#gallifrey institute for learning

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

Looming vs. Natural Reproduction - what on Gallifrey's going on here?

As the first of the trending topics, GIL's noticed some confusion about the concept of looming vs. natural reproduction in Gallifreyans. Have no fear; GIL's here to help.

🧬 What is looming?

It's a bit like 3D printing, but for people. These Rassilon-created Genetic Loom Breeding-Engines weave new Gallifreyans from a mix of matter and biodata. Looms produce Gallifreyans of all genders, (though females are loomed slightly less frequently). Each House has its unique Loom, which embeds familial traits into its creations.

❓ Why is looming a thing?

The invention of Looms was Rassilon’s grand solution to a serious problem. Following the catastrophic Curse of Pythia, Gallifrey faced extinction. The Looms became lifelines, ensuring the continuity of Gallifreyan civilisation.

🔮 What is the Curse of Pythia?

The Pythias were a kind of magical matriarchal monarchy, with rulers known as Pythias ruling over ancient Gallifrey in succession. Pythia number 309 (out of 309) was elbowed out by Rassilon. She was, understandably, really hacked off. She condemned Gallifrey to wither and then threw herself into the Crevasse of Memories That Will Be, never to be seen again. This 'withering' is known as the 'Curse of Pythia'. It resulted in mass sterility of Gallifreyans - supposedly instantly killing babies in their mother's wombs, and preventing any Gallifreyan from reproducing naturally from that point forward.

🍷 So Gallifreyans used to reproduce naturally?

Yes. Before the sterility curse, Gallifreyans reproduced just like humans, with a little wine, a candlelit dinner and maybe an album by Barry White.

✨ So does this 'Curse' still exist?

No. The apparent lifting of Pythia's curse was marked by Leela's pregnancy (yes, THAT Leela), which hailed a return to natural reproduction among Gallifreyans. Others besides Leela have also been able to reproduce naturally.

🔄 So what method do they use?

This blend of technological and biological means of reproduction leaves Gallifreyans in a unique position. They could use both methods depending on social, political, or personal factors.

🧐It can't all be that simple, GIL ...

Wow, you've been here before, haven't you?

There are accounts that the supposed 'Curse of Pythia' didn't actually come from Pythia.

Self-inflicted: Some say it was a side-effect of a massive time tech experiment that went awry.

It never existed: Others suggest there never was a curse. Rassilon, seeking absolute control, concocted a narrative to enforce a sterile, controllable society, eradicating the unpredictability of natural birth and driving forward eugenics in his perfect society.

🏫 So ...

Thus, the plot thickens. Were Gallifreyans always capable of natural reproduction but held back by societal constructs and fear? Did Leela's pregnancy unveil a truth long buried or simply reawaken a dormant biological ability? That's up to you.

But of course, GIL denies this version of events, cos how else would we get the funding for all the biscuits in the canteen from the High Council? Praise Rassilon!

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[radicalrascals]

Commander Gat

Canon | From: Doctor Who S12E05: Fugitive of the Judoon

NAME: Gat of House Dvora

AGE: around 200-ish

SPECIES: Gallifreyan; Time Lord

TIMELORD CHAPTER: Prydon

GENDER: female

ORIENTATION: pansexual

INTERESTS: serving Gallifrey; more to come once she fully explores her newfound freedom

PROFESSION: Division Agent (recruited via the Celestial Intervention Agency)

EYES: dark brown

HAIR: black; frequently dyed fancy colours

SKIN: olive skin tone

HEIGHT: 5′ 5′’ | 165cm

Doctor Who Canon

Gat is a Time Lord who works for the Division alongside a Pre-Hartnell-Era Doctor. She attempts to capture the Fugitive Doctor following their fallout with the Division, employing help from the Judoon. Eventually Gat manages to track down the Fugitive Doctor, executes her companion Lee Clayton and nearly manages to kill her target as well.

Before Gat is taken out, she learns of Gallifrey’s demise from the 13th Doctor, which breaks her hearts and deeply shakes her confidence in the Division.

Canon Divergence

Gat survives her run in with the Fugitive Doctor and the 13th Doctor by transmatting away from the exploding gun in her hands. She’s mildly injured physically, but the revelation of Gallifrey eventually falling victim to the Time War and later to the Master’s destruction, scar her for life. Gat loses her faith in the Division and slowly uncovers how she, too, had been used by this institution. She is still loyal to Gallifrey and seeks to save her Homeworld, while also eager to experience her newfound freedom away from the Division.

[wren-rambles]

No messy. No fussy. Just Missy.

Here it is, the long awaited character analysis of Missy a.k.a. ‘the Master’. For reference I will be using information from sources outside the show! Such as ‘The Missy Chronicles’ and detailing’s of the audio stories.

I know this has been a long time coming, but it's here now!

First off, it is impossible to isolate Missy from the Master because they are the same with some physical differences as well as some minor personality differences. So, I must start off with the fact that In general the Master (as a whole) only ever does things that suits their needs and their purposes, or that simply will entertain them. Therefore, there are no differences between Missy and other Master’s OTHER than 1. she identifies as she, 2. she is calmer, more poise if you will.

In the very beginning of Missy’s incarnation, she awoke on a Mondasian Cyber-ship with no recollection of why/how she got there.

What’s in a name?

One of the first things the Master does after a regeneration is go the the Scoundrels (a gentlemen’s club for evil doers such as them-self). At this point Missy hasn’t picked a name for herself, so she is nameless). Upon going to and taking her usual seat, she is met with sexism and thrown out of the club. Of course this makes her angry, so she goes on a journey of revenge. On this journey she meets a woman called Saffron (a freed slave from Southern America during the 1700s); it is here in which Missy picks her name. In conversation with Saffron, Missy mentions she was called ‘Master’ and Saffron says “You’re all masters here [...] even the mistresses,” which piques Missy’s interest and gives rise to her calling herself ‘Missy’ (short for Mistress). Missy recruits Saffron and uses her to help aid her in her revenge à la Master style. She goes on to kill every member of the club. The members she didn’t kill she brought back in time and sold into slavery after releasing some slaves so that she could replace them. (So, yes she freed slaves but we aren’t sure what she actually did with them and there’s almost no way they would have been safe if simply released).

Missy commits the acts of revenge against those who have wronged her. Nothing that could be considered ‘good’ can be equated as good due to her malicious motivations behind them.

Dealings with Gallifrey

Missy’s TARDIS is broken! the Eye of Harmony (EoH) has been shut down, locked by Gallifrey, only to be turned on if she does their bidding. So, Missy is recruited by the General and accompanied by Yayani to sneak into the Kyme institute to stop them from using a creature that has been engineered with “time-and-space-travel capability” and with this type of creature it could cause problems throughout time and space. Disrupt the balance, paradoxes, etc. This creature was also born/created to be pregnant so it had the instinct to survive. After some manipulation of Yayani based on her past and hatred for Rassilon (she tried to kill him -> forced to work for him) she is coerced into killing the Doctor who created this creature. Then as expected Missy releases the creature (not for good reason, sorry) and replaces the Eye of Harmony in her TARDIS with it. She imprisons the creature to power her TARDIS, she is no longer reliant on Gallifrey, and to send a message she kills Yayani via Tissue Compression Eliminator and sending her body to Gallifrey and a message ‘Not your puppet’

The many complexities of Missy

Clara: Initially she manipulated her into calling the 11th Doctor and caused them to meet. Then she places an ad in the paper to keep them together after 11s regeneration into 12. She does this to create the Gallifreyan Hybrid of myth out of the both of them. Missy kills Danny Pink by running him over with a milk float.

