History Characters / DoctorWhoTimeLords

* AbusiveParents: She adopted the Timeless Child then repeatedly killed her in order to test regeneration abilities. Any remorse they may have had clearly died long ago, and they offer no apology when said child confronts them over it.

* AbusiveParents: She adopted the Timeless Child then repeatedly killed her in order to test regeneration abilities.

* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: By [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent "Hell Bent"]], the Time Lords refuse to submit to his tyranny anymore (again) and he and the High Council are banished by the Doctor after their own soldiers rebel against them. It says something when even the Master, who lives ''purely to screw things up in the universe'' ForTheEvulz, hates this man so much that he chooses to sacrifice himself to save the Doctor from Rassilon purely out of spite.

* AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: His "final sanction" to save Gallifrey at the end of the Time War involved destroying all of existence in order to ascend the Time Lords to a higher plain where they would live as beings of pure consciousness in a void without the concept of time.

* BadassDecay: InUniverse. By [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent "Hell Bent"]], he's just a ranting feeble old man desperate to hold on to power, a far cry from the imposing presence of his previous incarnations. The Time Lords ''finally'' rebel against him and the Doctor banishes him from Gallifrey as a result.

* BigGood: For [[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E6TheFiveDoctors "The Five Doctors"]], while [[GoodIsNotNice not very nice]] and having a rather shady history, he is the one who puts a stop to Borusa's plans by turning him to stone.

* ColdBloodedTorture: The psychological variant. He had the Doctor's confession dial turned into a torture chamber that would only release him if he told the Time Lords everything he knew about the Hybrid.
* TheCorrupter: Somewhat. The Time Lords were already shown to be corrupt and decadent even before the Time War, but Rassilon's leadership during it is what led them to become a race of {{Omnicidal Maniac}}s little better than the Daleks.

* DarkMessiah: The Time Lords awoke him from his tomb to lead them through the Time War. He ended up guiding them to become a race of omnicidal {{Knight Templar}}s.
* DelayedNarratorIntroduction: In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time"]], when he's revealed at the end of Part 1 to be the narrator.

* DiscOneFinalBoss: He's the BigBad of Series 9, but he's deposed a fifth of the way into [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent "Hell Bent"]], with the rest of the episode focusing on the Doctor's universe-threatening attempts to save Clara.

* DirtyCoward: In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time"]] Rassilon would rather risk all of creation than let himself be killed.

* DrivenByEnvy: It's hinted in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent "Hell Bent"]] that he harbours a great deal of resentment over the fact that the Doctor -- a disgraced renegade -- was able to end the Time War and save the Time Lords, something that he -- Rassilon, Lord President, the Founder of Time Lord Society, and possibly the most powerful Time Lord ever -- was not able to do.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Rassilon [[KickTheDog disintegrating a member of his own Council for daring to suggest that their time is over]], then shouting "I WILL NOT DIE!" establishes straight away that he isn't a leader desperate to save his people, but a dictator desperate to save himself.

* EvilerThanThou: Quickly establishes himself as a far bigger fish than the Master in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time"]] by ''casually'' undoing the Master's GrandTheftMe of humanity with a flick of his wrist, then stating his [[OmnicidalManiac intent to destroy the universe]].
* EvilIsPetty: In the Series 9 finale, he imprisons Twelve in his confession dial to get him to reveal information about the Hybrid -- on the pretext of trying to protect Gallifrey, but in reality to get revenge for his humiliation in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time"]]. It backfires spectacularly; the Doctor, ''furious'' over Clara's death, does not give him anything, spending billions of years in there until he's able to finally escape and then exile him into a dead universe.

* EvilOldFolks: His post-"[[Recap/DoctorWho30E17E18TheEndOfTime The End of Time]]" regeneration is that of an old man. He's still just as cruel.

* EvilVersusEvil: While Rassilon may have led the Time Lords against the Daleks during the Last Great Time War, it's established in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time"]] that he's about as evil as they are, particularly since his final plan to secure victory for the Time Lords involves destroying the entire universe and wiping out all other lifeforms in existence.
* TheExile: The Doctor unceremoniously boots him off Gallifrey in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent "Hell Bent"]].
* FakeUltimateHero: Post-[[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor "The Day of the Doctor"]], he tries to take credit for Gallifrey's survival, deeming himself "Rassilon the Redeemer", but everybody on Gallifrey knows this is a lie.
-->'''Rassilon:''' Who does [the Doctor] think he is!?\\
'''The General:''' The man who won the Time War, sir.

* FauxAffablyEvil: He is initially quite pleasant to the Doctor and the Master, addressing them formally as "my Lord Doctor" and "my Lord Master". That affable façade vanishes very quickly, even if you aren't against him... Also his BadBoss tendencies.

* HateSink: While War Rassilon was quite evil and selfish he was balanced out by Timothy Dalton's ham mines and charm. With his regeneration, all of that is gone making his reprehensible qualities more pronounced.

