Time Lord Academy
- You may wish to consult
Academy (disambiguation)for other, similarly-named pages.
The Time Lord Academy, also known as the Time Academy, (WC: Shada) the Academy of Time, (PROSE: Heart of TARDIS) the Gallifreyan Academy (AUDIO: Insurgency) or simply the Academy (TV: The Sound of Drums, Listen, World Enough and Time) was a school located at the foot of Mount Cadon (PROSE: The Three Paths, AUDIO: Devil in the Mist) most young Time Lords attended to further their educations.
Each of the Gallifreyan chapters was represented by a college, (PROSE: The Ancestor Cell) including the Prydonian Academy (PROSE: Timewyrm: Revelation) and the Academy of the Patrexes. (PROSE: Damaged Goods) According to one account, there also existed a Cahlough Academy. (PROSE: The Bloodletters)
Location and architecture
The Academy was a self-contained city annexed to the Capitol. It covered twenty-eight square miles of Gallifrey's surface. The Academy had glass turrets, with covered walkways linking them, the dormitories, lecture halls, TARDIS bays and scaphe ports. (PROSE: Divided Loyalties) Another location was the Great Hall of the Academy. (AUDIO: Omega)
History
During Omega's life, a statue of him was built in the Great Hall of the Academy. Omega was certain that, as long as the statue stood, his legacy would remain safe. During the Sontaran invasion of Gallifrey, the statue was damaged, forcing it to be taken down for repairs. Having realised Gallifrey had come to hate him, Omega was certain it would remain down. (AUDIO: Omega)
During his presidency, the Fifth Doctor visited the Academy as part of a launch for his policy to end its monopoly on granting the rank of Time Lord. He faced protests from students and revisited his old room, which was preserved in a time lock. (AUDIO: Time in Office)
Students had started to ignore the Great Curriculum to focus on new teachings during Romana II's presidency, allowing for stronger relations between Gallifrey and the Temporal Powers. (AUDIO: Neverland) In fact, during her first term of office, (AUDIO: The Eleven) she changed the laws to allow human, Monan, Nekkistani, Yevnon and Sunari students to study at the Academy. This proved highly controversial on Gallifrey and the hostility alien students faced led to tensions between different species at the Academy. (AUDIO: Insurgency) The Academy was damaged by a terrorist attack by a Free Time terrorist, (AUDIO: Imperiatrix) and then in a battle during the Gallifreyan Civil War when the Imperiatrix ordered the alien students’ execution and President Romana’s forces defended them. Romana’s faction later set up a base in the ruined Academy, defending it by placing it in a Matrix partition. (AUDIO: Fractures, Warfare)
After Romana’s presidency, alien students continued to be allowed at the Academy. Liv Chenka noticed the presence of aliens whilst visiting the Academy to search Kiani’s room with Cardinal Padrac. (AUDIO: The Eleven)
Due to President Livia's policies, the Academy was practically empty of students during the Last Great Time War. (AUDIO: Partisans) President Rassilon later planned on closing it due to the war, expelling all non-Gallifreyan students and redirecting all Academy resources to the war effort. (AUDIO: Assassins)
One source stated that the Academy was destroyed along with the rest of Gallifrey at the end of the Last Great Time War, (PROSE: Doctor Who: The Encyclopedia) whilst another account established that the planet had been saved and relocated to a pocket universe by all incarnations of the Doctor. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
The Time Lord Academy endured beyond the Last Great Time War, continuing to induct young Gallifreyans from the Drylands. A graduate later penned A Brief History of Time Lords for use at the Academy, a book of Gallifreyan history from the beginning of the Time Lords to the Coup against Rassilon. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords)
Parallel universes
In one alternate universe, a Time Lord attended the Academy with "Theta Sigma", who he described as "such an infernal bore". He was about to tell his colleague about their time at the Academy when he was interrupted by a guard. (AUDIO: Exile)
Curriculum
Admission
According to the Tenth Doctor, children "were taken from their families at the age of eight" to begin their instruction. Part of the initiation into the academy involved looking into the Untempered Schism. (TV: The Sound of Drums)
A selection of the applicants was held. (TV: Listen) At the induction ceremony for the Academy all Time Lords said:
- "I swear to protect the ancient Law of Gallifrey with all my might and brain. I will to the end of my days, with justice and with honour temper my actions and my thoughts." (TV: Shada)
Upon admission recognition codes were sewn into a Time Lord's DNA (PROSE: Interference - Book One) that allowed them safe passage through the Time Vortex. (PROSE: Christmas on a Rational Planet)
There was a TARDIS cradle in the Time Lord Academy for students who had formed a symbiotic bond. (AUDIO: The Apocalypse Element)
Studies
Time Lords spent "centuries" at the Academy. (COMIC: Mortal Beloved) Indeed, the Eighth Doctor once recalled an Academy incident when he was in "year 50". (AUDIO: The Next Life)
Subjects
Branches of knowledge taught in the Time Lord education system included botany, (PROSE: Wooden Heart) mind-shielding, (TV: The Invasion of Time) thermodynamics, (TV: Time and the Rani) cybernetics (TV: Destiny of the Daleks, The Armageddon Factor), cosmic science (TV: Terror of the Autons) Veteran and Vintage Vehicles, Gallifreyan flutterwings, (TV: The Pirate Planet) practical theology, (PROSE: All-Consuming Fire) Paradox Declension, (PROSE: Scratchman) stellar engineering (PROSE: Original Sin) spatial cartography, (AUDIO: The Beginning), basic astrophysics and astronomy, (AUDIO: Annihilation) medicine, (AUDIO: Farewell, Great Macedon) Old High Gallifreyan, (AUDIO: Jonah) Temporal Engineering and Gravitational Induction. (PROSE: "Academic Progress")
Sports
The Eleventh Doctor told John Jones that he came in fourth place 900 years earlier in the Time Lord Academy Sprint Championship. (COMIC: Space in Dimension Relative and Time)
Time Lords — or at least the First Doctor — rode Vortisaurs bareback at the Academy. As a result, the Doctor gained a lot of knowledge about Vortisaurs by his eighth incarnation. (AUDIO: Storm Warning)
The First Doctor and Padrac played on the same zero-grav hyperball team, although the Doctor's main contribution was cheating to make the ball stick to his teammates' hands. (AUDIO: The Eleven)
Graduation
To graduate they were tested, with a pass rate of 51% (such as that achieved by the Doctor), up to a "Triple First" grade (like Romana I), and could take the test more than once if necessary, with the result being confidential. (TV: The Ribos Operation)
Chapters and classes
Each of the six Chapters was represented by a college in the Time Lord Academy, (PROSE: The Ancestor Cell) including the Prydonian Academy (PROSE: Revelation) and the Academy of the Patrexes. (PROSE: Damaged Goods) Genniploritreludar was the Academy's Arcalian lecturer. (PROSE: Original Sin)
The Doctor's class
The Doctor belonged to the Prydonian Chapter. (TV: The Deadly Assassin et al.)
At the Academy, he belonged to a group of ten gifted students, called the Deca. The Deca included Theta Sigma (the Doctor), Koschei (the Master), Mortimus (the Monk), Ushas (the Rani), Magnus (the War Chief), Drax, Jelpax, Rallon, Millennia and Vansell. (PROSE: Divided Loyalties)
Tebediatroculozan attended the Academy at the same time as the Doctor. (PROSE: Seven Deadly Sins)
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