Lucy Saxon: Missy tells her that she must shoot Harold Saxon, but keeps the information that Lucy will die to herself. She also requests that the matrix slices Harold had acquired be given to her now for her purposes. 

With these slices she creates the Nether sphere where the undying minds go. (3W) The reality altered the minds and removed emotions. Missy uses these to fill Cyber coverted bodies. She creates her army of cyber men and plans on converting all the soon to be dead humans into Cybermen. To prove a point she turns control over the army to the Doctor, she wanted him to take control and use the army to prove that their similarities. Much to her dismay he turns control over to Danny who orders the Cybermen to destroy themselves. Plan foiled, Missy fakes her death in order to escape.

Missy even tries to manipulate children into furthering her causes and schemes to gain power. (’Teddy Sparkles Must Die’) This doesn’t go to plan.

Bottom line is that Missy is very smart calculated and complicated. She manipulates things through time to suit her needs or future needs. There is a constant struggle for power. 

Moving on, Missy is put on trial for her crimes and sentenced to death. The Doctor was chosen to carry out the execution, but he faked her execution and decided to put her in a vault instead to guard her body. His goal was for her to realize her wrongdoings and become good. After a long time Missy ends up shedding a tear for all those she had killed/hurt, she also claims that she regrets her actions.

As a test the Doctor has Missy perform maintenance on the TARDIS while he is away. She waits for him. This is 12s cause to free her from the vault. He decides he can trust her. They each contemplate whether or not they can be friends again.

The thing is, the Master and even Missy are no strangers to playing the long game. It’s questionable whether or not her change is really genuine.

Then we come to Missy’s end. 

As a test, 12 sends Missy on a test mission to see if she really has changed. She is ill prepared and under her watch Bill is shot and carried off to floor 1056. Missy and 12 went to said floor together. 12 leaves Missy to gather information and she learns the ship is Mondasian. Missy ends up going along with ‘Razor’ (Simm!master) only to eventually claim she was playing him. She quickly admits that she is unsure of her allegiance. 

The Doctor tries to convince Simm!master to help him save the people because it is the right thing to do but he doesn’t then in private with Missy, she reveals that she wanted to stand with him and help him but couldn’t. The she leaves with Simm! As they were about to leave Missy stabs Simm! forcing his regeneration into her. Missy reveals to him that she planned on siding with the Doctor which angers him.

By now it’s apparent that she has changed. She leaves to help the Doctor, but it ends up killing her. Simm! shoots Missy. Thus Missy dies. She dies and the Doctor believes she always went back on her change, but really she was just too late.

Missy tries to change for the better. She ultimately wants to stand with the Doctor, finally they end up on par with each other. level ground, standing side by side finally. But she’s too late. 

The Master is just to disgusted with the idea of standing with the Doctor on his moral high ground. It’s about bringing him down, not climbing them-self up.

Sidenote: Missy through a complicated event become the Lumiat! Another incarnation who claims to be good as a result of the Doctor’s teaching/influence. She herself tries to be a good influence on Missy. This version foils may of Missy’s plans but ends up having to regenerate because Missy got bored of her. It is after this that we assume that Dhawan!Master comes about.

So, what does this all mean? Is Missy good? Well, no, she is still at the core the Master who is inherently bad. Is the Master capable of change? That really depends on which Master you are talking about. Missy, yes. Simm! no. Dhawan, I also believe no. A calmer more poise Master, yes.

The most tragic of all, is that Missy (and the Lumiat) is a moot point. The Master always goes back to being evil. Dhawan is proof of this, regardless of Missy’s learned lessons or changes they are always meant to go back, their need for power is too strong not to.

This is NOT an ultimate conclusion, this is based on the information we have been given thus far in the Master’s/Missy's history!

[keagan-ashleigh]

I just finished Doctor Who series 12.

(Not entirely spoiler free, maybe don't read if you haven't seen it yet)

---

I had heard so many complaints about it being awful (including a guy I know who specifically warned me - but meh, he's a condescending idiot who thinks his opinion is The Best and Only True, so I kinda figured he was wrong about DW, that's a kind if people I learn to not listen too much 😂), I heard so many bad critics, i didn't believe them but it kinda makes one keep their expectations low, but... like... it was actually really great?

I loved it, it was different, and sure Chibnail changed the Gallifrey lore and Doctor's origin, but he 1) gave a new vision of the character, 2) set ground for so many new stories, 3) is getting rid of the "only 12 regenerations" boundary (ensuring the show can basically go on forever, no less). The story of the Doctor is a wonderful story but you can't keep telling this story the same way for 50-60 years, without adding new things to it, I don't get why people are mad about that. I'm not mad, I feel like it gave the story a new start and that is GREAT. This means... SO much more stories and intricate development to come.

I guess the ones who spread the complaints are the same who don't like the last Star Wars trilogy, Birds of Prey, or Captain Marvel, and some other whiney fanboys make petitions about to get rid of - such whiny babies tbh. Damn there has been worst writing than that that no one dares to consider less than classics yet THOSE ones are beyond forgiveness ? C'mon. That's ridiculous.

What I am actually a bit upset about (but not really) is that Chibnail never explains how the Master survived and how the progress he made as Missy in series 10 in becoming a bit more good turned into that boiling rage he has in series 12, but I'm not mad, I can actually fill the blanks myself.

Reminds me when in the Sherlock fandom we all went crazy trying to figure our how he faked his death and the showrunner made fun of it, explaining in the process that in writing, some things don't need explaining, HOW he did it wasn't as important as WHY he did it. And I think that's a remarkable lesson in how we consider some things as plot holes the writers are ought to fill.

I'm sorry but beyond that, the fact Chibnail re-wrote the Doctor's origins, that it's a different writing style... I fail to see where people see this is bad ? Were is it awful? 🤣 People just complain because he's not telling the same story, the same way, with the same ropes, than before.

And because the Doctor is a woman. It's not necessarily prompting all the critics, I'm not saying that, but can we stop 2 secs wondering if people (so many people and not just a couple of unsatisfied) would have been that severe with the last two series if the Doctor had been David Tennant or Matt Smith - I think not, because I know for a fact they've had bad episodes no one has so virulently spoken about, because we usually don't care that much and just enjoy the thing we claim to love. And two more seconds to think about what the movies I cited before, and lot of recent movies/shows that are criticized for no good reason, have in common. I'm not saying this is the main reason every person has to critic those things but again, let's wonder if the critics would have been the same for similar movies without a female lead. I don't want to take shortcuts but it's definitely the number one critic for a lot of people, that's enough to make it a problem, so it has to be taken into account and talked about. And it is true there has been a lot of people complaining about the Doctor being a woman - not everyone have a problem with that, not everyone will admit to have a problem with that, but it IS part of the equation. The guy I was talking about, for instance, he says the last season is bad writing, that it's boring, but that's not the only thing he thinks is bas writing and boring, the only things he admits to me not to like are movies and shows that display strong female leads, a whole black cast (I'm thinking about Black Lightning, that I have recently watched and he said he thinks it's boring, while it's actually objectively very good despite some flaws), or a LGBT+ characters (he once told me something along the line of "there is a gay character in everything now and it serves nothing to the plot" ), he doesn't dislike all the shows displaying those minorities but there is a pattern to his critics and the most funny thing is that he doesn't know that, he's not one bit judgmental, sexist or homophobic, he's just really blunt to how stereotypes affect his judgment, and as I said earlier he's a condescending know-it-all so he never really bothers questioning his judgement. (He's a gen X, and I don't like stereotyping generations but.... ehhhhh 😬 people from his generation I have encountered usually are like that too so... Sorry but 👀💅🕺)

I mean. When you see the whole picture, one begins to wonder if behind those "it's not the fact that she's a woman that bothers me", a little bit of sexism isn't hiding. Many people won't even recognize this is influencing their jugement and they may not be misogynistic nor sexists at all in their lives, but there is a probability that a misogynistic society has influenced their opinion on movies and series because of how women (or black people, LGBT+ people, etc) have been stereotyped for centuries.

