Doctor Who question

Piratecat

Sesquipedalian

• Aug 18, 2010

• #1

I've been wondering: TARDIS technology seems to have been reasonably common amongst the Time Lords. Even though the Doctor is the last of his kind, how come there aren't a ton of Time Lords who have since died bopping around through time and space? You'd think that the Doctor would run into younger versions of his old kinsmen all the time.

Anyone know?

 

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Ed_Laprade

Adventurer

• Aug 18, 2010

• #2

Piratecat said:

I've been wondering: TARDIS technology seems to have been reasonably common amongst the Time Lords. Even though the Doctor is the last of his kind, how come there aren't a ton of Time Lords who have since died bopping around through time and space? You'd think that the Doctor would run into younger versions of his old kinsmen all the time.

Anyone know?

Click to expand...

The Doctor was a rebel. Appearently the Time Lords didn't use their TARDIS tech much. I think we've only ever seen rebels, the Doctor, the Master and the Mad Monk. But I could be wrong. (But there still should be some floating around!)

 

Piratecat

Sesquipedalian

• Aug 18, 2010

• #3

He spends so much time complaining that he's the last one, I've never been sure why he doesn't visit Gallifrey back before he was born. I mean, other than the obvious "this would ruin one of his major character motivations and it is just a television show after all" reason.

 

Last edited: Aug 18, 2010

Morrus

Well, that was fun

Staff member

• Aug 18, 2010

• #4

After (yeah, I know the word "after" doesn't make sense when discussing a time war) the Time War, a Time Lock was put into place. The specifics of this are not explained, but essentially it makes it possible for him to be the "last" of a race of time travellers. I would imagine the writers don't explain it because they can't - they're not Time Lords, after all!

Gallifrey can't be visited due to the Time Lock. Because the Doctor - presumably - was responsible for it, he's the exception.

Except for when the writers decide to create a time-wimey-stuff reason to bring someone back, of course.

 

Thornir Alekeg

Albatross!

• Aug 18, 2010

• #5

I certainly do not know. My feeling is that Galifrey exists outside the normal path of time, otherwise future and past incarnations of Time Lords could bop into and out of there, messing with elections, playing the past winning numbers in the Galifreyan Megabucks lottery, etc.

With the Doctor time-locking Galifrey, the Time Lords within can no longer move into the normal flow of time, thereby removing them from the past, present, and future of the rest of the universe.

 

Piratecat

Sesquipedalian

• Aug 18, 2010

• #6

Morrus said:

Except for when the writers decide to create a time-wimey-stuff reason to bring someone back, of course.

Click to expand...

When I mentioned this this morning, Peggy said "Ask Russ. He'll know!"

I'm finishing up the third season. So, so good.

 

Morrus

Well, that was fun

Staff member

• Aug 18, 2010

• #7

See, here's all the explanation you'll ever need!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY_Ry8J_jdw"]YouTube - Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey...Stuff[/ame]

 

S

Sutekh

First Post

• Aug 19, 2010

• #8

It was established in the 'Classic' Series that the Dr could not travel into the past of Gallifrey. This I believe was deliberately set in place by Rassilon, the 'founder' of the Time Travel tech. This can be noted in that the Doctor never visits Gallifrey at a point previous to an earlier adventure (ie his numerous encounters with Borusa are in order ).The books may contradict this statement , but as a long time Dr Who viewer Im 80 percent certain this is correct. Its more than likely that this is simply hardcoded into every Tardis or that the technology simply dosnt allow for it.

The Time Lock that Gallifrey (and the Dalek Fleet) are in is a seperate matter entirely and was established by the Doctor. Tardis use was under highly regimented control (and could be co opted by an outside source). The Doctor's Tardis was effectively stolen property, as was the Masters, Rani's etc. Tardises were used by the Timelords to view a situation.. its when they actually got involved was the problem ( A Good example of a Timelord overstepping his bounds is Chancellor Goth in the Deadly Assassin. He came across the Master and was subsumed by his will).

 

Plane Sailing

Astral Admin - Mwahahaha!

• Aug 19, 2010

• #9

Piratecat said:

I've been wondering: TARDIS technology seems to have been reasonably common amongst the Time Lords. Even though the Doctor is the last of his kind, how come there aren't a ton of Time Lords who have since died bopping around through time and space? You'd think that the Doctor would run into younger versions of his old kinsmen all the time.

Anyone know?

Click to expand...

I certainly don't know, although my working theory is that time is like an additional physical dimension, and after the time war all the time lords are geographically on the other side of the street as it were, no matter what time they were in or were visiting.

Hence the Doctor can go backwards and forwards in time now but not bump into any other timelords or daleks from 'before' the time war because they are on the other side of the street.

Or to borrow a discworld metaphor, they are in the other trouser leg of time.

 

MarkB

Legend

• Aug 19, 2010

• #10

Plane Sailing said:

my working theory is that time is like an additional physical dimension

Click to expand...

That certainly matches the series. According to Susan in, I think, the very first episode, Time is the fifth dimemsion, the fourth being Space.

There are original-series episodes which mention that the Time Lords would sometimes Time Loop entire species that posed a threat, essentially closing them off in a recursive universe of their own, making them essentially never have existed in the universe at large. The Time Lock is presumably this technique on a grand scale.

Another potential reason why there aren't Time Lords zipping around the 'verse is that all TARDISes are designed to be linked to the harnessed black hole, the Eye of Harmony, which powers all Gallifreyan time travel. The Doctor's TARDIS has lost that link somewhere along the way - it's a minor plot point in a couple of episodes, and the TARDIS now has to make periodic 'refuelling' stops at places like the Rift in Cardiff - but all other TARDISes would have stopped working once their link to Gallifrey was severed, and that link might even have been used to recall them during the Time War, so that they were back home when the lock happened.