{"id":39993,"date":"2023-11-18T09:00:09","date_gmt":"2023-11-18T08:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1928489"},"modified":"2023-11-18T09:31:15","modified_gmt":"2023-11-18T08:31:15","slug":"why-doctor-who-finally-needs-to-bring-back-the-time-lords-for-good","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/why-doctor-who-finally-needs-to-bring-back-the-time-lords-for-good\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Doctor Who finally needs to bring back the Time Lords for good"},"content":{"rendered":"

The role of Gallifrey and its inhabitants has been too small for too long, writes Lewis Knight. <\/p>

By Lewis Knight\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Saturday, 18 November 2023 at 08:00 AM<\/p>

\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m a Time Lord. I\u2019m the last of the Time Lords. They\u2019re all gone. I\u2019m the only survivor. I\u2019m left travelling on my own \u2018cos there\u2019s no one else.\u201d \u2013<\/em> The Doctor, The End of the World, 2005.<\/p>\n

These words from Christopher Eccleston\u2019s Ninth Doctor in the opening series of Russell T Davies\u2019 revival of Doctor Who<\/a> in 2005 signalled a bold new status quo for the time-travelling protagonist of the beloved cult show.<\/p>\n

No longer was The Doctor<\/a> one of many rather brilliant beings but was instead a figure adrift, an alien to all, a solitary figure mourning the loss of their people and all the more in need of emotional connection.<\/p>\n

This served as the perfect springboard to deepen the hero\u2019s connection to his new companion Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) and also ensured further enigma around The Doctor as we peeled back the layers of his role in the Great Time War between his people and their nemeses, the Daleks.<\/p>\n

However, we are now no longer in 2005 and since then, the story of what happened to the Time Lords has been firmly established\u00a0 (including with a very brief return in the finale of Davies\u2019 first era on the show, The End of Time<\/a>) and we even learned of another fellow survivor with the inevitable return of The Master (initially played by Sir Derek Jacobi and John Simm in the revival series).<\/p>\n

\"Ninth\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) and Rose (Billie Piper) in Doctor Who.<\/span><\/figcaption> BBC<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

Subsequently, the tenure of Steven Moffat as showrunner presented an opportunity to revive not just the Time Lords\u2019 homeworld of Gallifrey<\/a> which he did in the 50th anniversary year of the show in 2013, in the crowd-pleasing special The Day of the Doctor<\/a>, which also peeled more layers back on the role of The Doctor in the Great Time War.<\/p>\n

This felt like perfect timing with the notion of the lone Time Lord with no (or with at least only one of their) peers by this point felt rather exhausted and the possibilities for more stories, more characters to equal the Doctor\u2019s abilities and rich history seemed endless.<\/p>\n

Yet, the Time Lords remained largely absent until their return properly in the ninth series\u2019 final story, climaxing in Hell Bent<\/a>. Here, Gallifrey, led once again by the villainous Rassilon (here played by Donald Sumpter), had returned from a pocket universe following the end of the universe \u2013 yes, it was rather complicated.<\/p>\n