Why I like Gallifrey
Since St. Patrick's Day was yesterday, I thought I'd write about something nice and Irish. So: Gallifrey! That's in Ireland, right?
A brief note on pronunciation: while it has typically come down to us as GalliFRAY, someone recently pointed out that Tom Baker almost exclusively pronounces it as GalliFREE. Is it free variation? Is someone wrong? Did anyone ever ask Robert Holmes? It's a curious thing. It doesn't seem to be the same issue as Matt Smith not knowing how to pronounce Metebelis, nor does it precisely seem to be the same thing as the two variants of Romana's name. The raw data, and some discussion thereon, can be found here.
The planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborus, alongside Earth and Skaro, one of the three most important planets in the Whoniverse. It's also, alongside Earth and Skaro, one of the three most visited planets in the Whoniverse, featured in conservatively 8, generously 11 stories (at time of writing), by comparison to Skaro's 5 I think - and like Skaro (and Earth) it is primarily portrayed by the BBC Quarry. That said, we never do see very much of it: really just the Capitol and its immediately surrounding landscape. We didn't even learn that Gallifrey had a second city until fifty years in! It is therefore awfully tempting to say that Gallifrey as a planet really just kind of sucks (and, to be fair, I say that all the time) - but while amusing, that's pretty implausible. Planets are big places. Obviously, despite all appearances, Gallifrey must have plants on it somewhere, and more than one city, and inhabitants other than stuffy bureaucrats, and children, etc etc etc. Gallifrey cannot reasonably consist of the Panopticon and the BBC Quarry and nothing else, as funny as it is to pretend that it does.
The Cerulean Revolution aside, we do know a surprising amount about Gallifreyan vegetation despite really never having seen any. Susan describes seas of red grass and trees with silver leaves (some speculation about how that would work botanically can be found here) and the (tenth) Doctor echoes that description some 40 or so years later. We know from the (third) Doctor's speech in "the Time Monster" that it also includes at least one daisy and occasionally snows. "Listen" reveals the existence of straw. And given that the Doctor knows it primarily for its medicinal properties, there's a good chance that celery grows there as well. I am fond of arguing that they really ought to import the Moon Discs of Blake's 7, as plants which are both telepathic and native to the BBC quarry, and so would do remarkably well on Gallifrey. All this is hardly a complete Flora, but it's pretty good for a world we otherwise know solely from a single building and one grassy hillside in the Death Zone. Ah yes, Gallifrey also has places in it with names like the Death Zone, but I suppose that's Time Lords for you. Gallifrey also has two suns, a red-tinted sky (though some have argued that it's only red at sunrise and sunset but that, having two suns, that accounts for a good chunk of the time) and at least one bowl of soup. Possibly even more than one.
The point to take from all this is that Gallifrey has very much captured the imagination of the fans. The show has fed us tantalizing hints since almost the very beginning, but the world remains as mysterious and fascinating as its inhabitants. It was twelve years before we even heard the name for the first time. Doctor Who fans are at their best when filling in the gaps in the universe with wild speculation, drawing together the threads we've been given into shapes more stunning than their creators could have guessed. Gallifrey is the Shining World of the Seven Systems - but what, if anything, does that even mean? Is it nostalgia? is it Rassilonian puffery? is it the trees? Who can say? Well...we can. And we do and we have, and it's wonderful.
There's a mystique about Gallifrey, going hand in hand with the mystique of the Time Lords. Part of it is simple metonymy: Gallifrey means the Citadel of the Time Lords, the heart of their civilization and seat of their power. Home turf, as it were. And while the occasional wandering Time Lord might be encountered off-world not too infrequently (particularly in the 20th century portion of the show), and it's a generic enough title anyway, the very mention of Gallifrey is enough to make most beings sit up and take stock. Although not always - I find it hilarious the number of Classic Who baddies who look up Gallifrey in their files and are just like "oh, those guys - laaaaaaaaaaaaame." The Sontarans in their first appearance declared it "ripe for conquest" (and in their third appearance up and conquered it, so hey, good on them). This sort of thing doesn't really undermine Gallifrey so much as it reveals the values and short-sightedness of those dismissing it. And of course the mystique of Gallifrey has only increased in the 21st century with its destruction in the Time War. It has been elevated to Legendary - and then further still to MacGuffin. The Lost City of Atlantis, as it were. A whole world, destroyed by the hubris of its leaders, and just maybe waiting to be found again. The oldest civilization: Decadent, Degenerate, and Rotten to the Core. That's just so wonderfully put - rotten to the core, making the planet almost complicit in the sins of its rulers.
