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"I'm fully booked for the next two centuries"
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| The Doctor's School Days |
 Though we know quite a
bit about The Doctor's school years, we do not know the age at which
his formal education began, or the details of how he came to be
accepted at the Academy. His professors included Borusa, later a
Chancellor and Lord President, who taught mathematics, telepathy,
and emotional detachment (The Deadly Assassin, The
Invasion of Time), and Azmael, whom The Doctor considered his
best teacher (The Twin Dilemma). Another teacher, whose
identity is unknown, was the only person who understood artron
energy, a form of mental power which is an important part of
operating a TARDIS (The Deadly Assassin, Four to
Doomsday). The Doctor's classmates included the man we know only
as The Master, who earned a higher degree in Cosmic Science (The
Sea Devils), Runcible (mockingly called "Runcible the Fatuous")
who became a broadcaster for the Public Register (The Deadly
Assassin), Drax, who became a wanderer who tended to get into
trouble with the authorities (The Armageddon Factor), and the
woman whom we know as The Rani (The Mark of The Rani), a
brilliant biochemist who's the same age as The Doctor (Time and
The Rani). The Doctor belonged to the Prydonian chapter, whose
members are said to be devious (The Deadly Assassin), and his
school nickname was Theta Sigma (The Armageddon Factor,
The Happiness Patrol). He and The Master enjoyed building
"time flow analogues" to disrupt each other's experiments (The
Time Monster). The Doctor's hobbies included backgammon
(Marco Polo) and chess (The Mind of Evil, Silver
Nemesis, The Curse of Fenric). The Academy taught a wide
range of courses, and The Doctor seems to have taken most of them.
He has a broad knowledge of law (The Highlanders, The
Stones of Blood), particularly Gallifreyan law (The Deadly
Assassin, The Trial of a Time Lord). He studied art
(City of Death), architecture (The Invasion of Time),
cybernetics (Destiny of the Daleks), pharmacology (The Two
Doctors, The Deadly Assassin, and others), and history
(Marco Polo, The Aztecs, and others). He is an expert
on power sources (Meglos) who specialized in thermodynamics
(Time and The Rani). He's a scientist and engineer (The
Aztecs, The Mind of Evil) who's described himself as
being qualified in "practically everything" (The Mutants),
though he admits that he knows very little about quasitronics
(The Invasion of Time). There are several indications that he
didn't really apply himself at school, such as Borusa telling him
that he'd "never amount to anything in the galaxy" with his
"propensity for vulgar facetiousness" (The Deadly Assassin),
and his companion, Romana, stating that he'd "scraped through with 51%" on his second attempt at passing his finals (The Ribos
Operation). Nevertheless, he graduated from The Academy in the
class of '92 (The Armageddon Factor). Since, as far as we
know, the lower classes of Gallifrey cannot regenerate their bodies,
and do not possess the "Time Lord gift" which allows one to
understand alien languages (The Masque of Mandragora), it
seems likely that The Doctor underwent the processes which enable
both of these as part of his graduation ceremonies.
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| The Doctor's Field Trips |
Judging from
references made by The Doctor and other Time Lords, it would seem
that courses at The Academy include field trips in time and space.
One of Gallifrey's Castellans is quite familiar with the various
styles of architecture which The Doctor mentions (The Invasion of
Time), and Romana and The Doctor once discuss the best museums
in the universe (City of Death). These are some of the places
and events The Doctor has mentioned which he visited on these field
trips. During this period, of course, The Doctor merely witnessed
these events, rather than actively participating (which would
certainly have been forbidden).
Architecture
The Doctor studied the architecture of
low-gravity planets (The Krotons); he saw Peruvian cities
constructed by the Exxilons, as well as other examples of the 700
Wonders of the Universe (Death to the Daleks); he visited
lighthouses on Gallifrey (Horror of Fang Rock); he saw the
architecture of Quasar Five, Riga, and the Sinian Empire (The
Invasion of Time); he visited Heathrow Airport during the
rebuilding of Terminal 3 (Four to Doomsday); he studied the
works of Kroagnon, the so-called Great Architect, including Golden
Dream Park, the Bridge of Perpetual Motion, and Miracle City
(Paradise Towers)
Engineering
The
Doctor saw several types of refinery technology (Fury from the
Deep, Terror of the Zygons, The Power of Kroll);
he became familiar with mining technology (The Monster of
Peladon, The Pirate Planet, and others); he saw hydrogen
plants "built along typical Scott-Bailey principles" (The Brain
of Morbius), and moving mines which were similar to sandminers
on Korlano-Beta (The Robots of Death); he gained "empirical knowledge" in the engineering of planetary relocation (The Twin
Dilemma, The Trial of a Time Lord)
Fine
Arts
Museums The Doctor
visited during his studies include the Academius Stolaris on Sirius
5, the Solarium Panatica on Stricium, and the Braxiatel
Collection (City of Death); he became familiar enough
with several major works of art from Earth that he was later able to
construct holographic duplicates of them to disguise an ancillary
power station in the TARDIS (The Invasion of Time)
History
The Doctor
witnessed the Big Bang (Destiny of the Daleks,
Terminus, The Curse of Fenric); he was at the battle of
Agincourt (The Masque of Mandragora, The Talons of
Weng-Chiang); in the 21st century he saw entire planetary
populations destroyed by the drug Vraxoin (Nightmare of
Eden); he visited the 28th century, and learned of the INEER
space organization (The Sensorites); he also visited the 30th
century, where he learned of the pollution of Earth (The
Mutants), and learned to recognize technology from the era (The Ark in Space) |
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