• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Time Lords and Gallifrey in Classic Who

I watched the first episode of Terror of the Autons recently, and not only does it introduce The Master, but another Time Lord pops up to warn The Doctor that The Master's on Earth.
 
Also, Valyes appears at the start of Genesis of the Daleks!

More precisely, a nameless Time Lord appeared in "Genesis" and was later named Valyes in the audios (after previously being named Ferain in the novel Lungbarrow).

"Valyes" is an odd name for a Time Lord. It sounds too much like "Valeyard," which is confusing. At first I thought you were referring to the Valeyard by an affectionate nickname.
 
"Valyes" is an odd name for a Time Lord. It sounds too much like "Valeyard," which is confusing. At first I thought you were referring to the Valeyard by an affectionate nickname.
Can't say that thought ever crossed my mind while listening to the audios.

If I had to give the Valeyard an affectionate nickname, it'd definitelyb Valley though.
 
I watched the first episode of Terror of the Autons recently, and not only does it introduce The Master, but another Time Lord pops up to warn The Doctor that The Master's on Earth.
That's precisely why I included it in my list.
 
I think the Cartmel plan is back in some ways, with Jodies’ Doctor being the only one since Sylvester to perhaps remember her earlier selves.

I thought the “extra” Doctors in ‘ Morbius were that character’s more numerous past selves “winning” the match of experience/intellect. Now they seem to be canon...
 
I thought the “extra” Doctors in ‘ Morbius were that character’s more numerous past selves “winning” the match of experience/intellect. Now they seem to be canon...

I always took them as Morbius's past lives, not the Doctor's. I mean, this was two Time Lords battling for mental dominance. Why would we only have seen the past lives of one of them?
 
I always took them as Morbius's past lives, not the Doctor's. I mean, this was two Time Lords battling for mental dominance. Why would we only have seen the past lives of one of them?
Well, those very same faces were confirmed to be former Doctors in last season's finale, so that's that.
 
Well, those very same faces were confirmed to be former Doctors in last season's finale, so that's that.

I'm aware of that. I'm speaking of my opinion in the decades before that. It was a common interpretation -- for instance:

http://www.chakoteya.net/DoctorWho/13-5.htm
(More faces, including a William Shakespeare lookalike. Presumably these are Morbius' previous appearances.)

I know perfectly well what the last season did, but I'm not required to think it was a good idea.
 
@JD , honestly I'm not being flippant when I ask this, but have to seen 'An Unearthly Child", the debut episode of "Doctor Who"? There's quite a bit of interaction between Susan and her grandfather, setting up everything to follow. Better yet, if you manage to see it via the DVD box set titled "The Beginning", it includes the unaired version of the pilot episode . Same narrative, but there are differences in shots, the way lines are inflected and somewhat different dialogue. There's a more austere "air" about Susan, a line that implies she's "royalty" and that's reflected when sits upon a high back chair in the TARDIS, as though it's a throne.
I've actually never seen it, but I really should watch it some time.
 
I always took them as Morbius's past lives, not the Doctor's. I mean, this was two Time Lords battling for mental dominance. Why would we only have seen the past lives of one of them?

That’s how I interpreted the scene as well—a back and forth.

Morbius even asked the Doctor “How many lives have you had” as if he was swamping Baker’s character with his own number of lives, that he thought was greater. Baker’s fourth incarnation was unaware of his true history. Only Seven seemed to have the whole picture. Six had the worst regeneration, so everything was settled with Seven...cut down by a gang war in the movie.

Seven should make a dream visit to Jodie’s Doctor to open things up.
 
I always took them as Morbius's past lives, not the Doctor's. I mean, this was two Time Lords battling for mental dominance. Why would we only have seen the past lives of one of them?
Within the story they have to be past Doctors, not Morbius. In the 80s the implication was The Other, now Timeless Children has suggested another secret.
Either way, they are pre-Hartnell Doctors that Tom doesn't remember. Hence Morbius's worried scream, on apparent victory not being so, "How long have you lived?"
 
Within the story they have to be past Doctors, not Morbius. In the 80s the implication was The Other, now Timeless Children has suggested another secret.

I'm talking about how I interpreted it in the past, before last year's retcon. Outside of "Morbius," it was always consistently stated that Hartnell's Doctor was the first -- he was "the earliest Doctor" in "The Three Doctors" and "the original, you might say" in "The Five Doctors," and the Doctor said in "Mawdryn Undead" that he had regenerated four times. So the only consistent interpretation at the time was that those weren't the Doctor's identities and had to be Morbius's -- which Chibnall has now retconned by making them "secret" past lives, an idea I don't care for at all.
 
Hence Morbius's worried scream, on apparent victory not being so, "How long have you lived?"

I guess you could interpret that. He sounded triumphant to me, as if he were drowning Tom Baker’s Doctor. I took it as a back and forth.

Here is one of Tom’s past selves, here is one of Morbius....any actor photo I didn’t recognize I chalked up to being Morbius.

Then Tom runs out—and it’s just Morbius only now..slowly winning, drowning the younger Fourth Doctor, wearing him out.
 
Last edited:
One amusing element of The Deadly Assassin is how the well-traveled Doctor, without denting the Time Lord's legendary power or reputation, points out (thanks to their insular nature) how archaic their day-to-day technology has become compared to the advances of the outside universe.
 
Ummh. At the time they were pre-Hartnell Doctors. Then Deadly Assassin introduced the 12 regeneration limit: Holmes was never good at cross-story continuity: back-to-back in production order Talons and Invisible Enemy both referenced 5000AD, in contrasting ways that fans have retconned.
Then lots of stories reinforced Assassin, fans retconned, and Cartmel and Chibnall re-retconned.
 
Ummh. At the time they were pre-Hartnell Doctors. Then Deadly Assassin introduced the 12 regeneration limit: Holmes was never good at cross-story continuity

It's not about the limit. As I already mentioned, "The Three Doctors" had explicitly said that Hartnell was "the earliest Doctor." That was established four years before "The Brain of Morbius." So if they were intended as pre-Hartnell Doctors, that was an error on the part of "Morbius"'s makers.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top