Politics

Since the political systems of the Time Lords have changed over the millennia, what follows is only a brief description of how the Time Lords organize and govern their society.  However, Time Lords are very adverse to change, and thus the following data is accurate for a long stretch of their history.

The families of High Gallifrey are split into a number of Chapters.  The origin of these Chapters is shrouded in mystery, and may have grown from workers' guilds or unions, or perhaps from family groupings.  Currently there are a  large number of these Chapters, though only three, the Prydonians, the Archalians, and the Patrexes, are of any real political significance.  Of the three, the Prydonian Chapter is both the largest and the most influential.  It has given rise to more Presidents than all of the other Chapters combined, and a very high number of the the politicians and movers of Time Lord society are from this Chapter.

There are other, more plebeian, classes of society, but theses are not Time Lords.  They are the common folk of Gallifrey, the lowest of whom are known as the Sheboogans--considered lazy, feckless, and often criminal.  Naturally, the Time Lords have as little contact as possible with these members of society, and are not terribly interested in the way that those beings run or organize their lives.

The highest echelons of the hierarchy of each Chapter are allowed seats in the Panopticon, where they sit in formal, flowing robes and high-backed collars.  Their clothing is colour-coded to show their Chapter: Prydonians wear scarlet and orange, Archalians wear green, and Patrexes wear heliotrope (a light purple).  The right to a seat in the Panopticon is mostly ceremonial, as the Time Lords are inordinately fond of pomp and show.  There is little actual power held even by the ranking Time Lords.  In charge of the formal events held within the Panopticon is the Gold Usher.  He is generally a venerable Time Lord, chosen for the respect in which he is held.  Since his is largely a ceremonial office, the Gold Usher holds no real political power.  His responsibility is to ensure that ceremony is adhered on all formal formal occasions, such as the investiture or resignation of the President.

Each Chapter is represented by a Cardinal, who sits on the Time Lord Council, where the power begins finally to be real.  From this Council are selected members of the High Council--usually at least five people.  There can be either Cardinals or Chancellors.  Chancellors are the day-to-day power in the Chapters, in charge of actually running the affairs of the Chapter that they serve.  Thus Chancellors are almost always competent and sometimes brutally efficient.  Cardinals, on the other hand, are often chosen more for their age, learning, and wisdom than for efficiency.

The High Council, at least in theory, acts as advisers to the President.  It is also empowered to depose the President for just cause, and to appoint temporary successors to this post.  They are also able to out-vote the President in such matters.  Frequently--especially in the case of a weak President--the Council actually rules Gallifrey.  Before Borusa became the President, he had been on the Council, and gained his power there.  He preferred--at least initially--to manipulate the reins of power from behind the scenes.

From within the High Council, two members can sit with the President to form the Inner Council.  Together they can take control at times of great emergency.  Such occurrences are very rare indeed.

There are any number of minor and major offices to which individuals may be posted.  One of these is that of Surgeon General.  One of his main tasks is to ensure the health of the President and the other ranking members of the High Council.

It is in The Three Doctors that we are first shown the internal affairs of Gallifrey, as it became menaced by the threat of Omega.  The central hub of Time Lord power is the Time Control Room.  In ultimate charge of operations is the President of the Council.  His post is clearly shown to be of a technical nature--he understands and controls the technicians that staff the room.  This role of his was not to last too long, and may simply have been due to the current President being an unusually person.

Above him--at least theoretically--in the hierarchy of Time Lords was the Chancellor.  This person was a politician, more concerned with regulations and appearances than with operations and work. When renegade Omega attacked Gallifrey, the President decided to use past incarnations of the Doctor to help the present one.  The Chancellor's reaction was one of horror: the First Law of Time expressly forbids a Time Lord to meet himself.  Despite this, the President pressed ahead with his plan.  This was the only time that the President was shown to be in anything less than full control of Gallifrey.

By the time of The Deadly Assassin, much of this hierarchy in the Time Lords has altered.  The president is now in charge of everything, but his post is no longer technical.  It is almost purely political.  Just how much objective time has passed between the two tales is hard to estimate, but it is clearly more than a few years.  The President is an elected official, from some senior position in the High Council.  However, this election is not of the general populace, but  from within the Council itself.  The outgoing President normally appoints his own successor.  There is no indication that he has even to bother conferring with the High Council to determine who the next President will be.  The only time that a general election is held is when the President dies in office without naming a successor.

Article 17 of the Constitution then guarantees that anyone who then wishes to run for the office of the President may do so.  They cannot be impeded in any way in their bid for office.  As a result, surprising shifts in Time Lord power can be achieved through an election of this nature--and rarely, if ever, at any other time.

Obviously, though, the politicians in current power do not approve of this method of succession--it is far too unsettling.  Normally, a President resigns from office after a long term--often lasting hundreds of years, as in the case of Pandak III, and he then nominated his own successor.  This achieves a continuity of power and policy--an explains why the Time Lords so often seem stagnant, as succeeding Presidents often simply continue the policies of the previous incumbent.  Real shifts in Time Lord policies only occur at the rare election times.

The President holds the symbols of office: the Sash of Rassilon and the Great Key, which is normally stored in a display case in the Panopticon.  Their original purpose was forgotten over the centuries, until the Doctor and the Master revealed it in the affair of The Deadly Assassin.  There is a second Great Key, which is held in secret by the Chancellor, and which must be used in conjunction with the Sash of Rassilon and the Rod of Rassilon in order to control the full power of the Time Lords.

In charge of security is the Castellan, a Time Lord of rank, and inevitably a member of the High Council.  There is more a position of political appointment than of true ability, and over the centuries there have been several Castellans who have been less than worthy of the high post.  Notable among theses was Kelner. This politically ambitious person cooperated fully with both the Vardans and the Sontarans when each of them invaded Gallifrey.  He was finally tried and executed for his treachery.

