#gin-seng cats

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

What do you know about the biology of he Killer Cats of Gin-Seng, other than their prophetic and psychic abilities?

🐱 Who are the Gin-Seng cats?

The Killer Cats of Gin-Seng are a race of humanoid cats that live on Gallifrey alongside Gallifreyans. They're quite rarely encountered, however, they did once try to wage an uprising against Gallifreyans and failed.

👀 What is the tapetum lucidum?

The tapetum lucidum is a real-world feature of the eye in many Earth-dwelling species that helps to enhance night vision by reflecting visible light back through the retina. This is what causes eyes to shine in the dark when illuminated. It's commonly found in species like cats and dogs, but not in humans.

🔍 How might Gin-Seng cat physiology look?

We don't know much about these creatures' physiology because they are rarely seen. However, we do know they are primarily felines and do possess normal feline traits such as claws, fangs, and fur.

(Dee Robson's designs for the cancelled serial Killers of the Dark, DWM 336)

This (if we presume that they are similar to Earth felines) in turn might make them feature more cat-like traits:

Sensory Abilities: Apart from their prophetic abilities, these beings might have heightened senses compared to Gallifreyans. Their olfactory and auditory senses could be highly developed, offering them a different perception of the world around them.

Muscular and Skeletal System: They might have a muscular system that grants them agility and power, paired with a skeletal system that allows for fluid and graceful movements. Their physical prowess could be a vital part of their lifestyle, potentially being adept hunters and a social system that relies on the physical.

Cognitive Abilities: While they are known for their psychic abilities, they might also have a unique way of processing information, perhaps being more intuitive and reactive like cats and less reliant on logical reasoning than Gallifreyans.

Carnivorous diet: Being primarily feline, the Gin-Seng cats may prefer a carnivorous diet, relying heavily on the consumption of meat. Their digestive systems could be optimised to process meat efficiently, with a potentially shorter digestive tract compared to omnivorous species.

Crepuscular behaviour: They might also exhibit crepuscular behaviour, being most active during dawn and dusk. This could involve a series of nocturnal rituals or hunting patterns that make use of the quiet and cooler temperatures of Gallifreyan nights.

Additionally, being creatures who have apparently evolved on Gallifrey alongside Gallifreyans, they may have time sensitivities, which could account for their prophetic abilities and could also suggest more unknown abilities.

Why do some Houses have tapetum lucidums?

House Arpexia is where the Corsair hails from, who has especially prominent tapeta lucida. There could be a wide range of reasons for this:

Theory 1: Everyone's got them - There's nothing to suggest other Houses don't possess tapeta lucida at all, since we do know Gallifreyans have improved night vision. Let's note that the eye shine induced by tapetum lucidum can vary in colour. Could different Gallifreyan houses have distinct eye-shine colours, each hinting at a different biochemical composition of the tapeta lucida? Could some be duller than others, so you don't even notice? Maybe the bloodline of the Corsair and some in Arpexia just have more predisposition for this particular trait, like some people can roll their tongue and others can't.

Theory 2: Historical hang-ups - Delving a bit further, we could also theorise that the distinct biological traits among different houses/bloodlines have roots in their unique roles and functions in ancient Gallifreyan society. Could the prominence of the tapeta lucida in certain houses be a clue to their historical or current involvement in night-time endeavours or secret missions?

Theory 3: Selective breeding - Maybe some Houses embraced selective breeding/looming to nurture certain traits, enhancing characteristics over generations?

Theory 4: Biological alteration - Arpexia is a very scientific house and part of the House Military. Whether for experimentation or military purposes, they may have intentionally altered some biodata to enhance their cousins? After all, gotta keep up with House Xianthellipse ...!

Theory 5: Interbreeding - Or perhaps it's far more carnal, and at one point in their history, a Gallifreyan had a saucy night with a Gin-Seng cat over a glass of Rassilon's Red and a bowl of Sheba?

These are, of course, ALL theories. Could there be other underlying reasons that dictate the variation in the prominence of tapeta lucida among the Gallifreyan houses? Could there be more physiological traits of Gin-Seng cats? Answers on a postcard, as the human saying goes.

Related:

Factoid: Do Gallifreyans share any biology with cats?

How do Gallifreyan Houses influence abilities and traits?: Looking at the Harry Potter-style system for Gallifreyan kids.

What are the top ten Houses for weird biology?: How Houses affect biological traits in Gallifreyan society, ranked by weirdness.

Hope that helped! 😃

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[doctornolonger]

The Killer Cats of Gin-Seng

In Survival, the last regular serial of Classic Doctor Who, the Doctor and Ace visit a planet of humanoid cats called “Cheetah People”. The Cheetah People are highly telepathic: they can mentally control and inhabit their pet cats, and they can even teleport between planets. Most notably, one of them is played by Lisa Barrowman, better known as Bernice Summerfield.

But this wasn’t actually the first time that humanoid cats had been set to appear in Doctor Who. In 1977, script editor Anthony Read commissioned his former collaborator David Weir to write the Season 15 finale, a four-part serial set on Gallifrey. The request was to explore society outside the Capitol with an emphasis on morality, a theme which Weir had written well in the past. So he pitched a story about Gallifreyan civilization of humanoid cats.

The Gallifreyan cat-people would have mirrored real-world cats’ dual penchant for both sophistication and savagery: they would appear advanced and civilized until the Doctor wound up in one of their elaborate gladiatorial displays! Weir delivered his scripts on time, and production proceeded to the point that Dee Robson designed costumes for the cat actors.

