#gallifreyan biology

[justletmeramble1701]

Do you guys subscribe to the theory that (at least, starting in NuWho) the Doctor can, somewhat, subconsciously control his regenerations?

Like, of course, 8 wanted to be a warrior, so he became the War Doctor (I know that he drank a potion for that, but that might’ve just been lemonade according to the Target Novelization).

War wanted to be the hero, to earn the title, the Doctor, again, so he became 9.

9 wanted to be someone who was the perfect partner to Rose (human), so he became 10.

10, in his vanity, wanted his final regeneration to be young, so he became 11.

11, after all the heartache, wanted to be more distant (and also what they said in series 8), so he became 12.

12 wanted a kind, fresh start, so he became 13.

13 wanted to open up to someone, so she became 14.

14 wanted time to heal, so he split off 15.

This is not an original theory, and I'm not even saying that I buy into it fully it, but it's interesting. It would be interesting if the Doctor had a tiny bit of control over their regeneration (Romana did, somehow) and most of the time his wants either backfire or only half work.

What do you think?

[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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》📫Got a question / submission? 》🔥 Trending |🫀Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts | 😆Jokes 》📚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.

[fatelesschild]

Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology 9: The Senses

A worryingly comprehensive and extremely unofficial guide to Gallifreyan and Time Lord/Lady Anatomy and Physiology, constructed with love and sweat.

This is a project that attempts to draw together everything we know about gallifreyan anatomy from every source available to place it in a valid biological system, like some Grey’s Anatomy textbook you didn’t know you needed.

The author of this has no affiliation with the BBC, and owns nothing but this lovely chocolate bar and good intentions. Nothing in this guide should be taken as de facto and everything should be free to be challenged and changed. I welcome any comments, questions, points of interest, or corrections - just aim at my ask/inbox.

Absolutely nothing in this guide constitutes professional medical advice. Always seek your human advice from a healthcare provider, and always seek your gallifreyan advice from a hospitaller on Gallifrey.

This is version 1.10.x See the main document or Tumblr masterpost for the latest version.

x Tumblr masterpost

x Main document with sources (Google Docs, not optimised for mobiles)

x Tumblr tag page with Q+As etc.

x Glossary

The Senses

AKA You know it makes sense.

Contains:

Context & Anatomy

The Main Senses - Sight, Sound, Taste, Smell, Touch

Somato - Thermoception, Nociception, Equilibrioception and gravitoception, Mechanoreception and magnetoreception, Proprioception

Chronopsionic - Time, Psionic

Summary

Key: [External link] [Guide link] [Glossary link]

9.1 Context & Anatomy

Gallifreyans have the same senses as we do, they’re just much, much better. 

They also have a few extra ones besides.

They use the same organs (ie. they don’t hear with their feet)

All of the senses can be consciously controlled by the gallifreyan, either enhancing/reducing sensitivity or shutting them off altogether.

9.2 The Main Senses

Gallifreyans senses can be broadly categorised into seven distinct areas:

To save my bloody stumpy fingers typing it out seven times, just remember that acuity of the senses will vary from body to body and gallifreyan to gallifreyan, for example, some rely on taste more heavily than others and some don’t wear glasses. All gallifreyans are individuals and no body is the same. You are all individuals!

9.2.1 Sight

The Importance of Being Eyeful

This guide is definitely not any sort of deep exploration of gallifreyan society, but when it comes to explaining the importance of eyes this suddenly becomes very relevant. Gallifreyan eyes are very important to their culture. On Gallifrey they are one of the primary methods of machine interaction. They use them to interact with with the Eye of Harmony as well as the deeper workings of the TARDIS, and use them with other varying gallifreyan technologies, right down to humble door locks. Without their eyes, they would be very limited on their homeworld.

Why is this? Because unlike fingerprints, gallifreyan eyes remain individually consistent throughout their incarnations. Basic retina patterns don’t change from body to body, meaning it’s a far more reliable way of identifying an individual on Gallifrey.

As with most things to do with gallifreyans, they may look pretty human on the outside, but gallifreyan eyes are significantly different from human eyes. The retinas perceive and process visual data on their own without the brain having to get involved. This is just one more thing their brain doesn’t have to bother with so it can get on with being clever. 

The eyes are made out of three cell types, cones, rods, and octagons. 

Cones

Cones are what we use on a day-to-day basis to see the world around us. There are around 4.5-7 million of them in three colour types - red, green, and blue. We see something, the cones are stimulated by their according colour, and the brain interprets the data to give you an image which may or may not always be reliable (remember that dress?).

Gallifreyan visuals are much more reliable, as they are pentachromatic. They have five cone types in their eyes, allowing them to see more reliable colour images. They also have more cone cells, making them more sensitive to light and giving them all round better vision.

Rods

Rods are for night vision - we have around 90-120 million of them and they require far less light stimulation to ‘activate’. However, humans can only receive black and white data through them.

Gallifreyans have more rods than we do in three types (red, green, blue), meaning they can see much better in the dark and in colour (although not as well as in daylight). 

Octagons

In humans, rods and cones work together to build the best picture they can, but in gallifreyans the eyes will switch from cones to rods and vice versa depending on what the retina deems to be the better image. If desired, this image can then be supplemented by the octagons. There aren’t that many octagons (1-2 million) but they are very powerful, and they’re what allow gallifreyans to see tiny details of objects from very far away. If you think of normal gallifreyan vision as 4k definition, then octagons make it 8k.

Topographical sensitivities

So you’re probably now thinking ‘gosh, that eyesight is practically endgame-level’, and yes, you would be right. But that’s not all. Timegri are actually able to take this to an even higher level. Their extremely sensitive eyes allow them to see even minor distortions in their field of view, leading to logical deductions on the space they’re in. For example, they’ll be able to see if they’re in a holographic projection (they can probably see the glitches and dead pixels) or a dimensionally transcendental space (there is usually slight warping on the edge of the field of vision).

Problems, Diversity & Solutions

Genetic and regenerative disorders

Colour blindness: Despite this high level of sophistication, colour blindness is possible in gallifreyans, whether through genetics or injury/disease, but the presence of these issues will vary with each incarnation.

‘Polyheterochromia’: Beyond the regenerative ‘moulding’ period, eye colour may change during the course of an incarnation, sometimes as frequently as every few minutes. This is a curious condition that appears to come and go at random and may be linked to some sort of instability during the regenerative process or interference with their biodata, though could also be linked to changes in mood or perhaps something potent that they’ve digested or inhaled. It doesn't appear to cause any harm to the gallifreyan.

Age-related degeneration: As a body ages, visual acuity will decrease as everything becomes less new and shiny, just like many of us.  Of course everything can be made shiny again by regenerating.

Other conditions: There are many other conditions we’re all familiar with, such as cataracts and glaucoma, and yes, gallifreyans can be affected too, but not nearly quite as frequently. Blindness in a fresh body is possible.

Traumatic experiences

Eye removal: Physical removal of the eyes is exceptionally traumatic and recovering from this is very difficult. Their eyes cannot simply grow back and a new manufactured pair of eyes will probably be rejected (the original eyes need to be surgically put back). In addition to this, if they regenerate with no eyes then they will not grow back in a new body. The affected gallifreyan will have to rely on their psionic and somatosenses to function, and they won’t be able to use much gallifreyan technology. Put bluntly, if someone removes the eyes of a gallifreyan and completely destroys them, that gallifreyan will probably never see again.

Critical damage: Their pupil response is very quick to changing light, reducing their risk of damage by brightness/intense photo-emissions. However, severely adverse events such as exposure to the vacuum of space, high levels of ultraviolet light, or other ‘catastrophic accidents’ can cause blindness, however, as long as the eyes are still in their sockets and the visual pathways aren't completely fried, any blindness caused is curable by regeneration. If the eyes are still where they should be but the visual pathways are completely destroyed, then only extremely advanced technology can restore sight.

