"The Professor"
(Warning: This is an Author original character I created for my own amusement. The References in this article only apply to my own fan fiction, and are not in tune with any canon whatsoever.)
"The Professor" was the main alias (title-name) of a Time Lady Law Enforcement officer from Gallifrey who travelled through Time and Space in her rather odd-charactered, heavily modified Type 23 Law Enforcer TARDIS. She was the mother of the "renegade" Time Lord known as The Doctor, and the Head of House Lungbarrow.
Described as a technical pacifist, she preferred and believed in non-violent solutions, but could, under the right circumstances, be a great warrior and cause destruction on a massive scale. Indeed, amongst Time Lords she was considered a rather violent but courageous person, resorting to direct confrontation in extension of her inherent protectiveness of people, and was considered a hero to many people, including or even especially her own. This went so far that some people translated the word Professor as Warlord or Architect of Destruction, while others (including Gallifrey to a certain extent) considered her their vigilant, compassionate Protector, worthy of their admiration and compassion.[1][2][3][4]
Nevertheless, her millennia in servitude as the Lord High Valeyard had gained her an infamy rivalled only by other senior members of the Office, and, after the Last Great Time War, her own son. It stemmed in particular from her being directly responsible for erasing four galaxies from existence, thus being one of the few Time Lords ever to commit galaticide, and having executed more than 300 Time Lords for temporal violations on Council orders.
Having been born in an age of change and exchange, The Professor spent a good deal of her free time on Earth and in the Antarian Realm, having an affinity for both Humans and Antarians alike, but, as a female main line member of a Great House of Gallifrey, she spent comparatively a lot of time amongst her own kind to tend to her family's needs.
Nonetheless, she would be one of the few Time Lords to escape the catastrophic destruction of her people, ironically by simply doing her duty which placed her outside of normal space-time the moment Gallifrey burnt to ashes.
Name
Like any proper born Time Lady, the Professor's real name was only known to herself, her parents, her husband and ultimately, the Medusa Cascade, in which her House sealed their names away.[1][3]
When she was 125 years old and thus considered an adult, she originally chose the title-name of "Justice", but discarded that name when she discovered the White Space at age 221, and since then went by the alias of Professor.
According to the Saxon Master, she chose this name as part of Gallifreyan customs to reflect her constant tendency to deliver a lecture, an explanation, conduct research and teach in the same paragraph, or, more literally, to reflect her "constant tendency of being a know-it-all".[5](Indeed, it should be noted that even the most senior of Time Lords found it difficult to contradict her, although that could be a nod to her extreme age.)
Martha Jones/The Walker described her title-name as being a summary, standing in for 'Leader-teacher-master-protector-mentor-researcher, all in one'.[1]
However, it should be noted that she once held the position of senior recruiter at the High Office of the Valeyards, making her an actual Professor.
Age/Idiosyncrasy
Born into the Main (=fertile) line of House Lungbarrow, The Professor was born with a unique genetic make-up containing every marker of the family for longevity and restorative abilities. This resulted in a supposedly only theoretical condition/ability known as restoration: The ability to heal faster than the genetic/cellular degradation caused by aging, aided by having the enzyme Telomerase in every cell of her body.
Because of this, the Professor is, even to Time Lords, somewhat of a living relic, especially since she never had the need to regenerate so far.[1] This made her virtually immortal and ageless, being stuck on the physical age of 132. It earned her the envy and hatred of The Master, who sought immortality all his lives and thus called her an abomination.[2]
Born in 13.629 BCE, she has often been called Last Child of the Golden Age of Gallifrey,[1] and was already over 3.000 when Salyavin/Chronotis was born.[6] It therefore didn't surprise she had outlived both her first husband, and her first son. Indeed, after breaking the 10.000 year mark, to other Time Lords, her mere time signature would be a reason to consider twice before telling her off.
Consequently, it was that very different point of view that made her be aware of the sneaking corruption of Gallifrey, but she also felt that she would be unable to do anything, as the future was written by the younger generation.
Despite her long life, the Professor did not belittle younger races – that was solely applied to her own kind, who literally were mere children in comparison.[6]
Family
Lungbarrow House
The Professor was born into the House of Lungbarrow as the first-born daughter of the then Head of House and her bondmate (also Lungbarrow), making her the heiress apparent-presumptive, and actual heiress after becoming a Valeyard. In fact, she was what one called being Lungbarrow three times over, meaning that both her parents and both sets of grandparents bore the Lungbarrow name. While clan incest was not completely unheard of – some of the Houses sported up to 400 members at the top – being third generation pushed the legal limit, and brought out the traits of the House by extremes.
As a consequence of being oldest, she was raised and grew up to be a protector of people, and to the belief that family comes always first, and to love said family with a passion bordering on obsession.[2] She had a younger brother known as The Surgeon, and a sister.