People may not acknowledge or even realize it has an influence, but it has, it definitely has, that is part of institutional sexism - it's not only about plain discrimination it can be really insidious like the way we perceive a show or a movie because of stereotypes we absorbed unknowingly. I am damn sure DW s11 and s12 and many other shows and movies (like the ones I cited in this post) suffer from that.

But, this point aside, the main critic is (the critic everyone who critic the last two series will admit): it's not the same as it was. That's it. That's the whole critic. AAArgh. 😫 I can't say I'm surprised, because I'm also in the Star Wars and Marvel fandoms were there is so many hatred from so called fans, but... that's never not disappointing.

Anyway, it was actually very well written and Jodie Whittaker is doing an amazing job, she is fun and silly while also grave, and adds a depth to the character that I think is really great. So were the other actors (Sacha Dhawan as The Master gave me shivers tbh), they were all so good. It's more classic than the Moffat era because he couldn't help but giving people very complex narrative arcs, but Chibnail's simplicity is working, he gets to the point, still leaves us with something to chew on. There was fun, emotion, shock, and I really enjoyed the horror movie vibes from some episodes, it is a bit less goofy than previous eras but more intense I think. It was anything but boring.

Really liked it, and I can't wait for next season.

[isagrimorie]

@glompcat

replied to your post

“I was listening to “Talking Who to You” and their review of Diary of...”

They sometimes almost seem to have a hint of an interesting idea to explore with her in that regard, but then since they refuse to actually examine these things just abandon it. Like in Legacy of Time, when Benny started to question what River really *means* when she talks about being married. Or in Eight of March's Emancipation where River expressed envy for two seconds that Leela lived on Gallifrey with her Time Lord husband. Which also opened up the fascinating whole subject of how much River really knows/understands. She studied the Doctor, she learned about them and their friends from academic texts and third and fourth hand accounts. She clearly doesn't actually *know* most things, and I wish we could see more of her coming up against the fact she doesn't actually understand everything, that she is clinging to these assured ideas and yet the reality of the situation still surprises her etc

Instead of like... constantly needing to write stories where River's odd view is affirmed as right. Like in Emancipation she comments that she understands Time Lords just as well as Leela, and that just... continues to stick out to me. Because obs Leela didn't challenge that as she had no idea who River was, which meant that just went on by without comment and just... confused the shit out of me. She isn't a first hand expert and authority on everything. She's an academic, an archaeologist. She's still never met any Time Lords other than the Doctor and the Master, and most of what she knows is based on a lifetime of academic study. That *could* lead to hilarious misunderstanding/vulnerability in her stories when she does have to meet up with the Doctor.

Oh man. Yes, those two stories! 

I was especially disappointed with the Legacy of Time story with Benny when it suddenly became ALL about Eight. Here are two awesome women, who are so similar to each other and all the writers could think about was put Eight into the story. 

And then doesn’t even delve deeper into it. I figure Benny’s expression the whole time was mildly confused and ‘seriously?. 

And you bring up a good point! For the longest time all River knew about the Doctor is what Madam Kovarian taught her, she is an academic! Also, of all people to say she knows Time Lords as much as Leela... who has lived with Time Lords, and not just one outlier renegade Time Lord. 

I was also pretty annoyed with majority of the story until the last part but man, I really need a writer to really push more into River’s story and dig deeper. They could go for a more comedic effect with it too! 

 It certainly would be a more interesting thing to explore than jokes about how because she's married to the Doctor it is magically ok for her to strip them naked and have her way with them when they're unconscious, like we got in the boxset where she met Five. Which was just... such a rollercoaster for me as it is the one where she gets to confront Kevorkian! 

Oh. God. That boxset. 

I know what you mean. I was so uncomfortable, and clearly Five didn’t know what was going on nor did he want to participate with anything River was trying to initiate. 

It also goes to my point of -- just because The Doctor married her, doesn’t mean it travels back to the Doctor’s other lives. I can maybe accept this up until Eight because he straddles the line of Pre- and during Time War, the catalyst that changed the Doctor into the person River fell in love with. 

Moffat might be all into the Time Traveler’s Wife story but I’m a firm believer of ‘right time, right place’. The Doctor pre-Time War isn’t the exact same person that becomes the post-Time War Doctor/Post-almost recovery Doctor who falls in love with River. Pre-Time War Doctor isn’t ready to fall in love with River, the Doctor has a whole life before River, a whole family before River. Just as much as she should and does have her own life outside of the Doctor, the Doctor had a whole history before River. 

Yet even there, when Kevorkian is there and they are literally inside a copy of River's childhood bedroom there was no real grappling with what it means that River studied the Doctor-as-monster her whole youth long that she was training to kill them literally every day of her childhood, and yes, somewhere along the way things changed, so what happened, when did she start to see the Doctor differently, and what misconceptions does she still carry with her from her earlier studies and how do they inform how she sees the Doctor's actions/their relationship now? 

I can only nod here, because like I mentioned in the post, I wanted to know when exactly did River really fall in love with the Doctor and not just the idea of the Doctor or the things she knew about him? When was the first moment that didn’t have to do with any of those things did she realize she’s in love with him, for realsies? 

When she meets these people who knew the Doctor like Benny or Leela (or Susan or Ian or Barbara etc except I haven't heard that box set of Diaries yet unlike the others) how do their impressions contrast with her own? 

Not to harp on about that one off story too much, but it stood out to me due to its obvious positioning as both written and directed by women, but I do think about things like how in The Eighth of March Emancipation she kept insinuating that the Doctor mainly kept Leela around for eye candy and how that showed this MASSIVE lack of understanding of Four and what he was about and it really fascinates me, like what does it mean for an Academic to literally fall in love with the subject of her studies? Particularly an Archaeologist whose field is built on piecing together desperate remnants to create an incomplete idea of a whole? Like if her stories must all culminate in being about the Doctor (which based on some things said in Vortex I think may have been part of what Moffat told them to do with her) 

‘Like if her stories must all culminate about being about the Doctor’ AUGH. This is so frustrating. Especially the part about what River’s insinuating about Leela, who is awesome and fantastic. I mean, isn’t enough she still gets called Savage in Gallifrey? And River has to pile that on top too. Thankfully this rolls off of Leela, but honestly, that was uncalled for. 

why not actually explore how and why she reached the conclusions she did in Husbands of River Song, which is of course always in her future? It's set after all of these adventures we listen to, so why not - if a Doctor plot is needed - focus on how she reached the conclusions she did there if that speech was sincere? 

THIS THIS THIS.

IDK. There is so much they could explore with her but they just don't seem willing to challenge her... authority? In a way that ultimately undercuts her, because she is constantly positioned in a mold that removes any actual work needed to gain information/the upper hand/her level of skill. So rather than being the result of hard work and effort, it's just... how it is. Which de-powers her. IDK, I kept trying with Diaries I really did, but it actually was the one with Tom Baker in it that made me give up.

“they just don't seem willing to challenge her... authority? In a way that ultimately undercuts her, because she is constantly positioned in a mold that removes any actual work needed to gain information/the upper hand/her level of skill.“

Yes, this, exactly! It’s like the writers are way too afraid to handle River with anything but reverence and care. And for a story to work, characters shouldn’t be handled like they’re made of glass! 

In the end, what happens is, it feels like the stories are all telling not showing. 