Interventions

While glasses are good for minor corrections, more extreme vision loss can be supported by technological interventions such as specially designed glasses or lenses, or even the use of a telepathic bond with an animal. Nothing will completely restore their sight, but it allows a good degree of functionality.

Unlike the skin, implants put into gallifreyan eyes will remain in-situ until physically removed. This is obviously a good thing if it’s intentional, but if it’s without their knowledge then the gallifreyan cannot instinctively tell there is an implant in their eye.

Natural individual variation

Gallifreyans can be short-sighted or long-sighted in one or both eyes and require glasses, in some bodies and not in others.

Gallifreyan eye colour is more often than not what we would deem to be ‘natural colours’, however, similarly to skin and hair, some more wacky eye colours such as red or purple are not completely off-limits.

The differences between masculine and feminine eyes are negligible, but if you want to get picky then on average masculine eyes may be able to pick up movements better over long distances and feminine may see more vivid colours.

9.2.2 Sound

Sound stimuli are received by the ears and processed by the brain with the help of the nervous system to give living creatures a soundscape of their surroundings. We talk about sound in two ways - as frequency (measured in hertz) and as volume (measured in decibels).

Frequency

Every living creature has a range of frequencies it’s able to hear, with various species able to hear things others can’t perceive. This is called their audio frequency spectrum. To give you some perspective: 

The gallifreyan spectrum is much wider than in humans, sitting around 12Hz to 30kHz (this varies). This means they can perceive some infrasonic sounds we can’t, such as avalanches and earthquakes, severe weather and turbulence, and also hear ultrasonic sounds like electronics/machinery. It’s also because of this wider range gallifreyans can listen happily to frequencies we’d find hard to tolerate for too long ie. nails down a chalkboard. So if you ever wondered why the Music of the Spheres sounds so terrible to us and great to the Doctor, it may be because he was hearing things that we can’t perceive (or he just has a terrible taste in music).

Timegri have an extra enhancement, where they are able to perceive the sounds of their symbiotically-linked TARDIS over great distances due to their attunement as the pilot.

Doctor Wholittle

Because they can hear higher frequencies, this enables gallifreyans to hear some forms of animal communication (specifically known, dolphins) without artificial support, and then by understanding how certain calls relate to certain moods and messages, they can replicate the sounds vocally and ‘talk’ to them using their excellent vocal cords.

Volume

Volume is measured in decibels, and our scale, rather selfishly, centres on humans. 0dB is silence, while 185-200dB will genuinely kill a human. Meanwhile dogs can hear between -5 and -15dB, making them able to hear things that are too quiet for us. Gallifreyans are similar to dogs in this way - they can hear sounds down to around -5dB and tolerate noise up to 190dB without ill effect.

Problems, Diversity & Solutions

Deafness is very rare on Gallifrey, so rare in fact, that it’s never been mentioned, but any issues with this sense either through disease or injury would be able to be cured by regeneration. These diseases and injuries would be very much the same ones we may contract and/or experience. Theoretically it would be possible to regenerate with deafness on Gallifrey but this sort of thing would be quickly corrected either with a mini-regeneration or by surgery.

Again, differences between the sexes is negligible, but in general females tend to be more sensitive to loud noises, and can process auditory data faster than men, making them quicker to respond to noises like being in a conversation.

9.2.3 Taste

Taste is experienced by humans through 2000-10,000 taste buds which live for around a week at a time, detecting salt, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami of food and drink.

Gallifreyans have a very sensitive palette, with a lot more taste buds than humans (around 10,000-20,000 renewing every 3 days), and their saliva has more enzymes. This combination allows them to get information about things and objects purely from taste, from telling blood types through the taste of differing antigens, types of minerals and substances,  to making logical deductions about atmosphere, as well as being able to tell the age of certain objects through the taste of rot and other decaying factors. Yuck.

Problems, Diversity & Solutions

As with everything else, diseases and injuries will affect the function of this sense. A severed tongue won’t grow back until regeneration, hospitaller intervention, or surgical reattachment, and disorders like dysgeusia are possible. Anything affecting this sense will obviously make their taste a little bit off. 

Those with feminine bodies tend to have a better ability to identify substance with a lick due to more sensitive taste buds.

One absolutely crucial note to mention is that their smell and taste aren’t linked like ours, so losing their sense of smell will have no effect on their sense of taste.

9.2.4 Smell

Smell (or olfaction) is perceived by humans and gallifreyans alike through the nose, and has connections to memory and emotion. Gallifreyans have far more receptors in their noses, making them more sensitive to odours.

Gallifreyan olfaction is similar to their taste sense in that it’s so sensitive they’re able to draw logical conclusions from the odours they can detect, right down to chemical level. This includes being able to work out where and when they could be in time just from odours they find familiar to a certain time period. And it’s not just environment, it’s also people - they can detect changes in people’s odours such as being able to smell a clone of someone they know. Using this impressive schnoz they can even identify species by smell. 

In Timegri, they are also able to smell time itself, with paradoxes and artron energy having their own specific scents they’ll be familiar with. They can also use smell to track down other Timegri with a well-placed sniff.

Problems, Diversity & Solutions

They can be affected by conditions like anosmia, parosmia, and phantosmia, but these are usually secondary to some other cause such as a disease, medication, or injury. Again, these types of conditions are quite rare for them and usually clear up once the cause has been identified and solved.

With age, their abilities mentioned above deteriorate in their proficiency, but in a minor way.

Once again just for a reminder, their smell and taste aren’t linked like ours, so losing their sense of smell will have no effect on their sense of taste.

9.2.5 Touch

If you’ve read the integumentary system section then there’s not much to say here besides that gallifreyans are much more sensitive with more nerve receptors in their skin, so their touch sense is a lot more effective than ours. There’s no differences between the sexes. Check the integumentary section for more fun facts!

9.3 Somato

No, it’s not the ability to see dead people (sorry, disappointing, I know). Somatosensation (abbreviated here to ‘somato’) is an umbrella term for a lorry-load of sensory inputs that allow us to understand our body’s reaction to its environment. In gallifreyans somato can be largely defined as breaking down into:

Thermoception (temperature)

Nociception (pain)

Equilibrioception and gravitoception (balance/gravity)

Mechanoreception and magnetoreception (vibration/pressure/magnetism)

Proprioception (positioning and movement)

9.3.1 Thermoception

Thermoception is the ability to sense when you are hot or cold. As discussed across the nervous system and integumentary system sections, thermoregulation tends to take care of itself using the autonomic brain and a highly effective heat maintenance method. Despite this, gallifreyans can feel hot and cold and will consciously adjust their water intake and clothing choices appropriately, however, their temperature control is so adept that they need the more extreme temperatures to need to act. These extreme temperatures are only able to be handled in short bursts (-200°C for 3 minutes), with length of time depending on how extreme the temperature is. When these temperatures become too extreme or too prolonged, gallifreyans will go through the usual motions of things like burns and frostbite, and they’ll even get sunstroke, which can be identified by a loss of memory.

9.3.2 Nociception

Gallifreyans feel pain, however, they are far better at managing it through their conscious ability to prompt the manufacture of endorphins (the pain reliever hormone). This allows them to effectively manage severe pain and makes them good at handling torture and interrogation methods. However, this is not a magic solution, and they will still feel and be limited by pain - the manufacture of endorphins only serves to take the ‘edge’ off.

If the pain becomes too severe or the damage is too great, then a gallifreyan will sink into a healing coma, which is a trance-like state designed to promote rapid recovery of whatever is causing the pain.

9.3.3 Equilibrioception and gravitoception

Equilibrioception encompasses the feeling of acceleration and balance. As previously discussed in the Nervous System section, due to their enhanced cerebellum and multiple brain stems, gallifreyans have better equilibrioception, to the degree they don’t feel things like sea sickness, jet lag, or vertigo and can stay standing perfectly upright without aid in situations where we’d all fall over. For example, ever tried to walk down the aisle of a moving bus without holding onto something? They’re very good at that.