As Head/Matriarch of House Lungbarrow, The Professor was considered Mother to all the loomed cousins of the House, regardless of generation and degree of relation, being referred to as Janayitritarane (Mother-of-our-name-and-clan) or, more commonly, Lady Lungbarrow by the loomlings. Also, she had power over the biggest country estate on Gallifrey, reflecting the clan's outstanding position.
Still, as Head of House, she had actual children, who were, ironically enough for a matrilineal society, all male (her daughter would become an embarrassment she would have to disown). The eldest surviving of the pair would also end up being the only one: The Doctor.
Reflecting her own affectionate upbringing, the Doctor (and his brother) was allowed to call her the somewhat childish and extremely affectionate "Janayi" ("mum"), which he would continue to do even at age 1200, unless attempting to argue with her, under which he would use the long form of "Janayitritariene" (Mother-of-my-name-and-blood). In turn, she would call them taruelai, "beloved child", and use their childhood designators more in the context of either distinguishing between them or when being cross with them.
Despite trying not to have favourites, especially among the loomlings, The Professor was extremely close to Quences, which can be attributed to his high age in the end, and the man's successor as Crèche Guardian, Keenon, who was among the favourites of the Doctor; however, these bonds paled to the lengths the woman would go for her actual offspring, including interfering in their lives. Nonetheless, she was also willing, albeit reluctantly, to banish individuals from the House if their actions reflected poorly on what was considered a true Lungbarrow, the most regretted being the Un-Naming of her own daughter.
Marriages
At over 15.000 years of age, it is not surprising the Professor was married twice so far; however, her first marriage was arranged, and more of a political alliance than a romantic relationship in its foundations. Nonetheless, she would come to describe her first marriage with loving fondness, safe for its tragic end, as both her son and her husband would perish in a laboratory accident, leaving her to build a pyre for both husband and child.[1]
Consequently, the Professor would stay childless and a widow for the better part of 6500 years.
Far less political, but also more romantic was her relationship to the Doctor's father, The Keeper/Vorias, a scion of the main line of the House of Scaltata, as the far younger Vorias would pursue her and court for her affection for the time of 100 years, and asking her a total of 21 times to bond to him. To his embarrassment, Vorias had "lost" the ring when she finally gave in, and had to buy her a new one; he would later find the original ring in his secondary set of robes.[5] This relationship yielded three children, two sons and a daughter: The Doctor, The Inventor (a genius with TARDISes) and Alyia.
Languages
Like her son, the Professor was capable of speaking a myriad of languages. Given her upbringing as heiress and her training as a Valeyard, her native language was New High Gallifreyan, and she was, due to her age, perfectly capable of reading, writing and speaking Old High Gallifreyan. As a side-effect, she also didn't write in Circular Gallifreyan but Linear. Also, having been born before The Great Dispute, she was fluent in all nine forms of the Antarian Language, preferring High Antarian out of all of them despite knowing its tendencies not to make sense unless heard.
Compared to the Doctor, she spoke more often in their native language, and even when speaking English, she tended to mix in Gallifreyan concept words, especially forms of address and words describing relationships.[1] Like the Tenth Doctor, she always spoke with a slight South London accent when speaking English, that is, if speaking with any accent.
As a Law Enforcer, she spoke the language of the Judoon, and the native language of the Shadow Architect.[7] She was fluent in modern versions of Sanskrit, Japanese, German and French, speaking the latter with a Belgian accent, and was in fact so accomplished in North-African and Middle Eastern languages she could write poetry and prose in them and then proceed and translate them back to English.
Like the Doctor, she spoke "baby", and, due to her House being protected by Almatian Tigers, "General Feline", but in general preferred more direct communication forms in such situations.
Affinities and Influence
Gallifrey
The Professor was the Head of the House of Lungbarrow, a social position unrivalled on Gallifrey due to the extreme age of the House, dating back to the ages before Rassilon, and thus a leading member of the Prydonian Chapter, the foremost of the Chapters. Her position as a Valeyard caused her to never be the actual Lord Cardinal of the Chapter, but her long experience made her a often but also reluctantly sought source of advice.
High Office of the Valeyards
The Professor was a professional Valeyard – an officer of the Gallifreyan Law Enforcement Agency which exclusively prosecuted Time Travellers violating the Laws of Time, and, on Gallifrey, was the highest LEA prosecuting Time Lords. Its name – High Office of the Learned Prosecutors – stemmed from the fact they had to be knowledgeable in several fields, most prominently, Temporal Mechanics and its technicalities.