The start of it (Diary of River Song boxset with Four), long before the story with the Doctor in it, had people who knew her as students at Luna University in it, and the way the story dealt with them and their relationship to River, it was honestly insulting, not just to the characters but to anyone who has ever been in graduate school. Like they kept fundamentally refusing to either understand or care to understand what being in an Academic institute means. By claiming it was all so easy for River and removing the effort and skill needed, they are de-powering her PhD. By making the other students all so incompetent in comparison to her, they are again... - her PhD. Hell, now that they've established Benny was her tutor, they're depowering Benny (ED: emphasis mine) in the process. And that is not even starting to touch on the dynamic of having the other academic in that story ultimately hating River because her Husband had been in love with River and asked her out one time in Grad school before River rejected him and he is still hung up on River? Like who thought that was a good dynamic?

... 

Which is I guess a lot of words to essentially say that Big Finish often refuses to take River off this strange pedestal of hyper-competent perfection, where she is always the most clever person in the room, always knows the answer, and even in her fucks ups and failures is still ~the expert~ in full. But in so doing the value in her expertise, the hard work, the real strength it took for her to get to where she is... well to be deemphasized it has to even be a factor which it never is, as it just doesn't seem to exist for them at all. She just knows everything until the plot demand she doesn't so things can move along, and when she knows it she knows it best, and if you question this in any way she'll respond with a joking quip and won't you look silly than, and that is that.

☝️☝️☝️

Whole heartedly agree, Big Finish isn’t doing the work they should be doing to really explore her character, and we know from other stories that they can actually deepen a character’s back story and add more insight to them too! 

I mean, my favorite BF Doctors (other than Eight) are Six and Five with Peri and Erimem! 

BF has had so many opportunities to do better by River but they always end up going the easy way instead of doing the hard work to explore a) who River is outside of her programming, how much it’s affected her and b) make River face up to questions about her feelings for the Doctor. 

c) Also, just like with Kate Stewart in UNIT, I don’t want to hear the Brig’s name uttered in the presence of and around Kate. I don’t want River to run into the Doctor in the next couple of boxsets. 

[esonetwork]

Timestamp #160: Doctor Who (The Movie)

New Post has been published on https://esopodcast.com/timestamp-160-doctor-who-the-movie/

Timestamp #160: Doctor Who (The Movie)

Doctor Who: The Movie (1996)

  It’s a major turning point: The gateway between the classic era and the modern. But first, the Doctor must face Y2K.

The Master finally came to trial for his litany of crimes on the planet Skaro as part of a treaty between the Daleks and the Time Lords. Over cat eyes, we learn that the Master’s final request was for the Doctor to carry his remains back to Gallifrey for final disposition. The Doctor places the Master’s urn in a lockbox and secures it with a new sonic screwdriver before settling in with “In a Dream” on the gramaphone, The Time Machine in his hands, and a bowl of jelly babies. The control room is massive and gorgeous, and reflects the Seventh Doctor’s twilight years to a tee.

The Master breaks out of the urn and the lockbox, moving as a shadowy snake form to the TARDIS console and shorting it out, forcing the Doctor to make an emergency landing on Earth, San Francisco, New Years Eve, 1999. The TARDIS materializes in the middle of a gang fight, saving a young survivor in the process. Unfortunately, the Doctor (who didn’t use the scanners, I guess) steps into the fight and is shot. As Chang Lee calls for an ambulance, the Master escapes through the TARDIS lock.

The Doctor (on the record as John Smith) is rushed to the hospital, but modern medicine fails him. The x-ray accurately reflects his two hearts, and the bullet wounds are not particularly life-threatening (one in the shoulder, two in the leg), but the heart readings require a cardiac specialist. Enter: Grace Holloway.

The Doctor wakes up on the operating table to the sound of Madame Butterfly, pleading with Grace to stop the surgery and get him a beryllium atomic clock. The surgical team ups the anesthetic and proceeds, but human surgery on Time Lord physiology proves fatal. The Seventh Doctor dies on the operating table. Grace reviews the x-rays before informing Lee of the bad news, and Lee runs off with the Doctor’s personal effects.

We are treated to a double Time Lord resurrection: On the other side of the city, the Master has hitched a ride home with an ambulance driver named Bruce. As he snores away, preventing his wife from sleeping, Bruce is taken over and killed by the Master. Bruce’s wife is happy for the silence. At the hospital, the Doctor’s body is loaded into the morgue and regenerates in parallel with the 1931 version of Frankenstein. The Doctor bangs at the door and breaks out of the freezer, scaring the on-duty attendant. The Eighth Doctor finds a mirror (or thirteen… see what they did there?) in a broken room (seriously, what?) while humming Madame Butterfly. In shock, he screams and questions who he is.

As morning dawns, we find Grace Holloway in her office, the Doctor rifling through lockers for clothing (and discarding a replica of the Fourth Doctor’s scarf), and Lee trying to figure out what a sonic screwdriver does (as well as examining a yo-yo, the Doctor’s pocketwatch, and the TARDIS key). The Doctor finds a Wild Bill Hickok costume (intended for the New Years Eve costume party), discarding the gun belt and hat in the process. Meanwhile, the Master awakens (with glowing green eyes) and kills Bruce’s wife.

Pete, the morgue attendant, shows Grace what happened the night before. She walks right by the Doctor, who is still suffering from the effects of his regeneration, before meeting with the hospital administrator. The administrator tries to cover up the events of the botched surgery, and she quits her job as a result. As she’s leaving, the Doctor joins her in the elevator and follows her to her car. He begs her for help, pulling the abandoned cardiac probe from his chest as Grace drives him away.

The Master arrives at the hospital and demands to see the Doctor’s body, but finds out that the corpse is missing and that Lee has the Doctor’s possessions. Meanwhile, Grace and the Doctor arrive at her home to find that her boyfriend has left her (and taken her furniture). She examines the Doctor and his heartbeats as his memory fades back in. Grace is upset and confused by the whole affair, but the Doctor comforts her in his awkward way.

Lee finds his way to the TARDIS and steps inside, having one of the most amazing “bigger on the inside” moments. Unfortunately, he also finds the Master, who somehow entered before without the TARDIS key. The Master enthralls Lee and takes the Doctor’s things before demanding that Lee help him find the Time Lord. The Master tells Lee a false tale of how the Doctor stole his regenerations, offering the human gold dust and a tour of the TARDIS, including the Cloister Room. In the depths of the Cloister Room is the Eye of Harmony, the heart of the TARDIS, and Lee is able to open it with a little coercion. The Eye shows the Master and Lee the Doctor’s Seventh and Eighth incarnations, and the image of a human retina leads the Master to believe that the new Doctor is half-human.

That’s an important note to make: The Master makes the assumption that the Doctor is somehow half-human. While the Master – who has known the Doctor for a really, really long time – should presumably know better, the Doctor’s lineage is not a statement of fact. It is a wild assumption.

The Doctor finishes getting dressed (and finally removing his toe tag) as Grace examines his blood. They take a walk to clear their minds, jogging the Doctor’s memories of his own childhood. The joy of this incarnation is amazing. As the Eye of Harmony is opened, he remembers that he is the Doctor and kisses Grace, making this the first romantic moment for the Doctor in the franchise.

I’m okay with that. New face, new body, new Doctor.

With the Eye of Harmony open, the Doctor and the Master can share vision through the Eye. The Doctor closes his eyes and gives Grace the download on who he is. Lee also hears this, chipping away at the Master’s thrall. Grace runs away in shock and locks the Doctor out of her house. Despite the Doctor’s protests, Grace calls for an ambulance, but the Doctor shows her that the Eye of Harmony is tearing the planet apart by walking through a window without breaking it. The Master and Lee oblige her request by hijacking an ambulance and taking it to meet the doctor (and the Doctor).