They are also able to feel gravity strength more acutely than humans. This gives them heightened awareness of gravity and gravity fields, for example, using their gravitoception in conjunction with their mechano and magneto receptors they are able to feel planetary rotation and the sensation of their body being “stuck” to a planet’s surface. It’s through this they can also instinctively tell when gravity could be artificial.

9.3.4 Mechanoreception and magnetoreception

Concerning magnetoreception, as described in detail  in the nervous system section, gallifreyan brains have a strong electrical baseline, which makes them particularly sensitive to changes in magnetic fields, which force their brain to operate on a modified electrical level. Initial reaction to this includes goosebumps, but may result in things like headaches, confusion, and fainting if sticking around them for too long. 

Timegri can be even more sensitive to changes when using machines with high levels of magnetic alterations, such as transmats. They can experience paresthesia in the fingers or spine, tachycardia, insomnia, amnesia, and general disorientation. These altered magnetic fields may also cause fluctuations of the amount of artron in their blood, which can invoke either mild blood clots or temporarily excessive bleeding.

9.3.5 Proprioception

Proprioception allows you to sense the location and movement of body parts. Put simply, it’s how you know where your body is. Close your eyes and try to touch the end of your nose with your fingertip. Did it? Grats! You have excellent proprioception, because you knew where your hand and nose were without being able to see. 

As discussed in the nervous system section and above, gallifreyans have a more advanced cerebellum and multiple brain stems, which makes them incredibly dextrous. This heightened awareness of their position and movement through proprioception is what makes this work so flawlessly. The end result of this is that gallifreyans are able to learn and perform extremely precise calculated movements.

9.3.6 Sex, Age and Regeneration

This is sex, age and regeneration specific to the senses. For a wider explanation see the basics main section and the regenerative system main section (link to be added).

There are no notable differences between the sexes.

You've got the picture by now that somato will be affected with age-related decline. Older gallifreyans will feel the cold more easily, feel pain more, and have less balance and awareness of their bodies and environment. This means they have a little trouble orienting themselves in their environment and it can result in more chances of falls, but in gallifreyans falls will only occur in a really old body.

9.4 Chronopsionic

The chronopsionic sense is the seventh sense. It’s split into two main categories:

Time: The main ‘special feature’ of a gallifreyan, providing senses for use in time travel.

Psionic: Basically, telepathic and telekinetic abilities.

Both of these exist in all gallifreyans, but Timegri will have far more advanced time and psionic sensitives. Having these senses is absolutely essential to using a TARDIS. 

But before we touch any of that, we just need to quickly go over how Timegri actually see the universe. And hang onto your tin foil hats, people, because this is where we get proper sci-fi.

Dimensional perception

In Doctor Who lore and actual quantum theory, there are 11 dimensions. Timegri are five dimensional beings. Let’s just clarify what that means - human perception of the universe comes in four dimensions. Humans can operate in three dimensions: length (1st), width (2nd), depth (3rd). As for time (4th), we can't operate in it (ie. We can't travel in time) - we can only perceive time moving. Existing in five dimensions means Timegri can travel in time, and see and operate in the multiverse, which in Doctor Who lore is the group of parallel worlds that all started from Event One (AKA the Big Bang). 

Still with me?

So, as five dimensional beings, they subconsciously see the universe in five dimensions. What does that mean? Well, when the Doctor looks at a person, he is subconsciously seeing their entire lifespan from birth to death, as well as everything they could possibly become. When he looks at the world around him, he sees all potential pasts, presents, and futures, as well as what could be and what must not be, alongside what absolutely must happen (a “fixed point”), what could be changed (a “nudge point”), as well as remembering what didn’t happen and what would have happened if it did. Is it any wonder with all this information to sift through that he sometimes misses the obvious?

Dimensional perception continued … you can quit here if you want this is just for fun

So that’s five dimensions. What about 6th-11th, I hear you say? These are known in Doctor Who lore as the Six-Fold-Realm and it’s where all the transcendental beings usually hang out. For Timegri, a little part of their brain above the pineal gland known as the Superior Epiphysis Cerebri‎‎ can allow them to see these higher dimensions, but this requires intense training to use. Being able to access these higher dimensions would allow a gallifreyan to access the Omniverse - that’s every that ever was, is, could be, and will be, simultaneously across every single universe that could ever exist. In practical Doctor Who terms, that’s what an Eternal is, or Bad Wolf.

I'm not going to go any deeper into this, so if you'd like  know more then I recommend you start with this page on the TARDIS wiki and get a basic understanding of dimensional theory.

9.4.1 Time

So now that’s cleared up, I’ll return to the rather easier to understand fact that gallifreyans are time sensitive, and the time sense is exactly what you think it is. It isn’t exclusive to Timegri, normal gallifreyans have it too, just to a far lower degree. It grants a wide range of abilities, received through the other sensory organs and processed by the time lobe in the brain. These senses are enhanced by artron energy, which builds with excessive time travel.

Heightened awareness of the passage of time: obviously, gallifreyans are able to sense the passage of time far more keenly than us, and Timegri even more accurately - they can sense when time is not passing normally (ie. time jumps or distortions) and can resist it. There is also an additional skill known as ‘internal chronometry’, which is a learned skill that can be used to tell the time to within a nanosecond of accuracy.

Ability to identify other time sensitive species: Gallifreyans can instinctively detect when another being is time sensitive like some sort of alternative time-driven gaydar. 

Gut revulsion to time anomalies: When confronted with someone who is anti-time (sorry, Jack) Timegri get a repulsive feeling in their gut. It feels a little bit like biting into an apple and realising it’s full of maggots. 

Detection of exotic time particles: Regular time travel causes the accumulation of exotic particles to build up in the systems of any time traveller, and Timegri are able to see them as a sort of ‘slithery mist’ around the person. These particles include bockatrons, harminums, artron oxidants, and chronitons and antechronitons. 

Breaking of the Laws of Time: The Laws of Time are absolutely hardwired into Timegri as part of their biology, so they instinctively know when one has been broken, whether by themselves or others. This is usually accompanied by a feeling of a shiver running down their spine. In its severest form, those who aren’t used to breaking the Laws of Time will have acute physical symptoms before doing it, such as memory problems, and pain.

Detection of other time phenomena: There are of course numerous additional time-related phenomena that they can instinctively sense, some of which cause physical reactions. This includes parachronic time fields, paradoxes, time fissures, and more. If hanging around these for too long, they’ll start to physically react to them, with headaches, tingling sensations, and dizziness being the most common symptoms. None of this will kill them, but it ain’t half unpleasant, gov.

9.4.2 Psionic

As the psionic system has its own section, I’ll just cover the basic sensory inputs here. 

Psionics in its most loose and frivolous definition is psychic powers. By using this system, this grants gallifreyans a host of special psychic senses using their epiphysis cerebri, including:

Recognition of a TARDIS: Timegri can recognise a TARDIS, its type, and its condition straight away, regardless of its shape and form. They can also physically react to fully energised TARDISes with a tingling sensation in their fingers and toes.

Ability to identify other gallifreyans: They have another gaydar, this time it’s for identifying and detect members of their own species irregardless of their appearance, which as you undoubtedly read in the nervous system section is made possible by the reflex link. This can be supplemented by using their sense of smell to detect and locate each other to a specific area.

Ability to identify other psionic species: The final gaydar, this time it’s being able to identify if someone they encounter is also psionic.

“Finding evil”: The Doctor appears to have quite a knack for sensing evil and claims that this is one of his senses. It does exactly what it says on the tin - he seems to be able to instinctively feel the presence of something bad. However, this sense appears to be exclusive to the Doctor and somewhat intermittent and there’s no evidence any other gallifreyans have it, so use it carefully.

9.4.3 Injury, Disease & Healing

This is injury, disease and healing specific to the senses. For a wider explanation see the immune system.

