Time Lords in popular culture and mythology

Despite their non-interference policy, the Time Lords of Gallifrey were known far and wide across the universe, including on Earth, where, by the 21st century, accounts of them and their world existed not only as matters of historical fact, but as fictional beings and as "the stuff of legend". Most notably recognised were two rival Renegade Time Lords, who both survived the apparent destruction of Gallifrey during the Last Great Time War, the Doctor and the Master.

On Earth and among humans

As real beings

At some point, fragments of the Scrolls of Gallifrey, a history of Gallifrey and biography of Rassilon (including his post-mortem activities as a Matrix Lord) by Postar the Perfidious, made their way to Earth and were found in a churchyard in Berkshire. A dedicated team of historians, led by one Gary Russell, were eventually able to decode most of it. (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey)

Around the early 2000s, science fiction author Paul Magrs would mention in a piece of prose that was requested anonymously, that he knew that the first incarnation of Iris Wildthyme was the one to call upon all seven Irises to the Death Zone on Gallifrey. (PROSE: Bafflement and Devotion)

Krasko, a criminal and former 52nd century Stormcage detainee, recognised what appeared to be a police box as potentially a TARDIS, going on to suggest that it would be worth a lot of money. (TV: Rosa)

As works of fiction

Based upon reality

Doctor Who

The Doctor was a Time Lord in the BBC series Doctor Who, (PROSE: A Letter from the Doctor) who possessed "Time Lord powers" in David Karpagnon's imagination. (PROSE: The Terror of the Umpty Ums)

Time Surgeon

Main article: Time Surgeon

Loosely based on the Doctor's adventures, Time Surgeon was a popular comic book series in the 2010s written by Sonny Robinson, who was inspired after finding internet records of the Doctor. The eponymous Time Surgeon, who travelled through time in a flatpack wardrobe, identified as a Chrononaut the planet Galahad in the star system of Karaktakus. (COMIC: Invasion of the Mindmorphs)

Unclear

The Book of the War's entry on the Remote, an anarchic faction in the War in Heaven who were feared and detested by the Homeworld, used as an epigraph a quote from Sophocles's play Oedipus Rex which appeared to mention the Great Houses, rendered with capital letters in the Book's quotation:

Anarchy! Anarchy! Show me a greater evil! This is why the cities tumble, and Great Houses rain down! This is what scatters armies!A quote from Oedipus Rex. (PROSE: The Book of the War)

On Skaro and among the Daleks

As early as their first incarnation, the Doctor was recognised as an enemy by the Daleks, who developed their own time machine to pursue him. (TV: The Chase) In some accounts, however, the Doctor was a human, (PROSE: The Monsters from Earth) and accordingly, the Dalek Emperor expressed a belief that the Second Doctor had become "more than human" as a result of excessive time travel. (TV: The Evil of the Daleks)

However, the Reconnaissance Dalek, an early reconnaissance scout sent out from Skaro, who had been cut off from his people ever since, was able to recognise the Thirteenth Doctor as the Daleks' enemy the Doctor on the basis of her binary vascular system. (TV: Resolution) By 2223, the Black Dalek acknowledged the Bruce Master as a Time Lord. (AUDIO: Vengeance)

Eventually, however, after the return of Davros, the Daleks recognised the Doctor as a Time Lord who, in their fourth incarnation, attempted to interfere with their creation by Davros' hand. (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks, AUDIO: The Dalek Conquests)

Following the Last Great Time War, a lone Dalek survivor was informed by the Ninth Doctor that the Time Lords were apparently extinct as well as the Daleks. (TV: Dalek) Meanwhile, the Cult of Skaro, who sat out the war from within the Void, were aware of the apparent destruction of Gallifrey. (TV: Doomsday) After emerging as the last survivor of the Cult of Skaro, Dalek Caan, successfully travelled back to the Time War and retrieved Davros, who was made aware of the near-extinction of the Daleks and the Time Lords. Furthermore, the New Dalek Empire, composed of post-Time War Daleks created from Davros' DNA, recognised the Time Lords. (TV: The Stolen Earth/Journey's End)