I for one am very happy to see Gallifrey back in the skies again. Destroying whole planets is just irresponsible cosmology. And there's something really important about having a homeland, whether you choose to live there or not. Just as Daleks always go home again, no matter how many times Skaro gets destroyed, knowing that Gallifrey exists is an important check on the Doctor and his own sense of authority. There is sociopolitical theory that the existence of a homeland is important in protecting its expatriate citizens - if your country oppresses my immigrants too much, I can always retaliate by oppressing your immigrants in return: a mutual hostage situation as it were (which is why it's a lot easier to oppress people who aren't associated with some external political entity). Or so the theory goes. Even in his exile and wanderings, the Doctor is able to invoke the power of Gallifrey - and at the same time, knowing that his all-powerful superiors are out there somewhere makes him have to think twice about over-exerting his own authority, which starts to become a serious problem for him once he's sure that they're really and truly gone. Gallifrey provides a grounding force in both directions - and honestly it's a lot more fun to root for the underdog anyway. Even as he outgrows them and leaves them behind, the continued existence of the Time Lords and Gallifrey itself provides a much needed anchor and touchstone on his character development. His return to Gallifrey in "Trial of a Time Lord" marks him finally casting off the strictures of a toxic upbringing and finally taking active responsibility for himself and the universe, and the return of Gallifrey in the most recent handful of seasons is what allows him to finish putting down the mantle of the Time Lord Victorious and be merely Doctor Idiot once more. He no longer needs to feel responsible for the Whole Universe; Gallifrey is safe in the sky once more, and he can concentrate on cleaning up his own messes.
There are people who felt like Gallifrey was woefully underused in "Hell Bent" and I have to disagree. Gallifrey should always be underused. There's an old roleplaying adage: "if you stat it, they will kill it." Gallifrey deserves to be mysterious, unknowable, and largely untouchable. That is its mystique and its power, and that's why we continue to be fascinated by it after all this time. Nobody actually wants the Doctor to settle down and rule as Lord President - and after 5 times going you'd think they'd have figured this out by now. Gallifrey simply Being There is more than enough - hints to captivate our imagination, something bigger and badder than Our Hero, a name whose mention tells us that things have officially Gotten Real: Gallifrey!
On second thought, let's not go to Gallifrey; tis a silly place.
A brief note on pronunciation: while it has typically come down to us as GalliFRAY, someone recently pointed out that Tom Baker almost exclusively pronounces it as GalliFREE. Is it free variation? Is someone wrong? Did anyone ever ask Robert Holmes? It's a curious thing. It doesn't seem to be the same issue as Matt Smith not knowing how to pronounce Metebelis, nor does it precisely seem to be the same thing as the two variants of Romana's name. The raw data, and some discussion thereon, can be found here.
The planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborus, alongside Earth and Skaro, one of the three most important planets in the Whoniverse. It's also, alongside Earth and Skaro, one of the three most visited planets in the Whoniverse, featured in conservatively 8, generously 11 stories (at time of writing), by comparison to Skaro's 5 I think - and like Skaro (and Earth) it is primarily portrayed by the BBC Quarry. That said, we never do see very much of it: really just the Capitol and its immediately surrounding landscape. We didn't even learn that Gallifrey had a second city until fifty years in! It is therefore awfully tempting to say that Gallifrey as a planet really just kind of sucks (and, to be fair, I say that all the time) - but while amusing, that's pretty implausible. Planets are big places. Obviously, despite all appearances, Gallifrey must have plants on it somewhere, and more than one city, and inhabitants other than stuffy bureaucrats, and children, etc etc etc. Gallifrey cannot reasonably consist of the Panopticon and the BBC Quarry and nothing else, as funny as it is to pretend that it does.
The Cerulean Revolution aside, we do know a surprising amount about Gallifreyan vegetation despite really never having seen any. Susan describes seas of red grass and trees with silver leaves (some speculation about how that would work botanically can be found here) and the (tenth) Doctor echoes that description some 40 or so years later. We know from the (third) Doctor's speech in "the Time Monster" that it also includes at least one daisy and occasionally snows. "Listen" reveals the existence of straw. And given that the Doctor knows it primarily for its medicinal properties, there's a good chance that celery grows there as well. I am fond of arguing that they really ought to import the Moon Discs of Blake's 7, as plants which are both telepathic and native to the BBC quarry, and so would do remarkably well on Gallifrey. All this is hardly a complete Flora, but it's pretty good for a world we otherwise know solely from a single building and one grassy hillside in the Death Zone. Ah yes, Gallifrey also has places in it with names like the Death Zone, but I suppose that's Time Lords for you. Gallifrey also has two suns, a red-tinted sky (though some have argued that it's only red at sunrise and sunset but that, having two suns, that accounts for a good chunk of the time) and at least one bowl of soup. Possibly even more than one.