Damage to either of these senses is extremely disabling for a gallifreyan, especially a Timegri. Forcibly removing them would be nothing short of horrific for the individual and a form of torture.

Injury tends to come from traumatic damage to the brain that affects the time lobe or the epiphysis cerebri, such as severe head trauma or a psychic shock. Depending on the severity of the damage this may require regeneration, or alternatively could be fixed by assisted or natural healing.

There are some extremely unique diseases for creatures with time and psionic sensitivities which can cause the hampering or destruction of sensory inputs, which are known to be far worse than anything on Earth, only a few of which we know about (Regeneration (link to be added) and Immune System sections). If you ever invent anything, drop me a line and I’m totally there to read it!

9.4.4 Sex, Age & Regeneration

This is sex, age and regeneration specific to the senses. For a wider explanation see the basics main section and the regenerative system main section (link to be added).

There's no discernable difference in the time sense between masculine and feminine bodies. However, those with more feminine brains tend to have better psionic senses as their epiphysis cerebri is naturally larger.

Age, as ever, causes these senses to be a lot less refined. And apart from where I’ve noted, regeneration will cure most issues with these senses.

9.5 Summary

Remember - you are all individuals! No body and no gallifreyan are the same.

Gallifreyans are extremely sensitive to pretty much everything, they’re better at everything than us.

They’re also incredibly resistant to adversities to protect their sensory organs.

Eyes are really, really important …

… As are chronopsiotic senses, because without those they’d lose what it means to be a gallifreyan.

Magnetic fields are quite a challenge sometimes.

Time adversities cause physical symptoms.

They’re 5D creatures so don’t underestimate how differently they perceive the world.

Rejected Evidence: 

I don't think this is anything more than poetic scripting, so I'm not gonna try and physiologically justify it, but please do enjoy:

‘Eyes could be used to tell [a gallifreyan’s] true age’

I cannot find at all where this came from (my best guess is Sleepy?) and the use of mRNA is so tenuous anyway I’ve decided to let this slide for now, may return later.

‘Some Gallifreyans can use their stomachs to interpret human memory RNA and producing the Gallifreyan equivalent.’

This is a cute thought but this seems defunct in the hierarchy considering how boy spends a lot of his time wandering around in full-on coats and jackets in high temperatures.

‘Gallifreyans tend to find a room temp of 20 C to be uncomfortably hot.’

I’ve covered the topographical sensitivities, but I don’t believe this is a sense of its own, this is just a case of good memory.

‘This Topographical Sense also allows them to remember any path they have taken (this might work by tracing their own biodata). To use their Topographical Sense they must however remember to store the path they took.’

I suspect this is probably in reference to The Christmas Invasion, but the recent regeneration mitigates this.

‘Through an act of will, a Gallifreyan can compartmentalize pain to the degree that they can block the pain from a severed limb.’

Curious about something? Need some creative gallifreyan biology-related advice? Wanna say hi? Ask away!

[carciinogen]

I love the idea of Gallifreyans having fairly human anatomy when clothed, but when they take their shirts off, it's like 'oh that is NOT where arms are usually attached.'

[sporadic-bursts-of-energy]

If a female incarnation and a male incarnation of the same time lord have sex…

1. Would they be able to conceive a child? (Assuming the Gallifreyan fertility issue was not applicable here)

2. Would that kid be at risk of birth defects because of similar DNA? Because the child wouldn’t just be from similar DNA, they’d be from identical DNA. (It seems that most of the DNA of a time lord stays the same throughout regeneration, it’s just outer appearance that changes).

3. Is the kid actually the kid of the two incarnations or are they like the twin of their parent time lord because they have identical DNA.

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

adding 'the doctor getting off to quantum field theory' to my triptych now tetratych of weird dw sex fics im writing i guess

[warlordfelwinter]

i love. starting at a point of suspension of disbelief in a media and then exploring the science of things from there. i dont know why i find such joy in saying "this is true bc its shown, so if this is true, what are the implications of it"

lots of fun theorizing about gallifreyan physics and biology in the group chat right now

[gotyouanyway]

need MORE of gallifreyan biology making them weaker/susceptible to different than humans more of whatever was going on with that disease in the girl who waited that only infected species with two hearts more regeneration-induced disability more aspirin poisoning

[isthatthesortofgirliamnow]

okay so the gallifreyans found out the doctor could regenerate and potentially live forever, and their response was to systematically murder her to steal her biology and insert it into their own, and then they covered it up by stealing her memories—further violating her autonomy—and erasing it from their history.

the humans found out the doctor could regenerate and potentially live forever, and their response was to be amazed, shrug it off, and make a little file at u.n.i.t. for all her known faces so they could always recognize her if they needed her or vice versa.

and that’s to say nothing of tecteun being the doctor’s first loved one vs. all the human loved ones she’s had since. tecteun saw her regenerate and instantly wanted to exploit her. the worst a human companion has ever done at a regeneration is be uncomfortable for a hot minute.

there’s a reason the doctor has always run to earth instead of home and it’s not just because she thinks it’s neat.

[quite-right-too]

Piece of Art

Tenth Doctor x GN!Reader / requests are open

Summary: The Doctor sees your newest tattoo.

One year.

You had been travelling for an entire year.

Granted, time was subjective when you are in a literal time machine, but the point still stood. For your timeline, it had been three hundred and sixty-five days of adventures.

It seemed like the Doctor also knew. He was up before you — which was normal considering his “superior Time Lord biology” allowed him to have “a considerably altered circadian rhythm” and he didn’t need much sleep.

He was already up and running around the console by the time you were up, hair tousled like he had been running his hands through it. You admired him from the doorway as he checked the screens, putting on his glasses and analysing the data that was written in that beautiful circular language.

“So, what’s the plan today?” you asked with a smirk, arms crossed and leaning against the coral entrance to the console room. The Doctor jumped for a second as he was brought out of his focused state.

He gave you his signature Doctor grin and began to flip various switches. “Well,” he drawled, “I was thinking we could go to Dracea VII. They have a wonderful festival that comes around every ten years. The food is amazing.” Nimble fingers typed into his keyboard as he watched the Gallifreyan symbols change. “Just imagine it. The sky's the perfect shade of lavender while the various rivers that flow through the city are a shimmering gold. The grass is soft, almost like silk, and is a deep blue. The entire planet is gorgeous.”

You couldn’t help the matching smile that spread across your face. “Sounds wonderful.”

“Alright!” he exclaimed, pulling a lever down hard as the TARDIS began to groan and lurch through the vortex. “Allons-y!”

A final thud upon landing threw your balance off. As you were sent stumbling, the Doctor reached out and grabbed your arm, pulling him into you as you both fell to the floor. He caught you, just as he always did. Your shared laughs filled the console room as you savoured the moment.

“Come on, up you go,” he grunted as he helped you to your feet. “Off on another adventure, us!” He grinned as he grabbed his overcoat and pulled it over his shoulders, adjusting the collar as he put it on. Once satisfied with how the garment sat, the Doctor held out his hand. His fingers wiggled in invitation. Chestnut eyes sparkled with the excitement of being able to spend time with you.

You loved it.

Fingers now laced, the door to the TARDIS was thrown open. Instead of the beautiful grass and rivers the Doctor had described, you were greeted with what appeared to be a sewer system. A very dirty sewer system.

As the two of you stepped out of the doors, the Doctor looked around with a grimace on his face. “What the-” He was quickly cut off with a low rumble.

A rumble that came from directly above you.

Although you both moved away from the now-noticed pipe above your heads, it was too late. The putrid smell of hot garbage assaulted you as you felt yourself get splashed with the brown mysterious liquid.

“Fucking dammit!” you yelled, lurching away.

The Doctor grabbed your hand, pulling you back into the TARDIS. Your shirt seemed to have gotten the worst of it. Not wanting to continue the contact of the sewage against your skin, you pulled your shirt off and discarded it on the floor of the console room.

