President of the High Council

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The Lord President wearing the Sash of Rassilon and holding the Rod of Rassilon. (TV: The Deadly Assassin)

The Lord President or Lady President (or President of the Council or simply President) governed the High Council of Time Lords, making him or her the holder of the most powerful office on Gallifrey.

According to Lady President Romana, the full, formal and legal title of the position was: President of the Supreme Council of Gallifrey and All Her Dominions, Holder of the Wisdom of Rassilon, Preserver of the Matrix, Guardian of the Legacy of Omega. (AUDIO: The Inquiry)

The ceremonial privileges of the President included access to the APC Net by means of the Matrix Crown (TV: The Invasion of Time) and the possession of the Sash and Rod of Rassilon. (TV: The Deadly Assassin)

The President also had the formal responsibility, not attempted in reality except by the Fourth Doctor, to seek the Great Key of Rassilon - a separate artefact from the Rod of Rassilon, which was also sometimes referred to as the Key of Rassilon. (TV: The Invasion of Time)

The Lord President could not be put on trial, (TV: The Mysterious Planet) but he or she could certainly be called to give evidence in a judicial investigation. (AUDIO: The Inquiry)

Holders of the Office of President

• Rassilon, the first President and founder of modern Time Lord society. (TV: The Five Doctors)
• Pandak, one of the early Time Lord Presidents and one of the founders of Time Lord society. (PROSE: Lungbarrow, PROSE: The Ancestor Cell)
• Pandora, the first female President, overthrown by her High Council after claiming the title of Imperiatrix. (AUDIO: Lies)
• Morbius, a president who led a war of conquest, overthrown by the High Council. (TV: The Brain of Morbius)
• Saran, Vice President, became President during the Morbius Crisis. (PROSE: Warmonger)
• Drall, President during the Doctor's time at the Time Lord Academy. (PROSE: Divided Loyalties)
• Pandak III, who ruled for over 900 years (TV: The Deadly Assassin)
• Greyjan the Sane. President for three days between the 2nd September 1752 and 14th September 1752. (PROSE: The Ancestor Cell)
• Unnamed male President, grandfather of Pundat the Third, who changed the Constitution of the Time Lords to enable the President to name his own successor (PROSE: Birth of a Renegade)
• Pundat the Third, corrupt President shortly before the Doctor's departure from Gallifrey (PROSE: Birth of a Renegade)
• Slann, successor to Pundat the Third, President at the time of the Doctor's departure from Gallifrey; assassinated by the Master (PROSE: Birth of a Renegade)
• Pandat VII (AUDIO: Disassembled)
• Unnamed male President (TV: The Three Doctors)
• Unnamed male President (assassinated) (TV: The Deadly Assassin) (possibly the same President as above)
• The Fourth Doctor (TV: The Invasion of Time), who was the 407th President. PROSE: The Ancestor Cell)
• Unnamed male President (impersonated by the White Guardian and later by the Black Guardian) (TV: The Armageddon Factor) (possibly Borusa)
• Borusa (TV: Arc of Infinity, TV: The Five Doctors)
• The Fifth Doctor (did not assume office; deposed).(TV: The Five Doctors, TV: The Trial of a Time Lord) He was (still counted as) the 409th President. PROSE: The Ancestor Cell)
• Niroc, president during Operation Ravolox and the Sixth Doctor's (faked) trial. He was a puppet of the Celestial Intervention Agency. (PROSE: The Eight Doctors)
• Flavia, president for an unidentified period, then challenged and beaten for presidency by Romana. (PROSE: The Eight Doctors, PROSE: Happy Endings) (She may have lost an election challenge to Romana, or been deposed in a coup by another interim President before Romana was invested.)
• Unnamed male President (AUDIO: The Sirens of Time), this President also served as interim President during Romana's imprisonment by the Daleks. (AUDIO: The Apocalypse Element)
• Romanadvoratrelundar (see her entries Romana (second incarnation) and Romana (third incarnation) for more details) (PROSE: Blood Harvest, Happy Endings, Lungbarrow, PROSE: Goth Opera, AUDIO: Neverland, Zagreus, AUDIO: Gallifrey, PROSE: The Shadows of Avalon, PROSE: The Ancestor Cell)
• Romana and Pandora (inhabiting the body of Romana's first incarnation); both claimed the title of 'Imperiatrix' when Darkel invoked a 'right of challenge' for the Presidency. (AUDIO: Imperiatrix)
• Valyes, acting President after the defeat of Pandora and the incapacitation of Romana. He resigned and Darkel, Matthias and Romana each claimed the Presidency. (AUDIO: Appropriation)
• Irving Braxiatel, resigned almost immediately, having named his successor. (AUDIO: Mindbomb)
• Matthias, saw Gallifrey almost destroyed by the Free Time Dogma Virus. (AUDIO: Mindbomb, AUDIO: Panacea)
• Voran, Dromeian Castellan was acting President in one universe. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors)
• Rassilon, resurrected and President again by the end of the Last Great Time War. (TV: The End of Time)

Alternative timelines

• In an alternative timeline, the Doctor became Lord President and led the Time Lords in a war against the Daleks, who were being aided and abetted by the Master. (PROSE: The Quantum Archangel)
• In a timeline in which it was standard policy for the Time Lords to sell their temporal technology to the highest bidder and regenerations could be extracted and sold, Leela and K9 Mark I accompanied the Fourth Doctor on his search for the Key to Time. She was the only human to hold the Key to Time in her hands. Consequently, when Leela's counterpart from the proper timeline visited this alternative Gallifrey, she was appointed Lady President. (AUDIO: Reborn)
• In a timeline in which the Time Lords regularly altered history through the Temporal Intervention Agency, Romana became Lady President as in the proper timeline but was considerably more ruthless than her counterpart. Her Interrogator General was Leela, who murdered her predecessor Narvin to achieve the position, while the Doctor, by then in his sixth incarnation, served as Lord Burner, the President's personal temporal assassin who "burned" people from history. Vansell served as Castellan. (AUDIO: Disassembled)
• In a timeline in which Rassilon failed to finish the Eye of Harmony before his death, Romana reigned as Lady President over a Gallifrey which never achieved time travel and where slavery still existed. She was assassinated on the orders of Lord Chancellor Narvin but was immediately replaced by her counterpart from the proper timeline, who claimed that the victim of the assassination was a decoy. After the alternative Narvin was killed by the Krilig, the Narvin from the proper timeline assumed his identity. (AUDIO: Forever)