Time Lord Physiology

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*Name of TV episode, novel, audioplay or comic this is referenced or shown in is in italics*

External Anatomy:

  • Gallifreyans are identical to humans in their appearance
  • Gallifreyan children age at a similar rate to human children (The Sound of Drums) but upon hitting puberty their ageing would slow with their teenage years lasting for decades (Legacy of the Daleks
  • When fatally injured or sick, Gallifreyans have the ability to regenerate when they would usually die
  • If injured, but not severely enough to require regeneration, a Gallifreyan can slip into a “healing coma” where they would appear dead but they can dedicate all their energy to healing (Inferno, Planet of the Daleks, EarthWorld, Vanishing Point)
  • Some Gallifreyans can change their eye colour without the need for regeneration (Vampire Science, Doctor Who and the Daemons)
  • Gallifreyans are superior physically to humans (Terror of the Autons)
  • Gallifreyan bones can withstand pressures and impacts which would shatter human bones (The End of Time)
  • Gallifreyans have resistances to both extreme cold (Tomb of the Cybermen, Planet of the Ood) and extreme heat (The End of the World)
  • Gallifreyans can survive exposure to vacuums for brief periods (The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe)
  • Gallifreyans can resist higher-frequency sounds which would deafen a human (The Christmas Invasion, Partners in Crime)
  • There is a vulnerable nerve cluster in a Gallifreyan’s left shoulder which can disable them if hit (Set Piece)
  • Gallifreyan reflexes and dexterity are far above humans with the ability to perform actions which humans can’t (Terror of the Autons, The End of the World, The Doctor’s Daughter)
  • Gallifreyans can see in the dark (Lucifer Rising) and notice incredible amounts of detail from distances which humans would find impossible (The Eleventh Hour)
  • Gallifreyans can identify substances by taste including specific details about the composition of the material (The Christmas Invasion, Bad Therapy, Tooth and Claw, The Idiot’s Lantern, The Eleventh Hour, Day of the Moon, The Time of the Angels, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship)

Internal Anatomy:

  • Gallifreyan blood is darker in colour than human blood and has an orange tint to it (The Two Doctors)
  • Gallifreyans have a two hearts (The Power of Three, The Doctor’s Daughter) but can survive with only one working heart although in a greatly weakened state (The Shakespeare Code, The Power of Three)
  • Gallifreyans have 2 extra ribs compared to humans giving them a total of 26 ribs (Blood Heat)
  • Gallifreyans natural body temperature of 15°C/59°F (Blood of the Daleks)
  • Gallifreyan brains are larger and more complex than human brains (The Brain of Morbius)
  • Gallifreyans can separate their brain hemispheres allowing them a greater ability to multitask (Island of Death)
  • Gallifreyan lungs are the same size as humans but they have extra pulmonary tubes similar to a lymphatic system to supply oxygen to their dual hearts this also makes them naturally buoyant in water (Island of Death)
  • Gallifreyans can survive longer without oxygen to the point that a human would be unconscious (The Two Doctors, Mummy on the Orient Express)
  • Gallifreyans do not need as much sleep as humans and can survive on as little as one hour of sleep (The Talons of Weng-Chiang, Mummy on the Orient Express, Night and the Doctor, The Highlanders)
  • Gallifreyans are immune to the effects of helium gas and some anaesthetic gases (The Robots of Death)
  • Gallifreyan skin has a deeper subdural and subcutaneous layer which gives them greater durability (Burning Heart)
  • Gallifreyan DNA has a triple helix structure (The Crystal Bucephalus, Doctormania)
  • Gallifreyan bodies can reject and expel cyanide (The Unicorn and the Wasp)
  • Gallifreyans can and do have allergic reactions to specific substances (The Caves of Androzani)

Other Abilities:

  • Gallifreyans can share a telepathic link with each other allowing long distance conversations (The Three Doctors, The Pirate Planet)
  • Gallifreyans are largely resistant to mind control (The War Machines, The Green Death)
  • Gallifreyans have several mental manipulation abilities including: hypnosis (Terror of the Autons, The Ribos Operation, Fear Her), mind-reading (The Girl in the Fireplace), sharing thoughts (The End of Time), relief of mental disorders (The Shakespeare Code), inducing sleep or unconsciousness (Listen), influencing dreams (The Eleventh Hour), transferring knowledge (The Lodger), and memory erasure (Journey’s End)
  • Gallifreyans have the ability to sense all possible timelines radiating from an event (The Parting of the Ways, The Fires of Pompeii) including negated timelines (Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS)
  • Gallifreyans can sense, and have a instinctual repulsion to, fixed points in time (Utopia)

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