“Alright, that was not where I intended to land. Sorry about that.” As the Doctor looked up at you, he froze. Standing before him was your shirtless form, bearing a semi-new tattoo.

The vibrant blue phone box that took up the space on the right side of your torso was beautifully surrounded with a galaxy. In the background, the Earth was able to be made out. 

His feet moved of their own accord. Before either of you knew it, he was standing directly in front of you, staring down at your ribs. “When did you get this done?” the Doctor murmured quietly, his hand coming up to hover above the piece.

You moved your hand up to his, pressing his fingers against your skin. “You can touch, Doctor.” You smiled at how enraptured he was. “I got it the last time we were in America. Probably around three months ago? Did you know that Los Angeles has some pretty amazing tattoo artists?”

“This is brilliant.” The Doctor was in complete and utter awe. “Why haven’t you shown me this before?” He traced circular patterns over the tattoo with the pads of his fingers.

“I don’t know, just…” You trailed off, mind melting at the feel of the skin-to-skin contact. “Wanted to wait for the right time.”

“Well, I love it.” The Doctor wasn’t lying. His eyes were staring into your soul. He loved it.

“Good,” you breathed. He was so close to you — it made it so hard to think.

I love you.

The words caught in your throat.

[gallifreyanhotfive]

Random Doctor Who Facts You Might Not Know, Part 13: Gallifrey at War Part 2

TW: more gruesome Time War shit, lots of death, disturbing stuff

Both the Daleks and the Time Lords investigated genetic manipulation to create new creatures to use during the Last Great Time War. This includes the highly psychic Time Lord called Quarren Maguire, who was altered to have reality changing abilities. He used these abilities to erase the evidence that he existed and then Chameleon Arched himself to pass as human, unaware of his nature as a Time Lord.

Marie is a sentient humanoid Type 103 TARDIS. The Time Lords kept her in a box for more than a year screaming and thrashing. Eventually, the High Council allowed her to mate with a Type 105 TARDIS, and she bore a baby TARDIS. After the baby was born, the Time Lords took them away from Marie immediately.

The Last Wave was a generation of soldiers in the War in Heaven. The officers in this group were older individuals who forced regeneration until their skin was coated in this black organic blastproofing.

Dalek technology possessed regeneration inhibitors.

The Time Lords would often splice different species together in the Time Vortex to create increasingly impossible and mindless beings.

Leela was fitted with a compliance collar during the Last Great Time War to force her obedience.

The Fifth Doctor became involved in the Last Great Time War by accident after crashing his TARDIS into a Dalek time machine.

During the War in Heaven, the Nine Gallifreys project concerned cryptoforming planets into Gallifreyan cloneworlds. Some envisioned every planet in the universe eventually being transformed. These clone Gallifreys would eventually be used as ballistic projectiles as the war escalated among other things.

In the Last Great Time War, mutated Time Lords dubbed "Interstitials" were living in the Death Zone. They were the results of experiments by Rassilon to create a possibility engine. This involved retro-evolving the timeline of these Time Lords to connect to the time vortex and enter a loop of iterative regeneration. This meant they had no constant appearance and were instead in flux between different bodies. Rassilon and Borusa eventually managed to build their engine using them.

In the beginning of the Last Great Time War, the War Council built munitions factories underneath Gallifrey's surface. They employed children.

It was said that a soldier in the Last Great Time War could die a thousand times in a single day only to learn that they had never been born at all the day after.

The Cold was a weapon created by the Time Lords during the War in Heaven. When activated, it breaks through the time-space continuum, so everything nearby gets sucked into an alternate universe and destroyed. If introduced to an inactive Cold, a subject could be held in stasis for centuries, like Fitz Kreiner was.

During his time working for the Faction, Kreiner spent centuries killing Time Lords, including the Rani and the Master although these may have been clones. He collected their severed heads.

Saturnyne was a water world until it was hit by a shock wave of temporal disruption from the Last Great Time War. This caused the planet to change to one where the inhabitants evolved with no natural laws of evolution, becoming odd beings that could move from the deepest depths of the water to land. The Saturnyne matriarch Rosanna Calvierri would later meet the Eleventh Doctor, Amy, and Rory in Venice.

The Time Lords began to seriously alter their biology during the War in Heaven, often becoming what the Eighth Doctor termed to be "monsters."

The biodata virus altered its victims biodata to become members of the Faction Paradox. It infected the Third Doctor while he was regenerating on Dust after being shot, thus dramatically altering the timeline. Now infected, the Doctor would be corrupted into a member of the Faction by the end of his Eighth self.

River Song used a therapy bot to erase the Eleventh Doctor’s memory of counting how many children were on Gallifrey at the end of the Last Great Time War. This same therapy bot would one day belong to Cass Fermazzi, but instead of taking her memories, it just spewed out the Doctor’s. This had a great effect on her childhood and inspired her to fight for what is right. Discovering this confirmed the Thirteenth Doctor’s belief that they caused her death.

Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28

[the-far-one]

There is something I wish to say about the timeless child plot line. First off, the Doctor is still legally Gallifreyan through adoption, second, he is now more Time Lord then the Time Lords, third, what if he's just a Gallifreyan from another universe? I mean, he was found in a space and time rift, and his DNA was compatible enough with the Gallifreyan's DNA for them to be spliced together which, as anyone who's taken biology would know, cannot happen if their DNA isn't too different. Or he's a byproduct of the time-space continuum, so DNA doesn't really matter. Either way, that's something.

[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)

-------------------------------------------------------

》📫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.

[fatelesschild]

Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology 10: The Immune System

A worryingly comprehensive and extremely unofficial guide to Gallifreyan and Time Lord/Lady Anatomy and Physiology, constructed with love and sweat.

This is a project that attempts to draw together everything we know about gallifreyan anatomy from every source available to place it in a valid biological system, like some Grey’s Anatomy textbook you didn’t know you needed.

The author of this has no affiliation with the BBC, and owns nothing but this lovely chocolate bar and good intentions. Nothing in this guide should be taken as de facto and everything should be free to be challenged and changed. I welcome any comments, questions, points of interest, or corrections - just aim at my inbox.

Absolutely nothing in this guide constitutes professional medical advice. Always seek your human advice from a healthcare provider, and always seek your gallifreyan advice from a hospitaller on Gallifrey.

This is version 1.10.x See the main document or Tumblr masterpost for the latest version.

x Tumblr Masterpost

x Main document with sources (Google Docs, not optimised for mobiles)

x Tumblr tag page with Q+As etc.

x Glossary

The Immune System

AKA They say doctors make the worst patients. Luckily, this Doctor has quite a few tricks up his sleeve so when the Daleks arrive he’s not worried about his cold or his ‘hurty’ toe.

Contains:

Context & Anatomy

Structure

Defence & Response - Innate immune response, Adaptive immune response

Vulnerabilities - Illnesses, Immunodeficiencies and Autoimmune Disorders, Allergies

Healing - Normal healing, Healing coma, Other helpers

Sex, Age & Regeneration

Summary

Key: [External link] [Guide link] [Glossary link]

11.1 Context & Anatomy

The immune system is, unsurprisingly, very, very good and is far more streamlined than a human.

It comprises the lymphatic system (with lymph vessels and lymph nodes), the spleen, the thymus, and the kidney, with minor players the tonsils and adenoids.

It has the same goal as humans - don’t let the nasties kill you!

Please remember throughout as because Timegri have a far higher baseline of artron, their immune response and healing abilities are significantly better than normal gallifreyans.

11.2 Structure

The Immune System can be extremely complicated and needs some explaining, so this is a simplified version while still trying to be as detailed as possible. Grab a drink and get ready to concentrate!

It’s a little bit easier to imagine the immune system as an army. Picture the universe as a very hostile place, with the gallifreyan body as a lonely world under constant threat of invasion. The other countries represent different body systems and the army’s number one objective is to stop the planet being invaded.