The point to take from all this is that Gallifrey has very much captured the imagination of the fans. The show has fed us tantalizing hints since almost the very beginning, but the world remains as mysterious and fascinating as its inhabitants. It was twelve years before we even heard the name for the first time. Doctor Who fans are at their best when filling in the gaps in the universe with wild speculation, drawing together the threads we've been given into shapes more stunning than their creators could have guessed. Gallifrey is the Shining World of the Seven Systems - but what, if anything, does that even mean? Is it nostalgia? is it Rassilonian puffery? is it the trees? Who can say? Well...we can. And we do and we have, and it's wonderful.
There's a mystique about Gallifrey, going hand in hand with the mystique of the Time Lords. Part of it is simple metonymy: Gallifrey means the Citadel of the Time Lords, the heart of their civilization and seat of their power. Home turf, as it were. And while the occasional wandering Time Lord might be encountered off-world not too infrequently (particularly in the 20th century portion of the show), and it's a generic enough title anyway, the very mention of Gallifrey is enough to make most beings sit up and take stock. Although not always - I find it hilarious the number of Classic Who baddies who look up Gallifrey in their files and are just like "oh, those guys - laaaaaaaaaaaaame." The Sontarans in their first appearance declared it "ripe for conquest" (and in their third appearance up and conquered it, so hey, good on them). This sort of thing doesn't really undermine Gallifrey so much as it reveals the values and short-sightedness of those dismissing it. And of course the mystique of Gallifrey has only increased in the 21st century with its destruction in the Time War. It has been elevated to Legendary - and then further still to MacGuffin. The Lost City of Atlantis, as it were. A whole world, destroyed by the hubris of its leaders, and just maybe waiting to be found again. The oldest civilization: Decadent, Degenerate, and Rotten to the Core. That's just so wonderfully put - rotten to the core, making the planet almost complicit in the sins of its rulers.
I for one am very happy to see Gallifrey back in the skies again. Destroying whole planets is just irresponsible cosmology. And there's something really important about having a homeland, whether you choose to live there or not. Just as Daleks always go home again, no matter how many times Skaro gets destroyed, knowing that Gallifrey exists is an important check on the Doctor and his own sense of authority. There is sociopolitical theory that the existence of a homeland is important in protecting its expatriate citizens - if your country oppresses my immigrants too much, I can always retaliate by oppressing your immigrants in return: a mutual hostage situation as it were (which is why it's a lot easier to oppress people who aren't associated with some external political entity). Or so the theory goes. Even in his exile and wanderings, the Doctor is able to invoke the power of Gallifrey - and at the same time, knowing that his all-powerful superiors are out there somewhere makes him have to think twice about over-exerting his own authority, which starts to become a serious problem for him once he's sure that they're really and truly gone. Gallifrey provides a grounding force in both directions - and honestly it's a lot more fun to root for the underdog anyway. Even as he outgrows them and leaves them behind, the continued existence of the Time Lords and Gallifrey itself provides a much needed anchor and touchstone on his character development. His return to Gallifrey in "Trial of a Time Lord" marks him finally casting off the strictures of a toxic upbringing and finally taking active responsibility for himself and the universe, and the return of Gallifrey in the most recent handful of seasons is what allows him to finish putting down the mantle of the Time Lord Victorious and be merely Doctor Idiot once more. He no longer needs to feel responsible for the Whole Universe; Gallifrey is safe in the sky once more, and he can concentrate on cleaning up his own messes.
There are people who felt like Gallifrey was woefully underused in "Hell Bent" and I have to disagree. Gallifrey should always be underused. There's an old roleplaying adage: "if you stat it, they will kill it." Gallifrey deserves to be mysterious, unknowable, and largely untouchable. That is its mystique and its power, and that's why we continue to be fascinated by it after all this time. Nobody actually wants the Doctor to settle down and rule as Lord President - and after 5 times going you'd think they'd have figured this out by now. Gallifrey simply Being There is more than enough - hints to captivate our imagination, something bigger and badder than Our Hero, a name whose mention tells us that things have officially Gotten Real: Gallifrey!
On second thought, let's not go to Gallifrey; tis a silly place.