History Literature / ABriefHistoryOfTimeLords

* AlienNonInterferenceClause: Discussed. While most Time Lords ''think'' they have it, but the Celestial Intervention Agency was established via LoopholeAbuse to stop more "primitive" races from misusing time travel technology and causing havoc, the majority being blissfully unaware. It's also why when the Second Doctor was put on trial for breaking the non-interference law he was only temporarily exiled to Earth with a forced regeneration instead of being a made a public example of; he was just doing what was unofficial Time Lord policy anyway, so the CIA decided to just let him continue doing his thing and make him an agent. Unfortunately for them, they underestimated how much the Doctor relished his freedom and independence and '''hated''' being bounced around like a galactic yoyo -- the affair with Omega provided them with the perfect opportunity to end the exile, while still recruitng him for missions.

** Surprisingly, material from [[AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho the Big Finish dramas]] is few and far between despite coming out not long after [[Recap/TheNightofTheDoctor "The Night of the Doctor"]]. Prominent EU character and fan favorite Irving Braxtiel (stated in ''[[Literature/DoctorWhoMissingAdventures The Empire of Glass]]'' to be the Doctor's brother) is not mentioned in the list of prominent Time Lords. But there are some sneaky references mainly:

* UnreliableNarrator: The author states that Time Lords are notorious for this and gives numerous examples of the "unofficial record". Even the author might be one, after all Gallifrey Lies.

* CallToAgriculture: The author states that the official line that the majority of Gallifrey's population live in either Arcadia or the Capitol, and only a handful of malcontents live outside in the wilderness is false; ''billions'' of Gallifreyans live on farms and homesteads all over the planet, after all even Time Lords need to eat.

--> "Or worse will you ''pass'', and spend all your lifetimes inside one of those bubbles? Forget your past life until it comes naturally to you to recoil from the outside, shut it out, condemn it. Perhaps you'll only cope with your sterile existence by shutting out all that life. Or shutting yourself in.".

* NotSoOmniscientAfterAll: The Time Lord Matrix. While it's algorithms do make accurate predictions it can't predict everything immediately. Case it point? After the Fourth Doctor botched his mission to avert the Daleks' creation in "Genesis of the Daleks", the Matrix didn't forsee the coming Time War because it was so far off in the future for even the Matrix to see coming.

* SplinterCell: The Sisterhood of Karn, who began on Gallifrey before there was some sort of disagreement and they left for Karn to guard the Flame of Eternal Life; they were still Time Lord allies though .... until the Time War.

* WhatTheHellHero: Very subtle, but the author is very disappointed how his childhood hero the Doctor could never be bothered to bring peace and stability to Gallifrey; preferring to shirk his presidential duties which ultimately left Gallifrey in the hands of ineffectual bureaucrats and despots.

** Romana becoming President when she eventually returned to Gallifrey -- the one EU event the BBC considers canon without question.
** Surprisingly, material from [[AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho the Big Finish dramas]] is few and in between despite that timeline being made canon by [[Recap/TheNightofTheDoctor "The Night of the Doctor"]] albeit in BroadStrokes; prominent EU character and fan favorite Irving Braxtiel (stated in ''[[Literature/DoctorWhoMissingAdventures The Empire of Glass]]'' to be the Doctor's brother) is not mentioned in the list of prominent Time Lords. But there are some sneaky references mainly:
*** The Inquisitor from the Sixth Doctor's Trial is listed under her [[AudioPlay/{{Gallifrey}} Big Finish name - Darkel]].

''A Brief History of Time Lords'', is a Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse book by Steven Tribe set in the Franchise/{{Whoniverse}}. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin The tome covers the history and culture of the Time Lords encompassing information throughout the whole series up until the Series 10 finale]] -- [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent "Hell Bent"]].

--> "Or worse will you ''pass'', and spend all your lifetimes inside one of those bubbles? Forget your past life until it comes naturally to you to recoil from the outside, shut it out, condemn it. Perhaps you'll only cope with your sterile existence by shutting out all that life. Or shutting yourself in."

* {{Retcon}}: Missy's claim from "The Magician's Apprentice" that the Doctor absconded with the daughter of the Lord President is true and her identity is revealed to be Susan, the Doctor's granddaughter. However it's mentioned that her history is very difficult to trace and there's nothing to contradict her actually being related to the Doctor.