The lymphatic system is the world map, because you need some roads (lymph vessels) to get around and some checkpoints (lymph nodes) to check people’s documentation as they pass through. Not only do you need these main roads, there’s also lots of bridges leading to other countries to cover the entire world.

The buildings

So there’s the terrain, so what about the buildings? First you need some key structures so you can store troops, ammunition, and maintain communication with each other and contact the brain HQ.

The spleen is the recruitment centre and barracks, because you need somewhere to recruit and train your troops. The gallifreyan spleen creates immune cells and trains them while they wait for the call to fight off an invader. While there, it’s ensured that they have all the latest equipment, training, and intelligence. 

Every good army needs a load of nerds and maintenance services, so the gallifreyan thymus is the administrative and maintenance buildings. It manufactures lymph fluid (opici fluid) and makes sure all the lymph vessels are clean and free from obstructions and filled with defensive patrols (D-cells).

Not actually part of the human Immune System, the kidney is a kind of supply/weapon/provisions provider in gallifreyans. It’s the main producer of artron, which is the energy used by the immune system to manufacture immune cells. Artron is present in all systems (particularly cardiovascular), and provides multiple healing benefits we’ll be going through below.

Finally, there’s the transport, known as opici fluid. This is the equivalent of lymph fluid; it circulates through the lymphatic vessels carrying all the troops around the body. It’s also in the nervous system in the place of what we would call our cerebrospinal fluid. In a thicker form - mixed with collagen - it’s also present in the integumentary and skeletal systems as a form of protection.

The personnel

Next, you need some personnel to fight against the invaders, from high command, through specialists, tacticians, medics, sappers, and ground troops.

The brain, the top brass: The Field Marshall, the five-star General, the toppermost of the poppermost, whatever your preference, the brain is constantly receiving communication from the immune system. It's through this it considers the state of the world and issues orders to its troops.

D-cells, the patrol/sentries: Their mission is to locate any potential enemy. If they find something unusual, they’ll alert the rest of the system immediately. They’re similar to human lymphocyte and mast cells, and have two distinct types:

D1-cells are the patrol. They constantly circulate the lymphatic system looking for anything they don’t recognise.

D2-cells are the sentries. These stand guard against attack, stationed strategically throughout the body.

Z-cells, the front line soldiers: Their mission is to kill the pathogen at any cost. They’re a mix of human phagocytes (macrophages and neutrophils), white blood cells, B lymphocytes and effector cells, and natural killer cells.

Z1-cells are infantry soldiers and non-specialised. They patrol the body and are always the first on the scene when a D-cell calls out for help. Z1-cells eat up anything they find suspicious (including infected gallifreyan cells) and keep doing it over and over. They can be killed, however, whether through age or the strength of a pathogen, and their bloody remains are what pus is made from. So if your gallifreyan starts producing pus, then their immune system is having quite a fight.

Z2-cells are specialised soldiers. They’re trained to change their type of attack to deal with one particular type of enemy, making them extremely effective killers. They have the best weapons and best tactics, able to destroy pathogens on sight as they can be absolutely packed with specific antibodies they fire out like machine guns for days on end. What antibodies they use is dictated by the M1-cells. 

ZX-cells are the berserkers. Only called upon in the direst of situations when Z1-and Z2-cells have failed their mission, they run in screaming and shouting and firing all their guns simultaneously hoping to try and kill the enemy as a Last Stand, but they’re liable to kill their own comrades in friendly fire.

M-cells, the tacticians: Their mission is to learn as much about the enemy as possible in order to use that intelligence against it in the future. They can be equated to memory cells in humans.

M1-cells are the intelligence officers. Every single one has access to the entire known database of pathogens (imagine it like a Wikipedia of the body’s known immunities). On arriving at the infection site, they can identify a certain type of pathogen by being able to recognise its unique antigens. Once they know what they’re looking at, they tell the Z2-cells to manufacture antibodies specific to that pathogen and attack.

M2-cells are the spies. Looking to collect as much information about the enemy as possible, they take it back to the spleen to improve training and expand the database.

Artron cells, the field medics and sappers: They’re a little harder to put into our army metaphor simply because they tend to do their own thing. They work around the main immune cells, helping where they can. They want to:

Stop the fires (by clotting the wound)

Clean up the bodies (by removing dead cells) 

Rebuild the physical defences (by healing the wound) 

Recruit for the army (by helping to replace dead immune cells)

11.3 Defence & Response

Any attempt of a pathogen to enter a gallifreyan will be met with the same immune response pathway, whether it's a virus, bacteria, fungi, parasite etc., and through this there are two lines of defence the pathogen will encounter - the innate response and the adaptive response.

11.3.1 Innate Immune Response

The innate immune response is the first line of defence. Pretty much anything that does some work to try and stop infection without actually knowing exactly what it’s looking at is part of the innate system, and most of it is present from birth. It can be broken down three ways: physical barriers, defence mechanisms, and general immune response.

The innate immune system is non-specific. Non-specific means defences that aren’t explicitly recognising pathogens for what they actually are; they’re just coming across cells that look a bit strange and are deciding to get rid of them.

1: Physical barriers

Skin, body hair, eyelashes etc. all help to defend against pathogens trying to enter the body, by being actual physical barriers. I know you absolutely read and memorised these systems of course, but here's a convenient reminder that gallifreyans have very tough skin and weather-resistant hair, for starters. These, and more, make it much more difficult for gallifreyans to become ill in the first place.

2: Defence mechanisms 

Tears, mucus, sweat etc., this also includes special gallifreyan abilities like stomach filtration, blood filtration etc. and also sealing (see below), all of which are designed to sweep out pathogens ASAP.

Sealing

A special ability for gallifreyans is known as sealing. This defence mechanism involves the overproduction of mucus from every orifice (including nose, ears, and eyeballs) to oust pathogens and create a non-porous barrier, which prevents any intrusion on a molecular level. This is especially useful in hostile atmospheres, but also prevents essentials such as oxygen, so cannot be used for longer than the respiratory bypass system can stay activated.

The Rusty Nail (part 1)

So let’s say your gallifreyan is walking along minding their own business when they suddenly trip and impale their hand onto a dirty nail. What happens next?

3: General immune response 

This is the initial immune system response, including inflammation and basic immune defences. D-cells alert the immune system to the intruder and release histamine, which causes inflammation in the area. Z1-cells and artron cells respond to the call for help.

The Rusty Nail (part 2+3)

11.3.2 Adaptive Immune Response

If the first line of defence above fails, the second line of defence is called on like a SWAT team. In humans it's usually split into two responses (humoral and cell-mediated) but in gallifreyans these responses are merged into one, and instead we are looking at two stages:

Stage 1: Initial Adaptive Response 

This is the adaptive system’s targeted reaction to the pathogen.

The immune system receives the call for backup from the D-cells.

M1-cells, M2-cells, and Z2-cells flood the area with additional support from more artron.

M1-cells identify the enemy or its closest match and instruct Z2-cells what antibodies to use.

Z2-cells fire out antibodies as the remaining Z1-cells give support. M2-cells hang back and record what happens to improve the immune system’s knowledge on this pathogen.

Hopefully, that’s that!

The Rusty Nail (part 4)

Stage 2: Immunocataclysm

If that didn’t work, we’re now in dire straits. All the Z1-cells are dead and the rest of the Immune System can’t produce enough Z2-cells to fight the tide. The gallifreyan is incredibly ill. Here, the immune system decides that in order to survive, it’s willing to take a massive risk in the form of ZX-cells. ZX-cells are extremely effective but an incredible liability, as their weapons are so powerful they can accidentally kill friendly cells in the gallifreyan’s body. By the end of this stage, the gallifreyan will be dead or alive.

The Rusty Nail (part 5)

Immunity

The adaptive immune system is ‘specific’ in contrast to the innate system,  meaning it knows what it’s looking for and it's very good at killing it, but does need to see a pathogen and recognise it as a threat before it can do this. Once it’s encountered the pathogen, it will remember it forever and know how to deal with it when it comes again. This is immunity.