Ultimately the story was cancelled: Weir, by all accounts an excellent screenwriter, dramatically overestimated the show’s VFX capabilities and budget. But executive producer Graham Williams later mentioned the idea at a fan convention, so it became well-known in fandom (albeit under the false name The Killer Cats of Geng Singh). As a result, when Survival finally brought cat people to screens, fans naturally canonwelded the two.

One of these fans was Adrian Middleton, editor of the Apocrypha fanzine. Here’s how Apocrypha issue 1 covered the cats:

Apocrypha on the Killer Cats

THE GIANT CATS     -16,000,000

The first intelligent mammalians on Gallifrey evolved from its version of the sabre-toothed Tiger. These giant cats developed a rudimentary form of empathic communication, which allowed them to influence the actions of their prey.

Over an extended period of time, the cats developed a finer telepathic ability, allowing them to actually control other species. This became a necessity as feline culture grew, as their physiological form prevented the use of tools to build or write with. Thus, in spite of their intelligence, the cats could not establish a true civilisation without anthropoid assistance.

FELINOID CIVILISATION     -14,000,000

Early Gallifreyan hominids soon became the tools of feline culture. The first buildings on the planet were built by hominids but designed by cats, taking the form of vast stone arenas, in which the cats would use lesser species for sport - hunting and killing for pleasure rather than survival.

HOMINIDS     -14,000,000/-13,980,000

Forced to live alongside saurian and feline predators, Gallifrey's first hominid tribes evolved as creatures of guile and stealth. Communities were established using primitive communications. These hominids were the cave-people, the tree-people, and the river-people.

THE FALL OF THE GIANT CATS     -13,980,000

The hominid tribes had at first been easy prey for the cats, easily manipulated as a supply of muscle and food. Ultimately, however, the development of feline culture accelerated the development of hominid culture. Being made to use their hands and having the telepathic parts of their minds manipulated awakened a new sense of purpose within them. Seeing the cats as their slavers, they rebelled, exposing the cats to a coup so bloody that the species was all but wiped from the face of the planet.

THE LEGEND OF THE VANISHING CATS     -13,800,000

It is rumoured that, after their defeat by the hominids, the giant cats fled to the mountains, where they hoped to restore their numbers (perhaps in an effort to restore their power over the hominids). Often hunting parties would venture into these mountains, bringing back the occasional cat. It seemed that the mental strength of the hominids had come to match their feline contemporaries.

Other psychic powers were attributed to the cats, including the power of teleportation. In Gallifrey's southern hemisphere, atop one of its highest mountains, there stands a crudely erected stone circle. Gallifreyan archaeologists determined that this was built by the cats themselves. Legend states that the giant cats emigrated by mass teleportation to another worlds. Few giant cats were seen from this time on, and those that did appear bore no telepathic powers. However, smaller domestic cats, or Kitlings, retained this ability.

WHY LINK THE KITLINGS FROM 'SURVIVAL' WITH THE KILLER CATS OF GALLIFREY?

The 'cat' theme is one that has been expanded on greatly in recent years. Colin Baker's cat motif and 'I am the cat that walks alone' slogan, followed by Eric Saward's novelisation of 'Slipback', set a pace followed by 'Survival' and the 'Cat's Cradle' trilogy.

Upon learning about 'The Killer Cats of Ginseng' by David Weir, everything seemed to fit into place. Cats can't exist everywhere in the universe, they have to come from somewhere - we have Earth cats, and Gallifrey has telepathic or empathic cats, just like the Kitlings.

Commentary

Since the 90s, a few stories have referenced the killer cats idea. Gary Russell’s VMA Invasion of the Cat-People mentions “mercenaries of Gin-Seng” alongside the Cheetah People in a list of felinoid species (hence the “canonical” spelling); there’s a similar offhand mention in Big Finish’s Erasure. But there’s only been one actual appearance of one of the cats: Daniel O’Mahony’s Faction Paradox short story “The Return of the King” (pdf).

“The Return of the King” is a prelude to the author’s 2008 novel Newtons Sleep. In that book there’s a glimpse of “the nocturnal delegations of the wild things, whose sharp bright teeth and claws gleamed in the dark of their robes.” The prelude elaborates,

[Time Lord Thessalia’s] oracle stays at the window, seething playfully below his hood. He has fiercely intelligent eyes, neither as sharp nor as bright as his scar. His mouth is a succulent white smile in a lightless face. His people have nothing but contempt for the rituals of the Great Houses. She’s little better than prey to him, a bloodless snack for his long teeth and hungry mind. He breathes, honeyed air purring out of the cavities of his body.

A killer cat kept as a Time Lord’s personal oracle … as @rassilon-imprimatur​ once noted, a funny recontextualization of The Mark of the Rani’s reference to the Lord President’s “pet cat”!

This was my first exposure to the killer cats, so I always took it for granted that they’d always had psychic or oracular abilities. But in fact, as best as I can tell, there was zero hint of this in the original serial. I tracked down every published description of the story, and they all amount to the same few repeated bits of information: Gallifrey, humanoid cats, and a gladiatorial arena. Richard Bignell ultimately told me, “No summary of Killers of the Dark exists. Even David Weir couldn’t recall anything about it when I spoke to him.”

So when “The Return of the King” features an oracular cat-man, it’s not just a reference to the unmade Classic serial. It’s a reference to fan interpretations like Middleton’s which canonweld that serial with the psychic Cheetah People.

