Court (The War Games)

Court
Also called:	The Tribunal, the Three, High Court, High Tribunal, High Council, CIA
Affiliation:	High Council
Bases:	Courtroom
Leader:	First Time Lord (Goth, President)
Notable members:	Second Time Lord, Third Time Lord, ᔑx²-›‾‹, Δ:ʮ≠β, ⵋᵅ/₆↑∝, Øμ³-∝
First appearance:	The War Games

Proposed identities of the War Games court
Other realities

The Second Doctor was tried by a court of Time Lords in his trial following the War Games. It consisted of the First Time Lord, Second Time Lord and Third Time Lord. (TV: The War Games ^[+]Loading...["The War Games (TV story)"]) Later sources would often refer to the court as the Tribunal, (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon ^[+]Loading...["Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon (novelisation)"], The Eight Doctors ^[+]Loading...["The Eight Doctors (novel)"], War Crimes ^[+]Loading...["War Crimes (short story)"]) but its exact nature and membership was a matter of some debate.

The court wore black and white robes. (TV: The War Games ^[+]Loading...["The War Games (TV story)"])

Nature

Some accounts suggested that the court was a central ruling body of Gallifrey. More obscure options were that it was the High Court of the Time Lords (PROSE: The Trial of Doctor Who, World Game, Doctor Who and the Armageddon Factor) or the High Tribunal. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon, The Quantum Archangel) Other sources accounts claimed that the Doctor had been tried by the High Council, (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Terror of the Autons, Save Yourself, TV: The Mysterious Planet) with one account indicating it was a select group known as the Three. (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey) The Book of the War claimed that children of the Homeworld who breached the protocols were tried in "sessions" termed Audiences of the Ruling Houses, presided, as the name implied, by representatives of the ruling Houses. (PROSE: The Book of the War)

The court may not have been so important, as other sources indicated it was a Tribunal acting on the authority of, but distinct in actual membership from, the High Council. (TV: The Deadly Assassin, PROSE: War Crimes) This was also the case in another universe. (AUDIO: Exile) One account suggested that the stark black and white uniform worn by the court were duty robes. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors)

Yet another account suggested the court were not part of Gallifrey's public hierarchy on any level, but, rather, agents of the Celestial Intervention Agency. (PROSE: Future Imperfect, Lungbarrow)

One account made reference to "the Tribunal", a body which was responsible for prosecuting all "temporal transgressions" and had the authority to judge "foreign" time travellers just as much as Gallifreyan ones. Temporal erasure and exile to Sol 3 were among the standard punishments they doled out to transgressors. (PROSE: Gallifrey: A Rough Guide)

Another account indicated the court were members of the Codal Office. (AUDIO: Blood of the Time Lords)

O accounts acknowledged that some individual members of the court had been covert C.I.A. agents, without claiming that the trial was "officially", as it were, a C.I.A. affair: Postar's Scrolls of Gallifrey descrbed Socra as a C.I.A. plant, and also named Goth, (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey) by other accounts an agent of the C.I.A., (PROSE: Future Imperfect) as one of the Three. Adelphi, (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey) the Time Lord messenger who later visited the Third Doctor during his exile, who had also been one of the Three, (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Terror of the Autons) was a C.I.A. operative by yet another account. (PROSE: Prisoners of the Sun)

Membership

The court that the interacted with the Second Doctor was composed of three individuals wearing identical outfits, known as the First Time Lord, Second Time Lord and Third Time Lord. (TV: The War Games, PROSE: Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon) By at least some accounts, these were actual titles within the Gallifreyan hierarchy, referring to the "three most superior Time Lords" on the planet. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon)

First Time Lord

The First Time Lord. (TV: The War Games)

Main article: First Time Lord (The War Games)

The identity of the court's leader, known as the "First Time Lord", varied between accounts. The President of the High Council during the Omega crisis, (PROSE: The Three Doctors) Pandad IV, (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey) remembered personally presiding the Doctor's trial, (PROSE: The Three Doctors) and another account, that which identified the court as the High Court, concurred that in this instance, the Court was led by the Lord President of Gallifrey. (PROSE: World Game) Indeed, one account showed that the First, Second and Third Time Lord were the "three most superior Time Lords" in the hierarchy. That same account also clarified that the First Time Lord active during the Doomsday Weapon crisis, alongside the Second and Third Time Lord, were the same three, between them, who had exiled the Doctor,.(TV: Colony in Space, PROSE: Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon) Another account, on the other hand, claimed that the Time Lords involved in that crisis were distinct from the Three at the trial. (PROSE: Legacy)

According to some sources, the First Time Lord at the tiral was the same individual (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey, War Crimes) as the similar-looking Goth, who would become the Lord President's High Chancellor by the time of his assassination. (TV: The Deadly Assassin) One account, without naming him, claimed that the leader of the Doctor's trial was already the High Chancellor by then, (PROSE: Save Yourself) but according to the Scrolls of Gallifrey, while Goth was indeed the leader of the Three, he was not yet High Chancellor at the time, as that position actually belonged to the Third Time Lord, Socra. (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey)

Yet another source claimed the First Time Lord at the court held the rank of Inquisitor. (PROSE: Second Session)

Second Time Lord

The Second Time Lord. (TV: The War Games)

The Scrolls of Gallifrey identified the Second Time Lord of the Second Doctor's trial as Adelphi. (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey) The Time Lord messenger who later visited the Third Doctor early on during his exile was also one of the members of the High Council who had been in the court, (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Terror of the Autons) and distinct from Socra and Goth, thus identifying him as Adelphi. (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey) By one account, the Second Time Lord active during the Doomsday Weapon crisis, alongside the First and Third Time Lord, made up the inner circle of Time Lord government and were the same three, between them, who had exiled the Doctor, (TV: Colony in Space, PROSE: Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon) but another account claimed that the Time Lords involved in that crisis were distinct from the Three at the trial. (PROSE: Legacy)

Third Time Lord

The Third Time Lord. (TV: The War Games)

The Scrolls of Gallifrey identified the Third Time Lord of the Second Doctor's trial as Socra, conflating him (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey) with the identical-looking High Chancellor who advised the President during the Omega crisis. (TV: The Three Doctors) The Third Time Lord active during the Doomsday Weapon crisis, alongside the First Time Lord and Second Time Lord, was identified by one account as making up the same three, between them, who had previously exiled the Doctor, (TV: Colony in Space, PROSE: Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon) while another account claimed that the Time Lords involved in that crisis were distinct from the Three at the trial. (PROSE: Legacy)

Other possibilities

One account of the High Court's trial of the Doctor indicates that its members included the prosecutor ᔑx²-›‾‹, counsel for the defence Δ:ʮ≠β, and court reporter ⵋᵅ/₆↑∝. Øμ³-∝ additionally served as court archivist. This account did not clearly identify which of these four individuals were the Three most visible during the Doctor's trial. (PROSE: The Trial of Doctor Who)

Other realities

In one parallel universe, where a somewhat different Doctor than the N-Space Second Doctor evaded forced regeneration only to kill himself, regenerating into a depressed female incarnation, the court consisted of only two Time Lords, a first and a second. They acted on behalf of the High Council but were not themselves high-ranking. (AUDIO: Exile)