Looks like July will be the month we spend looking at continuity problems with Time Lords. We're going to try to handle things in some sort of chronological order by tackling the issues as they happened within the context of the show (or, at least, within the context of the Doctor's timeline - we already did a slight "cheat" with Clara's appearance on Gallifrey during Name of the Doctor). This time, it will be inconsistencies involving Time Lords that occurred during the 70s and early 80s.
FROM GODS TO BUMBLING STATESMEN
This was actually a pretty big issue for fans back when it, initially, happened. No one has really addressed it properly (from what I've seen, at least) but many people griped about it when it first transpired.
In The War Games, the Time Lords seem ridiculously powerful. With their mere will, they were throwing up forcefields all over the place. They also gave people tortuous migraines when they refused to speak by just staring at them intently. They could even wish people out of existence! Essentially, they appeared to be gods.
As the show goes on, this image continued to ring true. Admittedly, characters such as the Master, the War Chief, the Monk and the Doctor, himself, seem much more mortal. We, sort of, presume that when a Time Lord goes renegade they lose many of their powers. But Time Lords still living on Gallifrey are quite omnipotent. One of them materializes out of nowhere without the assistance of a TARDIS in Terror of the Autons. He's even able to defy gravity. A small council of Time Lords decide to re-activate the Doctor's TARDIS to stop the Master from seizing the Doomsday Weapon. It almost seems like their very decision to render the time vessel operational is all that's required of them. In The Three Doctors, the Time Lords are more vulnerable. But this is only because Omega is draining all their energy from them. Even in their weakened state, they're still able to do quite a bit of time bending . When we see a Time Lord again in Genesis of the Daleks, he fades in and out of existence like a wizard. All of these incidents seem to indicate that a Time Lord that does not step out from their society seems to have access to amazing powers and abilities.
And then, The Deadly Assassin reaches our screens (a happy thing for me - it's my favorite story, ever http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2016/01/book-of-lists-top-ten-who-stories-1.html). This is where the controversy seems to start. Certain fans got very upset about how the Time Lords suddenly seemed to act very differently from how we saw them before. The scene that seems to incense them the most is the old Time Lord at the Doctor's trial who seems to suffer from hearing loss and a bad leg. A being able to erase people out of existence with a mere thought can still suffer from such common physical ailments? It doesn't make sense!
By the end of Deadly Assassin, our perception of the Time Lords has been radically altered. But it's one that, very much, persists for the rest of the Classic and New Series. The Time Lords are more like intergalactic elder statesmen. They still try to act like they wield tremendous power but they're more like well-decorated bureaucrats. Impressive-looking with their high-necked collars and regal attitude - but not really capable of much in a tight situation. We see instances where some can prove a bit useful (both Borusa and the Castellan do a few neat tricks in The Invasion of Time). But, for the most part, the Time Lords seem almost frivolous, now.
The Big Question is: how did this happen? How did they go from god-like beings to near-useless politicians?
I propose that they were always like this. It just the way they were presented. Some of their briefer scenes that I mentioned earlier can be easily explained away. The emissaries in Terror of the Autons and Genesis of the Daleks did their vanishing tricks with a time scoop or something of that nature. The three councilmen in Colony In Space issue an order to an on-duty technician to re-activate the Doctor's TARDIS through some sort of remote process. It just occurs after the scene is over and we've cut elsewhere. Much of what is done in The Tree Doctors, of course, doesn't seem magical or god-like. The time manipulation is done through purely technical means by a Gallifreyan working at a console.
The War Games can be a bit trickier. But I think I've worked it out. The Time Lords were anxious that they would be allowing a savage, war-like species onto their planet in order to put them on trial. They set up a sort of reception center for them and created a special defense system that was keyed in to the specific brain patterns of the three Time Lords that made up the tribunal. Within the reception area, these Time Lords could trigger any number of strategically-placed forcefields or even certain weapons with mere mental commands. Sure, they could have positioned various guards in the area or had control panels to activate the features of the defense system but they wanted maximum safety as they dealt with the War Lords. You can't get more efficient than force fields and weaponry that responds to the very will of its users.
It turns out, of course, that the Time Lords made a good call. The War Lords did make an attempt to free their leader and, thanks to the special abilities granted to the Tribunal, no one was harmed. Once the trial was truly over, however, the defense system built into the reception area was shut back down. The tribunal (one of whom, we're pretty sure, was Chancellor Goth) went back to just being normal Time Lords. They were no longer capable of imprisoning people in force fields, or giving them migraines or d-matting them by mere concentration of will. It was a series of special powers granted to them due to the exceptional circumstances.
Our extra feeble witness at the trial in Deadly Assassin can also be explained. He was probably near the end of a regeneration and was trying to hold on to his current incarnation for as long as possible. When a Time Lord does this, his body will start developing minor problems such as hearing loss or a bad leg. He can seek normal medical help but it won't do him much good. These problems will continue to persist or even worsen if they don't trigger a regeneration soon. Time of the Doctor re-enforces the idea. As the Eleventh Doctor gets nearer to his regeneration - he becomes more dependent on the use of a cane.
RADICAL CHANGES IN FASHION AND DECOR
This is a similar issue to the one we just discussed but merits a sub-section of its own. From a purely aesthetic standpoint, the Time Lords have gone through some fairly radical changes that seem a bit inconsistent, too.
Most notable is the interior architecture of the Panopticon. When we first see Time Lords on Gallifrey, there's a definite 60s/70s sensibility going on. Lots of bright molded plastic makes up the bulk of their furnishings (obviously, this is not meant to just be plastic but some advanced "plastic-like" material). Admittedly though, their rooms also seem quite sparse and somewhat gloomy. Lots of black curtains hanging in the background (that are probably not meant to truly be curtains but advanced "curtain-like" substance). Deadly Assassin, once again, re-writes things a bit. A greater emphasis is placed on the gloominess. Sets are almost difficult to see cause they're so poorly-lit. This look continues with Invasion of Time. Bluish-green support columns seem to become quite the rage during this period, too.