And in some ways, it seems to be referencing Middleton’s version specifically! In “The Return of the King”, the above quoted memory is interrupted by commentary:

Your first oracle? ‘My last.’ You think? But his kind were vanishing from the world. ‘They were escaping the War. They could see it coming.’

Compare:

Legend states that the giant cats emigrated by mass teleportation to another worlds. Few giant cats were seen from this time on, and those that did appear bore no telepathic powers.

And so Middleton explains how the cats vanished in O’Mahony’s telling, and O’Mahony explains why they vanished.

Afterword

While we’re on the topic of why, why did O’Mahony choose to revive this specific idea in “The Return of the King”?

One of the places I checked for Killers of the Dark details was issue 336 of Doctor Who Magazine. Imagine how thrilled I was to find that the relevant “Accidental Tourist” piece, located one page after a Faction Paradox ad, was written by none other than O’Mahony himself!

Part of his reflection was particularly striking. He recaps the wild undefinedness of the Doctor’s backstory, a topic I’ve discussed before on this blog. But in his telling, the uncertainty extends past The War Games all the way to The Deadly Assassin.

After all, The War Games declared that “the Doctor’s people are the Time Lords”, but “who are the Time Lords?” was still left undefined. In the Time Lords’ many subsequent appearances, they were simply walking plot devices, and lore details were left to the wayside. Contradictions were rife. Who was Rassilon to Omega? Is their planet called “Gallifrey” or “Jewel”? Who or what on earth are the “First”, “Second”, and “Third Time Lord” who exiled the Doctor?

It was The Deadly Assassin which first dove into the details by featuring the Time Lords like they were any other of the show’s alien cultures. And for this, it was widely panned: “the fans had voted it the worst story of Season Fourteen and published reviews vociferously attacking its ‘betrayal’ of the Time Lords. The BBC practically disowned it, physically vandalising the master tape to placate Mary Whitehouse.” In other words, the stage was all set for a discarding of Holmes’ Time Lords.

O’Mahony writes in his conclusion,

The Deadly Assassin could have remained a one-off, its vision of the Doctor’s homeworld set at odds not just with the Gallifrey stories of the past but also those of the future. The Killer Cats of Geng Singh was the last chance to slip the leash. Williams loved the Time Lords but he had a raft of other ideas he could have put into play, not least the frustratingly deferred Guardians who were clearly intended as a new rung of the series cosmology above and beyond the Time Lords. The premise of Killer Cats was also to counterpoint the Time Lords with another Gallifreyan species – a race of humanoid cats that delighted in bloodthirsty gladiatorial contests alongside a highly refined culture. This wasn’t cribbing from The Deadly Assassin, this was building something new that would expand the newly-forged mythology of the series. In fact, with the cat-people on board and the Guardians waiting in the wings, the possibilities for Time Lord mythology were fluid. It might be possible to return to Gallifrey and find something new and exciting each time, different Gallifreys, with a mutable and ever-expanding history.

However, thanks to Killers of the Dark’s cancellation, Williams and Read were left with a slot to fill on short notice, and for The Invasion of Time they ultimately turned back to Holmes’ ideas. The Deadly Assassin wasn’t discarded or undermined, it was reentrenched.

This was the real moment that the Time Lords as we know them were crystallized: a real-world anchoring of the thread. This was when the whimsically-named planet “Gallifrey” definitively transformed into the rationalistic, stagnant, bureaucratic Homeworld that would feature in the Faction Paradox series.

Because in FP, by the time Grandfather Paradox enters the scene, the Great Houses are total strangers to whismy. It’s only through the course of the War that their understanding of the cosmos is broadened and stranger things begin to return to the Homeworld (with great vengeance).

By showing us a cat in the flesh, O’Mahony is finishing the housekeeping: just as the Intuitive Revelation banished the Pythia, the Eremites, and the Carnival Queen; just as the Grey Eminence unwrote Gallifrey’s first childbirth; and just as the Eternals “despaired of this reality, and fled their hallowed halls” at first hint of conflict – the Killer Cats have to leave to set the scene for the War to come.

P.S.

In Baker’s End, Tom Baker wound up “the King of Cats”. What does this imply about the Other?!?

[gallifreyanhotfive]

Currently beating you with my paws like I'm from the Gin-Seng region in the southern mountains of Gallifrey

[intuitive-revelations]

As I've mentioned in a previous post, I've been thinking a lot about the exact chronology of ancient Gallifrey, and specifically I've put a lot of attention on the Caldera and the Citadel, plus related things like the Eye of Harmony, the Crevasse of Memories That Will Be, the Untempered Schism etc.

All these things seem to be located in the same place on Gallifrey, albeit some at different times, and often overlap in nature. After some thinking, I think I've worked how everything goes together, as well as the order of events. At some point I want to create a fully history, but for the sake of this we'll focus primarily on the subjects above, with some other major events sprinkled in for context.

A Very Brief History of the Capitol

[ID: Surviving parts of the old Capitol, in an illustration from Lungbarrow. Crystal-like towers and walkways stand over a waterfall. The TARDIS, in pyramid form, dematerialises.]

Pythian Era - The capital city is built near the Mountains of Solace and Solitude (likely, in antiquity, a stronghold against the Gin-Seng cats to the south). Beneath the Pythia's temple, in the centre of the city, is the Cavern of Prophecy. Within the cave is a deep, deep opening known as the Crevasse of Memories That Will Be, which holds, in the astral plane, something known as the Gate of the Future, a tear into the time vortex far greater than the similar natural rifts that occur elsewhere on Gallifrey. Time flows out from it, from the future, to the past Gallifrey. In times of meditation, the Pythia sits in a hanging cage above the Crevasse, breathing in the rising vapours, which aid her in her clairvoyance.

