Last of the Time Lords
- You may be looking for the TV story of the same name.
In several of their incarnations, the Doctor considered themselves to be "the Last of the Time Lords".
Nature[[edit] | [edit source]]
During his trial, the Valeyard suggested that Rassilon was motivated to delibrately introduce a limit of twelve regenerations among the Time Lords since he recognised that a Time Lord who could regenerate without limit could potentially outlive both Gallifrey and the Laws of Time, refusing to permit any other Time Lord to ever become immortal and potentially become greater than him. He went on to claim that he was created as a result of experiments which were performed by the thirteenth and final incarnation of the Doctor in an attempt to break this limit, though the Sixth Doctor found his claims dubious; indeed, he found what appeared to be his final incarnation on Etarho to be the Valeyard in disguise. (AUDIO: Trial of the Valeyard [+]Loading...["Trial of the Valeyard (audio story)"])
History[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Seventh Doctor[[edit] | [edit source]]
In one version of reality, by the lifetime of the Seventh Doctor, Gallifrey was deserted, leaving only a secretive order of wandering renegade Time Lords which included the Doctor himself as well as the Minister of Chance, "the Saints" Antenor and Valentine, and Casmus. Tannis, another surviving Time Lord, arranged for the deaths of the Saints and Casmus, while the Minister abused his power and was stripped of the rank of Time Lord. This left only the Doctor, who made a final stand against Tannis on Salisbury Plain, upon which Tannis referred to him as "the last of the friendly Time Lords". Using his powers as a Time Lord to "disrupt the course of time", the Doctor destroyed Tannis and himself, leaving behind Ace, who had been instructed in Time Lord ways by Casmus, and was inducted in a mystical sense as the first Time Lord of this new age by the Kingmaker. (WC: Death Comes to Time [+]Loading...["Death Comes to Time (webcast)","Death Comes to Time"])
Following the War in Heaven[[edit] | [edit source]]
In the post-War universe following the end of the War in Heaven, only four Time Lords survived the erasure of the Nine Gallifreys from history. These "four surviving elementals" (PROSE: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street [+]Loading...["The Adventuress of Henrietta Street (novel)","The Adventuress of Henrietta Street"], Trading Futures [+]Loading...["Trading Futures (novel)","Trading Futures"], The Gallifrey Chronicles [+]Loading...["The Gallifrey Chronicles (novel)","The Gallifrey Chronicles"]) included the Eighth Doctor; (PROSE: The Burning [+]Loading...["The Burning (novel)","The Burning"], et al.) the Minister of Chance; a young woman with long blonde hair; and the man with the rosette. Some other Time Lords remained, such as Marnal, but their connections to their TARDISes had been severed. (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles [+]Loading...["The Gallifrey Chronicles (novel)","The Gallifrey Chronicles"])
Near the end of the universe, the four surviving elementals ruled all of time and space from the Needle, (PROSE: Father Time [+]Loading...["Father Time (novel)","Father Time"], COMIC: Miranda [+]Loading...["Miranda (comic story)","Miranda"]) the ruined TARDIS of the Time Lord Savar. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors [+]Loading...["The Infinity Doctors (novel)","The Infinity Doctors"]) Their leader was the Emperor, who outlived the others (PROSE: Father Time [+]Loading...["Father Time (novel)","Father Time"]) and resembled the Eighth Doctor but with short, cropped hair. (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles [+]Loading...["The Gallifrey Chronicles (novel)","The Gallifrey Chronicles"]) However, shortly after the birth of the Emperor's daughter Miranda, the Klade revolted against the Imperial Family and assassinated the Emperor. Miranda only escaped the attack by being sent back in time to Earth in the late 1970s, (PROSE: Father Time [+]Loading...["Father Time (novel)","Father Time"], COMIC: Miranda [+]Loading...["Miranda (comic story)","Miranda"]) where she was ultimately adopted by the Eighth Doctor. (PROSE: Father Time [+]Loading...["Father Time (novel)","Father Time"], et al.)
The pale aristocrat[[edit] | [edit source]]
In a possible future glimpsed by the Eighth Doctor, his next incarnation was a "pale aristocrat" (PROSE: The Tomorrow Windows [+]Loading...["The Tomorrow Windows (novel)","The Tomorrow Windows"]) who fought the Shalka and had formed an "alliance of sorts" with the Master, who was confined to the TARDIS in an android body (WC: Scream of the Shalka [+]Loading...["Scream of the Shalka (webcast)","Scream of the Shalka"]) after losing his original assisting the Doctor in defeating an alien race which had invaded Gallifrey and killed nearly all other Time Lords including the Lord President's daughter, with whom the Doctor had fallen in love.
