completely impenetrable by outside forces or their general policy of non-interference. As such, when they were invaded by the Sontarans, they were unable to defend themselves with their regular stasers and the Fourth Doctor needed to use an ancient Time Lord weapon called the De-mat Gun. (DW: The Invasion of Time)
History
The Time Lords held absolute power for some ten million years. (DW: The Ultimate Foe) Finally, most Time Lords were ascended into Vex form due to Gallifrey's atmosphe being modified. (PAN: Survivors) Once the Time Lord/Vex war had ended, the surviving Time Lords and Vex went on a voyage to find a new home. (PAN: Doctor)
By 3769 the Time Lords and Vex became so interbred that they eventually evolved into one species, the Scallatti. (ELYM: The Promise)