[ID: Gif edit made by me, featuring the last Pythia sat in a small cage slowly swinging in a chasm as a mist slowly rises around her.]

The Intuitive Revelation - The Neotechnologists, led by Rassilon, bring a revolution. The Pythia curses Gallifrey with sterility and cuts the ropes holding her cage, falling into the abyss. The Gate of the Future inverts, forming the Gate of the Past. Visibly, the Doppler-effect like colouring of the vortex changes - no longer red, flowing towards the viewer, but blue and flowing away (ironically directionally the reverse of the real Doppler effect). Time from the new future flowing into the chaotic past.

The new government take control of the Capitol. A new age of space exploration arises, with the Shobogans taking on the name, for now, of "Space Lords". One of these first individual explorers, semi-authorised predecessors to future Time Lord renegades, is a woman named Tecteun.

The First Attempt - The stellar engineers, including Rassilon and Omega, make their first attempt at capturing the energy of a collapsing star, recieving the energy on Gallifrey using an obelisk, like that later used to channel energy from the Eye of Harmony, in the middle of the city, using the nature of the Crevasse.

The experiment is a catastrophic failure. A hole is punctured into the Spiral Yssgaroth, unleashing Vampires through openings throughout the universe, fracturing out from the experiment.

[ID: From The Book of the War, an illustration of the "Eyes of the Yssgaroth", human-like eyeballs looking through holes punctured into spacetime.]

Part of the Old Capitol is destroyed in a great blast, destroying the Cavern of Prophecy and opening up the Crevasse, leaving a giant crater: the Caldera. It is likely that many are killed. Left behind in the middle of the crater, is the Gate of the Past, now manifest in the physical world: an open gap in reality. In this form, it becomes known as the Untempered Schism.

(I also suspect this is when Rassilon is forced to regenerate for the first time, to the shock of on-lookers, having secretly previously recieved Tecteun's genetic modifications - I plan to expand on this theory in a future post.)

The Vampire War / Rebuilding of the Capitol - The exact circumstances of the experiment are covered up. Rassilon, leaving to fight the Vampire hoard, swears Omega to secrecy regarding the project during the Arcalian High Council's investigation.

[ID: A gif, rotating around the Citadel is constructed over the Caldera, from part of the (likely partially-symbolic) time-lapse in The Timeless Children.]

Though some of the city survives, including parts of the Pythian temple, a new colossal city-complex begins construction in the place of the old one, suspended over the Caldera, the centrepiece of the new Capitol: the Citadel. It is built as a defensive structure, both for the war, and to protect the new, growing elite, surrounded by a great circular wall named "Rassilon's Rampart". The "core" of the structure, on which the towers rest, reaches down deep into Caldera and the deeper Crevasse.

Meanwhile the Untempered Schism is taken out of the city by those fearing further destruction, to a place in the nearby hills that will one day be known as the Weeping Field, where prospective Time Academy students are initiated.

[ID: The Untempered Schism in the Doctor's time, as seen in The Sound of Drums. It sits in a stone frame on red grass, with the Seal of Rassilon in front of it, and flames on either side. Within it, the blue "past" variant of the RTD1-era time vortex flows away from the viewer. The Citadel's lights are visible in the background.]

(Side note: it's possible the Untempered Schism's 'ring' is deliberately designed to evoke the Caldera. Note how it's lined with pieces sticking out. Look a bit like the battlements on Rassilon's Rampart, don't they? Surrounding the hole into the vortex just as they surround the crater.)

The Anchoring of the Thread - Several centuries later, once the Vampires are more or less defeated, Rassilon returns home. He coups Pandak I, forcing him to resign, and takes the Presidency.

By now the Citadel is more or less completed, though for the next few centuries it still lacks its characteristic dome, likely added during a later founding conflict.

[ID: Gallifrey, around the time the first TARDISes are grown, from The Lost Dimension. In the background past a small outsider village is the Citadel, new and gleaming, but undomed.]

The Triumvirate retry their experiment at Qqaba / Polyphilos, attempting to capture the collapsed star. When the experiment goes wrong once more, Omega's ship falls inside, as spacetime threatens to crack open again. With temporal energy flowing though him (a la the Bad Wolf), Rassilon reshapes the laws of physics, forming an event horizon, and black holes as we know them.

The black hole is dimensionally captured and suspended in the moment it collapses and the event horizon is formed, creating the Eye of Harmony, controlled using the Obelisk of Rassilon storied in the Panopticon Vaults. Meanwhile, the black hole itself is suspended within the temporal singularity of the Caldera, deep below the Citadel.

Harnessing the power of the Eye and the Caldera rift, Rassilon "anchors" chronology around Gallifrey, creating the Web of Time and placing it under the control of the Gallifreyans, now Time Lords.

Future Developments - Over the years, many changes come to Rassilon's Gallifrey.

Over the years, the more and more of the old city is replaced with new towers, forming the new Capitol around a now domed Citadel. Interweaved with these buildings over 28 square miles is much of the new Time Academy, such that the Academy is sometimes considered a whole city itself annexed to the Citadel.

While the remnants of the Pythian Temple are eventually torched by Rassilon, hunting down dissenters, many old buildings remain intact. These continue to be inhabited far into the future, in a community known as "Low Town" or the "Lower Len", as opposed to the "upper" city above. Shanties surround the surviving buildings, some climbing up Rassilon's Rampart.