** Surprisingly, material from [[Audio/BigFinishDoctorWho the Big Finish dramas]] is few and in between despite that timeline being made canon by [[Recap/TheNightofTheDoctor "The Night of the Doctor"]] albeit in BroadStrokes; prominent EU character and fan favorite Irving Braxtiel (stated in ''[[Literature/DoctorWhoMissingAdventures The Empire of Glass]]'' to be the Doctor's brother) is not mentioned in the list of prominent Time Lords. But there are some sneaky references mainly:

** The description of how awesome the planet outside the Capitol can be if you actually ''look'' at it is a mashup of the Doctor's "daisiest daisy" speech from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E5TheTimeMonster The Time Monster]]", and Susan's description of her then-unnamed homeworld in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E7TheSensorites The Sensorites]]".

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E6Shada ''The Worshipful and Ancient Law of Gallifrey'' and it's thief Professor Chronotis]] are mentioned in the compendium of Rassilon's Artifacts and well-know Time Lords (in fact he's the only EU Time Lord to be given an entry).

* EpicFail: When Omega used his stellar manipulator to create the Eye of Harmony -- the black hole that fuels Gallifreyan time travel, he "got his sums wrong" as the author puts it and was nowhere near a safe distance when the star chosen for the experiment exploded into an event horizon, which is why he got sucked into the anti-matter universe in the first place.

** Surprisingly, material from [[Audio/BigFinishDoctorWho the Big Finish dramas]] is few and in between despite that timeline being made canon by [[Recap/TheNightofTheDoctor "The Night of the Doctor"]]; prominent EU character and fan favorite Irving Braxtiel (stated in ''[[Literature/DoctorWhoMissingAdventures The Empire of Glass]]'' to be the Doctor's brother) is not mentioned in the list of prominent Time Lords. But there are some sneaky references mainly:

* FounderOfTheKingdom: The early part of the book deals with Rassilon and Omega's time travel experiments and Rassilon's subsequent rise to power. The Other, their mysterious partner in other EU matterials is not mentioned at all.

* EpicFail: When Omega used his stellar manipulator to create the Eye of Harmony -- the black hole that fuels Gallifreyan time travel, he "[[{{Understatement}} got his sums wrong]]" as the author puts it and was nowhere near a safe distance when the star chosen for the experiment exploded into an event horizon, which is why he got sucked into the anti-matter universe in the first place.

** Surprisingly, material from [[Audio/BigFinishDoctorWho the Big Finish dramas]] is few and in between despite that timeline being made canon by [[Recap/TheNightofTheDoctor "The Night of the Doctor"]]; prominent EU character and fan favorite Irving Braxtiel (heavily believed by the fandom to be the Doctor's brother) is not mentioned in the list of prominent Time Lords. But there are some sneaky references mainly:

* OrwellianRetcon: Something that the author had to deal with when compiling this tome.Ythe Time Lords do this on a regular basis hence why so much of their history is murky.

* AlienNonInterferenceClause: Discussed. While most Time Lords ''think'' they have it, but the Celestial Intervention Agency was established via LoopholeAbuse to stop more "primitive" races from misusing time travel technology and causing havoc, the majority being blissfully unaware. It's also why when the Second Doctor was put on trial for breaking the non-interference law he was only exiled to Earth and forced regeneration instead of being a made a public example; he was doing what was unofficial Time Lord policy anyway, so the CIA decided to just let him continue doing his thing and make him an agent.

* OrwellianRetcon: Something that the author had to deal with when compiling this tome, the Time Lords do this on a regular basis hence why so much of Time Lord history is murky.

* RunningGag: It's amazing how many of Rassilon and Omega's very powerful and dangerous ended up stolen or missing from Gallifrey.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: Rassilon got his start in Time Lord politics by objecting to the use of the Time Scoop to force other alien races to fight in deadly gladiator games. The author points out that rather then dismantle it, Rassilon decided to keep the Time Scoop around in his hidden chamber and left instructions how to use via the Black Scrolls of Rassilon.

* EvilIsPetty: It's suggested that Missy was the one who gave Rassilon the idea that the Doctor knew the identity of the Hybrid after she escaped Skaro. Maybe, it's really not clear either way.

* GloryHound: Rassilon, when he wrote "The Book of the Old Time" he took great care to make sure he got all the credit for creating the Eye of Harmony (the author admits that nobody know who wrote it, but since Omega isn't mentioned in it, it's easy to guess who wrote it).