Let’s talk Time Lords.
The new season of Doctor Who will premier later this month and now is an excellent time to test, or educate, you on your knowledge of Peter Capaldi’s character, the Doctor. This will be Peter’s first season taking part in the now historic role of the Doctor, who has recently come out of a fresh regeneration. Regeneration, what is that you ask? We’ll touch on that in a bit.
Time Lords are an ancient extraterrestrial civilization created for the British television show, Doctor Who, in the early 1960’s. They are humanoids known as Gallifreyans. Their existence is said to predate that of humans. So, if you were to look at us and look at them and say we look alike, it would be more accurate to say humans look like Time Lords, since they were preexisting. Heck, as masters of time, they may have even manipulated our early years. Possibly guided our evolution. But I digress.
A Time Lord can live many thousands of years, depending on the type of life they lead. Their potential life span can be so long one may describe it as immortal. When Matt Smith was closing out his role as the Doctor last season, the Time Lord was already well over 1000 years in age. In the trailer for the new season, we learn he’s even older…
Two Thousand Years!
From actor Matt Smith to Peter Capaldi. How is the same character played by so many different individuals over the years even possible? Although Time Lords look like humans, they are far from being the same. Their physiological make up is very different.
- Two hearts resulting in a much faster normal beat per minute.
- A lower internal temperature.
- A respiratory bypass system.
…to name a few. Lucky for the Gallifreyan who finds himself in a spot of trouble more often than pleasantly preferred. They are miraculously more impervious to things such as: the vacuum of space, radiation, strangulation…you know, the little things.
When one of the Gallifreyan race eventually suffers a fatal injury they begin what is referred to as the regeneration process. Each Gallifreyan has twelve of these in their lifetime. It’s like a cat’s nine lives. Their body morphs, sheds the old life and takes on a new look―a new Time Lord. A fresh start, if you will.
Ninth Doctor… Tenth Doctor… Eleventh Doctor…
Each change is packed full of excitement and sadness. You’re losing an old friend, while leaping into something new and unknown. Ripe for the adventurer. You could get David Tenant’s Tenth Doctor―Yes please! Or a Doctor looking and acting like Phyllis Diller! Holy Gallifreyan TARDIS—NO!
In the last episode to air, the Doctor was at the end of his twelfth regeneration. But as we saw in that episode, The Time of The Doctor, when his companion, Clara Oswald, asked for help from Gallifrey they were able to grant the Doctor an additional regeneration. How many did the Doctor receive? That still remains to be seen. Peter Capaldi could be the end of the line, or the beginning of endless possibilities.
What makes a Time Lord so attractive? It is intelligence and science over the typical brawny alpha male and it’s totally sexy. The Doctor is highly smart. Off the chart smart. And Time Lord brains appear to give them access to telepathy and possibly clairvoyance, as seen through the various Doctors. What would you do with those abilities?
In the episode, Journey’s End, when the Doctor’s companion, Donna Noble, takes on the abilities of a Time Lord, it is too much for her body and it starts to kill her. What do you think, are our brains not capable of such feats? Or is it that we simply haven’t unlocked all of our potential?
Time Lords: immortal or simply forever old?
Will you tune in for the new season of Doctor Who? Give Peter Capaldi a chance? Every new doctor has been a trial for me, but each has managed to find a place in my heart. Some have taken longer than others, but all have managed it—eventually. My fingers are crossed for Peter.
The new season kicks off Saturday, August 23rd at 8 p.m. on BBC. If you aren’t familiar, that’s a whole lot of binge watching between now and then. And it could seriously happen with a show like Doctor Who. Good luck!
Regeneration—a pro or con? Is it worth extending life at the loss of self? We’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic.
*featured image via Wikipedia. Click on it to be zipped off to the source.
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I can’t wait to see what happens! We’re taking bets here to see how many episodes it’ll take before we decide we like the new Doctor.
The Ninth Doctor was my favorite, even after several episodes of watching the Tenth. I have to admit that I had the hardest time NOT seeing David Tennant as Barty Crouch Jr. in the fifth Harry Potter movie. But he did win me over. Matt Smith took four episodes for us to stop grieving the loss of David Tennant. LOL.
Now I love all three of the modern Doctors for different reasons. We’ll just see how Peter does….
I LOVE the Ninth Doctor. So much so I stopped watching for several years when he regenerated into David Tennant’s Doctor. Yep, I was that upset. I eventually went back and the Tenth Doctor grew on me. In fact, I came to love him. The Eleventh Doctor took a lot longer. Over a year! I kept waiting for it to happen and it eventually did. But DAMN! that was long. I won’t even touch on the older Doctors. I have my opinions, but my comment could get rather long.
I can say, I am not fond of all over-the-top poses that have come out of Peter’s Doctor. Compare them to the rather calm poses of the other Doctor’s and I do prefer the calm look of the others. Just saying. I hope that doesn’t say something about his Doctor. We shall know soon enough. I’m guess it will be a LONG adjustment time for me. Much like the last one. My daughter is NOT happy. She wanted another Doctor to crush on. 🙁
I’m super excited for the new season. I won’t be crushing on the new Doctor as much as ten and eleven, but I do so love Clara, that I won’t even notice. I kind of wanted them to make her the new Doctor… Oh, well.
Fun to find a Clara fan like my little one. There hard to find. I hear so much criticism regarding her. Poor Clara – what has she done to deserve it? All she did was save the Doctor and get stuck with Mofit’s storylines! Rather impossible to make her the Doctor when she was already the companion. But then, she could go from “the impossible girl” to “the impossible storyline” and piss a lot of views off! LOL! That would have been fun! 😀
Believe it or not, I’ve never watched Dr. who. Always meant to, just never got around to it. And now I wouldn’t know where to start – at the begininning, with Dr. #1? Or later, when the series supposedly got better?
I can believe it. There are a lot of people who don’t watch Doctor Who. If you do want to jump in, the ideal place to start is with the beginning of the Ninth. You can go back later and fill in gaps with all doctors if you want, but it isn’t needed. The Ninth is a bridge between the older style and what is to come. It’s a bit corny but I highly recommend sticking with it. You may find yourself immersed and completely addicted in no time. He has a short stay (sad because you come to love him) and then Tennant takes over. His Doctor is amazing. The quality of the show will change with Ten, but storylines are introduced with Nine that you want to catch at the beginning. Hope that helps.
That does help – thanks! Something to keep in mind for Netflix on one of those days when I don’t feel like writing – or doing anything else.
Glad I could help.