Another such community is based around the "Old Harbour", whcih once sat on the coast of the now recessed Sea of Time. Nowadays, it likely sits on the shore of the small (possibly designed) lakes near the Capitol, where streams from the mountains presumably once drained directly into the sea.

[ID: From Hell Bent: a screencap as Rassilon turns from looking out the window from an Inner Council chamber high above the Capitol. In the background can be seen some lakes between the mountains, with some signs of what might be buildings on their shores.]

(Side note: I reckon this shot above might actually give us a glimpse of Old Harbour. I might just be imagining things, but there's some small features around and on the lakes I reckon could be docks or buildings? Interestingly, this also comes as Rassilon asks about the Cloister Bells ringing, and Old Habour is well known for the bells in its clocktower, which might explain why Rassilon was looking out at it from the window.)

In the space around the Eye in the Caldera, the Cloisters, the core of the APC net and later the Matrix, are constructed. The structure itself is, externally at least, relatively small, but it generates an entire 'micro-universe' on the Astral plane once accessed by the Pythia. Indeed, just as the Crevasse once allowed the meditating Pythia to see the future, so does the Matrix create its own prophecies.

[ID: From Hell Bent, the Doctor and Ohila converse in the entranceway to the Cloisters, a dark space with glowing optic fibres running across cobwebbed columns.]

In the Matrix is a "womb-like" null-space is where most TARDISes are grown, taking advantages of the Caldera's spatio-temporal properties. Budding within the Citadel Cloisters, a TARDIS's "Cloister Room" is one of the first parts to grow.

By the time of the Time War, though possibly earlier, the sealed Caldera also forms the resting site for many dying Battle TARDISes, the Under Croft, where they presumably decay and fertilise the growth of new time ships.

[rassilon-imprimatur]

The revelation in The Return of the King and Newtons Sleep that the Great Houses used the Killer Cats of Gin-Seng Gallifrey as oracles and as “wild things” living in the forgotten corners of chapterhouses, yet still called them simple things like “stray cats” could actually be used (and should be used) to massively recontextualize what exactly The Mark of the Rani meant when it told us the Rani’s giant mice ate the Lord President’s “pet cat.” 

[hellostarlight20]

Down the Lonely Road

Tenth Doctor Pre-Season 3 Angst. Nothing but angst.

900 words of angst. Just so you know.

 The Doctor sat in yet another room he had shown Rose. After Ancient Rome and the statue, and—they’d spent time here, talking, wandering. Together. He sat in this room an offshoot of an offshoot of who knew where in the TARDIS. He sat there and stared at the Gallifreyan art he’d managed to collect over the years.

 He wasn’t even sure how he’d managed that.

 But here it was, lining endless walls, sculptures on the floors, hanging from the ceiling. There were stuffy Time Lords still given to creativity. Not many, not by his time, but art was a form of civilization and the Time Lords prided themselves on being civilized.

 The Doctor lashed out. Struck the closest item and smashed his arm through the transdimensional painting. The glass shattered but he didn’t care.

 Rage choked him, clawing at his throat. Blinded him. Cut off his air. He screamed, picked up a statue of a Cat of Gin-Seng, one of the sentient cats-like species of Gallifrey and hurled it into a wall.

 He didn’t even hear it crash though he watched the heavy stone shatter. His ears rang with rage.

With unending sorry and heartbreak and grief and loneliness.

 Breathing heavy, hearts beating erratically, the Doctor crumpled to the ground.

 “Why?” he heard himself ask.

 The word repeated over and over, a litany of unanswered questions.

 Why? Why her—why Rose—why his Rose—why-why-why?

 He thought he heard the TARDIS sing mournfully, a comfort of loss, tears of their joint pain. That might’ve been his own crushing sorrow.

 Gasping for breath, unable to fill his binary system no matter how he tried, the Doctor crawled from the room into the corridor. Across to another door.

 The gardens. They spent so much time here. Together. Laughing. Talking. Exploring his ship—his home. Their home.

 “No.” The Doctor scrambled backward, tripping over himself, falling to the hallway when he didn’t even remember standing. “NO!”

 The door vanished.

 His pain did not.

 His throat burned, and his ears once more rang with his own screams. His hands throbbed from hitting the wall or the floor. He couldn’t tell any longer.

 And suddenly the TARIDS shuddered and jerked out of the vortex where they floated for days. Weeks. Years. The Doctor didn’t know and didn’t care.

 Nothing else mattered.

 Not anymore.

 His beloved ship shuddered and…landed

 Guilt twisted his stomach. Or pain or grief or self-loathing or any number of emotions he was certainly in no position to deal with. He didn’t need to look at the monitor to know what happened.

 “I told you I don’t want to be here!” He screamed at his ship, rage pouring out of him, spewing forth with an energy he hadn’t felt since—since... “I don’t want to be here! I never want to see this planet again!”

 She’d landed several times. Places he needed, or She thought he did. Memories.

 New Earth—he peeked out of the TARDIS doors and slammed them shut as soon as he saw the skyline.

Powell Estate—he hadn’t even opened the doors then, merely looked at the building on the monitor then ripped the thing off its hinges.

Women Wept—he’d never return there. Not ever again. No matter how beautiful or how cherished the memories.

 Storming into the console room, determined to stop—just stop everything. His ship, his mind, his aching hearts, his shredded soul, he grabbed the grating and yanked up. Tossed it away. Another piece. Another.

 No more, he couldn’t—he just couldn’t.

 Paper fluttered up at him. Notes.