After the creation of the New Dalek Paradigm, the Daleks strove to become the new Lords of Time, though their ambitions were thwarted by the Eleventh Doctor. (GAME: City of the Daleks, The Eternity Clock) Learning that Gallifrey had survived its fall, having been relocated to another dimension, the Daleks feared the prospect of the Time Lords returning to the universe and sought to prevent it. (TV: The Time of the Doctor)

Following the Siege of Trenzalore, the Twelfth Doctor disclosed that he had saved Gallifrey to Davros, who reacted with apparent surprise. (TV: The Witch's Familiar) By the time of their ill-fated collaboration with the Spy Master, the Daleks became aware that he had ransacked Gallifrey. (TV: The Power of the Doctor)

In the Skaro of a parallel universe, the planet's legends spoke of the Time Lords as an ancient enemy that had attempted to destroy the species of Skaro only to be destroyed by the Thals and Kaleds. (AUDIO: Palindrome) In the Skaro of the Unbound Universe, the Daleks and Thals remembered the Doctor in their legends about the Great Siege. (AUDIO: Masters of War)

The Cybermen

By 2526, the Neomorph Cybermen, descended from those who came from Mondas, were aware of the Time Lords, their TARDISes, their non-interference policy and ability to regenerate, as well as the fact that the Doctor, their long-standing enemy, was one of them. (TV: Earthshock) The Neomorphs on Telos acknowledged the Time Lords as they made their own ill-fated temporal incursion to 1985. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen) The CyberIsomorphs whom operated in 1988 were aware of the Time Lords but were not interested in their secrets. (TV: Silver Nemesis)

The Cybermen of Pete's World were unfamiliar with the Tenth Doctor's binary vascular system, which they identified as an "unknown upgrade". (TV: The Age of Steel)

In the aftermath of the Cyber Wars of the 250th Millennium, the Cyber-Planner known as Mr Clever was aware of the Time Lords and was interested to find data on them in the mind of the Eleventh Doctor. (TV: Nightmare in Silver)

At the end of the universe, a group of Cybermen survived and, in an alternate timeline, were contacted by Rassilon after had was banished from Gallifrey. Apparently gaining their allegiance, Rassilon returned and conquered Gallifrey before using the resources of the Cyberiad to launch an invasion of time and space, all the while the Cyber-Controller plotted to use the regenerative energy of the Time Lords to remake the universe as the Age of the Cyberiad. Betrayed, Rassilon joined with the Twelfth Doctor to regenerate the universe, negating the altered timeline. (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen)

The Sontarans

In the 13th century, the Sontaran Jingo Linx observed the Time Lords to be a "race of great technical achievement, but lacking the morale to withstand a determined assault." (TV: The Time Warrior) The Sontarans launched an invasion of Gallifrey, but this was thwarted by the Fourth Doctor. (TV: The Invasion of Time)

During the Last Great Time War, both the Time Lords and the Daleks refused to ally with the Sontarans, leading the warrior race to make an ill-fated attempt to open up their own front in the conflict by kidnapping representatives of both powers including Cardinal Ollistra. (AUDIO: The Eternity Clock) In the post-Time War universe, the Sontarans understood that they were not allowed to be a part of the legendary Time War and believed the Tenth Doctor to be the last of the Time Lords. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem)

In other cultures

Knowledge of the Time Lords

In one account of the Second Doctor's trial, the President of the Court told the Doctor that his prolonged and temporal interference drew attention to the very existence of the Time Lords and that the safety of their race had lain in silence and secrecy for many years. He went to surmise that offences of this nature were capital crimes, in comparison to which his theft of the TARDIS was a relatively minor offence, before reluctantly sentencing him to death. The charges were commuted to a period of exile after the Doctor struck a deal with Sardon and agreed to work for the CIA. (PROSE: World Game)