After the Time Lords retreated into the Matrix, (PROSE: Doctor Who - The Ninth Doctor [+]Loading...["Doctor Who - The Ninth Doctor (short story)","Doctor Who - The Ninth Doctor"]) they sent him and the Master on dangerous missions as punishment for the death of (WC: Scream of the Shalka [+]Loading...["Scream of the Shalka (webcast)","Scream of the Shalka"], PROSE: Scream of the Shalka [+]Loading...["Scream of the Shalka (novelisation)","Scream of the Shalka"]) the Lord President's daughter, who alone was "truly dead". (PROSE: Doctor Who - The Ninth Doctor [+]Loading...["Doctor Who - The Ninth Doctor (short story)","Doctor Who - The Ninth Doctor"])
Following the Last Great Time War[[edit] | [edit source]]
When the War Doctor was preparing to use the Moment to end the Time War, the sentient weapon warned him that to do so would result in "no more" Time Lords and Daleks, and that his punishment would be to survive.
Having regenerated following the fall of Gallifrey (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)","The Day of the Doctor"]) the Ninth Doctor did not expect to see any other Time Lords again, noting to Liv Chenka that they would not be facing the Master, the Monk, the Rani or the Eleven. (AUDIO: Flatpack [+]Loading...["Flatpack (audio story)","Flatpack"])
In the early 2000s, Steven spotted the Ninth Doctor, who he believed to drunk. Steven noticed that the Doctor was wearing a frock coat, repeatedly muttering that "they're all gone, I'm the only one left." , He later wrote about the encounter on whoisdoctorwho.co.uk in 2005. (PROSE: Have You Seen This Man? [+]Loading...["Have You Seen This Man? (short story)","Have You Seen This Man?"])
After taking Rose Tyler to see the destruction of Earth, the Doctor confided to her that he was the last of the Time Lords and that his planet had burnt, as hers did, in a war. (TV: The End of the World [+]Loading...["The End of the World (TV story)","The End of the World"])
Encountering the Metaltron, which he believed to be the last surviving Dalek, the Doctor revealed that, save the two of them, both the Daleks and the Time Lords were wiped out at the end of the Last Great Time War. In reference to the Doctor, the Dalek gloated that "the coward survived". Ultimately, the Dalek chose to self-destruct after being "contaminated" by Rose's human DNA. As such, the Doctor deemed that the war was over; as the "only one left", he had won. When Rose suggested that some Time Lords might have survived as the Dalek did, the Doctor claimed that he would know if they had, that it felt like there was no-one. (TV: Dalek [+]Loading...["Dalek (TV story)","Dalek"])
By reading Adam Mitchell's mind via his infospike, the Jagrafess and the Editor learnt that the Doctor was the last of the Time Lords. (TV: The Long Game [+]Loading...["The Long Game (TV story)","The Long Game"])
When Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson presented King of France Louis XV to the Tenth Doctor, he introduced himself as the Lord of Time. (TV: The Girl in the Fireplace [+]Loading...["The Girl in the Fireplace (TV story)","The Girl in the Fireplace"]) The Beast, who claimed to have lived before the universe, knew the Doctor as "the killer of his own kind". (TV: The Satan Pit [+]Loading...["The Satan Pit (TV story)","The Satan Pit"])
Saying goodbye to Rose in Pete's World, the Doctor assured her that he would be back to his "same old life" as last of the Time Lords. (TV: Doomsday [+]Loading...["Doomsday (TV story)","Doomsday"])
The Face of Boe, whilst acknowledging that the Doctor was the last of his kind, told him that he was not alone, much to his shock. The Doctor later admitted to Martha Jones that he was the last of the Time Lords and that his people were all lost in the Last Great Time War against the Daleks. (TV: Gridlock [+]Loading...["Gridlock (TV story)","Gridlock"])
The Family of Blood knew the Doctor to be the last of the Time Lords, whom they understood to be a "wise and ancient race". (TV: Human Nature [+]Loading...["Human Nature (TV story)","Human Nature"])
On Malcassairo, the Doctor introduced himself as the last of the Time Lords to Professor Yana and Chantho, the latter of whom related as she believed herself to be the last Malmooth. The Doctor was humbled to know that, at the end of the universe, neither Yana nor Chantho recognised the name Time Lord. After Martha found a biodata module, a device which she knew could hold the essence of a Time Lord, on Yana's person, Jack Harkness suggested that Yana could be a Time Lord, that the Doctor "might not be the last one", though the Doctor was hesitant to accept this. Martha recalled the Face of Boe's words, and the Doctor came to realise that he was referring to Yana, who soon revealed he was the human disguise of the War Master, under a Chameleon Arch. (TV: Utopia [+]Loading...["Utopia (TV story)","Utopia"]) The ensuing confrontation eventually led to the death of the Saxon Master in a new incarnation, who refused to regenerate despite the Doctor's pleas, knowing that there was "no one else". (TV: Last of the Time Lords [+]Loading...["Last of the Time Lords (TV story)","Last of the Time Lords"])