By age 1.729, the then leader of the High Office named her her successor, and thus she became the 1257th Lord High Valeyard and Law of Gallifrey, and would hold that position until the very end of the Time War. Her influence on the office and society was so long and great that by the time the Doctor was born, most Time Lords couldn't remember what the High Office had looked like without the Professor in charge. According to the Doctor, most of Gallifrey "suffered" from more or less severe cases of hero worship or at the very least grudging respect if it came to the Law of Gallifrey.[1]
Gallifreyan High Council
Being one of only three Chronarchs at the time of the Doctor's birth past her tenth millennia in life and wearing the according markings, many Time Lords regarded the Professor with reverence and found it difficult to contradict her. While not a political person per se, she knew all too well the weight of her own word within the Council Chambers, as the other Great High Ancient Houses tended to follow the lead of House Lungbarrow, and thus usually put a (usually male) member of the middle generation of loomed cousins in her stead, minimizing the House's tendencies to cause upheaval.
As a Valeyard, she only answered to the Inner High Council, of which she was also a member as the Lord High Valeyard and not summoned to work personally, and had the right to arrest even the Lord President if suspected of any crime.
As she was a Valeyard, she could not be prosecuted normally for breaking the Time Lords' Non-interference policy unless breaking protocol of the High Office, and used the freedoms of office to "cajole" around Time and Space in her free time to learn.[1]
Antares
The Professor was born in an era in which the Time Lords regularly interacted with the only race which was older than themselves – the Antarians – and thus frequently interacted with them, enjoying the amenities of their empire, particularly the Rock 'n' roll of Fire Sovereign Lady Mikara. Unlike younger Time Lords, she found no difficulty in explaining the structures of the Space-Weavers' society.
At some point, she came into possession of a villa on the Sovereigns' resort planet, Ira-Illah, originally used as a retreat. After the Burning of Gallifrey, it would become her home away from home.
The Professor was also a frequent guest of the market world of Kesh'at, originally only for her own amusement, but after the war, also to restock on spare parts for her TARDIS, and was thus very knowledgeable on the world.
Shadow Proclamation
Like all Valeyards, the Professor was considered a ranking officer of the Shadow Proclamation, and had the right to contradict even the Shadow Architect if the matter pertained Time or history. Holding an intense dislike for the various Shadow Architects, she tended to resolve matters with the Antarian representative, The Founder (the Antarians had founded the Shadow Proclamation).
Earth
Knowing the fascination both her son and the Antarians held for Sol III, the Professor once travelled the Earth during a sabbatical for several years and wrote a series of books with the title Tales of the Sky describing her travels through India, the Middle East and northern Africa.[8][9]
This and many other visits to Earth gave her an affinity to Earth only surpassed by the Doctor and Keenon, believing humanity to be able to survive everything, including themselves. Befitting her status as a Valeyard, she displayed immense knowledge in Earth history, but found it often disturbing to see the parallels to early Antarian and Gallifreyan history. As Lord High Valeyard, she more than once had had to undo damage to important events in Earth history (and would thus develop a violent hatred of The Silence in time).
Amongst the nations of Earth, she had the same affinity to the UK as her son, citing their respect for tea, and spoke English in the tones of various regions of the nation.
Considering that the general population of Earth was oblivious of even the existence of extraterrestrial life, much less of the Doctor, it was no surprise humans remained oblivious to the Professor's ongoing efforts to preserve the planet's temporal integrity, and were unaware of her existence. There were exceptions to this, however. In The Year That Never Was, the Saxon Master made her a public enemy. After the events of the Year That Never Was, Torchwood Three was in possession of a calling crystal for the Professor, and called her in to deal with rogue Time Agent John Hart.
During the war in the Medusa Cascade, the Subwave network picked up her TARDIS signature, publicly calling her for assistance.[3] Torchwood Director Jack Harkness eventually would list her as freelance agent/advisor.
The Professor was friends with many important figures of Earth history, among them Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Robert Oppenheimer, James Watson and Francis Crick (the latter two had a field day with her DNA).
Biographical Summary
The Professor was born on Gallifrey in the year 13.629 BCE of the Earth calendar, into and in the House of Lungbarrow, as the oldest daughter of the Head of House, Elan. Recognized early on as being true to the House's legacy, Elan used her socio-political influence to have the girl named as a Time Lord candidate (more a formality for Lungbarrows, but it had to be done). Nonetheless, "Mega" (short for Sigma Omega) would grow up like many of her House, that is, a genius late-bloomer, and graduate from the Academy with less-than-stellar grades, but still, a Time Lady, and was recruited on the spot for the High Office of the Valeyards.
Personality
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References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 "TV: The Law of Gallifrey"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "TV: Last of the Time Lords"
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "TV: Journey's End"
- ↑ TV: The Wedding of River Song
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 TV:The Sound of Drums
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 TV: Shada (TV story)
- ↑ TV: The Stolen Earth (TV story)
- ↑ TV: Human Nature
- ↑ TV: The Family of Blood
