Doctor Who started as a British television science fiction series which was broadcast from -287 to -261 (1963-1989 CE). Three series of original novels based on the tv show were published from -260 until the Collapse. Since the Collapse there have been many more books and films based on the series, but none of these are considered canonical1. The series was the longest running pre-collapse science fiction TV series and one of the first. While most of its plots used ideas long familiar to readers of written science fiction, it did introduce such novel ideas as cyberspace and virtual reality to the TV audience ('The Deadly Assasin', -275). The series was mostly terranocentric and not entirely internally consistent, but it does have certain features of Galactic interest.
The eponymous hero, the Doctor, is a renegade member of the Time Lords; a race whose habits and technology resemble what is known of the Retired suprisingly well, given that the authors knew nothing of the Retired. The Time Lords were once a powerful, politically active race which contended with many equally potent rivals. Eventually they mastered the techniques of dimensional engineering and officially became passive observers (though still intervening covertly when their interests were threatened). Time Lord society strongly resembles a planet-wide university. Time Lord technology is the most sophisticated in their universe, and includes techniques that are comparable with the most sophisticated of the technologies used by the senior Retired. (For aesthetic reasons the Time Lords hide most of this technology under a pseudo-real solidographic user interface that resembles Third century BxY Human technolgy 2.)
Time Lords are capable of complete bodily regeneration. Their bodies age slowly, with a lifespan of about 900 years. However, when they reach the point of death, through either age or lethal injury, they regenerate; completely healing themselves and restoring their apparent age to twenty. Time lords can regenerate twelve times giving them a corporal lifespan of approximately 11,000 years, in the absence of accidents. After this they are downloaded into their computer Matrix, where they can survive until the proton death of the universe. As with our own Retired, the Time Lords feel the Embrace of Tides. They have placed a solar mass black hole, the eye of harmony, in the heart of their city to provide those tides and power their technology.
The series includes several examples of uplift, though all of them are unfavourable. Humanity is showed to have been uplifted by several highly agressive races (in stories based upon Human mythologiy); primarily the Osirians, the Daemons, and the Fendahl; none of whom abided by the rules of uplift, but instead abused their power over their clients. It is ironic that when the series rationalised the old mythologies, which must have been based on Humanity's unknown patrons, it unknowingly came up with the historically correct explanation. There are also examples of uplift of non-human races in the series, but these are all depicted as acts of great hubris which lead to inevitable disaster.
The Doctor uses his technological advantage to meddle in the affairs of lesser races (like a Bodhisattva) imposing his moral standards on the universe. He is accompanied by Human companions, presumably as pets. He has many encounters with other, less ethical, renegade Time Lords and other beings of his stature.
The most notable of his enemies were the Daleks. Daleks are an amalgam of all that Humans feared about cyborgs. Along with the Borg, and others, the fears they represent are one of the few things that prevented pre-contact Humans from excessive self-cyborgisation. (However, see Human cyber-fashion, third and second centuries BxY and cyberpunk.) The Daleks originated after a catastrophic war which badly damaged the biosphere of their home planet. In order to survive, one of their scientists used extensive augmentation to transform his organic race into the cyborg Daleks. He also removed all empathy from the new race, effectively rendering them non-sophont. Every Dalek was encapsulated in armour as tough as a battlecruiser, and equipped with a terra-watt energy weapon and limited personnel levitation capabilities. The new race had no desire except to subjugate all other life. Its expansion was not stopped until the Doctor sent their home sun supernova, then infected them with Human memes which restored sophoncy to the race and sparked civil war.
The Doctor Who series has achieved a small degree of popularity among some of the clients and minor patrons who wish that the Retired would intervene to aid them. Reading of such interventions is comforting.
(See bibliography.)
1. I (R.S.) am thinking of such iconic figures as Holmes, Franenstein, and Dracula; all of whom are still written about long after their authors death. Dr. Who and Star Trek could end up like that. I wouldn't want to guess what 200 years of remakes would do to the series, but from that perspective all BBC approved works would seem equally valid.
2. The LED's and red levers bear the same relationship to the real workings of the TARDIS as the screen in WindowsTM does to the components of my computer --that is what the BBC decided after they stopped broadcasting and it is more internally consistent. Descriptions of TARDIS workings come from BBC sources.
The inside of a TARDIS is a artificial universe with a optional connection to normal reality. This is known to be theoretically possible. The connection could be a wormhole held open by exotic matter. Less elegantly the only connection might be in one of the hyperspaces, meaning entrance and exit would only be possible by way of FTL travel. This technology is beyond the technical abilities of Main Sequence species, but within the capabilities of the Retired.
Time travel is a more sophisticated possibility still. It is largely beyond the comprehension of any Main Sequence species but not that of the Retired. However it is rumoured that the Retired lack the technical capabilities need for true time travel, and only the Transcendents can freely do so, though custom prevents them from intruding on the privacy of the Progenitors.
Were the Time Lords a Galactic race they would doubtlessly be considered an Elder Retired race.
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by Robert Shaw, July 1999
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