The Doctor watches the news while they wait for the ambulance, learning that a local institute is unveiling a beryllium atomic clock, which is exactly what he needs to close the Eye. The doorbell rings, and it’s the Master calling. Grace has no idea, but the Doctor obviously recognizes the Master, and nevertheless, they all pile into the ambulance and hit the road. Eventually, the Doctor unmasks the Master and runs with Grace. They hijack a police motorcycle with jelly babies and race for the institute with the Master in pursuit.

Notably, the Doctor does use a gun once again, but it’s a distraction instead of a threat.

Lee knows a shortcut – of course he does – so they beat the Doctor and the doctor to the clock. They proceed inside and look for a way to the clock, passing the Doctor off as “Dr. Bowman” and meeting Professor Wagg, the inventor of the device. In the meantime, the Doctor explains more about himself, and distracts the professor with a joke about being half-human while swiping his badge. They take a piece of the clock, distract a guard with a jelly baby, and spot the Master before running. They race to the roof (understandably, the Doctor is afraid of heights) and use a fire hose to drop to the street before heading to the TARDIS.

They use a spare key to open the TARDIS, have a humorous moment with a police officer driving in and out of the time capsule, and go inside to install the clock component in the console. Unfortunately, the Eye has been open too long and the cosmos are in danger. The TARDIS also has no power. They attempt to jump-start the TARDIS, but Grace is enthralled by the Master as he arrives. She knocks the Doctor out and together, she and Lee take him to the Eye. The Master supervises as Grace places a device on the Doctor’s head to prop his eyes open. The Doctor pleads with Lee, and Lee refuses to open the Eye when the Doctor points out the Master’s lies. The Master kills Lee by snapping his neck, then enthralls Grace into opening the Eye.

Apparently, only a human’s eyes can open the Eye. Which is weird, but kind of plays into a theory of mine… more on that later.

The Eye’s light is focused on two points, designed in this case to channel the Doctor’s regenerative energy into the Master and extend the villain’s lifespan. The light of the Eye breaks Grace’s trance, and she runs to the console to reroute the power. At the very last second, Grace jump-starts the TARDIS and they travel into a temporal orbit. She releases the Doctor, but the Master throws her off the balcony and kills her. The two Time Lords fight over the eye, but the Doctor is triumphant and the Master falls into the Eye. The Doctor tries to rescue him, but the Master refuses and is (apparently) killed.

The Doctor places Lee and Grace on a balcony in the Cloister Room, and the energy of the Eye infuses with them, bringing them back to life courtesy of the TARDIS and its sentimentality. The Doctor shows them Gallifrey from a distance before returning midnight on January 1, 2000. Lee departs with the gold dust and a little advice after returning the Doctor’s stuff, and the Doctor offers Grace the opportunity to travel with him. Grace declines, and the Doctor departs for a new adventure.

  This presentation is deeply flawed, but it does have a lot of things working for it. I love the theme music (even if they don’t credit Ron Grainer or Delia Derbyshire) and I do love the humor and Doctor/Grace banter. On the other hand, it is swimming in the cheesiness that defined televised American science fiction in the 1990s, and a lot of those elements fall flat in the spirit of Doctor Who. I mean, can we get that hospital a little more funding for the entire floor full of broken junk?

The story also has a fixation on people stealing people’s stuff. Was there a major trend of kleptomania in the mid-90s?

Paul McGann is simply a joy to watch, and his energy and joy shines in this story. It’s also interesting to watch the “half-human” controversy play out: The Master takes it seriously based on scant evidence, but the Doctor plays it as a joke. I have often wondered if Gallifreyans are some sort of evolved human being – it’s definitely possible given that the default appearance is always human, most medical exams show only the two hearts as a physical difference, and that whole Eye of Harmony key thing – but I don’t think that the Doctor is any more human than that. The evidence just doesn’t support it.

All in all, this story would fall into the average range, which is a shame since Paul McGann deserved so much better. Of course, this was also a regeneration story, so it gets a little boost per the rules of the Timestamps Project.

    Rating: 4/5 – “Would you care for a jelly baby?”

    UP NEXT – Seventh Doctor Summary

  The Timestamps Project is an adventure through the televised universe of Doctor Who, story by story, from the beginning of the franchise. For more reviews like this one, please visit the project’s page at Creative Criticality.

[general-of-the-rainy-land]

For the "not frome the US" ask, can you do the 4, 8 and 9 please? :)

YES ! (omg I’m so excited someone actually asked, thank you

Here we go :

4. favourite dish specific for your country? OHMYGOD. Please don’t ask me to chose, because we Belgians absolutely adore food (ask @cyaa-niide​, she can testify). Obviously, the famous frites mayo (fries - and no, they aren’t french, for goodness’ sake - and mayonnaise) are a must. Personally I also really like waterzooi, a Flemish fish stew. There is also the Vol-au-vent, which is basically chicken pieces, mushrooms, small meatballs with a Béchamel sauce on a small puff pastry. And then there is the Boulets sauce Lapin, a Liège-specific dish of meatballs (but not like any meatballs, ours are amazing) with a sauce made with the famous Sirop de Liège. This specific dish has even a association dedicted to it, the Compagnie du Gai Boulet (Gay Boulet Brotherhood). Another favorite of mine are the Pêches au thon, a dish of thuna with mayonnaise on a half-peach; absolutely delightful in summer or with fries. But let’s be honest, I would sell my soul for anything sweet and Belgian, namely the gaufre de Bruxelles and Gaufre de Liège, but also the speculoos biscuits, Cuberdons, a Tarte au riz, a Tarte à maton, a Lacquemant… And obviously, chocolate. Even the Swiss know we make the best one. Finally, let us not forget the drink: the Belgian Beer Culture is now recognized as UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage of humanity, with about 300 breweries, 800+ beers and an average of 84 litres/year per Belgian. Like I said, we love food and we love beer. 

Finally, what I love about my country’s food culture is that because there is a long history of immigration, we have tons of different food traditions and restaurants and that’s amazing!!

Belgian food culture is amazing, you should check it out!

8. do you get confused with other nationalities? if so, which ones and by whom? Alright, we’ll need a bit of explanation about Belgium to answer that one. There are three official langages in Belgium : French (in Wallonia, the southern half), Flemish, a form of Dutch (in Flanders, the Northern half), and German (a tiny bit in the Eastern part of Wallonia). Basically, we’re Canada, but with three langages, an extremely complex political and institutional system and a much, much, much smaller territory.

Which means that in terms of which nationalities I get confused with, I can only speak as a french-speaking Belgian, you’d have to ask my fellow dutch-speaking and german-speaking Belgians to know their opinion on the matter. It’s also important to note that in Wallonia, accents are very different from one area to another (I’m not kidding, sometimes they change from one village to another), and some can be quite, well, colourful.

Due to my ancestry, I have a very, well, sort of german physionomy (or so I am told), so in Germany and in Austria my dad and I have been thought to be fellow Germans/Austrians, that is, until we started speaking, then people thought we were French. 

I’ll be honest, in most of the countries I’ve visited, people thought I was French. Sometimes, as said above, people think I’m a German. 

Funnily enough, in France I’m never confused with a French. I don’t have that strong of an accent for delicate french ears, nor do I have the stereotypical Belgian accent (which actually only exists in bad imitations - I’m looking at you, French humorists - for there is not ‘one’ Belgian accent, but several dozens), but French people never cease to amaze me. So far in France, I’ve been asked where I learned to speak French so well, why I don’t speak “Belgian” (WTF, France), and the best one : if I was from Quebec!! (Again, WTF, France). Only Parisians have thought me to be French, but from “the countryside”. 