General Staal of the Tenth Sontaran Battle Fleet, who was aware of legends of the Last Great Time War, knew the Doctor to be the last of the Time Lords, and savoured the prospect of him dying in the Sontaran invasion of Earth. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem [+]Loading...["The Sontaran Stratagem (TV story)","The Sontaran Stratagem"])
The Trickster hailed his confrontation with the Doctor as "the meeting of the Pantheon of Discord and the last of the Time Lords." (TV: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith [+]Loading...["The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith (TV story)"])
On the surface of Mars in 2059, the Doctor was preparing to leave the crew of Bowie Base One to their historically established fate when he remembered that he was the last of the Time Lords. With this knowledge, he returned to the base to change history, coming to believe that the Laws of Time were his alone and deeming himself Time Lord Victorious until he was challenged by Adelaide Brooke. (TV: The Waters of Mars [+]Loading...["The Waters of Mars (TV story)","The Waters of Mars"])
Having made arrangements for his resurrection prior to his death, the Master returned and was confronted by the Doctor, only for both to be embroiled in the Final Sanction initiated by Rassilon, who had been made aware of a prophecy identifying the Doctor and the Master as the "two survivors", to facilitate the escape and survival of Gallifrey beyond the final day of the Time War. This plan was stopped by the Doctor, whilst the Master returned to the Time War as he attacked Rassilon, leaving the Doctor alone once again. (TV: The End of Time [+]Loading...["The End of Time (TV story)","The End of Time"])
The newly established New Dalek Paradigm recognised the Eleventh Doctor as the last of the Time Lords and so deemed that the Daleks were the winners of the Time War, striving towards mastery over space and time only to be continually thwarted by the lone Time Lord. They eventually learnt of Gallifrey's survival during the Siege of Trenzalore. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe [+]Loading...["Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe (short story)","Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe"])
The Eleventh Doctor observed that Alaya, a Silurian, was using the Klempari defence when she claimed to be the last of her kind under interrogation. The Doctor explained that, being the last of his species, he knew how it "[sat] in a heart", warning her not to insult him. (TV: The Hungry Earth [+]Loading...["The Hungry Earth (TV story)","The Hungry Earth"])
As part of a ploy to acquire control of the Doctor's TARDIS, the Claw Shansheeth claimed to Sarah Jane Smith claimed to have found the body of the Doctor, the last Time Lord. In reality, the Doctor was alive and well. (TV: Death of the Doctor [+]Loading...["Death of the Doctor (TV story)","Death of the Doctor"])
When House noted his killing of hundreds of Time Lords in an attempt to intimidate the Doctor, the Doctor retorted that he had killed all of them. In addition to himself, the last Time Lord, the Doctor claimed his TARDIS to be the last TARDIS, and that there would be no more after them. (TV: The Doctor's Wife [+]Loading...["The Doctor's Wife (TV story)","The Doctor's Wife"])
Even after the Eleventh Doctor teamed up with several of his past and future regenerations to preserve Gallifrey in a pocket universe, (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)","The Day of the Doctor"]) with the Time Lords managing to return to the universe, albeit hiding in fear at the end of the time continuum with nothing anywhere near their old power, (TV: Hell Bent [+]Loading...["Hell Bent (TV story)","Hell Bent"]) the Twelfth Doctor continued to hold himself to be the "Last of the Time Lords", a title which Clara Oswald applied to the Doctor as the equivalent to Robin Hood's "Prince of Thieves". (TV: Robot of Sherwood [+]Loading...["Robot of Sherwood (TV story)","Robot of Sherwood"])
