the last timelord...

[rabidjack]

if timelords travel through time and space, how can the doctor be the last timelord?
surely he could just go back to Gallifrey (spelling?) or any other point in space and time to see all his old buddies..

[Dave]

Because there has been a Time War between the Daleks and the Time Lords. A war in which, presumably, Time itself was used as a weapon, with pre-emptive strikes, time-loops, temporal paradoxes, and the complete reversal of historical events; leading to the point where the Daleks and the Time Lords themselves never existed. Only don't think too hard about it, because it won't make any more sense if you do.

[The Ace]

I just bit the bullet and accepted it, I didn't fancy tying my brain in knots.

[dekket]

Within the Dr Who universe, it has previously been revealed that TimeLords were unable to travel back or forward in time on Gallifrey itself. It was shielded (or something. I have always pictured it as similar to Asimov's End of Eternity, where the people of Future humanity blocked the Eternals being able to travel to their times, as there means of trying to halt/minimise the damage the Eternals constant re-writing of history on their "world". The Time Lords of Gallifrey prevented timetravel into Gallifrey's future/past, so that their history could not be altered). I would assume this shielding ended once Gallifrey was destroyed, but by that time there would be no one left. Before the world was destroyed, the travel would be prevented, afterwards there would be no point.

[PTeppic]

Then again, we've already seen at least two (if not three or four) methods by which the participants of the Time War had managed to escape the alleged total destruction. It wouldn't surprise me if there are others lurking out there, to the point of making it all well, pointless...

[Teresa Edgerton]

Originally Posted by dekket

Within the Dr Who universe, it has previously been revealed that TimeLords were unable to travel back or forward in time on Gallifrey itself.

That explains why the Doctor can't go back to Gallifrey before it's destruction, but it doesn't quite explain why he never meets any Time Lords cruising through space and time before the Time War.

Unless it has something to do (in a sort of twisted-logic way) with crossing timelines. Not that that really makes sense ...

[Harpo]

Wibbly-wobbly............timey-wimey........

[Ursa major]

All of space and time is pretty big; the chances of timelords bumping into each other must be very small.


(There again, the chances of a timelord visiting Earth even once can't be that large.)

[Teresa Edgerton]

Originally Posted by Ursa major

All of space and time is pretty big; the chances of timelords bumping into each other must be very small.

Yes, I thought that might be the answer, too, until I remembered how the Doctor and the Master always keep stumbling across each other.

Wibbly-wobbly............timey-wimey........

But that I didn't think about. Harpo, I think you're on to something.

[MG1962]

There have been hints that he is not the last - I am guessing these will be explored in the future