9. which of your neighbouring countries would you like to visit most/know best? Another tough one. I love traveling and I got the virus from my mom and dad. I would say that my favorite neighbouring countries are the UK and Ireland. 

The one that I know best would definitely be France. My closest friends are French (well, technically, French, Corsican and from the Reunion, but still), and anyway I just like the country and its inhabitants. We share a langage, a culture in some aspects, and we have a lot of common history, for after all Belgium is not even 200 years old and was French for a long time. 

The ones I’d like to visit more and learn more about are definitely Germany and Poland. My grandmother is from Eastern Germany, from Wiesenau. We know very little about our family history, because she never knew her father and came in Belgium at the age of six with her mother after her uncle had deserted the german army during WWI and was hidden by locals until the war ended. So yeah, I’d love to know more about the area and both countries. 

And that’s it ! Thanks for asking, @eowyn-of-gallifrey :D

[journeyinthetardis]

Synopsis: The Doctor has been given an important task. The Master has been put on trial by the Daleks on Skaro and has been executed. The Master's last request was that the Doctor take his remains back to Gallifrey, and so that is what he is doing now. The Master's remains are safely locked in a secure box in a back room of the TARDIS. The Doctor, nearing the natural end of his seventh life, sits down for tea and a book.

Suddenly, the TARDIS lurches violently and the console sparks. The Doctor rushes over, only to see that the TARDIS is having a critical timing malfunction and is making an emergency landing. The Doctor goes to see if the Master's remains are safe, only to find the box they were locked in is now smashed open.

The TARDIS eventually lands in San Francisco on December 30, 1999. The Doctor opens the door, steps out, and is immediately shot down by gunfire. The TARDIS had unfortunately landed in the middle of a shoot-out between two Chinese-American gangs. The only surviving member of one of the gangs, a young man named Chang Lee, sees to the Doctor and decides to call an ambulance. Before he passes out, the Doctor is horrified to see something amorphous and slimy leaking out of the TARDIS keyhole.

The Doctor is taken to Walker General Hospital. Surgeons successfully remove the three bullets from his shoulder and leg, but his heart seems to be badly fibrillating. A cardiologist named Grace Holloway is called in to see what she can do. She preps for surgery, but before that can happen, the strange old man seems immune from the anesthesia and is panicking badly. Once he's out for good, she begins the operation and inserts a microscopic probe into his heart.

However, she ends up confused by the strange physiology of the man's body and ends up getting lost. When the man has a massive seizure, she tries to get the probe out but fails. Ultimately, he flat-lines and is declared dead. After the 'John Doe' is wheeled away, she goes to speak with Lee. She figures out pretty quickly that Lee doesn't actually know the man, but Lee manages to run away with the man's belongings before she can stop him.

The following day, a morgue attendant on the night shift is bored and watching Frankenstein. He hears a banging coming from one of the doors. When he goes to see what's happened, he is shocked to see an unfamiliar man emerge from the room and promptly faints. The Doctor has come back to life, regenerated into his eighth form. He stumbles around in a daze, seeing himself in a mirror and realizing that he has no idea who he is.

In the morning, Grace has an argument with a hospital administrator. She and her team had earlier been confused by the strange man's x-ray, since it seemed to show two hearts. Originally dismissed as a double exposure, Grace starts to have doubts. The administrator, however, wants to cover up her failure to save the man's life and burns the x-ray. Grace, furious over this, promptly quits her job.

As she exits out of the hospital, the Doctor is sitting in the triage room. He recognizes her as the woman who operated on him before and starts to follow her. He latches onto her, since she's his only memory at this point. Grace initially thinks he's just a crazy man, but she changes her mind when the Doctor yanks out the microscopic probe that had been left in his chest.

She takes him back to her home, where she's dismayed to find that her now ex-boyfriend has left and taken everything from the house. She uses a stethoscope to listen to the Doctor's chest, and finds that he does indeed have two hearts. She takes a sample of his blood to analyze it, only to find that it certainly doesn't resemble human blood. Mystified, she decides to go for a walk outside, and the Doctor joins her.

It is while on this walk that the Doctor has a sudden mental spike and remembers who he is. The reason for this becomes apparent, however, as he sees visions of what's going on inside of his TARDIS. The Master has broken inside, having taken over the body of the man driving the ambulance he was in, along with Chang Lee, who used his key to get inside. The two seem to be working together. The worst news, though, is that the Master has used Lee's human physiology to somehow open the TARDIS' eye of harmony.

The Doctor immediately shouts at Grace about the danger this poses, claiming that the Eye will essentially suck the Earth inside-out. Grace is again initially frightened by his behaviour and calls for an ambulance to take him to the psych ward. When the Doctor proves that the Eye is already affecting the Earth by walking right through her window, she decides she should go to a psych ward too.

The Doctor then sees on TV that a beryllium atomic clock has been constructed at the Institute for Technological Advancement and Research, which is exactly the thing he needs to repair the TARDIS. The ambulance arrives and picks them up, though the Doctor simply requests they be taken to ITAR. When a bump in the road causes the ambulance attendant's sunglasses to fall off, the Doctor sees that the man has frightening cat eyes.

It's the Master, who reacts by spewing an acidic fluid that burns Grace's arm. The two are given a chance to escape when a traffic jam stops the ambulance. They quickly commandeer a policeman's motorcycle and rush off, with the ambulance already in pursuit. At this point, Grace has decided that she believes the Doctor's stories.

They lose the ambulance before they reach ITAR, but when they arrive they see the ambulance has somehow beaten them there. Luckily, Grace is a board member, so they are able to get into the New Year's party being held there. While keeping a careful eye out for the Master, they sneak their way up to the atomic clock, where the Doctor steals the small component from it needed to repair the TARDIS.

On the way out, they find guards incapacitated by a viscous fluid, revealing that the Master is near. The Doctor pulls the fire alarm to create a distraction, and the two quickly escape off of the roof by climbing down a fire hose. The Master and Lee aren't able to give chase in the ensuing panic, allowing the Doctor to ride off and take Grace back to where he left the TARDIS.

Inside, the Doctor manages to shut the Eye, but finds that it's too little too late. The Earth is still in danger, so the only solution is to take the TARDIS back in time. Since it's drained of power, he tries to jump-start it with a little energy from the Eye. Instead of helping him, however, Grace promptly knocks him out. The Master has arrived and has taken over her mind.

The Doctor is tied up next to the Eye. It is there he learned how the Master tricked Lee. The Master claimed that the Doctor was the evil one, and had stolen both the TARDIS and the Master's body. Furthermore, Lee was promised a billion dollars if he helped. When the Doctor tries to break through these lies and reveal the truth, Lee begins to have doubts. When he refuses to cooperate, the Master promptly breaks Lee's neck.

Instead, the Master breaks Grace's brainwashing and forces her to open the Eye once more. The process of draining the Doctor's lives into the Master's body begins. However, since the Master can't move during the process, Grace is free to run back to the console room. She has difficulty with the complicated controls and wires, but does manage to send the TARDIS into a 'temporal orbit'. Not knowing what that is, she rushes back to ask the Doctor for help. When she arrives, the Master intervenes and throws her off of the balcony. She tumbles to the ground, dead.

Grace was, however, able to free the Doctor from his bindings. He and the Master start to fight with one another. After a long, tense scuffle, the Doctor manages to overtip the Master's balance and he starts getting sucked into the Eye. The Doctor reaches out his hand to rescue him, but the Master refuses, and is absorbed into the Eye where he vanishes.

