Gallifrey
- For the Big Finish audio series see Gallifrey (audio series).
Gallifrey was the homeworld of the Time Lords, amongst them the Doctor and the Master. (DW: The Time Warrior, The Runaway Bride, The End of Time) It was destroyed in the Last Great Time War. (DW: Dalek) The literal translation of Gallifrey was "They that walk in the shadows". (NA: The Pit)
Location
Gallifrey was located in the constellation of Kasterborous, (DW: Voyage of the Damned) at galactic co-ordinates 10-0-11-0-0 by 0-2 from Galactic Zero Centre. (DW: Pyramids of Mars) Several accounts placed it more or less at the centre of the galaxy. (PDA: The Devil Goblins from Neptune, EDA: Interference - Book Two) Indeed, I.M. Foreman once specified to the Eighth Doctor that it wasn't in "the exact dead centre, but it's as close as you can get without ending up in a black hole". (EDA: Interference - Book One) This meant that it was far from Earth, (DW: Doctor Who) which was on the edge of the Milky Way. It was believed to be about 30,000 light years from Earth (PDA: The Devil Goblins from Neptune)
After the Last Great Time War, the Time Lords attempted to bring back Gallifrey, moving it very close to Earth, which would be destroyed in the process. This attempt was stopped by the Tenth Doctor and the Master with help from the Doctor's companion Wilfred Mott and aliens Addams and Rossiter. (DW: The End of Time)
Kasterborous was also known as the Seven Systems, and Gallifrey had the alternative name, "The Shining World of the Seven Systems". (DW: The Sound of Drums)
Astronomy
Gallifrey was in a binary star system. The second star seeming to rise in the south in the morning, making the mountains glow. (DW: The Sensorites, Gridlock) The main star was large and golden red. (NSA: The Forever Trap) The system contained five other planets (DW: The Invasion of Time), among them Karn (DW: The Brain of Morbius), Polarfrey, and an asteroid named Kasterbourous the Fibster. (NA: Lungbarrow)
Gallifrey had at least two large moons (IDW: Agent Provocateur), one of which was the copper-coloured Pazithi Gallifreya, which shone so brightly it could be seen during the day. (NA: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible, Lungbarrow)
Gallifrey was several times larger than Earth. (DW: The End of Time)
Gallifrey was duplicated eight times by a process known as Crypto-forming to create the Nine Gallifreys. It was used both to confound its enemies and as a place of refuge. Gallifrey was still destroyed by the Eighth Doctor (following involvement from Faction Paradox) during the Second War in Heaven. (EDA: The Ancestor Cell) It was recreated (EDA: The Gallifrey Chronicles) and then destroyed a second time by the Doctor in the Last Great Time War. (DW: Gridlock)
Landscape
From orbit, Gallifrey was rust-coloured, with brown lakes and grey clouds. (NA: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible) Following the Last Great Time War, it was still rust and brown coloured, but had a more volcanically active appearance. (DW: The End of Time)
From the planet's surface, it boasted an orange sky and trees with silver leaves. These reflected the morning sunlight, making it look like the forests were on fire. (DW: The Sensorites, Gridlock) There were also green forests, golden fields and red deserts (NA: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible), but overall it seems to have been a much drier world than Earth. (NA: Lungbarrow) The Sixth Doctor once declared the climate to be "like the Serengeti all year round". (PDA: Spiral Scratch)
Known geographic features
Continents/regions
- Wild Endeavour
- The Capitol was located here
- The Death Zone
- The Tomb of Rassilon was located here
- Southern Gallifrey
Mountains
- Mount Cadon
- Mount Lung
- Mount Perdition
- The Never Ending Mountains of Solace and Solitude (DW: The Sound of Drums)
- Possibly two separate mountains (i.e. Solace and Solitude), possibly the name of a mountain range. It/They were near the Capitol. If they are two separate mountains then the Capitol laid between them: "between the mountains of Solace and Solitude"
Rivers, lakes, and oceans
Major settlements
- The Capitol (sometimes also called "Gallifrey" or "the Citadel") was Gallifrey's largest city, the home of the Time Lord Academy and most of the Time Lords.
- Olyesti
Native species
Gallifreyan flora
Gallifrey had a wide variety of plant life, ranging in colour from silver to green and golden. Known plant species include the Schlenk Blossom (PDA: Island of Death), ulanda (DWA: Blind Fury) and the Madevinia aridosa (NA: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible). The Master's father's estate was lush with red grass (DW: The End of Time).
Gallifreyan fauna
Animals native to Gallifrey include flutterwings (DW: The Pirate Planet), trunkikes, yaddlefish (DWA: Blind Fury), flubbles (PDA: Island of Death), tafelshrews (NA: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible), plumboles (BBCR: The Ghosts of N-Space), rovies (BFA: No Place Like Home), mice, cats (DW: The Mark of the Rani, NA: Human Nature) and, of course, the Gallifreyans themselves. In the past, the dinosaur-like Gargantosaurs lived on the planet. (DWM: The Stolen TARDIS) Oddly enough, before its complete annihilation from time and space, no animal had gone extinct from the planet. (NSA: The Last Dodo)
- This lack of extinction was probably due to the Time Lords, who likely brought back species before they had died out.
History
See Gallifreyan history.
Behind the scenes
- Although the planet was referenced numerous timesearlier, and even seen on occasion (DW: The War Games, The Three Doctors, for instance), the name Gallifrey was not uttered on screen until Jon Pertwee did so in The Time Warrior. In the revived series, the name Gallifrey was mentioned for the first time in The Runaway Bride.
- In the original script of The Time Warrior, Gallifrey was scripted as Galfrey but was later changed.
- Even though the first on-screen mention of Gallifrey was in The Time Warrior, broadcast in December 1973, the word appeared in TV Action #126, put out for the week ending 14th July 1973. There, in the letters column, the editors responded to a question from Simon Still of Kent who asked where the Master came from. The answer? "The Master's home planet was called 'Gallifrey'." This probably doesn't mean, however, that Polystyle gets the credit for "Gallifrey". Since shooting on Warrior wrapped on the 12th June 1973, and the scripts had been completed earlier that spring, the likelihood is not that the TV Action originated the name, but that they were given it by the Doctor Who production office.