 Doctor, don’t forget the milk.

Doctor, we’re out of blackberry jam from that planet with the flying lizards that are apparently not dinosaurs.

Doctor, stop tinkering and go to sleep. Even Time Lords need sleep.

Doctor, come find me when you see this. I’m in the library.

 He collapsed onto the remaining grating and clutched Rose’s handwritten notes to his chest. To his hearts. He’d forgotten he’d saved them, kept them in a neat pile as if they were love letters. Eyes closed against tears he hadn’t shed since that final goodbye, he breathed in the faint scent of her perfume and the ink she liked from Merida IV.

 Smoothest pen in the universe, she said.

 He’d bought her a dozen of them.

 “I don’t want to be on Earth.”

 He looked at Rose’s notes but spoke to the TARDIS. Broken.

 She beeped, sympathetically, but insistently.

 “Please don’t make me.”

 Another beep.

 Slowly he opened his eyes and looked to the monitor. Damn ship, She’d replaced it—again—and now angled it so he could see the plasma coils attached to the hospital.

 “I don’t want to.”

 The Doctor buried his face in Rose’s notes and allowed himself one final moment of—grief and pain and love and emotion and hope and sorrow and happiness and Rose.

 “Rose.”

 Fingers infinitely gentle, the Doctor carefully placed Rose’s notes in a neat stack and placed them gently on the console. One finger caressed the loopy letters of his name in her writing. Then he sniffed everything back, behind his Time Lord façade, behind his smile, behind his tattered shield.

 Whirling for his room, he quickly showered and changed. He wouldn’t wear this shirt or tie again. They were Rose’s favorite. Never again.

 Less than fifteen minutes later, he walked out of the TARDIS and toward the hospital and its mysterious plasma coils.

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

What native Gallifreyan species are there?

Gallifrey has a diverse range of fauna, both native and introduced. Despite claims of minimal ecological impact, the installation of the Eye of Harmony and millions of years of Time Lord civilisation have significantly altered Gallifrey's original biosphere.

🦋 Invertebrates

Beatitude Flies: Begin as maggots and pupate into golden-winged nocturnal insects. They use nectar to create helium in their bellies and are attracted to light and decay.

Butterflies: Various species flutter across Gallifrey.

Bees: Essential for pollination.

Gullet Grubs: Likely to live in digestive tracts of larger mammals, or similar environments.

Blossom Thieves: Possibly insects that steal nectar or pollen.

Scrubblers: Likely small, cleaning insects.

Neversuch Beetles, Sandbeetles, Waspbeetles: Various beetles.

Dustworms: Likely live in dry, dusty environments.

Scissors Bugs: Possibly predatory insects with sharp mandibles.

Flutterwings: Gigantic insects (3 meters by 25 meters) that never land. Five races include Wild Endeavor, Mandrigal, Silver-Band, Blue Crystal, and Perdition.

Snails

Water-Sligs: Likely aquatic or semi-aquatic molluscs.

Web-Spinning Insects: Including spiders about an inch long.

Other dangerous invertebrates: There are also nasty creatures that live beneath big stones.

🐟 Marine Life

Singing Yaddlefish: Notable for their song, and they can be eaten.

Kittensharks: Hatch from eggs and presumably grow into Catsharks.

Axolotl Salamanders: Amphibious creatures with regenerative abilities.

🐍 Elapids

Taipan: A venomous snake, 10 metres long.

Venal Snakes: Possibly nest-stealers or highly venomous.

Bat-Snakes: Presumably flying snakes.

Dinosauria: 20-meter-long reptiles resembling brontosaurs with thick chitinous scales and serrated teeth.

🦅 Avians

Owls: Symbol of Rassilon.

Flurry Birds: Likely small, fast-moving birds.

Trunkikes: Game birds whose eggs are often eaten.

Air Diamonds: Fly in the upper atmosphere, possibly crystalline or bioluminescent.

Song Birds: Various species.

Gargantosaurs: Dinosaur-like creatures, twice the size of a hab-bloc, with two legs, vestigial wings (with purple and white feathers), and four eyes.

🦣 Mammals

Plungbolls: Thumbnail-sized furry creatures living in mountains, attach en masse to warm objects.

Taffelshrews: Edible rodent-like mammals.

Fledershrews: Bat-like, mushroom eaters, nearly extinct.

Cobblemice: Mice that sprout wings.

Rovie Mice: Field-dwelling, long-lived if kept safe, sometimes pets. They have short memories.

Moss-Rats: Possibly rodents that live in marshes with moss-like camouflage.

Vex: Burrowing animals.

Gallifreyan Womprats: 1-metre-long rats with fifteen legs.

Pig-Rats: Inhabit the Drylands, presumably combining porcine and rodent traits.

Rabbits

Flubbles: Small six-legged koalas.

Unnamed rounder rabbit-like creatures

Ounce-Apes: Might be tiny monkeys that are particularly agile.

Sealak: Perhaps a kind of seal, often eaten.

Bear-Ass: A donkey-like animal with bear-like qualities.

Horse-Cats: Probably a horse/cat hybrid-like species.

Sagittary: Horse-like creatures.

Elephants

Pig-Bears: Can be trained as pets.

Wolf-like Creatures: With long snouts and black-and-white striped fur, almost as big as adult humanoids.

Broakir: Live in foothills, often hunted for food.

Baanjxx: Arboreal browsers that like to eat hallucinogenic cerub nuts. As a child, the Doctor was kicked by one in the head, apparently.