The TARDIS manages to slip back to an earlier time in the day. Before the Eye closes completely, energy slips out and is absorbed into the bodies of Grace and Lee. Both wake up, having been brought back to life. The three return to the console room, where they see that disaster has been averted. The clock safely rolls over to January 1, 2000.

The TARDIS lands in a park in San Francisco, and he lets his two passengers off. Lee is thankful to the Doctor and sorry for his actions earlier. He gives the Doctor his belongings back. The Doctor, though, says that Lee can keep the two bags of gold the Master had earlier given him as collateral. Excited, Lee runs off. Grace then bids the Doctor farewell, politely declining his offer to travel with him. The two share a kiss as fireworks light up the sky, and then the Doctor flies away in his TARDIS to adventures unknown.

Thoughts: At long last, it is the 1996 TV Movie! We thought we would never manage to get this far, but now we've made it. We've seen every Doctor Who TV Story and witnessed every single incarnation of the Doctor!

Hearing many things about the TV movie over the years, we had no idea what to expect. What we got was pretty much what we expected. It was grand, bigger than a TV episode, very entertaining and fun to watch, but also clear why this ended up failing to revive the series.

The story itself was great and solid. The Master is back in form, even though he now dresses like Agent Smith from the Matrix, and his plans are as grandiose as ever. We did get a sense of danger and excitement as the Doctor and his companion rushed around. The improved budget and production quality made the adventure very fun to watch.

That said, it was bogged down a little. We needed to dedicate time to the Seventh Doctor and his ensuing regeneration, and a lot of history for both the Doctor and the Master had to be explained once more. To veterans of the series, this was a tad tedious. It was great, though, to see Sylvester McCoy one more time and to see his regeneration.

The movie did not overstay its welcome, ending before it got to be too long. Everything was resolved well enough, and most of the characters were fun to watch. Lee was very interesting, as a protagonist turned antagonist through the Master's lies. He had a very charismatic personality about him. The sets were beautiful, all being filmed on location in Vancouver (our hometown!!).

There were a few messy bits along the way. Most notably was the very strange and out-of-nowhere plot point that the Doctor is 'half-human'. Not only does this not make a lot of sense, but it really didn't go anywhere either. I believe that future stories clarified that it's only the Eighth Doctor who's half-human. Then, there was the sudden and forced romance between the Doctor and Grace, who shared about three kisses. This seems like a product inserted to make American audiences happy, as this was an American production.

Paul McGann was the perfect choice to play this new incarnation of the Doctor. He feels like he was plucked right off of the set of the original TV series. Also, though, he had a lot of energy and an easily excited personality that brought a lot of life to the character. There was something about the way he talked that made him seem wise but not old. He could have perhaps been a little bit funnier, but we both enjoyed his portrayal. Sad we wouldn't see him again until like 17 years later.

Grace was a good companion. It was fun watching her disbelief at the beginning and her perplexed reactions to the Doctor and his strange ways. Her American personality shined through when she eventually decided that she was crazy. When she turned around and came to believe everything the Doctor was saying, she proved that she could be brave and dependable. We were definitely left wanting to see more of what she could bring, but for what we got we were satisfied.

This was originally intended to serve as the pilot for an American-produced series of Doctor Who. That obviously never ended up happening, as this flopped hard with American audiences, but it would have been interesting to see where things would have gone from here. How would McGann's eighth Doctor have fared on a weekly TV series, going on adventures with companions? The world may never truly know. His time was short, but we enjoyed this short, fun romp with the eighth Doctor.

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

This week we've been looking at Houses on Gallifrey. You may have already tried to guess which Chapter your House is in, but which one actually ARE you?

Take this absolutely 100% scientific Quiz of Rassilon to find out.

Which one was your outcome? Was it the same as your guess?

》📫Got a question / submission? 》😆Jokes |🫀Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts 》📚Complete list of Q+A 》📜Masterpost If you like what GIL does, please consider buying a coffee or tipping below to help make future projects, including complete biology and language guides.

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

🤔🧬 How do Gallifreyan Houses influence abilities and traits?

Forget the sorting hat, Gallifrey's got its own system for pigeonholing their kids. Each House shapes its members' abilities and traits through their distinct genetic Loom cores, mapping out their general talents when they're born.

Prydon Academy: Strategists and Linguists - Houses aligned with Prydon focus on developing strategic minds and language skills. Their Loom cores likely enhance brain regions for critical thinking and linguistic prowess, making them natural politicians and diplomats.

Arcal Academy: Scientists and Engineers - Arcal-affiliated Houses produce logical thinkers and scientific minds. Their genetic templates are tuned for analytical skills and technical understanding, perfect for those who love to unravel the mysteries of the universe.

Patrex Academy: Creative and Philosophical Minds - Houses from Patrex are all about creativity and deep thinking. They might have genetic enhancements for artistic abilities and telepathic skills, fostering a community of artists and philosophers.

Cerulean Academy: Environmental Guardians - Houses aligned with Cerulean nurture a connection with nature. Their Loom cores could instil empathy for ecosystems and a keen understanding of environmental sciences, creating guardians of Gallifrey's natural world.

Drome Academy: Social Advocates - Drome-focused Houses emphasise social awareness and empathy. Their genetic makeup might promote emotional intelligence and a strong sense of social justice, producing advocates for equality and democracy.

Scendeles Academy: The Versatile and Adaptive - Houses linked with Scendeles encourage a broad range of talents. Their Loom cores might be more diverse, allowing for adaptability and a wide array of skills, from innovative thinkers to practical problem-solvers.

So this leaves us with a fun reason for a poll. You might be a Hufflepuff, but ...

Gallifreyan Biology for Tuesday by GIL

→🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (WIP) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine/Monitoring Guides →📝Source list (WIP)

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》📫Got a question / submission? 》😆Jokes |🫀Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts 》📚Complete list of Q+A 》📜Masterpost If you like what GIL does, please consider buying a coffee or tipping below to help make future projects, including complete biology and language guides.

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

NEIL ARMSTRONG: That's one small step for man, and one giant leap for ... Wait, what's that blue box? *static* Oh. Hello. *static* No, thank you. *static* Really, no thank you. *static* I said no thank you! *static* Houston, we have a problem. There's a man here offering me a jelly baby.

Doctor Who Jokes and Incorrect Quotes for Monday by GIL

》📫Got a question / submission? 》😆Jokes |🫀Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts 》📚Complete list of Q+A 》📜Masterpost If you like what GIL does, please consider buying a coffee or tipping below to help make future projects, including complete biology and language guides.

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

I'm sorry if this has been asked before, but what is the full extent of a Gallifreyan's psychic abilities? I know they have basic telepathy and telekinesis. Could they have “Jedi-like” powers if they really wanted?

On a side note, do the "Powers of Creation" and the Master's lighting/electricity powers count as psychic abilities? If not, what are they?

Gallifreyan Psychic Abilities

🧠 Gallifreyan Psychic Abilities

Telepathy: Every Gallifreyan possesses these abilities to some extent, though most are low-level telepaths. They can communicate mind-to-mind, especially with other Gallifreyans.

Telepathic Signature Recognition: Each Gallifreyan has a unique psycho-kinetic signature, enabling them to recognise each other even in different bodies.

Psychic Bridge/Entrelacement Formation: They can establish intense telepathic links, known as Psychic Bridges or entrelacement, with other Gallifreyans, transferring large amounts of information and emotions in a short amount of time.

Hypnotism and Memory Manipulation: They can hypnotise others and block, alter, erase, or implant memories. This is enhanced by intense eye contact. So if a Gallifreyan is closing their eyes while reading your mind, they're respecting your boundaries and signalling they're (probably) not trying to rearrange your mind.

