Doctor Who: What Happens When Gallifrey is Found?
By David Hill
One of the bigger questions since it was revealed that Gallifrey was not destroyed in the Last Great Time War is where, exactly, is the Doctor’s home planet currently. It is supposed to be hidden away in a pocket universe somewhere, but where would that be? The end of Series Eight showed the Doctor attempting to locate the planet based on the coordinates given by Missy, but only found an empty stretch of space. Will Gallifrey ever return to Doctor Who?
Let us suppose that, at some point in the future, the Doctor does manage to locate Gallifrey. There would likely be a truly uplifting moment where the Doctor visits with his friends and received the thanks of a great many other Time Lords. He will take his companion, whoever that may be at the time, for a journey around his favorite places, ecstatic to finally be able to show off his home planet. Indeed, it will be a joyous time.
But what then? What would happen in the aftermath? It would not take long for news of Gallifrey’s return to reach the enemies of the Doctor and the Time Lords, meaning that squadrons of Daleks, Cybermen and other assorted beings would be vying for the bragging rights of removing Gallifrey from existence once and for all. The Time War would begin anew, leaving the Doctor to find yet another way to end the violence and save his people.
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While it is understandable that the Doctor would want to find Gallifrey and bring his home back into existence, this may be one of the few examples where the Twelfth Doctor is letting his heart(s) get in the way of logic. It is certainly understandable why that would be the case; the Doctor would be able to go home once again and the sheer joy that he would feel would make for quite the interesting episode of Doctor Who.
As the Doctor has spent his lives protecting the innocent and saving others, the idea that he could hunt for a place that would almost instantly cause another catastrophic war is a bit outside of his character. However, in this case, one can expect that rational thinking need not apply. Gallifrey is out there somewhere, and the Doctor is determined to find out where.
If/when this happens, another Great Time War is likely to occur. But in those moments before the inevitable, the Doctor may find that peace of mind that he has been searching for since the new incarnation of Doctor Who began.