Howling:The difference between Gallifreyans and Time Lords: Difference between revisions

Howling:The difference between Gallifreyans and Time Lords (view source)

Revision as of 02:39, 14 July 2011

2,309 bytes added , 14 July 2011

no edit summary

Boblipton

49,076

edits

@@ Line 29: / Line 29: @@
 Based on ''A Good Man Goes to War'' that is definetly part of it, but in ''Invasion of Time'' there were Gallifreyans who had made the decision to stop being Timelords. ''A Good Man Goes to War'' also suggests that it is not neccesary to be a Gallifreyan in order to be a Timelord, as River was a Timelady, or at least Timeladyish, and she was Human.[[User:Icecreamdif|Icecreamdif]] 01:35, July 14, 2011 (UTC)
+There seems to be an assumption around here that there is only one right answer to any question;  that the existence of two words, 'Gallifreyan'  and 'Time Lord' means that they are two different concepts. This might apply if Gallifreyan were a heavily supervised language, like French with its Academy defining words, and no slang;  but since the Time Lords are an ancient civilization, is it not impossible that both terms are largely interchangeable?  After all, if someone asked you what species you are, you might answer "Human Being"  or "Homo Sapiens" depending on your mood and never think twice tat they mean different things. Given other issues like species being defined by their planets of origin, the terms can be at least occasionally interchangeable, like the eighth synonym in a good-sized thesaurus.
+That being the case, we are left with the questions:  are all Gallifreyans Time Lords?  Are all Time Lords Gallifreyan? Certainly, to judge by the dialogue in THE DOCTOR'S DAUGHTER there is a cultural component to  it;  there are Gallifreyans, we learn from the classic WHO, who have rejected Gallifreyan society. Perhaps they are the same species, perhaps not.  Maybe the genetic makeup shifted over a billion years so that the Time Lords at the beginning of their existence were not the same as at the end.  Certainly, one can interpret the at-least-semi-canonical Looms as indicative of the 'muling out'  that would accompany speciation as Gallifreyans became genetically so diverse they could no longer breed.   Considering the rather vigorous hybridization that occurs in the Whoniverse (as the Doctor says in VAMPIRES OF VENICE, "Think of the Children"... But possibly I digress...
+I return to my initial point:  in all likelihood 'Gallifreyan'  and 'Time Lord'  are acceptable synonyms for each other and the distinction is such that one would have to travel to Gallifrey to observe the relatively fine genetic and cultural distinctions that differentiate the two.  As Gallifrey is time locked, that isn't going to happen;  and, as the Doctor is the only remaining example of either class, there's no real problem in his using the terms interchangeably. Like so many of the discussions here, this one seems rather pedantic....[[User:Boblipton|Boblipton]] 02:39, July 14, 2011 (UTC)