Astral Projection: Advanced Gallifreyans can project their minds through the Astral Vortex over vast distances and through time. This form of psychic ability is particularly strong when contacting different incarnations of themselves.

Soul Catching: A way more esoteric ability is to absorb memories from a dying Gallifreyan, preserving their experiences and knowledge, which is useful for plot, I'm sure.

🚫 Limitations and Extended Abilities

No Telekinesis: Typically, Gallifreyans don't possess strong telekinesis as part of their standard psychic skill set, only minor telekinesis for moving tiny objects, such as pieces in board games. However, specific instances demonstrate that under certain conditions, they can manifest proper telekinetic abilities:

Caleera: Caleera, a Time Lord Academy student, had profound psychic abilities that included telekinesis. Her case was so unique that it was 'controlled' via medical intervention.

The Tenth Doctor: The Tenth Doctor showed some telekinetic ability when he channelled the collective psychic energy of Earth.

Jedi-like Powers: While their psychic abilities are pretty darn impressive, it's a stretch to say they could do Jedi powers on the hoof. Gallifreyan telekinesis isn't about lifting starships or blasting you with the Force into a wall. These abilities, while powerful, are exceptional. They require specific circumstances or an inherent level of talent that's not common among Gallifreyans.

✨Powers of Creation and The Master’s Thor-like Thang

Powers of Creation: This is likely not a psychic ability but an advanced manipulation of physics and cosmic laws. It's more about an in-depth understanding of the universe and an ability to manipulate its fundamental aspects rather than anything psionic.

The Master's Abilities: The lightning/electricity powers of the Master likely resulted from his botched regeneration process, where excess artron energy was harnessed as a weapon. This is different from typical psychic powers and more related to a 'whoopsie' in the regeneration process.

Hope that helped! 😃

→🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (WIP) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine/Monitoring Guides →📝Source list (WIP)

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[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

🎉 Anniversary Week 🎉

'A Letter from the Doctor', published in Doctor Who Weekly Magazine #1 (now Doctor Who Magazine), 17 October 1979

If Doctor Who Magazine continues to publish at its current rate, the Doctor's favourite issue, 879, will land on your doorsteps in 2044.

Bonus:

Published in Doctor Who Magazine #400, 15 October 2008

Whoniverse Facts for Friday by GIL

》📫Got a question / submission? 》😆Jokes |🫀Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts 》📚Complete list of Q+A 》📜Masterpost If you like what GIL does, please consider buying a coffee or tipping below to help make future projects, including complete biology and language guides.

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

🤔🍹Can Gallifreyans get drunk?

We'll forgive you for thinking that with their advanced biology, Gallifreyans would be immune to intoxication. While they can metabolise alcohol with impressive speed, prolonged drinking sessions will reduce the ability of the liver to process the alcohol over time, leading to intoxication, although their threshold is notably higher than humans.

However - enter ginger beer. Gingerol, the active compound giving ginger beer its flavour, is a metabolic bomb in a Gallifreyan. The gingerol interacts with the enzymes in the Gallifreyan liver responsible for metabolism. This interaction affects the breakdown of alcohol, rendering their usually efficient processing system less effective.

So, the next time you see a Gallifreyan reaching for ginger beer, make sure they don't need to get up to save the world too early tomorrow.

Gallifreyan Biology for Tuesday by GIL

→🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (WIP) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine/Monitoring Guides →📝Source list (WIP)

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》📫Got a question / submission? 》😆Jokes |🫀Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts 》📚Complete list of Q+A 》📜Masterpost If you like what GIL does, please consider buying a coffee or tipping below to help make future projects, including complete biology and language guides.

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

🤔💖 How do Gallifreyans form intimate telepathic relationships?

Ever wonder how Gallifreyans get close on a telepathic level? They've got some unique abilities for forming deep, intimate connections, the two relevant ones being entrelacement and psychic bridges.

🔗 Entrelacement: It all starts with a touch - two Gallifreyans engage in entrelacement by touching faces and initiating 'Contact'. This allows them to share emotions and a ton of information in an instant. It tends to be reserved for those who share an intimate or very close relationship (or, you know, you can just headbutt someone for exposition reasons).

🌉 Psychic Bridges: Want a more lasting telepathic link? Gallifreyans can construct psychic bridges. It requires fine-tuning to an ultra-specific telepathic frequency, often facilitated by eye contact. This method establishes a deeper, enduring telepathic connection.

👥 Species limits: While these telepathic connections come easier between Gallifreyans, they're not exclusive to them. Other species with latent telepathic abilities, including humans, can also partake in these intimate connections with a Gallifreyan, albeit with a bit more effort and perhaps not with the same level of intensity.

So it turns out the concept of a 'bond' in Gallifreyan culture isn't just a fanciful notion from fiction - at least, not in the Whoniverse.

Gallifreyan Biology for Tuesday by GIL

→🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (WIP) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine/Monitoring Guides →📝Source list (WIP)

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》📫Got a question / submission? 》😆Jokes |🫀Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts 》📚Complete list of Q+A 》📜Masterpost If you like what GIL does, please consider buying a coffee or tipping below to help make future projects, including complete biology and language guides.

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

Can you tell me anything about Nechronomancers?

Certainly!

Nechronomancers

🕰️ Who are Nechronomancers?

At the fringes of Time Lord society, you'll find the Nechronomancers. Originating from the prestigious House of Arpexia (and probably linked to Faction Paradox), they decided that mainstream Gallifreyan life wasn't for them and rejected societal norms and the very concept of time itself. Nechronomancers throw away their names, genders, and histories, choosing a path of existence that defies everything a Time Lord is supposed to stand for.

🔮 Masters of Temporal Manipulation

What makes Nechronomancers particularly interesting isn't just their radical lifestyle but their unique abilities over time, too. They have skills that hint at an in-depth understanding and control over temporal states, and possess powers that go beyond what ordinary Time Lords can achieve. Their mastery over time allows them to phase in and out of temporal streams, weaponise themselves, manipulate temporal energies, and even resist effects that would disorient or harm others based on time-based anomalies, making them useful in the Time War.

🧬 Unique Biological Traits

Neurological Adaptations: Their brains may have been changed to interface with time in strange ways, supported by psychic abilities finely tuned to temporal frequencies.

Bioenergetic Fields: They may generate distinctive bioenergetic fields that interact with time, allowing them to phase in and out of temporal streams and even create temporal echoes for simultaneously interacting across multiple points in time.

Temporal Immunity: Their biological rhythms could be synchronised with temporal energies, affording them immunity to time-based anomalies and effects. This synchronisation might affect their ageing process and shield their cellular structure from temporal fluctuations.

Multidimensional Awareness: A heightened awareness that extends into parallel dimensions enhances their mastery over time-space, positioning them as beings of significant power and mystery within the Time Lord society.

⛪ Religious Zealots

Nechronomancers also have their own set of beliefs and mythology. They draw inspiration from a figure known as the 'Seventh Founder' or 'old one' or 'other', a nameless, genderless entity who embodies the essence of their ideals.

⚔️ Faction Paradox

Their association with the Faction Paradox adds another layer of 'what?'. This connection hints at a shared interest in the darker aspects of temporal engineering.

Hope that helped! 😃

→🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (WIP) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine/Monitoring Guides →📝Source list (WIP)

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》📫Got a question / submission? 》😆Jokes |🫀Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts 》📚Complete list of Q+A 》📜Masterpost If you like what GIL does, please consider buying a coffee or tipping below to help make future projects, including complete biology and language guides.