But then we get to Arc of Infinity. It almost seems like we're not on the same planet anymore. Everything is so well-lit that shadows don't seem to exist. Sets are viciously ornate and over-elaborate. Time Lords seem to have gotten into art deco. This bold new style continues with The Five Doctors a short while, later. They turn the lights down slightly and give a bit of atmosphere to the space station in Trial of a Time Lord but it's still very different from the architecture we'd been seeing in earlier days.
The simplest answer to this harsh change during the 80s stories would be that the Time Lords like to redecorate once and again. Especially when you start considering the Doctor's personal timeline and the "age gaps" that we don't actually see on the show (for more information go to this entry: http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2016/03/fixing-continuity-glitches-doctors-age.html). Quite a few centuries may have gone by between Invasion of Time and Arc of Infinity, Giving the Time Lords plenty of time to change things up.
The problem, however, is that the Time Lords are known from their sense of stagnancy. Nothing ever seems to change on Gallifrey. This is part of what drove the Doctor away in the first place.. He was bored because everything stays the same. He needed a change of scenery. So it becomes hard to believe that such radical alterations to architecture could happen for a species so steeped in tradition.
I actually like to think that there's a sort symbiotic connection between the Lord President and the Panopticon. That the decor is a reflection of what is going on in the career of the leader of the Time Lords. If we take some of the dialogue from Deadly Assassin and extrapolate a bit, it makes a sort of sense. Sets for The War Games and The Three Doctors are a bit on the gloomy side because the current Lord President would have been in the twilight of his career, at the time. The growing darkness is symbolic of the impending end of his term. Sets are at their darkest during Assassin because the Lord President's term is over. Things still remain relatively gloomy in Invasion because a new proper Lord President hadn't been found, yet. The Doctor filling the office for so short a time did not enable the decor to start shifting in a new direction. Yes, specific craftsmen were set with the task of creating his office. But the overall structure of the building would've adapted to the mood the Lord President creates had the Doctor maintained his political position a bit longer.
When Borusa decides to just stand in for the Doctor, change can truly start to set in. We're now at the beginning of a Lord President's term: things become hopeful, again. To reflect that hope, everything becomes bright and shiny. The art deco motif would have even been reflective of Borusa's personality. He's a man of complexity so things become ornate with lots of extra frilly bits.
For some reason, this makes better sense to me. I'd prefer to think that the Time Lords are so advanced that their actual architecture has a sort of sentience to it that reflects what is going on in the politics of the creatures that inhabit it. It just seems like a way cooler explanation than: "Oh my God! Everything looks so drab! It's time to re-decorate!'. I just don't see the Time Lords having that sort of attitude towards the environment they live in. The buildings would need to re-set themselves from time-to-time because the Time Lords would never get around to doing it of their own volition. They might make minor alterations to a single room here and again. Particularly if it was someone else's office that they have now taken over. But I can't see them trying to make bigger changes than that. So the architecture changes itself.
A similar problem presents itself with fashion. From War Games to Genesis of the Daleks, it's fairly simple robes that use a black and white pattern (or, in the case of the Time Lord on Skaro - all black). But in Deadly Assassin, we get these more elaborate and colorful robes with their high-necked collars. In every appearance after this story, this becomes the official outfit of the Time Lords.
A piece of dialogue said by Runcible in Assassin makes this a fairly easy fix. He does point out that the Time Lords are in full ceremonial garb. So the clothing of the Time Lords that we've been seeing before this was something a bit less formal. I'm guessing that this might also have something to do with the Lord President. The one that retires and gets assassinated was into Casual Fridays and allowed the Time Lords to enjoy much more leisure wear most of the time. Again, this might have something to do with him being so near to the end of his career. He's more lenient because he's on his way out. But the Lord Presidents that come in after him stand on a greater sense of occasion and require their subjects to always be in full ceremonial costume. Had Borusa or whoever follows him that gets deposed in Trial of a Time Lord gotten more time in office, we might have seen them become more lax in dress code. But newer Lord Presidents tend to make the populace dress up better.
CONSISTENCY IN NEW WHO
Surprisingly enough, Time Lord fashion and architecture in New Who strongly resemble how they looked when we last saw them in the Classic Series. There's a bit less 80s sensibilities going on, but the same basic patterns remain. We're seeing a lot of art deco and colorful robes and high collars are also prominent.
The only thing that has changed all that radically are the military uniforms. This makes sense, though. Soldiers would need a totally different set of gear from what they wore prior to the Time Wars. Those uniforms were far more ceremonial. Now they would need something practical for combat.
Sets do appear a bit darker and gloomier. We see a fair amount of black curtains again. If we're going with my whole "sentient decor" theory then the heavy shadows might be symbolizing the somber qualities of the Time Wars. Whereas the ornate furnishings are a reflection of Rassilon's tastes. Like many other Lord Presidents, he likes things complicated.
So that's a few more continuity issues addressed. I think we'll get a third installment in this series as we keep moving through July. If nothing else, I'd like to look at the temporal mess that happened with Mel at the end of Trial of a Time Lord. But I'm sure I'll find a few other things to pick apart if I look hard enough....
Some more stuff I've written about Time Lords:
History of Gallifrey -
Part 1
http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2015/10/chronologies-and-timelines-history-of.html
Part 2:
http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2015/11/chronologies-and-timelines-history-of.html
Part 3:
http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2016/02/chronologies-and-timelines-history-of.html
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