*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)
//There are a few things but I feel like I already rant about them ad nauseam on this blog, LOL.
1) His tenacity to survive, and how that dogged denial of the odds eternally stacked against him is a form of perverse heroism, and honor. Most Masters seem to focus on his cruelty and his manipulativeness, which are qualities he’s learned to develop in order to maintain the upper hand in power dynamics, and things I definitely need to deal with as a writer…but I feel every canon muse is a matter of what parts of the canon resonate with you, and you choose to emphasize. For me, Simm Master appeals initially because he’s so fucking defiant. Even when it shoots him in the foot or (literally) stabs him in the back, he will not yield when his own sense of self mandates that it’s foolish. He self-preserves, and that is not inherently evil. What it is, is inherently alive. No matter what The Doctor Falls tried to prove.
2) Closely connected, as many have more eloquently detailed, such as @natalunasans and @modernwizard, my Master uniquely emphasizes the neurodivergent roots of his hurtful behavior. As a child, and in every face, his telepathic abilities were uniquely sensitive, and rendered his psyche, his feelings, thoughts, and impulses more porous than those of other Time Lords. This porousness–a kind of sci-fi trope for Borderline Personality Disorder, Sensory Processing Disorder, and maybe something on the autism spec–was a source of social ridicule, and also of paranoia, and finally, most importantly, a thirst for autonomy. For self–mastery. Never once was he certain his own thoughts and convictions were his own. So he forced himself to fanatically shut off others, to deny any attempts, direct or indirect, to exert control over himself (a terrible irony is that from childhood Rassilon was already doing this via “the Drums”).
To tell you what I need to about the wonderful @masterfulxrhythm, I need to explain some things:
Firstly, I get very emotionally invested in my RPs because I care so much about the characters and milieus they represent. I flat out need to be able to get inside a character’s head to be able to become them effectively, so it follows that I feel what they feel in full measure. That factoid becomes very important in this next segment.
I got into internet RP on Twitter – first superhero stuff, then (of course) Doctor Who. One of the accounts was the Tenth Doctor. During this period I entered into a group SL that became what myself and others now refer to as The Storyline From Hell.
You see, one day the Master of that storyline decided to do a little solo. What happened next can best be summed by an IC post I did a few years ago. WARNING: some of the details are.. startling, to say the least, and involve the violent death of two beloved characters.
Wow I just logged in here by chance to save some stuff to drafts, actually thinking about how afraid I was that this muse was kinda fading for me, and I saw this.
First and foremost, let me say that many years ago, I dealt with rp partners who wrote similarly egregiously violent, disturbing plots without my consent, then guilted me for having qualms. Disassociating myself from these people was agony. People who have excesses (if that’s possible) of compassion, I think, suffer from bad things done to the characters they love, because that compassion can be indiscriminating: you can love and care for fictional people nearly as much as real people, because sometimes those fictional people are your friends when life is unbearable and little else offers comfort. So please have my sympathy for what you underwent. That’s just plain awful.
Secondly I really don’t know what to say except that I’m floored and honored to have helped disconnect a character you once enjoyed from such terrible memories, and emotional associations, so you can enjoy him again. Writing a character it’s no longer….fashionable, I guess is the word….to write, when less than two years ago, he was probably the most beloved Whovian villain, can be lonely and unrewarding. Thank you for taking time to write what you did, because it’s stuff like this that keeps me from giving up and archiving, and relegating my writing of this muse to Skype only. If I’m making people happy by just doing what I enjoy, how heckin awesome is that.
<33333 Evil Gay Space Noodle is always at your disposal. *Salute* X}
I don’t know what prompted this….! I guess me being sad the past couple of days??? But it’s so kind of you, and way too generous!!!!! <333333 I mean I really really work hard at him but I can hardly claim to be the best among us. So many of you are just as hard-working and talented.
You too are unique!!!! And a constant bright spot of warmth and encouragement in this fandom. You really are. I have never seen you say anything mean about anyone in this community, ever. You are so sweet and considerate. Thank you for being my mutual ❤ :3
Behind the scenes of The Sound of Drums/The Last of the Time Lords (Part Eight)
Excerpt from Doctor Who Magazine #385 – article by Benjamin Cook:
[filming in a very cold slate quarry] The Master, John Simm, is coping more admirably with the sub-zero (well, almost sub-zero) conditions. He’s standing atop a mound of what’s almost certainly slate, striking poses for on-set visual effects supervisor Barney Curnow, who’s recording them for posterity’s sake on a digital camera. “Comedy pose?” offers John.
“Best not,” chips in David Tennant, “It’s gonna be made eventually.”
Indeed, these snapshots are so that Barney and his colleagues at The Mill can create a CGI statue of the Master. Possibly doing a Basil Fawlty Nazi salute, at this rate. Or a classic Bruce Forsythe pose. “Or how about just a fig leaf?” offers John.
Barney opens his mouth as if to say, “Enough with the comedy poses already,” but snaps it shut again as John straightens up and postures, as the Master might, with arms folded and a steely glare. “Now, that’s more like it,” grins the man from The Mill.
Thank you to everyone who shared set photos!
Previous parts are available here: [one] [two] [three] [four] [five] [six] [seven] Other behind-the-scenes photosets are available here
Icarus 