Immunity can some from several sources - Gallifreyans can develop antibodies after being exposed to certain diseases, allowing them to resist these diseases in the future. These primarily come in the form of actually encountering the pathogen organically, by vaccine, or passively. 

Passive immunity gained from others - for example, as mentioned in the cardiovascular system, a blood transfer from a gallifreyan can contain antibodies which the receiver can learn from and use to fight pathogens (just be careful who you give it to). Additionally, every new gallifreyan coming into the universe arrives with a pretty decent preloaded database of antibodies that the immune system already knows, which have been learnt through their mother (for womb-born) or put in their biodata (for loom-born). Many of these antibodies are retained until they reach First Maturation.

Their immune system doesn’t need much exposure to create the right antibodies, but it does take some time to make them.

11.4 Vulnerabilities

Okay, so despite all of the defences outlined above, your gallifreyan becomes ‘under the weather’, as my mum says. So what are they likely to catch? Well …

11.4.1 Illnesses

As outlined above and across this document, gallifreyans are pretty good with most known illnesses, however, they are able to catch some diseases particularly familiar to us, such as the common cold, pneumonia, and tonsillitis, however, they are quite rare and for the most part they’ll handle these a lot better than us, and heal faster.

However, there are far worse diseases out there for them. Here’s a few of the other diseases bouncing around the universe that could ravage your gallifreyan.

“The Ablative”

Abridgement syndrome

Biodata viruses

The Cheetah Virus

Chen-7 or One Day Plague

Dogma Virus

Light wave sickness

Mutagenic viruses

Radiation poisoning

Sentient viruses

Spectrox toxaemia

Temporal diseases

All of these are pretty nasty and I’d encourage further reading if you're so inclined. Some will be covered in more detail in the regenerative system section (link to be added).

11.4.2 Immunodeficiencies and Autoimmune Disorders 

These are very dangerous as they cause the immune system to be suppressed or stop working completely and come in several forms:

Primary immune deficiency - conditions present from birth eg. severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID)

Acquired immune deficiency - conditions that weaken the immune system eg. chemotherapy

Overactive immune disorders - where the immune system over responds to usually harmless substances eg. asthma

Autoimmune disorders - where the immune system attacks healthy tissue eg. Type 1 diabetes

Gallifreyans have slightly different types of immune cells so they’re not going to be affected by these, at least, not in the form we know. For example, one of the most well known is the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a precursor to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Gallifreyans can’t contract HIV as HIV attacks cells they don’t actually have, but there could easily be an equivalent especially for them which attacks the M1-cells, so the Z2-cells have no idea what antibodies to produce to attack the pathogen, but that’s all theoretical.

In summary, gallifreyans can have immunodeficiencies and autoimmune disorders, but they can never be quite what we understand them as and I look forward to seeing any creative interpretations!

11.4.3 Allergies

Despite the level of sophistication in the immune system, gallifreyans do have their particular weaknesses, with special shoutouts for both praxis chemicals and aspirin.

Praxis gas

Praxis gas is most commonly used in chemical warfare in Gallifrey’s universe, with uses including performance-enhancing drugs, weapons, and booby traps, among many more delights, I’m sure. 

Gallifreyans are allergic to gases in the praxis range, triggering a reaction akin to acute hypersensitivity pneumonitis. Depending on their level of exposure and how long they go untreated, their symptoms can progress from mild sneezing and coughing, to coma, even resulting in death. 

Treatment and Prognosis

Concerning drugs, it's a bit difficult to say what would be the best option as it's a bit hard to determine what kind of gas praxis is in its most dangerous form, however, it seems to match most up with a nerve agent when used as a weapon, in which case atropine would be the numero uno problem solver with a little help from our old friends corticosteroids for immediate treatment. Supplementary oxygen is always a good avenue to take, and even quercetin (found in most foods, like onions, apples, and yeah you guessed it - celery … and tea!) can help greatly, even in the moderate-severe stages.

Prognosis is pretty good even for the most severe form of this, so long as the gallifreyan gets treatment, a full recovery can be made in 1-3 days. 

Aspirin

Far more of a problem than praxis gases, gallifreyans have a serious issue with this drug. Aspirin is an antiplatelet drug, which means it works to inhibit the clotting of blood by stopping platelets from gathering. In humans this is a great thing in the right place - people use antiplatelet drugs to reduce the risk of clots.

If a gallifreyan takes a standard dose of Aspirin (usual prescription 300–600mg for pain/pyrexia), it primarily causes an instant anaphylactic-like reaction. The gallifreyan's body perceives an immediate threat and floods itself with too many over-responsive chemicals. Put simply, the D-cells shout, ‘OH MY WORD WHAT IS THAT THING EVERYBODY HELP HELP HELP!’, which causes the entire immune system to panic. The gallifreyan can’t control this complete overreaction hormonally, setting off a chain reaction leading to multiple embolisms which reaches peak severity in 3-30 minutes:

Treatment and Prognosis

This can be treated with the usual epinephrine/adrenaline as soon as it can possibly be administered. High-flow oxygen may be required and intravenous fluids, with continued monitoring. They can also counter it with chocolate in the early stages, as chocolate is naturally medicinal for gallifreyans and is particularly effective for aspirin.

It is possible the reaction may be biphasic, meaning after treatment a second attack could occur from 1 hour to 72 hours. Even if not biphasic, full recovery can take up to a week. If the reaction is allowed to continue for too long, they may end up suffering from long-term brain damage through stroke, heart conditions, and ongoing respiratory issues.

If that wasn't enough for you

Due to the severity of this reaction it’s entirely reasonable to assume any haemostatic drugs (drugs affecting bleeding) will cause mild to severe reactions in gallifreyans. Some common drugs prescribed by well-meaning medics to reduce clotting might include clopidogrel, heparin, warfarin, and dalteparin (the latter here we commonly call it the trade name in UK hospitals - Fragmin). Some drugs used to increase clotting (ie. in the event of surgery/major trauma or haemophilia) include thrombin, tranexamic acid, desmopressin, etamsylate, and also vitamin K (AKA don’t eat your greens if you’re gallifreyan).

The gallifreyan would have to eat some aspirin unknowingly in order for all this to occur, but severe reactions can be caused by even touching the filthy stuff. Stay safe, kids.

11.5 Healing

Okay, so that was all very depressing (actually really enthralling for me because I love the immune system but y’know) so here’s the nice section, detailing all the lovely ways a gallifreyan can heal themselves against all these nasty things.

11.5.1 Normal healing

I’ve covered normal healing processes throughout this guide (refer to each section for specifics) so here’s just a quick overview of what happens.

As a basic rule of thumb, gallifreyans heal around 1.5x faster than a human without any intervention. If they start pulling out all their biological tricks, they can drastically improve this. 

Medical treatment: 2x faster

Medical treatment + healing coma: 3.5x faster

Medical treatment + healing coma + Zero Room: 6x faster

This means if a gallifreyan were to severely fracture their leg (which could take a human months to heal) if they used treatment, a healing coma, and the Zero Room constantly, they would probably be partially mobile after 3 days, out of a cast after 7-9 days and be completely healed without a trace in 12 days.

11.5.2 The Healing Coma

Also known as a healing trance, the healing coma is yet another of those quirky gallifreyan tricks. If their illness of physical trauma is severe but non-fatal, there’s an excellent chance that using a healing coma is going to sort them out.

Your gallifreyan is sleeping and not dead

As discussed throughout this entire guide, gallifreyans have very high levels of control over their bodies through being able to manipulate everything from their heartsrate and blood pressure right down to hormones. This allows them to enter a voluntary state of accelerated healing by drastically reducing the demand of other systems to concentrate on powering the immune system through sheer heat. This massive heat boost means that Z2-cells and artron healing cells can be manufactured like absolute lighting.

