Actually, Listen would seem to indicate they're not. After all, the man who looked after the child Doctor even comments "can you really see that one going to the Academy and becoming a Time Lord?"
Regeneration - why the body change?
- Thread starter Sketcher
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I think the British audience, more than the American audience, would probably understand implicitly that people called "Lords" are a noble class whose existence implies a commoner class. After all, you can't be a Lord without someone to lord it over, can you?
Perhaps the term 'Time Lords' came about after first contact with aliens? Then that's who they're lording it over: everyone who isn't Gallifreyan.
And simply looking into the Untempered Schism presumably doesn't qualify you as a Time Lord - or why bother with the Academy? And where does the Rassilon Imprimature fit in?
The novels muddied the waters even further with "Junior" Time Lords who would assist the fully-qualified but not be granted a TARDIS of their own.
Then we get dropouts like Drax...
The novels muddied the waters even further with "Junior" Time Lords who would assist the fully-qualified but not be granted a TARDIS of their own.
Then we get dropouts like Drax...
That was my thinking
Perhaps all children of age must attend school, or there is in fact a noble class - indicated by the events of "Hell Bent" - that get access to the Citadel, and time travel technology?
Presumably the "commoner/working" class still have access to Gallifreyen infrastructure and stuff, even if they don't get to fly a TARDIS - a privilege only granted to the graduates or nobles or whatever qualifications needed.
I would imagine that TARDIS use is not an automatic privilege of Time Lords, or else the Doctor wouldn't have needed to steal one. He's definitely a graduate of the Academy, and all Time Lords are nobles by definition (though Danny Pink's the only one who ever overtly pointed it out, as far as I recall). But he clearly didn't get his own TARDIS.
Given that Time Lords had a non-intervention policy, and that the Doctor fled Gallifrey specifically because he felt they were too insular and uninterested in the outside universe, I'd imagine that TARDIS use is anything but routine. There's probably a finite number of them used only by those who have reason to use them, like government officials, the military, the intelligence agency, historians or scientists, etc. And I'd imagine a lot of those groups don't fly the capsules themselves but hire trained pilots to take them where and when they need to go, like chartering a jet or a helicopter.
Given the existence of the CIA (not to mention Division) I assume that there are enough of them available to meet their needs. Having the Doctor pop in every so often to steal another TARDIS is no big deal, inventory wise.
I think it was first mentioned in The Doctors Wife that our favorite PBT chose the Doctor as much as he chose "her," implying a level of sentience to them.
Of course. But that doesn't mean they're standard possessions of the entire populace. There are enough jet planes and helicopters in the country to serve the needs of government and private business, but most people don't have their own, and sneaking in and stealing one would be a pretty big deal.
Coming soon to CBBC and Disney+
Well, BBC did want a series about the Doctor and Master as children at the Time Lord Academy. When they requested RTD make it, his reaction was "holy hell, NO!!!" He gave us SJA instead.
That would've been challenging. I don't think either of them had adopted those titles yet at that age, so what would they have been called? I guess the Doctor-to-be could've been called Theta Sigma, but it would've been difficult to do a series like that without giving them names. I mean, Theta Sigma was his nickname, so I doubt his professors would've called him that when they called on him in class or lectured him in their offices.
Although Missy did claim that his actual given name is "Who" (or at least a homophone for it), and I think that was implied once in the McCoy era. But it would've been silly to have his professors going, "Now look here, Mister Who, I'm losing patience with your antics!" And what would the Master's real name have been? Watt? And they hung out with a girl named Ida No, and they formed a baseball team...
