Doctor Who: Is The Doctor Better Off With Gallifrey Gone?

By J. R. Frontera | Jul 22, 2015

This question has come up a time or two in discussion with fellow Whovians, and I thought I might explore the possibilities a little bit here, and then see what YOU think.

At first, my own answer to the question, “Is The Doctor better off with Gallifrey gone?” was “Yes”. I suppose it seems cruel to say, but as a viewer (and as a storyteller), I enjoy the dynamic of The Doctor always having this planet-sized issue hanging over his head. The personal role he had in its being locked away from the rest of the universe brings a nice brooding flavor to his personality. Just ask anyone who knows me: the broodier, the better.

But it’s not just that. Gallifrey being lost gives the show a very large over-arching plot element that is able to explored repeatedly in many different ways. Just look at how it was approached in the episode ‘The End of Time‘ versus the epsisode ‘The Time of the Doctor.’

And giving The Doctor this ultimate goal– to someday find Gallifrey again, and maybe bring it back from the Time Lock– gives Doctor Who a cohesive, unified feel, even though all of its episodes might be very different. It’s something we always know he’s working toward, although he might not deal with it directly every week.

But I suppose all of these points are really why Gallifrey being gone is good for the show, so let’s think about The Doctor himself as an individual.

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It’s probably not healthy to be responsible for putting your planet into a Time Lock, or to be the only known Time Lord left outside of that eternally-at-war pocket universe. Imagine how you would feel if you were the last known human out in the vast reaches of space, and knew your home planet might be lost to you forever.

That would be quite depressing. And incredibly lonely.

On the other hand, the other Time Lords we’ve seen up until this point seem to be kind of … well … they come across as being mostly a bunch of jerks, really. While investigating both the good and bad aspects of The Doctor’s past, present, and future deeds is one of my favorite things to explore on Doctor Who, I think most Whovians (except for maybe Steven Moffat) generally agree The Doctor is a good individual. After all, he gave up his entire homeworld to save the universe!

And yet the High Council of Time Lords put him on trial. They drove The Master mad with the sound of drums, using him as nothing more than a communications buoy from the time he was a child. They risked the safety and stability of the universe for their own agenda more than once.

A lot of times, I find myself wondering how The Doctor is even one of them.

So despite the incredible loneliness and the haunting guilt, maybe The Doctor really is better off without Gallifrey.

Maybe that’s why the rest of the Time Lords need to come back! Can you imagine the kind of conflict that could bring up in future episodes? The Doctor once again butting heads with the High Council? Him getting blackmailed by them again, perhaps? The Doctor running into other Time Lords while out and about on his adventures, finding them always meddling in things in which they don’t belong?

The more I think about it, the more I think there might not be a solid answer to this question. Is The Doctor better off with Gallifrey gone? Yes and no. Is Doctor Who more interesting as a show with Gallifrey gone? Possibly. But I can definitely see the potential for a lot of great plot fodder should the Time Lords ever return.

What do YOU think? Do you think The Doctor is better off with Gallifrey gone? Or should the Time Lords make a triumphant return and stir things up a little?

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