Cows

Walrus

Gallifreyan Marlot: Purple and unique in all of time and space. Probably a bit cat-like.

House Cats: Revered as symbols of intelligence. Traditionally, Presidents kept them as pets.

🐱 Killer Cats (C.A.T.S)

Killer C.A.T.S: These sapient creatures possess instinctive precognitive powers and cat-like physiology. Known for their lethal gladiatorial contests, they despise Time Lord traditions and live in the Gin-Seng Sector of Southern Gallifrey. Their culture includes mercenaries and oracles; they are telepathic.

🏞️ Ecosystem Preservation

Though Gallifrey's outer ecology has suffered, the Time Lords have used technology to preserve many species. Extinct species have been collected, ensuring none become completely extinct. The more fearsome creatures are contained in the Death Zone, while xeno-zoos hold alien species from other worlds.

🏫 So ...

So there's your whistlestop tour of the species on Gallifrey. One day, I'll try to put these onto a species distribution map. Oh, by Rassilon's Beard, I just gave myself more work.

Related:

How is Gallifreyan geography different to Earth?: The landscape of Gallifrey.

Factoid: The Fruits of Gallifrey

What could be some biological traits of Gin-Seng cats?: Looking at who the Gin-Seng cats are, their biology, and their place on Gallifrey and in society.

Hope that helped! 😃

Any purple text is educated guesswork or theoretical. More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A and factoids →😆Jokes |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts →🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (pending) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine Guides →📝Source list (WIP) →📜Masterpost If you're finding your happy place in this part of the internet, feel free to buy a coffee to help keep our exhausted human conscious. She works full-time in medicine and is so very tired😴

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

Do/can gallifreyans purr? Like, is that something their vocal chords can do, and if so, what's the general social opinion of it? Is it involuntary, or a choice? What's the opinion on gallifreyans who choose to purr? What would purring communicate? (I've seen so many people talking about the possibility and now I'm curious about its basis in canon beyond infection with the cheetah virus and other similar infections)

Can Gallifreyans purr?

🐾 Purrfect Communication

Gallifreyans possess very advanced control over their vocal cords, combined with a wide audio frequency spectrum, making it biologically feasible for them to produce a purring sound on demand. Their capability to mimic and reproduce various sounds, including those from different species, supports this possibility.

Vocal Flexibility: Gallifreyans have a slightly superior muscle constitution within their larynx, granting them greater control and enabling them to produce a range of sounds, potentially including purring.

Frequency Perception: With their ability to hear frequencies from around 12Hz to 30kHz, Gallifreyans can perceive and replicate the typical feline purring, which generally falls between 25Hz and 150Hz.

🐱 Social Implications of Purring

While biologically possible, purring among Gallifreyans, if it occurs, isn't used as a common mode of communication or mood expression.

Voluntary: Purring would likely be a voluntary action, potentially used in specific cultural or ceremonial contexts.

Gin-Seng Cats Relationship: The tumultuous historical relationship with the Gin-Seng cats could make purring a socially complex or taboo action. Given the past conflicts, mimicking a sound characteristic of these cats might be viewed with suspicion or as a cultural faux pas. [See more about the Gin-Seng cats]

Mimicry and Camouflage: Historically, purring might have been adopted by Gallifreyans during their encounters with the Gin-Seng cats as a form of mimicry or camouflage. This could have been a strategy to blend into the environment or to communicate and pacify them.

🏫 So ...

While there is no solid evidence of Gallifreyans purring, it is entirely possible for them from a biological standpoint. However, if purring does occur, it likely comes hand in hand (or paw in paw?) with complex social and historical significance due to the Gallifreyans' interactions with the Gin-Seng cats.

Related:

What could be some biological traits of Gin-Seng cats?: Looking at who the Gin-Seng cats are, their biology, and their place on Gallifrey and in society.

Factoid: Do Gallifreyans share any biology with cats?

Factoid: Can Gallifreyans see in the dark?

Hope that helped! 😃

More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A and factoids →😆Jokes |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts →🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (pending) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine Guides →📝Source list (WIP) →📜Masterpost If you're finding your happy place in this part of the internet, feel free to buy a coffee to help keep our exhausted human conscious. She works full-time in medicine and is so very tired 😴

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

Can Gallifreyans or Time Lords understand what an Earth cat is saying? I would love to get a translator for my kitty

Can Gallifreyans or Time Lords understand what an Earth cat is saying?

🧠 Advanced Hearing Abilities

Gallifreyans, with their superhuman hearing range from around 12Hz to 30kHz-ish, can perceive sounds that are inaudible to humans. This includes both infrasonic sounds, like avalanches and earthquakes, and ultrasonic sounds, like the whirring of electronics. So, if your cat’s meows include any high-frequency components, a Gallifreyan would definitely pick up on them.

🐱 Feline Communication

Now, let’s talk cats. While cats primarily communicate through body language and scent, they also use a variety of vocalisations to convey different messages. Here’s how a Gallifreyan might handle it:

Meows: Cats use meows to communicate with humans, each varying in pitch and duration to indicate different needs or emotions. Gallifreyans would pick up on the subtle nuances in these meows much better than humans, who need lots of scientists to work that out.

Purring: Cats purr for various reasons, including being content, self-soothing, or even when they're in distress. Gallifreyans could likely differentiate these contexts by the sound’s frequency and intensity.

Hisses and Growls: These sounds indicate fear, aggression, or discomfort. A Gallifreyan’s acute hearing would easily detect these warning signals.