* HiddenVillain: He turns out to be the one who struck a deal with Ashildr to lure the Doctor into a trap in Series 9.
* HumiliationConga: Oh boy... After his confrontation with the Master he regenerates into a feeble old man. Then when the Doctor comes back to Gallifrey, he's deposed and exiled. Not that he deserved any better, mind you.

* ItsAllAboutMe: He would sacrifice all of creation to stave off ''his'' death, and the death of the Time Lords, as he sees them as extensions of himself.
-->'''Rassilon:''' I will NOT! ''DIE!'' DO! YOU HEAR ME? A billion years of Time Lord history riding on our backs... I will not let this perish. I. Will. Not.

* KneelBeforeZod: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fpl1xlQVkk On your knees, mankind]]." Scarily, they do.
* KnightTemplar: Before, he destroyed or imprisoned entire species which ''might'' overcome or destroy Time Lords. Now he wants ''to destroy the entire universe'' to save himself and his race.
* LargeHam: "FOR GALLIFREY! FOR VICTORY! FOR THE END OF TIME ITSELF!"

* TheManBehindTheMan: In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time"]], he turns out to be the bigger threat behind the Master, as well as the source of the Master's drumming, which he planted inside of the Master as part of a grand scheme to enable the Time Lords to escape the Time War.
* MeetTheNewBoss: His [[Recap/DoctorWho/S30E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time"]] incarnation is a megalomaniac determined to elevate his kind by destroying everything else. Sounds a lot like Davros in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd "Journey's End"]] now doesn't it?
* MirrorCharacter: He's one to Davros and the Daleks in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time"]], with his plan to save the Time Lords by destroying the rest of time and space being little different from Davros's Reality Bomb.

* NotQuiteDead: In "[[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors The Five Doctors]]", the Second Doctor says that even though Rassilon is in his tomb, it's uncertain if he's actually dead. Turns out he's not dead, he's merely resting.

* OmnicidalManiac: As of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time"]] -- he's the one trying to bring about the eponymous cataclysm.

* PhysicalGod: In [[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors "The Five Doctors"]], he's asleep in his tomb, yet he's able to manifest his consciousness as a disembodied head and when all is said and done is able to put all of the past Doctors and their companions back to their proper place in time. It's as awe-inspiring and frightening as it sounds. His subsequent incarnations don't show any of the same display of power.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Looks down on the Master as "diseased" (though he admits that he's responsible for the Master being evil and insane).

* ResurrectedForAJob: He was brought back from his "death" to guide the Time Lords through the Time War as their Lord President. Given his position in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time"]], he hasn't done a very good job of it.

* {{Sadist}}: In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent Hell Bent]]", as he's preparing to electrocute the Doctor he asks him how many regenerations he has left, implying that rather than simply killing the Doctor as he's regenerating to put him down for good, Rassilon intended to kill the Doctor and wait for him to regenerate so he could keep on killing him over and over.

* SmallNameBigEgo: As part of his BadassDecay, as of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent "Hell Bent"]], he can't even rest on his laurels anymore, with his attempts at intimidating the soldiers he commanded to execute the Doctor when they chose to side with the latter.
-->''"[[DrunkOnTheDarkSide I am Rassilon the Redeemer! Rassilon the Resurrected! Gallifrey is MINE!]]"''
* TyrantTakesTheHelm: After he was brought back to lead the Time Lords during the Time War, the Time Lords went from an ineffectual, bureaucratic species to an increasingly warlike one.
* UngratefulBastard: He has the Doctor captured, put through a torture chamber for ''billions'' of years and later tries to kill despite the fact that he ended the Time War. Luckily for the Doctor, the rest of the Time Lords appreciate the man who saved them...

'''Monk:''' Which questions?\\

'''Monk:''' I, I want to improve things.\\

'''Monk:''' Well, for instance, Harold, King Harold, I know he'd be a good king. There wouldn't be all those wars in Europe, those claims over France went on for years and years. With peace the people'd be able to better themselves. With a few hints and tips from me they'd be able to have jet airliners by 1320! Shakespeare'd be able to put Hamlet on television.

* MirrorCharacter: He's a Time Lord who got bored with Gallifrey and decided to travel through space and time. The major difference from the Doctor is that the Monk decided to try to ''improve'' history. Later the Doctor starts acting more like him, but he knows when to stop.

* PutOnABus: Hasn't been seen in the main series since 1966, sadly. Probably because the Doctor stole the directional unit from his TARDIS, so he can't control where he goes. Also, Peter Butterworth sadly died just before the creators started making a big thing of bringing back famous one-shot villains. (In theory the Monk [[TheNthDoctor could just have regenerated]] and turned up played by a new actor.)

* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: Or at least he likes to think this is what he's doing.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: His role and fate (if any) in the Time War is generally unknown, [[spoiler:although he has a confrontation with the Twelfth Doctor in the Christmas-themed short story "Art/ThePersistenceOfMemory"]].

Before the TV series introduced the Master, there was the War Chief: a renegade Time Lord with facial hair, a dark Nehru jacket, an alliance with a malevolent alien race (which he plans to betray), and powers of hypnotism, who has some type of history with the Doctor from before leaving Gallifrey.