Meanwhile, Missy left Gallifrey and, (TV: Death in Heaven [+]Loading...["Death in Heaven (TV story)","Death in Heaven"]) upon learning of the Eleventh Doctor's apparent death at the hands of River Song, met with his recorded killer, to whom she presented herself as the "Last of the Time Lords", which she claimed also made her the best one and the winner as the others had "all [gotten] themselves killed". (AUDIO: The Bekdel Test [+]Loading...["The Bekdel Test (audio story)","The Bekdel Test"])
After reuniting with Missy, (TV: Death in Heaven [+]Loading...["Death in Heaven (TV story)","Death in Heaven"]) and discovering that Gallifrey was now "hiding" at the end of the universe, the Twelfth Doctor introduced Missy to Bill Potts as "the other Last of the Time Lords". (TV: The Lie of the Land [+]Loading...["The Lie of the Land (TV story)","The Lie of the Land"])
Following the Spy Master's crimes[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Fifteenth Doctor told Ruby Sunday that he was the last of the Time Lords following the genocide (TV: Space Babies [+]Loading...["Space Babies (TV story)"]) enacted when the Spy Master razed Gallifrey and murdered the Time Lords there, (TV: Spyfall [+]Loading...["Spyfall (TV story)"]) later forcing the Thirteenth Doctor to detonate the death particle on the planet, destroying all organic life that might have remained. (TV: The Timeless Children [+]Loading...["The Timeless Children (TV story)"])
Although the Master managed to escape with a few of the CyberMasters he had created from the bodies of his victims, (TV: The Power of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Power of the Doctor (TV story)"]) the CyberMasters had no remaining individuality, and the Master had declared them a "new race" distinct from the Time Lords. As for the Master himself, the Thirteenth Doctor had seen his body "failing" after the forced regeneration he had enacted between himself and the Doctor, (TV: The Power of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Power of the Doctor (TV story)"]) with the Toymaker later referring to having encountered the dying Master and played a game which he lost. The Master had subsequently been sealed inside the Toymaker's gold tooth, and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Doctor remained unaware that an unseen hand had retrieved the tooth after the Toymaker's defeat. (TV: The Giggle [+]Loading...["The Giggle (TV story)"])
The Fifteenth Doctor later told Ruby that he did not know the fate of his granddaughter, Susan Foreman, but speculated that she may have been killed too because the genocide of their race had "roll[ed] across time and space" in the form of a "cellular explosion". (TV: The Devil's Chord [+]Loading...["The Devil's Chord (TV story)"]) Though what the Doctor was led to consider was a new incarnation of Susan was realised to be a deception planted by Sutekh, (TV: The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+]Loading...["The Legend of Ruby Sunday (TV story)"]) the Doctor emerged from the confrontation with a belief that he may one day find his granddaughter again. (TV: Empire of Death [+]Loading...["Empire of Death (TV story)"])
Parallel universe[[edit] | [edit source]]
In the Unbound Universe, a Great War across the universe caused the extinction of the Time Lords, leaving the the Doctor as the last survivor and thus the Ruler of the Universe, (AUDIO: The Library in the Body [+]Loading...["The Library in the Body (audio story)","The Library in the Body"]) though the Master had also survived. (AUDIO: The Emporium at the End [+]Loading...["The Emporium at the End (audio story)","The Emporium at the End"]) This universe was left dying as a result of the War, (AUDIO: The Library in the Body [+]Loading...["The Library in the Body (audio story)","The Library in the Body"]) though the Doctor did succeed in creating a safe zone for the survivors using the Apocalypse Clock. (AUDIO: The True Saviour of the Universe [+]Loading...["The True Saviour of the Universe (audio story)","The True Saviour of the Universe"])
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- In Tony Blair Regenerates [+]Loading...["Tony Blair Regenerates (TV story)","Tony Blair Regenerates"], the regenerated Tony Blair, played by David Tennant, presents his "Last of the Time Lords hand gesture" in an address to the people of Britain.
- In the Odyssey series of fan novellas by Lance Parkin and Mark Clapham, the 42nd Doctor was one of the few survivors of an unknown cataclysm which devastated Gallifrey. This 42nd Doctor would have appeared in several drafts of an epilogue to The Dying Days [+]Loading...["The Dying Days (novel)","The Dying Days"], one of which was ultimately released in the fanzine Matrix #54 with the title "Last of the Time Lords";[1] he ultimately cameoed, unnamed, in Beige Planet Mars [+]Loading...["Beige Planet Mars (novel)","Beige Planet Mars"] as an "old man".