Ultrasonic Communication: Cats, particularly kittens, can produce ultrasonic vocalisations that are beyond the range of human hearing but well within a Gallifreyan's capabilities. These sounds are often used to communicate with their mothers or to express distress.

😸 Doctor Wholittle

Because Gallifreyans can hear higher frequencies, they can also understand some forms of animal communication without artificial support. For example, they can comprehend dolphin calls by recognising how certain sounds relate to specific moods and messages.

A Gallifreyan’s superior control over their larynx means they have excellent imitation abilities. So, if they spent enough time practising, they might be able to mimic the sounds of a cat, potentially allowing for a rudimentary form of 'conversation'.

🏫 So...

While Gallifreyans might not understand every nuance of a cat’s speech (let’s be honest, even cats don’t always know what they want), their advanced hearing and vocal abilities would allow them to get a sense of a cat's conversation and respond.

Related:

Can Gallifreyans purr?: If Gallifreyans can purr, and the social implications of purring.

What could be some biological traits of Gin-Seng cats?: Looking at who the Gin-Seng cats are, their biology, and their place on Gallifrey and in society.

Factoid: Do Gallifreyans share any biology with cats?

Hope that helped! 😃

Any purple text is educated guesswork or theoretical. More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A and factoids →😆Jokes |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts →🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (pending) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine Guides →📝Source list (WIP) →📜Masterpost If you're finding your happy place in this part of the internet, feel free to buy a coffee to help keep our exhausted human conscious. She works full-time in medicine and is so very tired 😴

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

😾Cats of Gallifrey

There is a region of Gallifrey known as Gin-Seng, which is populated by Killer Cats. These cats once led an uprising against Gallifreyans but failed.

(Erasure et al.)

Whoniverse Facts for Friday by GIL

More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A →😆Jokes |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts →🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (pending) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine Guides →📝Source list (WIP) →📜Masterpost If you're finding your happy place in this part of the internet, feel free to buy a coffee to help keep our exhausted human conscious. She works full-time in medicine and is so very tired 😴

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

(a) cat = ginki /ɡˈɪŋki/

Agent, singular. Non-gendered.

Definition Furry mammals of varying sizes, sometimes cute and other times plots to take over the world.

Example ↪ Romanised: 'Ginki, pobvas'aikajtyox ce nirag.' 'Fo. Hahahaha. Ei'hepus'eo. Meow.' ↪ English: 'Cat, stop scratching the carpet.' 'No. Hahahaha. I own you. Meow.' ↪ Audio:

↪ Sollifreyan (font v1):

Advanced

Etymological and Morphological Breakdown:

Gin- (Root): The root 'gin' in 'ginki' is derived from 'gin-seng', a term referring to a humanoid cat species native to Gallifrey. In the context of 'ginki', 'gin' conveys the quintessential features of cats.

-ki (Suffix): The suffix '-ki', stemming from 'kito' which means mammal, is a common morphological element used in Gallifreyan to denote mammalian species. Its inclusion in 'ginki' classifies the word within the broader category of mammals.

Usage and Additional Notes:

General Reference: 'Ginki' is used in Gallifreyan to refer to any cat, irrespective of its breed, type, or origin. It's a broad classification used in everyday language to encompass all varieties of the feline species.

With Planetary Prefixes: To specify cats from particular planets, Gallifreyan employs planetary prefixes. For instance, an Earth cat might be referred to as 'solginki'. This system of prefixes helps in categorizing the same species according to their planetary origins, which is particularly useful in a context where interplanetary travel and species diversity are common.

Cultural Significance: The term 'ginki' also carries cultural significance in Gallifreyan society, reflecting special status and roles that cats hold.

Modifiers: ↪ Plural: ginki-ua = cats ↪ Gender: poginki = male cat | moginki = female cat ↪ Negative: ginki-o = not a cat

(GIL Gallifreyan Conlang Guide (coming soon))

Gallifreyan Word for Wednesday by GIL 》 need a translation? / see more Gallifreyan words If you like what GIL does, please consider buying a coffee to sustain our tired human writer with enough caffeine to continue this madness and help make future projects.

[rassilon-imprimatur]

The welded lore of The Time Monster, State of Decay, Lucifer Rising, Lungbarrow, and The Three Paths makes clear that Mount Lung (also called Cadon and Plutarch), the site of House Lungbarrow and the Pyrdonian Academy, is considered “south” of the Capitol. 

However, the Eighth Doctor reveals (just to us, the readers) in The Scarlet Empress, while listening to Iris talk about her childhood in the deep south of Gallifrey (described as nothing but mountain ranges with fierce snowy weather), he actually know very little about Gallifrey’s southern hemisphere. 

In Newtons Sleep, House Ixion (the home of Chatelaine Thessalia and where Morbius establishes the Order of the Weal) is directly asserted to be the southernmost point of Great House society, right in view of the southern mountain ranges (implying that not much exists beyond except “hermits” and the Killer Cats of Gin-Seng). 

The Three Paths also makes clear that Mount Lung/Cadon/Plutarch, while huge, isn’t part of much of a range and is rather all by its lonesome self, and is in perfect view of the Capitol. If you follow my Hell Bent headcanon, it is also only within a day’s walk of the Capitol through the drylands (Hell Bent) or outlands (The Eight Doctors). 

Therefore, Lungbarrow and its mountain are considered “south” from the POV of the Capitol, with the rest of the mysterious southern hemisphere of Wildthymes and “stray cats” far away from the Capitol, past the symbolic line in the sand represented by Ixion. 

There’s no point to this, I just like having posts of lore to fall back on.