!!The War Chief (Second Doctor)

A Timelord on Galifrey that originally met Leela when she tried to escape the citadel.

* WrenchWench: has shades of this
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Her fate in the expanded universe is unknown.

* EvilDuo: Forms a duo with the Master in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E3 "The Mark of the Rani"]], acting as the more subdued and logical one to his unabashed hamminess.

* AbsoluteXenophobe: Nowhere near as bad as the Daleks, but the Time Lords don't like anyone visiting their planet, they don't like to leave home, and with the exception of the SpaceAmish ones, tend to live in a couple of giant cities encased in massive glass domes. A lot of tension in the ''AudioPlay/{{Gallifrey}}'' spinoff is due to the reformist President Romana's desire to open the planet to outsiders, including letting them attend the Time Lord Academy, and the more conservative elements opposing it.

* NonProtagonistResolver: In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E8TheWarGames "The War Games"]], the Doctor is forced to call on them after realizing he can't put a stop to the War Lord's plans on his own. They promptly obliterate the War Lord and his minions before taking the Doctor into custody for violating their non-interference clause.

* YouLookFamiliar: Colin Baker playing a Time Lord! But not the Doctor, not just yet anyway. Baker admitted there was a missed opportunity in not having Maxil meet the Sixth Doctor during the latter's trial, likely via split-screen trickery.

* AscendedToAHigherPlainOfExistence: His "final sanction" to save Gallifrey at the end of the Time War involved destroying all of existence in order to ascend the Time Lords to a higher plain where they would live as beings of pure consciousness in a void without the concept of time.

* HateSink: While War Rassilon was quite evil and selfish he was balanced out by Timothy Dalton’s ham mines and charm. With his regeneration, all of that is gone making his reprehensible qualities more pronounced.

* MirroringFactions: Fought the Daleks in the Time War, but by the end they're little better than them. Their final plan involved destroying everything else in the universe for their own self-preservation, which is scarily close to Davros' plan involving the Reality Bomb in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd Journey's End]]".

* MulticulturalAlienPlanet;

* TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness: They tended to be this or the NotSoOmniscientCouncilOfBickering, which is why RTD drop-kicked them out of the revived show.

* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans

* EarlyInstalmentWeirdness: Famous in fandom for using a device which showed several prior incarnations of the Doctor, including eight of them who supposedly came before Hartnell, the First Doctor. For decades this was written off, excused, or ignored. Later averted retroactively by the Timeless Child storyline.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Why he's ''Lord President'' of Gallifrey.

* EvilutionaryBiologist: Experimented on lesser species, both to give certain races Time Lord characteristics and eliminate any species which posed a threat to the Time Lords.
* EvilOldFolks: His post-"[[Recap/DoctorWho30E17TheEndOfTime The End of Time]]" regeneration is that of an old man. He's still just as cruel.

* GreaterScopeVillain: To the Master, or at least his Yana and Saxon incarnations, having planted the drumming inside of the Master's head and driven him to insanity.

* {{Hyperaffixation}}: of Rassilon! There are a lot of Time Lord artifacts which he seems to have stuck his name onto, just sos nobody forgets who made it. "The Five Doctors" alone gives us the Coronet, the Harp, the Ring and the Tomb of Rassilon.

* TyrantTakesTheHelm: After he was brought back to lead the Time Lords during the Time War, the Time Lords went from a bureaucratic species to an increasingly warlike one.

* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: By [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent "Hell Bent"]], the Time Lords refuse to submit to his tyranny anymore (again) and he's banished by the Doctor along with the High Council. It says something when the Master, who lives ''purely to screw things up in the universe'' ForTheEvulz, hates this man so much that he saves the Doctor and chokes Rassilon to death by shoving white-point star ''diamonds'' down his throat after hitting him with many beams of electricity.

* BigBad: Of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time"]], manipulating the Master into summoning him to avert the destruction of the Time Lords. Also the closest thing to a main antagonist in the Series 9 three-part finale, though he is deposed quickly in the last episode.
* BigBadWannabe: In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent "Hell Bent"]], the Time Lords are no longer afraid of his gauntlet, reducing him to just a ranting old man.

* EmperorScientist: He developed time travel together with Omega and is effectively the one who elevated Gallifrey's people into Time Lords in the first place. He also designed a number of {{Doomsday Device}}s...

* TheNthDoctor: Standard for a Time Lord.

* UngratefulBastard: He wants to kill the Doctor despite the fact that he ended the Time War. Luckily for the Doctor, the rest of the Time Lords appreciate the man who saved them...

* SmallRoleBigImpact: The General is the first Time Lord in the main TV series to regenerate from male to female (and from white to black) onscreen[[note]] technically, Creator/HughGrant regenerated into Creator/JoannaLumley onscreen in 1999, but that was a comedy special[[/note]], paving the way for the Twelfth Doctor's eventual regeneration into the Thirteenth. The Master previously changed into Missy, but this occurred offscreen.