According to human historians, it was the Sontaran invasion of Gallifrey, thwarted by the Fourth Doctor, which revealed the existence of the Matrix to the wider universe. Seeking to claim the vast amount of knowledge within the system, various species attacked the Cloisters that held the Martix under the Capitol. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe)

The time travelling Family of Blood believed the Tenth Doctor to be the last of the Time Lords, who they knew as a "wise and ancient race". Furthermore, they believed that a Time Lord could prolong their limited lifespans. (TV: Human Nature/The Family of Blood)

During the Martian Invasion of 1997, Ice Lord Xznaal bowed his head in respect when he realised that the Eighth Doctor was a Gallifreyan. (PROSE: The Dying Days)

There was a saying among the Dragonhunters that "no Time Lord [could] be trusted". (AUDIO: And You Will Obey Me)

Rosanna Calvierri, one of the last surviving Saturnyn, remarked that the Eleventh Doctor should be either in a museum or a mausoleum when he revealed that he was from Gallifrey. (TV: The Vampires of Venice)

Confronting the Twelfth Doctor in 1980, the Fisher King remembered the Time Lords as "cowardly, vain curators who suddenly remembered they had teeth and became the most warlike race in the galaxy. (TV: Before the Flood)

In 2007, Brother Lassar of the Krillitanes was aware of the Time Lords and their apparent fate during the Time War. In a confrontation with the Tenth Doctor, he commented: (TV: School Reunion)

I always thought of you as such a pompous race. Ancient, dusty senators, so frightened of change and chaos.Lassar.

In the 2000s, the Shadow Architect of the Shadow Proclamation believed the Time Lords to be the "stuff of legend" which belonged in the "myths and whispers of the higher species". As such, she was sceptical of the Tenth Doctor's very existence. (TV: The Stolen Earth)

An Abzorbaloff, from Clom, knew the Tenth Doctor to be a Gallifreyan. (WC: The Genuine Article)

In 2010, the Shansheeth knew the Eleventh Doctor to be the last Time Lord. (TV: Death of the Doctor)

In the far future, at a time when Captain Jack Harkness had visibly aged, the Vampires thought the Time Lords to be myths. (AUDIO: Mighty and Despair)

Knowledge of the masters of Time

Some species, individuals and factions were aware of the existence of a species like the Time Lords, or of some of the factions with them, but knew them incompletely or under other names.

The War between them and the Enemy was perceived by the "lesser species" as a "War in Heaven" fought between gods. More generally, during the War, most factions and documents referred only to the Great Houses and their "members", (PROSE: The Book of the War) the Great Houses having being the actual designation of Gallifrey's noble bloodlines long before the War. (PROSE: Lungbarrow)

Panda, travelling companion of Iris Wildthyme, knew simply of "her mysterious superiors", and this even after having had several direct encounters with them. (PROSE: From Wildthyme with Love)

Blon Fel-Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen, a Raxacoricofallapatorian, observed the Doctor's TARDIS to be "the technology of the gods". (TV: Boom Town)

Other realities

Ecto-Space

After the Mistress took up residence in a pocket universe she called Ecto-Space, legends about her spread. According to B.E.S., they stated that she had once been a member of "an order of demiurges who had mastery over her home universe". (AUDIO: B.E.S. Begins) Likewise, Glomik knew of legends about the Mistress's origins that said that "in her reality, she came from a race of demiurges who had mastery over the laws of Time and Space". (PROSE: The Choice)

Federation universe

In the Federation universe, after the Eleventh Doctor thwarted an invasion attempt by the Cybermen, the Borg Collective sought to master time travel in order to assimilate the Time Lord. (COMIC: Assimilation²)

Behind the scenes

• The reference book The Discontinuity Guide speculates that Dastari, based on his knowledge of Gallifrey, hailed from Minyos or Dronid.