The Chancellery Guards, under the command of the Castellan, are the only beings allowed to carry arms inside the Citadel.  They are not, however, Time Lords themselves.  This is probably due to the hazardous nature of their job--few Time Lords would wish to risk their near-immortality by undertaking anything like a dangerous job.

The execution of a Time Lord is a very rare event, and can be carried out only after the necessary warrant is issued.  As with everything else, protocol must be observed, and the Time Lords have a set format for everything, even the execution of one of their own.  The method of execution is almost invariably vaporization.  

Time lords can be placed on trial for a number of offenses, and since they have a great many laws, they invariably have a great deal of potential crimes of varying degrees of venality.  Sentences then imposed vary considerably.  When the Doctor was originally captured and tried by the Time Lords, he expected his own punishment to be little more than a good, stiff lecture, and probably being compelled to stay on Gallifrey until he could slip off again.  However, there are various grades of punishments.  Exile from Gallifrey for a set period of time is a favorite punishment, and has been passed on a number of Time Lords.  For the Tradition-loving, self-indulgent general run-of-the-mill Time Lords, such exile is a terrible punishment, and its threat serves as an effective deterrent to many.  However, there are always those of Time Lord rank who find the pomp and ceremony and lethargic attitudes of Gallifrey stultifying--and who welcome their exiles, and even anticipate it by leaving early.

Trials of Time Lords are taken very serious.  The Doctor's first was a Malfeasance Tribunal; as a result of it he was exiled to Earth, known to the Time Lords as Sol 3 of the Mutters Spiral.  His initial period of exile resulted in a pardon, issued after the intervention of the CIA: the Celestial Intervention Agency.

The Doctor's second trial was a far more serious one.  In this, the High Council appointed an Inquisitor to try him.  The Inquisitor was empowered to sift the evidence and cases presented by the prosecutor, the Valeyard, and to pronounce sentence on the Doctor.  Had he been found guilty,  he would have been exterminated.  Few Time Lords have ever been judicially executed by their own race--even the Master was merely imprisoned for his crimes.  The only other known case of execution of a Time Lord was that of the rebel Morbius.

The Doctor managed to avoid his own execution.  With the help of the Master, the Doctor was able to prove that the trial was a sham, the charges spurious and that the prosecutor was in fact the Doctor's shadowy evil self.  He was this time exonerated of all charges.

There is an Ultimate Court of Appeal, which is served by the most senior jurists in the Time Lord race, whose task it is to uphold the fundamentals of Gallifreyan law.  These have been laid down in the Gallifreyan Constitution--like most Time Lord edicts, a long, rambling and complex document almost impossible for one being to understand fully.

The CIA is a very secret, shadowy group.  They stand pretty much outside the Laws of Time, and do not answer even to the President or High Council.  It is virtually impossible to be certain who may or may not be working for them, and nothing is known of their power or scope of operations, although some of their policy decisions are quite apparent.

They care nothing for the trappings of power, and are content to leave the everyday affairs of Gallifrey in the hands of the President.  They are concerned mostly with the external affairs of Gallifrey.  They may directly interfere in a given planet or culture, or apply pressures and guidance on a more subtle level.

As with every race, not all Time Lords have benevolent aims, and many political figures seek office for the worst of reasons.  Over the millennia, there have been many political scandals on Gallifrey, of which the worst was the revelation that the entire High Council had been corrupted.  In an attempt to cover up their own mistakes and criminal activities, they were willing to sacrifice the lives of millions of human beings, to manipulate time, and to break the First Law of Time with regard to the Doctor.  To cover their tracks, they instigated the creation of the Valeyard and attempted to kill the Doctor, knowing he was getting close to discovering the truth of their tawdry careers.

Instead, their plans did not work as the population of Gallifrey became aware of their treachery.  For the first time ever, there was a popular revolution that tore the corrupt politicians from power and imprisoned them to face the very tribunal that they had assembled to try the Doctor.  In their place, a new regime--one proven to be incorrupt and untouchable--was elected.  It now seems that Gallifrey has entered upon a period of inner searching and outward tranquillity.  How long this will last is impossible to tell.  
 
SASH OF RASSILON: One of the three symbols of power worn by the President of the High Council of the Time Lords of Gallifrey. (The other two were the Coronet and the Rod of Rassilon.) Its secret function was to protect its wearer from great sources of energy, such as the Eye of Harmony, and also to enable the wearer to convert that energy for his own use. It was probably used by Rassilon himself when he entered a black hole to capture the Eye of Harmony. The Master wore the Sash when he released the Eye of Harmony, and was able to absorb enough energy to prolong his life, almost dooming Gallifrey. The Fourth Doctor wore it when he was proclaimed President.

ROD OF RASSILON (a.k.a. GREAT KEY): An ebonite staff which was one of the three symbols of power worn by the President of the High Council of the Time Lords of Gallifrey. (The other two were the Coronet and the Sash of Rassilon.) Its secret function was to enable its bearer to release the Eye of Harmony. The Master used it to absorb enough energy from the Eye of Harmony to prolong his life, and almost doomed Gallifrey. The Fourth Doctor held it when he was proclaimed President.

KEY OF RASSILON: Not to be confused with the Great Key, which was a rod, also known as the Rod of Rassilon The Key of Rassilon looked like an ordinary key and was secretly entrusted to the Cardinal of the High Council. It served to tap the Eye of Harmony to power the Demat Gun. Borusa entrusted it to the Fourth Doctor to defeat the Sontarans when they invaded Gallifrey, but took it back afterwards. The Keeper of the Matrix claimed no one could enter it without the Key of Rassilon, which he kept. This key was presumably a more vulgar object, created to divert attention from the real Key.