10 Traumatic Doctor Who Facts You'll Wish You Hadn't Heard
7. Gallifreyan Children Are Forced To Leave Their Families
The Time Lords don’t exactly have a great reputation as a species, generally being seen as pompous, arrogant elitists who consider themselves to be above the other races of the galaxy. But even by their low standards, their parenting tactics could use a bit of work.
While in most human cultures a coming-of-age usually involves some sort of party, or maybe a handing-down of a family heirloom to the next generation, or even a knackered old car, the Time Lords have a different take on things.
As the Doctor explains in The Sound of Drums, children of Gallifrey are taken from their families at the age of eight to enter the Time Lord Academy, where they stare into the Untempered Schism, a literal hole in the fabric of space and time up in the Gallifreyan mountains.
His use of the word "taken" implies that the kids don't actually get a say in the matter, and this had results that were about as successful as you’d expect. In the words of the Doctor, "some would be inspired, some would run away, and some would go mad."
We at WhoCulture are not claiming to be parenting experts, but perhaps the Time Lords would have less trouble with renegade megalomaniacs like the Master and the Rani if they didn’t snatch every eight-year-old child from their families to stare into the infinite abyss of all existence. Just a thought.