This will dramatically reduce lifesigns:

Heartsrate will reduce to under 10 beats per minute

Blood pressure will reduce to under 10/5

Temperature will reduce to under 5°C / 41°F

Respiratory rate will be 0

Pupils will not dilate with light

In general, they will not react to verbal prompts, touch, or pain stimuli

Rather unfortunately, to the casual observer this state makes gallifreyans appear dead to the point their lifesigns may not even register on any human medical equipment. It is however extremely effective, increasing the healing rate by around 2.5 times depending on the severity of the injury. While in this state they can’t have any real thoughts, but they will be able to perceive any sensory inputs and can be woken up. However, ripping a gallifreyan out of a healing coma can cause significant injury due to the sudden need to reboot all systems, most notably a neuron implosion, where every single neuron in the brain bursts into extreme activity in a brainstorm, causing a severe headache, fainting, and potential brain damage.

Once awake, they will experience high levels of hunger and thirst as their body has spent the time in the healing coma using glucose and water to manufacture and circulate immune and artron cells.

11.5.3 Other helpers

There are a few substances which can help the immune system produce the cells needed for both combating pathogens and general healing. Already mentioned is chocolate, alongside quercetin in several consumables including celery and tea. The pollen of rosemary flowers is also a peculiar restorative. In addition, there is the lindos hormone. This is what allows a gallifreyan to regrow limbs shortly after regenerating and it's extremely powerful, however, it’ll be discussed more in the Regenerative System (link to be added).

11.6 Sex, Age & Regeneration

11.6.1 Sex

This is sex specific to the immune system. For wider explanations, see the basics main section.

Those with more feminine hormones will have a greater innate and adaptive immune response compared to masculine bodies, as they are able to produce antibodies far quicker in response to pathogens - masculine bodies are more likely to have problems fighting off infection than feminine bodies. However, this also gives feminine bodies predisposition to autoimmune diseases.

11.6.2 Age

This is age specific to the immune system. For wider explanations, see the basics main section.

Young gallifreyans are highly tenacious and resistant to immune attack through their innate and passive immune system. They’re extremely unlikely to become ill, and if they do, it’ll usually be a quick shrug of the shoulders. However, if their mother/biodata had any kind of fault or susceptibility, they will be directly affected by that problem, whether that be through an immunodeficiency condition or problems fighting off the related infection. This will usually correct itself by First Maturation.

Once again I’ll state how getting older is a right old strain on the systems, as I have throughout the guide. In humans, usually the thymus slowly shrinks and turns to fat after puberty, but in gallifreyans it remains active. However, as a gallifreyan gets beyond 900 in a single body:

Less immune cells are produced

Old chronic viral infections can be reactivated

Lower response to vaccines

Innate system is less adept

Repair mechanisms are impeded

Long term health conditions are increased

All of this means older gallifreyans are more susceptible to diseases and can actually suffer from viruses they already fought off in their youth.

11.6.3 Regeneration

This is regeneration specific to the immune system. For wider explanations, see the Regenerative System (link to be added) main section.

Regenerating causes the entire immune system to reset to factory settings, so they have a squeaky clean new combative system. However, it doesn’t get erased - antibodies developed in previous incarnations will persist in subsequent bodies, meaning once a disease has been contracted and fought off by the gallifreyan, they will keep those antibodies and that helpful immune Wikipedia until their final death.

Really important to note here is that immediately following regeneration their immune system will be extremely weak, which will build back up during the following moulding period (6-8 weeks). This window increases their susceptibility to illness, although keep in mind they’re not going to die of a cold.

Gallifreyans can regenerate with primary immune deficiencies, which are likely to persist throughout the rest of that body unless they can be cured. In addition, there are some seriously spicy and, frankly, extremely fun illnesses involved specifically with regeneration, but they’ll be covered in the regenerative system section (link to be added).

11.7 Summary

Their immune system is mostly identifiable to a human but carries plenty more bells and whistles and works far more efficiently.

The kidney’s production of artron is crucial to this system.

They have both innate and adaptive immune responses as the first and second lines of defence.

Alongside particular allergies that can be fatal, they also have their own set of illnesses and immune system disorders.

Healing is much faster than humans and can be accelerated by technology and the healing coma.

Antibodies created in previous incarnations will persist throughout their lifespan.

Rejected evidence: 

Not so much rejected, more ‘pending’ ... because someone didn’t Google properly - trying to get a reasonable and believable embolism out of an antiplatelet drug was hard enough but this was just too much for me to compensate for:

‘Triglycerides in chocolate combat the antiplatelet effect of the aspirin’

Whoever wrote this needs to take a long hard look at themselves:

‘It was said to either fatally stop platelet aggregation …’

Fever’s not a virus on its own, it’s a symptom, and for the life of me I can’t find anything at all on the flu and I have a fear it’s probably a misreading of TV: The Caretaker, so I’m not including it until I can find something concrete.

‘They are vulnerable to some earth viruses, like influenza, fevers [...]

This is literally just putting words together, but this was covered in the cardiovascular blood transfusion section so I’m happy to leave it there.

‘Their antibodies are symbiotic so if a Gallifreyan is injected with a sample of genetically contaminated blood’ …etc.

Curious about something? Need some creative gallifreyan biology-related advice? Wanna say hi? Ask away!

[carciinogen]

My dumb Timelord telepathy HC:

(Pictured above: What I think the Doctor and the Master would see when they connect)

I imagine Timelord mind connections are sort of like closing your eyes, and being a burst of bright color, one sharp, or soft, or otherwise distinctly you.

You feel something besides you; another blur, another rolling, churning ball of mind and memory. You can feel it. Primal, visceral, eminating through your whole being. It thrums. You thrum back.

You reach out, a request for entry.

Either they open up, or push you away.

If they open up, this is known as 'Connection'. You hear them, and they hear you. Your thoughts, feelings, and emotions ebb like ink.

If you are strong of will, you may hold yourself back, but if not, you flow like water.

[seaweedstarshine]

Hello, moot! How are you? I'm rewatching THORS (once again) and I'm ugly crying while mouthing along their lines but that has nothing to do with my ask. Just thought it would be nice and polite to say hello.

Anyway my ask is I've seen people (official DW/BF people and fans) call River a Time Lord, human+, Proto Time Lord, and not a Time Lord because it's a title not a species. Personally, I've gone with human+. But another moot argued she's a Time Lord. What's your take on it?

Hiiii great to hear from you :D My name’s Tree by the way! Aaaah good for you, I got a love-hate relationship with that episode but those last ten minutes are 😭 *chef's kiss* I should rewatch it, it is that time of year, and I haven’t seen it since my Doctor Who Christmas Specials Rewatch last December!

Anyway!

I most often call River a Proto-Time Lord, or sometimes a part Time Lord/part human. (I’m not sure Proto-Time Lord is accurately descriptive, since it kinda sounds like it should refer to ancients like the Founders who weren't born with regeneration, but it’s the word I generally use because it feels closest to capturing the complexity of River Song!) Human+ sounds cool too though! (Especially as in, human+Time Lord.)

Because — while yeah, she is a genetically modified human with no known Gallifreyan DNA — it’s clear Kovarian did a lot more to deliberately make her resemble a Gallifreyan than just the Time Vortex related things like time-sense and regeneration. Her two hearts! Her respiratory bypass! No way those are related to Time Vortex exposure — it's Gallifreyan biology. Kovarian wanted her to be a match for the Doctor in every way.

Honestly, since there's no one really like her (apart from her clones), I think a lot of it's down to how she relates to herself and her identity.

I think the Doctor was really excited to learn that she's like him, in many ways — and that kind of affirmation would mean a lot to someone who grew up feeling like an outsider, having been told she was a just weapon, so she would have a connection to her Time Lord-ness as well as her human-ness.

But that doesn't mean she wouldn't still introduce herself a psychopath long before attempting to explain her species to a stranger.

(I don't think most qualified Academy graduates would consider her a Time Lord, though. Eyyy, nine times out of ten, they're too dead to say.)